--- Carl Remick <carlremick at hotmail.com> wrote: > >From:
"Charles Brown" <CharlesB at CNCL.ci.detroit.mi.us>
> >
> >Isn't the main job of economists to defend exploitation ,
> coming up with a
> >myriad of ways to rationalize it ?
> >
> >Charles
>
> Of course. There is a whole branch of Christian theology,
> apologetics, that
> is devoted to justifying good ol' God's depraved indifference
> and/or
> sadistically punitive behavior toward humankind. It's clear
> how that
> increasingly irrelevant intellectual exercise has been
> retrofitted to meet
> the needs of a secular society. Capitalist apologetics is
> indeed the prime
> preoccupation of the high priests of the marketplace,
> economists.
>
> Carl
>
I agree that the thread title does have a certain flavour of "Famous Bear Shits in Woods", but the actual job of genuine economists is the high-level planning and discussion of the optimisation of the process of production, a useful thing which would be needed in any society not based on household production. In so far as economics is a science, it really has in punditising on the best use for the surplus produced. When the likes of Mankiw start trotting out this kind of stuff, they are committing a professional crime as well as a moral one.
Obviously the fucking Nobel Committee doesn't agree with me 100% on this one. Bastards.
dd
===== ... in countries which do not enjoy Mediterranean sunshine idleness is more difficult, and a great public propaganda will be required to inaugurate it. -- Bertrand Russell
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