Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Keynes
In the short run, disequilibirums occur everywhere.
Classical economists believe that the Long Run comes quickly, prices and wages are flexible. Walrus' Law states that when n-1 markets clear, the nth market clears as well. Given that all agents are rational utility/profit maximisers, everyone will be doing the best for themselves, hence you can do no better than to leave things as it is, and any intervention will only result in market distortion.
However, Keynesians believe that in the Long Run, we're all dead. Hence, policies are needed to help achieve equilibrium, and to bring the Long Run in as soon as possible.
It's good that things start people thinking about things, as unsuccessful as the process can be. Like the recent petition to repeal S377A, although NMP Siew Kum Hong tried unsuccessfully, he got the entire nation thinking about the gay rights, wife's rights in a marriage, human rights, or on what basis should laws be made in general. The government got a chance to re-evaluate its position (as hypocritical as it could perhaps be) and the nation got to discuss more about it. Passions rose, people were pissed, threats were issued, but at the end of the day, it gave people a chance to re-think about the status quo, things we apparently we take for granted everyday.
Life is an amazing process. That's why it's called a period, a timeline, a process, a road, a journey. It's never a be-all and end-all. It's amazing that despite you think you do know a lot of things, new things, new experiences come and you get to challenge and re-evaluate a lot on your long-standing principles, and constantly evolve to see what you really think.
Maybe, there's no such things as wrong and right, the only things that matter is that whether things are wrong or right to you personally.
Perhaps some day, we should all be like Descartes, erase all our past bias and judgements, and we will gain some really fresh and meaningful perspectives =)
lowtide blogged @
2:49 pm
