IBBen
March 17, 2001, 4:08am
1
Interpret this T-shirt please.
Recently I saw a person wearing a shirt which read, “Does Homo-Economus Really Exist?”
What does this mean?
My WAG would be that it’s an in-joke for economists. I guess even economists have a sense of humor (not much, though). Here is one of many Google hits for “homo economus”.
http://www.zmag.org/Instructionals/EconVision/id87.htm
Weisskopf worries: “Wouldn’t a participatory economic system be viable only if there were a prior transformation of people’s basic consciousness from one that is individually oriented to one that is socially oriented?” (Weisskopf 1992, page 17)
And adds: “In order for mechanisms [of participatory economics] to add up to a workable system of motivation which could substitute for individual material incentives, there would surely have to be a wholesale conversion of human behavior patterns from homo economus to what might best be characterized as homo socialis—i.e. a person whose very consciousness was socially rather than individually oriented.” (Weisskopf 1992, page 18)
[shrug] You tell me. Is it funny?
Lumpy
March 17, 2001, 5:15am
3
I hope it’s meant humorously, because it sounds like a modern version of communist/socialist retoric- that to get Communism to work, you must eliminate “capitalist” thought patterns.
Ned
March 17, 2001, 5:25am
4
Wouldn’t homo-economus be the mythical man who makes rational decisions who underlies traditional economic theories?
IBBen
March 17, 2001, 5:42am
5
So you would be homo-malapropist?