The invaluable Diane Coyle at The Enlightened Economist recently brought to our attention The Diminishing Returns of the Information Age by Mark Roeder, an essay gathered in a collection about the future of the world economy titled What’s Next? and edited by David Hale and Lyric Hughes Hale.
In it, Roeder notes that at a time when there was more information available than ever about finances, people in general failed to notice the massive housing bubble that burst so disastrously in 2008 -- including the many people in this country who continued to buy unaffordable houses using sub-prime mortgages even after it had become very clear in 2007 that property values were not rising.
Roeder attributes part of this to what he called an online oligarchy of large news providers eager to attract eyeballs by spoon-feeding people what they want. But of course it is the readers, who bring that charming blend of gullibility and avarice – for profit, for thrills, for novelty – to their reading of the news.
Oh yes, and self-centeredness. A recent survey by the reliable Kaiser Family Foundation examined shifts in pubic opinon about Obamacare’s individual mandate. Only 35 percent of the sample surveyed approve of it. The mandate is essential to avoid adverse selection – that is, young, healthy people opting out of getting insured and making costs unaffordable for those purchasing insurance under the program. In short, it only applies to those who don’t already have insurance; when people are told that the mandate doesn’t affect Americans who already have coverage through an employer, support for the requirement jumps to 62 percent.
