The weak point of democracy is the phenomenon of cheap votes. On any high stakes issue, there are still a large number of people who don't give a damn and will

The weak point of democracy is the phenomenon of cheap votes. On any high stakes issue, there are still a large number of people who don't give a damn and will sell their vote for $25 if they legally can. This undermines the democratic process, as power accrues to those who bundle cheap votes together and deploy or sell the packages. This leads to a "democracy" (or, in Silicon Valley corporate-speak, a meritocracy) that can readily be used to validate the will of the existing elite, while posing no threat to it or check against its greed. In elections, we prohibit explicit vote selling. But marketing is also about cheap-vote buying. Pepsi advertises because a large number of people just don't care which cola they get. Wal-Marts destroy small towns, but they're profitable because a large number of people will (with no ill intent, or cognizance of this being what they're doing) "vote" against their own communities to save $25 on Christmas shopping. In culture, the term for very loud or passionate cheap votes is "useful idiots". Startup cheerleaders and the tech press (regulatory arbitrage! so visionary!) are useful idiots for the venture capitalists. The 22-year-olds who work 12 hours per day because they believe their 0.03% slices are just "teasers" and that they'll be introduced to VCs inside of 6 months are cheap votes. NIMBY is two problems come together, because it's a cheap-vote dynamic on both sides. Among the renters on the losing side, most people don't get involved in local issues, and not voting is a vote. They're selling their vote for the benefit of not having to put time in, and perhaps because they consider the NIMBY problem helpless. On the other hand, the NIMBYs are also cheap votes. They know what's good for society and the rising generation, yet they push for the opposite because they'd rather jerk up their housing prices and get artificial money they don't need (and can't use unless they sell their houses and move to a cheaper place) than do the right thing. They're easily bought. The story of the "first world" 21st century, in terms of the breakdown of democracy, capitalism, and meritocracy at the hands of a corporate elite, is the story of cheap vote aggregation. Nowhere is this more evident than in venture capital, where passive capital (cheap votes) from teachers' and firefighters' pension funds from Ohio and Nebraska and Montana is siphoned off to the career benefit of well-connected rich kids in California. The people who should care, don't, because it doesn't affect them enough.