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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
This article appears in Dec 18-24, 2014.
