I’m willing to bet that there are people who spend more time in a year on whether voting is rational than they would if they just went and voted and ignored the arguments.
Why is voting the default? It doesn’t seem to make sense to take an action just because you aren’t willing to take the time to think about whether or not to take the action. If you decide against taking efforts to be strategic on matters of action or inaction, shouldn’t inaction be the default?
ETA: Also, I’m pretty sure the reason people (mostly economists) take the time to spell out justifications for not voting is because people act like voting is an altruistic action, and guilt non-voters. So the anti-voters spell out their logic because they want to demonstrate that voters are just getting warm-fuzzies and not utilons. The point is to show that voters are just as selfish as non-voters.
I’m inclined to think that if there’s a lot of social pressure to do something, there are people who think society benefits if people generally underestimate the costs and/or risks.
I’m wondering about the way people really behave around voting, which is to be less inclined to bother unless there’s a race where it looks as though the outcome will be affected by who wins. Is that more rational than either always voting or never voting?
Why is voting the default? It doesn’t seem to make sense to take an action just because you aren’t willing to take the time to think about whether or not to take the action. If you decide against taking efforts to be strategic on matters of action or inaction, shouldn’t inaction be the default?
ETA: Also, I’m pretty sure the reason people (mostly economists) take the time to spell out justifications for not voting is because people act like voting is an altruistic action, and guilt non-voters. So the anti-voters spell out their logic because they want to demonstrate that voters are just getting warm-fuzzies and not utilons. The point is to show that voters are just as selfish as non-voters.
I’m inclined to think that if there’s a lot of social pressure to do something, there are people who think society benefits if people generally underestimate the costs and/or risks.
I’m wondering about the way people really behave around voting, which is to be less inclined to bother unless there’s a race where it looks as though the outcome will be affected by who wins. Is that more rational than either always voting or never voting?