Economic Thought and Social Change (Political & Social Economy) - Tapa dura

The economics community, the one group that might restore to health a world weakened by economic malaise, is itself trapped in a crippling state of cri­sis, according to J. Ron Stanfield in this penetrating new look at economic thought.

Neglect of social change, Stanfield ar­gues, is the major weakness in orthodox economic thought. Enormous change occurred, for example, when the firm, which was the responsibility of its own­ers, evolved into the corporation, which is the responsibility of no one person. Mainstream economists ignore change even of this magnitude, continuing to treat as valid such empty concepts as capitalism, liberalism, libertarianism, and the welfare state, perpetuating so­cial ill. The cure is a historical perspec­tive that both recognizes social change and shows when to scrap obsolete forms and folkways.

Economists avert an occasional emer­gency through measures such as deficit spending, but the news each day bears out Stanfield’s assertion that deficit spending leads to inflation or economic collapse?or both. Current conditions further affirm another Stanfield conten­tion: The economics community pro­vides neither long-term direction nor stability. Failing to serve society, the community is itself ripe for a change amounting to a scientific revolution.

J. Ron Stanfield is Associate Professor of Economics at Colorado State University.