4 ms·

Democracy is a popularity contest. Why is this surprising?

SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
Fast food is a popularity contest, with every store having a direct financial interest in driving and retaining customer loyalty. But I've never gotten an email from In n Out saying they need to sell 549 more burgers before midnight to beat Five Guys in quarterly sales rankings.
- swiley 6y ago
  Lots of them will give you free food in return for installing their smart phone app though. Anyone offering me free anything (but especially food) to install software immediately goes on my creepy list.
  - sellyme 6y ago
    Eh, pretty much every other app on smartphones these days is harvesting my metadata already. I might as well get a cheeseburger out of it. I'm fine with a fast food place giving me food in exchange for me giving them anonymised data on how to sell more food. That seems like a pretty equitable deal to me. The problem comes when shadier companies start, for example, keylogging your device and sending all of that to a foreign government.
- DaiPlusPlus 6y ago
  > But I've never gotten an email from In n Out saying they need to sell 549 more burgers before midnight to beat Five Guys in quarterly sales rankings. I'm pretty sure their staff do, though.
- jojobas 6y ago
  Would you care if In n Out beats Five Guys? Would you care who wins your mayoral election?
- BeetleB 6y ago
  > Fast food is a popularity contest, with every store having a direct financial interest in driving and retaining customer loyalty. Yes. > But I've never gotten an email from In n Out saying they need to sell 549 more burgers before midnight to beat Five Guys in quarterly sales rankings. You didn't get such an email because it wouldn't retain your loyalty. If it did, you would get those emails. People generally don't spend money so that one brand can beat another. They spend money to be part of the brand, or to consume it. However, they do spend money to have their guy beat the other guy.
learnstats2 6y ago
It doesn't strike me that these e-mails are making anyone popular?
a_imho 6y ago
Voting is a popularity contest, electing representatives via sortition is perfectly valid and imo more closer to the idea of democracy.

Fast food is a popularity contest, with every store having a direct financial interest in driving and retaining customer loyalty. But I've never gotten an email from In n Out saying they need to sell 549 more burgers before midnight to beat Five Guys in quarterly sales rankings.

swiley 6y ago
Lots of them will give you free food in return for installing their smart phone app though. Anyone offering me free anything (but especially food) to install software immediately goes on my creepy list.
- sellyme 6y ago
  Eh, pretty much every other app on smartphones these days is harvesting my metadata already. I might as well get a cheeseburger out of it. I'm fine with a fast food place giving me food in exchange for me giving them anonymised data on how to sell more food. That seems like a pretty equitable deal to me. The problem comes when shadier companies start, for example, keylogging your device and sending all of that to a foreign government.
DaiPlusPlus 6y ago
> But I've never gotten an email from In n Out saying they need to sell 549 more burgers before midnight to beat Five Guys in quarterly sales rankings. I'm pretty sure their staff do, though.
jojobas 6y ago
Would you care if In n Out beats Five Guys? Would you care who wins your mayoral election?
BeetleB 6y ago
> Fast food is a popularity contest, with every store having a direct financial interest in driving and retaining customer loyalty. Yes. > But I've never gotten an email from In n Out saying they need to sell 549 more burgers before midnight to beat Five Guys in quarterly sales rankings. You didn't get such an email because it wouldn't retain your loyalty. If it did, you would get those emails. People generally don't spend money so that one brand can beat another. They spend money to be part of the brand, or to consume it. However, they do spend money to have their guy beat the other guy.

learnstats2 6y ago

It doesn't strike me that these e-mails are making anyone popular?

a_imho 6y ago

Voting is a popularity contest, electing representatives via sortition is perfectly valid and imo more closer to the idea of democracy.