Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Every Flaw in Consumers Is Worse in Voters
Foundation for Economic Education ^ | Nov. 3, 2015 | Michael Munger

Posted on 11/04/2015 12:13:44 PM PST by Twotone

I have been making a mistake for most of my life. See, I'm an economist, and one of the things that attracted me to economics is the notion of the "ideal economy."

Of course, there are valid objections to the use of markets. There are people who cheat and commit fraud, and there are problems with information and market power and externalities. Sometime consumers make mistakes.

(Excerpt) Read more at fee.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: behavior; decisions; irrationality; mistakes
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-22 next last

1 posted on 11/04/2015 12:13:44 PM PST by Twotone
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Twotone

Harry Truman said “Give me a one handed economist.”


2 posted on 11/04/2015 12:18:43 PM PST by JohnnyP
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Twotone

Nobody ever said the free market economy was perfect. It is just light years ahead of whatever comes in second, namely the command and control socialist economy run by nitwit government which has no clue what it is doing except stealing everyone’s wealth, and drives the country into grinding poverty.


3 posted on 11/04/2015 12:19:25 PM PST by Jim W N
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Twotone

Econo-missed.............


4 posted on 11/04/2015 12:19:40 PM PST by Red Badger (READ MY LIPS: NO MORE BUSHES!...............)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jim 0216

A free market works as long as everybody plays by the same rules..................


5 posted on 11/04/2015 12:20:26 PM PST by Red Badger (READ MY LIPS: NO MORE BUSHES!...............)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

All you need for the free market to work is one thing: ABSENCE OF GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE, as what America had in the 1800’s and what made America the envy of the world, the average American being better off than most in the rest of the world.


6 posted on 11/04/2015 1:19:50 PM PST by Jim W N
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Jim 0216

True. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! There isn’t a problem with the markets, it’s the problem of the fixers..........................


7 posted on 11/04/2015 1:24:23 PM PST by Red Badger (READ MY LIPS: NO MORE BUSHES!...............)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

The government “fixers” are the problem and will never be told otherwise. It is up to us to simply dismantle them against their will, like caging a wild beast.


8 posted on 11/04/2015 1:27:49 PM PST by Jim W N
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Twotone
I vote for the candidate who makes me feel good

No more need be said!

When you learn to vote for what works and set aside your notion of what feels good you may achieve a modicum of creditability.

9 posted on 11/04/2015 1:28:12 PM PST by MosesKnows (Love many, trust few, and always paddle your own canoe.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jim 0216

They aren’t ‘fixing’ a thing for the sake of the people. Their ‘fixes’ are like ‘fixing’ a race or boxing match. All for their own sake........................


10 posted on 11/04/2015 1:29:19 PM PST by Red Badger (READ MY LIPS: NO MORE BUSHES!...............)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

You omitted the liberal Democrat's creed; if it ain't broke, fix it until it is.

11 posted on 11/04/2015 1:37:26 PM PST by MosesKnows (Love many, trust few, and always paddle your own canoe.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: MosesKnows
if it ain't broke, fix it until it is.

Isn't that Jeb's new campaign theme?


12 posted on 11/04/2015 1:39:36 PM PST by Buckeye McFrog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

You seem to be one of the few who are clear about the difference between expressed intention, actual intention, and actual results of government programs.


13 posted on 11/04/2015 3:31:51 PM PST by Jim W N
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Jim 0216

In politics, nothing is ever as it seems. There are no coincidences..................


14 posted on 11/05/2015 6:20:49 AM PST by Red Badger (READ MY LIPS: NO MORE BUSHES!...............)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Buckeye McFrog

Jeb’s Campaign THEME SONG..............

DAVID BOWIE

“Changes”

I still don’t know what I was waiting for
And my time was running wild
A million dead-end streets
And every time I thought I’d got it made
It seemed the taste was not so sweet
So I turned myself to face me
But I’ve never caught a glimpse
Of how the others must see the faker
I’m much too fast to take that test

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
(Turn and face the strange)
Ch-ch-changes
Don’t want to be a richer man
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
(Turn and face the strange)
Ch-ch-changes
Just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can’t trace time

I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence and
So the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They’re quite aware of what they’re going through

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
(Turn and face the strange)
Ch-ch-changes
Don’t tell them to grow up and out of it
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
(Turn and face the strange)
Ch-ch-changes
Where’s your shame
You’ve left us up to our necks in it
Time may change me
But you can’t trace time

Strange fascination, fascinating me
Changes are taking the pace
I’m going through

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strange)
Ch-ch-changes
Oh, look out you rock ‘n rollers
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
(Turn and face the strange)
Ch-ch-changes
Pretty soon now you’re gonna get older
Time may change me
But I can’t trace time
I said that time may change me
But I can’t trace time


15 posted on 11/05/2015 6:23:27 AM PST by Red Badger (READ MY LIPS: NO MORE BUSHES!...............)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Another thing you probably know but many here don’t is that market volatility and change is not a bad thing - it is the birth pangs of innovation, breakthrough and eventually economic growth and greater wealth and success. Resources are realigned and some re-training may be required, but is is the path to true progress and economic growth and greater prosperity for the average person.

At the same time, the free market enables reliable pricing which is important information for reliance, predictability, and future planning. Government will never get any of this but then government was never created to get this stuff - only to stay out of the way.

Government tries to sell itself, and many believe it, as the “stabilizing factor” in a changeable and volatile market environment. But the facts tell us a much different story: government has mostly been a great destabilizing factor in the market economy creating unreliability and dampening innovation and economic/market stagnation. All of the command and control communist and socialist regimes past ans present testify to this. No matter, it seems. Many just want to rely on government regardless of fact or theory.

Our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to re-educate as many as possible with remedial free market economic theory which is freedom in action. As always, should we be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of our actions.

:)


16 posted on 11/05/2015 7:46:21 AM PST by Jim W N
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Jim 0216

Even in the Soviet Union, there was a thriving ‘Black Market’ economy that was ‘Underground Capitalism’ at work. You cannot subvert the Laws of Economics without repercussions. The Capitalists will always win......................


17 posted on 11/05/2015 8:40:25 AM PST by Red Badger (READ MY LIPS: NO MORE BUSHES!...............)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Good point.

Man was born with God-given self interest and all the slavish totalitarian states in the world cannot extinguish it, even when they mislabel self interest as “greed”. Greed BTW applies much more to government than to the free market but we’ll never catch the MSM saying that.


18 posted on 11/05/2015 8:45:46 AM PST by Jim W N
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Jim 0216

To the MSM, and liberals in general, ‘greed’ means you have something that they do not..................


19 posted on 11/05/2015 8:48:03 AM PST by Red Badger (READ MY LIPS: NO MORE BUSHES!...............)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Exactly. Envy. The whole basis for communism which, as Lenin said, is the goal of socialism.


20 posted on 11/05/2015 9:02:51 AM PST by Jim W N
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-22 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson