I seem to be talking to myself on this issue, but here is a relevant quote from something I'm reading now:
" . . . [M]ost transportation policies are based on implicit assumptions about the degree to which various categories of users are paying their way (i.e., trucks vs. rail -- mbs). The relevant choice is thus not whether to estimate if users are paying their way but whether the estimates that guide policy will be implicit, based largely on intuition and hunches, or explicit and thus subject to review, refinement, and debate." On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 3:59 PM, Julio Huato <[email protected]> wrote: > Michael Perelman wrote: > >> David, the method is flawed. > > What do you mean by "the method," Michael? Do you mean a very > specific way in which a particular group of economists estimates costs > and benefits, or do you mean that, in general, every time humans try > to estimate the costs and benefits of their actions, they are > necessarily bound to reach flawed conclusions? > > If the latter, if flawed cost/benefit analysis is a corollary of > flawed humanity or flawed human cognition, then how are humans > supposed to economize their time in -- say -- a communist society? > Should they not try to reduce the consequences of their actions to a > common social substance (welfare or the other side of it, labor time) > and compare the pluses and the minuses? If not, then how are they > supposed to make their economic decisions? > > If the former, are you arguing then that the way a particular group of > economists does cost/benefit analysis is flawed, because they are not > taking into consideration total social costs and benefits, as only a > communist society would? If, so, aren't you then arguing implicitly > for a different form of cost/benefit analysis (communist cost/benefit > analysis)? > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
