Rational Irrationality
12 May 2007
Editor, The Wall Street Journal
200 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10281
To the Editor:
My colleague Bryan Caplan clearly explains that economic ignorance is political manure: it fertilizes the growth of ugly policies that choke our freedoms and drain our prosperity ("Special-Interest Secret," May 12).
I here emphasize a point deserving more attention than Bryan could give it in his op-ed. People have harmful preferences about public policies largely because each voter gets to express his or her political opinion free of charge. Because no single vote will swing an election, the personal cost to each voter of voting stupidly is zero. In short, unlike in private markets, in the political arena it is rational for each of us to be irrational.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Editor, The Wall Street Journal
200 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10281
To the Editor:
My colleague Bryan Caplan clearly explains that economic ignorance is political manure: it fertilizes the growth of ugly policies that choke our freedoms and drain our prosperity ("Special-Interest Secret," May 12).
I here emphasize a point deserving more attention than Bryan could give it in his op-ed. People have harmful preferences about public policies largely because each voter gets to express his or her political opinion free of charge. Because no single vote will swing an election, the personal cost to each voter of voting stupidly is zero. In short, unlike in private markets, in the political arena it is rational for each of us to be irrational.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Friday January 4, 2008 at 2:13pm