Economics could still be considered a "moral science", given the prominance of concepts like "growth" in economic analysis. Where it fails as a moral science is in not having much to say on the morality of things like the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, leaving that to politicians and other social sciences.
Ed ----- Original Message ----- From: Sandwichman To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 10:05 PM Subject: Re: [Futurework] Professional Ethics (of economists) Either that or you're both obsessed with bedbugs... But, hey, to bring this discussion back to where it started, I just want to mention that "economics" sprung from "moral sciences": "The emergence of economics as a separate subject (or Tripos, in Cambridge terminology) created intense debate over its relationship with the existing organization of teaching through the 'Moral Sciences' Tripos. John Neville Keynes, the father of John Maynard Keynes, faced considerable mental and emotional anxiety in his attempt to reconcile economic science with ethics and religion." (Martin Daunton, "Welfare, Taxation and Social Justice") On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 6:37 PM, Ray Harrell <[email protected]> wrote: I should start reading from the top. I come in after teaching a class until nine and find that Ed commented on bedbugs first. Either he’s an artist or I’m an economist. REH From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ed Weick Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 3:18 PM To: [email protected]; RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION Subject: Re: [Futurework] Professional Ethics (of economists) Rat farming? How about bedbugs? They're making a comeback. Ed ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Spencer" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 2:30 PM Subject: [Futurework] Re: Professional Ethics (of economists) > > Last night, I commented on Tom's reference: > >>> http://ecologicalheadstand.blogspot.com/2011/09/professional-ethics.html >> >> Over the past 30 years, the economics discipline has been >> systematically subverted....Many of the most prominent economists >> in America are now paid to testify in Congress, to serve on boards >> of directors, testify in antitrust cases and regulatory >> proceedings, and to give speeches to the companies and industries >> they study and write about with supposed objectivity. This is not >> a marginal activity; it is now an industry, run by a half dozen >> large companies. >> >> I didn't know that. Why does that remind me somehow of the privatized >> prison industry? > > Saw this on Slash/dot: > > How Bug Bounties Are Like Rat Farming 104 > > Posted by timothy on Tuesday September 20, @11:00AM > from the first-we-hypothesize-a-problem dept. > > Gunkerty Jeb writes "In a keynote speech at the United Security > Summit, Stephen Dubner, co-author of Freakonomics, drew parallels > between the increasingly popular (and successful) practice of > software vendors offering bug bounties and a new industry > springing up in Johannesburg, South Africa, where the population > has recently found itself beset with a growing rat problem. In > order to help mitigate their rodent problem, officials in > Johannesburg began offering a small monetary rewards for each dead > rat turned in. It was wildly successful, and it didn't take long > for fresh batch of entrepreneurs to pop up and exploit the > situation. Of course, I'm talking about rat farming. Evidently, > business minded individuals have taken to breeding rats, only to > kill them and turn them in for rewards. Obviously, rat farming is > somewhat unscrupulous, but security researchers are doing the same > thing: breeding bugs in the lab, then leading them to the > slaughter for a nice payday. And it's a good thing." > > Which probably isn't a totally new thing [1] but a reminder about how > that works with prisons, weapon systems and (allegedly) economists. > > The way it works out for (software-) bug hunting -- the relevance for > Slash-dotters -- seems to be free of the malignancy/fraudulence of rat > farming: > > http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/how-bug-bounties-are-rat-farming-092011 > > as one commenter there (somewhat intemperately) observes. > > So the question is: how do you structure privatization of prisons, > corporatized for-fee economics consulting or any such activity so that > it works like bug-hunting and not like rat-farming? Do we need to > somehow extract or sequester such activities completely from > capitalist incentives? > > > - Mike > > > [1] The Paris rat-catcher of circa 1689 in Stephenson's _Quicksilver_ > was already (and quite entertainingly) into rat farming. > > -- > Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~. > /V\ > [email protected] /( )\ > http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/ ^^-^^ > > _______________________________________________ > Futurework mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework > _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework -- Sandwichman ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
_______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
