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>Because neoclassical economics does not even acknowledge the costs of environmental problems and the limits to economic growth Econophysics is really crank st
by _v7gu 5y ago
>Because neoclassical economics does not even acknowledge the costs of environmental problems and the limits to economic growth
Econophysics is really crank stuff but some people really like to shit on econ without knowing a tenth of the discourse in the field. How can someone not have heard of carbon taxes or balanced growth paths?
What's funnier is that you both are revealing that either you don't know the methodology of solving economics models, or don't know what the physics equations represent. Nature acts to minimize convex functions while economic agents move to maximize concave ones. Of course the solutions end up the same.
Don't think that our utility functions are correct or actual people act differently? Honestly only having profits to maximize is just a good first order approximation. That's why we have an entire field working on supposedly irrational behavior and backing up everything with data and experiments.
Now economics does have its huge problems, but things aren't as simple as this. But if you still see a huge problem, just get your correct model, back your results with data and enjoy getting the Nobel prize.
- choward 5y ago> But if you still see a huge problem, just get your correct model, back your results with data and enjoy getting the Nobel prize. The "Nobel prize" for economics isn't a real Nobel prize. It was made up to make economists feel better. From Wikipedia: > He explained that "Nobel despised people who cared more about profits than society's well-being", saying that "There is nothing to indicate that he would have wanted such a prize", and that the association with the Nobel prizes is "a PR coup by economists to improve their reputation" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Memorial_Prize_in_Economic_Sciences https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Memorial_Prize_in_Econ...
- _v7gu 5y ago> Nobel despised people who cared more about profits than society's well-being Good thing the prize isn't for Business Administration then. Also ironic, since it's economics which studies anti-trust and gives legitimacy to strike down such practices.
- mhh__ 5y agoDoesn't really matter in practice, IMO.
- fhood 5y agoSeconded. Blindly implying that economists of all groups are blatantly appropriating math from other fields without understanding it seems a step too far to me. I'm sure it happens, but I've worked in conjunction with people writing computer models to study certain economic subsystems and virtually everybody involved had a serious academic background in mathematics.