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Why Are Economists Giving Piketty the Cold Shoulder? (2017)

bostonreview.net

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Re: Why Are Economists Giving Piketty the Cold Shoulder? (2017)

#3
Because, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!".

Economists' careers as receivers of grants, policy advisors, members of prestigious think tanks and organizations, and pundits, depends on being good at promoting whatever aligns with the elite's interests.

The scientific parts of economics are merely applied math (including game theory), and quite basic at that.

The rest are establishment ideology plus/minus some personal improvising to the left or right, and obscurantism, - just like "social science", "political science", "psychology", "architecture" (the conceptual part that gave us the 20th century visual atrocities) and so on.

For real science one needs to stick to physics, chemistry, engineering, and other "hard" stuff.

Heck, even Computer Science itself (whose actual scientific part is basically math as well), is taught, and practiced like fashion, based on commercial trends du jour...

Re: Why Are Economists Giving Piketty the Cold Shoulder? (2017)

#7
post #3

Because, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!". Economists' careers as receivers of grants, policy advisors, members of prestigious think tanks and organizations, and pundits, depends on being good at promoting whatever aligns with the elite's interests. The scientific parts of economics are merely applied math (including game theory), and quite…

FYI: Looks like the back part of your comment got cut off.

Re: Why Are Economists Giving Piketty the Cold Shoulder? (2017)

#8
post #7
post #3

Because, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!". Economists' careers as receivers of grants, policy advisors, members of prestigious think tanks and organizations, and pundits, depends on being good at promoting whatever aligns with the elite's interests. The scientific parts of economics are merely applied math (including game theory), and quite…

FYI: Looks like the back part of your comment got cut off.

Thanks, fixed it. Posted it prematurely to not lose my train of thought, but caught a part midway.

Re: Why Are Economists Giving Piketty the Cold Shoulder? (2017)

#10
post #3

Because, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!". Economists' careers as receivers of grants, policy advisors, members of prestigious think tanks and organizations, and pundits, depends on being good at promoting whatever aligns with the elite's interests. The scientific parts of economics are merely applied math (including game theory), and quite…

> Because, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!".

Alternative hypothesis: they disagree.

Disagreeing isn't ignoring. It isn't a conspiracy. It's just disagreement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Na%C3%AFve_realism_(psychology...

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