Open Letter: Economics Version

Tam linked to an open letter written by a linguistics professor bemoaning the misconceptions and ignorance of the general populace who yet believe that they are qualified to make statements about language (or psychology or whatever). Robert helped me write a version of this letter including some commonly held and expressed beliefs about economics which, incidentally, the average linguistics professor is perhaps even more likely to endorse and pontificate on at length to like-minded friends at dinner parties or in restaurants than the typical American (who, frankly, would rather talk about why their favored football team was screwed this weekend).

What is worse: the average person who thinks they know something about economics or the average professor, who spent a multitude of years learning the nuances of a field and currently engages in high level research in this field and is sensitive to the fact that the common person is unlikely to have the background to even grasp the basics, but thinks that everything that needs to be known about economics can be expressed in a politician's talking points? I don't mean to pick on the writer of the original letter - for all I know, he is properly circumspect about the fact that he knows jack-all about economics, or perhaps he actually knows something about the field starting with which is the demand curve and which is the supply curve and what is the definition of economic efficiency - but reading his comments really reminded me of how many highly educated people seem to treat economics as something dirty that others use to get rich and exploit the masses rather than a legitimate field of inquiry.

Of course, economics is a weird topic in that it is so high profile in politics and hence viewed as a matter of what "should" be true rather than what is. People do not welcome the harsh message that having people with the right letter after their name on the ballot elected is not sufficient to overcome economic reality.

And given the strange way that various political beliefs cluster together, people often accept a whole package of beliefs together without bothering to be informed beyond absorbing and parrotting what other people like themselves say. Many things that superficially make sense are not actually true. (For instance, if people did not know differently from experience, might they not agree that it would "make sense" for water to be more expensive than diamonds, because water is so critical to human life and diamonds aren't of much use?) And since human beings are basically brilliant at making things make sense, while also being frequently intellectually lazy or influenced to believe things through non-rational means without realizing it, it's easy for politicians, ideologues, activists, and self-interested assholes of various stripes to sell people on ideas that have a surface plausibility about them.

So on to the letter:

Dear [□ Sir / □ Madam / □ Representative / □ Journalist / □ Linguistics Professor],

I know you believe you know a great deal about economics simply because you have a job and buy stuff or because you've read a newspaper article about outsourcing.

But please understand that the issues in this field are far more complicated than you realize. For instance, the field isn't all about the power of the haves over the have nots. Those of us practicing in the field spend much of our time reading articles, synthesizing facts, and seeking a deeper understanding of market forces.

I'm not saying that you can't have an opinion until you've memorized An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations —in fact, most of the people in our field have never done that. But we'd appreciate it if you either consult an expert, or educate yourself a little more by taking a course or two so that you have a basic understanding of what's going on in the field*, before you confidently proclaim that foreigners are stealing American jobs, the trade deficit is one of our greatest problems, Wal-Mart is one of our greatest problems, 0% unemployment should be our goal, cheap imports are destroying American industry, increasing teachers' salaries will solve America's education problem, or Europe has everything figured out so we should do what they do.

Thank you for your time.

Yours,[□ __________(your name here)__________]

*Note: To my mind, it is an open question whether taking a typical principles of economics course in a university actually increases economic literacy and if so, to what extent. I think it's possible that there is too much focus on doing the math and not enough time spent on the fundamental concepts for most people to actually get a lot out of it. I feel fairly confident that (non-AP) high school economics classes are mostly useless - too much "5 page paper on the economy of Paraguay, including primary industries and most common exports and imports" or Junior Achievement stuff.