Re: OBJ Economics: Inevitables

[John Gelles <jjgelles@xxxxxxxx>]

	Mason asked -- is economics objective by hard science
	standards.  Yes.  It has to be.  It has to result
	in good predictions and replicable experiments.  But
	it is a social science, not a hard science, and much
	of it is closer to law than anything else.

	Then he asked -- should we attempt to define it.  No.
	That's what the profession does with its thousands
	of practitioners.  We are too small in numbers to
	do any good in this area.  Objective economics is
	defined by thousands of models that work -- some
	better than others.  And it exists in an environment
	where bankers, accountants, corporate powers,
	politicians, legislators, lawyers, and economists
	do things every day that change the facts.  There
	is no point in trying to get a handle on more than
	a problem you can outline in a few paragraphs.

	Try to limit your ambition to writing something
	that some economists will agree with on a small
	topic like poverty, pollution or employment.
	If you want -- all three.  No more than that.
	Or try to answer the Soros article in the
	Atlantic on The Capitalist Threat. A link to
	it is on my site.

	John  http://www.myturn.org
	      http://www.rain.org/%7ejjgelles/