Ulysses and the Knifemongers

If a sophisticated agent had access to an effective private self-control device, she would take advantage of it, reducing the value of a government intervention. However, we find it unlikely that fully effective self-control devices can be found in this context. Market-provided self-control mechanisms are probably undercut by the market mechanism itself: although firms have a financial incentive to provide self-control to agents, other firms have a financial incentive to break it down. For example, if a firm developed a self-control shot that causes pain when the consumer smokes, another firm has an incentive to develop a drug that relieves these effects for agents who temporarily want to get rid of their commitment. Other problems arise in contracting setups. If there are ex post gains to be made, the future self might want to renegotiate today's contract. But even if there are none,17 there is an ex post incentive to cheat on the contract: smoking is hard to verify in court. This leaves us with privately provided self-control mechanisms like betting with others or becoming involved in situations where it is very difficult to smoke, but these mechanisms are likely to run into enforcement problems similar to those discussed above.

Jonathan Gruber and Botond Köszegi, "Is Addiction 'Rational'? Theory and Evidence", Quarterly Journal of Economics 116,p. 1286

On Metaconfidence

Those who don’t know the past are doomed to over-trust experts.

Seth Roberts, "The Next Time a Top Economist Predicts Disaster…"

Obvious but Unfashionable

If you tax ice cream, people will be less obese, which is good, but they will also be enjoying less ice cream, which is bad.

Tim Harford, "The weighty problem of road and fat taxes"

Umso schlimmer für die Theorie

Einmal besichtigen wir Siedlungen für die Arbeiterschaft, Krankenhäuser, Schulhäuser etc. Der Herr vom Bauamt, das ich um die offizielle Gefälligkeit gebeten hatte, ein Adjunkt, der uns mit einem amtlichen Wagen an alle Ränder der Stadt fuhr, verstand die Fragen des Gastes nicht, erläuterte von Siedlung zu Siedlung dasselbe, während Brecht, anfänglich verwundert über soviel Komfort für die Arbeiterschaft, sich mehr und mehr belästigt fühlte durch eben diesen Komfort, der Grundfragen nicht zu lösen gedenkt; plötzlich, in einem properen Neubau, fand er sämtliche Zimmer zu klein, viel zu klein, menschenunwürdig, und in einer Küche wo nichts fehlte und alles glänzte, brach er ungeduldig die Besichtigungsfahrt ab, wollte mit der nächsten Bahn an die Arbeit, zornig, daß eine Arbeiterschaft auf diesen Schwindel hineinfällt; noch hoffte er, das sei nur in dieser Schweiz möglich, Sozialismus zu ersticken durch Komfort für alle.

Max Frisch, Tagebücher 1966-1971, S. 23-24 (Abschnitt "Erinnerungen an Brecht")

It Depends on whether You Were Born to

In Bruce Springsteen songs, you can either stay and rot, or you can escape and burn. That's OK; he's a songwriter, after all, and he needs simple choices like that in his songs. But nobody ever writes about how it is possible to escape and rot - how escapes can go off at half-cock, how you can leave the suburbs for the city but end up living a limp suburban life anyway.

Nick Hornby, High Fidelity, p. 136 (ch. 11)

Lizenz zum Töten

Um Böses zu tun, muß der Mensch es zuallererst als Gutes begreifen oder als bewußte gesetzmäßige Tat. So ist, zum Glück, die Natur des Menschen beschaffen, daß er für seine Handlungen eine Rechtfertigung suchen muß.

Macbeths Rechtfertigungen waren schwach - und es zernagte ihn sein Gewissen Und auch Jago ist ein Jagnjonjok - ein Lamm. Die Phantasie und Gesteskraft der shakespearischen Bösewichter machte an einem Dutzend von Leichen halt Denn es fehlte ihnen die Ideologie.

Alexander Solschenizyn, Der Archipel Gulag, S. 172 (Erster Teil, Kap. 4)

Irrational Rationality

When you think about cosmology, ancient Rome, the nature of world government, or starving folks in Africa, it might feel like those things matter to you. But in terms of the kinds of things that evolution could plausibly have built you to actually care about (vs. pretend to care about), those far things just can’t directly matter much to your life. While your beliefs about far things might influence how you act, and what other people think of you, their effects on your quality of life, via such channels of influence, don’t depend much on whether these beliefs are true.

Robin Hanson, "What Use Far Truth?"