tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910925102347498027.post8237112816202589312..comments2023-11-15T06:24:37.082-05:00Comments on The Rectification of Names: Moral hazardous wasteYastreblyanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08335868257729063363noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910925102347498027.post-33856507280625727062013-03-02T10:27:26.628-05:002013-03-02T10:27:26.628-05:00It's so hard for me to tell with economics whe...It's so hard for me to tell with economics when it's them selling bullshit and when it's me being not smart enough to get it. I think the official line about the rational selfish subject means they can't appeal to history directly, because that's where social science keeps all its irrationality. And unselfishness for that matter. Which to me would mean it's not about human beings at all and therefore its conclusions are irrelevant to us, but I know that can't be entirely fair. And then there are economists like Krugman whose academic work is as abstract and meaningless-looking as anybody else's but who are led by it to political positions that are not that different from ours.<br /><br />But when it comes to what "works", that's not science any more but applied science, with a value system plugged into it, and we who care a lot about values are entitled to speak. And those Moral Hazard people really are sociopaths, I think, and fools too. And have all the power. Sigh!Yastreblyanskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08335868257729063363noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910925102347498027.post-87878794476676062912013-03-01T23:03:11.818-05:002013-03-01T23:03:11.818-05:00I understand that the study of economics is consid...I understand that the study of economics is considered a science, which would, I think, mean that when people think about economics, they derive their ideas about what should work from what has worked in the past. The livelihoods of people, their access to essential supplies like food and water and medicines, and the like would prevent all but true sociopaths, from actually seeing one's fellow humans as economic experimental subjects, and yet history provides great examples from which one could, of one chose, garner a pretty good idea of what does and doesn't work.<br /><br />Which is why I am sometimes alarmed that economics in practice is more like a freshman creative writing course than anything like a science. Maybe a remedial freshman creative writing course. Populated by very uncreative students.Vixen Strangelyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01976594951225450413noreply@blogger.com