Wednesday, November 14, 2007

The Youth Vote Is Overrated

Or so one could conclude from this story.

Sixty-six percent of NYU students would sell their right to vote in the next presidential election in exchange for a year's tuition at the pricey private university, Politico.com reported Tuesday.

According to the report, a survey of 3,000 students conducted by an NYU undergraduate journalism class found that an overwhelming majority of those polled said their right to vote could be for sale; in addition to the 66 percent who said they'd trade their vote for a free year of college, 20 percent said they'd exchange their vote for an Ipod Touch. Half of the students polled said they'd forfeit their right to vote forever for $1 million.

Perhaps another interpretation is that the university crowd is easily pandered to....

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I actually read about this on a tech blog and have been discussing it with people ever since. Interestingly I've found the number to be even higher more close to 90% are willing to trade at this upcoming election for an ipod. When you look at the next election and see no candidate you can fully support, the vote becomes much less valuable to you. The main argument people make is that in a national election your one vote, due to the electoral college and sheer number of votes, your single vote can never have an impact. Personally with how bad the candidate are, I don't see any problem with giving up your right to vote in this coming election.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I wouldn't say that this is just an isssue among the college crowd. I am sure numerous people would give up their vote for financial gain.

It's not all that surprising when you consider that many of the people who do vote, will vote for the canidate that will probably provide them with the most financial gain. If the first four years under Clinton hadn't been so economically prosperous, (Not that he had much to do with it) would he have won a second term? I'm sure Hillary will be bringing up "the good ole days" as the campaign heats up.

Anonymous said...

And on the same note, you'll also note it is always the canidate with the most money in their "war chest" that gets nomination for their party.

(I for one do not want to hear any more about Hillary's chest.)

Darren said...

Presidents always get the credit or blame for the economy, as if they have more than 1% to do with it.

Except for President Bush--our economy has been humming along for a few years now and he gets no credit for it at all.