Economics doesnt exist. Like theology, economics exists as a word that has come to mean other words, like business, trade, capitalism, industry. It has become a word that people with a vested interest in the by-product of economics - wealth - use to camouflage their greed. These people will try to convince you that their con trick can somehow be rationalised into a science or, worse, a philosophy. They will produce diagrams and equations and invent new words and languages new symbols and technologies to bewilder us with but, deep down, behind the smoke and mirrors, there is only a big pile of cash being protected by judges, soldiers, policemen, spies and politicians. Heres an example of the way greed merchants try to dress up their selfishness as science : An example of such a model is given by the comparative statics of taxation on the profit-maximizing firm. The profit of a firm is given by \pi(x,t) = x p(x) - C(x) - t x \quadwhere p(x) is the price that a product commands in the market if it is supplied at the rate x, xp(x) is the revenue obtained from selling the product, C(x) is the cost of bringing the product to market at the rate x, and t is the tax that the firm must pay per unit of the product sold.The profit maximization assumption states that a firm will produce at the output rate x if that rate maximizes the firms profit. Using differential calculus we can obtain conditions on x under which this holds. The first order maximization condition for x is\frac{\partial \pi(x,t)}{\partial x} =\frac{\partial (x p(x) - C(x))}{\partial x} -t= 0 Regarding x is an implicitly defined function of t by this equation (see implicit function theorem), one concludes that the derivative of x with respect to t has the same sign as\frac{\partial^2 (x p(x) - C(x))}{\partial^2 x}={\partial^2\pi(x,t)\over \partial x^2}, Get that? There are people who study this shit, people who teach this shit, people who actually believe this shit. The economics industry is a self-propagating model of its own invention - get enough people to believe in it, and it becomes true. So we have an entire global network of sorcerers, magi and sophists who churn out a familiar mantra; this stuff is difficult it cannot be explained in simplistic terms that the non-economic minded could hope to understand but this too is part of the spell. Perhaps the Wizard Of Oz put it best - Pay no attention of the man behind the curtain. the one pulling all the levers, the one who has cast a spell over all of us, making us believe hes all powerful when in fact, hes just a tired old man clinging desperately to his position by using illusion and subterfuge.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 12:00:43 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015