Economics is not a physical science!
October 16 2015You maybe forgiven for believing that the current economic philosophy that governs us at the moment is a fundamental science like physics. You maybe forgiven for believing there is no other alternative to the current neo-classical consensus that we all live under. Economics is a social science that seeks to analyze and describe the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth. It studies how people seek to satisfy needs and wants and is the study of the financial aspects of human behavior.
Neo-classical economics is just a school of thought within the field of economics; it’s an opinion along with other schools of thought like Keynesian economics, Marxism, and Green economics. However over the last 30 years neo-classical economics has dominated the agenda and the media. This is the theory that has got us in to the mess that we are currently in; this has been bad thinking on a global scale. Yet neo-classical economics goes unchallenged in the media especially broadcast media.
What I am saying is that economics reporting is too deferential to this school of thought and we need more balance in the reporting of economics, in a similar way to how politics are covered. We need to have the neo-classical analysis of the situation and we need an alternative analysis of the situation from a non-conformist economist. That way we will get much more informed and rounded narrative of a situation like the current economic crisis that we are in. Hopefully the general pubic we realise that economics is not a physical science and how we organise our economy is down to us.
Please see this hardtalk interview with Post-Keynesian economist Prof Steve Keen who has an excellent analysis to the economic crisis that is facing the world. Economists like him should get a platform for there views more often.
Kye Dudd
Youth Advisory Committee
