I tell my students that economics helps define the non-negotiable constraints on social reality. The principles that people respond to incentives and that people generally do more of things that they think will make them better off also help to clarify what is and isn’t (or what can and what can’t be) true. Today’s XKCD comic offers one of the best examples of this line of reasoning I’ve ever seen: if [X] really worked, then people would be able to get fantastically wealthy by doing [X].
Which raises a question: should you trust the “get rich in real estate” systems you might see on late-night TV? Why or why not?
