[PEN-L:2608] Re: Immutability of Subjects

[Brad De Long <delong@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>
>> Which group of idiots assumes "subjects are immutable"?  Why does
>> anybody pay any attention to them?
>
>Most economists do, with their neoclassical models and schemes of
>rationality...
>
>-- Dennis

Economics is hard enough to do without thinking about the mutability of the
subject too. (Gary Becker and company have been trying to think about the
economics of addiction; and George Constantinides has been trying to think
about investors' extraordinary aversion to stock market risk as a result of
the fact that being rich *changes* you, so that you can no longer be happy
if stock market losses forced you back into middle-class consumption
patterns. I think both have been spinning their wheels.)

We are happy enough to hand over the mutability of the subject to the
sociologists, and have been waiting for them to report back for a long
time...


Brad DeLong