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Who exactly are the boogeymen who are tunnel visioned on making "numbers go up"? The vast majority of people's political beliefs instead come from narratives th
by Aunche 3y ago
Who exactly are the boogeymen who are tunnel visioned on making "numbers go up"? The vast majority of people's political beliefs instead come from narratives that resonate with them, which is how you get ridiculous ideas such as degrowth will magically solve climate change and catalyze a proletariat revolution. IMO, we would be in a place if people genuinely tried to shape their beliefs based on raw numbers. In the few instances that people care about numbers, it is to do the opposite: cherry-picking numbers that reinforce their worldview.
- ben_w 3y ago> Who exactly are the boogeymen who are tunnel visioned on making "numbers go up"? If my (literally and proudly to-the-left-of-Castro communist) ex is anything to go by: billionaires. I am not clear if she's representative in this regard, what with her being an actual communist and all.
- Turskarama 3y agoI think this is almost tautologically true though. Why do Billionaires exist? What is the purpose of being a billionaire? They do not need to work to live well, so why do they work at all? A lot of them might say something like "to improve the world" but the fact of the matter is very few of them are willing to actually _spend money_ (i.e. make a loss) on something which can have a massive benefit (to someone else), they will only ever "invest". So I say it's very nearly tautological that Billionaires are _exactly_ the people focused on making numbers go up, since every decision they make seems to ultimately revolve around making this happen.
- nly 3y agoA lot of successful business people are motivated by being the best, or close to the best, in their area of business. It's about power and ego.
- green_man_lives 3y agoI am not even saying that this is a bad point of view, but isn't the belief of most mainstream economists that GDP must grow each year? Also I am not a conspiracy theorist and I don't really have any beef with the WEF, but I mean growth is one of their stated goals. If there was ever an elite boogeyman driving for growth wouldn't they be the obvious candidate? https://www.weforum.org/events/the-growth-summit-jobs-and-opportunity-for-all-2023 https://www.weforum.org/events/the-growth-summit-jobs-and-op... I am not trying to argue I am trying to genuinely answer your question.
- marcosdumay 3y ago> isn't the belief of most mainstream economists I doubt most people around here have had contact with the beliefs of most mainstream economists. (What economist is mainstream anyway?)
- orhmeh09 3y agoGregory Mankiw is pretty mainstream and anyone who's taken an economics class in college is not unlikely to have come in contact with him. Per OpenSyllabus, he is the most frequently cited author in college economics classes: https://opensyllabus.org/results-list/authors?size=50&fields=Economics https://opensyllabus.org/results-list/authors?size=50&fields...
- marcosdumay 3y agoYeah, ok. I haven't studied with his books, so does he think that economical growth is more important than quality of life?
- melagonster 3y agothe Economist who decided policy?
- marcosdumay 3y agoYeah, maybe it's news, but the profession that decides policy isn't called "economist".