On the 11pm local news last night – NBC News 4 (WRC) here in DC – U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD) smilingly told a reporter that, now that Obamacare has passed, the health-care costs that until now troubled her district in Maryland “will go away.”
Why is a person such as the Hon. Ms. Edwards portrayed as being anything other than a clown? Why are her pronouncements about reality accorded more respect and treated as being more worthy than are pronouncements about string theory issued by a typical three-year old?
Saying that legislation can make health-care costs “go away” is the economics equivalent of saying that legislation can make the earth flat or can make earthworms bipedal.
Putting any part of the economy into the hands of politicians is like putting the space program into the hands of astrologers.
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Well, then I am an exception to that rule. I used to find the kind of drivel Muirgeo spews out persuasive until I took a step back and began to reassess my beliefs against the wisdom from the basic intersection of public choice theory and economics based on a fundamental understanding of markets, incentives and prices. I painfully came around and became almost embarrassed at what I used to believe and/or take for granted as truth. My heart didn't change but my thought processes did. It's not unlike when techies had a breakthough with the microchip. Everything they always dreamed of doing or wanted to do became radically better with a totally different way of attaining it.
I am still a liberal at heart in terms of vague end-results. However, my understanding of how to get there with the tools available changed dramatically. I'm also far more optimistic about mankind because of examples like Malthus who could only see the future from the end of his nose. I now chuckle with satisfaction when I read about geeky prognostications from past “experts” stuck in the confines of their own present reality. How could they possibly know enough about the future (alternatives, innovations and the subsequent changes to capital and price structure) to make silly predictions. I love the example of any prediction of aluminum consumption for some far off year from 1972 that doesn't factor in that the aluminum from one can in 72 now makes 15 cans. That simple fact makes all those predictions wildly off the mark. How could they have known? That's right. They couldn't. So for all their math smarts and analysis, they had no wisdom from a simple view of history and econ seen correctly and humbly.
The old adage that a libertarian is simply a liberal who likes/understands markets (and, by extension, sees the truth about government methods as untenable, corrupt, unfair and counter-productive) couldn't be more true than it is in my personal case.
It is for this reason that I find Modern Liberals (social democrats) all the more irritating and exasperating because I used to think like them and know why they think the way they think and know now that I was wrong and being wrong-headed about how to view issues. So hearing my old flawed and misguided arguments and reasoning, albeit for noble intentions, used against me just makes my eyes roll now. It's like hearing a little kid repeat a not-so-clever joke that you used to tell when you were not-so-clever and little. You can't help but give a shuttering chuckle with a hint of self-reflecting embarrassment about what a little, naive and innocent little pea-brain you must have sounded like to adults.
“Why are her pronouncements about reality accorded more respect and treated as being more worthy than are pronouncements about string theory issued by a typical three-year old?”
That's what I like about Don: his judiciousness. He obviously considered saying “…pronouncements about string theory issued by a three-year old” and then thought, “Wait. Maybe there's some 3 year old junior Einstein out there who regularly discourses on string theory. I don't want to discount this entirely.” So he added “TYPICAL” before “three-year old”. Nice.
I agree with you on elections. In fact, I'd take it one step further and say that no one will see an election in which reason trumps emotion, but that's neither here nor there.
The point is, when doing policy analysis, one should approach the problem academically. Ad-hominems won't help how well your conclusion is received.
I agree. I myself am conflicted about this “obamacare”. I have come to this blog to hopefully see a different viewpoint, but, well, I'm not sure how much I'm actually learning. It would be very helpful to hear some constructive criticism with information that backs it up. I hear so much of “health care costs will go up”, “quality will decrease”, but no REASONS. I can't be the only one who feels this way.
Prof Your energy enthuses me. Pols and the MSM are intellectualoids.
Sowell says it better but I enjoy the Jeopardy displays. If a drek from
the gulag can make a diff how can we not?
The archives from the past 2-3 years are a good start.
Two things scare me about Rep. Donna Edwards and her ilk:
1) they actually believe what they say
2) they believe we believe what they say
This has all the earmarks of a vast acceleration of the slide of the United States of America into the United State of Euro-America (singular term intentional).
I'd stop with throwing them out. I don't want to go through this again.
Very true. I teach a small-ish (30 students) college class. I tell them every semester that the student earning the highest grade on the final will get an automatic A. Someone then declares that they should all boycott the final, all get zeroes, and thus all get As. It has never happened, even though they really could do it – and I tell them as much!
Very true. I teach a small-ish (30 students) college class. I tell them every semester that the student earning the highest grade on the final will get an automatic A. Someone then declares that they should all boycott the final, all get zeroes, and thus all get As. It has never happened, even though they really could do it – and I tell them as much!
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