My 10 year old daughter asked me why I don't vote. I thought for a few minutes and then said, "You have a very nice doll collection. How many dolls do you have in your collection?" "Thirty", she replied. I said, "Those dolls are all yours. Some of them were given to you for Christmas and birthdays. Some are passed down from your grandmother. Some were bought with the money you earned doing various chores around the house. But the bottom line is, they're all your dolls. Now, there are two people who want to take your dolls and give them to some of the neighborhood kids and you get to decide which one wins by voting. One of them says, "Little girl, you have too many dolls while some of the neighborhood girls don't have any. I'm going to take half of your dolls and give them to the neighborhood girls." Understand that there's absolutely nothing fair about that. Those are your dolls. But it doesn't matter, this person is going to take fifteen of your dolls and give them to the neighborhood girls."
"Then there's the other person. This person tells you that they're only going to take five of your dolls and give them to the neighborhood girls. So now, you get to choose, do you vote for the person who's going to take fifteen of your dolls or for the person who's only going to take five of your dolls?" She thought about it for a minute and asked if those were her only choices. I told her they were. She said, "I guess I have to vote for the person who's only going to take five of my dolls." I said, "Okay, but keep in mind that the other girls in the neighborhood get to vote too. Who do you think they're going to vote for?" She said, "Probably for the person who's going to take more of my dolls because then more of them will get my dolls." I said, "Correct. No matter if you vote for the person who's going to take fewer of your dolls or not, the person who's going to take more of your dolls will probably win because there are generally more people who want dolls than have them and they're always going to vote for what is in their best interest. So does it really matter who you vote for?" She said, "Well, there's still a chance that the person who's only going to take five of my dolls might win." I replied, "Yes, but regardless of who you vote for, you're going to lose some of your dolls and that's simply not right."
She thought for a minute and said, "But why can't I vote for someone who's not going to take any of my dolls?" I said, "Because you don't have that choice. No matter who you vote for, someone is going to take some of your dolls. The question is not 'if' they're going to take any of your dolls but 'how many' they're going to take. Since there is no real choice in the matter, then does it really make any sense to vote?" She said, "I guess not."
Lesson learned.