I’m convinced that in case of fiscal crisis, voters will indeed “sit on their hands.”  I’m willing to believe, however, that voters might still run with their feet.  As Tim Kane puts it, “What if they had a fiscal crisis, and nobody came?”

The consequences of U.S. fiscal calamity will go hand-in-hand with
globalization. The world is in the early stages of globalization, but already
member states in the EU are feeling the effects of combining tax competition
with the right of movement. A 2006 BBC report noted that nearly 10 percent of
Britons lived aborad, a million in Spain.  Two emigrant types dominate: retirees
and workers!

[…]

The threat America faces is a world that competes for our greatest natural
resource: it’s young. If we make the tax climate hellish, the U.S. is going
to suffer outmigration as places like Canada, Australia, Brazil, Mexico,
Chile realize what an opportunity they have to cream our entrepreneurial
talent…

Go ahead and worry about the fiscal crisis of 2020, and worry about its
implications across the generations. Just make sure you worry on a big enough
scale. We all know that globalization will deepen, and the national borders that
seem so tall and vital today will look more and more like borders among the 50
states of yesterday. Remind me again, how difficult does Texas make it on
fleeing Californians to move in to their state?

Of course, there is one obvious response to “youth drain,” but it’s so awful that even the benighted median voter would rather cut spending than resort to it.  Right?!