If rationality would help people in the very poor parts of the world, but they shun it, then we conclude that those people are not responding to incentives.
However, the evidence you cite doesn’t support the assertion that the worlds poor don’t respond to incentives. It simply says that poor African men like sex and alcohol more than their own kids.
Do poor people fail to respond to incentives? Is there an obvious option for these people to learn how to be more rational/analytic that they aren’t taking? I don’t know.
What about the rich people in developed countries that I was talking about? My suspicion is that they respond to incentives, especially in terms of the rational/irrational tradeoff, i.e. If there were utility premiums for being more rational, people would expend effort learning the techniques.
If rationality would help people in the very poor parts of the world, but they shun it, then we conclude that those people are not responding to incentives.
However, the evidence you cite doesn’t support the assertion that the worlds poor don’t respond to incentives. It simply says that poor African men like sex and alcohol more than their own kids.
Do poor people fail to respond to incentives? Is there an obvious option for these people to learn how to be more rational/analytic that they aren’t taking? I don’t know.
What about the rich people in developed countries that I was talking about? My suspicion is that they respond to incentives, especially in terms of the rational/irrational tradeoff, i.e. If there were utility premiums for being more rational, people would expend effort learning the techniques.
This is an assumption, not a proven fact. Since it’s basically the contested issue, your reasoning is circular.