Economism

The presumption that matters of public policy can be interpreted mainly or completely in terms of economics, particularly a technical and constructivist view of economics designed to sustain growth. Economics builds abstractions; economism takes them literally.

The scale of this category error is so large that it tends to capture all our judgment. Everything but the principle of the competitive market is assumed-away, leaving economics disconnected from the texture and purposes of society, ecology and culture which it exists to serve.E86

 

Related entries:

Rationalism, Misplaced Concreteness, Different Premises, Money Fallacy, Social Mobility, Looter’s Ethics.

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David Fleming
Dr David Fleming (2 January 1940 – 29 November 2010) was a cultural historian and economist, based in London, England. He was among the first to reveal the possibility of peak oil's approach and invented the influential TEQs scheme, designed to address this and climate change. He was also a pioneer of post-growth economics, and a significant figure in the development of the UK Green Party, the Transition Towns movement and the New Economics Foundation, as well as a Chairman of the Soil Association. His wide-ranging independent analysis culminated in two critically acclaimed books, 'Lean Logic' and 'Surviving the Future', published posthumously in 2016. These in turn inspired the 2020 launches of both BAFTA-winning director Peter Armstrong's feature film about Fleming's perspective and legacy - 'The Sequel: What Will Follow Our Troubled Civilisation?' - and Sterling College's unique 'Surviving the Future: Conversations for Our Time' online courses. For more information on all of the above, including Lean Logic, click the little globe below!

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