fatvegan

Becker and Posner are completely bamboozled as to why college faculty staff still seem be more left-wing than everyone else. Why are college professors so opposed to capitalism, when it has been fully proved that capitalism is awesome and communism is lame?

They end up both concluding that intellectuals are opposed to capitalism because they don't get as much power and prestige in a capitalist system as a socialist system. That's why there has been this battle between capitalists and communists for all these decades. When you think about it, it's actually totally obvious.

There isn't very much sadder than an economist bumbling around, determined to find an economic solution to non-economic problem.

Update: On reflection it struck me that this isn't so much a problem of naivety as cynicism about humanity. So perhaps it's depressing more than it is sad. Particularly since we seem to systematically give power to those people who are most cynical about humans. Perhaps the cynical ones will get burnt less often, but I also think they're contributing to the creation of a society that rewards further cynicism. Ideas create as well as reflect reality - even the grumpy theories of grumpy, old economists.