Question

It's easy to explain the vitriolic nature of political campaigns in the U.S. if you know that spending $7 billion for local, state, and national campaigns will give you influence over $20 trillion in economic power. How might an economist explain why individuals ignore information and not participate in elections.

Answer 1

their are certain constraints concerned with this statement.we can understand some of them as follows-

1. LACK OF FUNDS-the first and major problem would be lack of funds to participate in the election.$7 billion is a way too high number for people to risk on campaigning of election.
2. INCAPABLE TO BEAR THE LOSSES IN CASE OF DEFEAT- suppose,somehow, if any person arranged funds by borrowing or by liquidating their savings  to participate in election and in case of defeat they wouldn't be able to repay the loan or their future would be at risk.this is also a reason why people ignore participating in elections.
3. LACK OF INTEREST-some people doesn't want to participate because they don't have interest and have engaged themselves in what they like to do.this is known as self interest,the principle given by Adam smith.

above mentioned terms are some possible reasons to ignore the participation in election.