Noah Smith is a smart young PhD who has learned to think like an economist and he also thinks about important topics. He does a couple of thought experiments in this article and concludes that libertarians and conservatives have something in common with liberals. They both believe that society ought to provide rewards to those who work hard. Conservatives believe that those who work hard will get rewarded. Liberals believe that hard work is not as rewarded as it once was and that is why income mobility has declined in America.
It is pretty clear from the comments that follow his post that his thought experiments over simplified the problem of income mobility. On the other hand, his post encouraged others to address variables that he had not considered. That represents much of what happens in economics. He learned something about the identity of values between conservatives and liberals about hard work by building a simple model. He also encouraged others to explore the problem of income mobility more deeply. There must be a pony in there for someone to discover.
No comments:
Post a Comment