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Laws, Definitions, and an Axiom in Economics

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Laws, Definitions, and an Axiom in Economics AERA NR. 1 DESEMBER 2019 ÅRG. 20. Laws, definitions, and an axiom in economics av Vegard Martinsen UTGITT AV FORENINGEN FOR STUDIUM AV OBJEKTIVISMEN AERA NR. 1, 2019 Formannen har AERA NR. 1 ordet DESEMBER 2019 ÅRGANG 20 Dette nummer av AERA inneholder en artikkel om lovene i sosialøkonomien. Forfatteren har www.objektivisme.no/aera/ dette å si om bakgrunnen for artikkelen: «Mens jeg skrev kapitlet om økonomiens lover i Saysiansk økonomi tenkte jeg grundig igjennom AERA utgis av FSO og utkommer sporadisk. hvilken status de hadde, og om forholdet mellom Says lov og de andre lovene. Jeg fortsatte å tenke FSO, Foreningen for Studium av Objektivismen, ble på dette etter at boken kom ut, og jeg kom etter hvert til at Says lov har en helt annen status enn de stiftet som en studentforening på Blindern i 1972, og andre lovene — men at dette avhenger av hvordan er i dag Norges største og eldste faget sosialøkonomi er definert! Jeg la frem mine Objektivistforening. synspunkter på et møte i FSO 27. august 2018, fikk der enkelte nyttige innspill, og skrev deretter artikkelen som blir publisert i dette nummer av Medlemskap i FSO koster kr. 200,- per år. Beløpet AERA.» betales til konto nr. 1607.50.81999. Vennligst også informer om din studentstatus, eller mangel på sådan, ved UiO eller andre utdanningsinstitusjoner i Per Arne Karlsen Oslo. I styret: Per Arne Karlsen Martin F. Johansen Hong Phuc Ho Chung Eva B. Aamodt Adresse: FSO Flisveien 1 1414 Trollåsen E-post: [email protected] Nettsted: www.objektivisme.no Layout: Per Arne Karlsen (design basert på tidligere utgaver) ISSN 1502-9115 Alt innhold Copyright © FSO 2019, om ikke annet er spesifisert. "2 AERA NR. 1, 2019 Laws, definitions, and an axiom in economics av Vegard Martinsen Say’s1 Law, when not ignored, is in the literature achieved is that the science of economics, as it is usually treated as one of a number of laws in practiced in academia today, does not yet have the economics. In this essay, I will try to show that tight connection to reality that any proper science with a proper definition of the science of must have. In order to have a tight and secure economics, Say’s law is more fundamental than connection to reality, the fundamental concepts of the other laws, that it is a basic, inescapable truth the science must be correctly defined, and the that sets the limits for everything that properly starting point(s) must be explicitly stated. In the belongs to the science of economics—i.e. I will try following, I will try to provide this. to show that Say’s Law is an axiom. As in many other sciences, there are laws in LAWS OF ECONOMICS economics. Wikipedia2 lists a staggering 34 laws3, Among the most important laws are the law of although some of them are clearly errors, supply and demand, the law of diminishing misunderstandings or based upon incorrect marginal utility, the law of comparative theories. One of the laws included4 by Wikipedia advantage, and Gresham’s law. (Strangely, some is “the iron law of wages”, a law claiming that authors claim there are no laws in economics. An under capitalism, the worker’s wages over time example is Z. Karbell, who in an article in will decline and reach a level where it only will respected popular magazine The Atlantic claims make the worker able to barely survive and that “The ‘Laws of Economics’ Don’t Exist”5). In procreate. This, of course, is not a law of order to illustrate the fundamental difference economics, it is a lie commonly associated with between Say’s Law and the other laws, I will Marxism (although it was first stated by Lasalle, briefly discuss two of these laws. before Marx). However, that such an idea is regarded as a law by some economists shows that Gresham’s law says that “bad money drives out the science of economics has yet to reach a level good money”: in a society where the state has of explanatory power that sciences like physics, introduced legal tender laws saying that coins medicine, biology, and many others, properly made of gold and copper (“bad money”) shall enjoy. have the same face value and purchasing power as pure gold coins (“good money”), the good money The main reason that economics has not yet will disappear from circulation; people will melt reached the status that many other sciences have them down and sell them as pure gold and receive 1 Much of what I know about Saysian economics I have learned from Per Arne Karlsen and Richard Salsman. In a workshop where we discussed the subject of this article, I received valuable suggestions from Andreas Aure, Lars-Erik Bruce, Martin Johansen and Per Arne Karlsen. I wish to thank Richard Salsman, who read an earlier version of this article and made numerous suggestions, some of which I have included in this final version. I wish to thank Hong Phuc Ho Chung for several good suggestions, and proofreading. 2 I regard Wikipedia as a reliable source when dealing with totally uncontroversial topics. 3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Economics_laws Retrieved September 2018 4 Wikipedia says that it is a “proposed law”. 5 https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/the-laws-of-economics-dont-exist/274901/ Retrieved September 2018 "3 AERA NR. 1, 2019 more than the face value of the melted coins. The make yourself more attractive, you are giving the law of supply and demand says that when the people you meet an incentive to get to know you, price of a product increases, the demand falls. As I but this phenomenon is clearly outside the science see it, these and the other valid laws of economics, of economics. So, to say that economics is about have the same status as laws in other sciences. the study of (all kinds of) incentives is incorrect One may get the impression that there sometimes When applied to groups, the laws of economics are exceptions to the laws of economics. A citizen have the same status as the laws of the other who is very loyal to the state and will submit to sciences. But with regard to individuals and not the intention of the state’s decrees no matter what, groups, one may say that there are exceptions to may continue to regard pure gold coins and gold- these laws—as in some contexts one may say that and-copper coins as having the same value, and there are exceptions to the laws of physics. So, use them interchangeably. A Coca-Cola aficionado there are some contexts where there seems to be will not reduce the number of times he enjoys a exceptions to the laws of science, and there are Coca-Cola after a price increase; for him, an some contexts where there seems to be exceptions increase in price will not reduce his demand. Does to the laws of economics. But there are no this show that there are exceptions to these laws, exceptions to Say’s Law—there are no contexts and are they therefore fundamentally different where it does not hold. Therefore, Say’s Law is from the laws of, say, physics? No, there may also essentially different from the other laws of seem to be exceptions to the laws of physics. Two economics. examples: Newton’s second law, F = ma, is as stated valid only when the mass of the accelerated object is constant, but mass increases with SAY’S LAW velocity; Ohm’s law, V = RI, is only valid when The principle that later became known as Say’s the temperature is constant, but when an electric Law was first stated by James Mill in 1808: “The current runs through a metallic object, temperature production of commodities creates, and is the one increases. However, when one understands and and universal cause which creates a market for the applies the laws in context, one sees that the laws commodities produced” (quoted from Reisman are valid. The same point applies to the laws of 1996, p. 560). economics. They do not apply to individuals, they Say regarded this as an obvious, uncontroversial apply to groups. The laws of economics describe truth, and stated this principle in his A Treatise how groups react to incentives (by the action of (1823): “It is worthwhile to remark, that a product a group I mean the sum of the actions of the is no sooner created, than it, from that instant, individuals in the group). affords a market for other products to the full Let me interject that incentives is an important extent of its own value ...” (Say 2001, p. 134–35). topic in economics. In their book Freakonomics, In William Hutt’s book A Rehabilitation of Say’s authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner Law, one finds several telling evaluations of Say’s say that “Economics is, at root, the study of law: “Say’s Law is the most fundamental incentives; how people get what they want, or ’economic’ law in all economic theory” (Hutt need, especially when other people want or need 1974, p. 3), “Say regarded Says’s Law as accepted the same thing. Economists love incentives. ... An doctrine ... explaining what he believed to be incentive is a bullet, a lever, a key [that makes unchallengeable” (Hutt 1974, p. 4). Interestingly, people do things] ... ” (Levitt and Dubner 2006, p. according to Hutt, “[influential economist John 24). However, not all kinds of incentives belong to Maynard] Keynes regarded Say’s Law as a truism economics: if you dress up before a date in order "4 AERA NR.
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