{"id":85886,"date":"2025-09-15T07:51:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T06:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=85886"},"modified":"2025-09-15T07:51:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T06:51:11","slug":"the-economic-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2025\/09\/15\/the-economic-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"The economic questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

In response to Saturday's post<\/a> on quantum thinking, PSR, who is the most frequent commentator in the history of this blog, wrote:<\/p>\n

OK, these are forming up nicely into coherent statements that have a certain consistent symmetry between them. Reading them makes ideas bounce out of your head. Well, mine anyway. Here are two:<\/p>\n

1. The Henry Ford Question: Arguably, without labour, no output can be consumed. How will contemporary economics solve that in an equitable, sustainable way?<\/p>\n

2. The Mark Carney Question: If AI is making people lose their jobs, and the savings from the cost of labour banked by capital\/the producer, how are the societal effects of this loss being recorded and accommodated (acknowledged) in the accounts, and what actions will result?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

PSR\u2019s comment and questions did three things for me.<\/p>\n

Firstly, I was pleased that my work provoked a response. Anybody who writes wants to do that.<\/p>\n

Secondly, I did, of course, want to answer the questions, but during much of the weekend, it was hard to find time.<\/p>\n

Thirdly, it made me wonder what would happen if similar questions were to be asked of other political economists, challenging the core of their thinking. I even wondered whether the idea might be extended to politicians themselves.<\/p>\n

I put the idea aside at first, but returned to it later yesterday as the rain stopped other play.<\/p>\n

I spent some time playing with the idea because it occurred to me that this was, once again, a situation where AI could help hone a very precise question about what the essence of a person\u2019s thinking might be and how that could then be contextualised. Playing around with that idea took a while until I came up with a structure that I was happy with, although, as usual, I found that everything needs an edit and refinement when it comes out of AI.<\/p>\n

The result is a post, following this one, on Henry Ford, and what the consequences of his thinking on workers\u2019 pay might be now.<\/p>\n

Another one will follow on Mark Carney, based not on his time as a central banker, but on his questions on resource allocation.<\/p>\n

Some other very obvious candidates will follow, including characters whose names will appear in my history of economic thought, when I do eventually get around to finishing this to a stage where I want to share it.<\/p>\n

What was, however, amusing was that try as it might, ChatGPT seemed unable to identify any body of thought that might be associated with Keir Starmer or Rachel Reeves: it only seemed able to find critiques of their politics in practice. That, though, might be a topic for another theme, but I\u2019m going to stick with this one on political economy first of all.<\/p>\n

Suggestions are welcome. There are already a dozen or so on my list, not all of them glaringly obvious, I have to admit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In response to Saturday’s post on quantum thinking, PSR, who is the most frequent commentator in the history of this blog, wrote: OK, these are
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