The Coevolution of Corporations and Economic Man
From Huben's Wiki
(Created page with "== Introduction == Corporations are an attempt to create economic man (or model it more closely.) It is well known now that the idea of economic man (Homo economicus), the ba...") |
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The attempt to create capitalism is essentially an attempt to approximate the requirements of microeconomic free-market theory, starting with economic man. Corporations are designed to act as economic man with fewer limits than actual people do. Hidden assumptions of economic man include no limitations of processing power, size, hands, lifetime, etc.: exactly what corporations solve. Corporations are created as first-class citizens with their own systems of law which provide them with privileges ordinary people don't have. All large amounts of money or property are now controlled through corporations. The Marxist idea of creating a worker class as fodder for corporations is spot on. Markets and property rights (both amazingly hypertrophied by government action) are sandboxes created for corporate play: always regulated because otherwise externalities get out of hand. And this is all done because of the greater productivity from market activity that is essential in the competition between states. You don't get that increased productivity from uncoordinated individuals (the second class citizens, us.) | The attempt to create capitalism is essentially an attempt to approximate the requirements of microeconomic free-market theory, starting with economic man. Corporations are designed to act as economic man with fewer limits than actual people do. Hidden assumptions of economic man include no limitations of processing power, size, hands, lifetime, etc.: exactly what corporations solve. Corporations are created as first-class citizens with their own systems of law which provide them with privileges ordinary people don't have. All large amounts of money or property are now controlled through corporations. The Marxist idea of creating a worker class as fodder for corporations is spot on. Markets and property rights (both amazingly hypertrophied by government action) are sandboxes created for corporate play: always regulated because otherwise externalities get out of hand. And this is all done because of the greater productivity from market activity that is essential in the competition between states. You don't get that increased productivity from uncoordinated individuals (the second class citizens, us.) | ||
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| + | The preoccupation of behavioral economics with humans may be missing the important fact of different behavior of corporations. | ||
