If you would like to laugh and learn at the same time, then there is no better way to learn about public choice than by reading Parliament of Whores. When your customers have no motivation to know anything about the quality or cost of the product you are selling, then you are almost surely a politician and there is no limit to the bamboozle you can get away with, as long as your serve it up with a steady barrage of sanctimonious nonsense. The resulting waste may be depressing, but the absurdities are hilarious when lampooned by a first-rate humorist such as P. J. O'Rourke. The chapter on Agriculture policy alone is worth the price of this book.
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Tuesday, January 22, 2008
O'Rourke's Parliament of Whores
Does any body know any economics department courses using Parliament of Whores to teach public economics.
Mine did. University of Waterloo. One particularly cynical real business cycle theorist taught me undergraduate macro and assigned it to everyone. Of course, the guy next door was the world authority on Marx. I can't imagine that department meetings were very fun.
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