Students Challenge Economic Model

(Page 2 of 2)

February/March 2002
By the Mother Earth News editors 
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"Economics is used as a justification for inequality, for racism," says Fadhel Kaboub, also a graduate student at UMKC. He feels that orthodox economics is used to convince people that unemployment, poverty and inequality around the globe are inevitable results of the market.

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Kaboub says the unyielding laws of math that dominate economics, but don't reflect reality, are one of the main reasons the numbers of students studying economics is down. Only a few schools, UMKC for one, take a heterodox approach to teaching economics.

Why should people who don't spend their time discussing a post-Keynesian reality care? Heterodox economists are more likely to suggest that industries be taxed on the amount of pollution they produce to help slow a growing environmental crisis (see " The Economy and the Earth "), that consumers should be steered toward local food providers rather than wast ing resources on transportation (see " Think Globally Eat Locally "), or that incentives be given to homeowners trying to use renewable energy for at least part of their needs.

The petition is mostly for academics, but the proposal's supporters are looking for any help they can get. After all, Kaboub says, there's a reason why this is a student-led initiative: "(Orthodox economics) is an indoctrination process," he says. "You can never change the mind of a professor today - you can change the mind of a student."

And since those students will be the economic policy makers of the future, a lesson in truly "good" economics couldn't hurt.

Green Gazette is written by Sarah Beth Cavanah except where noted.

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