Rational value maximizers
Dec. 17th, 2009 08:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
libertangoMegan McArdle of The Atlantic writes:
"I thought that the left had cast the rigid view of the rational value maximizer aside..."
As I just commented:
No, actually. It's the University of Chicago that's cast the rigid view of the rational value maximizer aside.
Or at least, so I presume, since according to the April 18, 2008 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, professors at the U of Chicago are only the fifth highest paid in the US. If they were rational value maximizers, one would think they'd teach at the places that pay more.
And how ironic is that?
*^*^*
For those who don't know -- U of Chicago is where Milton Friedman and Friedrich von Hayek taught. It's generally regarded as the economics department that's most committed to the view of homo economicus, absolutely dogmatic laissez-faire,fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency, and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope and, as McArdle puts it, "rational value maximizers." So the fact that when it comes to their own bread and butter professors at U of Chicago can't manage to be the highest paid, and are therefore quite possibly foregoing higher pay at other institutions, is a great irony indeed.
"I thought that the left had cast the rigid view of the rational value maximizer aside..."
As I just commented:
No, actually. It's the University of Chicago that's cast the rigid view of the rational value maximizer aside.
Or at least, so I presume, since according to the April 18, 2008 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, professors at the U of Chicago are only the fifth highest paid in the US. If they were rational value maximizers, one would think they'd teach at the places that pay more.
And how ironic is that?
*^*^*
For those who don't know -- U of Chicago is where Milton Friedman and Friedrich von Hayek taught. It's generally regarded as the economics department that's most committed to the view of homo economicus, absolutely dogmatic laissez-faire,
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-12-17 05:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-17 07:09 pm (UTC)No, don't get me started.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-17 07:45 pm (UTC)The total value of being able to put "University of Chicago professor of economics" one one's CV is probably much greater than the base pay from the institution. How do they do with consulting fees? Book payments? Lecture fees?
no subject
Date: 2009-12-17 07:57 pm (UTC)True, but only makes my point. That is, the value from being able to put "Harvard/Stanford/Princeton professor of economics" on one's CV is almost certainly much higher than Chicago, except in limited specialist circumstances. The first three are household names; Chicago is only a city to the majority of people.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-18 05:54 am (UTC)Any philosophical viewpoint that begins with "assume that human beings act rationally..." fails out of the gate, forget any of the equally absurd points that come after.