Why bother voting? Your vote will only change the result if it would otherwise be an exact tie; and the chance of that is negligible – one in millions.
But a chance of one in millions is worth taking if the jackpot is billions or trillions. That is, the opportunity for you to select a better rather than worse government, thereby making the country – though not yourself – billions or trillions of dollars better off. So as long as you care at least slightly about the rest of the country, voting is rational; civic duty really is a reason to vote.
That’s an incredibly spurious premise right from the bat. Personally, I don’t care all that much if the country is billions or trillions better off… That’s ranging from single-digit dollar amounts to a couple hundreds. Also that’s supposing the government has this kind of influence (esp. if you counter the last by positing bigger amounts). Also as long as people are not going into poverty, I still mostly care about myself.
People hate to hear this, and I usually don’t bring it up because it’s counterproductive, but: voting is not rational except in very small elections. The problem is that if everyone thinks this, you have a serious problem. Yep, that’s the tragedy of the commons.
A possible way to solve the issue is to make the vote legally mandatory (which is the case in my country—Belgium). This might lead to more uninformed ballots being cast, but I’m not entirely sure (most of the ballots are uninformed regardless).
A little bit of altruism still seems to make it rational even if you care almost entirely about yourself—see the example calculations.
I used to think that making voting mandatory was a good solution, but nowadays I think it’s a draconian measure. Because what if you disapprove for example of the particular voting system (First Past the Post in the UK/US)? Then forcing you to comply with it, perhaps only symbolically (as you can discomply in other ways like spoiling your ballot paper—unless that will be criminalized too) is a waste of everyone’s time.
Similarly if you don’t want to vote because you are indifferent between the candidates, or think you don’t know enough about the issues to choose a candidate, etc.
Something somewhat similar to, but less draconian than, compulsory voting would be to pay people to vote, e.g. £5 / $5 in cash or vouchers as you exit the polling station. Which would also somewhat correct the current skew in turnout—poorer people are currently less likely to vote.
That’s an incredibly spurious premise right from the bat. Personally, I don’t care all that much if the country is billions or trillions better off… That’s ranging from single-digit dollar amounts to a couple hundreds. Also that’s supposing the government has this kind of influence (esp. if you counter the last by positing bigger amounts). Also as long as people are not going into poverty, I still mostly care about myself.
People hate to hear this, and I usually don’t bring it up because it’s counterproductive, but: voting is not rational except in very small elections. The problem is that if everyone thinks this, you have a serious problem. Yep, that’s the tragedy of the commons.
A possible way to solve the issue is to make the vote legally mandatory (which is the case in my country—Belgium). This might lead to more uninformed ballots being cast, but I’m not entirely sure (most of the ballots are uninformed regardless).
A little bit of altruism still seems to make it rational even if you care almost entirely about yourself—see the example calculations.
I used to think that making voting mandatory was a good solution, but nowadays I think it’s a draconian measure. Because what if you disapprove for example of the particular voting system (First Past the Post in the UK/US)? Then forcing you to comply with it, perhaps only symbolically (as you can discomply in other ways like spoiling your ballot paper—unless that will be criminalized too) is a waste of everyone’s time.
Similarly if you don’t want to vote because you are indifferent between the candidates, or think you don’t know enough about the issues to choose a candidate, etc.
Something somewhat similar to, but less draconian than, compulsory voting would be to pay people to vote, e.g. £5 / $5 in cash or vouchers as you exit the polling station. Which would also somewhat correct the current skew in turnout—poorer people are currently less likely to vote.