The “Vote With Your Feet” Philosophy
We believe (and you are welcome to believe what you want) that it is generally a waste of your time to try to change a country with millions of people when you can get far better personal results by moving to some other country. Also, your impact on the country you are currently in is probably bigger if you just leave than if you stay there and work hard to have an impact. When you leave you no longer pay taxes supporting the government you did not like. If many people do this, it really gets a governments attention. This is sort of what Ayn Rand suggests in her book Atlas Shrugged.
In the past there were slaves who worked 3 days a week for their owner, 3 days a week for themselves, and had 1 day for church and rest. Nowadays many people end up paying half their earnings to one or more governments. It is amazing that today so many people put up with something so close to slavery.
Freedom means that you are free to leave. A free country is one where the people who live there can freely leave. However, most people don’t take advantage of their freedom.
When something like 1% of the population of East Germany left, the country was in serious trouble. When relatively small numbers of people who are educated, smart, entrepreneurs, or rich, leave a country they can have a big impact. This is often called a “brain drain”. In most cases governments will probably notice the trend and try to react. If they actually do things to make the country better to stay in, then these people leaving have had a big impact.
Regulatory Arbitrage
If you intelligently pick the laws (country) that you or your corporation live under, the chances are you will be better off than if you just accept the ones of the country you were born in. The act of picking the laws that will apply to you or your corporation puts you in charge, not any government. Doing this is called “Regulatory Arbitrage”.
Information Workers of the world, disperse!
Information Workers are more and more able to work from home or a remote location. The US has seen many people moving up into the Rocky Mountains because working remotely is more and more possible. Working from other countries is also more and more possible. So it is more and more practical for people to just up and move to another country. Because of this we expect that many of the people voting with their feet will be information workers.
Competition between countries
The consumer gets the best deal in terms of products, service, and price when there is competition. If people move freely between countries, governments that do not provide good service at a reasonable price will loose people to those that do. Countries will start to compete for people, or they will loose people. This will make governments provide better services with less taxes. Governments will have to be more efficient.
Make a difference in your life, and in your country, vote with your feet!
Source: votewithyourfeet.com