Rob B

Rob Butz is a student, developer of the new Parkland Institute website, contributor to the Industrial Workers of the World’s graphic anthology, Shift in Progress, and a member of the thoughtcrime ink collective.

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Who is an economist?

posted Nov. 22 - 10:01 pm by Rob B

Stanford's talk seemed to generated two sets of responses: first, affirmation that it is a programme of common sense and realism that can win consensus among workers, and secondly, disappointment that Stanford's talk did not go further, that his talk existed "too much in the framework of existing capitalism." To some degree, I thought that both of these critiques missed the point. Part of what I began to think makes economics "exclusive" to a lettered group of people (who are usually closely aligned to the financialization industry) is not just its jargon—the "mumbo jumbo" that Stanford refers to; nor is it merely that economists "abstract" human realities into graphs and numbers. Rather, economics (as a discipline) limits the scope of what you may talk about in order to be recognized as an economist.

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