[lbo-talk] Decoding Economic Ideology

Shane Mage shmage at pipeline.com
Wed Dec 22 08:27:55 PST 2010


On Dec 22, 2010, at 10:47 AM, Wojtek S wrote:
> Brian Arthur - a key proponent of the path
> dependency modeling which negates the decreasing utility "principle"
> that
> underlies marginal analysis - noted that fellow economists rejected
> his idea
> of "increased returns"

"Increased returns to scale" is the economic ideology of Stalinism. "Increased marginal utility" is another word for addictive (self- reinforcing) behavior. "Modern" economists reject the decreasing marginal utility principle because if they accepted it they would have to admit that every form of income-inequality as such diminishes total social welfare.

Shane Mage

"When we read on a printed page the doctrine of Pythagoras that all things are made of numbers, it seems mystical, mystifying, even downright silly.

When we read on a computer screen the doctrine of Pythagoras that all things are made of numbers, it seems self-evidently true." (N. Weiner)



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