by Laura Conaway

On Monday's podcast, we talked about the economics of buying votes for the election last Sunday in Lebanon. The going price was about $1,000 apiece. An coalition backed by the U.S. government defeated one pushed by Hezbollah.

A pair of responses, the first from Leandro Serrano, who forwards Thomas Friedman's NYT column on the glories of a free and fair elections. Serrano writes:

He is saying the opposite that you are saying in your podcast. Whom do I have to believe?

The second comes from Zaher Hulays, a Lebanese American working in Massachusetts, who writes that the price of an individual vote sounds like a bargain:

I do have a few issues with the way you addressed the economics of vote buying, indeed the $1000 per vote seems to be an excellent value considering that a Hezbollah win would severely restrict foreign aid to the Lebanese government and army, limit foreign investment, curtail tourism in Lebanon, and possibly create a conflict with Israel that would make the destruction of the summer 2006 war seem like child's play.