Caplan on the Myth of the Rational Voter

http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2007/06/caplan_on_the_m.html ^

[lduucckkyy]

Bryan Caplan, of George Mason University and blogger at EconLog, talks about his book, The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies. Caplan argues that democracies work well in giving voters what they want but unfortunately, what voters want isn't particularly wise, especially when it comes to economic policy. He outlines a series of systematic biases we often have on economic topics and explains why we have little or no incentive to improve our understanding of the world and vote wisely. So, it's not special interests that are messing things up but the very incentives that lie at the heart of a vote-based system. This is a disturbing and provocative lens for viewing political outcomes.

[lduucckkyy]

http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2007/06/caplan_on_the_m.html

[AdamSelene235]

Just finished reading this. Good Stuff.

Democratic Fundamentalism is just as flawed an ideology as the Divine Right of Kings.

[uncbob]

DeToqueville(spelling) said long before this guy

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

Bring back property requirements for voting!

/no, I’m not kidding

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

Bring back property requirements for voting!

/no, I’m not kidding

[xJones]

. Caplan argues that democracies work well in giving voters what they want but unfortunately, what voters want isn't particularly wise, especially when it comes to economic policy.

Just look at Massachusetts voters who keep returning perverts and Ted Kennedy who should have been indicted for manslaughter in 1969. Maybe Massachusetts voters want them, but they couldn't be elected anywhere else except in the Kennedy white plantation of Massachusetts.

West Virginia keeps re-electing their fairy god-father, Robert Byrd, who started out politically as a KKK Kleagle, being paid $100 for each new recuit, but he is untouchable as the Democratic Senate Majority Leader. No black politician including Obama will go after him because Byrd is a powerful DEMOCRAT.

It does make you wonder about democracy, because the brain-dead also have the vote, and will vote for what they perceive as furthering their self-interests.

[Little Ray]

That's why it supposed to be a Republic.

[Zerodown]

The electorate that put George Washington in office totalled about 100,000. Enfranchising non-property owners, popular election of Senators, and female suffrage have each had unintended consequences.

That is you wind up with a Kennedy, a Jerry Studds, a Clinton, a JFK, a John Kerry, a Byrd. I.E., you wind up with people that no reasonable property-owning man would permit on the property.

[Zerodown]

The electorate that put George Washington in office totalled about 100,000. Enfranchising non-property owners, popular election of Senators, and female suffrage have each had unintended consequences.

That is you wind up with a Kennedy, a Jerry Studds, a Clinton, a JFK, a John Kerry, a Byrd. I.E., you wind up with people that no reasonable property-owning man would permit on the property.

[xJones]

Damn internet hiccops, don't you just hate them?:)

From painful experience, I've learned to hit the post button and wait. Sometimes it takes a while.

[Amalie]

pinging

[ClaireSolt]

With 85% high school graduation rate and the internet you have the most literate and best informed electorate in history.

[webboy45]

Two things that would help our democracy would be term limits and line-item veto.

[hoppity]

I’ve known Bryan since Kindergarten. WE grew up two blocks from each other. Have you taken his libertarian purity test?

[DuncanWaring]

Two things that would help our “democracy” would be repealing the Sixteenth and Seventeenth amendments to the Constitution.

[MrB]

Property requirements, and federalism - remove the power of the federal government to redistribute wealth,

and you’d have everything darn near fixed.

[MrB]

Don’t forget the 14th, and its twisted application by the courts to basically repeal the 9th and 10th amendments.

[Matchett-PI]

bttt

[Zerodown]

I've learned to hit the post button and wait. Sometimes it takes a while.

Look at the bright side. According to my children, me saying the same thing just twice would be a refreshing change.

[xJones]

Look at the bright side. According to my children, me saying the same thing just twice would be a refreshing change.

LOL!

Fortunately, my children have never said that to me.
Fortunately, my children have never said that to me.