Arthur Cordell wrote:
>
> On Mon, 20 Oct 1997, Harry Pollard wrote:
>
> > whole science rests on these two assumptions. In half century of teaching
> > adults, no-one has successfully responded to "Come up with two examples of
> > people not described by both Assumptions".
> >
> > They are:
> >
> > "Man's desires are unlimited";
> >
> > "Man seeks to satisfy his desires with the least exertion".
> >
> > No exceptions allowed!
> >
> > The first, of course, means that that their can be no such thing as
> > unemployment - which might lead to some rewarding questions.
Granting Harry's two hypotheses, the outcome, mathematically,
should be something like the limit of x * y as x approaches infinity
and y approaches zero, which, we know, is neither 0 nor infinity,
but *indeterminate*, unless the relation between increase in x
and decrease in y is known, in which case, the outcome can conceivably
be any determinate value from 0 to infinity (e.g., 20%).
In practice, a person may decide not to satisfy certain
desires, because they feel the exertion is not worth it. Then
we have limited desires being met by diminishing effort, and
very probable unemployment.
> >
> > The second accounts for some behavior that we are sometimes affronted by.
>
> It seems to me that neither statement can be proved or disproved.
> As assumptions one could just as well pose the opposite: 'desires are
> limited' 'desires satisfied with greatest exertion'
desires *can be satisfied with *excess* exertion, as when we try
to figure out what the cereal we eat *really costs to produce* as
opposed to its cost after loading advertising, debt from leveraged
buyouts, etc.
And, while I am not an expert, wasn't part of the problem of the
Depression of the 30s that people didn't have the money to
buy things and therefore things could not be produced (which
brought in Keynes)? -- i.e., that the organization of society
can prevent people from being able to work (or otherwise
meet their needs) for reasons having
nothing to do with Harry's hypotheses?
>
> Or 'desires appear unlimited since they change over time' 'desires
> satisfied with different levels of exertion, depending on the physical and
> mental state of the individual', etc...
>
> arthur cordell
If and when and in what sectors our society / economy becomes
unmanageable in a relatively constructive way either by
luck ("the mechanism of the marlet) or intelligence (lesser or
greater integtative planning), then who can guess what will
happen, especially insofar as equilibria are meta-stable (i.e.,
tending toward wider rather than narrower "swings")....
\brad mccormick
--
Mankind is not the master of all the stuff that exists, but
Everyman (woman, child) is a judge of the world.
Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
(914)238-0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua, NY 10514-3403 USA
-------------------------------------------------------
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