Five Whacky Notions Believed By Many Economists
8th February 2016
Don Boudreaux, a Real Economist, looks at the bottom-feeders in his own field.
(5) the idea that government-subsidized health care will lower the cost of health care;
(4) the notion that government must have monopoly control over the money supply in order to ensure sound performance of the economy;
(3) the belief that large differences among people in monetary incomes or monetary wealth reflect some market failure that ought to be ‘addressed’ by the state;
(2) the blind faith that government officials in democratic societies can be trusted to exercise power over people who economists do not trust to make choices for themselves;
(1b) the notion that welfare payments (other than EITC) subsidize employers by pushing workers’ wages lower, and
(1a) the notion that the minimum wage is, or can practically be, a boon to all low-skilled workers.