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Showing posts from May, 2007

An Optimally-Weighted Issue-Based Tradeable Vote-Point Election System

An Optimally-Weighted Issue-Based Tradeable Vote-Point Election System Ganga Prasad G. Rao http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar Earlier, I broached how one could bring about a self-selected and optimally-weighted voting in an election by requiring voters to pay for the privilege of voting and providing them with vote points based on their issue-knowledge demonstrated to the computer in a questionnaire. Now consider a radically different system of people's representation based on vote points and issue-based ballots. Parliamentary representatives are elected by citizens who pay voting fees and allocate their vote points across competing candidates. The winner at the polls takes his seat in the Parliament. However, unlike the democracy we have, losing candidates do not hibernate in political oblivion if and until the next election beckon them. Instead, they serve as the keepers of vote points in annual issue ballots for those who did not vote for the Parliamentary winner. In other words, l...

Vote with a Difference!

Vote with a Difference! Ganga Prasad G. Rao Come voting time, and I get disillusioned with the mockery of campaigning that precedes elections. I fear that governments are elected, not by knowledgeable citizens who consider the candidate record, party platforms and the good of the nation, but by the masses who go for trinklets and promises. An entire nation's future is decided by voters who are either as clueless and disillusioned as me or are 'in the cut' (you know, the informal 'deals' involving keys as the candidate's 'morcha' passes through your street). Our democracy has turned in to a jambooree that elects those who promise more, without any regard to issues, or the cost to the nation. What we have is not democracy; it is a 'deal' on our trillion dollar future divided in to a billion parts with a few sharing 90% of it. What lies ahead? A society divided in to classes in which the poor masses grow ever poorer even as they work harder and vote...

Trade IPO Rights? A May Day Special

Trade my IPO Rights – A May Day Special! Ganga Prasad G. Rao http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar I don't know about you, but I am a very frustrated man, what with only GAIL, NTPC and Cairn to show for my participation in 20 IPOs over the past 4 years. I have tried every trick in the book: reading the prospectus, going to the company website, applying early on the first day, adopting a 'pick and choose' strategy, applying sequentially in the hope my luck will cumulate, ....., hoping against hope, but none seems to work. Perhaps I am not 'IPO savvy'! I am so disheartened that nowadays I buy bargains elsewhere when (and if) markets go down during the IPO period. Then, this thought struck me as I was plodding through the gender equality paper. Why not issue IPO Participation (IPOP) Points to IPO investors and permit those points to be traded on the condition that those with 25 (or an 'IPO-specific cut-off' number of) points are guaranteed an assignment? Here is the ...