I agree that society makes policies and that society also makes things political. But, it is possible for society to make policies without making them political. Many of the best policies have been made by those who were able to set aside their political bias to clearly see all angles of the problem they were facing rather than only what they "wanted" to see.That’s because economics is an art, not a science. I’m well aware. I laughed at you because you said “policies don’t have to be political. Society makes them political” Society makes the policies. You’ve said yourself there is no obvious “right” answer in economics, but you expect society to make economic policies that are apolitical. In before you say you didn’t say that. Are policies political or not?
I felt you made a silly statement.
And I appreciate you explaining why you made the laughing face emoji because I think it is much more pleasant to actually discuss these things with words.
Economics is both an art and a science. Here's how:
The "science" part involves collecting economic data from many different sources and using the scientific method (including forming a hypothesis and using the economic data to test the hypothesis) to make a prediction. Because economic data is so messy, this can be difficult but science is necessary to form benchmarks for sound economic policy.
However, the science of economics begins with the assumption that all economic players are rational. Clearly we know that human beings are often not rational, so the "art" part of economics helps us to adjust our policies to account for real, irrational human behavior. This helps us to determine how well our predictions made in the "science" part of economics will hold up in the real world.
So, good economic policy making uses both "science" and "art" to eliminate political bias that can damage policy.
of ubi? Because ubi to employeed people will incentivize employment and doesn’t have the negative impact of minimum wage, but I don’t really think that has anything to do with bg’s current employment issues the way unemployment incentives do.
I agree that this has nothing to do with BGW's employment issues, but you provide here an excellent example of a hypothesis ("UBI to employed people will incentivize employment and will not have the negative impact of minimum wage") that can be tested in real life using both the art and the science that I mentioned above. So the willingness of policy makers to test ideas such as these is the first step in making good policy.
Last edited: