There are days when the best way to stop thinking about political economy is to try to work out how to design and make the part I need to make a model work as I want.
ERR:
Equally certain is the fact that I won’t be able to make all of them work. I am not a terribly good modeller despite many years of practice.
We’ve noticed.
For example:
The show is evidence of the massive under-utilised talent in our economy. It is run by volunteers, whilst many of the most interesting products for sale will be created and made by decidedly part-time hobby business people, who sell their wares because they have found ways to solve problems other people might enjoy.
My point is that much of what is best about this show will happen because people are using abilities that, I suspect, are largely unrecognised in their working lives. They are doing something for little or no reward because it is simply worth doing. And what is more, they do it incredibly well.
The whole show does in that case pretty much shatter the myth of neoliberalism, which presumes that if something is not done for money then it is not worth doing at all.
Neoliberalism doesn’t say anything of the kind of course.
But standard neoclassical economics would note why much of this skilled work – greatly desired skilled work – is done outside the market and paid economy. Because government imposes too large a tax wedge, bureaucracy imposes too large a paperwork cost.
One of the actual canonical examples being the making of little copper boilers for miniature steam engines. Because the EU imposed the sort of regs appropriate for full scale boilers on the 1/100th scale ones. Therefore commercially made model boilers became a not for money home brew.
Man’s an unobservant twat.
All over the country, day in and day out, the evidence that this is not true stares us in the face. The economy, our lives, and our wellbeing often depend on that being true. But a tiny minority for whom only regulation matters have come to dominate economic thinking.
“There are days when the best way to stop thinking about political economy is to try to work out how to design and make the part I need to make a model work as I want.”
When the ignorant peasants won’t do as I tell them I find it soothing to boss around an inanimate object instead.
“to work out how to design and make the part I need to make a model work as I want.”
So the model didn’t give the answer he wanted which means the model must be wrong.
Maybe this approach to modelling should be known as the Climate/Covid technique
“make a model work as I want”
So, construct a model where the more you remove contents from in a vessel, the more there remains. “But that’s how I want the model to work!”
“But a tiny minority for whom only regulation matters have come to dominate economic thinking.”
Inadvertant clarity from Lord Spudcup there!
Jgh
I did think that when I read it. Almost like the equivalent of a stopped clock being right twice a day. However, I am pretty sure that he would say it’s taken out of context
“is to try to work out how to design and make the part I need to make a model work as I want.”
Late to the party, but that is in one sentence exactly what is wrong with the Sage of Ely.
You’d think that someone who is hot on model trains would realise proper models are to approximate reality, not reflect your personal fancy.
If you don’t, you enter the world of fantasy miniatures. Which are generally more fun, but I’ve yet to see even the nerdiest table top fanatic treat them as real.
Talk to them, display them, coddle them, even wish they were real sometimes. Nerdism being what it is and all that, it contains some pretty unhinged people..
But at least ulitmately aware their models aren’t, in fact, real. (with the more irritating examples bemoaning the fact in public) And will never be.
Spud is well into Furry/Otherkin territory by now.
And maybe economists don’t go out enough. They don’t do what Danny Blanchflower champions, which is the economics of walking around.
I’d like to see Murphy walking around – based on his experience in Downahm Market he might not find a welcoming audience.
Because there is a political economy dimension to all this. The show is evidence of the massive under-utilised talent in our economy.
I’d agree with that. The evident racism and institutionalised discrimination against productive beings on gender and racial grounds is endemic, costing millions. Far too many people are having to answer to the likes of retired fake accountants in the Fens to explain why having a free market economy is a good thing.
A further example of what Tim says about model boilers is found in the plant world. If you grow snowdrops (as a hobby essentially) but you want to sell a dozen or so of the more desirable ones (by post) to help defray the cost of your hobby, you now have to be registered with the Ministry, and you have to apply to be able to issue plant passports…..which generates a visit twice a year from an inspector.
(If you sell face-to-face at a plant fair (for instance) you don’t. What exactly is that all about?
That’s the EU again, registration of seed sellers.
They don’t do what Danny Blanchflower champions, which is the economics of walking around.
Is that the rationalisation behind not being able to afford the bus fare?
Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard (real engineers and real managers) practiced an innovative management style they called “Management by Walking Around” or MBWA. This was 60 years ago.