"Devine, James" wrote:
> Eugene Coyle writes:
> > The problem is much worse than lying economists. Economists believe what
> they say.<
>
> right.
>
> >Would a biology or other science teacher start with teaching Creationism
> and then critiquing it around the edges by pointing out some counter
> evidence? It seems to me that anyone teaching micro is doing that ---
> starting with perfect competition in all it glory and then mentioning an
> assumption or two that can be critiqued.
>
> >The whole has to be rejected, there is no gain in debating bits with
> economists.<
>
> so what framework would you start with?
>
> Jim
Jim,
I think your answer points up how serious the problem is. Sounds like you
(me, everybody) don't have a framework.
I draw the inference from your post -- apologies if this is incorrect --
that you are saying, "Well, you don't have a framework to start with, so we
should start with the neo-classical framework and point out the problems."
That keeps us on the treadmill to nowhere. We could keep doing that
forever -- and we've been doing it for decades already -- and never finding a
"framework."
The old joke has been repeated so often that I hate to do it once more.
But what is going on in current micro classes is like the drunk searching for
his lost keys under a lamppost. When asked where he'd dropped them the reply
was "About half a block away. But the light is better over here."
Paul Samuelson, when Joan Robinson and others finally nailed him, said his
micro was only a parable, but he thought it was a good one.
If all micro is is a parable, i. e. a story to explain to students what
the world is like, why not tell your own parable?
Telling stories about what one sees in the economy helps one understand
what is before your eyes. And your students will test your story, refine your
story, and after a while there will be some useful stories. What have now is
economists telling stories that serve capitalism, to the great harm of people
and the environment. To the extent that WE don't stop them we are complicit.
Let a thousand parables bloom. We will be off the treadmill and on an
actual path going somewhere.
Gene Coyle
