By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 09/10/2026Billionaires, on the other hand, command resources that allow *them* to devote sizable effort to getting *us* to acknowledge that *they* should be able to tell *us* what to do. 1686
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 09/10/2026This is why billionaires love neoclassical economics, with its doctrine of "revealed preferences," which holds that the only true way to understand someone's preferences is to ignore what they *say* and only pay attention to what they *do*. 2655
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 09/10/2026It's a belief that can only be adopted by people who suffer the self-inflicted neurological injury you get from doing an economics degree, which renders the victim incapable of perceiving or reasoning about power. 410111
Svenn Jensen @svennjensen.bsky.social · 7hCory, orthogonal to your threat's main thesis, I find this attack on revealed preferences (RP) odd. And plain wrong. RP is a tool in environmental econ. It aims to pin down the (implicit) value of an amenity from related market transactions: cleaner air, less noise, better irrigation, ... 100
