How to Argue with an Economist: Reopening Political Debate in Australia

Front Cover
Cambridge University Press, Jun 20, 2002 - Business & Economics - 172 pages
This fascinating book reflects on how economics is central to our lives, and how 'economic rationalism' has become the lens through which all Australian public life is viewed. It explains how this economic worldview overlooks important social issues, and how it transforms Australian culture. In this second edition, Lindy Edwards further explores its continued influence on Australian culture. She argues that recent debates about industrial relations revolve around values, and the re-making of Australia's industrial relations system reflects a transformation in policymakers' worldviews and priorities. How to Argue with an Economist equips a general audience to participate in these debates, exposing their pitfalls and values and making the issues accessible to everyone. These debates are about more than economics; they are about Australian society and culture in the generations to come. Book jacket.

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Selected pages

Contents

A political impasse
2
A nationdefining choice
10
Economic rationalisms grip on power
19
II
29
Is economics a science?
30
Key ideas in economics
38
III
49
Punters versus economic rationalists
50
V
95
How to argue with an economic rationalist
96
Reclaiming responsibility
99
Arguing about economic efficiency
111
Arguing about quality of life
127
Arguing about justice
141
VI
149
The way forward
150

Contrasting views of human nature
52
Contrasting views of how society works
64
Contrasting views of the ideal society
76
Economic policy and culture
86
Making sure shell be right
160
Bibliography
162
Index
170
Copyright

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About the author (2002)

Lindy Edwards is in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University. A former economic policy adviser in the Prime Minister's Department the Prime Minister and Cabinet and journalist in the Canberra Press Gallery, she understands how economics works from the inside.