People will physically migrate to a country with better institutions for a few thousand dollars, yet will not vote for those same institutions in their home country, because emigrating yields a large personal payoff while voting for the better policy yields only a tiny chance of changing outcomes—so they tolerate the psychological cost of one but not the other.

causalpending

Speaker

Bryan Caplan

Evidence Quote

he's perfectly willing to do is to do for a few thousand dollars ... but not willing to do just for a very tiny chance of changing policy

Source

Bryan Caplan on The Myth of the Rational Voter 6/25/2007EconTalk
Created: 6/15/2026, 9:20:37 AM

My Notes

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