{"id":61,"date":"2026-11-11T13:39:32","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T13:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesilenteconomist.com\/?p=61"},"modified":"2026-11-11T13:39:32","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T13:39:32","slug":"how-do-we-decide-on-a-course-of-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesilenteconomist.com\/?p=61","title":{"rendered":"How Do We Decide On A Course of Action?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some economists believe that you weigh up all the costs and benefits of an action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Weighing up the costs and benefits is called a logical action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the Star Trek series and films, Spock is logical.&nbsp;Kirk is illogical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The problem with being logical is that we would spend so much time weighing up the pros and cons of an action that we would never get anything done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some Economists still believe in the behaviour rational economic man. That he is constantly trying to obtain the maximum benefit from an activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For a rational person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There&#8217;s a balance between the pain of additional effort and the Joy of additional reward in the supermarket AS he Rushes from Aisle to&nbsp; Aisle comparing rice and marginal utility or benefit to be gained based on the money being spent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How do we decide?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Whether to break the law.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Not wear our school uniform correctly.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Steal from a shop.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Do we only decide to steel when the expected penalty exceeds the value of the Loot?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If we followed this logical thinking path, we would only marry to gain the economies of scale from living together. Maybe that&#8217;s the way that marriages have traditionally been and its only in the past couple of centuries we have begun to marry for love!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Do we really act rationally like Mr spock to everything?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This act of rationality can be seen when someone uses what is called a cost benefit analysis.  The work out all the costs and benefits of a plan of action and then make a decision on the outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can view the UK government&#8217;s analysis of its High Speed Rail programme known as HS2 <a href=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/media\/5a796cd240f0b63d72fc5b36\/hs2-economic-case-value-for-money.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In reality we don&#8217;t make decision like this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact most people have already made up their mind about a decision before that attempt any kind of cost benefit analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When voters in the UK took part in the Brexit Poll in 2017, did they sit down and make a list of the pros and cons and then make a judgement.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No they had already decided with whether they were for leaving or remaining before they even listened to what politicians had to say about the advantages and disadvantages!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Do you stand in the lunch queue and discuss the merits of the various options available?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No because if you did that lunch would be over by the time you made a fully rational decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The problem is that people have a bias and even when people sit down and try to analyse the data they tend to focus on the data that support their argument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Look at the images on the next few slides and make a note of whether you are on the left or the right or inbetween.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1870\" height=\"614\" src=\"https:\/\/thesilenteconomist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Screenshot-2026-11-11-at-13.26.07.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-62\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1898\" height=\"654\" src=\"https:\/\/thesilenteconomist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Screenshot-2026-11-11-at-13.26.25.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-63\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1908\" height=\"622\" src=\"https:\/\/thesilenteconomist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Screenshot-2026-11-11-at-13.26.34.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-64\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1914\" height=\"612\" src=\"https:\/\/thesilenteconomist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Screenshot-2026-11-11-at-13.26.45.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-65\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You already have a bias in terms of fashion, food, brands etc without realising it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">IF there were Two Tribes<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022one of which is mainly made up of cooperative people like the human crew of the starship enterprise<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022the other is populated by rational economic men like spock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Which would be the most successful?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first tribe has natural instincts to socialise at work and to share his Good Fortune with others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rational economic man is always calculating his own advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rational economic man always hunts alone, because although the understands the benefits of working together, rational economic men always cheat on each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Watch this click of a UK programme called &#8220;Golden Balls&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u00a340,015 split or steal\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bJzsYLSPY7o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Co-operative tribes will catch more meat per head and the more food they gather the more people like them there will be in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Who are you like Spock or Kirk?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some economists believe that you weigh up all the costs and benefits of an action. Weighing up the costs and benefits is called a logical action. In the Star Trek series and films, Spock is logical.&nbsp;Kirk is illogical. The problem with being logical is that we would spend so much time weighing up the pros [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,4,43,44,1],"tags":[45,46,47,48,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-61","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-choice","category-economics","category-rational-economic-man","category-rational-economic-thinking","category-uncategorized","tag-decision-making","tag-economic-decision-making","tag-rational-choices","tag-rational-economic-thinking","tag-rational-economics-man","tag-spock-or-kirk","tag-star-trek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesilenteconomist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesilenteconomist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesilenteconomist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesilenteconomist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesilenteconomist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thesilenteconomist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67,"href":"https:\/\/thesilenteconomist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions\/67"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesilenteconomist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesilenteconomist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesilenteconomist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}