==================== HES POSTING ==================== "ECONOMIC", programmatically and philospohically ------------------------------------------------ Some of what I have said about "real" and its family might be said about "economic" too. Economists use the terms economic efficiency economic profit in contrast to engineering efficiency, technological efficiency, etc accounting profit, operating profit, etc to denote both their subject matter (programmatic use of "economic" to say what should be the object of study) and to make claims regarding what is important (philosophical, perhaps I should say theoretical, tenets about the presumed object of study). Thus economic efficiency is what economists study and engineering efficiency is what engineers study. But economists also say, in effect, "engineers make the mistake of studying engineering efficiency". ----Paul Paul Wendt Subscriptions Editor, HES ============ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ============ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]