Forum Post: Economics is not science, not art, not humanities but simply religion.
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 10, 2011, 12:48 p.m. EST by odiug
(93)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Since today in Oslo Norway the Nobel price for economics was announced, i thought, regardless of the quality of the Nobel price it self to kommet it with this nice post from the UK!
"I’m about to start my 3rd (and final) year at uni in a week, and if there’s one thing I’ve learnt about Economics it’s that the whole subject is not science, not art, not humanities but simply religion. Unfortunately at UK Universities, you have to select your subject in your first year, unlike the US when you receive a broader education and only declare your major in your 2nd or 3rd year. I wish the UK system was like that, because it would have given me the chance to drop this useless subject for something more useful.
The first “fact” that my lecturer imparted onto me was that “resources are scarce”. IMO resources are not scarce, it’s simply that the distribution of these resource is ridiculously uneven, both locally and globally. And yet my professors with phds were there, in front of me, and saying with a straight face that resources were scarce???!! Anyone with two eyes can tell that there are enough resources for us to feed, clothe and look after each and every person in our country, and if simply reallocate some extra resources to the developing countries, we can start to alleviate their problems also. "
yes, in order to get to relevant science you have to go to systems theory, game theory, and sociology.
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You obviously didn't pay attention to the lecture. Resources are scarce when their supply is finite and demand for said resource exceeds that supply. The opposite of this would be a free good such as oxygen. Grain is a scarce resource because the amount of grain in existence is less than the amount of grain desired by people. Since you are an economics student (albeit with no understanding of the simplest of economic concepts), you should know that human wants are unlimited. So question for you: If grain is not a scarce resource, why are you and everyone else in the world willing to pay for it?
good response! And yes ... this statement, which is by the way not mine, i can not claim copy right on it, is a little over simplifying. But the basic point, that economics is manly based on believes and rarely on facts, verified by proven observations is in my humble opinion true. But by the way ... the supplies of grain is not really determent by the desire for grain but by the desire for profit! And i do not think, that wants of humans are unlimited ... some wants of some humans are unlimited ...
I do believe that the three courses of humanity has always been; ideology, theology and currency. I tend to agree but unfortunately in this form of society that we live today production and consumption is measured by false economic values in order to be able to deceive the population, is a sort of control slavery, where the slave must pay for his own expenses. The same can be said about our monetary system, why there is a need to constantly readjust the value of the currency. Why there is a need to purposely create inflation, unemployment and to slow the industrial production? The answer is simple ultimate control over humanity. Think how sad it is to exist in our society with the sole purpose of produce, consume, paid tax and to be indoctrinated into believe that, after all this horrible exploitation, we are going to heaven.
Economics is built on models of how the economy works. They are simplified models that need careful use and interpretation, but they have proven useful in making predictions about how the future economy will play out. That is they have predictive power and are to that extent scientific.
That might be the case ... but creationism is also a model, how the world was created! It is still wrong! I think, that this post puts the finger on an wound in our educational system how economics are taught! If only Freedman and the Chicago boy are dominant on our universities you do not have to wonder, why we have only little Freedmans and Chicago Boys controlling our economy!
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/was-failure-inevitable/
You see ... my problem is not that economics is "wrong"! My problem is, as stated in the post from the UK, that the way we teach economics is wrong! And if this is true, the models based on those teachings are mostly wrong too! eg. Triple down economics ... what a peace of crab! The idea to stuff the rich, so they are getting so fat that may be there will be something left from the table for the middle class is quite ludicrous! The problem is, that instead of leaving something on the table for the rest of us, the rich eat it all! and if they can't eat anything anymore, they empty there stomach by vomiting all over us and start again eating like locus! And at the moment, we are trying to rid our self of the vomit!
Just as there are wars among creationists and evolutionists exists the same fight also trickledown to the economy where two major points of views seems too disagreed.
The Chicago School of Economics represents the views of the left who does endorse the Keynesian theory of macroeconomics who recognizes only the government to be in charge of the economy. See more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keynesian_economics Democrats does embrace this vision of economics.
The Austrian Schools of Economics represents of the right who endorse von Misses theory of macro economics who recognizes only the free-market to be in charge of the economy. See more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_School Republicans does embrace this vision of economics.
Yes, as Paul has pointed out numerous times.
Well ... the point i am trying to make is, in order to change to economic system, we have to change how economics is taught! It is as important, as to change economics it self. This movement has to get not only on the campus of our universities it has to get in the class room! And the first idea we have to rid our self from is, that resources are scare! In fact, they are not! We have enough grain to feed the world ... more than enough!
That, too.