Brad, I was thinking about the day to day actions of ordinary people living in a largely inhospitable and people unfriendly system.
That pilots who are in bad marriages, in jobs with no future, maxed out credit cards, etc., are still able to get to the airport and do their jobs. That road rage usually remains just that and murder and mayhem rarely follow. That harassed and underpaid food servers and cooks in restaurants are not sprinkling poison in the food. And that computer programmers who dwell on life's inequities are still capable of turning out quality product. That sort of thing. arthur -----Original Message----- From: Brad McCormick, Ed.D. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2003 10:06 PM To: Cordell, Arthur: ECOM Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Futurework] My ongoing struggle to see the obvious :: Basic question for economists [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Brad, > > I think that is a fair statement. The wonder is that the system works as > well as it does, keeping in mind your observation > > that "the economy" is a realm of social > relations which are at best not friendly (and > which in fact often are in varying degrees > positively(sic) unfriendly). I don't think there is any "wonder" to it. (Maybe I'm missing something?) Throw together any number of "competing" forces, and they will eventually reach some kind of equilibrium status (or at least the "survivors" will...). I see it as sort of like that no matter how improbable life is in the universe, and no matter how much more improbable intelligent life is, we wouldn't exist if we did not meet the criteria for existing, i.e., there is entirely no reason for being surprised that we exist, since an a priori condition for our being either surprised or n ot surprised or anything else is that we in fact exist. The thing that would be really surprising is if we didn't exist but knew it. Now *that* would be surprising indeed! Don't get am-Bush-ed! \brad mccormick > > > arthur > > -----Original Message----- > From: Brad McCormick [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2003 7:51 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [Futurework] My ongoing struggle to see the obvious :: Basic > question for economists > > > Why doesn't all economics education and inquiry start with the > principle: > > Friends hold all things in common. > (--Desiderius Erasmus, and others) > > ? > > Since we have markets and such, the first > lemma one seems forced to deduce from this principle > is that "the economy" is a realm of social > relations which are at best not friendly (and > which in fact often are in varying degrees > positively(sic) unfriendly). > > I am being entirely serious here. > > \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/ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
