Well, if you come up with a lot of wrong ideas and pay a price for it, you’re forced to think about it and to change your ways or else get eliminated. But there is no such test. The only test for most intellectuals is whether other intellectuals go along with them. And if they all have a wrong idea, then it becomes invincible.
This is from economic professor, author and political philosopher Thomas Sowell expounding a passage “The Intelligencia pay no price for being wrong” from his latest book Intellectuals and Race in a video interview with Wall Street Journal’s Peter Robinson. (hat tip Mises Blog)
Paying no price for being wrong can be seen in the same light as Nassim Taleb's “skin in the game”, the stakeholder’s dilemma or the principal agent problem—conflict of interests shaped by diverse incentives
This is very relevant not only to the participants of the financial markets but especially pronounced in public opinion arena where social policies are shaped. The crux: Bad ideas have consequences. And people with little “skin in the game” or “pay no price for being wrong” are the most notorious promoters of ‘noble sounding’ deceptive ideas.
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