:Fixed Point

Weighing in at 7lbs 1oz, Sophia was born at 0951 on 21 November. Parent economists are both fine, though Daddy is extremely tired. Despite he exhaustion of watching a loved one endure incalculable physical pain, there are a number of other random observations that I intend to expand on, once my brain gets into gear:

1. Many moons ago, we declined the opportunity to discover in advance the baby’s gender. Looking back, I think what I was doing is not maximising my own preference whilst taking my wife’s wishes into account (i.e. as one would in a traditional rational analysis of altruism), but I was trying to understand my wife’s preferences, and act on those. Extending this, it seems clear that when acting with responsibility for others, the nature of our choices may change, and in a way not always anticipated by traditional rational analysis. This goes to the heart of Bryan Caplan’s essay about the limits of democracy and the appropriateness of using experts to guide public policy. To make a judgement on this, we need to understand precisely the objective function the experts are maximising.
2. Hayek’s Fatal Conceit is at the forefront of my mind. Is it really so destructive to apply some of the rules for decision making an allocation within families/small groups, to larger constructs like nations? On balance, probably yes, but I believe there is an argument for policies using assymetric paternalism, for example.
3. Birth is incredibly dangerous, and probably the best illustration of trade-offs in evolution: we evolved higher cognitive powers that required a bigger brain, but the skull that housed that brain was constrained by the pelvic girdle, thus limiting neural development (but we are NOT a Blank Slate!). Consequently human babies are born relatively immature compared to many other animals, and other apes. This brings to mind the difference between maximisation and optimisation. The two are not necessarily the same but often we confuse the two.
4. I have a  baby. What is my discount rate  now for projects tackling environmental issues, with benefits that will not materialise until long after my death?
5. Should my daughter be paying for (some of) my retirement, as she would be unless our social security system is redesigned?
6. Do we trust ourselves to plan responsibly (in a rational way) for our daughter’s expected future education costs, or do we need a helping hand to avoid cheating ourselves and spending her college money on luxury holiday?

OK. That’s it for now. Too tired. Apologies if some of the thoughts above are not expressed as clearly as I’d like, but at the moment I keep forgetting what day it is, and I still can’t forget what my wife went through just over twelve hours ago.