Michael Mandel Wants to Ignore the Law of Scarcity Too

Our friend Bill Polley reads Michael Mandel and follows up on the question:

Should ‘Scarcity’ Be Part of the Definition of Economics

Mandel reviews textbooks that talk about behavior and choices and then writes:

My justification for a different definition is that there are big chunks of the economy where scarcity is not important

I just lost it when I read this and here was my reply:

I keep saying that the foundation of economics is the Law of Scarcity and now Mandel says forgot all of that. Therein lies my problem with most of his writing. But OK, we talk about people’s choices. But why do I have to choice. Ah, scarcity. It’s called Constrained Optimization. Of course, some free lunch types (Lawrence Kudlow, Thomas Sowell when he discusses macroeconomics, and yes – Michael Mandel) want us to ignore the constrained. Fine – I choose to consume more of everything. I guess now George W. Bush can hire me as his next head of the CEA!

Maybe Thomas Sowell can teach Mandel about the Lure of the Free Lunch – when Sowell is not guilty of practicing free lunch economics.