Saturday, March 6, 2010

List Serve

"Just another clue"
--Benjamin Franklin Gates (National Treasure)

I've been working on the collection of natural laws that any economic system would have to cope with. Chodorov (1959) has nicely framed a couple that I've noted before, and added a couple I hadn't thought of.

Insatiable desires. Individuals constantly seek a more abundant life. When 'basic' wants are satisfied, individuals will then seek satisfaction of higher level wants. Essentially, human desires are unbounded.

Necessity of labor. Living requires production, or the application of labor to raw materials that make things to satisfy human desires.

Aversion to labor. While some forms of labor may provide enjoyment or satisfaction, humans do not partake in labor for labor's sake alone.

Law of Parsimony. Humans seek the greatest amount of satisfaction related to the labor given up. Essentially follows from the three previous axioms. a.k.a. something-for-nothing tendency.

Valuation choices. Unlike others in the animal kingdom, humans can prioritize their wants vis a vis their costs. Human possess unique capacity for evaluating desires--a consciousness of comparable desires--and making choices based on them. Humans seek satisfaction where the most return is offered.

Unique wants. Each individual's taste preferences differ and cannot be accurately generalized.

Once past the period of discovery, we'll consolidate these list.

Reference

Chodorov, F. 1959. The rise and fall of society. New York: The Devin-Adair Company.

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