Luck Run Amok—Part 12

Winner Take All

In U.S. presidential elections, state delegates to the electoral college are determined by winner-take-all voting (with two exceptions, Maine and Nebraska). The candidate who receives the most votes, even if it is only slightly more votes than the runner-up, gets all of the state’s electoral votes. Many professions can also be described as essentially winner-take-all in that the winners receive rewards that are wildly disproportionate to their margin of victory.

For example, professional comedians used to perform in local shows before limited audiences. Jewish comedians traversed the so-called Borscht Belt of hundreds of summer resorts in upstate New York. They weren’t paid much because their audiences were small and seasonal. With the spread of radio, television, and movies, some—including Woody Allen, Milton Berle, Billy Crystal, Joan Rivers, and Jerry Seinfeld—were able to reach much larger audiences and become rich and famous, even though they were only slightly more talented than the also-rans. It is a winner-take-all market.