Posted on 星期三, 9 5 月, 2007 at 10:59 下午

一位大约八年没有音讯的朋友，给我写信大力赞扬正在角逐共和党总统候选人资格的Ron Paul。

我回信说我猜他无法入围。他热情不减，给我写来一个长长的清单，策划如何为Ron Paul拉票造势。

我还没有告诉他图洛克（Gordon Tullock）的故事。图洛克的办公室门口，贴着一张“我投了票”的贴纸，还帖了张“我还投了两次”的贴纸。是学生跟他老人家开玩笑的——他怎么会去投票呢。他为什么不投票？他是这样说的：

Anthony Downs convinced me long ago that I stand a greater chance of being killed in a car accident on the way to the polls than I do of making a diference with my vote. So why bother?

中译：Anthony Downs很久以前就把我说服了：我在前往投票站的路上遇到车祸一命呜呼的概率，比我的选票改变了选举结果的概率要大。既然这样为什么还要去折腾？

我的问题是：既然如此，人们为什么还是那么热情洋溢地去投票？问题加在“问答”栏目里。

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布坎南：我们尚未堕落成随营的娼妓

布坎南（James M. Buchanan）：需求量和价格之间的反向关系，是经济科学的核心命题，它体现了这样的预设，即人类的选择行为足够理性，以致是可以预测的。没有一个物理学家会说“水往上流”，也没有一个自重的经济学家会说“提高最低工资可以增加就业”。这种说法，要是认真地生发下去，将无异于全盘否定了经济学，使其科学含义荡然无存；要是这样，经济学家除了撰写迎合意识形态偏好的文章，就别无可为了。值得庆幸的是，只有一小撮经济学家愿意背弃两个世纪的经济学教诲；我们尚未堕落成一群随营的娼妓（详见这里）。

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选民为什么要去投票