Repledge++

Abstract

Political spending is a zero-sum conflict where donating to one candidate directly takes away from another. This scheme proposes a contribution matching scheme where donors contribute to a central entity that cancels out equal donations to opposing candidates and directs the remaining funds to a chosen charity. To address concerns about certain candidates having a higher marginal value of a contribution, the scheme proposes offsetting unmatched contributions with additional funding from a special matching fund, incentivizing donors to participate regardless of their preferred candidate. However, the scheme faces challenges such as donors claiming to prioritize charity to divert funds to their preferred candidate. Despite these difficulties, the author suggests that the scheme is feasible and could potentially redirect funds from zero-sum political conflict to charitable causes. – AI-generated abstract.