Thursday, March 30, 2006

Surprise!! A New Study Finds that Economists are the Most Ruthless People

A post on the comment is free website.

It is surprising how few people, at least the arm-chair types, know that Adam Smith wrote a book called Theory of Moral Sentiments. If you talk to these Ayn Rand groupies (which is their idea of a "philosopher") about sentiments, morality and virtue you will be denounced as a sissy and logically challenged, while they continue with their utterly horrible caricature of human agency. It really bugs me!

4 comments:

Alok said...

I don't think the study could have a final scientific validity, or for that matter any such study could have a scientific validity...

but i think there is a serious problem with how economists treat people as mathematical abstractions. the "methodological individualism" is a caricature, nothing else. it allows them to make fancy mathematical models but it also leaves out so much of the real world.

i am not a economsist, so i won't say much :)

wildflower seed said...

:)

I'll let it pass.

Alok said...

V, Sometimes I think who I hate more, lawyers or economists? hahaha :-)

Gv, not just ceteris paribus, its the delusion that all their betas and gammas and all those fancy curves have anything to do with the real world that looms large on all economics departments all over the world. And then their gall to recommend their theories to policy makers which will supposedly make this world a better place to live in!!

Ahh, too much bile in the morning I guess ;)

Alok said...

I wonder why the economist jokes are not as famous as the lawyer ones...

http://paul.merton.ox.ac.uk/work/economists.html

http://netec.mcc.ac.uk/JokEc.html