Regrouping on individualism
global aggregates: Hayek, Popper, Arrow,
(‘I refrain from walking on the grass of a well-kept lawn, not because I think that my walking on the grass is going to damage the lawn to such an extent as to detract from anyone’s pleasure in contemplating it, but because I realise that, if everyone else who walked in the park were to do likewise, the grass in the park would be spoilt’ (Lyons)). (Consequences of action deducible – or not? – from individual action).
i. over-fishing
ii. commuting
iii. hi-jack cases
iv. ‘save it’ (water shortage)
v. tax evasion
vi. ‘beggar-my-neighbour’ policies in international trade
vii. wage-push inflation
viii. public goods
ix. economies of scale
x. paradox of thrift (Joan Robinson: ‘everyone makes what he likes, but what he likes is determined for him’)
xi. more generally, Prisoner’s Dilemma analysis (Parfit, Sen)
Upshot: misleading to look on either parts or whole as having privileged status; micro-foundations, linked with causation, may need to be taken into account by the policy-maker. But important role for macro-, as well as micro-, economics if the information about relations between such actions. (Alternatively, ‘individual’ actions more generously interpreted might be recognised as already embodying the social fabric; but then ‘micro’ mis-describes them.)
(Dr. J.G.T. Meeks)