Metaeconomics in a Nutshell
(Last update:
09/21/05. You are at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA. Thank you for visiting the
metateconomics website!).
(Note: We understand the risk of appearing to SHOUT by using capital
letters. This is not the intent, but rather to highlight the key words and
phrases that are being defined and refined within metaeconomics).
- It opens the INVISIBLE HAND of the market to dialogue,
and thus makes it VISIBLE.
- It proposes to make the INVISIBLE HAND metaphor a
technical aspect of metaeconomics.
- It posits a biological source of both EGOISTIC
(self-interest) and EMPATHIC (we-, other-interest) tendencies that are
in constant tension and oft times in conflict both within the
individual and with others.
- It sees the COEVOLUTION of ego, empathy and self-control
(the will).
- It posits the COEVOLUTION of the individual and the group along with the
rest of the natural, physical and ecosystem
- Recognizes both economy and society embedded within the systems of
SPACESHIP EARTH
- It acknowledges the empathic tendency as represented in the
expression of a WE- or an OTHER-INTEREST.
- It offers the OTHER-INTEREST as representing the ethics, moral dimension, norms,
conscience.
- It proposes that the pursuit of an OTHER-INTEREST is
also a force in building SOCIAL CAPITAL
- It suggests that both the SELF-INTEREST and
OTHER-INTEREST drive SOCIAL CAPITAL
- It also sees SOCIAL CAPITAL as transformative and helping
lead to the DISTINCT STATE
- It is the OTHER-INTEREST that gives substance to the INVISIBLE
HAND.
- It incorporates the OTHER-INTEREST into
standard economic analysis by introducing a set of other-interest indifference curves.
- It produces two sets of overlapping
indifference curves for the individual (e.g., Figure 2... with other variants in
the Working Papers on the Topic).
- It suggests the JOINTNESS of the two interests, due to
overlap, but this remains an empirical question.
- It proposes standard demand and supply analysis, but now
suggests the SUBJECTIVE nature of such relationships (See New
Directions in Natural Resource and Environmental Economics, Slide #'s
31-44)
- It posits the ENDOGENOUS,
SYMBIOTIC character of the two interests.
- It supposes that the MORAL DIMENSION is also oft times subjected to
rational benefit-cost analysis.
- Operating in the moral dimension necessitates SELF SACRIFICE
- It focuses on the INDIVIDUAL, the DISTINCT
ENTITY, as the wellspring of action (and uses
methodological individualism in approach), as conditioned by the
commitment to other/ or the shared norms.
- It posits ACTION/ CHOICE motivated by the
JOINT Self- and Other-interest.
- It suggests the other-interest is that
of the empathic- altruist part, with the DISTINCT ENTITY going beyond
both self-interest and altruism, ideally emerging as a DISTINCT ENTITY
in an I-THOU state.
- It is a COMMAND and (SELF-) CONTROL theory in contrast to a
CHOICE theory.
- It sees the INDIVIDUAL as arriving on an alternative plane as a DISTINCT ENTITY.
- It suggests the individual takes
COMMAND over the interests, and thus finds the PEACE OF MIND that comes
with resolving the tension, and the conflict, at least for that time and moment.
- It shifts attention to the POSITIVE
FREEDOMS/ OPPORTUNITIES, and away from the NEGATIVE
FREEDOMS/ CONSTRAINTS.
- It seeks to recognize and formally model
the DISTINCT ENTITY as the individual represented in the
COMMAND over the CHOICE(S). It is THE WILL, a person in
SELF-CONTROL, that takes command.
- It expands RATIONAL CHOICE to include the
COMMAND and INDIVIDUAL CONTROL over CHOICES
- It sees CHOICES involving SYMBIOTIC BALANCING over pleasure and
morality; pleasure and doing the right thing; pleasure
and doing what ought to be done.
- It yields a DISTINCT CHOICE due to the
DISTINCT ENTITY SYMBIOTICALLY BALANCING the Self- and
Other-Interest.
- It sees the consumer in COMMAND and in SELF-CONTROL, choosing to FUSE THE
DICHOTOMY between the two interests.
- It proposes finding that SYMBIOTIC BALANCING between
EGO and EMPATHY, resolving the natural tension and conflict, as an
expression of THE WILL and an expression of SELF-CONTROL.
- It demonstrates (in statistical test)
that TRANSACTIONS COSTS increase rapidly as other-interests diverge, and approach zero as
other-interests
converge.
- It points to PRICES reflecting the joint
pursuit of Self- and Other-interest.
- It points to the MORAL CONTENT of market
(relative) PRICES (and COSTS) reflected in that CHOICE.
- It suggests PRICES and COSTS are subjective measures of
value due to the joint expression of the empathic and egoistic
tendencies.
- It posits that BOTH ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY and SOCIAL
EFFICIENCY are JOINTLY POSSIBLE when the DISTINCT ENTITY is
at work in the markets, and in other decision forums.
- It suggests that the TRUE WEALTH of a nation only comes
from achieving such joint economic and social efficiency
- It posits TRUE WEALTH as having a MORAL DIMENSION as
ever more individuals achieve the I-THOU state.
- It recognizes that at any point in time we may be largely in
an I-IT, or I-HE/SHE state, a null (amoralist) or perhaps even an asocial (immoral)
state of existence (see I-Thou).
- Achieving the I-THOU state within large numbers of
individuals for a significant part
of the time would be to achieve the TRUE WEALTH of a nation.