4 ms·

Economics + Agenda = New way to learn economics. Not a more correct, or better, way.

billysielu 9y ago
Thanks for the down votes agenda pushers.
zaptheimpaler 9y ago
There is always an agenda, always. The question is what agenda is useful for the world. The way it is currently taught has an agenda - it basically justifies whatever happens in business as a "consequence of economics". Paid too little? Economics. Companies exploiting your privacy? Economics. Media turning internet into junk TV? ? Economics. Whats that you want some truth in journalism? No, consumers want entertainment. Economics. At some point we have to stop putting "economics" first and put the way we actually WANT the world to be first. We can DESIGN the market to fit our vision of the world rather than fitting our vision of the world to fit the market.
- billysielu 9y ago
  I don't think these problems are caused by economics. I think they're caused by the agenda. For example. People are paid too little, because there's an oversupply of workers, because women are working. If women didn't work, men would be paid enough to support the families. But now that women are working, they can't quit, because the man alone won't bring in enough income. I don't think this benefits women, or men, or children, or families, and therefore not society as a whole either. Of course we all know that not everyone agrees about what we want the world to be, and some understanding of economics is required to affect change responsibly, but this course is clearly left-leaning. That's why I don't see it as an empowering "new way to learn economics" but rather as "push agenda more effectively". Personally, that's the opposite of what I want.
  - zaptheimpaler 9y ago
    Education is a huge part of how the "agenda" is implemented. It tells us what is "truth" and what can be questioned. For example, the current syllabus is very careful to downplay genetic differences amongst people. It teaches that genetic differences don't matter and we are all essentially "blank-slates". The truth is somewhere in between. But it will take years before that is generally accepted. Direct result of atrocities in WW2. Thats an example of an agenda being implemented via education and shaping your thought. You are repeating the same theories that justify any market problem - Paid too less? Oversupply. Do you really know that to be the cause or do you assume so because that is the only mechanism the theory of economics provides to explain low wages? Perhaps it is the only possible cause when you assume all people are rational and have full information, market is efficient etc. But look at the real world! Those assumptions don't hold, so why expect this fantasy theory to be so accurate? As long as a company continues to produce profit, of course they can afford to distribute some of that profit in the form of wages! Its profit - where do you think it goes? So why don't they? Why can't society make them? Don't tell me oversupply is the only possible cause of low wages when a cursory inspection of human nature and greed points to so many other possible causes. That is living inside a theory. Don't confuse the theory for reality.
    - billysielu 9y ago
      They don't pay people more because they don't have to. I think that's because of oversupply, but will consider other explanations if they're forthcoming.

Thanks for the down votes agenda pushers.

There is always an agenda, always. The question is what agenda is useful for the world. The way it is currently taught has an agenda - it basically justifies whatever happens in business as a "consequence of economics". Paid too little? Economics. Companies exploiting your privacy? Economics. Media turning internet into junk TV? ? Economics. Whats that you want some truth in journalism? No, consumers want entertainment. Economics. At some point we have to stop putting "economics" first and put the way we actually WANT the world to be first. We can DESIGN the market to fit our vision of the world rather than fitting our vision of the world to fit the market.

billysielu 9y ago
I don't think these problems are caused by economics. I think they're caused by the agenda. For example. People are paid too little, because there's an oversupply of workers, because women are working. If women didn't work, men would be paid enough to support the families. But now that women are working, they can't quit, because the man alone won't bring in enough income. I don't think this benefits women, or men, or children, or families, and therefore not society as a whole either. Of course we all know that not everyone agrees about what we want the world to be, and some understanding of economics is required to affect change responsibly, but this course is clearly left-leaning. That's why I don't see it as an empowering "new way to learn economics" but rather as "push agenda more effectively". Personally, that's the opposite of what I want.
- zaptheimpaler 9y ago
  Education is a huge part of how the "agenda" is implemented. It tells us what is "truth" and what can be questioned. For example, the current syllabus is very careful to downplay genetic differences amongst people. It teaches that genetic differences don't matter and we are all essentially "blank-slates". The truth is somewhere in between. But it will take years before that is generally accepted. Direct result of atrocities in WW2. Thats an example of an agenda being implemented via education and shaping your thought. You are repeating the same theories that justify any market problem - Paid too less? Oversupply. Do you really know that to be the cause or do you assume so because that is the only mechanism the theory of economics provides to explain low wages? Perhaps it is the only possible cause when you assume all people are rational and have full information, market is efficient etc. But look at the real world! Those assumptions don't hold, so why expect this fantasy theory to be so accurate? As long as a company continues to produce profit, of course they can afford to distribute some of that profit in the form of wages! Its profit - where do you think it goes? So why don't they? Why can't society make them? Don't tell me oversupply is the only possible cause of low wages when a cursory inspection of human nature and greed points to so many other possible causes. That is living inside a theory. Don't confuse the theory for reality.
  - billysielu 9y ago
    They don't pay people more because they don't have to. I think that's because of oversupply, but will consider other explanations if they're forthcoming.