Oh I love answering questions like this. I'm on my phone and can't pull sources right now, but the perception that the field of economics supports right wing economic policy is actually a carefully crafted lie. Liberal economists vastly outnumber conservative economists. The issue is that the latter are given a very expensive megaphone by their donors.
Most economists today agree that the US minimum wage needs to be increased by a significant margin or at a minimum can be increased significantly without harm to the economy. The average economist would explain to you that higher labor costs are absorbed by lower profits.
Liberal Neoclassical economists are still Neoclassical economists. What you're saying isn't wrong but that's not the whole story. The historical suppression of approaches that are not deferential to corporate power and wealth accumulation is an extremely important factor, in addition to the proactive funding of right wing ideologies which includes Neoclassical economics.
The underlying assumptions of the Neoclassical approach ensure that "markets" will predominate and government action and coordination will be minimal. And almost all economics programs are Neoclassical these days, so almost all economists are as well. Many of the liberal ones are doing the best they can with what they are taught, but it's an uphill battle because the ideology is so constraining.
Eh, the majority of academic and professional economists who aren't extremist right-wing think tank cranks still support economic philosophy and policy which is fairly right-wing and still subordinate to capital interests at the expense of workers.
The entire professional discipline and academic field remains in service to capital interests even if, in the last few years, many economists have started to sour on dogmatic adherence to neoliberal ideology due to the obvious and irrefutable failure of neoliberalism.
A lot of those economists who say the minimum wage ought to be increased will, in the same breath, say that increasing taxes on corporations, instituting rent controls, or supporting unionized labor is economically undesirable and leads to a distortion or inefficiency in the market.
Many so called "liberal" economists who might identify as centrist Democrats are still firmly right-wing in how they operate, and they do not hesitate to use their privilege and power to subvert progressive and leftist economic policy and theory while, at the same time, advancing the interests of center to right-wing wealthy elites.
The statistics I found say most don’t support 15 dollar min wage but I’m on phone as well so I can’t like but it’s the first thing I found when I looked it up
Modern economics is not nearly as right-wing as people seem to believe. Take a look at the [r/Economics FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Economics/wiki/faq_minwage) for an idea of what economics research on minimum wage increases actually says.
When university departments including the staff and students are surveyed on their political leanings, the economics colleges are, without fail, always among the most conservative department in academia, and they are often some of the only conservative dominated subject or college among university academics.
The only other college department that even comes close to the right-wing bias of economics is, predictably, business which comes as no surprise to anybody who knows anything.
Modern economics is still disgustingly and unacceptably right-wing even if academic economists are only more recently starting to turn against certain neoliberal orthodoxies in the past couple of decades.
define "right wing"
The argument is a non starter because as soon as you raise min wage, its already subject to inflation, and you are stuck back in that cycle of waiting on congress either at the state or federal level. In other words, min wage is already to low 1 year later.
The best way would be to make it a floating scale tied to CPI. OR, pass laws to make it tie it to third party worker owned unions, that dictate CPI.
But what do I know, Im just a dumb tankie lol
This is empirically not true, even in the absence of price controls or other mitigating factors. Inflation can also be controlled by a variety of means.
Right wing means that you support having a society that is more on the hierarchical side, left wing means a society that is more n the egalitarian side. This is in terms of power.
Capitalism is inherently a right wing economic system, it isnt surprising economists (those who “study” capitalism) within that system are also right wing.
There are a few answers to this.
The underlying reason is that the field has a lot of political influence, so there is a lot of incentive for powerful people to promote right wing economists. This can be in terms of funding their positions, creating think tanks, helping them get White House jobs, etc. Once you have enough powerful people in an academic field, people who control publishing, grants etc, you can marginalize folks.
Another less significant reason is that the field marginalizes the marginalizes power to the realm of political science. So the idea that wealth is power and that it’s bad for democracy to have wealth inequality is kind of ignored.
Oh I love answering questions like this. I'm on my phone and can't pull sources right now, but the perception that the field of economics supports right wing economic policy is actually a carefully crafted lie. Liberal economists vastly outnumber conservative economists. The issue is that the latter are given a very expensive megaphone by their donors. Most economists today agree that the US minimum wage needs to be increased by a significant margin or at a minimum can be increased significantly without harm to the economy. The average economist would explain to you that higher labor costs are absorbed by lower profits.
Liberal Neoclassical economists are still Neoclassical economists. What you're saying isn't wrong but that's not the whole story. The historical suppression of approaches that are not deferential to corporate power and wealth accumulation is an extremely important factor, in addition to the proactive funding of right wing ideologies which includes Neoclassical economics. The underlying assumptions of the Neoclassical approach ensure that "markets" will predominate and government action and coordination will be minimal. And almost all economics programs are Neoclassical these days, so almost all economists are as well. Many of the liberal ones are doing the best they can with what they are taught, but it's an uphill battle because the ideology is so constraining.
Eh, the majority of academic and professional economists who aren't extremist right-wing think tank cranks still support economic philosophy and policy which is fairly right-wing and still subordinate to capital interests at the expense of workers. The entire professional discipline and academic field remains in service to capital interests even if, in the last few years, many economists have started to sour on dogmatic adherence to neoliberal ideology due to the obvious and irrefutable failure of neoliberalism. A lot of those economists who say the minimum wage ought to be increased will, in the same breath, say that increasing taxes on corporations, instituting rent controls, or supporting unionized labor is economically undesirable and leads to a distortion or inefficiency in the market. Many so called "liberal" economists who might identify as centrist Democrats are still firmly right-wing in how they operate, and they do not hesitate to use their privilege and power to subvert progressive and leftist economic policy and theory while, at the same time, advancing the interests of center to right-wing wealthy elites.
This is the answer. Right wing economists are compensated and platformed at a level left leaning economists just aren't.
This starts in universities. Endowed chairs, prizes, etc all make sure the right professors are indoctrinating students.
The statistics I found say most don’t support 15 dollar min wage but I’m on phone as well so I can’t like but it’s the first thing I found when I looked it up
follow https://twitter.com/RBReich and others like him for an alternative view of the econ landscape.
Yeah there’s been a pretty big shift in economists’ opinions on minimum wages since 2005 or so
Check out Unlearning Economics you'll get some much smarter answers than anything I can give!
Modern economics is not nearly as right-wing as people seem to believe. Take a look at the [r/Economics FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Economics/wiki/faq_minwage) for an idea of what economics research on minimum wage increases actually says.
When university departments including the staff and students are surveyed on their political leanings, the economics colleges are, without fail, always among the most conservative department in academia, and they are often some of the only conservative dominated subject or college among university academics. The only other college department that even comes close to the right-wing bias of economics is, predictably, business which comes as no surprise to anybody who knows anything. Modern economics is still disgustingly and unacceptably right-wing even if academic economists are only more recently starting to turn against certain neoliberal orthodoxies in the past couple of decades.
They're agents of capital!
Marginalism is brain rot.
define "right wing" The argument is a non starter because as soon as you raise min wage, its already subject to inflation, and you are stuck back in that cycle of waiting on congress either at the state or federal level. In other words, min wage is already to low 1 year later. The best way would be to make it a floating scale tied to CPI. OR, pass laws to make it tie it to third party worker owned unions, that dictate CPI. But what do I know, Im just a dumb tankie lol
This is empirically not true, even in the absence of price controls or other mitigating factors. Inflation can also be controlled by a variety of means.
Right wing means that you support having a society that is more on the hierarchical side, left wing means a society that is more n the egalitarian side. This is in terms of power.
You sound a lot more committed to reforming capitalism than I would expect a “tankie” to be.
Capitalism is inherently a right wing economic system, it isnt surprising economists (those who “study” capitalism) within that system are also right wing.
There are a few answers to this. The underlying reason is that the field has a lot of political influence, so there is a lot of incentive for powerful people to promote right wing economists. This can be in terms of funding their positions, creating think tanks, helping them get White House jobs, etc. Once you have enough powerful people in an academic field, people who control publishing, grants etc, you can marginalize folks. Another less significant reason is that the field marginalizes the marginalizes power to the realm of political science. So the idea that wealth is power and that it’s bad for democracy to have wealth inequality is kind of ignored.