I would agree that Econ is all politics but not all politics is economics. It is a subset of politics that studies ways to allocate resources to a population’s wants.
As the trade offs between wants are value judgments there are no right answers in a sense of which trade off is correct.
The first term I learned in economics was ceteris paribus. All else being equal. This is the get out of goal card any economist can play to limit his answer.
So Australia doesn’t need manufacturing if we maintain peace and have demands for natural resources sufficient to maintain trade and provide a way to ease the transition.
The argument can easily fail if you force the proponent to accept their assumptions don’t hold.
"It seems unlikely that such an education would deliver net productivity gains, although that may depend on the alternatives." Is that the goal of education?
Ha! Fair enough, but the question won't go away.
I would agree that Econ is all politics but not all politics is economics. It is a subset of politics that studies ways to allocate resources to a population’s wants.
As the trade offs between wants are value judgments there are no right answers in a sense of which trade off is correct.
The first term I learned in economics was ceteris paribus. All else being equal. This is the get out of goal card any economist can play to limit his answer.
So Australia doesn’t need manufacturing if we maintain peace and have demands for natural resources sufficient to maintain trade and provide a way to ease the transition.
The argument can easily fail if you force the proponent to accept their assumptions don’t hold.
"It seems unlikely that such an education would deliver net productivity gains, although that may depend on the alternatives." Is that the goal of education?