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This guy's a professor of economics at Harvard?! ...Actually that explains a lot.

• murbard2 11y ago
  Yeah, I was thinking that too... it is really well written, it makes compelling and nuanced arguments and it sets a nice thought framework for the debate. This is really an excellent piece, no wonder he's an econ professor at one of the most prestigious university in the world, that guy is brilliant.
  • qntty 11y ago
    haha I think they were implying the opposite
  • dbingham 11y ago
    Either you way over did the sarcasm or you and I are reading totally different articles. This thing is full of undefended assertions and logical holes. The thought experiment it opened with is so simplistic that it does little beyond revealing the author's bias and assumptions. Assumptions that are absurdly disconnected from reality (such as all voluntary transactions make both people's lives better).
    • murbard2 11y ago
      I genuinely think it's a great piece, no sarcasm intended (though I obviously playfully ignored the fact that the OP was implying the opposite) Experiments in general are meant to be simplistic. The goal is to remove as many confounding factors as possible to isolate a single phenomenon and study it. From there, he builds up to a more realistic model by incorporating more and more factors.