On Tue, 6 May 2008, Doug Henwood wrote:
> More Bartels:
>
> "Homer [Simpson] Gets a Tax Cut"
> <http://www.princeton.edu/~bartels/homer.pdf>
>
> The results of my analysis suggest that most Americans support tax
> cuts not because they are indifferent to economic inequality, but
> because they largely fail to connect inequality and public policy.
This is a good article. But this is not about people using feelings instead of logic. This is about people having math and economics anxiety, and that rendering them susceptible to Big Lie techniques. That is a very important limit on self rule, and one that touches on your personal mission in life directly: how is it possible to teach the majority of people economics in a way they can understand? Since so many of the things they'll be asked to vote on turn on it.
That I don't know the answer to. But it's a different question than irrationality. This is a matter of distorted information, inadequate education and misplaced intellectual authority. And of the trivialization of public discourse. British budget discussions always seem like a model of clarity compared to what we have here. Each group seems to know all too clearly what it's losing or gaining, and what the trade-offs are its being ask to make. Even though I doubt they're better at math as a country than we are. I think it has something to do with the partisan model of journalism vs. our "objective" one wherein, ironically, no one knows in whom to place implicit trust.
Michael