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Economics - the business of creating a cover story for whatever the rich want to do. All dressed up in mathematically rigorous fictions claiming to model realit

by jgeada 1y ago

Economics - the business of creating a cover story for whatever the rich want to do. All dressed up in mathematically rigorous fictions claiming to model reality so it cannot be questioned by the hoi polloi. Never matters whether the forecast predictions ever match reality. They serve the same role that soothsayers and captive religions used to play.

mason_mpls 1y ago
Econ 102 taught me most markets are not perfectly competitive and how to measure monopolistic control over markets. That and how to measure value each country gets from trading goods based on specialization. This is conspiratorial anti science rhetoric, any econ student will tell you isn’t the case.
- littlestymaar 1y ago
  “Most market are not perfectly competitive” is the econ version of “the earth is not perfectly flat”. When you say something preposterous in the first place, saying “it's not perfectly accurate” a bit later is never going to be enough.
  - mason_mpls 1y ago
    I opened with that because the person I’m replying to is claiming Econ is libertarian-esque propaganda
    - littlestymaar 1y ago
      You are mixing things up: - libertarianism derives from a fringe branch of economics (the Austrian school) which is an heterodoxy. - but mainstream economics, the classical branch then the neoclassical synthesis, is nonetheless heavily ideological (markets being seen as inherently good, even though they are often imperfect in the real world). And when you have a clique going as far as making their own apocryphal “Nobel prize” in order to promote their views and establish scientific credibility to political leaders, calling it “propaganda” is not entirely unwarranted.
lanfeust6 1y ago
This sort of fanciful projection seems common with progressives who don't know anything about the subject.
- jgeada 1y ago
  Economics can't predict what should be one of the most important and fundamental property of markets: inflation (aka how prices move) https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/12/opinion/inflation-economics-economists.html https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/12/opinion/inflation-economi... Any "science" whose theories aren't falsifiable and cannot make useful predictions of future behavior isn't a science.
  - daedrdev 1y ago
    The three body problem means that we cannot predict the future of orbits of planets. Clearly astronomy is a science anyway. Since the economy is made up of individuals who make chaotic choices, I think anyone claiming to be able to predict inflation perfectly is a charlatan. Especially since businesses and consumers react to the inflation predictions themselves which make them obsolete the moment they are published.
    - bigbadfeline 1y ago
      > The three body problem means that we cannot predict the future of orbits of planets. Only an economist could write something so far from the truth. Astronomers do predict how everything moves, with great precision. The 3-body problem is unsolvable IN GENERAL aka "it has no general closed-form solution, meaning there is no equation that always solves it" However, all specific REAL cases are solvable, each with their own equations, not by substituting in one general equation. I could say a lot more about it but I know economists only pretend to understand math and I'd be wasting my time. Besides, the contemporary economists specialize in gaslighting shamanism, an example of which is bringing up the 3-body problem into a discussion of the absolute impotence of academia economics compared to "we can do everything" technology fields.
throw0101d 1y ago
> Economics - the business of creating a cover story for whatever the rich want to do. … excepting those who call bad ideas "bad ideas" even if they help the rich: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_experiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_experiment * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Cuts_and_Jobs_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Cuts_and_Jobs_Act

by jgeada 1y ago

mason_mpls 1y ago

Econ 102 taught me most markets are not perfectly competitive and how to measure monopolistic control over markets. That and how to measure value each country gets from trading goods based on specialization. This is conspiratorial anti science rhetoric, any econ student will tell you isn’t the case.

littlestymaar 1y ago
“Most market are not perfectly competitive” is the econ version of “the earth is not perfectly flat”. When you say something preposterous in the first place, saying “it's not perfectly accurate” a bit later is never going to be enough.
- mason_mpls 1y ago
  I opened with that because the person I’m replying to is claiming Econ is libertarian-esque propaganda
  - littlestymaar 1y ago
    You are mixing things up: - libertarianism derives from a fringe branch of economics (the Austrian school) which is an heterodoxy. - but mainstream economics, the classical branch then the neoclassical synthesis, is nonetheless heavily ideological (markets being seen as inherently good, even though they are often imperfect in the real world). And when you have a clique going as far as making their own apocryphal “Nobel prize” in order to promote their views and establish scientific credibility to political leaders, calling it “propaganda” is not entirely unwarranted.

lanfeust6 1y ago

This sort of fanciful projection seems common with progressives who don't know anything about the subject.

jgeada 1y ago
Economics can't predict what should be one of the most important and fundamental property of markets: inflation (aka how prices move) https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/12/opinion/inflation-economics-economists.html https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/12/opinion/inflation-economi... Any "science" whose theories aren't falsifiable and cannot make useful predictions of future behavior isn't a science.
- daedrdev 1y ago
  The three body problem means that we cannot predict the future of orbits of planets. Clearly astronomy is a science anyway. Since the economy is made up of individuals who make chaotic choices, I think anyone claiming to be able to predict inflation perfectly is a charlatan. Especially since businesses and consumers react to the inflation predictions themselves which make them obsolete the moment they are published.
  - bigbadfeline 1y ago
    > The three body problem means that we cannot predict the future of orbits of planets. Only an economist could write something so far from the truth. Astronomers do predict how everything moves, with great precision. The 3-body problem is unsolvable IN GENERAL aka "it has no general closed-form solution, meaning there is no equation that always solves it" However, all specific REAL cases are solvable, each with their own equations, not by substituting in one general equation. I could say a lot more about it but I know economists only pretend to understand math and I'd be wasting my time. Besides, the contemporary economists specialize in gaslighting shamanism, an example of which is bringing up the 3-body problem into a discussion of the absolute impotence of academia economics compared to "we can do everything" technology fields.

throw0101d 1y ago

> Economics - the business of creating a cover story for whatever the rich want to do. … excepting those who call bad ideas "bad ideas" even if they help the rich: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_experiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_experiment * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Cuts_and_Jobs_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Cuts_and_Jobs_Act