I would guess that if economics would (could?) internalize all
externalities and would stop playing the economic growth game (which I don't
think is central to economic theory--a theory which deals with the
allocation of scarce resources among competing uses), then Jay Hanson and
company would have less of a problem with economics.
----------
From: Ed Weick
To: Douglas P. Wilson; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Jay Hanson's remarks on economists
Date: Monday, November 16, 1998 8:28AM
-----Original Message-----
From: Douglas P. Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Monday, November 16, 1998 5:45 AM
Subject: Jay Hanson's remarks on economists
> There is something rather uncivilized in the last few posts from Jay
>Hanson, and I don't like it. I'm not an economist, and have no great
>respect for the discipline as a whole, but Mr. Hanson's remarks offend
>me because they are full of prejudice and seem to be hate literature.
>Surely none of us would sit back and calmly accept such remarks about
>blacks or jews.
On the subject of economics and economists, Jay Hanson has been uncivilized
for some time. I've had a great deal of difficulty in understanding it.
Many of his postings reveal him to be a highly intelligent person, very
concerned about the problems the world faces. One has to give him a great
deal of credit for persisting in raising issues that might otherwise get
insufficient attention. And yet, in marked contrast, there are his
continuing slanders against economics and economists. It is almost as
though the very complex problems he has identified and dealt with
intelligently must have a single cause, and only one, economists. And it is
almost as though economists comprise a single group of robot like beings -
those who work for brokerage firms do not differ at all in their day to day
concerns from those whose work deals with poverty and inequality. Frankly,
as someone who has worked in the field of economics for some decades, I do
not feel demeaned by Mr. Hanson. However, I do feel a little sad that he
persists in demeaning himself.
Ed Weick
