http://www.overcomingbias.com/2008/10/trust-us.html#more
"Few experts in our society could pull off saying:
'Emergency!!! We will suffer terribly if you don't spend a trillion
dollars right now overpaying for stuff from our friends! No, you don't have
time to study the problem, nor will we present an analysis for your review.
No, other experts in our field cannot actually see this problem, and there will
never be data showing the problem really existed. You just have to trust us
and give us the trillion right now!!'
US military experts said something similar on Iraq weapons of mass destruction,
but at least they admitted we'd eventually be able to see if they were wrong
(as they were). Medical experts implicitly say something similar about the
health value of the second half of medical spending that costs a trillion
dollars a year, even when our best data show little value, but this is a steady
problem not a sudden new problem. Global warming experts have been trying, so
far without much success, to get us to spend similar amounts on their problem,
even though other experts can supposedly verify it. "
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