again, only in the aggregate/ entity of measurement level. I would argue anyone who says otherwise is either being disingenuous or doesn't actually understand

again, only in the aggregate/ entity of measurement level. I would argue anyone who says otherwise is either being disingenuous or doesn't actually understand economics. That is not to say that is not trotted out frequently. Also, to be fair, during my economics education they had this whole focus on modeling policies and finding optimizations where no one is worse off. Of course, in the real world, that practically never happens... and there is an argument that the focus on efficient/competitive markets/ equilibria/rational agents is also a bit "wouldn't it be nice if the world was actually like this...", whereas in the real world only the most trivial goods/markets can vaguely be described as such...