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It's not much of a secret when even in high school economics class I was taught about different substitution methods (Paasche, Laspeyres[1]) with various drawba

by em500 4y ago

It's not much of a secret when even in high school economics class I was taught about different substitution methods (Paasche, Laspeyres[1]) with various drawbacks. It's done because factually consumers buy different and producers produce different things over the years, and it's hard to impossible to observe/measure which substitutions are by necessity and which by preference. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_index#Paasche_and_Laspeyres_price_indices https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_index#Paasche_and_Laspey...

Grimburger 4y ago
The average person in society doesn't have the knowledge of a high school economics student though. Even those that learnt eventually forget it. There's always an implicit older == smarter bias in society but I doubt many people who passed with good grades in high school economics are good at the basic concepts into their 30's. Not to mention the MMT experiments that have been undertaken in the west over the last few years. I'm not even sure MMT proponents understand the consequences of such things. There's been a lot of resource misallocation that no one seems able to take responsibility for. GDP, inflation, interest rates, etc are oft considered the main KPI's for politicians by the people who vote for them. It's a dismal science even for those well versed in its ways.
- em500 4y ago
  I mostly agree (except for the weird MMT stuff). OTOH, I believe governments and schools at least in my country have made a good faith effort to try to educate kids widely about these matters. But most kids and adults alike probably find textbook economics and statistics as appealing as unsweetened oatmeal, and strongly prefer to consume sensationalized headlines and conspiracy theories. There's some tension between free choice and paternalistically nudging/forcing the population towards healthier stuff, that I wouldn't know how to resolve.

by em500 4y ago

Grimburger 4y ago

The average person in society doesn't have the knowledge of a high school economics student though. Even those that learnt eventually forget it. There's always an implicit older == smarter bias in society but I doubt many people who passed with good grades in high school economics are good at the basic concepts into their 30's. Not to mention the MMT experiments that have been undertaken in the west over the last few years. I'm not even sure MMT proponents understand the consequences of such things. There's been a lot of resource misallocation that no one seems able to take responsibility for. GDP, inflation, interest rates, etc are oft considered the main KPI's for politicians by the people who vote for them. It's a dismal science even for those well versed in its ways.

em500 4y ago
I mostly agree (except for the weird MMT stuff). OTOH, I believe governments and schools at least in my country have made a good faith effort to try to educate kids widely about these matters. But most kids and adults alike probably find textbook economics and statistics as appealing as unsweetened oatmeal, and strongly prefer to consume sensationalized headlines and conspiracy theories. There's some tension between free choice and paternalistically nudging/forcing the population towards healthier stuff, that I wouldn't know how to resolve.