> I suspect austerity does work but has an inflection point. It can (theoretically) be used to cut outright government waste.
So that makes intuitive sense, but a lot of things in economics (and everything else complex) make intuitive sense but turn out to be completely wrong. The problem is that while we both "suspect" that this is true or close to true, all that really means is that our gut says it must be and we're smart enough to know about a mechanism like inflection points that can be used to rationalize it.
Or, since we have an intuitive hunch and we know about things like inflection points, we might go and investigate more carefully doing our best to find out how it works in the wild. Until then, I'll admit, it is much fun to "Gladwell" it over drinks, no?
More fun? Definitely, especially with someone who just used the phrase "to Gladwell it", which I love and really hope I remember to start using regularly to describe this kind of thing.
So that makes intuitive sense, but a lot of things in economics (and everything else complex) make intuitive sense but turn out to be completely wrong. The problem is that while we both "suspect" that this is true or close to true, all that really means is that our gut says it must be and we're smart enough to know about a mechanism like inflection points that can be used to rationalize it.