Re: People who think that "rational economic man" is sociopathic might find this a bit humorous

[Eugene Coyle <eugenecoyle@xxxxxxx>]

I recall the Sandwichman being very good on this point a while back.  He pointed out that "their" story is so deeply entrenched that any challenge to it is treated as coming from a crank.  That someone telling an alternate story to, say, a journalist or legislator,  must first give a complicated explanation of esoteric material, and then convince the sceptic that the new story is a better one.  I've been facing this problem for years, with minimal success.  I think nevertheless that this is our job.  
    Someone like Murtha can get traction with a new story -- but even he gets Swift-boated.

I'm less worried about Autoplectic's lament for Bush's problem about finding economists to come up with a version of the story that works for him.  Just a hiccup in the game.  Unless, of course, Armageddon really is coming to your neighborhood.

Gene Coyle
   

Michael Nuwer wrote:

--- Eugene Coyle <eugenecoyle@xxxxxxx> wrote:

  

Basically we need a story to replace the story
neoclassical economists
tell.  Their story is accepted by policy makers and
journalists, partly
because it supports the right interests, partly
because it has been
accepted so long by so many.

but it is a battle of stories, rather than somehow
educating economists,
that we should focus on.
    

In my opinion, the obstacle to an alternative story is
that there is enough truth in the neoclassical story
to convince people that it is a valid story. One of
the more important things that I have learned from Kay
Hunt is that capitalist ideology (and neoclassical
theory) contains a grain of truth about our society.
Not that it's a universal truth, nor that it's a full
truth; but that the relations and processes of
capitalism tends to create homo economicus and this
creation is the part that neoclassical theory
captures.

In another thread, yesterday, Michael Lebowitz hints
at this point, and some of the issues it raises for
story telling, when he writes: "The point that
immediately comes to mind, though, is that the
uncertainty in an atomistic world where people are
separated by markets and have the incentive to hide
their intentions (even if deigning to cooperate on
occasion) is not the same as the uncertainty that
would exist where there are social institutions being
developed to facilitate the exchange of information
and thus the reduction of uncertainty."

The story that neoclassicals tell is plausible to many
who live in this atomisitic world where people are
separated by markets. Given this world, what kind of
story can you or I tell that doesn't appear to be a
fantasy? (I mean this as a sincere question, for I'm
struggling to find such a story.)

Michael Nuwer


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