5 ms·
The Paradox of Toil (2010)
- roenxi 7y agoThese paradoxes are a lot of fun. In this case, the paradox in essence says that under some circumstances there isn't a limitless amount of work to be done, so if people try to work harder aggregate employment can't rise. As with the paradox of thrift this exposes the essential madness of modern politics, modern economics and indeed modern humans. Most people would much rather be lounging around comfortably all day than working. It would be better if the economy let people lounge around all day and only work every so often to secure what they need to live comfortably. Employment for the sake of goosing the statistics is profoundly wasteful.
- ptah 7y agoi agree, politicians should stop focusing on jobs as a goal and focus on fulfilling the goals that people need jobs for in industrial age
- lonelappde 7y ago"jobs" is the only way the capitalist system can work, for otherwise you have to just give stuff away for free.
- ptah 7y agowhat's wrong with giving stuff away for "free"
- soVeryTired 7y agoThey're writing down a model and investing mathematical properties of that model: there's no attempt to link it back to the real world. Feels a bit like arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.
- amelius 7y agoWhy are basic economic insights often formulated in terms of paradoxes? What if physics took this stance? We'd have the paradox of Newton, the paradox of Faraday, etc.
- Cthulhu_ 7y agoYou mean like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paradoxes#Physics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paradoxes#Physics ? Paradoxes like "What would happen if an unstoppable force hit an immovable object?"
- inimino 7y agoIt may be a sign of how early economics is as a science, and how much of it is simply wrong. Often physics and philosophy has moved forward by the resolution of a paradox, like Russell's and Zeno's. Behavioural economics resolves many classical economic paradoxes. Paradox indicates an oversimplified model.