Slashdot Mirror
Intrade Shutdown Hurts Academics
New submitter jader3rd writes "Intrade, a popular Irish website that lets people bet on anything, has shut down. In addition to being used by gamblers, Intrade has been used by academics and pundits to track public sentiment. '"... broad crowds have a lot of information and that markets are an effective way of aggregating that information," says Justin Wolfers, "and they often turn out to be much better than experts."' Being forced to lose their U.S. customers couldn't have helped.
Sure they do. In the US if you bankrupt yourself the government, ie other taxpayers, are on the hook to provide unemployment, EBT, and Obamaphone benefits amongst others. You decided that you were unable to care for yourself and voted that the government is responsible for your wellbeing even if you are a total tool, therefore you have ALSO decided that the government is responsible for actually forcing you to behave in a manner that will not financially harm other members of the country, and that includes preventing you from the victim-less crime of gambling because it is now not victim-less. (You being the voting public in general, not just Aglassis).
See how liberalism works? You don't want to be responsible and it is more than happy to take responsibility from you in the form of loss of freedom with the reasons I gave. I don't agree with it, but thats what people in general beg for.