I want to caution against dismissing the entire field of economics as if there’s simply nothing of value there at all.
It’s absolutely true that mainstream economics has a lot of problems right now. There’s a serious and endemic issue with “frictionless cows on an infinite plane”; that is, economists building models that have not been tested against reality and then acting as if those models can predict reality.
But economics is a genuinely important field of study that offers invaluable insights about how the world really works. If we want to make evidence based changes to address the most fundamental injustices in our society, we need the kind of insights that economics can provide. We just need those insights to come in forms that are useful.
If you want to a really good intro to what economics should be, by someone who has a great understanding of all of the problems with what economics too often is, I’d highly recommend the channel Unlearning Economics: https://www.youtube.com/@unlearningeconomics9021. He does a great job of demystifying the field while also criticizing it and applying it.
There’s important work out there being done by economists who are working to challenge traditional assumptions and push the field into being something genuinely valuable and useful. Don’t throw their contributions out with the bathwater.
Well, I just reread my comment and realized it could be interpreted to mean I think MMT and economics in general is all bullshit, but I poorly worded it. I actually generally subscribe to MMT myself with some caveats here and there. I was more trying to get at how MMT is great at demonstrating how little economic value is measured by truly objective standards and the dollar only has value because we think it does. Many economists out there would seem to have you believe they have the same predictive power as the field of physics, but like… lol.
Yeah, agreed that economics is necessary as a field of study, and hard agree on Unlearning Economics being a great channel to have a healthy approach to economics in general. Sorry about my poor wording above, but it does appear we don’t really have any disagreement here. Also, I could be wrong; we’re getting into economics afterall.
I want to caution against dismissing the entire field of economics as if there’s simply nothing of value there at all.
It’s absolutely true that mainstream economics has a lot of problems right now. There’s a serious and endemic issue with “frictionless cows on an infinite plane”; that is, economists building models that have not been tested against reality and then acting as if those models can predict reality.
But economics is a genuinely important field of study that offers invaluable insights about how the world really works. If we want to make evidence based changes to address the most fundamental injustices in our society, we need the kind of insights that economics can provide. We just need those insights to come in forms that are useful.
If you want to a really good intro to what economics should be, by someone who has a great understanding of all of the problems with what economics too often is, I’d highly recommend the channel Unlearning Economics: https://www.youtube.com/@unlearningeconomics9021. He does a great job of demystifying the field while also criticizing it and applying it.
There’s important work out there being done by economists who are working to challenge traditional assumptions and push the field into being something genuinely valuable and useful. Don’t throw their contributions out with the bathwater.
Well, I just reread my comment and realized it could be interpreted to mean I think MMT and economics in general is all bullshit, but I poorly worded it. I actually generally subscribe to MMT myself with some caveats here and there. I was more trying to get at how MMT is great at demonstrating how little economic value is measured by truly objective standards and the dollar only has value because we think it does. Many economists out there would seem to have you believe they have the same predictive power as the field of physics, but like… lol.
Yeah, agreed that economics is necessary as a field of study, and hard agree on Unlearning Economics being a great channel to have a healthy approach to economics in general. Sorry about my poor wording above, but it does appear we don’t really have any disagreement here. Also, I could be wrong; we’re getting into economics afterall.