Fundamental Attribution Error and Progressive Economic Policies

A huge component of the current dysfunction that pervades political debate in America today is what is known as the fundamental attribution error (FAE). The FAE is the human tendency to cast the motives of one’s own side in the most charitable terms — “we” only do bad things because we are forced to — while simultaneously casting the other side’s motives in terms of 100% evil — “they” do bad things because they are horrible, awful people.

A great illustration can be found in a pair of articles from progressives about economic policy.  Now, you would think that economic policy is dry enough that we could get good intellectual progressives to focus on substance for a while, but no, it’s all about the motives.  On the one hand, we’re told that progressives don’t reject tax cuts because they hate the rich but because progressives have certain knowledge that they never, ever work.  Unfortunately, we never get past the charitable, gee-we’re-just-good-people blanket assertion to actually hear the basis of their certainty.  Progressives and good, logical, morally and intellectually superior people.  Once the assertion is made, the thinking is done.

The flip side is the claim that conservatives want to cut budgets with full knowledge that doing so will cause massive suffering because conservatives are bad people who hate everyone.  Suddenly, the possibility that a group of people might reject a policy proposal (e.g. more “stimulus”) because it doesn’t work is not only rejected, it is not even open for consideration.  The fact that it is bad motives that explains it is automatically assumed.  And once again, the assertion based on motives is not supported at all by any actual evidence that more “stimulus” would actually work.  That premise is assumed and conservatives are automatically held morally and intellectually deficient for their failure to immediately and unconditionally embrace the progressive position.

Trouble is, these aren’t arguments at all.  There is no data or logical reasoning being set forth from progressives on exactly how their preferred economic policy will address unemployment.  Even the Nobel Prize-winning former economist Paul Krugman can’t be stirred to divert from his endless emotional hatred of Republicans long enough to explain how his preferred policy options would actually work.

And as long as this pattern continues, there is really no reason to listen to the progressives on the economy.  For all their faults (and there are many), the Republicans are at least trying to put actual policy proposals supported by arguments out there.  The Ryan plan may be massively unpopular, but it’s virtually the only plan even being placed on the table.  Most Democrats are too busy demonizing to bother with messy stuff like actually addressing the issues.  And their base in the blogosphere seems to just keep raising the flame level.

As long as this pattern continues, expect deadlock to continue also and economic malaise to entrench itself even deeper into real Americans’ lives.  While our main governing party (and contrary to the rhetoric of the progressive blogosphere, the Republicans don’t actually control enough to be legitimately held responsible for governing) fiddles with psychological dysfunction, America’s economy continues to burn.