The Economist Has No Clothes: Scientific American

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Saved by 3 people (1 private), first by anonymouse user on 2008-04-24

Jasonwelker on 2008-05-17 - Tags economics , environment
Fullness on 2008-04-24 - Tags no_tag
Kaleissin on 2008-04-04 - Tags history , science , economics

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The strategy the economists used was as simple as it was absurd—they substituted economic variables for physical ones. Utility (a measure of economic well-being) took the place of energy; the sum of utility and expenditure replaced potential and kinetic energy. A number of well-known mathematicians and physicists told the economists that there was absolutely no basis for making these substitutions. But the economists ignored such criticisms and proceeded to claim that they had transformed their field of study into a rigorously mathematical scientific discipline.

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Natural resources exist in a domain that is separate and distinct from a closed market system, and the economic value of these resources can be determined only by the dynamics that operate within this system.