Imagine a random person is to be chosen, and you get two choices:
1) Let that person have one "wish" (where standard restrictions
apply, e.g., no wishing for more wishes).
2) Not let that person have the wish.
If you grant the wish you can see the person who gets it and what
they do with it, but you can't prove to them that it was you who
granted them the wish.
I posed this choice to my class this morning, along with two
variations:
B) Give them a million dollars in real resources, such as telling
them where to find an oil field others would never find.
C) Give them ten trillion dollars in real resources
D) Give them a dime in real resources.
Here are the results:
Give Not Give No Answer
Wish 3 7 10
1M$ 15 2 3
10T$ 1 16 3
Dime 20 0 0
Of six adults I've asked, half economists, none would grant
the wish, while my two young sons would grant the wish.
I'm struck by how distrusting or envious adults are of others.
Many have articulated that they fear the person with a wish or
10T$ would use it to gain power over them.
Robin Hanson [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://hanson.gmu.edu
Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
