Voters Love the Policies That Economists Love to Hate \ stacker news ~econ

Voters Love the Policies That Economists Love to Hate www.wsj.com/economy/trump-harris-policies-economists-vs-voters-176c1407?st=F3bFUh&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

794 sats \ 22 comments \ @SimpleStacker 21 Sep econ

view all related items

207 sats \ 18 replies \ @Bell_curve 21 Sep

Who are these economists that oppose tax cuts? 85 percent oppose making 2017 tax cuts permanent. Sounds like they oppose Trump more than his tax policies

151 sats \ 13 replies \ @SimpleStacker OP 21 Sep

I mean, most academic economists these days are democrats and default to believing that the government can solve most problems.

@Undisciplined and I have discussed this before, that the way Econ is taught biases the student towards government intervention because market failures and the corresponding “benevolent social planner” solutions are taught, but incentive problems within the government are usually ignored

68 sats \ 6 replies \ @Undisciplined 21 Sep

There's a deeper darker answer that I increasingly think plays a large roll. Oftentimes, academic economists are the only people who actually believe the regime's propaganda. They're clever enough to concoct fancy rationale's for policies that are obviously cynical to everyone else.

That role, giving intellectual cover to corrupt politicians, I believe is why our profession is so well funded by the state. There's no mystery in the lack of funding for free market economists.

54 sats \ 5 replies \ @SimpleStacker OP 21 Sep

They're clever enough to concoct fancy rationale's for policies that are obviously cynical to everyone else.

So true. And oftentimes, the more fanciful you get the more academic success you get since only “novel” results are publishable. I could bitch about our profession all day lol

37 sats \ 4 replies \ @Undisciplined 21 Sep

I could bitch about our profession all day lol

Me too, and yet I still think it's one of the better academic disciplines.

53 sats \ 3 replies \ @SimpleStacker OP 21 Sep

Agreed. Still the most honest and rigorous among the social sciences. Not sure how it compares to history though

34 sats \ 1 reply \ @Bell_curve 21 Sep

History departments are terrible and one sided

15 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 21 Sep

I think their issue is not operating out of a theoretical framework. They think that let's them be objective, but it actually leads to defaulting to whatever the prevailing propaganda version of events was.

reply on another page

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 21 Sep

I don't have a great feel for that, personally. However, I've certainly heard historians like Tom Woods and Thaddeus Russel bemoan the plight of their profession.

11 sats \ 5 replies \ @Bell_curve 21 Sep

Reminds me of the story about your daughter arguing against rent control and she couldn’t find any experts who oppose it

50 sats \ 4 replies \ @SimpleStacker OP 21 Sep

Not rent control, actually. Forgot if I misspoke. It was more so the concept of public housing that she couldn’t find much articles against.

Rent control is actually something even mainstream economists oppose

41 sats \ 2 replies \ @Undisciplined 21 Sep

Have you ever played the "Bomb Damage or Rent Control" game with your students?

It's pretty fun.

41 sats \ 1 reply \ @SimpleStacker OP 21 Sep

No. I don’t think I’ve heard of that but I think I know what it is lol

34 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 21 Sep

IIRC, it's something Walter Williams came up with. I tried it with an intro class and we had some dark fun with it.

13 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 21 Sep

Public housing has a terrible record since 1965

93 sats \ 3 replies \ @Bell_curve 21 Sep

There is a Rorschach test for every American on tax policy. Everyone views income in one of two ways: as belonging to the person who earned it, or as all belonging to the government, which allows the person who earned it to keep some of it.

https://news.yahoo.com/news/opinion-kamala-harris-raise-taxes-120000820.html

11 sats \ 2 replies \ @Bell_curve 21 Sep

I have a friend who views income as belonging to the government

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @SimpleStacker OP 21 Sep

That’s a major yikes from me

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 22 Sep

https://www.atr.org/irs-agents-endorse-kamala-harris/

215 sats \ 1 reply \ @zuspotirko 21 Sep

The average voters understanding of economics is basically this:

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker OP 21 Sep

lmao so true... i'm saving this image

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Golu 22 Sep

Economist only make the policies work in favour of the state. If people find something that's really for them, they love it.