Russ Roberts at Cafe Hayek discusses the possibility that we get the economics we demand.

I suggested that we get the economics we deserve, the economics that most everyday people want to hear. I’ve often wondered why my viewpoint (or Don’s or Pete’s or Adam Smith’s or Milton Friedman’s) has such limited traction in the marketplace for ideas. We have to concede that we are not the market leaders. Interventionism, market failure, Keynesianism–they are all doing ‘better’ in the marketplace in that they dominate the best universities and much of political discourse.

There is quite a bit to that. It is also part of an ethos that says we can fix this problem so solutions that make you believe you are actually doing something useful and positive have a value. It is the action itself that is valued, not the result.

And while within the economy itself, there is an error adjustment mechanism that weeds out the unproductive and unprofitable, with ideas there is the reverse in action, where demand (for certain ideas) creates its own supply (of these ideas). The will to believe invades our texts. Eventually, maybe, reality takes command but there is no reason to think it is any kind of certainty. People die for the most metaphysical of ideas. That they won’t cling to their economic theories even though they don’t work requires an ability to change not just what we think but who we are.