Stephen Marglin on Markets and Community

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4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 10 March 2008

⏱️ 65 minutes

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Summary

Stephen Marglin of Harvard University and author of The Dismal Science: How Thinking Like an Economist Undermines Community talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the markets and community. Marglin argues that markets and commercial transactions undermine the connections between us. He wants people to pay more attention to what is lost and not just what is gained by the pursuit of material well-being. Topics discussed include the nature of community, the role that voluntary associations play in our lives, the costs and benefits of mobility, the role of insurance in reducing our dependence on each other, and the nature of knowledge.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:12.5	I'm your host Russ Roberts of George Mason University and Stanford University's Hoover
0:17.3	Institution.
0:18.7	Our website is econtalk.org, where you can subscribe, find other episodes, comment on this podcast,
0:25.8	and find links to other information related to today's conversation.
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0:37.8	Before introducing today's guest, I want to encourage all of you listening out there to
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0:59.4	My guest today is Stephen Marglin, the Walter S. Barker Professor of Economics at Harvard
1:04.2	University.
1:05.2	He is the author of The Dissimals Science, how thinking like an economist undermines community.
1:11.7	Stephen, welcome to Econ Talk.
1:12.7	It's nice to be here, thanks.
1:15.6	Your book's an attack on the methodology of economics, and as the subtitle suggests,
1:20.2	the economic way of thinking, what is harmful about economics as a discipline in your
1:24.8	view?
1:25.8	Well, the basic point of the book is that economics is an accessory before and after the fact
1:31.5	to what I would regard as the crime of undermining community.
1:36.8	The main actor or a main actor in the undermining of community is the market system, by which
	...

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