[ExI] Medical Costs

[Lee Corbin]

BillK writes

> The problem with your interest in these mechanisms

e.g. economic mechanisms (as in supply/demand) or psychological
ones (e.g. incentives, resentment, etc.)

> is that people are just as irrational about money and economics
> as they are about everything else.

I wasn't talking about people being irrational.  Of course, if people
were *sufficiently* irrational, then naturally all the mechanisms I'm
going on about would be wrecked.  But they're not. The mechanisms
I've described above are pretty useful for understanding, don't you
think?

To be sure, economisists have over-estimated people's 
rationality. But we shouldn't over-react to that!

> A popular mechanism that moves a nation to do something is
> very likely to be irrational.

Yes---for example, national "anger" can cause one nation to 
invade another even when it's not in the best interest of the first
nation.

Lee

> The best solution for 'X' will be totally shunned if it is the wrong
> colour or someone heard a rumour that it causes cancer.