Economic orthodoxy doesn’t add up

I agree with Paul Bieleski that orthodox economics education should not be funded in secondary schools, (nor universities,) until they discard their made up theories that are presented to students as ‘‘facts’’.

I have spent decades trying to make sense of economic orthodoxy and have never found any reference to a theory with assumptions that ever have or ever will exist in reality. If there are any they will have been buried to prevent the collapse of this fantasy edifice.

I often imagine the uproar if, for example, engineers designed structures with no reference to the realities of gravity or geology and think why hasn’t a similar uproar happened with the economics that has been used to manipulate human behaviour for the past two centuries that has ignored the real world they advise on.

Until the adherents to orthodox economic theory are open about what assumptions lie behind their theory proofs and models then all advice from them should be treated with skepticism.

Glenys MacLellan Nelson, October 31