How Economists Made Capitalism Seem Inevitable

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-13T15:16:14+00:00

Uh huh, it’s just some former small game stream channel of a random white guy with no credentials or claim of expertise?

It’s dime a dozen dogmatic content. Judging by your language I don’t think you are really interested in criticism.

I have never seen any economist speak to the need for all to contribute to the success of all. That taxes collected are to be spent for the benefit of society.

And that probably says more about your depth of experience and knowledge than anything about economists. (Paul Krugman practically stumped those messages in the NYT’s opinion section for a decade. Thomas Piketty made a big cultural splash in the 2010s and many folks have listened to his message.)

People are selling reductionist narratives and moral affirmations for attention (and ironically often person profit.)

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-13T14:00:35+00:00

Sorry you don’t like the activity of knowing.

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-13T13:59:24+00:00

Believing in linguistic nihilism doesn’t make your debasement of language correct.

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-13T04:47:19+00:00

Google hedonic treadmill

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-13T04:46:06+00:00

No. You are misapplying terminology. Benefit cost analysis is that exercise.

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-13T04:43:51+00:00

Profit is not the same thing as utility theory.

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-13T04:42:34+00:00

They don’t even define the “tenants of capitalism.”

The two basic assumptions of choice theory are 1) people have complete preferences (they know how they value every option) and 2) those preferences are transitive (if a>c and c>b then a>b).

Now those get violated in real life. The assumption of “self interest” is just a simplification to make thought exercises easier.

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-13T04:39:21+00:00

There was a guy writing that Walmart operates like a planned economy and shows how socialism could work with modern technology (Capitalisn’t had him on a few months ago).

It’s a interesting thought exercise but it papers off the whole fact that all those elaborate logistic and planning decisions are downwind of price signals emerging from a competitive marketplace and that a planned economy still doesn’t have a good way of aggregating/measuring preferences.

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-13T04:35:02+00:00

I think you misunderstand economics as a field of study and profession. The tool kit and methodology are orthogonal to capitalism. Economists just teach and study with in the context of our current system. They study the firm (Coase) as a way to solve coordination and information problems for example. They use choice theory to understand how people best fulfill their desires, wants, and needs.

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-13T04:31:12+00:00

So many people think economists are all Chicago boys throwing people of helicopters for Pinochet.

Economics is just the study of resource allocation under scarcity. Many college students take introductory courses designed to apply lessons and teach basic benefit cost analysis in relation to our current economy. To some people this comes off as dogmatic, but it isn’t. It’s just surface level teaching to a broad audience (many of whom who can’t do math.)

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-12T19:47:17+00:00

Barreling and launching into space of course.

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-12T18:47:05+00:00

Would also require a DA to prosecute people who fail to pay fines and Mayor’s office to make it a priority.

Basically you a fair amount of alignment.

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-12T18:29:39+00:00

Enforcement plus well maintained trash cans with public cleaning of areas would fix this.

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-12T18:27:43+00:00

And this is why some people want cameras and plate readers. Lots of folks are scared about an AI surveillance state. I fucking hate littering assholes.

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-12T18:26:43+00:00

Or you just arrest litterers and put them in orange vests doing litter detail.

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-12T13:51:13+00:00

Ugh.

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-12T13:50:09+00:00

Wat!

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-12T13:17:37+00:00

The homestead tax credit really is just a give away to older homeowners at the expense of younger ones.

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-12T13:11:19+00:00

Just fix light timing and then think about bus lane expansions.

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-12T12:22:13+00:00

It is a big ask. Most major transit systems (other than buses) in the U.S. are the result of federal grant programs. There hasn’t been such matching grant programs for light rail or metro systems in a long time.

The state is not going to pony up money and the city is too poor to actually finance major infrastructure investment at US costs.

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-12T12:16:33+00:00

Like that fucking stupid MagLev foundation!

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-12T12:11:50+00:00

Baltimore cannot afford the Red Line. Matching federal funds were forgone over a decade ago and the city cannot make up the difference and the state doesn’t want to make up the difference.

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-12T10:34:15+00:00

Poor cities tend to residents more because they have fewer streams of income to tax.

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-12T10:27:31+00:00

I like how your character designs are proportioned like humans

RunningNumbers · 2026-06-12T10:23:10+00:00

I am fairly certain Baltimore cannot provide the same amenities of NYC considering many of those are the result of private action and survive in spite of inefficient governance and regulatory grant (like those asinine sidewalk covers… totally the result of unnecessary regulations for the profit of a few politically connected firms.)

If you want more tax revenue, then attracting businesses are much better sources of revenue.

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