The Economics of Groundhog Day (the movie)
Art may imitate life, writes D.W. MacKenzie, but there is one instance where life cannot imitate art. The movie Groundhog Day (1993) illustrates the importance of the Mises-Hayek paradigm as an alternative to equilibrium economics by illustrating the unreal nature of equilibrium theorizing. It illustrates an important concept: one that we can never observe in real life. Because perfect competition is completely unreal we need other concepts that enable us to understand how the world really works. Fortunately, such concepts already exist in the writings of Ludwig von Mises and FA Hayek. FULL ARTICLE
[The Prognosticator of Prognosticators has spoken! Punxsutawney Phil, the official groundhog of Groundhog Day, says we'll have an early spring.]
Comments (3)
LukeFitzhugh
This is a superb article. It is one that should be promulgated because of how well it clarifies some of the most important issues in political economy. It reminds me of a recent article by Loyola New Orleans profs William Barnett, Walter Block, and Michael Saliba "Perfect Competition: A Case of Market Failure" that appeared in Corporate Ownership and Control in 2005.
Because of the "perfect competition" model, government intervention into just about every aspect of life is justified. Mainstream economic thinking has failed. Mises, Hayek, and others got it right.
Thanks for the Mises and Hayek quotes in the article.
Again, an excellent article.
Published: February 2, 2007 11:05 AM
Brad
The very basis of my philosophy that permeates my political and economic viewpoints is that there are 6+ billion people living in the blink of an eye present, imperfectly forecasting the future and imperfectly remembering the past. Along with this, mans' acuity to acquire knowledge exists within narrow bands, and any perceived constant is merely that, a perception.
I'll be damned if I am going to conduct my life based on someone else's perceptions. There are simply too many people in this world who actually believe their relatively ignorant wanderings between the womb and the grave add up to more than the next man's, so much so that turning guns on them is in order.
Published: February 2, 2007 11:36 AM
Scott
...and imperfectly remembering the past
Extremely important point. Glad you mentioned it.
Published: February 3, 2007 7:45 PM