Voting With One's Feet

I'm in California now on business, and everyone is abuzz at the defeat of every ballot proposition in Tuesday's special election. Good for California. Voting against any referendum is my rule of thumb if I have any doubt about its impact or efficacy. Frankly, I employ a number of heuristics in my voting habits since I can't be bothered to keep up with all the issues or the candidates. I vote against incumbents, and I vote gainst the candidate whose name I have seen the most on yard signs or in ads. If they want the office so much, that is surely a disqualification.

I missed our local elections on Tuesday, but my failure to vote was not determinative of the outcome in any race. In fact, my vote has never mattered, and it is irrational for me to vote. I have often read that the likelihood of getting killed on he way to vote exceeds by several orders of magnitude the likelihood that my vote will be decisive. I may give up voting altogether.

The votes that have counted in my life are when I have decided that I have had enough of a place and moved. Westchester County taxes and regulates the life out of you, so we moved to Dutchess County which has lower, albeit still excessive, taxes and fewer restrictions. It is much more affordable as well, but other Westchesterites are moving in in droves and seem willing to tax themselves (and me) up the wazoo to fund schools. This raises the reputation of the schools, which in turn enhances property values, which are more heavily taxed, which in turn drives out the riff raff (yours truly). We can always move to a less oppressive locale, however, and we will not hesitate to do so.

This is a significant ability, far more so than the franchise. Mrs VF's Eastern European ancestors had it pretty good until they were tied to the land as serfs. Until then, an oppressive landlord might find himself tenantless and without income. The coal miners of Southern West Virginia enjoyed a good deal of freedom and relatively good working conditions until the owners colluded to blacklist miners who tried to vote with their feet. Let us hope our localities fail in any collusion to rob us of alternatives, such as they are.