Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
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Notes -
Carlyle called economics "the dismal science" out of disappointment that it wasn't providing a defense of slavery, but instead was "reducing the duty of human governors to that of letting men alone". Modern government would never go so far as to defend slavery, of course, but the repugnance felt at "letting men alone" doesn't seem to have decreased. It's easy to understand the feeling, even if you know the feeling is wrong, isn't it? The idea of being one of the ones who calculate whether a Pigouvian tax on coal power should be 5 cents per kwh or 6 next year is almost emasculating compared to the idea of being one of the ones who dictate "The Time Of Wasteful Light Ends Now. I Have Spoken."
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