Regular readers in this forum might remember occasional references to a conversation with Max Borders of the Free to Choose Network about the false metaphor that society is a machine to be “fixed” or “adjusted.”

Borders revisits the topic in his latest Ideas Matter update:

If you had any doubts that the machine metaphor is pervasive in technocratic language about economics and society, consider:

* A CNN headline reads: “Obama’s priority: Fixing the economy.”

* Paul Krugman says that what’s interesting about the Bush Administration “is that there’s no sign that anybody’s actually thinking about ‘well, how do we run this economy?'”

* Mark Ames of The Nation thinks hiring Larry Summers “to fix the economy makes as much sense as…”


And, of course, my favorite is Paul Krugman (again) say that the draw of economics for him was: ?the beauty of pushing a button to solve problems.? Wow. What hubris.


This sort of simplistic, reductionist economic thinking will plague us for some time until we find new metaphors. My favorite is economy as ecosystem.