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Micah asks if it is obvious that we need mandatory voting in the United States. Things also discussed in this episode: corruption, Australia, school referendums, HOA zero-sum thinking, the virtuous cycle of economics, the death spiral of economics, Christianity, the devil is not a sheep dog, other Abrahamic religions, Catholicism, single issue voters, Bill Clinton, yuppies, Wisconsin, the military industrial complex and hopeful sponsorships, and cheese.

Show notes:

Compulsory voting

Virtuous circle

Phill’s afterthoughts:

- We recorded this episode last year (from the publication date) in the late summer/early fall of 2020. We still didn’t know who was going to win the election but at that time people thought that if more people voted then it would be a detriment to Trump administration.

- Making people vote is tricky. While I like the idea that politicians will have to cater to more than just lobbyists and special interests and the traditional voting blocs, I also see this as a tough philosophical debate. People need to vote and they need to take agency in their lives to do so. If they see voting as so useless that they don’t even bother, than compelling them to vote is a strange solution, especially if the candidates are polarized too. Maybe if we had this as part of a new “voting bill of rights” that introduced neutral redistricting, campaign finance laws, election holidays, mail in ballot, 100% paper ballots for auditing purposes, ranked choice voting, ending the electoral college, and removing outside influencing in our political campaigns with mandatory voting I could see this as being part of a comprehensive solution to our current polarization/balkanization we face today.

-I think that the fact more people voted for Donald Trump in 2020 than in 2016 makes me think that we have very long road ahead of us.

-Also, if you don’t vote but complain that you don’t get what you want… please note that while one individual vote may not matter where you live, please keep in mind that your whining is fallen on deaf ears.