Re:What happened when Boston Public Schools tried for equity...
by AtlasBarfed on Sunday September 30, 2018 @11:41AM
(#18106617)
If you're trying to contend the study of economics is not highly politicized, then in my opinion you have your head in the sand. Or that economics is ad reductio absurdum to what you described and nothing more, then you must be oblivious to the world in general.
What you are really doing is just parroting what laissez-faire trickle down econ people... oh wait, by your definition they wouldn't be commenting on something so broad, macro, sociological, anyway they parrot that junk as if the redirection of wealth to the very few is some mathematical law, as if the pirate distribution game theory actually applies to a massively complex chaotic system like the real world.
Right.
Utility maximization is a core concept in economics. The definition of what utility is can vary. Utility isn't equivalent to money. Anything quantifiable - and you can quantify qualitative things if you give them some dimensions - might be input to your utility function. What economics does is gives you tools to reason about the systemic effects of decisions that balance competing utilities, and how to apportion scarce resources.