(I was originally going to add this reply to my own comment, but I think it works better here)
You say:
Climate change: It could be efficiently addressed with carbon taxes.
But many countries already have a carbon tax and what actually happens is that while their production based emissions go down, their consumption based emissions don’t go down nearly as much (because other countries manufacturing industries will become polluters for them). These countries still pollute a lot despite these taxes. What might alleviate this is tariffs on polluting goods, but economists are against tariffs. As wikipedia says:
There is near unanimous consensus among economists that tariffs have a negative effect on economic growth and economic welfare, while free trade and the reduction of trade barriers has a positive effect on economic growth.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
Taxes seem too little too late at this point, and I think much more radical actions should be considered.
You say:
Global health and wellbeing: If a country has problems caused by poverty, one great solution could be—make it more rich.
This won’t necessarily make wellbeing rise since the increase in riches might not be evenly distributed. If Kim Jong-Un makes a billion dollars tomorrow North Korea’s GDP will rise, but I don’t expect the wellbeing of the average North Korean to rise too. Orthodox economists tend to be very concerned with ‘growing the pie’, but less so with how that pie is distributed.
______
I think there are a few fields which actually have the potential to be harmful if you only learn a little bit about them. A little bit of behavioral economics might lead someone to dismiss other worldviews if they find evidence of bias in its adherence. A bit of metaphysics might leave you horribly confused/with the impression that metaphysics is itself confused as a field. And a little bit of psychiatry might make someone conclude too quickly that they have figured people out.
I think economics is also a field that has the potential to be harmful if you only learn a little bit (and I don’t think other social sciences like sociology and public health suffer from this).
Take for example GDP, if you only learn a little bit about economics you might not realize how many subjective/ideological judgement calls are made about what counts as contributing to GDP (should e.g finance be subtracted, ignored or added to GDP?). The fact that environmental impact is not important to GDP should already be seen as a red flag for the entire concept of measuring a countries wellbeing through the lens of GDP.
Or take supply and demand. The standard supply and demand model will tell you that having/increasing the minimum wage will increase unemployment. But if we look at actual empiricalevidenceitshows usthat it doesn’t. Learning the basics of economics might mislead people about which policies will actually help people.
Hey! I sent this to Martin (the econ PhD) since you’re replying mostly to his opinions, I just wanted to leave a quick comment saying that your comment was seen and appreciated (which I assume you prefer over waiting for when he’ll be available to reply)
Thanks! I’m aware that emission trading and carbon taxes could be higher and that this will help with production based emissions. All I’m saying is that without tariffs you give countries an incentive to become heavy polluters and free-ride on other countries climate efforts, all the while consumers import from said polluting countries because their products are cheaper.
Also, I think that a lot of market based solutions could have worked if we started immediately when climate change came to light, but given that companies successfully delayed action and we’re now already taking damage, it becomes much more prudent to consider non-tax based solutions. EA’s and orthodox economists tend to be dismissive of ideas like degrowth, but I think the case for degrowth is much stronger than it’s given credit for (although I don’t know whether Martin is against degrowth so I’m not going to make any arguments until he disagrees). I would also be interested in hearing Martin’s thoughts on economics isolationist tendency that I outlined in my other comment.
(I was originally going to add this reply to my own comment, but I think it works better here)
You say:
But many countries already have a carbon tax and what actually happens is that while their production based emissions go down, their consumption based emissions don’t go down nearly as much (because other countries manufacturing industries will become polluters for them). These countries still pollute a lot despite these taxes. What might alleviate this is tariffs on polluting goods, but economists are against tariffs. As wikipedia says:
Taxes seem too little too late at this point, and I think much more radical actions should be considered.
You say:
This won’t necessarily make wellbeing rise since the increase in riches might not be evenly distributed. If Kim Jong-Un makes a billion dollars tomorrow North Korea’s GDP will rise, but I don’t expect the wellbeing of the average North Korean to rise too. Orthodox economists tend to be very concerned with ‘growing the pie’, but less so with how that pie is distributed.
______
I think there are a few fields which actually have the potential to be harmful if you only learn a little bit about them. A little bit of behavioral economics might lead someone to dismiss other worldviews if they find evidence of bias in its adherence. A bit of metaphysics might leave you horribly confused/with the impression that metaphysics is itself confused as a field. And a little bit of psychiatry might make someone conclude too quickly that they have figured people out.
I think economics is also a field that has the potential to be harmful if you only learn a little bit (and I don’t think other social sciences like sociology and public health suffer from this).
Take for example GDP, if you only learn a little bit about economics you might not realize how many subjective/ideological judgement calls are made about what counts as contributing to GDP (should e.g finance be subtracted, ignored or added to GDP?). The fact that environmental impact is not important to GDP should already be seen as a red flag for the entire concept of measuring a countries wellbeing through the lens of GDP.
Or take supply and demand. The standard supply and demand model will tell you that having/increasing the minimum wage will increase unemployment. But if we look at actual empirical evidence it shows us that it doesn’t. Learning the basics of economics might mislead people about which policies will actually help people.
Hey! I sent this to Martin (the econ PhD) since you’re replying mostly to his opinions, I just wanted to leave a quick comment saying that your comment was seen and appreciated (which I assume you prefer over waiting for when he’ll be available to reply)
Thanks!
I’m aware that emission trading and carbon taxes could be higher and that this will help with production based emissions. All I’m saying is that without tariffs you give countries an incentive to become heavy polluters and free-ride on other countries climate efforts, all the while consumers import from said polluting countries because their products are cheaper.
Also, I think that a lot of market based solutions could have worked if we started immediately when climate change came to light, but given that companies successfully delayed action and we’re now already taking damage, it becomes much more prudent to consider non-tax based solutions. EA’s and orthodox economists tend to be dismissive of ideas like degrowth, but I think the case for degrowth is much stronger than it’s given credit for (although I don’t know whether Martin is against degrowth so I’m not going to make any arguments until he disagrees).
I would also be interested in hearing Martin’s thoughts on economics isolationist tendency that I outlined in my other comment.