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>The biggest problems that we face in our economy are problems we ourselves create in trying to approach the economy as a pez-dispenser of fairness rather than

>The biggest problems that we face in our economy are problems we ourselves create in trying to approach the economy as a pez-dispenser of fairness rather than as an engine of economic growth that follows emergent technical, rather than ethical, laws. That is the most silk glove way of saying "humans should serve the economy not the other way around". Which to be honest is no world I want to live in.

rsj_hn 5y ago
No, it's really not. It's just the statement of a simple fact, that the economy is a complex technical thing, and does not follow simple moral heuristics. Basically the point that Keynes was trying to make when he was debating that the health of the economy was more important than the "sin" of abandoning the gold standard. It does not matter whether you like it or don't like it, it's reality, and denying reality is foolish. Foolishness is what causes most of the bad outcomes we see in the world, including the bleak lives of so many who were victims of good intentions which I gave examples of in my post. When people convince themselves that it's unfair to make unemployed people leave their apartments and are then shocked, shocked, that rental rates go up, that is foolishness. When people convince themselves that everyone should go to college, and are shocked, shocked that we have an army of unskilled workers, it is again foolishness. When people decide that advanced placement is unfair because the rich benefit and are then shocked, shocked that the rich end up benefiting even more as only private schools have advanced placement, then this is even more foolishness. But some people insist on living a world where society makes foolish choices rather than wise choices. Fortunately societies with too many such people don't last very long.
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xyzelement 5y ago
I expect the person you're responding to was describing how the economy works, not moralizing how he wishes it worked - which is what you're doing. You may be familiar with the metaphor of growing and dividing the pie. The hard thing is to make the pie large. It's much easier to divide the pie. If the pie is huge, even an 'unequal' distribution of pieces is an improvement over no pie. When people obsess about dividing the pie equally, they always ignore how the pie is grown in the first place. This is what happened to us in the USSR - we were all equal but nobody had anything.

rsj_hn 5y ago

No, it's really not. It's just the statement of a simple fact, that the economy is a complex technical thing, and does not follow simple moral heuristics. Basically the point that Keynes was trying to make when he was debating that the health of the economy was more important than the "sin" of abandoning the gold standard. It does not matter whether you like it or don't like it, it's reality, and denying reality is foolish. Foolishness is what causes most of the bad outcomes we see in the world, including the bleak lives of so many who were victims of good intentions which I gave examples of in my post. When people convince themselves that it's unfair to make unemployed people leave their apartments and are then shocked, shocked, that rental rates go up, that is foolishness. When people convince themselves that everyone should go to college, and are shocked, shocked that we have an army of unskilled workers, it is again foolishness. When people decide that advanced placement is unfair because the rich benefit and are then shocked, shocked that the rich end up benefiting even more as only private schools have advanced placement, then this is even more foolishness. But some people insist on living a world where society makes foolish choices rather than wise choices. Fortunately societies with too many such people don't last very long.

deleted 5y ago

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xyzelement 5y ago

I expect the person you're responding to was describing how the economy works, not moralizing how he wishes it worked - which is what you're doing. You may be familiar with the metaphor of growing and dividing the pie. The hard thing is to make the pie large. It's much easier to divide the pie. If the pie is huge, even an 'unequal' distribution of pieces is an improvement over no pie. When people obsess about dividing the pie equally, they always ignore how the pie is grown in the first place. This is what happened to us in the USSR - we were all equal but nobody had anything.