Chilean activist destroys student debt papers worth $500m

[regexcellent]

Ugggghhh

That guy has no idea what he is talking about. Science doesn't need experiments. Lots of scientific fields don't have experiments. You only need observations. Astronomy has no experiments either.

Like, he is hung up on pre-positivist ****. I was expecting to see a Popper-esque falsificationist argument which could at least be slightly robust, but no.

[Hauldren Collider]

I am extremely disappointed, DinoDoc.

[DinoDoc]

Like, he is hung up on pre-positivist ****. I was expecting to see a Popper-esque falsificationist argument which could at least be slightly robust, but no.

Well I posted it for 2 reasons. The main one is that I found the author's name amusing. Wang (lol!). The minor reason is that I liked the argument.

[regexcellent]

Would've been funnier if his first name were Randy instead of Andy.

[Kidlicious]

No, Economics Is Not a Science

What the hell are you doing?

[AAAAAAAAH!]

If economics were indeed a science, Communism would have died off with the collapse of the USSR.

How many Economists endorse Communism? Name some "Nobel"-winning economists that are proponents of the USSR's system... if you can.

[DinoDoc]

How many Economists endorse Communism?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Marxian_economists

[AAAAAAAAH!]

No it isn't, and yes it can. If value were intrinsic nobody would trade and therefore the labor of theory of value, which is intrinsic, must be wrong. Marx, as well as all classical economists who used some variant of what Marx articulated as the labor theory of value (it was usually the land-labor theory in classical doctrine), were unable to explain, for example:
- why diamonds are more valuable than water (the diamond-water paradox)
- why you can't just put stuff on a train and drive it in circles to make it more valuable
- why digging holes in the ground and filling them up again is not a valuable activity

According to Adam Smith and other classical economists there wouldn't be any "effectual demand" for digging holes in the ground and filling them up again. And the fact that diamonds are more valuable than water is actually consistent with the labor theory of value, because digging diamonds out of the ground is a lot more costly than obtaining water.

http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smWN2.html#B.I,%20Ch.7,%20Of%20the%20Natural%20and%20Market%20Price%20of%20Commodities

[AAAAAAAAH!]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Marxian_economists

You'd probably find more biologists who are Young Earth Creationists. Especially considering that some of the people on that list have been dead for decades.

[C0ckney]

my goodness this thread went downhill.

[Bereta_Eder]

let's listen to a joke then!

[C0ckney]

he makes a good point

[Elok]

How about: economics might be a "science," whatever that would imply, but all evidence for or against is obscured by the fact that most people use it purely as a tool for reinforcing their political prejudices and/or imposing them on others?

[Bereta_Eder]

economy is the tool by which any given political supremacy enforces its views.
the idea that free markets or neoliberalism is the "natural way" of things and devoided of any ideology is the most totalitarian approach to things.
it's make believe a-political. sort of like the devil convincing you he doesn't exist

[Kidlicious]

economy is the tool by which any given political supremacy enforces its views.
the idea that free markets or neoliberalism is the "natural way" of things and devoided of any ideology is the most totalitarian approach to things.
it's make believe a-political. sort of like the devil convincing you he doesn't exist

Have you read The Wealth of Nations? The whole point of free markets is to seperate economic decision making from politics.