heh redux
2008-02-24 · Original WordPress address
Will Wilkinson goes all reductio on Henry Farrell. Henry says that people not donating money to the general fund isn't evidence that people don't like to give money to the government.
Apparently, collective action problems with the provision of public goods cause there to be collective action problems in areas that otherwise wouldn't have collective action problems. No wait. That can't be it. Oh, here it is: people can identify when something is unfair, but they can only act to remedy that unfairness when they've convinced every one else to do so. Shoot. That can't be it either.
Jeez, there must be some subtle argument that can muddy the issue enough to obfuscate the obvious message in the data.