If you want to see restraint at work, watch a queue form where there is no reason for one. The evidence here is thinner than the confident commentary suggests, and the honest position is a shrug with a direction of travel. It is tempting to call this irrational. It is more useful to ask what it is for. There is a version of this essay that ends with a policy prescription. This is not that version; the mechanism is interesting enough on its own.
Where it overreaches
It is tempting to call this irrational. It is more useful to ask what it is for. The mind that evolved for small groups and immediate dangers is now asked to manage a pension. It does its best. Understanding people turns out to be a more urgent task than changing them, and a great deal harder. None of this is new. Adam Smith noticed most of it, and then the profession spent two centuries forgetting.
