[barry-cotter]

> The econ 101 version of economics is dominant in popular thought. You see it everywhere in newspapers.

If only. Rent control wouldn’t exist. Policies that couldn’t pass any sane cost benefit trade off would be abolished. There would be a smooth, graduated marginal tax schedule. There would be congestion taxes on traffic.

The world would be incredibly different if Econ 101 was widely understood.

[achenatx]

not necessarily. One of the things Ive come to understand is that economic efficiency is not always the top priority. In many cases people want reduced variance. In return they are ok with less efficiency.

Economics can predict the outcome, but cannot make a value judgement between two options.

I used to think some people were irrational (especially when they disagreed with my logical viewpoint). It turns out that everyone is irrational, they simply have different opinions of the relative priority of values. For example it might be worth it to them to trade off long term economic efficiency for short term reduction in variance.

Nationalized health care, social security, and rent control are all examples of policies that reflect this value system.

"Freedom" is not a universal value. In fact many people are willing to trade freedom for security (or reduction in variance). They are not wrong or bad people, they just have a different opinion of priorities.