In a close election in the US, you have a 1 in a 10 million chance to swing the election if you live in a competitive district.
A 1 in 10 million (10,000,000) chance might sound small, but since the US government spends $17,500,000,000,000, it’s worth nearly $2 million.
Other countries spend less money, but their districts are often smaller. In competitive districts, your vote can still be worth a lot.
Government spending is easy to quantify, but there is also foreign policy, social and political freedoms. How valuable is a 1 in 10 million chance to halve the chance of nuclear war?
If you aren’t informed here are two tips:
Find someone informed who shares your values. Ask them how they will vote and match them.
Read and follow international opinion polling—your country might be 50⁄50 but the world might not.
If you think it’s worth voting, it’s probably worth telling your friends to as well.
In conclusion
If you already follow politics, often it will be effective to vote.
If you would have to spend time researching, that time might be better spent working on one of the world’s pressing problems or earning to give to an effective charity.
Though that’s not what I meant. I more mean an op-ed style version of the same content that is lighter and more chatty. But maybe I’m misunderstanding the process? I guess if a journalist wants to summarise it, they’ll do that themselves?
Want to write a TLDR summary? I could find somewhere to stick it.
tl;dr
In a close election in the US, you have a 1 in a 10 million chance to swing the election if you live in a competitive district.
A 1 in 10 million (10,000,000) chance might sound small, but since the US government spends $17,500,000,000,000, it’s worth nearly $2 million.
Other countries spend less money, but their districts are often smaller. In competitive districts, your vote can still be worth a lot.
Government spending is easy to quantify, but there is also foreign policy, social and political freedoms. How valuable is a 1 in 10 million chance to halve the chance of nuclear war?
If you aren’t informed here are two tips:
Find someone informed who shares your values. Ask them how they will vote and match them.
Read and follow international opinion polling—your country might be 50⁄50 but the world might not.
If you think it’s worth voting, it’s probably worth telling your friends to as well.
In conclusion
If you already follow politics, often it will be effective to vote.
If you would have to spend time researching, that time might be better spent working on one of the world’s pressing problems or earning to give to an effective charity.
Thanks Nathan, this was helpful!
Sure.
Though that’s not what I meant. I more mean an op-ed style version of the same content that is lighter and more chatty. But maybe I’m misunderstanding the process? I guess if a journalist wants to summarise it, they’ll do that themselves?
Eg in this style https://unherd.com/2020/10/why-do-people-believe-such-complete-rubbish/