Comment by claytongulick
2 years ago
> Because real markets are not as simple as the toy ones of price theory in economics classrooms.
If the experts in academia who spend their lives studying this stuff are so off the mark, how is it that you have more knowledge of how things "really" work?
Where did you learn the things that drive these strong opinions?
Do you believe that economics theories ignore the market forces that you're discussing?
That fundamentals like supply, demand and consumer behavior are less relevant than "cartel behavior"?
I guess I'd just like to understand what you're basing all this on.
Oh I'm not claiming that, I have a lot of respect for professional economists. What I mean is that most people's understanding of economics is very superficial and limited to toy models, in part because a few populist/pundit 'celebrity economists' oversimplify the topic to make easy money.
I'm reasonably sure that academic economics theories are an attempt to drive, to dictate how "things really work"
because that's what academia does and they know it. Academics talk about how to impact the 'next generations' of leaders all the time
economics are no different. e.g. today somebody studies economics and learn some theory about how stuff "really works", in 5-10 years they're a congressperson or some other high-ranking executive deciding what to do based on the theories they learned
so academics being off the mark means this plan as I very roughly outlined failed. reality asserts itself in spite of the wishes of a few corporate overlords
Until you get into grad school basically everything you learn is so simplified that it's functionally a lie. Pointing out that drawing a big X on a blackboard with the intersection labeled price is not actually how the world works is not setting yourself above economists.
I mean christ, if that was all there was to it what the hell are those experts doing spending their whole lives studying this stuff?