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I've been looking for people to make the connection of how this is a great example of the emotional behavioral reality of actually exercising classical economic
by kristopolous 7y ago
I've been looking for people to make the connection of how this is a great example of the emotional behavioral reality of actually exercising classical economic models and how people aren't just completely atomized rational agents devoid of collective cultural expectation, but you're the first to make the connection.
It's a clear narrative for people who are looking for it who are deeply suspicious of how real world humans interact in alignment with the hypothesis of the traditional mathematical models, but to those who don't share the suspicion, you'd have to spell it out.
I've had to, it's been painful. People have been penalized for thinking in sociological terms about economic culture all throughout school, because such considerations lead to dramatically conflicting answers.
For instance, the more extreme example is private property markets require buy-in from the participants. If a group decides the rules are simply unfair, the game is called off. As a producer of physical assets I've always been keenly aware of theft and sabotage possibilities and prices are kept fair to keep people from doing such things.
- TomMckenny 7y agoThere also seem to be differences in underlying assumptions: whether humans exist to serve markets or whether markets exist only because they happen benefit humanity. And a similar question for property itself.
- eru 7y agoNice strawman you got there. You'll have a hard time finding anyone who thinks that humans are meant to 'serve the market'. Especially any economist. The market isn't a separate entity, it's made of humans interacting.
- TomMckenny 7y agoTrue, I put the point bluntly. If the market produces bad outcomes for years on end, which it in some narrow cases it does, do we 1) keep with it regardless or 2) do something else. I think you will find there are quite a few people who will choose #1
- eru 7y agoThe wisdom of this course of action depends on whether that something else produces better outcomes.
- kristopolous 7y agopart of neoliberalism is a theory that everything is a market, in some "natural state" and it's only our human meddling that keeps it from being "free" ... there's been a century of Economic Anthropology (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_anthropology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_anthropology) that shows this simply does not exist, there is no "natural state" and the definition of "free market" is constantly re-framed. It's a contemporary human social construct and a set of rather arbitrarily defined cultural rules. Market fundamentalism is a form of political convenience, not based on any empirical study of reality.