{"id":704,"date":"2003-01-31T13:35:50","date_gmt":"2003-01-31T21:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ogre.nu\/wp\/?p=704"},"modified":"2011-03-22T00:10:27","modified_gmt":"2011-03-22T08:10:27","slug":"economic-idiotarianism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/?p=704","title":{"rendered":"“economic idiotarianism”"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Tech Central Station, Arnold Kling on Economic Idiotarianism<\/a>, citing Steven Pinker citing A.P.Fiske<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n In a Communal Sharing transaction, such as a family dinner, every member of the relationship is entitled to share in what is available.<\/p>\n

In an Authority Ranking transaction, such as a decision made in a traditional corporation, there is a linear hierarchy, with people lower in the hierarchy deferring to those who are higher up.<\/p>\n

In an Equality Matching transaction, such as taking turns going through a four-way stop, people operate according to an intuitive sense of balance and fairness.<\/p>\n

In a Market Pricing transaction, such as buying a used car, people make decisions on the basis of calculating costs and benefits.<\/p>\n

Of course, it is the Market Pricing mode of interacting that is studied in economics. However, Market Pricing requires techniques and thought processes that have not always been available to mankind. . . .<\/p>\n

The idiotarian approach to debating economic policy is to frame an issue as a conflict between Authority Ranking (bad) and Communal Sharing (good).\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Like most great insights, it’s obvious in hindsight. And it makes me that teeny bit more likely to buy Pinker’s new book (having enjoyed The Language Instinct<\/i>, after Russell<\/a> prodded me to read it).<\/p>\n

2004 Oct 05:<\/strong> On re-reading, I think some of Kling’s examples overreach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Tech Central Station, Arnold Kling on Economic Idiotarianism, citing Steven Pinker citing A.P.Fiske: In a Communal Sharing transaction, such as a family dinner, every member of the relationship is entitled to share in what is available. In an Authority … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=704"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2880,"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704\/revisions\/2880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}