How did we get here? on Nostr: Appendix 1: EcOnOmIcS!!1!! "Mainstream economists are not interested in describing ...

Appendix 1: EcOnOmIcS!!1!!

"Mainstream economists are not interested in describing reality, they are interested, ultimately, in telling people how to behave. They actually are moralists more than scientists, but they pretend to be scientists, and they use moralistic language - "rational behavior" - to describe actions that any other sort of moralist would consider the essence of immoral behavior."
- David Graeber

"...the neo-classical school of economics had come to dominate universities “like Catholic theology in medieval Europe … a doctrine that fundamentally defines the way humanity sees the world”.
"...economics education should be more pluralist, more ethically conscientious, more historically aware, and more oriented towards the real world..." rather than “dominated by a single framework presented as ‘neutral’ or ‘objective’”
“It is urgent that the economics discipline learn to understand these issues as systemic features of our capitalist economy rather than as the result of market imperfections or crony capitalism.”
- Rethinking Economics, the movement changing how the subject is taught
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/10/rethinking-economics-student-academic-organisation-changing-education

If you have ever been told to "go learn some economics!", this post is for you. Here are links to a surplus of valuable thoughts on the subject, starting with the [@blair_fix](https://mastodon.online/@blair_fix ) piece that was excerpted in the fifth post of this thread:

Can the World Get Along Without Natural Resources?
https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2020/06/18/can-the-world-get-along-without-natural-resources/

A mathematician on the "free market" economic model, excellent thread from Fabio G. (npub1t8q…hqf8)
https://mastodon.social/@magitweeter/111653879323307502
Thread continues here (post #22 of 26): https://mastodon.social/@magitweeter/111654689724502196

Revealing paper from Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan on how both liberal/neoclassical and Marxist economists fail at describing anything actually real when it comes to capital:

Capital accumulation: fiction and reality
"What we need now are not better tools, more accurate modelling and improved data, but a different way of thinking altogether, a totally new cosmology for the post-capitalist age."
http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue72/BichlerNitzan72.pdf

David Graeber: Against Economics
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-graeber-against-economics

Interesting piece about what supply and demand misses, with important insights about value and market power, poverty and inequality:

Bargaining Power and Prices: A Response to Sanyazi and Carson
https://c4ss.org/content/58918

Exponential Economist Meets Finite Physicist
https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2012/04/economist-meets-physicist/

Free Market Genocides: The Real History of Trade
https://evonomics.com/free-market-genocide-the-real-history-of-trade/

GDP and the Idolatry of Growth
https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/05/25/gdp-and-the-idolatry-of-growth/

The Lie At The Heart Of Consumer Society
https://indica.medium.com/the-lie-at-the-heart-of-consumer-society-1a6fe24d832f

The problem with economic models
https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/03/all-models-are-wrong/#some-are-useful

David Graeber: What is the meaning of money?
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-graeber-note-worthy-what-is-the-meaning-of-money

Here's another article from [@blair_fix](https://mastodon.online/@blair_fix ) that really belongs here:

The Ritual of Capitalization
https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2021/06/02/the-ritual-of-capitalization/

For an extensive deep dive into capitalist economics, here is a very thorough examination from An Anarchist FAQ:

What are the myths of capitalist economics?
https://anarchistfaq.org/afaq/sectionC.html

STATE CAPITALISM: THE WAGES SYSTEM UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT by Adam Buick and John Crump
https://files.libcom.org/files/State%20Capitalism.pdf
The focus of this short book is to argue (very successfully IMO) that individual private ownership is not a defining feature of capitalism and that countries such as China, The Soviet Union (this was published in 1986), Cuba, Vietnam, etc, though they may identify as "socialist" and are called "communist" by many are in fact simply another form of capitalism called "state capitalism". In the process of making this argument, this book also became an excellent general reference for understanding what capitalism really is, how capitalist economics work, what socialism really is and isn't, and plenty of fascinating and clarifying historic context.

I would be remiss not to mention:
DEBT: THE FIRST 5,000 YEARS by David Graeber, an absolute must-read to better understand the history of debt and money.
https://we.riseup.net/assets/393727/David+Graeber+Debt+The+First+5+000+Years.pdf