EconTalk Megan McArdle on Catastrophes and the Pandemic
Mar 22, 2021
Megan McArdle, a journalist at the Washington Post, delves into the lessons learned from the pandemic and past disasters with host Russ Roberts. They discuss how society often learns the wrong lessons when preparing for future crises. McArdle critiques the human tendency to overreact to recent events while ignoring potential risks, like environmental crises. The talk also touches on the economic impacts of the toilet paper shortage and the importance of innovation in pharmaceutical responses to health emergencies.
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Over and Under Preparing
- We over-prepare for the last crisis, then under-prepare for others.
- Hindsight bias makes us think we would have predicted correctly.
Texas Power Grid Failure
- Texas' power grid failure, conservatives blamed wind turbines; liberals blamed deregulation.
- Megan points out that Texas underinvested in de-icing equipment, but this was a freak storm.
Misplaced Preparedness
- We overspend on preparing for the last unlikely event.
- The next unlikely event will likely be different, making the spending wasteful.
