Shit yeah, great oversimplified summary. MMT is great as a demonstration of how little economics is an actual “science” and finds it’s foundation in perception of value. All these metrics thrown around as if anyone objectively understands how economic systems and government budgets interact/function is so silly. Like yeah, national budgets are important, but it’s not that rigid and we made it up. Also, yeah, we made it up, but that doesn’t mean we can do whatever. lol, economics.
I want to caution against dismissing the entire field of economics as if there’s simply nothing of value there at all.
It’s absolutely true that mainstream economics has a lot of problems right now. There’s a serious and endemic issue with “frictionless cows on an infinite plane”; that is, economists building models that have not been tested against reality and then acting as if those models can predict reality.
But economics is a genuinely important field of study that offers invaluable insights about how the world really works. If we want to make evidence based changes to address the most fundamental injustices in our society, we need the kind of insights that economics can provide. We just need those insights to come in forms that are useful.
If you want to a really good intro to what economics should be, by someone who has a great understanding of all of the problems with what economics too often is, I’d highly recommend the channel Unlearning Economics: https://www.youtube.com/@unlearningeconomics9021. He does a great job of demystifying the field while also criticizing it and applying it.
There’s important work out there being done by economists who are working to challenge traditional assumptions and push the field into being something genuinely valuable and useful. Don’t throw their contributions out with the bathwater.
Shit yeah, great oversimplified summary. MMT is great as a demonstration of how little economics is an actual “science” and finds it’s foundation in perception of value. All these metrics thrown around as if anyone objectively understands how economic systems and government budgets interact/function is so silly. Like yeah, national budgets are important, but it’s not that rigid and we made it up. Also, yeah, we made it up, but that doesn’t mean we can do whatever. lol, economics.
I want to caution against dismissing the entire field of economics as if there’s simply nothing of value there at all.
It’s absolutely true that mainstream economics has a lot of problems right now. There’s a serious and endemic issue with “frictionless cows on an infinite plane”; that is, economists building models that have not been tested against reality and then acting as if those models can predict reality.
But economics is a genuinely important field of study that offers invaluable insights about how the world really works. If we want to make evidence based changes to address the most fundamental injustices in our society, we need the kind of insights that economics can provide. We just need those insights to come in forms that are useful.
If you want to a really good intro to what economics should be, by someone who has a great understanding of all of the problems with what economics too often is, I’d highly recommend the channel Unlearning Economics: https://www.youtube.com/@unlearningeconomics9021. He does a great job of demystifying the field while also criticizing it and applying it.
There’s important work out there being done by economists who are working to challenge traditional assumptions and push the field into being something genuinely valuable and useful. Don’t throw their contributions out with the bathwater.