"You Just Think That Because You're White And Male!" Um, No, Says The Science
Jason Brennan co-authored "con" part of the pro/con book, Compulsory Voting: For and Against, and details some of the findings in it -- by Scott Althaus, Bryan Caplan, and others -- in a blog post:
Well-informed and badly informed citizens also have systematically different policy preferences.As people (regardless of their race, income, gender, or other demographic factors) become more informed, they favor less government intervention and control of the economy. They are more in favor of free trade and less in favor of protectionism.
They are more pro-choice. They favor using tax increases to offset the deficit and debt. They favor less punitive and harsh measures on crime. They are less hawkish on military policy, though they favor other forms of intervention. They are more accepting of affirmative action. They are less supportive of prayer in public schools. They are more supportive of market solutions to health care problems. They are less moralistic in law; they don't want government to impose morality on the population.
And so on.
In contrast, as people become less informed, they become more in favor of protectionism, abortion restrictions, harsh penalties on crime, doing nothing to fix the debt, more hawkish intervention, and so on. (Remember: these effects are not due to differing demographics between low and high information voters.)
He notes that this is the case even within political parties:
Democrats are not united in their moral and political outlooks.High information Democrats have systematically different policy preferences from low information Democrats. Rich and poor Democrats have systematically different policy preferences.
Compulsory voting gets more poor Democrats to the polls. But poor Democrats tend to be low information, while affluent Democrats tend to be high information voters.
The poor more approved more strongly of invading Iraq in 2003. They more strongly favor the Patriot Act, invasions of civil liberty, torture, protectionism, and of restricting abortion rights and access to birth control. They are less tolerant of homosexuals and more opposed to gay rights.
In general, compared to the rich, the poor--including poor Democrats--are intolerant, economically innumerate, hawkish bigots.
His take on compulsory voting, from the Amazon writeup to his book, aligns with mine (which is that we want fewer idiots -- uh, people -- voting, not more):
Compulsory voting is unjust and a petty violation of citizens' liberty. The median non-voter is less informed and rational, as well as more biased than the median voter.
via @SteveStuWill
I suspect that the assertion that more-educated people favor Affirmative Action is a sop to the policitally correct. Its horrible consequences and institutionalized lies are noted by a great many educated people.
Radwaste at January 24, 2016 6:53 AM
I haven't read these papers, but I suspect there's bias creeping in in some of these. Affirmative action, on the surface, seems like a push to be fair, but it's in not having a knee-jerk reaction about it but actually taking it apart, that one (I think) can come to the conclusion that it's unfair and often counterproductive.
Amy Alkon at January 24, 2016 7:46 AM
1) Um, no, we need fewer people voting, not more.
2) I've got 3 degrees and working on a Masters. I read, a LOT. I am very well informed. I"M not even sorta rich. I do NOT follow his scheme above.
I was highly liberal to the point of being a progressive, until I was about 24 or 25, and doing taxes, and living amongst the poor and seeing that the choices they make keep them poor. And realizing that women should be equal to men, not coddled like some children who can't be held responsible for their actions and choices in life, and need to be allowed a blood-mulligan to avoid them.
Elitist ashole.
momof4 at January 24, 2016 8:01 AM
that the assertion that more-educated people favor Affirmative Action is a sop to the policitally correct. Its horrible consequences and institutionalized lies are noted by a great many educated people.
Posted by: Radwaste at January 24, 2016 6:53 AM
I was a great deal more laizze faire Libertarian forty years ago than I am now. I was also a great deal more pro choice, and also in favor of a less interventionist foreign policy
Having seen the social and medical consequences of abortion on demand, indiscriminate recreational sex,, and the economic and social chaos of a hands off foreign policy, I am decidedly less so now.
Affirmative action led to government funded college, which did two terrible things. It drove the price sky high, and basically erased what few academic standards that were left, in order to feed the bureaucratic machine.
The voting problem will take care of itself, if we do one simple thing. Repeal the 17th amendment. Then the Senate will go back to representing the interests of the states as opposed to being a Long term populist House of Representatives.
Isab at January 24, 2016 8:28 AM
Agree w/most of above. Isab might have been reading my mind ("Yuck!").
My first read of the above is that this disinformation but since it is a "con" part of a pro/con book I guess it is just an exercise.
("Disinformation is intentionally false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately.[1] It is an act of deception and false statements to convince someone of untruth. Disinformation should not be confused with misinformation, information that is unintentionally false.")
Bob in Texas at January 24, 2016 1:32 PM
No matter how educated and informed people are, they give me the oddest looks when I tell them that those aren't really sky-clouds overhead, and those aren't 'just' ordinary jet-trails; that there's been an ongoing global program of adding metallic compounds (mostly aluminum) to jet fuel and spewing it all across the skies. You can see it with polarizing sunglasses, it looks like the rainbow sheen on an oily puddle next to the road. There are multiple agendas involved: weather modification, space weaponry are only a couple. It's suspected now that nanotechnology allows us to be sprayed with nano-bots that can interfere with our brain functions.
Voting won't fix any of this.
jefe at January 24, 2016 4:22 PM
jefe,
Does the Extra Strength Reynolds Wrap work best?
Bob in Texas at January 24, 2016 4:57 PM
Problem here: There is a planted axiom that believing certain things is Good because they are Good and believing certain other things is Bad because they are Bad.
Invasion of Iraq is supposed to be a Bad thing without any discussion. Sort of like when the left, catching Gerry Ford, former Big Ten football player, good golfer and tennis player at an age when many people have been dead for some time, in a stumble insisted he was a universally clumsy oaf. It was not necessary, or, indeed, permitted, to wonder. It Was True.
I recall when things were going so well in Iraq that the Obama administration was boasting it would be one of their signature achievements. That was 2010. Then, according to plan, they pissed it away. Therefore, the mess was Bush's fault and discussion is not necessary or permitted.
Point is, naming a particular issue and assigning it to the pretentiously nearly-informed, or the low-sloping foreheads without room for discussion is not the way to do anything but confirm the requisite bias of the Self Proclaimed Excessively Wonderful (SPEW).
That said, the voting should be voluntary and the franchise restricted to those having an honorable discharge from military service. See Heinlein.
Richard Aubrey at January 25, 2016 12:02 PM
I think jefe was being sarcastic. His point was (I think) that, today, being "educated" does not provide proof against irrational beliefs -- it only tilts the bias in favor of trendier, more hip irrational beliefs. I've heard the chemtrails nonsense spewed by several people who appeared to be knowledgeable, thoughtful people. Logical thinking is no longer taught in most schools, and it's unfashionable among the elites, so we can expect more of this.
Since the premiere of the X-Files reboot was on last night, I'll say this. As engaging fiction, it works fairly well. But some people take it waaaaaaay too seriously. And not all of them are trailer hicks from the woods of north Alabama.
Cousin Dave at January 25, 2016 1:09 PM
And I will add that it took me a while to come around to this, but voting should never be mandatory. For two reasons: (1) Not voting is a choice, and it says something different from voting for any candidate. Many important elections have been decided by people who decided not to vote that day. (2) My observation is that the more effort is made to make voting mandatory, the shorter the ballot gets.
Cousin Dave at January 25, 2016 1:14 PM
Specifically Starship Troopers, ignore the movie, READ THE BOOK
lujlp at January 25, 2016 2:03 PM
Specifically Starship Troopers, ignore the movie, READ THE BOOK
lujlp at January 25, 2016 2:03 PM
Not being sarcastic-- my fakebook page is filled with pics from around the world, showing skies that look thoroughly poisonous. Check out Chemtrails Global Skywatch on fakebook for a sample.
Quote from William Blum, former State Department employee: "No matter how paranoid or conspiracy minded you are, what the government is really doing is worse than you think."
Oh, and don't go making wine snow cones, if you know what I mean.
jefe at January 25, 2016 5:59 PM
Starship Troopers. Worst movie EVER made from a terrific book.
Richard Aubrey at January 25, 2016 6:35 PM
There are worse, not many.
Starship Troopers is a decent B movie by itself, would have been more accurate if everyone had beards though
lujlp at January 25, 2016 11:22 PM
On it's own Starship Troopers the movie is a decent B movie. But it is completely misnamed. It isn't until the third movie they get power armor. There is one alien race instead of three. None of the plot has anything to do with anything in the book. They should have given it another name.
Ben at January 26, 2016 5:28 AM
I only saw the first movie. Our grunts today are better equipped than those guys. And my seven-year-olds playing youth soccer had better squad tactics.
Only thing good was the expressions on the faces before the drop.
Everything else should have been in a comic book.
Richard Aubrey at January 26, 2016 11:08 AM
Clear And Present Danger was also botched.
Radwaste at January 31, 2016 2:49 AM
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