Economics teaching has become the Aeroflot of ideas. The discipline is failing students by ignoring the biggest social, political and ecological challenges facing the world today

[u/Maxwellsdemon17]

https://www.ft.com/content/9aabb4a9-d896-4b4c-a40a-1c4477a47a29

[u/TheShipEliza]

hi. econn grad here. contemporary academic econ does some good work. there are teachers/scholars who are using the discipline to explain what is going on. but a HUGE part of the academy is dedicated, more or less, to magical thinking about capitalism. and their sole devotion is effectively creating a secular framework for a kind of recursive prosperity gospel where, if you have the money you understand the system and the system works. and if you don't have the money it is because you don't understand the system and cannot make it work.

[u/snooze_sensei → u/TheShipEliza]

I've had this argument with a Co worker of mine who writes curriculum for Economics.

He argues that Economics is a science and has scientific laws that are universal. I argue that Economics is a social construct, and that the laws of economics are simply the agreed upon rules of the game. At best a social science.

He says I'm crazy.

[u/jenpalex → u/snooze_sensei]

Ask him what reliable, repeatable findings this discipline are?

The fundamental problem of economics as a scientific discipline is complexity.

Science works stunningly well on simple subjects of enquiry. Every hydrogen atom behaves the same and keeps on behaving the same.

Using the simple mathematics of physics to predict behaviour is unlikely to work and it doesn’t. But since the 1950s it has been applied to economics with increasing rigour. It is impossible to gain credit within the discipline unless you can invert a 9 times 9 matrix in you head.

But all biological individuals must be different, otherwise evolution doesn’t work.

Humans are even more complex. They have different cultures and change constantly as they learn from experience.

The mathematics of Complexity is relatively undeveloped and, as far as I know,has yet to lead to any better predictions.

The depth of the problem is ironically illustrated by this comment on r/Economics :

“ [–]Arenavil 1 point 1 month ago Ha-Joon Chang has been writing this same garbage op ed for 20 years. Amazing that the financial times fell for it again”

[u/Brinabavd → u/jenpalex]

"Simple mathematics of physics" peak Reddit sophistry lmao

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_auction

Is an example where theory and observed behavior line up well, for example.

[u/jenpalex → u/Brinabavd]

1. That’s a start from a sub-field. Hardly Newtonian Mechanics, General Relativity or Quantum Mechanics.

Keep going!

Oh by the way has it been tested over a range of cultures? Over what time period has it held up?