Vulgar Economists And Economics

[ComradeRed]

I am reading up on more and more Marxist economics, but I don't fully understand what vulgar economists and economics is exactly. Can someone explain it?

[redstar2000]

The phrase "vulgar economists" or "vulgar economics" is polemical...it's just a way of saying bourgeois economists or bourgeois economics with a sneer.

You may also run across the phrase "vulgar Marxist" -- it refers to Marxists who consider economic motivations as the only cause of human events.

The word "vulgar", by the way, is common in 19th century (and earlier) writings...it comes (if I'm not mistaken) from a Latin word meaning "of the people" and suggests the "sophisticated aristocrat" looking down on the "common superstitions" of the "thoughtless masses".

Probably a good word to avoid these days.

:redstar2000:

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[Dewolfemann]

As far as simplicity goes, vulgar bourgeois economics is pretty much all bourgeois economics after Say.

It just marks a distinction of where bourgeois economics abandoned all pretenses of being scientific and replaced them with a mathematic veneer to appear scientific.


The phrase "vulgar economists" or "vulgar economics" is polemical...it's just a way of saying bourgeois economists or bourgeois economics with a sneer.

No, Smith and Ricardo would not be considered in the group of "vulgar economics" :)

[MrDoom]

And why was this thread necro'ed, exactly?

Where&#39;s my Mace of Undead Smiting +2? <_<