krebscycle

Here’s Greg Manikiw’s introduction to the Principles of Economics.

On page 5 we learn that “Equality” and “Efficiency” are generally contradictory goals in economic policy.

“When government redistributes wealth from the rich to the poor it reduces the reward for working hard; as a result people work less and produce fewer goods and services. In other words, when the government tries to cut the economic pie into more equal slices, the pie gets smaller.”

Does it need saying that Manikiw’s claim is purely ideological, that plenty of evidence is easily found to invalidate it, and that it is a very convenient theory for rich people despite being, at best, unlikely? And yet, we have pompous fools like Chris Auld angrily announcing that critics of Economics are, like critics of other mainstream sciences, cranks, conspiracy theorists, and ignorant of basic principles. Well, to hell with that. Manikiw’s tome is mainstream economics and it is no more scientific than Scientology.

And it only gets worse after page 5.