Stubborn Economic Biases

Bryan Caplan posts an excellent article about four fundamental economic biases that most people have today:

• the anti-market bias
• the anti-foreign bias
• the make-work bias
• the pessimistic bias

"You can hardly teach economics without bumping into these biases. Students of economics are not blank slates for their teachers to write on. They arrive with strong prejudices. They underestimate the benefits of markets. They underestimate the benefits of dealing with foreigners. They underestimate the benefits of conserving labor. They underestimate the performance of the economy. And in doing all that underestimating, they overestimate both the need for the government to solve these purported problems and the likely efficacy of its solutions. "

It's actually rather frightening to see how much of the current presidential politicking appeals to these four biases.

Read the whole article. Recommended.