So… you think that quadratic voting depends on dancing? Like square dancing or something?

Why don’t you equally value all the stories that you’ve recommended? Would it be beneficial if I could know your valuation of each and every story that you’ve recommended?

Do you subscribe to Netflix? I do. I’ve given a rating of 5 stars to quite a few different shows and movies on Netflix. But do I equally value all of these 5 stars shows/movies? Nope. I think it would be beneficial if I could communicate my valuation of each and every show/movie that I’ve highly rated.

With Netflix I pay a monthly fee of around $10 dollars. It would be beneficial if I could use my monthly fees to communicate the intensity of my preferences for my favorite shows/movies.

Here on Medium I’ve never spent any money on any of the stories that I’ve recommended.

So there are two things…

1. valuation
2. allocation

With any given story that I’ve recommended here on Medium…

valuation > allocation

valuation — allocation = consumer surplus

Economists largely consider consumer surplus to be a good thing. However, economists also consider theft to be a bad thing. But what’s theft? Theft is a lot of consumer surplus. So why is it a bad thing?

Well… if everybody stole from each other then the incentive to produce would vanish.

So… what’s more important… consumer surplus…or the incentive to produce? Obviously the incentive to produce is more important.

Does the incentive to produce matter when it comes to stories and shows? Of course it does. Therefore… the solution is the pragmatarian model.