When actions are taken in a piecemeal way, each step of the way can appear attractive to the vast majority of decision makers. But the end is worse than the beginning for everyone. The reason is that voting ignores the intensity of preferences. In our example, all those in favor gain a small amount, while the one person against loses a lot. In the series of ten votes, each junior associate has nine small victories and one major loss that outweighs all the combined gains. Similar problems tend to plague bills involving reforms of taxes or trade tariffs; they get killed by a series of
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