Dear Doug:
Thank you for your message. It is full of good sense.
I am quite willing to curtail any further argument on this matter. Any
points that can be made on either side of the anti-economist argument
(i.e., arguments that are against the whole tribe of economists, raather
than in criticism of particular positions or policies) have by now been
made, and continuing the polemics does not get anything accomplished.
So I will desist.
There is one more item I posted just before receiving your message, and
it will no doubt appear on the list; it was a vigoroous response to Jay
Hanson's last "rebuttal" of my criticism. In it I tried to make cler
that I took objection not to him but to the arguments he was making, as
a whole, and felt that they should be criticized at their root, rather
than in the detail. But at the end of the posting, I did say (not as an
attempt to pacify Hansen, but in honest recognition of the contribution
that he could make -- and has made) that I welcomed the specific
summaries of information that he provided at the end of his note,
covering climate change and a number of other topics. When he does
this, one can agree with him (most of the time) or disagree (some of the
time) -- but it contributes to our mutual learning process and enhances
our capability of responding to, and acting in relation to, our
environmental problems and their causes.
Other than the above, this will be the last that you will hear from me
on this subject -- i.e. the wholesale condemnation of economics and
economists -- I hope. I am glad you intervened. As I indicated
earlier, I am somewhat concerned that this kind of debate becomes a
mutual flaming match, and that is something we should really avoid if
lists such as futurework are to fullfil their role as a collaborative
forum for the sharing of facts and opinion.
Sincerely,
Saul Silverman
