Re: Question about a technique for allocating funds | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Muriel Kranowski (murielkvt.edu) | |
Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:11:27 -0700 (PDT) |
There's an article in this week's New Yorker magazine describing some of
the many schemes that have been proposed, and tried, to make voting "more
fair" in a democracy - more fair than simple majority winner-takes-all
which totally disenfranchises a perhaps very large minority. The short of
it is, no system is sure to provide satisfactory results in all situations.
There is always a possibility (such as in the budget fair example) that a
result may be very unsatisfying even though, or rather because, it meets
the criteria of this particular voting plan - especially when interest
groups figure out how to game the system, and they always do.
I guess the conclusion is that you pick a method and try it, and if its results are usually satisfactory you stick with it, etc.
Muriel At 10:54 AM 7/28/2010, you wrote:
Hello Everyone, Here at Jamaica Plain Cohousing we're looking into a way to allocate some unspent monies among several possible alternatives. Someone mentioned a method she heard about from Rob Sandelin; a "budget fair". The way she describes it, if for example there is $1000 to spend and ten alternatives each costing around $300, one creates ten areas around the room, one for each alternative. Each person receives $1000 in play money, then goes around the room and "buys" whatever alternatives they can with their money (presumably in this case they can buy around three alternatives each). When time is called, the alternative with the top amount collected is funded first, then the second-most, then the third-most, etc., until the $1000 is fully spent. She is quite excited about this concept, but I see some troubling aspects, especially if the alternatives have vastly different prices. Suppose, for example, that there are eleven alternatives, ten which cost $100 and one which costs $1000, and there is $1000 available to allocate. If the $1000 alternative comes in second, it falls completely out of the running, even though it may have considerable support, and the community would wind up funding the ten $100 projects even though five or six or more of them had little enthusiasm behind them. So, how does one carry out this budget choice mechanism when the alternatives are considerably different in price. Or is this method not feasible unless the alternatives are similarly priced? Thank you very much for any information you may have, and hope the summer is going well! Regards, David Heimann Jamaica Plain Cohousing *-- "I Make Your Numbers Talk" * -- "I Make Your Numbers Talk" _________________________________________________________________ Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at: http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
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Question about a technique for allocating funds David Heimann, July 27 2010
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Question about a technique for allocating funds heimann, July 28 2010
- Re: Question about a technique for allocating funds Muriel Kranowski, July 28 2010
- Re: Question about a technique for allocating funds Sharon Villines, July 29 2010
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Question about a technique for allocating funds heimann, July 28 2010
- Re: Question about a technique for allocating funds Bryan Syverson, July 28 2010
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