Stubborn Attachments
By Tyler Cowen
Status: Finished in February 2022
Rating: 3/5
This is Tyler Cowen’s philosophy book. He argues that supporting economic growth is a moral imperative, but must be balanced against a near-absolute respect for basic human rights. He is interested in the concept of a Crusonia plant. A Crusonia plant is a plant that continually produces both useful fruit and seeds. You eat the fruit, plant the seeds, and an increasing amount of output will be produced in every subsequent period (kind of like a regular plant?). This is a metaphor for a vibrant national economy that provides an increasingly high quality of life to an increasingly high number of people.
Cowen argues that the welfare of future people is just as important as the welfare of present people. The level of economic growth today is likely to have lasting implications for huge numbers of future people. So if a decision today even slightly influences the level of economic growth, then the effect that decision has on economic growth should be the dominant consideration in that decision. Since almost all notable policy decisions potentially influence economic growth at some level, we should basically be focused on economic growth all of the time.
I came into the book already agreeing with both Cowen’s philosophical arguments and policy conclusions. So I didn’t get a bunch out of it. Moreover, I felt that Cowen was being cagey about what he really believed. In an engaging podcast with Rob Wiblin, Cowen acknowledges that there is some “Straussian” stuff going on the book. On MarginalRevolution, Cowen uses the term “Straussian reading” to refer to intentional subtextual meaning that authors hide in their books, to communicate important stuff to sophisticated audiences, without triggering unwanted blowback. I’m too dumb for that. So is Robin Hanson, who after reviewing Stubborn Attachments, got into a funny Twitter exchange with Cowen, who essentially admitted to being quite guarded in his explicit policy recommendations.