People are well aware that their own preferences for the things they do day to day in their lives are distinct from what society wants. People will choose to watch sopoplas or move s that get shown on t v, but they want there to be religious programming and children's programming - even if they're never going to watch it themselves. Similarly, people want stonehenge to be in the place where, for whatever purposes, people put it all those thousands of years ago. But most os things don't change much over time. Human nature doesn't change. So isn't is it just an illusion? What are your thoughts on that?
Mainstream economics, says author Diane Coyle, keeps treating people like cogs: self-interested, rational agents. But in the digital economy, we're less sophisticated consumer and more monster under the influece of social media. Listen as the economist and former UK Treasury advisor tells EconTalk host Russ Roberts how, for economics to remain relevant, it needs both more diverse methodologies and more engagement with the broader issues of the day.