Saturday, September 19, 2020

Political gamble

I'm a fairly cautious person. Most of my life I have avoided risk. I invest conservatively. I have never gambled. I prefer to see a small but relatively sure return on investment than a huge uncertain one.  

That's one of the reasons I find American politics so repugnant. Politicians are asking you to gamble on their tickets. 

Not only only has the frequency of emails asking me to bet on them increased substantially recently, so has the size of the bet. Early on it was $3, $5 then $15. Last week the smallest amount requested rose to $80.  The language also makes it clear that this is a game of chance; Kamala Harris' ask this morning noted that "...the stakes couldn’t be higher."    

The odds look reasonable; Biden-Harris are 7 to 2 odds on. But the prize may be relatively small; if the Dems don't take the Senate, all I get is peace of mind from not having to worry about the orange buffoon on a daily basis, but no real change (and in all likelihood a 6:3 conservative Supreme Court). That's something I suppose.  

To see things actually getting done, the Dems would need to take the Senate too. The odds of that (taking both the White House and the Senate) fall to 5 to 4 odds against (44%). Higher return, but longer odds. 

What a system! 

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