4 ms·
and this is where economics becomes one with social theory, too. one of these days i'll be banned for making insightful yet political comments like this, but:
by cryoshon 9y ago
and this is where economics becomes one with social theory, too. one of these days i'll be banned for making insightful yet political comments like this, but:
the socioeconomic theorists like marx saw that the profit motive led to perverse incentives and exploitation as a fundamental property of capitalism.
modern economists fail to connect the... hand waving that they do regarding deception with the inability to predict economic events or the widespread social destruction that occurs when their (hand waved) mathematical theories are allowed to govern social outcomes "because otherwise, why would people work?"
let's face it, free market ideology isn't even a valid or self consistent and complete theory. it's a cover story for feudalism that layers on as many extra mathematical abstractions as it can manage purely to increase the cognitive cost of unraveling it... just as the OP suggests in a much smaller context within the same realm.
- bittercynic 9y agoI think you've misjudged the reason for the downvotes. (I'm not one of them) Incompleteness and wrongness are properties of every social and economic theory, and you seem to be attacking some pretty well established theory on the grounds that it is incomplete and/or wrong. No theory involving humans can be simultaneously complete, consistent, and interesting. The more important question is how bad are the consequences of letting a given theory guide policy, and while the status quo may be far from ideal, it is far from the worst humans have done. Also, it's pretty bold to label your own comment insightful.
- notduncansmith 9y agoHonest question: should economics be interesting? It seems like that should be one of the simplest, most mundane aspects of society. Enjoyment from successfully navigating complex constraint sets is natural, but turning the mechanisms by which human beings get fed and clothed into a game like that feels less productive than many alternatives.
- bittercynic 9y agoInteresting was a poor word choice on my part. Should have said something more like useful/meaningful.
- jnordwick 9y agoLol. You called your own comment insightful.