NYU Students willing to give up the right to vote for ipods, cash...

RAMSTORIA

RAMSTORIA

CAGiversary!
Feedback
34 (100%)
Only 20 percent said they'd exchange their vote for an iPod touch.

But 66 percent said they'd forfeit their vote for a free ride to NYU. And half said they'd give up the right to vote forever for $1 million.
Click to expand...


http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1107/6892.html


Wow. Now, I would probably forgo one election if I didn't have to pay for tuition (damn student loans), but I wouldn't for an ipod and I wouldn't give up voting the rest of my life for a million. 10 million maybe... but not 1.

But I find this kind of discouraging, even though students who said they'd give up voting considered it "very important or somewhat", I can't help but think that's really not their sentiment. Even more worrisome is that this survey probably would produce the same numbers across the country.

One student said, "'anyone who'd sell his lifelong right to vote should be deported.'" I kind of agree.
 
It's a "thinning of the herd" type of thing. People that would trade their votes probably didn't care about the issues in the first place.

To be honest, I wouldn't really want them voting anyway.
 
Wow, you guys amaze me. For a million dollars, you could have a hell of a lot more impact on the world than you would with 1 single vote for some asshole politician. Anyone who thinks voting is this grand, "taking part in Democracy" thing is an idiot.
 
Hmm... yeah, I'd probably trade my right to vote for that stuff. If you invested a million dollars, you could accomplish a lot more than you could by voting.
 
When we live in a country where a lot of people who have voted became discouraged after various debacles, this comes to no suprise. I'm half and half on this issue. Yes, you could probably do a lot more with the 1 million bucks than 1 vote, but the idea of the vote is that the government is giving you the right to change things, to " get your voice heard". How you could turn that down yet go around and bitch about every single mistake the government makes is beyond me.

Some argue that a vote really doesn't do as much as it claims, and this is probably true. You can also assume that most of the people who would turn in their right to vote would be " undecided voters", so there's no use for them anyway.
 
For a million dollars you could lobby even the president. Didn't Sicko have pricetags on politicians, with Bush somewhere around $300,000? I don't quite remember.
 
[quote name='Koggit']For a million dollars you could lobby even the president. Didn't Sicko have pricetags on politicians, with Bush somewhere around $300,000? I don't quite remember.[/QUOTE]



i don't know if that would be enough to have him get rid of veteran's day
 
bah, you guys are thinking in such grand schemes, ie the presidential vote. giving up your right to vote would affect your local votes significantly more, were talking about local laws, politicians, taxes etc. sub 100k town in california, 1 vote could make a huge difference.
 
I care about the issues, but I think my vote is pretty much meaningless. I go to vote every election I can since I turned 18 even if it means waking up an hour early. However, if I can get good money for not voting for the rest of my life, I would do it.
 
[quote name='VanillaGorilla'] Anyone who thinks voting is this grand, "taking part in Democracy" thing is an idiot.[/quote] ^Probably the stupidest thing I've heard VG say to date.

"Anyone who does not think voting is this grand, 'taking part in Deomocracy' thing is an idiot."
 
I would give up my right to vote for 10 million dollars. Then I would buy the vote of people who didn't get on the deal for about 50 bucks a pop.
 
Wow.

A million dollars?

I love the US. It's a wonderful place to live (and vote) if you're not well off. However I'd sell my vote for a million US dollars and move to Ireland, where, presumably, I could still vote.

Or perhaps England.
 
I don't think there's any amount of money that I'd be able to take that would make me give up my right to vote. It's just absurd. I've voted in every election since I've been 18 including school board races...I just can't imagine not having even my little voice being heard in some way.

I don't care if it's viewed as throwing my vote away when I vote for a third party candidate, it's not to me. I don't believe it's not worth my time, even if the electoral college almost washes away my libertarian leaning vote in the state of New York. I don't care because there will always be at least one time when your vote makes a difference and I want to be there for that vote, even if its only once in my life.
 
I live in the most liberal state in the country and the fact is, my vote really and truly does not matter. No, no, it's not just because Vermont is completely irrelevant. Freaks and farmers flock here like stink on shit and they turn out to vote en masse and there's really no point in going against them.

For my first vote here, I stole from Limmy and simply wrote on the ballot 'If you're reading this, then you smell of shit and everyone hates you.' The next year was a glue stick and cutouts from the swimsuit issue, and I usually just start quoting Muse or drawing cocks unless I'm feeling really plucky. My candidates, apparently, do not mean a damn thing.

What were we talking about again?
 
It's easy to pontificate this in a hypothetical situation and take the self-righteous, high and mighty road about one's right to vote being priceless. However on a practical level, I would give up my vote for $1 million dollars since that would impact my life far more meaningfully and positively then my right to vote. I basically live in a socialist state where my libertarian vote is drowned out anyway. Now being bought to vote a certain way for $1 million dollars is another story.
 
Meh, voting today, I don't really feel like my vote makes an impact, just another chore to do.

They need a system in place where you can see some statistics about your vote or something online, like.. which voter you were overall, or do something else tied to your vote that is personalized. Even though it'd be superficial, it'd be good enough to make me able to pick out my vote from the masses and get some sort of gratification.

As it stands now, yea, I'd probably take the million, unless a ton of other people did making my vote that much stronger. Then I'd want voting rights.
 
National elections are total bullshit. As we saw in 2000, if you have close ties with voting machine makers, and/or a brother who facilitates your endless recounts in the swing state you need to win, and/or a ton of money, you too can exploit the wiggle room in the system to the extent that you overturn initial results, even if, nevertheless, the simple majority of Americans voted for your opponent. Thanks, electoral college.

Now, local stuff, that's completely different. Your vote is strong enough to matter, and vote tampering is probably too expensive to implement (and too easy to detect).

Frankly, in a country the mass media has grossly marginalized the role of intellectual discourse and widespread political interest and activism, and where the creation and perpetuation of a two-party system has thoroughly raped to death the founding fathers' dream of government as every man's duty instead of the professional career track it has become, modern large-scale democracy is hardly much more than a choice between dictators. It is a system where every voter is asked to choose the lesser of two evils, and it doesn't surprise me at all that a halfway intelligent person would be willing to trade something worthless like a vote in a modern democracy for something that could actually inspire change, like education or alot of money.

And for the record, I'd take the $1M, invest 1/2 to 3/4s of it, and use the rest to move to and settle down in Canada, or maybe one of the cool countries in western Europe (UK, Germany, and Italy probably being my first choices).
 
[quote name='dopa345']It's easy to pontificate this in a hypothetical situation and take the self-righteous, high and mighty road about one's right to vote being priceless. However on a practical level, I would give up my vote for $1 million dollars since that would impact my life far more meaningfully and positively then my right to vote. I basically live in a socialist state where my libertarian vote is drowned out anyway. Now being bought to vote a certain way for $1 million dollars is another story.[/QUOTE]


[quote name='lord_ebonstone']National elections are total bullshit. As we saw in 2000, if you have close ties with voting machine makers, and/or a brother who facilitates your endless recounts in the swing state you need to win, and/or a ton of money, you too can exploit the wiggle room in the system to the extent that you overturn initial results, even if, nevertheless, the simple majority of Americans voted for your opponent. Thanks, electoral college.

Now, local stuff, that's completely different. Your vote is strong enough to matter, and vote tampering is probably too expensive to implement (and too easy to detect).

Frankly, in a country the mass media has grossly marginalized the role of intellectual discourse and widespread political interest and activism, and where the creation and perpetuation of a two-party system has thoroughly raped to death the founding fathers' dream of government as every man's duty instead of the professional career track it has become, modern large-scale democracy is hardly much more than a choice between dictators. It is a system where every voter is asked to choose the lesser of two evils, and it doesn't surprise me at all that a halfway intelligent person would be willing to trade something worthless like a vote in a modern democracy for something that could actually inspire change, like education or alot of money.

And for the record, I'd take the $1M, invest 1/2 to 3/4s of it, and use the rest to move to and settle down in Canada, or maybe one of the cool countries in western Europe (UK, Germany, and Italy probably being my first choices).[/QUOTE]


QFT
 
[quote name='lordwow']I would trade my vote straight up for cash. I live in MA. My vote couldn't matter less.[/quote]
Yes it could, you could live in Rhode Island.
:roll:
 
[quote name='lord_ebonstone']National elections are total bullshit. As we saw in 2000, if you have close ties with voting machine makers, and/or a brother who facilitates your endless recounts in the swing state you need to win, and/or a ton of money, you too can exploit the wiggle room in the system to the extent that you overturn initial results, even if, nevertheless, the simple majority of Americans voted for your opponent. Thanks, electoral college.[/QUOTE]

Either you are grossly ignorant of recent history or your memory leaves much to be desired.
 
I'll probably get flamed for pointing this out/voicing my opinion on this but whatever.

Votes only really matter when your government is f'ing up and not looking out for the majority. IF a government is doing it's job correctly and fufilling the needs of the people then there's no need to vote on changing what's not broken.

Unfortunately democratic governments are inherently flawed. It's obvious your vote is equal despite your education, social class, race or sex; a single vote is still a single vote no matter who you are. Your prestige and influence on the society and your peers however are determined by all those factors. Time and time again we've seen people make the wrong decisions with their votes, votes that go against the voter's best interest. Why? Because someone of higher prestige and influence told them it's what they want.

A democratic republic will always be run by the super rich. By taking a million dollars over your vote you could influence others to see things your way, because you have the resources to do so.

Our government has become so awful and socially backwards that radical change is required. Will that happen with voting? At least with a million dollars you could have a direct effect.
 
[quote name='tokitoki50']I'll probably get flamed for pointing this out/voicing my opinion on this but whatever.

Votes only really matter when your government is f'ing up and not looking out for the majority. IF a government is doing it's job correctly and fufilling the needs of the people then there's no need to vote on changing what's not broken.

Unfortunately democratic governments are inherently flawed. It's obvious your vote is equal despite your education, social class, race or sex; a single vote is still a single vote no matter who you are. Your prestige and influence on the society and your peers however are determined by all those factors. Time and time again we've seen people make the wrong decisions with their votes, votes that go against the voter's best interest. Why? Because someone of higher prestige and influence told them it's what they want.

A democratic republic will always be run by the super rich. By taking a million dollars over your vote you could influence others to see things your way, because you have the resources to do so.

Our government has become so awful and socially backwards that radical change is required. Will that happen with voting? At least with a million dollars you could have a direct effect.[/QUOTE]

"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."
 
Ask pre-revolutionary France if rule by the super rich works, then ask post-revolution France if it works.

Democracy is very far from perfect and not a suitable form of government in a mental institution; it is however the best there is and the most crucial element is a critically thinking and informed citizenry who votes.

I'm not saying that this is what the US has right now, what I'm saying is that if you are critically thinking and informed, your vote matters. (If you live in the middle of the US please, please, please disregard this post and DO NOT VOTE!).
 
[quote name='pittpizza']Ask pre-revolutionary France if rule by the super rich works, then ask post-revolution France if it works.

Democracy is very far from perfect and not a suitable form of government in a mental institution; it is however the best there is and the most crucial element is a critically thinking and informed citizenry who votes.

I'm not saying that this is what the US has right now, what I'm saying is that if you are critically thinking and informed, your vote matters. (If you live in the middle of the US please, please, please disregard this post and DO NOT VOTE!).[/QUOTE]

I guess Pittsburgh doesn't count as middle? Surely you would exclude liberal areas from your advice. What about just the 90% who know nothing about politics leave it to the 10% who do?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top