The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies - Bryan Caplan

Get a Copy Before It Disappears

Get a copy of this book and read it before it vanishes into thin air in January of 2009. If (or when, more like it) Obama wins, then suddendly all voters will be deemed rational. So we can't have a book with a title like this on the shelves during an Obama presidency.

Wonderfully thought provoking.

This book is wonderfully thought provoking and can be summed up with an exhortation that Caplan uses near the end: "Democracy is a commons, not a market."

Under this thesis Caplan shows how economics would predict 'irrational' voter behavior even under the rational actor theory. Voters are no more irrational when voting for bad policies than are people who decry global warming while still driving to work.

Caplan gets carried away with the rhetoric of his position occasionally, but his points have that delightful quality of seeming obvious once explained that economic writing aspires to. Well worth the read.

This is the worst use of paper and ink I've ever seen

Okay, all hyperbole aside, Dr. Caplan raises some excellent points, but everything he raises has been said before, critiqued before, and thoroughly proven and/pr dis proven over years of debate. It's almost as if he cut, copy, pasted Thomas Friedman's political economic rants and those have been debated ad-nauseum in most intellectual circles. The truth is, he has a somewhat different approach to the same ideas but in the end it just comes off as parroting, and ultimately the read is a waste of time.

This is Why I am Not a Libertarian

In many ways, libertarian ideas have been winning in America. Oh, you wouldn't know it from reading the leading lights of libertarian dogma. There's always someone out there trying to turn your community into a police state or destroy your hopes of prosperity. But for the most part, free-trade ideology has been winning.

And people aren't happy about it.

This has absolutely nothing to do with free-trade being a flawed, or at the very least questionable, economic policy. No, it's because voters are stupid.

Thus, the thinking patterns of libertarians are pretty much the same as those of liberals.

A. Your disagree with me.

B. Your disagreement isn't really a disagreement, but a symptom of your stupidity.

This book simply ignores the many RATIONAL arguments against unfettered immigration and unrestrained free-trade. Gas prices, for example, are skyrocketing due to increased demand from China. Why is there more demand in China? Because we are buying so many of their exports, they are getting wealthier and more capable of energy consumption.

So gas prices are going through the roof.

Is this an "irrational" concern?

Hardly.

The argument may or may not be flawed, but it isn't irrational.

Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand government and politics

The conclusion:
1. Accept that a fair democracy will still make bad mistakes
2. Improve public education, especially when it comes to teaching economics
3. Teach your friends, family, acquaintances how the economy works