Jaber Borran

Category: Statistics and Probability

  • A Ponzi Scheme, or an Insurance Policy?

    So the genius billionaire co-president believes that the Social Security Program is “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” Actually, I take it back. While he may not be as smart as many believe he is, I don’t think he is as dumb as he pretends to be either. I am fairly confident that he…

  • Elections, or Statistical Experiments?

    As you can guess from the title of this post, I am trying to pose elections as statistical experiments. I know there is a big difference; unlike polling, elections do not involve taking a sample of data to make a decision. Instead, every single vote is expected to be counted in every election. So, yes,…

  • A Democracy in Peril

    The minimum requirement for a democracy to function is that, at every election, each individual voter is able to correctly identify and vote for a person/party whose policies protects that individual’s own interests. Ideally, each individual would be able to determine what is in the best interest of the entire society, and would vote based…

  • How Reliable Are Election Polls?

    I will provide, below, a brief and very basic introduction to the main concepts involved in the polling process, to setup the stage for the main point I would like to make in the last few paragraphs. If you are familiar with statistics and probability theory, you are encouraged to skip to the last few…