John Lott is scary
He's on CSPAN2 right now, giving talk on his book Freedonomics.
What's scary about the guy is that he has no concept of the idea that human beings might be less than rational in the way they go about making life decisions. He really thinks everybody is hyper-rational. And, he's the chief economist for the US Sentencing Committee.
No wonder our prisons are overflowing.
Scary
Update: More on this here.
What's scary about the guy is that he has no concept of the idea that human beings might be less than rational in the way they go about making life decisions. He really thinks everybody is hyper-rational. And, he's the chief economist for the US Sentencing Committee.
No wonder our prisons are overflowing.
Scary
Update: More on this here.
Labels: nutcase economists, prison population
posted by Gary Carson at 8:38 AM
3 Comments:
First, thanks for watching the presentation of my book, Freedomnomics. Second, I definitely am not assuming that people are hyper rational in the way that you describe. All I say is that if something becomes more costly, people do less of it. If you get a greater return from doing something, you do more of it. I do not say how much they change their behavior, just that they do. If the price of apples go up, everything else equal, you buy fewer apples. If the cost of committing crime increases (higher arrest rates or conviction rates or longer prison terms), fewer crimes will be committed. What is hyper rational about that? What is "scary" about that? I am not saying that all criminals will change their behavior, but that on net there will be a reduction in the amount of crime.
Wow, THE John Lott leaves comments on your blog? I'd be impressed if I had heard of him.
It's weird, because I've been waiting for Fergie to leave a comment on my blog. Guess she's too busy singing "My Humps" to google herself.
Even cooler is knowing that Blonde Justice has time to google John Lott.
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