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Just had an idea for a thought experiment. I'd like to hear anyone's answers, but I'm especially interested in how @freemo answers:

Let's say the presidential election was framed as a stock market. The market itself (equivalent to NYSE or NASDAQ) is America. The stocks are the presidential candidates.

In this experiment, each American has a net worth of $1000 and they have to spend it "voting" for presidential stocks during the election year. They can vote early in the year, or wait and see how others invest and vote later. They can split the $1000 between as many candidates as they want, or put it all on one.

After the election happens, they receive 10% of what they invested in the winning candidate each month (so if they put it all on the winner, they're made whole in 10 months). After the election, the winner's stock becomes the premier stock of the entire market and drives the market valuation based on the President's performance, paying dividends to every American when it does well.

In this scenario, you have two (potentially) competing motivations: enriching yourself and enriching the market (America).

So, the two questions that arise are:
1) Do you invest early, based on just your morals/politics, or do you wait and see how others invest first?
2) How do you divide up your $1,000?