[lbo-talk] Wealth Distribution & Kinetic Theory

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Tue Apr 24 10:42:19 PDT 2007


Jerry:

Thanks Woj, but I am still looking for deeper answers besides a critique of ideology so if you of anyone else wants to try to answer or reform my questions I would be grateful.

[WS:] I did not criticize ideology but the application of the model. The model applies to particles because their thermodynamics properties are fixed or at least predictable, therefore it is possible to model their behavior that way. However, it is foolish to claim that human behavior is fixed in the same as thermodynamic properties of the particles are - hence the application of the model to the human behavior problem is questionable.

Stated differently, the model is simply looking for mathematical correlations without a clearly specified causal relationship. Or perhaps it implies that correlation equals causation by stipulating that humans behave like particles.

This argument is basically a drunkard's search - he lost hi wallet in an alley but is looking for it on the street because there are street lights there. Pointing out that the effort is misguided because it is applied to a wrong area is a valid criticism. Of course, an economist would answer "let's assume that I lost it on the street" and continue his effort - these guys are immune to reality just as the medieval theologians were.

Wojtek



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