Voting With Our Feet, Part 1: What Thanksgiving Is Partially About

The phrase that is the title of this post has been on my mind for a few weeks. Over the next several days, I’ll be citing examples of “vote with feet” situations and the impact they have had or will have.

Let’s start with the Thanksgiving holiday we celebrated yesterday.

Some of the Pilgrims of the Mayflower actually “voted with their feet” twice: first migrating to Holland to escape religious persecution in England, and then to America (after returning to England for others who wished to make the trip), not only to escape English pressure which had even continued from a distance, but also to establish a new community and begin new lives.

One of the thing we take for granted in the USA is our ability to move around, not only over vast distances, but from job to job, school to school, and neighborhood to neighborhood. The influence of our ability to do these things and from time to time carry them out is underappreciated, and has results many of those who don’t fully respect our mobility don’t appreciate.

Thanksgiving, among of course many other things, is a celebration of our ability in a free country to go elsewhere if need be to change our lives or achieve our dreams. Subsequent posts will explore the impact of our unprecedented ability to move around on many different areas of life.

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Other “vote with our feet” posts:
- Part 2: It’s the Taxes, Stupid
- Part 3: Walking Away from Academic Excellence
- Part 4: Leaving Cincinnati (and Other Ohio Cities)
- Part 5: Willisms Looks at State Migration Patterns
- Part 6: Losing the Very Rich