[extropy-chat] POLITICS: 537 Economists Criticize Bush and Kerry

Hal Finney hal at finney.org
Fri Oct 15 04:11:10 UTC 2004


In recent political news, 537 economists have blasted the policies
of Bush and Kerry, for both raising and lowering taxes.  The helpful
economists, who include 8 Nobel laureates, also advised the candidates
to both increase and reduce government social programs.

See <http://www.openlettertothepresident.org/> and
<http://www.nationalreview.com/nrof_comment/release_bc04_economists.html>.

Well, of course this advice did not all come from the same people.  Some
of them criticized Kerry and some Bush.  Neither praised any candidates.
(Actually I didn't look to see whether anyone signed both letters.)

Consider that these people are among the greatest experts in the world on
economic topics, that they have devoted their entire professional lives,
countless hours of intensive study, and intensive intellectual scrutiny
and debate to these issues.  And yet they come to diametrially opposite
conclusions.

Given this reality, what hope have any of us in deciding what is the
truth here?  Should taxes be raised or lowered?  Entitlement programs
revised up or down?  If study and intelligence would lead to answers to
these questions, why do the people who have applied both, to the highest
degree possible, still have such sharp disagreements?

And yet, I'll bet many politically oriented readers, especially those
who have pledged their allegiance to an ideological system, believe
that they actually know the truth of the matter.  They think that they,
with their cursory and amateur levels of study, know these issues better
than hundreds of hardworking, brilliant experts.  Or perhaps, prompted by
ideological certainty, they will comfort themselves that those hundreds
of experts on the other side are evil, wicked liars.

I'm not sure what lesson to draw from this, other than to recognize that
the world is a more complicated place than we sometimes let ourselves
believe.  And perhaps, we should keep in mind that even those who disagree
with us may have just as good reasons for their beliefs as we do for ours.

Hal



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