Re: Equilibrium, stasis and death <9401181758.AA07494@mason1.gmu.edu>

[wpc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 19 Jan 94 11:10 GMT]

In reply to Brad Cox, I would suggest that the centrality of
equilibria in economic theory has two origins:
1) The economy like an organism is at first approximation a
self reproducing system. Hence from the physiocrats in the 1700s
one concern has been to show how self reproduction is possible.
Now of course self reproduction is only a first approximation
of either an organism or an economy, in practice they change
and evolve over time, and it should in principle be possible to
extend a reproduction model to handle this. I suspect that
the computational complexity of doing this will have put people
off until recently.
2) The second reason is that economics unlike physics has a
primarilly ideological function, and only secondarily a practical
function. Its purpose is to justify or criticise existing social
relations. It is easier to claim that all is for the best in
the best of all possible worlds if you restrict your set of
the possible to models in static equilibrium.

Paul Cockshott
Dept Computer Science
University of Strathclyde