===================== HES POSTING =================== Lists of people who have complained about the state of the subject seem to me to be of limited interest in themselves. 1. We all have a grouse from time to time don't we? Neil Buchanan's original post remarked that it was particularly economists over the age of 60 who were prone to complain. Don't you find that (some) older people in all walks of life complain that things aren't what they used to be? It is when the young people are dissatisfied that you need to worry. 2. Isn't a good researcher perennially dissatisfied with the existing state of knowledge? That is the motive to try to improve it. What are these people dissatisfied about? Are they all saying the same thing? Is it 'not enough people are working in my field and citing my papers'? 3. Such grouses need a date and a context attached. We are historians, aren't we? My memory says that in the 1970s there was quite a widespread feeling that there was something wrong, but that it has declined sharply. In the 1970s people were complaining about general equilibrium (GE) theory, then seen as the pinnacle of the subject. Now, no one cares about GE theory one way or the other - the action is elsewhere. Is the incidence of complaining rising or falling? How does it compare with other fields? Tony Brewer ([log in to unmask]) University of Bristol, Department of Economics ============ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ============ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]