Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Put Money Into Politics

Election Year Progressive Lotto
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against]

People in the US complain about low turnouts. Supposedly (according to at least one candidate) because they assume politicians are bought for, and so they are uninterested.

No problems whatsoever drawing those people to the local 7- 11 to buy a Powerball ticket, especially as the jackpot grows.

And since you never know what you're going to get after the election anyway, it seems like a great idea to connect the two.

Use the money from the lottery to finance the election -- and ensure that the entire population follows the election news, I bet they'll be a lot more informed when you intersperse jackpot info with political news.

theircompetitor, Feb 08 2016

The best candidate thus far... http://usuncut.com/...rious-new-ad-video/
[RayfordSteele, Feb 16 2016]

Political Polarization in the American Public http://www.people-p...he-american-public/
Interesting, in-depth (and alarming in parts) report on the polarization issue (plus pages of other interesting stuff) . [zen_tom, Feb 16 2016]

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       who?
theircompetitor, Feb 08 2016
  

       Do you have any data regarding the overall cost of, say, the current presidential campaign expenditures vs the lottery dollars spent by would be winners in the same time window ?
normzone, Feb 08 2016
  

       First order of business for the new president could be to announce the lottery winner.
the porpoise, Feb 08 2016
  

       Given that the campaigns are only going to be into a few billion for each side, I'm thinking the lottery can easily cover it, [normzone]
theircompetitor, Feb 08 2016
  

       So what you're proposing is a system where a few "lucky" winners receive a cash payout in exchange for supporting a candidate financially?   

       I'm pretty sure this is how the system already works.
nuclear hobo, Feb 08 2016
  

       Finally a real connection to all those lottery-based choice models. Of course, the stupid things about those models is that the probability that you'll choose to buy a ticket is used to calculate the probability that you'll choose to buy a ticket.
4and20, Feb 08 2016
  

       // No idea, but all I hear on the news from overseas today is about this owl, and how good it is //
to wit, who?
calum, Feb 08 2016
  

       so that's a "who, who"
theircompetitor, Feb 09 2016
  

       Just hold your nose and vote for Hillary or Bernie and wait for 2020. None of the current popular (Re)turds are electable.
RayfordSteele, Feb 09 2016
  

       //to wit, who?//
Could it be the good 'owl' party?
zen_tom, Feb 09 2016
  

       [Ray] in both contests so far, more people voted for the GOP I believe, the so called intensity factor is higher. I wouldn't be so confident (non-withstanding the fact that I can't imagine voting for Trump).
theircompetitor, Feb 10 2016
  

       I think the intensity is directed internally between R candidates at the moment.   

       When the general public wakes up and votes, they're not going to want to touch them with a 39-and-one-half-foot pole.
RayfordSteele, Feb 10 2016
  

       From a distance of several thousand miles, a Bern/Trump showdown promises to be great entertainment - even better would be a three-way with that bloke from NY who sought to infringe the right of the citizens to type two diabetes. However, I worry a little for the people who have to live with the outcome. Good luck, America.
pertinax, Feb 13 2016
  

       American politics: Dumb versus Dumber
xenzag, Feb 13 2016
  

       [pertinax] the key to America is that living with the outcome still beats living anywhere else. Or so has it been to date.   

       [xenzag] so was it the dumb or the dumber who elected Obama?
theircompetitor, Feb 13 2016
  

       That's why I only worry a little. :-)
pertinax, Feb 14 2016
  

       //still beats living anywhere else// ha - everyhere else... funny. Of course life is great if you're a mega rich fat moron with an arse where his mouth should be like the Trump retard, but for many people the "American dream" is a life of 9 to 5 drudgery, underpinned by rising racism; gun crime/mass shootings paranoia, and the constant fear of ill-health. I visit America a lot, as I have friends and relatives there. I have lived in New York and San Francisco. I have worked there at all levels. It's like visiting the circus - plenty of fun for a short stay, but not for the performing monkeys once the curtains close each night. Give me Europe any day. Cities like Berlin, Copenhagen, London, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Amsterdam, Prague etc offer incomparable richness and diversity. Beyond them, there is a huge world, most of which is totally unknown to the average American.
xenzag, Feb 14 2016
  

       //Beats living anywhere else.//   

       Unless you live in Flint. Or Ferguson. Or Mississippi. Or New Orleans. Or Detroit. Or much of Chicago. Or Youngstown, Cleveland, Baltimore, Atlanta, Union City, Pontiac, Terre Haute, Lapeer, Burns, Gary, Reno, Camden, Memphis, Saginaw, Milwaukee, Stockton, Tampa, Indianapolis, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Newark, most of Appalachia, 95% of the South, or the rural Midwest. Other than that, it's great here.
RayfordSteele, Feb 14 2016
  

       [xenzag] permit me some skepticism as to your understanding of the American dream as it pertains to "most people". There are lots of great cities in the world, to be sure, but what is possible in America, from Barack Obama to to Elon Musk is not possible anywhere else, and no amount of web ranting is going to change that. Perhaps history will change that some day, so far, there's clearly some risk America will change, and that would be sad -- but there's no evidence anything else can change to match America.   

       [Ray] -- most of the planet is ocean, and one of the continents is (still) frozen -- and most of the ocean itself is not inhabitable for high order life. Doesn't make it a sucky planet to live on.   

       You do watch the TV, don't you? You think Paris has solved those problems? Athens, maybe? The Ukrainians in Crimea maybe? Or the people in the Baltics, who grabbed those EU passports like gold coins and are all over Western Europe looking for a job. Or perhaps the recently often mentioned Denmark, where they want to force refugees to give up valuables to pay for their accommodation? Maybe you've noticed that the Chinese, who are desperately trying to get their newly minted billions into US real estate chasing the Russians who no longer can because of sanctions?   

       I understand (though disagree with) much of your criticism, but surely you understand whatever parasites may infect our pasture, there is no greener one?   

       I studiously avoided making a partisan argument in this idea, just having some fun with the absurdity of money in politics. Let's not go there.
theircompetitor, Feb 14 2016
  

       Ian, I did not write this idea to debate American exceptionalism. I guess we'll wait fur the next Scotland and EU referendum to debate whether the sun can ever set :)
theircompetitor, Feb 14 2016
  

       The last time I visited Mexico at least the locals could drink the water without fear of lead poisoning. Having spent some time in Graz, it seemed a tad bit safer, more pleasant, and much more agreeable place to live than Detroit. While in Prague at no time did I ever fear for my life, except for perhaps in a cab. Brisbane is nice this time of year. Have you visited Seoul lately? Tokyo? I can think of many places that suck a lot less on average than here. How much time have you actually spent in the rural midwest?   

       I think I've sufficiently demonstrated how the American system has failed millions across a sizable chunk of its land area.
RayfordSteele, Feb 14 2016
  

       Choose one:   

       A: Put money into politics.   

       B: Put money into plastics.   

       C: Put money down a rat hole.
popbottle, Feb 14 2016
  

       //No idea, but all I hear on the news from overseas today is about this owl, and how good it is.//   

       It /is/ quite superb, [Ian].
ytk, Feb 15 2016
  

       //I think I've sufficiently demonstrated how the American system has failed millions across a sizable chunk of its land area.//   

       I'll wait for the Sanders election and the immediate ascendancy of the Hatfields and McCoys into middle class.
theircompetitor, Feb 15 2016
  

       Or we could have the Trump/Cruz/(insert your favorite current R candidate here) Presidency and the immediate evacuation of the technical class. I wonder how long it takes to become a Canadian citizen...
RayfordSteele, Feb 15 2016
  

       Not interested in the partisan stuff, except to say that I'm of the opinion that the answer to a political problem is rarely found at the extremes, and the centre ground is the place where actual, useful things happen - which is why Obama has arguably been the best and most effective president in the last 25 years. It's not fashionable to say this these days, but what's generally needed is more cooperation and less dogmatism.   

       To the idea, I've noticed that people pay a lot more attention, and become more emotionally involved in sports, when they've got money riding on the result. Politics and elections are already directly related in this respect, but I think could be made more so if people were able to put money on their preferred winner, and get paid odds. Of course, this would create unusual cases where candidates were rubbished prior to elections in order to lengthen their odds (a similar process happens in horse-racing) but the resulting unpredictability would at least be entertaining - which, from a distant observer, is a property of this quadrennial's process.
zen_tom, Feb 16 2016
  

       Trump appeal has a lot more common with Sanders than Cruz, Ray. I think trump, were he to actually push through his proposals would be ruinous for the economy, Smith Hally territory. As would Sanders. Cruz is not really focused on that.   

       We'll see by March, I think if he truly is nominated the party will at best split   

       Zen thanks for that, Fantasy Politics to be posted shortly :)
theircompetitor, Feb 16 2016
  

       Zen, the only thing I'd disagree with there would be the 25 year assessment. I'd go more like ~48 years.
RayfordSteele, Feb 16 2016
  

       Fantasy indeed
theircompetitor, Feb 16 2016
  

       //[Ray] -- most of the planet is ocean, and one of the continents is (still) frozen -- and most of the ocean itself is not inhabitable for high order life. Doesn't make it a sucky planet to live on.//   

       Except nobody lives in Antarctica or beneath the sea. People actually live in Flint. And they are neither the Hatfields, nor the McCoys. That sort of comment makes you sound like Thurston Howell the third.
RayfordSteele, Feb 16 2016
  


 

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