Link Of Interest: The State Of Economics

"The loss to society by reason of our failure to utilize the best scientific
thought in the solution of our economic problems is incalcuable."

Small grammar error (there's missing an 'L" in incalcuable) but hey. The content of the abstract is more important so I won't report it to the eventual and inevitable arrival of the Grammar Police State.

It was written by Glenn E. Hoover and its titled "The Present State of Economic Science" and is rather prescient in its thoughts published at Econjournalwatch.org.

Excerpts:

"...The belief that our protective tariff policy makes possible the comparatively
high wage scale in the United States was never more widely held than at present.
Labor leaders, industrialists, even the farmers, vie with each other in their advocacy
of high tariffs. The bankers, being more intelligent in economic matters,
do not give their unanimous support..."

"...One explanation of the relative backward state of economics, is that it is
applied, in all matters of general concern, not by experts, but by the erratic man
in the street, the uninitiated, leaders of trade unions, employers’ associations, and,
God save the mark, members of Congress. The failure is collosal; it inspires; but
it probably is no greater than would be the failure of chemistry if it were “applied”
by the same individuals who apply the science of economics..."

"...There the movement is not so much circular or spiral as it is a see-saw, teeterboard
affair. We first exert every effort to induce a period of rising prices, which
we associate with increased production, business optimism and “boom” times.
(All this, of course, is but another way of saying we are decreasing the value of
money.) We then become appalled by the perfection of our handiwork, and, with
equal effort, retrace our steps, with the object of increasing the value of money,
lowering prices, launching attacks (mostly verbal), against that perennial monster
the H.C. of L. [a popular abbreviation at the time for the high cost of living], until
we are back where we started ready to go again. It has been said that the only
thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from it and this is particularly
true of the average man in the field of economics..."

The way I view it, organized labor and protectionism, price fixing, price minimums and ceilings, and all other sorts of unions and controlled nonsense are myths to our understanding economics. They serve to protect and preserve a prevailing aspect of a sector and workforce. It is not interested in the overall health of an economic society. In other words, not only is it one-sided and faulty in its logic, it goes from being a good thing (for example, perceiving to protect jobs) to being organized scamming.