In addition to the Gwen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner book, I need to read the new Nick Gillespie/Matt Welch book (when it comes out) and also Adapt by Tim Harford. Short interview with Harford by Cory Doctorow. Longer interview with Harford by Russ Roberts.
Bryan talks about Adapt and the lack of incentives for politicians to undertake policies based on rigorous experiments. Robin Hanson brings it back to the issue of status. Leaders who admit they are fallible lose status. I remember that George Romney’s political career collapsed when he said he said that his early views on Vietnam were wrong. Perhaps that is why Mitt Romney does not want to admit that he made any sort of mistake with health care policy in Massachusetts.
Anyway, those are the books I should get to at some point. Meanwhile, I am still plowing through Fukuyama.
READER COMMENTS
mike shupp
Jun 1 2011 at 3:31am
Romney’s problem wasn’t that he changed his mind about about Viet Nam — he could always have explained that the passage of time or more information received had revealed that his original assumptions were no longer valid. But instead, he attributed his earlier views to his being “brainwashed” by Lyndon Johnson — and afteer that mocking was incessant. Whereever Romney went, the cries of “brainwashing” followed …. until he finally gave up.
Comments are closed.