Look Homeward, Voter

Hillary is up; Barack is down. Or is that vice versa? Mike is up; Rudy’s down.

Many presidential campaigns have their ups and downs, until only one remains “up.”

But the real story is: you are up.

It’s now your turn. Vote!

But as sly economists and clever mathematicians like to remind us, no one voter usually makes a difference. Our votes may be counted (if we’re lucky), but they don’t count — not like our dollars do. We voters don’t decide elections, individually. Certainly not presidential elections, which are designed to tally up preferences from huge pools of voters; it’s the ratio of the divergent streams of those pools that decide elections. Our individual votes are like drops in the bucket.

But, closer to home, our power — even as individuals — increases.

There are fewer voters, locally, so when we convince a friend or neighbor of the wisdom of X, or the justice of Y, or the pure thrilling statesmanship of Z, our influence can really amount to something.

So, if you are concerned with, say, the growing instability of our non-​invested national pension system (Social Security), keep tabs on the issue, keep asking questions, keep needling the complacent. But don’t stop there. Look closer to home. Have your county, city, or state politicians enacted non-​invested or even unfunded pension systems?

They have in many areas around the country. And citizens have fought back. They’ve made a difference.

You can, too.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.