the way that people and groups respond when they’re told that their plan is not working out as intended. Basically, there are three responses you can have:
- My plan was defective: I should change something.
- The world is defective: The plan is great, but we clearly need to do even more of this.
- The information is wrong, and my plan is actually working very well.
The first answer is rarely the one that people go to.
Pointer from Tyler Cowen.
This can be as true of people in business as it is of people in government. But in business, you face what Eamonn Butler calls in The Best Book on the Market the World of Truth. If you do not fix what is broken, you lose money and go out of business. In government, you just keep telling people that Obamacare won’t cost jobs.
Off topic, but I have posted a review of Mr. Kling’s macroeconomic book here: http://trotskyschildren.blogspot.com/2014/02/book-review-arnold-klings.html
and a kind review at that
Perhaps even worse than programs that never end is that it coddles magical thinking. E.g. voluntary disemoloyment is a good thing.
I see quite a bit of a variation on 2: The world is defective: The plan is great, but I lacked funding and authority. Due to my abject failure, you should give me more power, authority, and funding and the plan will work.