Post #2989164

2026-05-06 18:53 UTC

@marjolica@social.linux.pizza Thanks for that, & I'm with you all the way wrt capitalism's failure to satisfy what Clara Mattei calls "the logic of need." Re. Doctorow misreprenting the concept (revealed preference), however, I'd like to know: Does it? Maybe I missed some nuance of your analysis, but afaict he nailed that particular facet of what my own economics mentor (P-K scholar Steve Keen) would characterize as the mainstream's abject codswallop. (His own words, though, would likely be a bit more "salty!")

Replies (1)

@marjolica@social.linux.pizza 2026-05-06 19:45

@PttP@mastodon.social I think there may be an issue in that the (weak version) ofrevealed preference is about whether someone chooses A over B subject to a budget constraint is a revealed preference. So is the person preferring to sell their kidney (A) to pay their rent over being unhoused (B) is also in a sense changing their budget constraint. Samuelson introduced the idea of revealed preference to replace the idea that people have utility functions and starting from observed behavior seems to me to be an improvement. I have much more problems with other theoretical economics axioms such as that people have perfect information when making their choices and that they are also perfectly consistent, particularly over time when other factors can then come into play. Disclaimer: I do have a first degree in Technological Economics but I studied it a long time ago (1969-73), so I'm both a a bit rusty but also an unreconstructed Neo-Keynesian.

Open ##2989165