Economists are Not Humans

Sir Barken Hyena writes:

Economists are not humans. Reminders are never far away but this is a good one.

“It’s overwhelmingly likely that we’re going to want the public sector to be a larger share of the economy in 10, 20, 30, 40 years than it is today and we need to find relatively growth-friendly ways to make that happen.”

First of all, who’s this “we”, white woman? What’s overwhelmingly likely is bankruptcy, which just might bother a few people out there, like, you know, voters for example. Is the response to that likely going to be an increase in trust of the government? How far up your own bubble can you go? And what a failure of imagination, poised as we are on the cusp of an age of unknowable change from a 1000 directions.

That’s from Matt Yglesias, not himself an economist. I’m also referring to the comments on the post, which are from economists: you can tell by the whiff of Asperger’s wafting off the page. Note how no one questions this premise! Like docile little sheep they follow him into this non-argument.

About Sir Barken Hyena

IT professional and veteran of start ups. Life long musician and songwriter. Voracious reader of dead white guys. Lover of food and women.

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6 Responses to Economists are Not Humans

Epiminondas says:

October 9, 2012 at 6:08 pm

To argue otherwise would be to accept limits. To accept limits is to admit prioritization. To accept prioritization is to admit the existence of human nature. And once you admit the existence of human nature, you have thrown in the towel on socialism. Can’t have that, can we?

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Sir Barken Hyena says:

October 9, 2012 at 7:18 pm

Very good argument, almost as devastating as what you did to the Spartans at Leuctra.

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Toddy Cat says:

October 9, 2012 at 7:55 pm

Matt Yglesias is for entertainment purposes only. Never take anything he says seriously, you’ll just drive yourself nuts.

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Blowhard, Esq. says:

October 12, 2012 at 5:23 am

I like how the article starts out saying “Democrats and Republicans both have good points when it comes to this issue,” but ends by saying Republicans “ignore reality.”

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- contemplationist says:
  
  October 14, 2012 at 4:31 am
  
  The ‘Reality-Based Community’ has a monopoly on reality and realistic thinking. They confirm the truth of this statement with their firm beliefs in reality-based statements like:
  
  1 – Race is just a social construct
  2 – Poverty causes crime
  3 – Raising carbon taxes will reduce carbon consumption
  &
  4 – Raising income taxes will not change income-seeking behavior
  …etc.
  
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