Very well done and quite interesting.

Indeed it's well done, but it misses the point.

Your actual vote counts for very little obviously: 1/115 million. That's bad percentage. ~0,0000000009%, but it does count.

However, there is a choice - not just pizza or pizza, but cheese pizza and pepperoni pizza. If you're lactose intolerant or hate meat, then you'll want to do as much as you can to make sure we get the right pizza, even if it is very little. If you do "your part" then you can safely say "I did what I could" and get your pizza. It might not be the pizza you wanted, but it's still a pizza. If you do not do your part, then you have to accept what everyone else decides for you. You have no valid reason to whine and sob afterwards that cheese/meat is the obviously superior pizza.

Economists assuming everyone is a selfish utility maximizer, as usual. Not everything is a commodity.

Good video. I use videosift mainly because of the priviledge we have of voting on every video.

This is a reversed example of the tragedy of the commons. My tiny bit of pollution or litter, my tiny bit of not caring for the shared space, has a very small effect on the overall environment, so I might as well not worry about it. However, when everyone has that similar (and rational) thought, you get a significant amount of damage.

I contend that this is not well done and is actually quite foolish. Voting to affect the outcome of the election IS rational. We only think it's irrational because we're analyzing it from a microscopic point of view, instead of macroscopic, as we should.

I disagree, I found the "moral" of the video to be spot on. Statistically speaking, the narrator and Tullock rightly point out that your vote is infinitesimal when weighed against everyone else's. Even if you believe that "every vote counts," that is still an irrational belief in the face of math. However, as both the narrator and Tullock add, the fact that you are exercising a rare and valuable commodity of happiness (in this case, democracy), is completely rational given that you want to continue living your happy lifestyle which includes a democratic government.

If everyone followed the logic that their vote does not affect an outcome and simply stopped voting, we would be living in a dictatorship, since no one would vote. You don't vote because you think you can swing elections, you vote because you are engaging in a luxury that ultimately improves the quality of your life.

No, my vote doesn't really matter.

Yes, if everybody thought like me, it would matter.

For over 200 years, people have fought and died for our right to vote, and that vote is of less importance than a parking ticket.

But vote we must.

Ugh, "statistically speaking" that kinda misses the whole point.

If you view yourself as an island - certainly voting to swing the election is irrational. But I guess I don't view myself as an island.

You gotta see the forest.

*dead

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