The discussion following the short warning strike in the Czech Republic is much more interesting than the strike itself. Especially the discussion by mainstream economists. We have already learned from those experts that:
Despite enormous technological advances, the current regime is unable to provide the standard of living that was commonplace at the end of the communist period – decent education, school lunches, heat in everyone’s homes, etc.
This means that the bottom 80% of the population “lives above their means”. Interestingly, it’s not private jets that are above par (they don’t burden the economy), but crappy school lunches for poor kids in the cafeteria (they can’t be financed).
The only solution is for the majority of the population to recognise that they have been living above their means and to cut back. That means working more and eating less, cutting back on health care, etc. But experts don’t say that will be enough. Perhaps next year we will find that even the poorer life is actually above the odds. And so it goes on and on.
If they’re right, then it would be best to reinstate the state planning commission. But that’s not the case. It’s a statement about the breakdown of the ability to think.
The most interesting thing about this is that prominent leaders in the field can say this, and that they can say it without ridiculing themselves and without removing themselves from the scientific community. Everyone else pretends that it’s actually normal. That this is science.
I recommend reading Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions because that’s exactly the situation. I am afraid that mainstream economics is ripe for being completely discarded and replaced by an empirical discipline. Just as speculative scholasticism was once replaced by empirical science.
Why is this not happening? Because compromised economics has millions of students, graduate students, professors, experts, etc., and they are all protecting their investment in useless study. Except that if we in the West don’t do it, the rest of the world will, leaving impoverished Europe to live its economic pseudo-religion.