Poor Greg Mankiw and Why People Think the Facts Lie
April 9, 2011 2 Comments
Greg Mankiw seems to be the blogosphere’s favorite economist punching bag. Openly criticized by Paul Krugman and Matt Yglesias, bloggers seem to be waiting in the wings in anticipation of Mankiw’s next words. Why, you ask? Take a look at this post, in which Mankiw posts a table and link that compares income-tax progressivity across developed nations. The US comes in as the most progressive on the list (determined by comparing the share of total income and total tax revenue share of the wealthiest 10% of each population). This isn’t fun news for the progressive community, so naturally some public intellectuals are going to be upset. The chart proves that the US more heavily depends on wealthy tax payers than do other countries, but it does not speak on the individual countries’ ability to redistribute wealth with said tax revenue.
But the bloggers are in a fury more that Greg Mankiw posts the chart without explanation than about the troubling news found in the chart (and what the chart means about the US’s low redistribution of wealth). The bloggers claim that Mankiw is forcing incorrect information upon readers when it’s just as simple that the bloggers don’t understand the information Mankiw shares. That said, I think Mankiw enjoys the controversy he stirs up by posting facts without much explanation.
About chrismcabery
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As an Econ student I have had the “privilege” of being assigned some on Mankiw’s books. Let me say that while economics can be a boring subject, this guy takes it to a whole new level. Also, he tends to re-release the same book every few years just to require schools to buy his new edition book so he can make more money. Thus it doesn’t surprise me at all that the rest of the economic world bashes on this guy.
His books are hard to follow and generally don’t make sense. It’s actually gratifying to read this so that I know I’m not alone in my thoughts.
I actually have used Mankiw’s textbook in numerous economic classes, and found its level of explanation to be really useful. So when I hear that he often leaves out explanation and commentary on his own blog, I can only laugh at the irony. I think, though, that this is irresponsible on his part, and an underestimation on the effect and role blogs play in our world today. A respected public intellectual, and Mankiw is certainly that, has a right to his opinions and a right to incite anger within others in his field, yet he also has a responsibility to explain his opinions to a certain level. A public intellectual cannot taunt and write only about the numbers they want to show; otherwise they are contradicting their very nature, using their public forum to destroy their role as an intellectual. While blogs might seem like safe places for such intellectuals to sort of, for lack of a better term, “let their hair down,” they have proven to be just as influential in reaching just as large numbers as writing an op-ed in their local paper.