Víctimes del cervell

El fet que idees com aquesta o aquesta i que individus com aquest i aquest altre tinguin i hagin tingut durant tants anys l'èxit conegut i patit per tothom em sembla un dels enigmes més fascinants del comportament humà. És probable que arribar a comprendre'n les causes i poder combatre-les sigui un dels avenços més importants per eixamplar en totes les dimensions els horitzons de benestar de les generacions futures. Francament, no crec que sigui més important vèncer el càncer que trobar la vacuna cognitiva contra els biaixos que mantenen a mitja humanitat en la misèria i a l'altra mitja, la que es pot permetre dedicar una part del seu temps a la reflexió intel·lectual (si em permenten el groller abús semàntic), sota aquest recel gutural permanent vers l'economia de mercat. I si els sembla exagerat, visitin Seül i després Pyongyang.

El professor Pinker en parla al seu últim llibre:

"The logic of the market remains cognitively unnatural. People all over the world think that every object has an intrinic fair price (as opposed to being worth whatever people are willing to pay for it at the time), that middlemen are parasites (despite the service they render in gathering goods from distant places and making them conveniently available to buyers), and that charging interest is immoral (despite the fact that money is more valuable to people at some times than at others). These fallacies come naturally to an Exchange mindset in which distributions are fair only when equivalent quantities of stuff change hands. The mental model of face-to-face, tit-for-tat exchanges is ill-equipped to handle the abstruse apparatus of a market economy."

Steven Pinker, The Stuff of Thought.

Vendre fum

Ara que tothom renega dels banquers i els acusa d'haver-se passat anys venent fum, celebro que sorgeixi aquesta iniciativa. La idea és monitoritzar les prediccions de tot tipus que apareixen cada dia als mitjans de comunicació i veure quins intel·lectuals amb tribuna pública, periodistes i bloggers cèlebres es dediquen, essencialment, al mateix negoci que els odiats banquers.

Bona Mens

Deu ser per què encara hi ha estudiants que ho són més enllà del sentit purament administratiu de la paraula, és a dir, que estudien alguna cosa, que ha sorgit aquesta iniciativa, tan lloable com candidata a la irrellevància amb què es recompensa l'esforç intel·lectual a Catalunya.

Així ho explica un dels autors.

Oncle Murray

"The libertarian who wants to replace government by private enterprises in the above areas [educació, sanitat...] is thus treated in the same way as he would be if the government had, for various reasons, been supplying shoes as a tax-financed monopoly from time immemorial.. How would most of the public treat the libertarian who now came along to advocate that the government get out of the shoe business and throw it open to private enterprise? He would undoubtedly be treated as follows: people would cry, "How could you? You are opposed to the public, and to poor people, wearing shoes! And who would supply shoes to the public if the government got out of the business? Tell us that! Be constructive! It's easy to be negative and smart-alecky about government; but tell us who would supply shoes? Which people? How many shoe stores would be available in each city and town? How would the shoe firms be capitalized? How many brands would there be? What material would they use? What lasts? What would be the pricing arrangements for shoes? Wouldn't regulation of the shoe industry be needed to see to it that the product is sound? And who would supply the poor with shoes? Suppose a poor person didn't have the money to buy a pair?"

Murray Rothbard, For a New Liberty.