The Cost of Short-Term Thinking

The Cost of Short-Term Thinking Just read this quote on a Russ Roberts Substack article citing Bastiat (french economist from the XIX),that, as most of his work, I really liked — it made me think, and I could not agree more. "...In the economic sphere an act, a habit, an institution, a law produces not only one effect, but a series of effects. Of these effects, the first alone is immediate; it appears simultaneously with its cause; it is seen. The other effects emerge only subsequently; they are not seen; we are fortunate if we foresee them. There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen.Yet this difference is tremendous; for it almost always happens that when the immediate consequence is favorable, the later consequences are disastrous, and vice versa. Whence it follows that the bad economist pursues a small present good that will be followed by a great evil to come, while the good economist pursues a great good to come, at the risk of a small present evil. …" Frederic Bastiat — French economist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Bastiat

- Pedro

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