Talk:Dollar voting
Economics Stub‑class Low‑importance | ||||||||||
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The following is an attempt at setting up a theory on the subject of Dollar Voting. I'm making this up as I go :). If I had had a website I would have put this there and put an external link to there in the article. Lacking that, this setup (with a link from the article to the talk page) seemed like a good alternative. However, now someone has removed that link....
The free market system can be regarded as akin to democracy, though applied to production (economics) raher than politics, in that people use their money as a means to vote for a product, giving the producer an incentive to continue its production. This has come to be known as dollar voting although, of course, it works with any currency.
However, there are some differences between dollar voting and democracy:
- In political elections, everyone (with some exclusions, such as children) gets an equal vote. In the free market the richer you are the more you can vote. In that sense it leans more towards plutocracy than democracy, although it doesn't restrict power to the 'happy few', it just gives them more 'democratic' power. One might also call it a form of meritocracy, albeit a strange one, in which the merits gained in one field (production - earning money) gives more votes in another field (consumption - spending money).
- In political elections, the places where you can vote are spread fairly evenly, with usually one such place nearby and all with the same, complete, selection available. In the free market you're limited to the shops in your neighbourhood and the selection of products that those shops have.
- In the free market everyone can vote, including children and foreigners, provided they have money.
- In political elections, all 'products' are uniform in the sense that they are all about the same sort of thing, with (usually) all aspects the product can have described for each product (ie, the views on all topics). In the free market, various products may cover your needs in different ways, without you knowing that, which makes the choice more difficult. Also, one choice may lead to another. If you buy a certain digital camera you're stuck with the type of memory card that goes with it (again, possibly without you knowing it).
- In political elections, you get a complete overview of who you can vote for. In the free market such information (ie, what products there are) is much harder to come by and usually limited to the selections that the local shops have.
- In political elections, all 'products' cost the same, namely nothing. In the free market, products not only perform differently, but also cost different sums of money. And it is usually not clear what those price differences stand for (if anything - the price may have more to do with marketing than performance of the product).
- Political parties may change, but not as much as products do. A product may disappear (even if it is a good product - again to do with marketing) or a product may be presented as the same, but really have changed (often for the worse, alas).
- A new product can be tested by one person, who can then tell others about the outcome. A new political party needs to be 'tested' (voted for) by a large group of people before its performance can be assessed.
- In the free market, if a product doesn't do what it is supposed to do, you can generally get a replacement or your money back. However, if you vote for a certain party and that party doesn't do what it promised, you generally have to wait for several years until you can get satisfaction by voting for another party (hoping that one's better).
- If a product you bought doesn't do what you thought it would, you're stuck with it indefinitely. But you can go and buy another product (hoping that one's better).
But what the two systems have in common is that they work best if the voters/buyers are well informed and intelligent. And especially with dollar voting, ie the free market, things might change considerably with the Internet, especially concerning the first two points. Sites emerge that give complete (or so one may hope) overviews of all products in a certain category. And internet buying means that the location of a shop becomes almost irrelevant (except when it comes to shipping).
DirkvdM 09:31, 2005 May 8 (UTC)
- You can't "set up new theories" on Wikipedia. Wikipedia is about non-original work, so if this is a scientific theory, write a scientific article on it and publish it. What you wrote resembles theories of supply and demand, but also Game Theory. Wouter Lievens 22:22, 14 May 2005 (UTC)
I know, and I deliberately made that clear in the beginning. But it is in a way just a normal way to edit in Wikipedia taken further. Most of my edits are based on a general insight I have. I hardly ever look something up specifically before editing. I work with the 'knowledge' I have in my head, but I suppose that that goes for most people. And what is knowledge anyway? (I'm sorry, I've studied philosophy :) .)
But I must admit that I have crossed a line here. I suppose I should in this case read up on the subject and then synthesise an article from those findings. There are plenty of writings on the Internet on this. But the problem with those is that they also are though up by other people. Likewise, I can come up with a theory and then publish that here. As you point out, the rule is that one should only place non-original work in Wikipedia. So if I publish my theory and someone else (a friend?...) puts it here, it should be ok?
A better rule would be that what's in Wikipedia should be a synthesis of the most accepted theories. But then who is to moderate that?
I understand your criticism, I just mean to say it's not all that clear cut.
So now what? Should this be removed?
DirkvdM 12:08, 2005 May 15 (UTC)
- I think we should keep it. I know a lot of economics and the theory is proffessional enough to show it on wikipedia. It is a good article. Yours, Wiki213ip 19:26, 11 August 2005 (UTC)
Fair use rationale for Image:Pyat rublei 1997.jpg
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BetacommandBot 11:25, 6 July 2007 (UTC)
Relevant discussion elsewhere
At the free market talk page there is an old discussion that would be more in place here. In stead of moving it, I decided to place a link here. However, that is an archived part of the talk page, so any continuation of this should take place here. FYI. DirkvdM (talk) 18:00, 2 September 2008 (UTC)