Foot voting is the ability of individuals to choose which government to live under by moving from one jurisdiction to another, as distinct from voting at the ballot box. The concept was discussed by Professor Ilya Somin of George Mason University across three episodes of The Bob Zadek Show, in connection with his book Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom and with a libertarian policy report he co-authored.
Foot voting versus ballot voting
Somin’s central claim is that foot voting is often a more effective and informed mechanism for political freedom than traditional ballot box voting. Bob Zadek introduced the topic by describing foot voting as “far more than ballot box voting” in its power over the behavior of governments, and as crucial to preserving freedom Foot Voting > Ballot Voting (2020).
The argument rests on incentives to acquire information. Somin observed that most people spend more time and effort seeking out information the last time they decided what television set to buy than the last time they decided who to vote for for president or governor, because the television decision will actually make a difference while the chance of affecting who holds office or what their policies are is very low. Foot voting, in his account, improves the quality of decision-making by giving people better incentives to seek out information The Libertarian Dream Team - Ilya Somin (2022).
Somin also linked expanded foot voting and decentralization to reduced political polarization. Part of the polarization, he argued, arises because so much power is concentrated in the federal government and in particular in the hands of whoever sits in the White House, making it frightening to have that power held by a member of the opposing political party. More decentralization and more opportunities to vote with one’s feet would, he contended, reduce that fear and ease other problems 3 Libertarian Ideas to Strengthen Democracy (2022).
International migration as foot voting
Somin argued that there is a fundamental similarity between foot voting through international migration and foot voting internally within a single country in a federal system, and that it is ironic the two issues are usually discussed separately. He noted that people on the right who tend to like internal foot voting and boast about how Texas is gaining migrants from blue states often view international migration with great suspicion, while people on the left often have the reverse set of attitudes Foot Voting > Ballot Voting (2020).
The gains from free international migration, Somin said, are much larger than those from internal foot voting, because the difference between the best American state and the worst is small compared to the differences between countries. Even the worst American state, he observed, is not nearly as bad as Cuba or Venezuela or Haiti. Economists estimate, he said, that free migration throughout the world could approximately double world GDP, primarily because in many places people cannot be very productive because of the political institutions in those countries. A person who moves to the US from Venezuela or Cuba, he added, experiences a massive increase in freedom almost impossible to replicate through internal migration.
Somin also noted that opportunities are stifled by oppression on the basis of religion or ethnicity in home countries, and that moving to freer countries both diminishes the oppression and enables greater productivity. He gave the example that a woman could be more productive on the whole in a Western nation than in Saudi Arabia, where women’s opportunities are severely restricted by the government.
Decentralization and barriers to mobility
In a later episode, Somin described the part of his report dealing with foot voting as the part with the most libertarian flavor and the part he had the biggest hand in writing. The report argues that because of voter ignorance and excessive centralization of power, authority should be decentralized to state and local governments and to the private sector, thereby empowering people to vote with their feet—deciding what state or local government to live in based in part on its policies, or making choices in the private sector such as private school choice The Libertarian Dream Team - Ilya Somin (2022).
Somin identified two categories of recommendations. The first is limiting and decentralizing more functions of government so that fewer are in the hands of the federal government and more are with states, localities, or the private sector. The second is breaking down barriers to foot voting and interstate and other interjurisdictional movement. The biggest such barrier, he said, particularly in California, is exclusionary zoning, where tight restrictions on building new housing make it often almost impossible to build new housing, especially new cheap housing, in response to demand. This blocks millions of people from moving to places where they could find opportunity and better education, harms those people, reduces their choice, and damages the economy by preventing people from moving to places where they would be more productive. He also named state-by-state occupational licensing as another barrier.
Somin noted that in some cases people can vote with their feet without physically moving or without moving very far, particularly if they can choose between different local governments as well as state governments, or choose in the private sector. With more school choice, for example, a parent could send a child to a different school without changing address or buying a new house.
The minimum wage as a mobility constraint
Zadek raised the national minimum wage as a federal statute he considered of questionable constitutionality and economically unjustifiable, asking whether its elimination would open up mobility by letting states and businesses compete for wages and workers on a marketplace system rather than through what he called federal price fixing. Somin said he generally agreed that a national minimum wage is a bad idea for a number of reasons, including those Zadek mentioned 3 Libertarian Ideas to Strengthen Democracy (2022).
Somin noted that the national minimum wage has not been raised in 13 or 14 years and stands at $7.25 an hour, so it is probably only a modest constraint on mobility because relatively few jobs would open up below that level. He added that many people, particularly in the Democratic Party, would like to raise it as high as $15, which would be a much more serious constraint on mobility and would put many people out of work. Even at $7.25, he said, the minimum wage destroys some jobs, particularly in relatively poor states and for workers with relatively weak credentials trying to enter the marketplace.
Across episodes: no development
The excerpts show no development in the treatment of foot voting across episodes. The May 2020 episode with Ilya Somin presents the concept through his book Free to Move, emphasizing the comparison between internal and international migration and the estimate that free migration could double world GDP. The two August 2022 episodes present the same concept through a libertarian policy report, emphasizing decentralization, exclusionary zoning, occupational licensing, and the minimum wage as a mobility constraint. Somin advances the argument in all three; the later episodes add policy detail rather than revising the earlier claims.
What the sources do not cover
The excerpts do not state the name of the libertarian policy report Somin co-authored, nor the names of his co-authors, nor the organization that published it. They do not describe the contents of Free to Move beyond the arguments Somin summarizes in conversation. They do not state what Kelo v. City of New London held or how it relates to foot voting, despite its appearance in the topic list of the first episode. They do not state the outcome of any proposal Somin discusses, or whether any jurisdiction has adopted the reforms he recommends.