[christophilus]

It’s one of the reasons I’m against the continued growth of centralized power structures. Local governments aren’t perfect and tend to be more easily dominated by a little tyrant, but in general, the more decentralized the power structures are, the easier it is for people to change their situation. Your vote has a bigger impact, it’s easier to hold local officials accountable, and of course, you can move to a different town / county / province more easily than moving to a different country / continent.

Warren Buffett said something to the effect of: “I prefer to invest in a business that could be run by a monkey, because eventually it will be.”

A similar principle holds for governments. You will eventually (possibly consistently) have a government that is led by incompetent (or corrupt) politicians. How can you structure your system in such a way that their negative effects are minimal?

[fallingknife]

And it's really unbelievable how political parties in the EU (and US) who won't shut up about the threat from the extremist right gaining power also seem to have no fear of giving their enemy these tools.

[okasaki]

Please don't bring that old American libertarian fantasy about moving if you don't like a local law to Europe.

The amount of people who would consider selling their house, moving their family and job because they don't like some local policy or its implementation is essentially zero.

[christophilus]

Just following up, but I know many, many people who have moved to my state for exactly that reason: what they saw as government run amok in their home state. This trend spiked during COVID, but it continues due to various policy blunders that they are trying to leave behind.

So, yes. People do relocate when the local government becomes oppressive.

My family is in the US because my great grandparents immigrated here to get out from under the thumb of the UK government. In fact, unless you’re a Native American, you probably have a similar story in your family history.