This is just ridiculous. Shiller believes that the problem lies within men as men, rather than within over-stretched medical and financial systems. The medical system may be short of critically needed medical supplies, and the financial system may be desperately over-leveraged, but if men would only ignore all that, things would be just fine. No need to search for the reasons behind the shortage of supplies and capital; that will only complicate the situation.



Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), men are not made to ignore the obvious. They will do what they can individually to salvage their health and their fortunes. And they will work collectively to reconstruct failing systems. One process motivates the other. That pairing of individual and collective action is what drives Schumpeter's creative destruction. It is what moves us forward.