A General Theory of Obamacare Fiction
Paul Krugman, NYT, February 26, 2014, 4:28 pm
Conservatives appear to be really upset that liberals are actually taking on the facts in the anti-Obamacare ads they’ve been running. How dare you question whether the people in these ads are giving an accurate picture — they’re suffering!
OK, we’ve seen this kind of play before. Remember how anyone suggesting that Dick Cheney and whatshisname misled us into invading Iraq was attacking American’s brave fighting men and women?
But there’s a different kind of struggle anyone trying to point out the facts encounters — a barrage of anecdotes. You say that the Obamacare horror stories are fake, but I kind of know this man who is being told that he has to buy a policy he can’t possibly afford / I read this sad story in the Wall Street Journal / I heard this tale on the radio / etc..How do you answer that?
Well, it can’t be done retail. If the Koch brothers are pouring money into ads featuring a person, or the GOP response to the SOTU tells a story, then it’s worth trying to track down the particulars of this case. But to deal with the broader problem of anecdotes, what you need is a framework that tells you which anecdotes are almost surely wrong.
(More here.)
Conservatives appear to be really upset that liberals are actually taking on the facts in the anti-Obamacare ads they’ve been running. How dare you question whether the people in these ads are giving an accurate picture — they’re suffering!
OK, we’ve seen this kind of play before. Remember how anyone suggesting that Dick Cheney and whatshisname misled us into invading Iraq was attacking American’s brave fighting men and women?
But there’s a different kind of struggle anyone trying to point out the facts encounters — a barrage of anecdotes. You say that the Obamacare horror stories are fake, but I kind of know this man who is being told that he has to buy a policy he can’t possibly afford / I read this sad story in the Wall Street Journal / I heard this tale on the radio / etc..How do you answer that?
Well, it can’t be done retail. If the Koch brothers are pouring money into ads featuring a person, or the GOP response to the SOTU tells a story, then it’s worth trying to track down the particulars of this case. But to deal with the broader problem of anecdotes, what you need is a framework that tells you which anecdotes are almost surely wrong.
(More here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home