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> I've learned that there's a strong correlation between knowledge and humility. People who spend 10 minutes on Google studying monetary policy think they have
by j2kun 12y ago
> I've learned that there's a strong correlation between knowledge and humility. People who spend 10 minutes on Google studying monetary policy think they have it all figured out, while people with Ph.D.s and decades of experience throw up their hands in frustration. The more you study economics, the more you realize how little we know about it.
This is the problem with Congress making decisions about science, the internet, and the economy.
- autokad 12y agowhat decisions about science would you be referring to?
- maaku 12y agoclimate change?
- pcrh 12y agoA lot of legislation cannot be approach scientifically, e.g. the right taxes rates, etc. Other legislation can be very scientific, e.g. is marijuana dangerous?
- im3w1l 12y agoWe may not be able to decide the right tax rate scientifically. But what we can do is determine very accurately the consequences of the choice. If we increase the tax rate x%, innovation will suffer y% but n less people will have to starve in the streets.
- jessaustin 12y agoEven this is grossly overestimating the powers of current economic analysis. Many economists will give you this sort of ridiculous precision in advance, but in retrospect all they'll say is "we can't run a controlled experiment so you have to believe me that if we had done more of what I recommended, the results I promised would have occurred."
- im3w1l 12y agoFair enough. I should have said "what we could theorethically do" rather than "what we can do".
- jessaustin 12y agoOther legislation can be very scientific, e.g. is marijuana dangerous? Yet somehow, for this question, the science upon which legislators have relied has been completely wrong for many decades.
- Thriptic 12y agoFunding, regulations, educational policy etc
- tokenadult 12y agoWho would you expect to do better than Congress in making those decisions, and through what process would they jointly make those decisions? (I'm genuinely curious, because I can think of three or four different ways to go in policy-making to respond to your concerns, but I think I'll understand your point better if I thoughtfully read your suggestion about different approaches to making decisions about those issues.)
- larrys 12y agoI like the question you are posing. Parent comment is interesting given this regarding the internet: (per wikipedia) "In 1992, the U.S. Congress passed the Scientific and Advanced-Technology Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1862(g), which allowed NSF to support access by the research and education communities to computer networks which were not used exclusively for research and education purposes, thus permitting NSFNET to interconnect with commercial networks.[47][48] This caused controversy within the research and education community, who were concerned commercial use of the network might lead to an Internet that was less responsive to their needs, and within the community of commercial network providers, who felt that government subsidies were giving an unfair advantage to some organizations" Obviously Congress doesn't always get it right. Edit: This was a case where they did, right? But a blanket "that's the problem" make no sense either. I'm reminded of this every time I see a "man on the street" interview talk about the issue of the day in which is their opinion seems to be formed from something they overhead from someone in the coffee shop or something they read in the local paper. Because for sure we just want those people using their great data source to form policy. I mean why don't we just vote on each and every issue out there. Because ordinary people are definitely qualified to digest and come to the right conclusion. (Or better yet hey just crowdsource or wisdom of the crowds because it's the answer to everything).
- j2kun 12y agoDelegate to institutions populated with experts and actually listen to the advice of those experts.
- AndrewKemendo 12y agoDo you mean that congress and the executive branch should delegate? If so they largely do in the form of think tanks, policy centers and research groups like RAND. I know that there are a lot of big decisions that came from those organizations, one of the best examples of this is Team B [1] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_B http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_B
- aristus 12y ago"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt." Bertrand Russell
- jessaustin 12y agoIt really calls into question the input of the various "experts" who plague our public discourse.
- snowwrestler 12y agoThis would be true if Congress didn't listen to the various experts on any given subject, but they do. They are drowning in expert opinions.