4 ms·

I don't care about the economy. It is something made up to justify all sorts of evils. Who cares if it helped or hurted it. The economy is easily manipulated by

I don't care about the economy. It is something made up to justify all sorts of evils. Who cares if it helped or hurted it. The economy is easily manipulated by the wealthy from job numbers to inflation. What matters is how is it impacting the bottom-half. Telling a large percentage of the population that the economy is booming when they can't even afford basic needs does nothing for them.

tiahura 4y ago
The poor are more sensitive to economic cycles than the rich.
- black_13 4y ago
galaxyLogic 4y ago
You are right the "economy" is too much of an abstraction to throw around as a single word. Still people do need jobs. But more than that they need equal rights and democracy, and literacy and a safety-net. The slave-economy of South was doing great as well. Everybody had a job. But what kind of job.
- WalterBright 4y ago
  > The slave-economy of South was doing great Not really. Their economy was in crisis which is one of the main reasons they tried to secede. Slave labor could not compete with free labor.
  - galaxyLogic 4y ago
    I thought the reason they wanted to secede was to allow them keep their slaves. No? Why would they want to keep their slaves so much so that they would go to war over that? I assume it was because slavery was good for THEIR (meaning the slave-owning class) economy. If as you say "Slave labor could not compete with free labor" then why didn't they (the slave-owning class) switch to free labor ASAP?
anon291 4y ago
Crypto is part of the 'economy', and actually, in my opinion, the forces that drove crypto up also have caused the current inflationary bout.
aussiesnack 4y ago
> I don't care about the economy. It's impossible to care about 'the economy' because it doesn't exist. It's grist to economics' lit-crit, and as such there are as many imagined 'economies' as there are critics, but none maps on to natural kinds. One day there might be a science of some of the phenomena currently scrutinised by economists. It will be a branch of the ecological sciences.
- jamesdwilson 4y ago
  Really interesting perspective. Do you know of philosophers or economists that I could read that follow this line of thinking?
  - aussiesnack 4y ago
    I honestly don't. My first degree was in philosophy, but it wasn't an area I focused on. I'd be surprised if no-one has done something on the topic more rigorous than fly-by internet comments by the likes of me - some of the heterodox economists perhaps? Or eco-philosophers? It's long been clear to me that the theoretical end of the economics spectrum doesn't supervene over real physical systems. It's a technically fancy adumbration of fictions (money etc). Historically-informed political economy is, of course, a different matter.
    - jamesdwilson 4y ago
      fascinating! please do go on, or if possible maybe you could suggest some keywords or links for us, i want to dive deep on this.

tiahura 4y ago

The poor are more sensitive to economic cycles than the rich.

black_13 4y ago

galaxyLogic 4y ago

You are right the "economy" is too much of an abstraction to throw around as a single word. Still people do need jobs. But more than that they need equal rights and democracy, and literacy and a safety-net. The slave-economy of South was doing great as well. Everybody had a job. But what kind of job.

WalterBright 4y ago
> The slave-economy of South was doing great Not really. Their economy was in crisis which is one of the main reasons they tried to secede. Slave labor could not compete with free labor.
- galaxyLogic 4y ago
  I thought the reason they wanted to secede was to allow them keep their slaves. No? Why would they want to keep their slaves so much so that they would go to war over that? I assume it was because slavery was good for THEIR (meaning the slave-owning class) economy. If as you say "Slave labor could not compete with free labor" then why didn't they (the slave-owning class) switch to free labor ASAP?

anon291 4y ago

Crypto is part of the 'economy', and actually, in my opinion, the forces that drove crypto up also have caused the current inflationary bout.

aussiesnack 4y ago

> I don't care about the economy. It's impossible to care about 'the economy' because it doesn't exist. It's grist to economics' lit-crit, and as such there are as many imagined 'economies' as there are critics, but none maps on to natural kinds. One day there might be a science of some of the phenomena currently scrutinised by economists. It will be a branch of the ecological sciences.

jamesdwilson 4y ago
Really interesting perspective. Do you know of philosophers or economists that I could read that follow this line of thinking?
- aussiesnack 4y ago
  I honestly don't. My first degree was in philosophy, but it wasn't an area I focused on. I'd be surprised if no-one has done something on the topic more rigorous than fly-by internet comments by the likes of me - some of the heterodox economists perhaps? Or eco-philosophers? It's long been clear to me that the theoretical end of the economics spectrum doesn't supervene over real physical systems. It's a technically fancy adumbration of fictions (money etc). Historically-informed political economy is, of course, a different matter.
  - jamesdwilson 4y ago
    fascinating! please do go on, or if possible maybe you could suggest some keywords or links for us, i want to dive deep on this.