Here is Daniel Mitchell’s opening to this post: “Incentives matter.” What’s amazing is how many people don’t understand that simple concept — and you know who I blame for that high number: conservatives.
Incentives matter.
Sometimes that can be explained with wonky discussions of marginal tax rates or welfare traps.
But that may not be the best approach when trying to convince someone with no aptitude for economics. So what’s the best way of introducing such concepts to, say, a Bernie Sanders supporter?
You can point to the economic chaos in places such as Greece and Venezuela and explain that Margaret Thatcher was right when she warned that socialists eventually run out of other people’s money.
But that’s probably not too effective because they’ll simply point to Sweden and Denmark and you’ll have a hard time educating them that those countries became successful when government was small and that they’ve been falling behind ever since big welfare states were imposed.
So perhaps we first need to help them understand very simple notions.
That’s why, when trying to introduce basic concepts, I’ll often share clever images and cartoons.
- The Wizard-of-Id parody about work incentives.
- The philoso-raptor contemplating supply-side economics.
- Lessons about double taxation and harvesting apples.
- Showing looters are the enemy, not rich people.
- The size of the pizza is more important than how it’s sliced.
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Image credit: Conservative Republican News.
