Re: Conservation principles

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

The last thing I want to do is descend into mere name calling. I saw, in
the original remark, that rent-seeking was self-evident, whereas
integrity had to be explained. This seemed to me to proceed from certain
assumptions about human nature for which Homo economicus is the familiar
shorthand. That put me in mind of the experimental research showing that
economists as a group more selfishly than non-economists. Perhaps
pathological was too strong a word, but, hey, I'm irresponsbile.

Doug

Doug Henwood [dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx]
Left Business Observer
212-874-4020 (voice)
212-874-3137 (fax)


On Mon, 31 Oct 1994, Herbert Gintis wrote:

> Doug writes:
> >
> >
> >On Sun, 30 Oct 1994, Herbert Gintis wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> 	I don't understand your allusion to Canterbury tale, so I
> >> won't comment on it. As for the rest, the fact that there are
> >> situations in which people do not behave in a rent-seeking manner does
> >> not mean that they never do, or that they infrequently do. It is
> >> integrity that must be explained theoretically here, not rent-seeking,
> >> which is easily explained.
> >
> >This seems a perfect statement of the pathology of economists' thinking:
> >honesty and competence are the exceptions, and self-interested behavior
> >the rule.
>
> 	First, I think is we start calling one another names, this
> discussion will degenerate rapidly. The term 'pathology' is a value
> judgement and an ad hominem. Isn't enough to say I'm wrong, rather
> than saying I'm a disease, and then saying my whole race
> ('economists') suffers from it?
>
> 	Second, I didn't say honesty and competence are 'exceptions;'
> I said thay have to be 'explained.' An I did not say rent-seeking
> behavior is 'self-interested.' It may be altruistic, and in many cases
> is. The question is: why do the objectives of the decision-maker
> coincide with what is socially desireable? The presumption is that
> they do not coincide. Thus non-coincidence "is easily explained" while
> coincidence ("integrity") "must be explained."
>
> Herbert Gintis
> Department of Economics
> University of Massachusetts
> Amherst, MA 01003
> gintis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>