November 27, 2008
Singapore Gives Thanks
November 27, 2008
Thanksgiving Thoughts
November 27, 2008
Emperor, Clothes, etc.
November 27, 2008
Letter of Law, Spirit of Law
November 26, 2008
Different Forms of Government
November 26, 2008
Roderick Long and the Tiny Gnomes from Neptune
November 26, 2008
When You're in a Hole, Keep Digging
November 26, 2008
Singapore's Policy Secret: Economic Literacy, Deference, or Resignation?
November 26, 2008
Notes on McArdle's Law
"For example, Dan Klein might propose legalizing the sale of organs. He'd quickly get 100 yeas; and I doubt that there'd be 20 economists with the gall to say no."
That wouldn't work Bryan: people who sign either yes or no are "self-selecting." For something as controversial as organ sale, I'd suspect that many economists would simply not sign. Therefore even if you get 80% majority, you wouldn't be able to claim "broad consensus" because it's not a random sample.
Am I missing something?
Or you could just offer to buy the gall bladders of the ones with the gall to say no.
Biomed Tim - so you set the min to 200. Or 500. I think you'd be surprised in the age of Freakonomics how many economists would be willing to sign.
Jeff - that's the funniest line of the day so far (although I'm on the west coast so don't spend the prize money yet).
On topic (sort of), I'll nitpick Bryan and point out that you're fine with 20 nays, it's 25 that push you down to 80%.
More seriously, what's the credential that gets you a vote? An economics Ph.D.? Does it have to be from a US institution? Accredited? What about my finance Ph.D.? You see where I'm going - for the group to appear valid you need both broad inclusion and strict exclusion. Tricky to pull off.