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When it comes to economics, I don't believe in hard limits. Policies should not be brittle numeric rules ($15 minimum wage, $800 maximum rent, 1 child policy).
by sooheon 5y ago
When it comes to economics, I don't believe in hard limits. Policies should not be brittle numeric rules ($15 minimum wage, $800 maximum rent, 1 child policy). Think gradients that affect incentives at every point in the map, not hard step functions with wide open loopholes.
Plato's ideas seem well intentioned but somewhat ignorant of higher order economic effects of such "1 child policy" like rules. Much better to have a tax policy that's well aligned with the incentives we want to promote, and let the market figure the rest out.
- nickthemagicman 5y agoI've always wondered why taxes were percentage based but many govt benefits were hard numbers. It seems like a clever govt trick. Allow the outgo to be reduced by inflation but allow the income to adjust to accommodate inflation.
- bostik 5y agoPlato's ideas were also rooted in the times he lived in. He lived in ancient Greece, in the city-state of Athens - the birth place of democracy. And the word "citizen" does a lot of heavy lifting... At the time, roughly 3% of the population were citizens. You had to be landed, wealthy and/or politically influental to qualify. Incidentally, only citizens had a vote. The other 97% were riff-raff, poor, slaves or otherwise unsuitable to be allowed to have a voice in the nation's decisions. Hence their opinion didn't matter.