[ExI] Belief in Market Efficiency

[Stathis Papaioannou]

2009/2/10 painlord2k at libero.it <painlord2k at libero.it>:

> The trick is to make believe the single persons that they will receive more
> from the public treasury than it is collected from them.

Peoples' bias is to underestimate their potential need for government
services and to prefer to look after their own money, so that for
example they can decide to opt out of paying for public health
insurance or public education if they so wish. I don't have any
references but I strongly suspect that a survey in most countries
would indicate that a majority of voters expect they will directly
receive less from the government in services than they pay in taxes.
But they support continuing taxation because in addition to direct
benefits they believe they will obtain the indirect benefits of living
in a well-functioning society. For example, a childless person might
support public education.


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou