31/1/2018 Why neoliberalism is harmful (4)
Summing up,
I have mentioned that neoliberalism is harmful because of the following
reasons:
(1) It considers only partial efficiency. It
does not consider the efficiency of whole society.
(2) In particular it does not discuss
organization efficiency since the production functions are exogenously given, even
though firms are its object of analysis.
(3) Hence, it claims that the economy is
efficient however lazy or untrustworthy the individuals are.
(4) Similarly, it does not consider how family
members can become happy.
(5) Even the markets in the real economy are
very likely to be inefficient because complete contracts are impossible due to
astronomically high transaction costs.
(6) It does not consider many factors that make
the consumer happy such as her good human relations with others, her kindness
to others, or the happiness of her descendants.
(7) Therefore policies based on neoliberalism
tend to generate inefficient firms (organizations), households, communities, or
environments.
There
are many other factors that make neoclassical economics unrealistic. One of
them is uncertainty. The market allocation of resources becomes theoretically efficient
under uncertainty only if contingent commodity markets exist. Contingent
commodities are theoretically devised goods that are distinguished not only by
physical and chemical traits but also by the future states of nature in which
transactions will be carried out. Since there are almost an infinite number of
future states of nature, the number of contingent commodities is that number
times the number of goods that are distinguished by physical and chemical
traits. Even if the markets with contingent commodities are efficient in theory,
it is impossibly costly to organize such a large number of markets in the real
economy.
All
philosophies, theories, and religions are examples of paradigms that are
devised by abstracting the real world. Each of them claims something by taking
in convenient facts and ignoring inconvenient ones. Studying neoclassical economics
makes this clear. After studying it, we will become more modest.
Comments and questions are welcome.
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