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+---
+id:
+aliases: []
+title: Nirvana Fallacy
+tags:
+  - authorship/original
+  - destiny/permanent
+  - status/draft
+  - type/encyclopedia-entry
+---
+# Nirvana Fallacy
+
+The [nirvana fallacy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_fallacy)
+also called the "perfect solution fallacy"
+is the mistake made when a solution proposed to replace one existing
+is judged against a hypothetical perfect solution
+rather than the solution in current use.
+
+> [!quote] Harold Demsetz "Information and Efficiency: Another Viewpoint" (1969)[^1]
+> The view that now pervades much public policy economics
+> implicitly presents the relevant choice
+> as between an ideal norm and an existing "imperfect" institutional arrangement.
+> This _nirvana_ approach differs considerably
+> from a _comparative institution_ approach
+> in which the relevant choice is between alternative real institutional arrangements.
+
+[^1]: Harold Demsetz
+    "Information and Efficiency: Another Viewpoint"
+    _The Journal of Law and Economics_
+    Volume 12, Number 1
+    (April 1969)
+    [doi:10.1086/466657](https://doi.org/10.1086%2F466657)