Did Americans Vote for More Freedom or Less Freedom?

November 7, 2024 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty

Most people understandably focused on the presidential race earlier this week, as well as control of Congress.

But let’s look at what happened in the five most important ballot initiatives of 2024.

The biggest decision of the day was in Oregon, where voters were asked to pass Measure 118, which would have imposed a big tax on businesses to finance a universal handout (sort of a basic income starter kit).

The good news is that it was rejected – and by an overwhelming margin. Even the normally left-leaning voters of Oregon apparently realized this was a recipe for losing businesses and increasing dependency.

Unfortunately, traveling up the Pacific coast, there was some bad news in the state of Washington.

Voters rejected Initiative 2109, which would have repealed the state’s capital gains tax.

The inevitable consequence is that more people like Jeff Bezos will leave the state.

There’s more bad news from Illinois. Voters said yes when asked whether they wanted to bust the state’s flat tax by adding a class-warfare rate on millionaires.

The good news is that this is just an advisory referendum. But I wonder why voters said yes this year when they voted against a binding initiative to impose a so-called progressive tax in 2020?

The bottom line is that Illinois politicians are trying to copy Massachusetts politicians. Make people vote over and over again until they get their desired result.

There was good news, however, out in California. Voters killed Proposition 33, which would have given local governments more ability to impose more rent control.

Maybe, just maybe, enough voters stayed awake in their economics classes?

Last but not least, there was a referendum about school choice in Kentucky. Unfortunately, voters opted to preserve the state’s government monopoly.

This is sad news. Test scores in Kentucky are mediocre and there’s so much evidence that school choice leads to better outcomes.

So teacher unions finally got a victory after a bunch of defeats.

P.S. When presented with ballot initiatives, voters in Switzerland seem to have a better track record (see here, here, here, here, and here) than voters in America.