Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom is a book by Ilya Somin, a professor of law at George Mason University. Somin discussed the work across multiple appearances on The Bob Zadek Show, where he developed its central argument that the ability to choose which government to live under by moving—what he calls “foot voting”—is often a more effective and informed mechanism for political freedom than traditional ballot box voting.
The concept of foot voting
Somin defined foot voting as “your ability to choose what government policies you want to live under by deciding where you’re going to live or, in some cases, what kinds of governments or other services you want to make use of.” He identified several forms: voting with one’s feet by deciding where to live within a federal system, through international migration, and in the private sector by choosing schools, churches, or planned communities such as condo associations. Somin noted that “almost 70 million Americans already do” live in private planned communities Foot Voting > Ballot Voting (2020).
Bob Zadek introduced Somin as the author of Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom, as well as Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter, The Grasping Hand (about Kelo v. City of New London), and a co-authored work on the healthcare case. Zadek observed that the book’s title might borrow from Milton Friedman’s PBS series Free to Choose Foot Voting > Ballot Voting (2020).
Barriers to mobility
Somin identified exclusionary zoning as “the biggest one” among barriers to foot voting, particularly in California. He described how tight restrictions on building new housing make it “often almost impossible to build new housing, especially new cheap housing, in response to demand,” blocking millions of people from moving to places of opportunity. He also cited state-by-state occupational licensing as a significant barrier 3 Libertarian Ideas to Strengthen Democracy (2022).
On the national minimum wage, Somin agreed with Zadek that it is “a bad idea for a number of reasons.” He noted that the wage “hasn’t been raised in 13 or 14 years” and stands at $7.25 an hour, making it “probably only a modest constraint on mobility” because relatively few jobs would open below that level. However, he warned that proposals to raise it to $15 would create “a much more serious constraint on mobility” and “put many people out of work.” Even the current minimum wage “does destroy some jobs,” particularly in poorer states and for workers with weak credentials 3 Libertarian Ideas to Strengthen Democracy (2022).
The three-part test for immigration harms
In response to Zadek’s question about whether immigration should be limited if it diminished the collective quality of life of existing citizens, Somin outlined a three-part framework from his book for evaluating claimed harms. First, ask whether the problem is real; in many cases “the answer is either no or at the very least that it’s greatly overblown.” He cited evidence that “immigration actually reduces the crime rate because immigrants, including even undocumented immigrants, have lower crime rates than native-born Americans.” Second, if a genuine problem exists, ask whether it can be addressed by means less draconian than exclusion—what scholars call a “keyhole solution.” He gave the example of limiting welfare eligibility, which he noted is already done under the Welfare Reform Act of 1996. Third, even if a real problem lacks a keyhole solution, immigration “creates vast new wealth” that could be tapped to alleviate negative side effects, such as through wage subsidies for disadvantaged workers Hard Questions About Asylum and Afghanistan (2021).
Somin acknowledged that one could imagine rare cases where great harm from immigration has no solution other than exclusion, but he would require “proof that the harm really is great” before consigning large numbers of people to “lives of poverty and oppression.” He compared this to restrictions on free speech, saying he would want “a high burden of proof” before suppressing speech, though he allowed that in a situation like the Weimar Republic in 1933, restricting fascist speech might be justified Hard Questions About Asylum and Afghanistan (2021).
Foot voting and democratic reform
Somin contributed to a report proposing libertarian ideas to strengthen democracy, and he identified the section on foot voting as having “the most libertarian flavor” and being the part where he “had the biggest hand in writing.” The report argued that because of voter ignorance and excessive centralization of power, authority should be decentralized to state and local governments and to the private sector, empowering people to vote with their feet 3 Libertarian Ideas to Strengthen Democracy (2022).
Somin explained that foot voting improves decision-making because people have better incentives to seek out information when their choices have direct consequences. He contrasted this with ballot voting: “you probably spent more time and effort seeking out information the last time you decided what television set to buy than the last time you decided who to vote for for president or governor.” He also argued that expanded foot voting and decentralization could reduce polarization, because when power is concentrated in the federal government, “it becomes very scary to have it held by a member of the opposing political party,” which stimulates partisan conflict and efforts to overturn elections 3 Libertarian Ideas to Strengthen Democracy (2022).
Somin acknowledged that while non-libertarians could accept these proposals, libertarians would find them easier to embrace because they already favor decentralization. He noted that the federal government is “so enormously overgrown now that you could probably eliminate as much as half or two-thirds of it and still be very, very far from any kind of pure libertarian state” 3 Libertarian Ideas to Strengthen Democracy (2022).
Across episodes
The topic of foot voting appears across four episodes spanning 2019 to 2022. In the earliest appearance, Somin mentioned that he was working on a book on voting with your feet called Free to Move, which he hoped would be out “next year at some point” How to Create a Legitimacy Crisis (2019). By the 2020 episode, the book had been published, and Somin defined the concept and its forms Foot Voting > Ballot Voting (2020). In 2021, he applied his framework to asylum and immigration policy in the context of Afghanistan Hard Questions About Asylum and Afghanistan (2021). In 2022, he discussed foot voting as part of a report on libertarian ideas to strengthen democracy, focusing on decentralization and barriers to mobility 3 Libertarian Ideas to Strengthen Democracy (2022). The excerpts show a development from the book’s conception through its publication and application to specific policy questions.
What the sources do not cover
The excerpts do not state the publication date of Free to Move or the name of its publisher. They do not describe the full contents of the book or the specific arguments in chapters not discussed on the show. The excerpts do not provide the names of the other contributors to the report on libertarian ideas, nor do they give the report’s title or sponsoring organization. The constitutional basis for federal immigration authority, mentioned as a topic in the 2021 episode, is not elaborated in the excerpts provided.