Commentary

Sewing the seeds of its own destruction

The good news is that markets improve living standards. But as Peter Gordon points out:

The bad news is that as people get richer, they are more likely to be rationally ignorant — and more inclined to take up unexamined views, which are often the romantic tales and postures that [Dan] Klein writes about. We get the stock of Popular Unexamined Propositions (PUPs), many of them taught in our schools and universities. Fewer than ever believe that the Moon is made of blue cheese but most accept that the Great Depression forever indicted market economics and that the New Deal forever vindicated top-down economic planning for the democracies.

See also this example of ignorance.