Modern Politics and Education Severely Limit Peoples Ability to Reason About Economics.

A common thread in most political discussions, especially the most visible, is a lack of honest and even analysis. This is so pervasive that I believe most people are conditioned to think that any acknowledgment of a cost or negative of their idea is unacceptable, even though if you asked them if there was a perfect idea or ideology, they’d obviously say no. Reddit in particular is bad for this, as many would rather delete their account or comment than admit a mistake.

Some recent examples of this can be seen in the latest US election, where Trump refused to explain the downside to American consumers that tariffs would have, and Kamala refused to address how giving 1st time homebuyers 10k wouldn’t just make home-sellers around the same amount richer, or about the well documented costs of price controls.

In Europe, the asserted claim that mass migration would be “good for the economy” was not just presented in an uneven way, much dissent was labeled criminal and speakers of it were “cancelled”.

It seems that nuanced discussion is impossible, because the opponent is expected to point out the negatives of policy, a move that will be flat out denied or criminalized by the proposer, leaving just the dissenter’s opinion. An opinion who half the country will immediately ignore based on who is saying it.

How this relates to AE is that almost all dissenter’s in this sub are unable to acknowledge the obvious, documented flaws of their slogans. “Tax the rich”, “End the greed”, “Give me free stuff”. This makes discussion impossible.

AE acknowledges that it has certain limitations, which is why we 1stly don’t purport to have grand answers about humanities problems, and 2ndly that we are grounded in logical debate on what should be done. There are no set AE policies.

On the other hand, Socialists, MMTers, and Keynesians all seem to be uninterested in the downsides of their own ideas.

Many people talk on this sub, yet for some reason reject the idea of logical analysis just because AE correctly points out that all models and formulas for economics are built off historical data, which is not reproducible or predictive, and that simulating an economy of human beings if far from our capability. There is no formula, just imperfect tools and gauges that can be manipulated to serve whoever’s purpose.

If you aren’t willing to think logically and debate, then stop offering your slogans and just read from your books or watch your messiah on youtube once in awhile to remember how the world really should be. I’m sure that will work out.