Why Politicians Make Dumb Public Policy Decisions

I kind of wince whenever I hear the average politician talk about economics. Both sides of the aisle tell us how we have to keep jobs here, we have to produce here, trade is bad, oil companies are gouging us, and that the economy is doing terrible. Well Bryan Caplan, an economics professor at George Mason University, says that politicians are pandering to our irrational sides. If you take the average voter, you'll find that they don't disagree with much of what I said in the second sentence. Caplan says the average voter has four biases:

1.) An Anti-market bias: The average voter doesn't understand what supply and demand truly is, so they will support policies that interfere with the market.

2.) An Anti-foreign bias: The average voter believes that foreign trade hurts America, and will support tariffs and protectionism.

3.) A Make-work bias: The average voter believes that employment is more important than production.

4.) A Pessimistic bias: The average voter often believes the economy is doing worse than it really is.

The politician I've heard echo these biases the most is none other than Illinois' wonderful senator Dick Durbin. Not only does he support "price gouging legislation" (a practice that only exists in Democrats' minds), but he says that outsourcing is hurting American workers. The lack of any evidence of price gouging by oil companies and that whole low 4.6% unemployment rate thing don't shake Durbin from his stances at all.

Durbin exemplifies the stupid, pandering politician. He doesn't even attempt to understand the methodology behind outsourcing or gas prices. Instead, this liberal-populist curses them.

If you think these biases are limited to the left in this country, you'd be mistaken. I don't know what happened to conservatives in this country, but somehow they've gone from supporting small government and questioning the government's motives, to being flag waving super-patriots. All you hear them say is, "We should buy AMERICAN!" and "Immigrant workers are taking our jobs!"

Liberalism and conservatism are dead in this country, they've been replaced by different flavors of populism, and it's sad.

Here's a word of advice to anyone who disagrees with this; instead of getting mad at what I said, try to understand the economic principles behind the moves that those bloody evil corporations make. Instead of calling their decisions conspiracies, do the math. Instead of saying the economy is doing bad, look at the data out there. We may well be heading towards a recession, but it has nothing to do with trade, gas prices, outsourcing, or corporations. What I'm trying to say is don't rely on "common sense" so much. As Einstein said, "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."

For more on this subject, follow this link: http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9340166