This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Monday, October 24th, 2016. I'm Caleb Brown.

The Moving Van is a more decisive and powerful statement than an election ballot.

So says Ilia Somme, author of Democracy. and powerful statement than an election ballot.

So says Ilia Somme, author of Democracy and Political Ignorance.

We discussed his recent USA Today piece

on the key differences between people who vote at the polls

and those who vote with their feet.

You write in USA Today that mobility matters a lot more than voting.

And explain what you mean by that.

It matters more for people's political freedom.

We tend to think that the ultimate expression of political freedom is voting at the ballot box.

But in reality, most voters are almost completely powerless because the chance of any one

vote affecting the outcome of an election is infinitesimally small, about one in

60 million in a presidential election for example. On the other hand when you vote

with your feet by deciding which city or state or locality to live in, then you're making a choice

that actually matters and so therefore foot voting is often a much better way

to express your political preferences a more effective way than ballot box voting is.

There is a lot of variation in policies between different cities and also between different states,

whether on tax policy, employment policy,

land use, and many, many other things.

And people routinely make decisions

about where they want to live, at least in part based on those kinds of policies.

...