Every so often, the statement pops up that economics is not a science, but a product of people’s emotional reactions.
Economics, properly termed Political Economy, is a genuine science.
If it were not, then there would be no point in any policy intervention
as its effects would be completely unpredictable. The “Science of
Political Economy” (there is a book with that title by Henry George)
progressed from the time of the French Physiocrats, via Smith, Ricardo, J
S Mill and Henry George, until the 1880s. After that, the basic
principles were buried and covered with a smokescreen of
impressive-looking mathematics.
Basic principles still apply:
if prices are higher, less is sold and supply tends to increase. Then
there is the Law of Rent, which every street beggar and musician knows: a
busker will collect more at the bottom of the escalators at Victoria
than outside the station at West Finchley. The difference is due to the
advantages of location ie it is what Ricardo identified as “economic
rent”. You will not find any of this in most economics textbooks and might go through an entire degree course without coming across it, but
there are consistent and identifiable cause-and-effect relationships
which mean that economics can legitimately be regarded as a science.
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