My Mis-Education in 3 Graphics extras

The Circular Flow Diagram, The Values of Mainstream Economics, and The Productivity of Labor and “Capital” 3 film “extras” available with film download

The Circular Flow Diagram  7:06
“Offers a simple way of organizing all the economic activity that occurs between households and firms in the economy.” –a critique of this model

Critics of orthodox economics in this film extra:
 

“What is there that’s not in this household and firm bit? Well you don’t have the banks, you don’t have the bondholders, you don’t have the government there to bail out the banks.”—Economist Michael Hudson

“Consider minus 2 pigs, debt (I owe you 2 pigs).  This is a mathematical quantity having no physical existence.  The population of negative pigs can grow indefinitely with no problem. “Plus 2 pigs however is a physical quantity.  Their population growth is limited by the need to feed the pigs, dispose of their waste, etc. etc.”  —Economist Herman Daly

“If your experience is the financial system, you may think there are no limits to anything, because their aren’t in that system.”—Economist Richard McIntyre

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The Values of Mainstream Economics 14:41

“Economics is a value free science.” –a critique of this belief

Critics of orthodox economics in this film extra:

“Mainstream economists have a normative agenda which is the promotion of markets as the solution to everything.” –economist Gilles Raveaud
 
“Efficiency has to always be relative to a goal. There’s no such thing as abstract efficiency per se…if we have different goals, of enjoying work and having everyone share in the abundance of natural resources and products, human products, then we’d have a different measure of efficiency.” –philosopher Nancy Holmstrom
 
“In a capitalist economy the emphasis is on exchange values.  And exchange value becomes possible as goods become scarce. To the extent that something that was freely available before is somehow made scarce then a price can be put on it. Human beings are becoming poorer as measured riches increase, because we only measure wealth or riches based on price.  And a price exists only to the extent that something is scarce.” –sociologist John Bellamy Foster
 
“Growth, growth, growth. The economy is a subsystem or a larger system.  It doesn’t grow into the void. It grows into the containing natural world, the ecosystem. And that larger system is finite, materially closed, non-growing…” –economist Herman Daly
 
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The Productivity of Labor and “Capital”  24:48

“The determination of wages, profits, and rents and interest depends on the productivity of those factors of production.” –a critique of this assumption

Critics of orthodox economics in this film extra:

The CEO is 500 times more productive than the average worker?! “If the rich and the poor are separated by a factor of 500…they become almost different species. I’m surprised they can even interbreed anymore.”—Economist Herman Daly

“This ridiculous separation of market and power.  Economists can be trained all the way through the PhD level and never really have any sense of how the political system works.”—Economist Richard McIntyre

“How can you even think of production without society?”—Economist Susan Feiner

“If my employer is going to pay me $25 for every hour I’m here.  What must be true?  That my hour of effort must add more to the revenue of my employer than $25.  You don’t need Marx for this.”—Economist Richard Wolff

“The idea that on average workers don’t get as much as they produce.  Just can’t be discussed in most economics departments.”—Economist Gilles Raveaud

“Labor doesn’t get paid the full value of that it produces…technically labor is paid…what is necessary to reproduce it (labor power) but what is necessary to reproduce labor power is historically determined, and partly determined by the class struggle.”—Sociologist John Bellamy Foster

“When I talk about “capital” I say capital equipment. I’m talking about the real physical stuff.  I think every discussion I’ve seen that moves away from that is completely confused.”—Economist L.Randall Wray

“The oil companies and the banks have gone together.  Their idea of development is to make a whole in the ground.  They’re extractive.” —Economist Michael Hudson

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