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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   29602 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 2, 2023

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it seems to be a classic case of applying economic theory and then assuming that everyone is a moron for not going along with your conclusions, rather than disagreeing with your analysis.

The whole point of the post is discussing why people disagree with one of the most agreed upon concepts (rent control is bad) in economics...

Perhaps I phrased it too harshly with respect to the OP, I didn’t mean to. My hypothesis is that disagreement is not down to Dunbar’s number but down to a widespread suspicion that most economic theory is bunk. Modern monetary theory does actually lead to inflation, outsourcing your manufacturing to China is not a free win and immigration reduces wages. So when economics say ‘slaving to pay off somebody else’s mortgage is actually good for you’ the response is not supine acceptance but suspicion.

I’m also interested in discussing the case for taxing landlords on its merits, since I have a stake in both sides of the divide and the topic interests me.

My hypothesis is that disagreement is not down to Dunbar’s number but down to a widespread suspicion that most economic theory is bunk.

Which stems from? That would be an actual response to OP's post.

Modern monetary theory does actually lead to inflation, outsourcing your manufacturing to China is not a free win and immigration reduces wages.

To give three examples where economists sagely assured us that the obvious conclusions were wrong and then events (global inflation, hollowing out of American manufacturing, the big rise in worker bargaining power when immigrants couldn’t be brought over during Covid) made it clear that they were wrong. I’m not saying that all economic theory is wrong, any more than all psychology is wrong, but I don’t see how you can look at the history of failed predictions and see it as anything more than a very flawed science.

MMT does not fit with the other two, because it was explicitly arguing against the economic consensus, and the economic consensus ended up being correct.

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