There is a movie about the country of Chile and a vote. The setting is a General took power and ran the country for 15 years, he was forced to have an election – to vote yes to allow him to keep power another 8 years or no to be removed from office. Over the 15 years of his leadership, to have a different viewpoint than the President and the government would likely mean jail, torture, disappearance, death or a combination of the four. The military and police ran the country, although depending on where you were in the economic area there were plenty of opportunities, just do not disagree with the leadership. Into this context was a vote, since there is a movie the No side won, the yes lost.

The story is not perfect, remember it is a movie, but what it does show is how a small group can overtake a large institution which holds all the advantages. The vote is going to take place and both sides would have 15 minutes on late night TV to push their message, what will it be? Given that the TV was controlled by the government, the other 20 hours of TV would likely have a yes bias. Given the military controlled the government, there were many things the No side could not do. Given the past history of the government, if you worked on the No side, government officials would watch you closely. The No side came up with a Happiness or Joyful message in which they said Happiness is ….. If you vote No which meant new opportunities will open up to you which under the current system are closed to you. In today’s society the underdog does have advantages – if many ways the internet has made the playing field more even. In elections, there needs to appeal to a majority and often the positive message or sincere or passionate ones resonate for lots of reasons. The task is transform it into people voting – an organized ground game is important.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in the movie the person who ran the advertising also did advertising for soft drink companies and soap operas. In the movie, the owner of the firm was working for Yes; his chief marketing person was working for No. The organization was covered no matter the outcome of the vote. In many ways, dividend companies products are covered no matter the vote or who gets in. They have an individual bias because one party seems to be easier to work with; but either party will do for neither will tend to change the rules too much. If you have an average life – some things you will be involved with tend to have all the rules stacked against it; with dividend paying companies the rules tend to help the companies. Every once in a while, try to change the rules but monetarily benefit from companies rules favor.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.