Mary:
You were well trained in the economics of Lionel Robbins. What
is maximized may be religious experience, or the constraint may be
moral precept; so goals and constraints may not be material or
materialistic; but to practice Economics, as opposed to Sociology,
Psychology, or Political Science, these things are dealt with in terms
of the complement of mateiral means that is used or produced, or,
indeed, not used, or potentially produced, in the constrained
maximizing process. Knowledge is not material, but economists treat
it from the point of view of its cost and/or productivity, measured in
labour-time, socially necessary labour, relative scarcity, abstinence,
and the like, in the economics of Lionel Robbins and some other
economicses.
Maximizing process is tautological, an it is one kind of
economics that sees the world from that point of view. Schumpeterian
economics sees the sorld from the point of view of creative
destruction of constraints. No doubt, the maximizing process is
present, but that is not the focus in Schumpeterian economics; and
since neoclassical economics deals with maximization WITHIN
constraints, Schumpeterian economics is outside the modus operandi of
neolassical economics.
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