tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824790768118172625.post7656416317290105257..comments2023-08-24T18:26:14.508-07:00Comments on Pragmatarianism: Reply to Paul KrugmanXerographicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14978832439622230018noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824790768118172625.post-88915887593990879142011-10-17T19:10:54.370-07:002011-10-17T19:10:54.370-07:00Inverse-square law...yeah, that makes sense. I re...Inverse-square law...yeah, that makes sense. I really struggle trying to effectively convey the coverage disparity between the invisible hand (millions of taxpayers) and congress. <br /><br />Here are two analogies. In the military they would often make us do "police calls". Basically we would line up in a row and walk forward to pick up any trash we encountered. One person walking in a straight line would miss a lot of litter but the more people you added the less likely it would be that any litter would be missed. <br /><br />The second analogy involves puzzle pieces. Each and every of our individual and unique opportunity cost decisions represents a piece of the puzzle. Planners do not have access to these puzzle pieces given that we are not forced to make opportunity cost decisions with our individual taxes. Therefore planners are plenty of puzzle pieces short of a perfect picture. The best possible use of our limited public resources can only be determined by allowing the invisible hand to assemble all our puzzle pieces together. <br /><br />People don't have to understand how the invisible hand works for it to work. But perhaps they need to understand how the invisible hand works if they are to understand the value of pragmatarianism. Hopefully others will be able to come up with some better analogies to convey the concept.Xerographicahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14978832439622230018noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824790768118172625.post-9218226986318358952011-10-16T21:11:11.887-07:002011-10-16T21:11:11.887-07:00... planners only have access to a microscopic per...<b> ... planners only have access to a microscopic percentage of the information available to society as a whole. </b><br /><br />Another consideration is the inverse-square law: the further you are from something, the less you know about it, by the square of the distance. <br /><br />(BTW I appreciate your nod to Herbert Spencer.)Michael E. Marottahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14402515044482988601noreply@blogger.com