Economics as Religion: from Samuelson to Chicago and Beyond

CLICK HERE or
http://www.ziddu.com/download/11348437/EconomicsasReligion.PDF.html

Robert Henry Nelson
Penn State Press, 2001 - 378 halaman
Michael Emmet Brad's Review at amazon.com

This book is certainly worth buying .It is well written.It is probably true that,to some extent,Samuelson saw Keynesian ecomomics as a religious type gospel of reform.Undoubtedly,the Chicago school's libertarian atheism (of Milton Friedman and others)can be regarded as a type of religion.It is certainly true that Adam Smith's work has been so badly misinterpreted by practically all economists,including Nelson,that one could be convinced that Smith's Invisible Hand is based on some type of mysterious ,near religious belief.Nothing could be further from the truth.

Nelson totally misstates Adam Smith's position again and again and again throughout this book.There is not a single page in this book that, even remotely,provides the reader with a firm foundation about what Smith's system of classical liberty really entailed.Nelson's assessments of Smith's system are about as accurate as the entirely false claim that John Maynard Keynes was an advocate of deficit finance(Keynes was a stauch opponent of deficit finance throughout his life.It is simply false to state that Keynes favored deficit finannce).

 

Nelson claims the following:" As Adam Smith now interpreted the natural laws of economics,governments that sought to interfere with the individual pursuit of self interest in the market were acting contrary to the devine plan.The results were only likely to cause wide social disruption and distress-just as would any government action that in the physical order might be foolishly taken in attempted defiance of the law of gravity".(Nelson,p.287 :see also,for example,pp.44,84,89,191,etc.).

 

Nelson,Samuelson, Friedman,and the rest of the economics profession have it all wrong and upside down.Smith certainly recognized that the Invisible Hand process of the division of labor and labor specialization created great wealth and economic growth.However,he also clearly recognized that it simultaneously generated massive undepletable ,detrimental externalities impacting the entire work force that only government actions could reduce,mitigate,or minimize.This is all clearly stated on pp.734-741 of the Modern Library (Cannan)edition of the Wealth of Nations.Nelson's book is intellectually unsatisfactory in its present state.

 

The Invisible Hand has absolutely nothing to do with God,Divine Providence,or religion at all.It is a purely human economic-social process that leads to positive changes over time in a society because both the individual and society(all other individuals) benefit from the additional expertise and training as new specializations are created over time 

Unfortunately,this process also has a dark side that Smith recognizes can only be effectively dealt with by government action.Period.Nelson needs to read what Smith actually said and initiate substantial CHANGES IN HIS NEXT EDITION.