everyone is only checking against "can i describe this event as not pareto optimal?" which is one of the stupidest criterions out there and has been a real plague released by the econ departments - ThreadSky

atwilliams.bsky.social • 56 days ago

everyone is only checking against "can i describe this event as not pareto optimal?" which is one of the stupidest criterions out there and has been a real plague released by the econ departments

Reposted from jamelle

i think rage at congestion pricing is a good example of how no one believes that the world can be positive sum anymore. like, people pay a small fee to get access to a faster commute — saving them valuable time — and the money improves public transit, saving other people valuable time. it's win-win!

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ninaecon.bsky.social•56 days ago

I had multiple arguments with Sam Bowles about this when I took his game theory class way back when

steveroth.bsky.social•56 days ago

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ernieluckman.bsky.social•56 days ago

it feels like a real product of the antipolitics of the 90s. The only solution is the technocratic solution that can make everyone happy.

atwilliams.bsky.social•56 days ago

that, combined with demanding everything be pareto optimal being a clear example of "hard cases make bad law"

benalpers.bsky.social•56 days ago

Though, more directly, Pareto optimality was a product of late-19th-century proto-fascism.

atwilliams.bsky.social•56 days ago

Mind and Society a genuinely batshit book

michaelcue.bsky.social•56 days ago

Look how even average people reacted to the terrible thought of paying for CDs or DVDs. Like it was abnormal.

ersatzverite.bsky.social•56 days ago

Pareto optimality is irrelevant for almost every policy decision. 1st, bc if it is pareto optimal, there is no real political decision bc it is uncontested; and 2nd, bc many ppl perceive other ppl's utility going up by more than theirs as a harm -- so it almost doesn't exist in practice.

atwilliams.bsky.social•56 days ago

basically any positive sum stuff is not pareto optimal from a sufficiently narrow perspective

loquepasara.bsky.social•56 days ago

teach the controversy (marginal utility)

paulkelleher.net•56 days ago

not Pareto optimal, or not Pareto-improving?

atwilliams.bsky.social•56 days ago

if i learned anything studying economics it's "The Lausanne School has a lot to answer for, and probably never will"

esouthard.bsky.social•56 days ago

Me, every time an economist whines about the lack of a carbon tax

andyo.bsky.social•56 days ago

I've always disliked pareto optimality, since being taught it. It counts inconvenience to the wealthy the same same as hardships on the poor. So flawed.

atwilliams.bsky.social•56 days ago

it's a pretty precise statement of the worst burkean conservatism/chesterton's fence type reasoning combined with frank fukuyama's "Vetocracy" stuff. just a tar pit for thinking

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