Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Idioms
336. The idiom today is to vote with
one's feet. Okay. It  kind of sounds funny
doesn't it ? Let's continue.
If someone votes with his or her feet, 
he shows approval or disapproval of
something by either being present,  you
know,  being there and supporting
something or someone or showing
disapproval by leaving someplace or by
walking out or by not going at all maybe. 
All right.  Let's continue. The origin of this
idiom
is believed to start around the middle
of the 1900's and is believed to refer to
refugees or at least originally to
refugees who were able to emigrate you
know,  to leave to escape to another place
to show their disapproval. Here's a quote
from the New York Times in 1966 when
they say "Some east Berliners continued
to vote with their feet by climbing over
the wall. Digging under or slipping
through the wall. " Yeah. Now luckily
nowadays the Berlin Wall is down. It's
gone,  but you know , when I was young I
went there before they the wall fell
down and I visited a German family I
knew.  I met a German guy while I was
traveling and I went and I stayed at his at
his house and they told me some stories
about this. They told me that,  that,  that
chain ...  that at first they put up a
chain-link fence. It wasn't a solid wall.
They did it all in one night. You know, 
because  they didn't want,  they didn't
want a rush back and forth. So they put
it all up in one night. So probably the
chain-link fence was when people were
still trying to escape in and under it.
Later on,  I think a solid wall was built. 
Like when I visit in the 1990's you could
see guard towers from the west side with
 you know,  German soldiers with machine
guns in their hand. It was very difficult
to get over or under that wall later on,
but probably around this time when they
first put up the chain-link fence there
was probably some people still trying to escape
at some point. But they also told me an
interesting story. They told me about
they knew someone where he was visiting
a friend in West Berlin you know,  just
that night and he woke up in the morning
and already the chain-link fence was up. 
And he had to make a choice you know,
like as if you went back,  you probably
knew well you may never get back out
again. 
But remember his family was back
there so you know,  that's sometimes I'll
ask students what would you do in a
situation like this ? Where you woke up, 
you were in West Berlin. So you could
stay in West Berlin the rest of your
life and you know,  you you're ready out.
You don't have to worry about it. Even
though you're originally an East Berliner
or you'd be okay because you stayed in
West Berlin. But if you go back,  and you
can go back,  but if you go back you know, 
you don't know how long this is going to be.
And this ended up that that East Berlin
walls ended up staying up there for
another 40 years.
So I'll ask.. Sometimes I'll ask that question if
you want to answer (that question). You
know you can put it in comments. What
would you do if you were in that
situation where you woke up and they put
up the chain-link fence and you know,  if
you go back they'll never let you out
again. Or at least and you don't know how
long that will last. 
What would you do ? Or will you go back ?
You know,  because maybe your family and
some of your friends are still back
there on the east side of the East
Berlin or in the East Germany. All right.
Let's continue. So all right so over the
wall digging. All right. All right. Let's
give you some examples here. Example
number one. Many residents of states you
know,  this in the u.s. voted with their
feet by moving to more conservative-
leaning states with lower taxes. Yeah.  I
used to hear them use this phrase that
they were saying that they were voting
with their feet because maybe you know
they were originally from New York or
California or someplace like that and
the taxes got really,  really high
especially in liberal states and they
decided to move south or they decided
to move to the more conservative states
that tended to have a lower tax rate. So
they used to say that they were voting
with their feet by doing
that. Okay. Number two here. Over the years
many businesses from Detroit voted with
their feet due to high taxes and a very
high crime rate. Yeah. 
Detroit one time,  if you went back like
50 or 60 years ago,  it used to be one of the
most prosperous cities in the u.s. with
the car industry and everything. It was
you know,  it was an example to the world.
But then of course you know,  over the
years it got very liberal had lots of
high taxes and eventually a lot of the
businesses moved out and moved away the
the city became poorer,  high taxes crime
started to get higher and higher and you
know completely it's it's night and day
from what it used to be. So but a lot of
people and businesses and a lot of
people voted with their feet by just
leaving. They just move out just go
someplace that was you know,   more to
their liking . All right and number three
here. In the 2016 election many Bernie
Sanders supporters voted with their feet
by not showing up at the polls because
they felt their candidates was cheated
out of the nomination. Yeah.  2016 was very
close between Hillary and Bernie Sanders
and Hillary ended up winning and a lot
of the Bernie Sanders supporters
suspected that you know something
something tricky or deceitful went on
there. And they they felt like their candidate
was cheated. And for that reason
some of them didn't show up at the polls.
So they kind of this is a way we say
that they kind of voted with their feet.
So you can vote with your feet simply by
not going or not showing up. Okay.  Anyway,
I hope you got it . I hope it was clear. I
hope it  was very informative. Thank you for
your time. Bye-bye.
