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Econ 101 is killing America
Forget the dumbed-down garbage most economists spew. Their myths are causing tragic results for everyday Americans
BY ROBERT ATKINSON AND MICHAEL LIND
Instead of a random copy/paste, why don't you summarize the article and then give us your opinion and any questions you might have to get the thread started in a certain direction?
While it is right that things people learn in Econ 101 aren't applicible to a mobile, globally integrated world...they do know that economists take many more classes than Econ 101 right?
It's not that economists only spew things from Econ 101, it's that economists need to sell it to people in order to impliment. You get people who can't balance their flippen checkbook, and often haven't taken math since high school, making policy whose eyes glaze over when economists start talking about indifference curves and regression analysis. It's like only letting a doctor give patients medications if they can understand the biological mechanism in which it works...and blaming the doctor if they can't.
Although we can all question the soundness of the economic theories in vogue, I don't think that touches the real problem. We really should question why we have a small number of elected and non-elected bureaucrats managing the affairs of billions of people. There are trillions of value decisions to be made every day and I think most of those should be left to the people affected and not directed by a distant uninformed stranger. This micromanagement can and will degrade all activities.
The article has some legitimacy (I only skimmed it though) .
I hold an economics degree. I think the profession is full of belly floppers, hypocrites, egotistical morons barely qualified to run a McDonalds. Most of them care not for reality, and prefer to focus on how they perceive the world should be.
The ruling theory of economics of the past 30-40 years have completely failed to deliver on what it was supposed to deliver, yet people keep pushing those theories.
The article has some legitimacy (I only skimmed it though) .
I hold an economics degree. I think the profession is full of belly floppers, hypocrites, egotistical morons barely qualified to run a McDonalds. Most of them care not for reality, and prefer to focus on how they perceive the world should be.
The ruling theory of economics of the past 30-40 years have completely failed to deliver on what it was supposed to deliver, yet people keep pushing those theories.
I disagree. There's no consensus when it comes to macroeconomics which the controversy of Reinhart-Rogoff along with the inconsistencies when it comes to monetary policy at the zero bound clearly illustrate. When it comes to microeconomics, there is a broad consensus and even though I'm not an economics major I do know from people who have completed in graduate studies in it that you're basically told to forget everything you know once you get into upper level courses since it's a lot more nuanced than minimum wage laws = unemployment and so forth.
Economics is a theory. Nothing can be proven, and there are many different models and theories within economics itself. So more specifically, what form economics is killing America? Is it our version of capitalism that's killing the country, or perhaps China's model of government subsidized pseudo socialism/communism?
I believe the drive toward efficiency in the free market is also displacing a lot of workers, and they are getting caught up in our safety net. Yes, our safety net and sissy nanny state is expanding. It's not so much by force, but more so because more are qualifying for various government handouts. Most of this is due to stiff global competition and the drive towards efficiency, which results in stagnant/falling wages, instability in the workforce and unemployment. From a business standpoint, fewer workers = good. From an economic standpoint, this creates income disparity, which isn't good.
As a worker, it is my job to be as efficient as possible. My employer is left with more money at the end of the year, and I receive a portion of the plunder in bonuses and raises. This also means fewer workers earning a wage with which they can stimulate the economy. Companies around the country have noticed there is big money in trimming expenses and eliminating jobs.
I disagree. There's no consensus when it comes to macroeconomics which the controversy of Reinhart-Rogoff along with the inconsistencies when it comes to monetary policy at the zero bound clearly illustrate. When it comes to microeconomics, there is a broad consensus and even though I'm not an economics major I do know from people who have completed in graduate studies in it that you're basically told to forget everything you know once you get into upper level courses since it's a lot more nuanced than minimum wage laws = unemployment and so forth.
All my economics teachers admitted that the lower level of economics classes were flawed. There are two distinct ways it's taught in the schools today, and there are seldom the two ways at one school. It's very "club" like. Then part of the issue is it's kind of become entangled with business schools, which is a serious flaw. Economics should be kept as far away from the business school as possible.
It's not a science, not how it's practiced. It's about personal theories. The charts all broke their patterns around the same year after decades of stability, leading up to our current problems. Little attention is given to them. The Great Depression and Great Recession had too many similarities in their causes, the latter could have been prevented, but was caused because they did the same things over.
There is plenty of data out there, but economists pick and choose what to include. It's a highly biased business the way it's practiced, with zero accountability.
Capital-ism is the worship of money
Social-ism is the worship of taking money from the rich and giving it to the poor.
Any one for amoral economics?
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