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25 sats \ 8 replies \ @SimpleStacker OP 14 Jan \ parent \ on: The Pleb Economist #2: Politics is Provably Hard econ
Yeah, i think modern macro, more than any other discipline, tends to reject anything that it can't conveniently render mathematically
Arrow's impossibility Theorem is an example of good use of math in economics, imo, since it's so general in its setup. I guess one thing it lacks is monetary transfers (hence VCG), and repeated interactions.
I haven't read anything about integrating repeated interactions into the analysis. I suppose that allows for relaxing the dictator requirement to something like "the same person doesn't always get to decide".
Do you recall the minor scandal a few years ago surrounding people trying to sell their votes online? I'm guessing economists were the only people thinking "Yeah, why not?"
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I've always wondered whether it would be cheaper to buy a vote directly than through the various lobbying and outreach efforts. I'm not sure how much I'd ask for my vote.
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Most importantly, the money would go directly to normal people, rather than clogging up every information medium with political ads.
One system I've thought about is one where voters pledge different amounts of money in the event that each candidate wins. Then, the winner is who has the most pledged from voters. What I love about that idea is that it sucks the political rents, right out of the system.
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I think the VCG works something like this. The winners pay the difference between their bids and the runner ups' bids. I think Bitcoin would make such systems more practical to implement, since the monetary commitments can be secured and verified by code.
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Have you ever tried talking to a normal person about these ideas?
In my experience, they are not well-received (to say the least).
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I'm pretty selective on who I share my "econ" thoughts with. If they seem pretty open minded and enjoy thinking of unorthodox ideas, then I like talking about it. But otherwise, yeah, most people don't seem to have the patience for it.
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I've noticed that any rational discussion of voting triggers a pretty quick emotional reaction from normal people.
I think Jonathan Haidt would link it to a sense of Sanctity.
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Yes, agreed. I do think economists put too little stock into ideas like sanctity and repugnance. I mean, the utility function is implicitly a consequentialist approach to ethics. What if people care as much about process as outcomes?