Buy Me Out

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-20-2004

Abstract

Democracy is excluded from most choices. Smith and others ran an experiment where people on both sides of a hypothetical zoning change were told to send in bonding bids stating how much they are willing to pay to either keep things the same or change them. The side with the higher amount (in value) wins, and the money the winning side put up was used to compensate the losers. They found this system less coercive than majority rule, as the minority in this case at least receives compensation--equal to whatever they bid--for their loss.

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This article was originally published in Forbes on September 20, 2004.

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Forbes

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