Wadda You Know?

A libertarian friend of a friend asked me two questions this morning and I thought they bear repeating:

1. Do you think people don't act in their best interests?  This was in response to my incredulous thoughts of people moving to Texas
2. Do I think I know better than other people?

Question 1 - hell yes, with extra emphasis.  People don't act in their best interests.  Why is this concept so hard?  People make stupid decisions all the time.

Question 2 - this is a trickier one, and strikes at the heart of why we have the forms of government we do.  There are certainly people I think I know better than.  See question 1.  People, present company included (and myself) make stupid decisions all the time that are harmful, incompetent or just likely to cause a problem.  One of the more competent people I know just spent the weekend beating themselves up for sending a poorly worded email on Friday that's going to have a lot of fallout today at work.  Would I have advised not to send it?  Hell yes.  Do 'people' think they're ok to drive when they're not?  Yes.  Do people make risk assessments that they're not qualified to.  All the time.

As somebody else pointed out to me, the problem actually is that Libertarians often think they know what is best for other people and that involves reducing the options for people - i.e. reducing their options for healthcare or support for the poor.

I'd just like some Libertarians to acknowledge that the idea that we're all rational actors is as nonsensical as the idea in communism that people will actually behave as equals and that you won't end up with an elite class.

It might be a shithole, but it's OUR shithole....

Most of the article is behind a paywall, but you can get the gist from what isn't. Self styled 'libertarian economist' Tyler Cowen extols the virtues of Texas this month in Time.

So, reading the article, the thrust of the article is this.  Texas is a bit of a shithole.  It has lousy weather, lousy crime stats, dreadful state services and growing inequality.

But it has low taxes and you're free to get on with your life and as the US is increasingly becoming a shithole (no doubt due to the policies of people he approves of) then Texas is showing the way on how to be a great low tax shithole.

This came to me in the same thread elsewhere where somebody was saying how great it was that Google are opening a phone factory in Fort Worth paying a massive $10.50 an hour.

Forgive me for wanting more out of life and expect more from the US.

Trying not to Dunning Kruger yourself

One of the things I've noticed about chatting to Libertarians is they generally think of themselves as Heinleinian 'competent persons'.  The problem here is our old friend the Dunning Kruger effect, which simply put showed that less than competent people tend to over estimate their abilities and that competent people are often more self aware of their limitations.

They like to quote the line that specialization is for insects.

The thing is, while it's possible to be good at things, there really are some limits on the things that any individual can be good at.  There are many things I'm pretty good at.   I'm an expert in sales, especially solution selling, less so in product sales - which has a lot to do with thousands and thousands of hours spent doing it and learning about it and watching people do it.  I'm a pretty decent cook too.  I'm reasonably practical when it comes to fixing things, although there I start to hit limits.  I do electrical work.  I don't do plumbing (interestingly, I know people who are the other way around).  I'll build things but I'm a lousy welder, really, I am - I also know enough about welding to know why I'm never going to bother to be a decent one.  I used to be a fairly good brewer.  I'm an ok poker player, although very out of practice... and so on and so forth.

I encourage people to learn how to do things, but please PLEASE stop deluding yourselves that you're good at everything you do.

No walk...

Weirdly the visiting niece walked the dogs so apart from nipping out to do some errands I've not walked today.  This is unusual for me.

I've mislaid my fitbit charger and basically without my blinking lights I can't be arsed.  Terrible, and symptomatic of the issues I've ranted about today.