Comments by "Curious Crow" (@CuriousCrow-mp4cx) on "When it comes down to it ‘stuff’ doesn’t matter that much" video.

  1. You're comment suggests that you can't see the wood for the trees. Economics was created by people, and it's about people, and what people do. But - like any academic discipline - it's a framework, or a model, or a lens through which we examine human activity. Rather than be dehumanised, it is all too human, in that it is shaped and directed by the powerful in society. It reflects their proclivities and concerns more than others. The fact that we study it at all is a culmination of choices made by those who can influence it the most. But like a famous British statistician said: "All models are wrong. But some are useful." You see, academic disciplines are technologies of knowledge. They are tools, that are designed to make up for our deficiencies as humans. But as we are imperfect very often so are our tools. We craft them to achieve certain outcomes that we think might help us achieve some goal. But as always what goal we pursue has to be analysed and tested against the reality of it's pros and cons. And we can't ask the tool to do something it was not designed to do. The designer or the user, or both may be at fault. Indeed, if you read Adam Smith's the "Wealth of Nations", you might not recognise it as the discipline we have today, because certain concerns of Smith are not the focus of the discipline today. And that's because human inquiry is subject to human attitudes, biases, and beliefs. Being human is... not straightforward or simple. And neither are our choices. If you want the tool to be updated, one might remember that the Map is not the Territory. Therefore, it has to be updated as things change, and as we change. Just a thought.
    1
  2. You haven't got to grips with your spellchecker.
    1
  3. And that's all your bothered about? You're not worried by the fact that they may not have a planet fit to live on, but you worry about your financial legacy? No wonder the world is what it is.
    1
  4. This is so sad. Disabled people have a future. It is you who are short-sighted and perhaps ignorant. Only 4% of all estates are liable for Inheritance Tax. If you haven't worked that out by now, it makes me wonder how you managed to accumulate any money at all.
    1
  5. A favourite saying of the ancient Greek philosophical school of The Stoics was 'momento mori' - "remember that you will die." The sad thing is that few people think very little of leaving a legacy other than material, because most people are encouraged to focus on it for most of their lives. Some people think that's enough. Frankly, it isn't. Leaving good memories behind is as important.
    1