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rogeraarnold
rogeraarnold
Student
College - Freshman

WHY DONT MORE PEOPLE VOTE ACCORDING TO ECONOMICS?SOMETHING WITH OPPORTUNITY COSTS?

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Posted by rogeraarnold on Wednesday November 11, 2009 at 6:23 PM and tagged with business, economics.

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  1. pohnpei397 Teacher
    Community / Jr. College

    eNotes Editor

    Best answer as selected by question asker.

    I assume your question means "why would economists say voter turn out is low?"

    Yes -- this has to do do with opportunity costs as well as a lack of benefits.  Look at the costs of voting:

    • Going to a given polling place at a certain time on a certain day.
    • Going somewhere to get registered well in advance of the election.
    • Spending the time to become informed about which candidates you favor.

    All of these take up time that could be spent doing something more fun.  And what do you get out of voting?

    There are no tangible benefits to voting -- you don't get any reward other than psychological ones.

    So, since there are costs associated with voting and since there aren't many benefits, we can expect that voter turn out will be low.

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    Posted by pohnpei397 on Wednesday November 11, 2009 at 6:34 PM