Comments on The Faith Heuristic: The Caplan-Hanson Debate

I take back my last comment. On closer reading, "...

2009-11-20T00:06:48.658-05:00

I take back my last comment. On closer reading, "they"="the Law and Economics crowd," not "Caplan and Hanson." Sorry.

"I learned in the debate that they would bite the ...

2009-11-19T16:39:29.284-05:00

"I learned in the debate that they would bite the bullet and accept slavery and genocide." "He," not "they." I attacked Robin for biting these bullets.

Let me confirm that diminishing marginal utility o...

2009-11-19T14:52:37.367-05:00

Let me confirm that diminishing marginal utility of income is a completely standard part of economics today. Whoever said otherwise is clearly way way out of touch.

After making the previous post, I noticed the "exc...

2009-11-09T12:29:41.072-05:00

After making the previous post, I noticed the "except in ... risk preference" comment. The exception, however, swallows the rule, since if you insist on making utility ordinal for all other purposes you then have two different utility functions to do the work that one can do.

"TGGP wrote"Diminishing marginal utility is in eco...

2009-11-09T12:27:34.208-05:00

"TGGP wrote"Diminishing marginal utility is in econ 101." Diminishing marginal utility may be in SOME econ 101 texts as a simplifying assumption, but it is explicitly eliminated from more advanced courses except in limited domains such as risk preference and it is particularly avoided in welfare economics. That was the whole point of the 1934 Hicks-Allen ordinal revolution."<

TGGP wrote"Diminishing marginal utility is in econ...

2009-11-08T15:35:42.953-05:00

TGGP wrote"Diminishing marginal utility is in econ 101." Diminishing marginal utility may be in SOME econ 101 texts as a simplifying assumption, but it is explicitly eliminated from more advanced courses except in limited domains such as risk preference and it is particularly avoided in welfare economics. That was the whole point of the 1934 Hicks-Allen ordinal revolution. It is hard

TGGP wrote "...I provided some economic evidence t...

2009-11-04T08:45:29.489-05:00

TGGP wrote "...I provided some economic evidence that the lot of freedmen did in fact improve after emancipation. Anecdotally, a letter from a former slave to his master makes the same point."

Unfortunately, it is more complicated than that. That only applied to slaves who were in a position to benefit from being freed, something which varied greatly with age and skills (in

For an example of a person today who defends slave...

2009-11-04T01:56:58.275-05:00

For an example of a person today who defends slavery I present Mencius Moldbug. In response (in a later thread) I provided some economic

2009-11-03T21:15:32.183-05:00

David wrote "slavery is inefficient--as shown by the fact that, after [presumably, US] abolition, plantation owners were unable to hire the ex-slaves for gang labor agriculture at any price they were willing to pay".

The former does not follow, because the latter is a mis-statement; it should read "...willing and able to pay", effective demand. But one

Diminishing marginal utility is in econ 101. The f...

2009-11-03T12:17:07.587-05:00

Diminishing marginal utility is in econ 101. The first ice-cream cone is great. After the sixth, you start to feel sick. Utility functions are revealed by actions, so if rich people have lower utility from the marginal dollar they will be willing to exchange them for the services provided by others with a higher marginal utility. That is what should happen in the world of Pareto optimality.

Hanson (the one Caplan is charging with accepting ...

2009-11-03T12:13:58.323-05:00

Hanson (the one Caplan is charging with accepting slavery and genocide) denies being a libertarian economist. The modern libertarian movement predates Coase's paper.

Caplan actually agrees with Delong's take on utility (at least I take that to be implicit):
http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2009/06/how_markets_val.html

It appears that David Friedman is accepting dimini...

2009-11-03T11:16:06.528-05:00

It appears that David Friedman is accepting diminishing marginal utility in his comment. That is consistent with criticizing the idea that, "that the economic definition of efficiency gives more weight to the utility of those with a low marginal utility of income" and the idea that rich people (like Gates or slave owners) have a lower marginal utility of income than poor people.

The point you attribute to De Long--that the econo...

2009-11-02T16:07:31.809-05:00

The point you attribute to De Long--that the economic definition of efficiency gives more weight to the utility of those with a low marginal utility of income--is hardly new. It's discussed, among other places, in the book of mine you cite in your post, as one of the problems with efficiency as a criterion.

On the subject of slavery, I don't think "least cost avoider"