Stupidity

Yes, I am stupid, and I am sorry to say, we are all stupid. Warren Buffett is stupid, Bill gates is stupid, Barack Obama (obviously) is stupid, late Steve Job is stupid, all of us are stupid. We are probably as stupid as animals.

Yes I know at this point 99 percent of the reader will close this page and start wondering just how stupid the author of this article is claiming these great figures are stupid.

So for the 1 percent that keep reading, allow me to explain. Theories of microeconomic and general equilibrium mention that market failure occur on various sources such as externalities, imperfect information, existence of free riders etc. That means human is deemed rational and only make irrational decision when influenced by negative (or positive) external forces, disrupting the market forces from working its magic of creating point of equilibrium. Even the school of Keynesian agrees that government is needed on the basic of imperfect information. Suppose if information is perfect, with the existence of rational expectation, everyone should be able to make wise and correct decision every time currently and in the future.

However, is that true? Are we capable of obtaining perfect information? Are we interested in getting perfect information? More importantly, if we have perfect information, are we able (and want) to make correct decision?

I do not think so. That's the reason I claim all of us are stupid. For me, people that do not want to get perfect information or cannot make correct decision even with perfect information or know the correct decision yet still want to choose another option are called stupid person.

Now how many of us can claim that we try our best to obtain perfect information in the process of decision making? How many of us can claim that we can make correct decision if we are presented with perfect information? How many of us can claim that we always able to choose the correct option if we know its the correct decision?

The answer: very few.

Let me give you a few examples: in the decision of choosing toothpaste, have you read the label on the toothpaste box? Have you googled the ingredients of the toothpaste? Do you know the differences between various toothpaste besides the packaging? What is the special ingredients in certain toothpaste suitable for sensitive gum?

If most of your answers are NO, then you are stupid.

Another example: All of us know that eating healthily is good for us. We know by eating healthily, we will be able to enjoy our daily life better, we will have more energy in daily activities, we will have better mental strength, thus make us better in most situation in work etc. However, how many of us really maintain healthy eating diet?

Wait!!!!!!! You may say I ignore the concept of utility. Utility of eating delicious (and unhealthy) food may overwhelm the healthy life. I agree but how many of us really quantify the options and determine that? Often when we wanna have unhealthy food, we do not consider the option. We do not make wise decision as we consider eating junk food is the only option. We are not making decision, instead we are blindly selecting the option based on our random instinct.

That still is considered stupid.

Finally, fresh milk. We know almost everything about fresh milk. We know where it comes from, we know the ingredients of fresh milk, we know the taste and colour (lol.). So are we able to make correct decision based on these information? Are we using these information to select the best fresh milk? Or are we simple stick to the brand we always consume? Where are the correlation and causality between the availability of these information and our ability of decision making? How many of us use these information in improving our decision making?

That is stupidity.

For very few of us that try our best in obtaining perfect information legally, use the available information'
to help our decision making scientifically and select the best option with these information, well done, you are rational. You are not stupid.