You Can Bet On It

(The following is hereby copyrighted this day March 7th 2010 by me, but I am more than happy to sell you the rights.)

I have figured out a way to help balance the budget and move politicians toward serving the people who elected them. It takes advantage of self-interest and greed in the service of good AND increases civic participation.

Here’s how it works. We legalize bets on the votes of politicians and the predictions of pundits. We manage the bets using the model of eTrade meets Vegas. In the interest of separation of powers, we separate pundits and politicians into two exchanges (betting parlors).

You can call it “investing” if you want. It’s a slightly more moral metaphor. You can put your money where your ideology is. Or you can just gamble. Ireland takes bets on our presidential elections and the oddsmakers are generally right. But, this is America. Let’s go much, much bigger than they do.

An MSNBC pundit says she thinks that the healthcare plan will pass by Easter break. Bet on it. A Fox pundit says that Republicans will block healthcare. Bet on it. A CNN reporter says that the Democrats will cannibalize themselves and defeat healthcare. Bet on it. A CNBC reporter says that a particular Senator will vote for it because of the big contributions of a particular business interest. Place your bets. Bet directly on the pundit or on the prediction.

In the political betting parlor (investment house), we bet on how politicians will vote on every single thing that they vote on. Everything, including procedural votes like cloture or motion to table.

(Repeat whole copyright thing here. Seriously, someone should buy this from me. You would be so freaking rich. I just need a few million so that I can go to graduate school in literature and not have to worry about getting a job when I am done.)

We’ll need a new television or internet network. That’s easy. Right? (Actually, I have no idea, but let’s say it’s easy. The plan just falls into place after that, so, let’s agree that it’s easy.)

We report on politics and punditry in the style of financial reporting or sports handicapping. We can provide the research for our viewers’ investments (bets).We report on the ideology and history of the pundit and the politician (but we also look at the donors to the politician).

In our new exchanges, we will have a live betting parlor/trading floor for the theater of it and to launch a television series in the off hours. (Bets are all really made on the internet.) We can air other reality TV shows on the network, i.e. a series competition show to get a job on the floor of the betting parlor. Our lockup shows will be about white collar and political criminals. Plenty of room for talk shows. Political biography shows would be big hits. (Have you read “Game Change?” Big hits.)

Possible outcomes:

Voters are given a complete view of their politicians, including how and why they vote on issues. Voters kind of like when their interests are represented. They tend to vote based on that. (Even though the Supreme Court gave corporations the right to buy advertising, the corporations don’t actually get to vote.)

Pundits will be thoroughly educated on issues and will make predictions based on that education rather than on a vested interest in the outcome or a particular ideology. Their predictions would be tracked as research for future bets. If a pundit is wrong time after time, then it would be transparent, like if a football receiver can’t hold on to the ball. I imagine that networks would then be pressured to hire people who are able to accurately make predictions.

By playing to our greed and our inherent competitiveness, we  save ourselves. Imagine the end result: a reality show/news network that rewards viewers for smart investments in democracy. Would you have won money on Bill Clinton’s impeachment? Or his acquittal? (no, yes respectively) Does Sean Hannity know what he’s talking about? (I suspect I’d win by betting that he didn’t.)

Pay 25-30% to the government in taxes on all transactions. Either the bettor or the house would pay taxes on the transaction, depending on who wins. But someone’s paying taxes and the national debt goes down.

You can reach me at this channel, if you’d like to make me an offer for the idea. Don’t you think it’s worth at least a couple of million dollars. Let’s all make some money, people!

jabberjw is the pseudonym for a beginning blogger who makes her living in arts education and as an adjunct professor, so has no health insurance or retirement plan. In other words, I could really use the money from the idea, but can’t tell you who I am. E-mail me at this station. I take Paypal.