It's a pretty common for anyone who is not at least a casual student of Economics to think a magic wand should be waved to make people prudent, kind, and just.

It's a pretty common for anyone who is not at least a casual student of Economics to think a magic wand should be waved to make people prudent, kind, and just. If I could offer Scott one Economics paper, it would be Hayek's "The Use of Knowledge in Society", found online here: http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/hykKnw1.html http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/hykKnw1.html I think it would help him appreciate the complexity of the coordination problem that is addressed by decentralized means in the market. The sad thing is, as simplistic as Scott's analysis is, it is probably much more sophisticated than the opinion of the average voter, who is ready to believe whatever an authority tells him.