I have confessed many times on this blog that I just don't get economics, and I am now beginning to think nobody does. A current case in point that is driving me crazy is the new book, The Myth of the Rational Voter by Bryan Caplan, who the book jacket identifies as an Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University.
His thesis is that ignorant, sometimes willfully ignorant, and irrational citizens of the United States are not fit to run our democracy and that the control of policy should be left to elected representatives, but, even better, to free markets. He thinks that America would operate better if markets did their work freely.
To prove his point he relies on data from The Survey of Americans and Economists on the Economy, (SAEE). He devotes 20.5% of the pages in his book to reviewing how "Americans" and "Economists" differ in their opinions about taxes, the deficit, foreign aid, immigration, business tax breaks, job training, people on welfare, women and minorities, value of hard work, government regulation, personal savings, profits, executive pay, productivity, technology displacing workers, jobs going overseas, downsizing, investment in education, tax cuts, more women in the workplace, increased use of technology, trade agreements, gasoline prices, job creation, family incomes,wages, one or two full-time earners, are wages rising or falling, our children's standard of living, and more. In all cases, by my reckoning, he says that "Economists," who are highly educated are correct and "Americans" are ignorant and irrational. We the people, if we were in charge, would make a big, stinking mess of things.
He argues this in every chapter, and what I can't find in his book is what system of economics would be the right one. If "Economists," who are so highly educated, know what to do why the @#$% don't they tell us what it is. Instead all I have heard all of my life, and I am in my eighth decade, is a great noise of disagreement among the experts. Then we have those experts who say one thing and then say another. Remember David Stockman and Ronald Reagan's supply side economics. The current liar is Alan Greenspan. So save an old man from going nuts, please.
(1) What system of economics should America follow to handle properly the many issues that I just listed above from Professor Caplan's book? What is the name of it?
(2) How do we know when an "Economist" knows what he is talking about? How do we know when an "Economist" is lying?
(3) Have I been making a lifelong mistake by taking "Economists" seriously and regarded them as legitimate professionals who operate within an agreed set of principles and data?
Thank you for your attention.