by From deshoebox But mainstream economics must be defended. It must! Can you even imagine what might happen if it were successfully challenged? If people started to doubt the god-like efficiency of markets, the exquisite perfection of economic equilibria, the flawless functioning of billions of transactions conducted on the basis of full information and rational expectations? If people began to ask, “What is the economy really for? What is it supposed to be doing?” and if the new economists began analyzing it based on its inherent purpose instead of…well, whatever they do now? Why, if more than a handful of people started asking why we continually reproduce a system that leads to greater and greater inequality of wealth and income, facilitates the ruthless exploitation of powerless
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from deshoebox
But mainstream economics must be defended. It must! Can you even imagine what might happen if it were successfully challenged? If people started to doubt the god-like efficiency of markets, the exquisite perfection of economic equilibria, the flawless functioning of billions of transactions conducted on the basis of full information and rational expectations? If people began to ask, “What is the economy really for? What is it supposed to be doing?” and if the new economists began analyzing it based on its inherent purpose instead of…well, whatever they do now? Why, if more than a handful of people started asking why we continually reproduce a system that leads to greater and greater inequality of wealth and income, facilitates the ruthless exploitation of powerless people everywhere, and that in the long run will undoubtedly be blamed for the near-destruction of civilization through alteration of the planet’s climate system….the mind reels! It could lead to recognition of universal rights to life and dignity, to limitations on profit-seeking and tax avoidance, to (and I shudder at this thought) the possibility that one of the variants of egalitarian socialism might cease to be a bogeyman used to frighten children and become a political possibility. No, this must not be! Mainstream economics, we will defend you to the death, we will worship you, and we will strike down any who dare question your fundamental tenets!