First, a bit of history. I had a blast with high school chemistry, so decided that would be my life's work. Then, I had (for non-academic reasons) to transfer to a small liberal arts college whose chem labs were outdated in the 1950's. As a result, Pchem lab kicked the stuffing out of me. Time to find a new major. I think that went: english, philosophy, economics. The last one is correct, because that's what the degree says. Off to graduate school to do econometrics. And thence, in the middle of a lousy recession, a job. Not much of a job, as it turned out.
After a few years, it became clear to me, although I wasn't employed either as an academic economist or as a funded research version, that the field had devolved into a lawyer-like profession. The client wants a defense of some action or proposed action or behaviour, and the "independent economist" gins up a study proving that what the client (almost always a Big Corporation, no one else has the money) wants is what's best for the USofA. May be even the entire planet. Mouthpiece for hire. No accountability to facts or truth or anything. Even in my backwater Federal agency, that's how I was expected to do. Not what I set out to do.
So, I took a look around and decided that the profession was basically Evil, and took up databases and statistics.
Today brings a bit of a revelation: the American Economics Association is proposing a code of ethics. Naturally, the Right Wingnuts oppose, basically because the Right Wing fringe of economics asserts that economics is devoid of value judgment or morals. Yeah, you read that right. I'm not even going to attempt to pull a few juicy quotes; there's nothing but such in the article. You should read it, with care. The Right Wingnut hypocrites don't get called out by the author, just be aware of that. No, I haven't seen the movie, but will if it shows up here in Northern RedneckVille.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment