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Paras Chopra
@paraschopra
, 14 tweets, 5 min read Read on Twitter
A short list of ☯️ paradoxes in economics and society.

trust me, you'll be fun at parties if you know about them 🎉🎉

(a thread)
1/ Bonini's paradox (or why it's hard to capture reality)

Models or simulations that explain the workings of complex systems are seemingly impossible to construct. As a model of a complex system becomes more complete, it becomes less understandable

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonini%27…
2/ Bertrand's paradox (or why firms go bankrupt)

Two firms compete to death with no profits gained for each.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_…
3/ Paradox of enrichment

Increasing the food available to the prey caused the predator's population to destabilize

Counterintuitive but true. More food/resources can cause prosperity beyond carrying capacity of system, and crash the consuming population en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_o…
4/ Paradox of the pesticides

Applying pesticide to a pest may end up increasing the abundance of the pest

Yes, pesticides MAY increase pests and it is not just a theoretical dynamical-systems prediction. It has been observed in the wild.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_o…
5/ Braess's paradox

An alteration to a road network to improve traffic flow actually has the reverse effect and impedes traffic through it

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braess%27…
6/ Streisand effect

"an attempt to hide, remove, or censor a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand…

Remember this pic?
7/ Lewis–Mogridge Position

"as more roads are built, more traffic consequently fills these roads. Speed gains from some new roads can disappear within months, if not weeks."

i.e., traffic expands to meet the available road space

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis%E2%…
8/ Paradox of prosperity

"Why do generations that significantly improve the economic climate seem to generally rear a successor generation that consumes rather than produces?"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_o…
9/ Paradox of plenty

"countries with an abundance of natural resources (such as fossil fuels and certain minerals), tend to have less economic growth, less democracy, and worse development outcomes than countries with fewer natural resources."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_…
10/ Throw away paradox

"a situation in which a person can gain by throwing away some of his property"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throw_awa…
11/ Stability–instability paradox

or why 🇮🇳 India 🇵🇰 Pak have so many scuffs

"when two countries each have nuclear weapons, the probability of a direct war between them greatly decreases, but the probability of minor conflicts between them increases."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stability…
12/ Finally, my fav: Jevons paradox

Technological efficiency (of energy/resources) INCREASES rate of consumption

So we're misguided in hoping that more efficient tech will solve all our consumption-related problems (of pollution/biodiversity/water)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_pa…
13/ Common moral for all paradoxes?

When it comes to complex systems (economics, ecology and human society), DON'T trust your gut instincts. Our linear thinking can't comprehend all feedbacks and interactions in a system

Trust scientific consensus, not politicians/celebrities.
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Paras Chopra
@paraschopra
Do you believe in 📈 progress? Here's why you're wrong.

(A thread)
1/ The world is more materially abundant than ever, we’ve eliminated several diseases, lifted millions out of poverty.

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Paras Chopra
@paraschopra
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1/ First thing to notice is that while our population has grown over 3 times since independence, our number of MPs have practically remained the same since 1951.

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Paras Chopra
@paraschopra
Some thoughts on how to rise up in the economic ladder.

(A thread)
1/ If your aspirations > earnings, you take debt.

Now there’s two ways you can use the debt:
- As a consumer (buy a car)
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