I'm Sorry, Professor Caplan

...but I had to laugh at this line in response to how it must come across to the average guy on the street:

"But think about how fun and enlightening cartoons about price controls and public choice would have been!"


In fairness, I agree with him. I just think you'd better take some pretty good visuals with you when you go into the pitch meeting.

Make the World Easier to Understand

I think Bryan Caplan has a great idea here: Find intuitive explanations of complicated or technical concepts, so that more people can understand them. After all, you may enjoy feeling superior to your uneducated neighbors, but as voters they are setting policy for the community you live in.

Here's an example from the comments on Bryan's blog (my rephrasing):

Technical concept - Raising the minimum wage will increase unemployment for minimum wage earners.

Intuitive explanation - If I like bananas, but the government says that the grocery store has to charge $3 per banana, then I'm going to buy fewer bananas.Similarly, if I'm McDonald's and I want to hire cashiers, but the government says I have to pay them $20/hour, then I'm not going to hire as many cashiers (or open as many restaurants because they won't be as profitable).

I bet YOU can improve on this example.

Facing Fears

Brian Caplan discusses Exposure Therapy.

The exposure therapy approach to dealing with fears makes a lot of sense to me. As a matter of fact, I think people are wired to do this (to some extent) automatically. One example is dreaming repeatedly about a traumatic event. Another is obsession with a worry.

Effect of Children on Happiness

Interesting post by Brian Caplan. Seems much more intuitively correct than the other research he cites that suggests that children hurt overall happiness.