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Re:Google's CEO: 'The Laws Are Written by Lobbyists' by jpwagner on Saturday October 02, 2010 @08:19PM (#1751722)
There's no point in putting it to "hard numbers" if you make terribly impractical guesstimates.
Re:Google's CEO: 'The Laws Are Written by Lobbyists' by yummyfajitas on Saturday October 02, 2010 @08:30PM (#1751738)
Please explain which of my approximations you believe changes my results significantly.

(By "significantly", I mean "increases the odds of your vote mattering to a number greater than, say, 10^{-86}. )

Re:Google's CEO: 'The Laws Are Written by Lobbyists' by jpwagner on Sunday October 03, 2010 @02:05AM (#1752206)
I can't help you clean up the calculations because the entire premise that the probability of "your vote mattering" times your potential financial gain from one candidate over another gives any reasonable estimate of utility of a vote is absurd.
Re:Google's CEO: 'The Laws Are Written by Lobbyists' by yummyfajitas on Sunday October 03, 2010 @08:58AM (#1752639)
It doesn't have to be financial gain - it can be altruistic gain from policy choices. As I said in another post, if you personally would be willing to spend $50k to legalize gay marriage (for example), you can replace $50k of financial gain by $50k worth of utility derived from helping others.