Economics

Today I read two newpaper articles by economists. One is a friend of mine, Sergio Cortés Sánchez, that writes in the Puebla, Puebla newspaper, La Jornada de Oriente; and the other is Paul Krugman in the NYT.

Sergio works at the Autonomous University of Puebla. He founded that paper, with a few other friends. Their profession is not Journalism but Economics. Paul Krugman is not a Journalist either.

Both of them have one thing in common, in the pieces I read today. They presented complicated arguments with numbers, but their conclusions were simple, i.e., they have an ideology and tried to use the numbers to convince us of their point of view.

Is this Science?

The character of the Social Sciences, as Science, has been debated plenty. I am not going to settle that here. Since I am teaching an Idea Communication Skills class this term, I want to present some thoughts to use later with my students.

Human Communication has at least two agents. In this case the writer and the reader. I glance through the arguments; remember these are newspaper articles, I am not going to spend all day going through the complicated presentation. I cut to the chase, I find Sergio telling me that a friend of us running for Governor in Puebla has a chance of winning. His party though, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), is trying to sidestep him. The big hunchos in that party, don't like him. Sergio's point is that, if our friend would run, without this interference, he'll tie the other candidate inside the PRI.

The argument is "objective", he sets these telephone polls, with the help of his Economics Department students, and gets the numbers he presents in the newspaper; but deep down I get this weird feeling that that is not Science. I guess it is bad Science, but good Journalism. Most opinions in Mexican newspapers are just paid by powerful politicians to make them look good.

Now let us go to the First World Journalism, by a Nobel Prize winner from Princeton University.

Krugman argues that the Republican Party has always tried to destroy the social network of Americans, and now they are trying the same, but lying about it. They cynically say that the Democrats want to kill granny, but the Republicans will bury her and nobody will be the wiser.

Good for you; The Conscience of a Liberal, is the name of his Blog. I am a liberal also; but my question here is: Is he Scientific? I will say no, but his disciplined mind can see through the Republican gobbledygook, and clarify the issues for us, his readers.

In conclusion, it is good to use mathematics, to use numbers to make a point; but if it is a political point, don't expect the opponent to concede defeat because you used numbers. These are not scientific debates, they are political debates. People will hear what they want to hear.

Problem is; there are laws of Physics you know; and all of us obey them whether we like them or not. If society does unravel because we reached some tipping points; then many of us will be hitting ourselves in the head because we didn't see it coming.