Elite Economists

"I'm not going to put my lot in with economists," Hillary Clinton said when asked which economist thinks her proposal is sane. Then she declared that the "elite opinion" of specialists in their fields is somehow harmful to the "vast majority of Americans." This is scary. A presidential candidate, who dismisses educated advice in favor of wishful thinking is really going to make mess out of our country. Didn't we learn something in the last 8 years!? "Cakewalk", "they will greet us with flowers", "mission accomplished", "that's helluva job, Brownie". When will we understand that even the best of our wishes do not become true just because we want them? The laws of physics are immutable, and so are the laws of economy. The President does not have to know everything, but he -- or she -- has to listen to those who know about a particular area. And if those who spent years of their life figuring out economic results of our actions tell us that what we want to do will be at best wasteful and at worst disastrous, we ignore them at our own peril.

What's next? Dismissing the "elite opinion" of engineers that the paper bridge we want to build will collapse? Rejecting the "elite opinion" of doctors that shooting ourselves in the foot will hurt?

The egotism of Hillary Clinton thinking that she and her ignorance is better for the country than specialists and their education is truly staggering. It is scary. But not as scary as what happened in Indiana the day after her speech: she rose in the polls. Instead of tanking to the bottom, she actually rose. I guess the populace feels some resentment towards more educated and more knowledgeable people. After all, who likes them nerds. Especially in America, where, in the 21 century, belief in ESP (extrasensory perception) is more widespread than knowledge that electrons are smaller than atoms*.

What's next? Perhaps Ms. Clinton, as the president, will remake our health care system, replacing these elite physicians with witch doctors? Put the Chief Astrologer as the head of NASA? Get rid of the elite telecommunication engineers and tell people to use telepathy instead of telephones?

People! Wake up! Ms. Clinton is a disaster in making. Unless we stop her right now, we will be in a really big trouble.


* http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind06/c7/c7s2.htm