Today’s links
Substituting economics for politics is a failure: The verdict is in on “economism.”
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2007, 2012, 2017, 2021.
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading
Substituting economics for politics is a failure (permalink)
Most of us believe that we do stuff because we want to be good people, and that other people act the same. But the dominant political philosophy for the last half-century, “economism,” views us as slaves to “incentives” and nothing more.
Economism is the philosophy of the neoclassical economists, whose ideology has consumed both the Democrats and Republicans. They dismiss all “non-market” solutions (that is, projects of democratically accountable governments) as failed before they’re begun, due to the “incentives” of the individuals in the government.
Economism’s major project has been to dismantle the achievements of the New Deal (Social Security, unions, public housing, limits on corporate power) and to discredit