The Victim Trap That Keeps People Down

During my student days at a UCLA economics department faculty/graduate student coffee hour in the 1960s, I was chatting with professor Armen Alchian, probably the greatest microeconomic theory economist of the 20th century.

I was trying to impress Alchian with my knowledge of statistical type I and type II errors. I explained that unlike my wife, who assumed that everyone was her friend until they proved differently, my assumption was everyone was an enemy until they proved otherwise.

The result: My wife’s vision maximized the number of her friends but maximized her chances of betrayal. My vision minimized my chances of betrayal at a cost of minimizing the number of my friends.

Alchian, donning a mischievous smile, asked, “Williams, have you considered a third alternative, namely, that people don’t give a damn about you one way or another?”

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