smells like chicken...
Jeff Willhelm/The Charlotte Observer/AP
posted by Eric Schansberg @ 8:09 PM
4 Comments
SchansBlog
Thanks for coming! I plan to post a lot of interesting articles and comment on a wide range of things-- from political to religious, from private to public, from formal writing on public policy to snippets on random observations.
Monday, August 9, 2010
About Me
- Name: Eric Schansberg
- Location: Jeffersonville, Indiana, United States
First and foremost, I am saved by God's grace as manifested most clearly through the atoning death of Jesus Christ-- and thus, adopted into His family. As a result, I increasingly seek to extend His grace to others in my daily life. On the home front, I am a husband and father to four young men (two by adoption and two the more conventional way). Professionally, I am an economist who loves to teach and is active in public policy circles. Vocationally, I am an active writer and the author of three books (one on the book of Joshua; two on public policy-- one secular, one Christian). Finally, I am the co-author of a 21-month discipleship curriculum, Thoroughly Equipped (and a lighter 36-week version), for developing competent lay-leaders in the Church. Related to that work, Kurt and I have two books, Enough Horses in the Barn and Roll Up Your Sleeves.
Previous Posts
- Walker on Chafets on Limbaugh
- Apple's "freedom from porn"
- three (legal) problems with ObamaCare
- taxpayer dollars for solar panels
- a "truce" on abortion?
- Louisville's MegaCavern
- Post Office spiraling to its death
- "Abba, Father" and adoption
- freedom of worship vs. freedom of religion??
- Christians vs. sex trafficking
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4 Comments:
In the future, freedom from advertising will be considered to be a fundamental human right. (I'm not entirely serious. But I wish …)
In a world of imperfect information, advertising is helpful in providing info, but can be unhelpful in providing (highly) distorted info.
There was an interesting study, years ago, about vegetable prices being higher during newspaper strikes.
You are right that advertising can be unhelpful by being dishonest. But there's an interesting irony here, pointed out by Oreskes and Conway in their book Merchants of Doubt: the free market depends on its participants having good information, but misleading public relations campaigns interfere with that. This problem is serious in public policy debates, because some players do indeed lie. One familiar example is the extraordinary and well-documented efforts by the tobacco companies to confuse the public on the link between smoking and diseases such as lung cancer—when internal tobacco documents make clear that the companies themselves knew the links were real. A more recent example is the claim, repeated through libertarian and pro-business websites, that DDT is harmless but its ban killed millions of people. (The truth is highly different: DDT had already lost most of its effectiveness by the time it was banned, and it was not banned overseas where malaria remained a problem. This is detailed in Merchants of Doubt.)
Imperfect information is a key characteristic in all facets of life, including both economic markets and political-economic markets. To the extent that people are not moral/honest, then they will take advantage of info asymmetries, market power, and esp. the power of govt to enrich themselves at the expense of others.
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