From: GERALD LEVY (gerald_a_levy@msn.com)
Date: Sat May 10 2008 - 14:19:21 EDT
Hi Paul C: Well, I would say that this bias on the part of most economists of various persuasions is rooted in the character of the mode of production. I.e. capitalism _itself_ tends only to value those objects which have value and are quantifiable. But, Neurath does have a point even insofar as capitalism is concerned because even though many aspects of social life are inherently unquantifiable - or can't be quantified directly with any degree of precision - they nonetheless exist. Mainstream social welfare economists like Gary Becker try (unsuccessfully)to resolve this contradiction by placing a monetary value on everything that is not value. I agree with you that there can be 'happiness' and 'quality of life' measures, but there's a lot that can be done to twist the numbers both through mis-measurement and mis-definition: I certainly don't consider the UN statistics to be satisfactory, unbiased, and unambiguous measures. They also tend, I think, to embody some cultural biases. In solidarity, Jerry _______________________________________________ ope mailing list ope@lists.csuchico.edu https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/ope
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