“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest.”
There is an old concept in economics, that has been under assault, likely since it’s inception, but especially in the last 50 years. It is the idea that each individual acts using rationality to maximize his own utility, i.e. to get the most value out of life.
Since psychologists have decided to take a swing at this, study has piled upon study showing people influenced to act, in the view of a layman, irrationally.
For instance, in Thinking Fast and Slow, check name<Daniel Hanneman*> outlines a study in which people stuck their hands in ice cold water on two separate occassions. When asked which time they would prefer to repeat, the participants selected the more painful one.
For these reasons and many others, psychologists, mainstream economists and politicians say that the demonstrable irrationality in men is proof of a failure of economics. By extension, the government must step in and correct people’s behaviour before their irrational decisions screw everything up.
Come join me as we discuss what it means to be rational, given people’s differences in values, preferences and information. Is government qualified to step in and tell you what you should want, or is that just what our political masters want you to think?