by The general equilibrium fixation As already stated, it is a complete misnomer to call the conditions under which the general economic equilibrium is discussed “free” or “perfect competition” … My quarrel is, however, not primarily with the word “competition,” but rather with the concentration on that largely irrelevant subject matter, whatever name is given to it. It is hard to explain the persistence of this fixation; perhaps it is the silent recognition that facing the real world, the empirically given problem, means the overthrow of much of established, cherished doctrine, and in its wake the abandonment of certain mathematical tools which have become dear to so many … “Free competition,” now the center and starting point of economic theorizing, will
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Lars Pålsson Syll considers the following as important: Economics
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The general equilibrium fixation
As already stated, it is a complete misnomer to call the conditions under which the general economic equilibrium is discussed “free” or “perfect competition” … My quarrel is, however, not primarily with the word “competition,” but rather with the concentration on that largely irrelevant subject matter, whatever name is given to it. It is hard to explain the persistence of this fixation; perhaps it is the silent recognition that facing the real world, the empirically given problem, means the overthrow of much of established, cherished doctrine, and in its wake the abandonment of certain mathematical tools which have become dear to so many … “Free competition,” now the center and starting point of economic theorizing, will be recognized as what it is: a pathological, limiting case of possible economic organization, millions of miles from any reality we have ever known through the ages.