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>"If you don't like it, you can move" is a horrible, horrible, horrible argument. why?

• mikeash 10y ago
  A couple of reasons: 1. Moving, especially to a different country, takes a huge amount of money and effort. It's reasonable for someone to want to fix a problem with where they are rather than go through that. 2. It's not actually an argument at all. It does nothing to demonstrate any merits of the thing being discussed. It's really just a more polite way to say "shut up." Consider, hypothetically, that every evening, an agent of the state would come into each person's house and punch them in the nose repeatedly. Would you object to this? Would you find "if you don't like it, you can move" to be a good argument in favor of this system?
  • toomuchtodo 10y ago
    > Consider, hypothetically, that every evening, an agent of the state would come into each person's house and punch them in the nose repeatedly. Would you object to this? Would you find "if you don't like it, you can move" to be a good argument in favor of this system? Are you prepared to spend years, possibly decades, of your life to fix the problem? If not, yes, moving is a good argument. Although, I don't find social safety nets to be something that you'd find against, regardless of the amount of time involved, but that's just me.
    • mikeash 10y ago
      How is it a good argument? It might be a good idea to get out of such a place, but that's an entirely different thing.
• yummyfajitas 10y ago
  You can use it to justify anything, besides maybe preventing exit. Don't like the risk of being murdered by cops for being black? Move! Don't like laws against homosexuality? Move!
  • someguydave 10y ago
    I am mainly interested in promoting exit. It is often too quickly dismissed as solution to social problems.