On Values And Judgment
Jul 13th, 2010 | By Dawn Rivers Baker | Category: Policy MattersIrrational.
Of course, I quite realize that behavior finance is a branch of economics and the use of the word by that sub-discipline does not necessarily mean exactly the same thing it means when we lay people use it.
At least, that is what academics are likely to tell me.
But the fact is that microbusiness owners who fail to worship at the Altar of Growth always seem to be subject to these kinds of value judgments by … well, by pretty much everybody.
My point here is that these are value judgments, no matter what anybody else says, and they are predicated on a certain set of assumptions.
They assume that all growth is good.
They assume that there is no such thing as “enough.”
They assume that a business owner should prefer operating a business over making or doing whatever the business makes or does.
They assume that anybody who doesn’t want to have a business in order to grow a business should not own a business. They should go find a job instead.
After all, that would get them a better return on their investment.
Ultimately, they assume that people doing what is rational trumps people doing what makes them happy.
A viewpoint that is, in my humble opinion, pretty irrational itself.
The tension between people doing what makes them happy with their lives and people doing what will help the economy to grow seems to be growing ever more taut, as more and more Americans discover the microbusiness option.
It makes me wonder what is going to happen to resolve that tension. Will something break? or snap? or crumble into nothing?
Or possibly, nothing will happen. Maybe people will continue to ignore the studies that call them irrational in much the same way that the researchers tend to ignore real people.
That way, everybody’s happy … right?
