本书着重谈的是美国国家经济政策制定方面受到的民情的影响。正是出于选民的“偏见”，他们的选票才会被贸易保护主义者、反竞争的特殊利益集团利用，进而对美国的经济造成损害。本书是一部在美国媒体和政治经济学界引起广泛关注和讨论，赞誉与批评兼而有之的一部作品。媒体关注它，是因为作者在书中不仅毫不留情地批判了美国政府和公众一直引以自豪的东西——民主，而且将其失败的原因归结为选民的“理性的胡闹”。而学界关注的重点则在于该书对经济学及公共选择理论的两个核心概念，即“理性(rationality)”和“理性的无知”(rationalignorance)，提出了修正和质疑。 作者认为，在美国，大多数投票者不仅对政治问题是无知的，而且他们本身固有的观点甚至都是错误的。民众不仅因为自己的无知而把选举搞砸，而且因为自己的投票带有“偏见”，更容易使国家政策走上歧途。因此，作者提倡“有水准的选民”，要解决美国的问题，要做的是减少民主的量而提高民主的质。

The greatest obstacle to sound economic policy is not entrenched special interests or rampant lobbying, but the popular misconceptions, irrational beliefs, and personal biases held by ordinary voters. This is economist Bryan Caplan's sobering assessment in this provocative and eye-opening book. Caplan argues that voters continually elect politicians who either share their biases or else pretend to, resulting in bad policies winning again and again by popular demand.<br /><br /><br /><br />Boldly calling into question our most basic assumptions about American politics, Caplan contends that democracy fails precisely because it does what voters want. Through an analysis of Americans' voting behavior and opinions on a range of economic issues, he makes the convincing case that noneconomists suffer from four prevailing biases: they underestimate the wisdom of the market mechanism, distrust foreigners, undervalue the benefits of conserving labor, and pessimistically believe the economy is going from bad to worse. Caplan lays out several bold ways to make democratic government work better--for example, urging economic educators to focus on correcting popular misconceptions and recommending that democracies do less and let markets take up the slack.<br /><br /><i>The Myth of the Rational Voter</i> takes an unflinching look at how people who vote under the influence of false beliefs ultimately end up with government that delivers lousy results. With the upcoming presidential election season drawing nearer, this thought-provoking book is sure to spark a long-overdue reappraisal of our elective system.

Weve needlessly turned parenting into an unpleasant chore. Parents invest more time and money in their kids than ever, but the shocking lesson of twin and adoption research is that upbringing is much less important than genetics in the long run. These revelations have surprising implications for how we parent and how we spend time with our kids. The big lesson: Mold your kids less and enjoy your life more. Your kids will still turn out fine. Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids is a book of practical big ideas. How can parents be happier? What can they changeand what do they need to just accept? Which of their worries can parents safely forget? Above all, what is the right number of kids for you to have? Youll never see kids or parenthood the same way again.