The reason is not that the television set is more important than who governs the country, but that choice you make has real effects. In the United States, foot voters can potentially choose between fifty states and thousands of local governments. They can also opt for private planned communities, such as condominium associations, which provide many services similar to those offered by local governments.
Some 69 million Americans already live in private planned communities, belying the notion that they are only for the wealthy few. Widespread foot voting opportunities can benefit even many who do not actually move, by incentivizing states and localities to compete with each other by improving their policies.
We can make foot voting more accessible by decentralizing more policy issues to states, localities, and the private sector, and by loosening restrictions on the establishment of new private communities.
That will increase the range of options available to potential foot voters and reduce moving costs. It is cheaper and easier to move from one state to another than to leave the US entirely, and cheaper still to choose between localities or private sector organizations. Decentralization can also mitigate the painful reality that, whoever ultimately wins the elections at the federal level, many millions of people will be forced to accept a variety of government policies they deeply abhor.
By devolving power to the state and local level and to the private sector, we can expand the range of policy options available to Americans. Those who lose out at the national level can still live under policies that match their preferences at lower levels of government, or in private institutions. By lowering the stakes of national elections, such diversity can mitigate the poisonous political polarization and partisan hatred that has infected American politics. We cannot decentralize every policy issue.
But we can do so with a great many. If relatively well-governed nations like Denmark, Switzerland, or New Zealand are big enough to have their own education and health care policies, for example, the same is true of the many US states that are the same size or larger. A common criticism of foot voting is that it only works well for the wealthy, who can afford to move. But history shows that the poor and oppressed are in fact the biggest beneficiaries.
Examples include the millions of African-Americans who escaped segregation during the Great Migration of the 20th century, poor people who moved West in search of opportunity in the 19th century, and many millions of immigrants who came to America fleeing oppressive and corrupt governments.
In recent decades, some policies have made it far more difficult for the poor and lower-middle-class to vote with their feet. Exclusionary zoning prices millions of people out of living in desirable areas , by making it difficult or impossible to build new housing in response to demand. Similarly, restrictive licensing rules intended to protect incumbents from competition often prevent people from seeking out opportunities in new states.
Reform movements in several states have succeeded in loosening exclusionary zoning restrictions and cutting back on licensing rules. But much remains to be done. The coronavirus crisis makes foot voting opportunities even more important. Enabling more people to move to areas with better job opportunities and better policies for restarting growth, can help heal the massive economic damage caused by the crisis.
Now, perhaps more than ever, it is imperative that we empower Americans to vote with their feet. Outsets and onsets! Add vote with your feet to one of your lists below, or create a new one. When the price of skiing doubled , tourists voted with their feet and just stopped going. Browse vote sth down. Test your vocabulary with our fun image quizzes. Image credits. Word of the Day kind-hearted. About this. Blog Outsets and onsets!
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