Bryan Caplan joined me on the livestream today to discuss my recent article, “Economists Should Do More to Fight Misinformation.” We begin by splitting some hairs about whether the misinformation label misleads us about the ultimate origins of false beliefs, and also the difference between something being emotionally unappealing and intuitively incorrect. He ends up agreeing with me though on the major points of the article. We both encourage economists out there to take more pride in their work as intellectuals and fight false beliefs regardless of where on the ideological spectrum they come from.
We then go into his experiences traveling to the Gulf Arab states and Japan. Bryan’s article on the UAE as utopia has stuck with me since I read it almost a year ago as demonstrating how well humans could be living if we simply were able to move beyond commonly held beliefs about markets and nationhood. Arabs built something this amazing! All it took was them believing in freedom. Or maybe just being rational. Bryan mentions to me that when you talk to their government ministers off the record, they believe the story that they’re exploiting the workers, which I found very amusing. There can sometimes be an incredible divergence between intentions and consequences that most people find difficult to fathom.
I also bring up Laurenz Guenther’s recent article on immigration explaining the rise of populism and ask Bryan how he would address its findings in the context of his commitment to open borders. I bring up global demographic trends and ask if they frighten him, which leads to a discussion of South Africa. Somewhere in there we talk about the theories of Daron Acemoglu on why nations become rich or poor. Finally, the conversation closes with me asking Bryan for an update on what’s going on at GMU and his lonely struggle against attempts to make it woke.
Overall, a very stimulating conversation, as always with Bryan. I encourage everyone to follow him on X and subscribe to his Substack.
