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Societies for the History of Economics

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Subject:
From:
Harry Pollard <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Societies for the History of Economics <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:33:38 -0400
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Using "wants" immediately gets one into trouble. Better would be to
use "desires" which can be called "a want with an intent to satisfy".

The young girl may 'want' to be a film star. But if she takes acting
classes, perhaps goes to Hollywood, finds an Agent, haunts the
studios, it can perhaps be said she has a desire to be a film star.

People can have hundreds of wants that may shift about almost
whimsically - not a good thing on which to base an economic argument.

Desires may shift too, but the changes are relatively easy to see.
They almost certainly will shift as circumstances change - and
reasonably so.

The old classical assumption that we "seek to satisfy our desires with
the least exertion" is an adequate description of why we change our
directions.

Harry Pollard

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