The philosophy group I converse with in the UK has taken up a political question: why 69% of British adults (and I believe some 40%+ of eligible Americans) fail to vote. Here’s what I added to the discussion…
A thought about the 69% who do not vote. What are they not doing? What is a vote? It tends to be promoted as the ultimate political action. But is voting the opposite of action? Is voting the moment when I sign off from political engagement, when I outsource my political function to someone else? “I’ve voted, now you do it…” So then what would action look like? What is political engagement, sustained between elections? Argument, protest, organization, communication… That demands time and effort. It’s work. But the people who do this are not seen as working. They are classified as volunteers. Now, in our society, “work” has something of a sacred status because it is life-sustaining. And work is paid for. This got me running a thought experiment: tax deductions for political engagement. In this scenario, you would declare your political activities just as you declare expenses. Your work would be rewarded with cash. Does that seem objectionable — to give financial incentives for political participation? Well, we don’t object to paying politicians. And that’s the point about outsourcing. For them politics is work, for the rest of us it’s on a par with bird watching or helping out in a hospice. As for the 69%, they have outsourced their outsourcing to the remaining 31%.
(I don’t find my tax experiment very practical, but it gives me lens to look at the question.)