Glamour and Rational Ignorance

 Last Month the Initiative for Public Choice & Market Process had the pleasure of hosting Virginia Postrel  who spoke on the role of glamour in political economy. A fascinating idea that glamour is something that is bewitching, hopeful, and something that will be trans formative, but it may not deliver, or once we possess the item we may again feel ordinary.  Applying this idea to policy imagery and rhetoric can sound promising and offer hope and change.  Images of monorails, light rails, or windmills that promise low cost travel or energy that is good for the environment.  This week she writes on this point in her WSJ article, but what are the costs of these policies? We rarely ask this question.  Robert Samuelson has a recent article in Newsweek that examines just this point. As I listened to Virginia Postrel present her ideas I thought how powerful an explanation this was when you combine it with the public choice idea of voters being rational ignorant.  The costs of being a well informed for a voter outweighs the benefits of being well informed. Combine this with the promise and allure and imagery of the glamour and we have greater understanding why politicians and special interests can have sway to pass inefficient policies.