Thaler, Taleb and the predictable unpredictability of Cameronian intellectual adherence
I am thinking about doing a post on the intellectual incoherence behind David Cameron’s apparent fascination with, on the one hand paternalist libertarian and ‘Nudge’ author Richard Thaler, and on the other the quite opposing views of human nature emphasized by Black Swan Down man Nassim Taleb.
Now, I’m here to please, and if people really want a post on this I’ll do one, but to be quite honest using Clifford Singer’s marvellous high-speed poster tool is so much easier. So, as a filler, here’s a lighthearted post I did on this stuff a while back, and here’s a poster.
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Categories: Book Reviews, Terrible Tories
I’m beginning to think Labour’s election campaign is going to be totally dominated by these posters.
And I’m glad.
Check out Tom Freeman‘s effort.
Ta for the plug, LO. Quite frankly, I think that interweb-generated poster spoofs are going to be the only thing that make the election campaign at all bearable…
Paul, if you really want to do a Cameron/Taleb/Thaler post, then I promise I’ll read it. While stroking my chin and muttering ‘intriguing’.
This is so very true. So yes, do a post, but try to squeeze in Red Tory Blond too.
At the moment all I can say is that the marriage tax thingy they have has Thaler’s fingerprints on it. So they’re a union of Nudgerite and social conservatism thinking for you.
How are Thaler and Taleb opposing in their conceptions of humanity?
@Barney Stannard:
Thaler believes that human beings are irrational, but a paternalistic state can “nudge” people into the “right direction.”
Taleb believes that human beings are irrational, but also believes that the humans that direct the state are equally (or more) irrational and as such incapable of defining a “right direction.”
Thank you. Makes sense. I wonder if you can subscribe to Taleb’s view of human irrationality without signing up to state irrationality as well?