I am curious as to whether this list has ever discussed the fact that it is no longer true that certain important resources are scarce. For example: food. It is my understanding, and I cannot point to the specific studies involved without doing some research, that there is enough food to feed everyone on the planet if we were to have the will to distribute it with that end in mind.
Likewise, I have read that our existing technology is adequate to provide housing and medical care and education for every person on the planet if we had the will to work out a distribution system that would allow that to happen. I bring this up, not in the context of whether we are basically selfish, mean, greedy, power-hungry, etc. as vs. whatever you would like to call the alternative, but in response to the persistent fallacy that economics is about the allocation of scarce resources. Selma ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brad McCormick, Ed.D." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2002 6:28 PM Subject: Re: FW: To survive or not to survive. > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > Economics is about the allocation of scarce resources among competing uses. > [snip] > > This sounds to me like it could be the subject of > serious fully linguistic conversation among the citizens of the polis, > to decide among themselves the shape of their shared social life, > rather than the content of an impoverished less-than-conversation > between "buyers" and "sellers", with only one word in its > language: "$", where the shape of shared social > life is formed by the "cunning of the price mechanism which > takes place behind the persons' backs" likw qw have in > our "formal democracy" where the most important issues are > excluded from political discussion and relegated to > the hidden machanations of CxOs and Directors of > corporate boards (as has been pointed out many times, > some large "private" corporations are bigger than > many "sovereign nations"). > > So "economics" could be a discipline which studied in a > disciplined way the ways persons decide how to > shape their shared social world, e.g., how and why some of > them abnegate genuine responsibility and let > the quasi-natural force of "The Invisible Hand" > made the decisions instead. > > A secondary part of economics, of course, would be > calculating the various alternatives that are available > for the citizens of the polis to choosae among. For instance, > the economists might determine that the citizens of > the polid afford both an Anti Ballistic Missile shield and > also have resources left over to preserve the > books in their libraries, or even to protect themselves from > terrorists in dinghies loaded with fertilizer-based > explosives. > > \brad mccormick > > -- > Let your light so shine before men, > that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16) > > Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21) > > <![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
