The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. – F.A. Hayek
Posted in Behavior, Paternalism, You Can't Have it Both Ways on May 9th, 2012
Another idea that seems to engender bipartisan approval is the passing of legislation to stop addictive behaviors from destroying our lives. The idea here being that even rational decision-makers are incapable now, at the time of choosing to consume something like heroin, of understanding what its current consumption will do to our future selves. Now [...]
Posted in Central Planning, Paternalism, Taxation, Unintended Consequences on Apr 18th, 2012
I just finished reading a new NBER paper that talks about how subsidies for “green” products can be “welfare improving” if people have systematically biased beliefs or other misperceptions about how energy efficient their purchase of durables really is. Here is the paper. Here is the abstract: We show how the traditional logic of Pigouvian [...]
Posted in Government Gone Wild, Paternalism on Mar 20th, 2012
And then they came for the … salt, fat and fiber eaten by the … homeless. Richter has been collecting food from places like the Ohav Zedek synagogue and bringing it to homeless shelters for more than 20 years, but recently his donation, including a “cholent” or carrot stew, was turned away because the Bloomberg [...]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Government Gone Wild, Government Thuggery, Paternalism on Feb 17th, 2012
I just saw this via Alex Tabarrok: The Hill: Six House Democrats, led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), want to set up a “Reasonable Profits Board” to control gas profits. The Democrats, worried about higher gas prices, want to set up a board that would apply a “windfall profit tax” as high as 100 percent [...]
Posted in Paternalism, Regulation, incentives on Dec 6th, 2011
One of my favorite places in western NY happens to be right by my home – Mendon Ponds Park. I especially love to cross-country ski, snowshoe, and ice-skate there in the winter. In any case, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find places to sled in Monroe County anymore. This is rather startling since the [...]
Posted in Behavior, Paternalism, Taxation, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Nov 27th, 2011
Sort of an ironic title for the plan of Professor Frank, no? I call it the 6-6-6 plan — an across-the-board 6 percent national sales tax (on top of any existing state and local sales taxes) in effect from 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving to 6 a.m. on Black Friday. This plan would leave both stores [...]
Posted in Paternalism on Nov 17th, 2011
And then they came for the … soccer balls! I cannot make up the headline: We want our balls back! Our kids schoolyard has neither swings nor see-saws. My response? I pile up leaves real high and let me kids launch off of the roof of my car into the piles. What will they do [...]
Posted in Paternalism on Nov 5th, 2011
And then they came for someone else’s tobacco. Here is the last episode in the series.
Posted in Government Gone Wild, Paternalism, Regulation on Oct 20th, 2011
The ever readable Tom Palmer points me to a story that I have forgotten, incredibly: Frustrated that people continued to consume so much alcohol even after it was banned, federal officials had decided to try a different kind of enforcement. They ordered the poisoning of industrial alcohols manufactured in the United States, products regularly stolen [...]
Posted in Behavior, Paternalism, Welfare State, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Oct 19th, 2011
Has anyone who has ever written about this topic ever shopped in a grocery store for more than one person? I think I am going to randomly post our family meals up here for all to see, then tell me what you think about the meme, “the poor can only afford calorie dense, fatty, unhealthy, [...]
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