Bits of Economics

 

Bits of Economics

Here are a few isolated economic notions.

Zero-sum in economics believes that every positive economic step is accompanied by a backward step; every heads has a tails. Peter is always robbed to pay Paul. The size of the economic pie is fixed. My slice comes from yours. This requires a lot of very specific self-imposed restrictions when looking at the world for the last two hundred years when growth during that short period overwhelmed the total human economic growth since hunter-gathering.

But some hold growth in low regard because improvement undermines their basic vision: conflict.

Marx described the value of a commodity as a function of the labor time it took to produce. So the value of the product was disconnected from its availability, appeal, or need.

McCloskey's "failure to stay for the whole play." Being seduced into looking at the immediate effects of an action or event. Economic acts can have delayed effects, tails, like long covid.

“Constructivism” is a Hayek term describing the fallacy of believing that all observed order is the result of conscious design. This leads to economic creation with the overconfident belief in a determined outcome. ("The bottom 2% in terms of income in the United States, the bottom 5 percent, and for sure the top 1% all live better than John D. Rockefeller was living when I was six years old. John D Rockefeller was the richest man in the world." He emphasized the improvements in medicine, education, entertainment and transportation, arguing that these aspects of life are now better than ever before.--Warren Buffett)

Electric vehicles made up only 7.6% of 2023 vehicle sales despite heavy subsidies.

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