the people who espouse economic equality are unaware of the outcomes of their actions. the whole point of being an economist is to draw people's attention to t

the people who espouse economic equality are unaware of the outcomes of their actions. the whole point of being an economist is to draw people's attention to the non-obvious impact of various decisions about resource allocation. the average person: A causes B! we want more of B so let's increase A! economist: A and B are both side effects of C, pumping resources into A will not produce the desired effect. I agree that economists should avoid making value judgments as much as possible so that people will listen to them. Robin Hanson recently debated Brian Caplan on exactly this point and made a very convincing case that economists should focus on the efficiency of outcomes.