曼昆告诉我们: Rational people think at margin. 理性人考虑边际量
One point that is immediately obvious to the the most casual observer with the meanest intelligence is that most people do not think at the margin.For example, most people who buy orabges at the grocery store think like this:"HMMM,oranges are $.25 each. I think I'll buy half a dozen." They do not think like this :"Hmmm, oranges are $.25 each. I am going to buy one, because my marginal value exceeds the markets price..."We konw most people don't think like this because most people don't fill their shopping baskets one orange at a times!
But we are now led inexorably toward a most unhappy conclusion.If as Mankiw says rational people think at the margin, and if as we all know most people do not think at the margin, then most people are not rational. Most people, in other wordsm are stupid.Hence my translation of the third principle of economics: people are stupid.
Before sinking into a despair for the fate of the human race, however, the reader would be wise to consider Mankiw's.