What do you think?

I don't know if you know who John Stossel is. He co hosts 20/20 and he writes a lot of opinion articles that can be found on line. In many ways he is my hero in the media because he is one of the few people who actually seems to know what he is talking about. He understands how other reporters misuse economic and statistical information to create a story out of thin air. An example would be the "record high" gas prices this last year. Most of the media was talking about how prices have never been this high. Well they were wrong and Stossel was the only one to point out that after you adjust for inflation the gas prices were not as high as the were in the late 70's early 80's. Well I read another article of his that makes me think about the right to vote. He refers to a book"The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies" by economist Bryan Caplan at George Mason University. In his book Caplan talks about voters who vote according to irrational biases. Now I am always telling my wife that nothing is irrational to the person who is doing it. However, Caplan does have a good point. Too many people think and vote with there emotions and not with an understanding of how economics really works. An example would be the idea that we have to protect American jobs by making it illegal for US companies to outsource. That sounds nice and compassionate. However, if you look at how the economy works all that does is make it harder for US companies to compete with foreign companies and if you don't allow foreign companies to sell in the US then prices will go up. People will buy less, companies will make less and people will lose there jobs. The question I have is what can we do to lessen the impact of economically ignorant voters. Caplan had some ideas but even he admits that they will never come to pass. The only thing I can think of is to educate people but the media usually only shows the liberal aspect of economics and that is the side that feels good but can end up being disastrous. See the Soviet Union as an example. So what can we do?