THE PASTURE OR THE GLUE FACTORY?

Econ Log's Bryan Caplan, with an assist from the Simpsons, finds a metaphor for making sense of all-or-none mandates. "I just want the horse to have a good home or be food. If you want to take him, fine with me."  In like manner, "I just want the worker to make $15 an hour or be unemployed."  And so it goes.  In the political economy of public policy, there are tradeoffs.

The point is that stark ultimatums are a double-edged sword, not a no-brainer.  A devoted horse-lover really could sensibly favor an option in between "good home" and "food."  A friend of the workers really could sensibly oppose the minimum wage.

But subtlety cannot be reduced to sound-bites, and elasticity analysis is hard (although the usual principles-level approach with a lot of rivet-counting over point or arc elasticity) doesn't help the novice develop the right analytical frame of mind.