After the disaster that was the 2016 presidential election, many people (rightfully) question the values/need for the electoral college. Here is a view of the body which shows why its existence is detrimental to our society.
This analysis is based on the assumption that the production of wealth, as measure by GDP, is fundamentally good and that a state’s contribution to the national good is measured by its GDP contribution. Let’s examine this two ways:

  • Ranking the states in order from greatest GDP contribution to least, we find that the eight states that contribute half (actually 50.7%) of the nation’s total GDP only control 41.4% of the electoral votes.
  • Ranking the states in order from fewest electoral votes to most, we find that the 40 states that control half  (actually 49.8%) of the electoral votes only contribute 41% of the nation’s GDP.

In other words, those states that contribute least to our nation’s success are those that are charting its course forward. This is clearly not equitable – the system is broken and needs to be changed.