FAILED  NOTIONS  of Political Economy

Economic democracy requires correction of at least three failed central notions concerning political economy.

The first is that markets are guided by an invisible hand of self interest that can turn auction price data into signals for automatic self-correction of market failure to employ people and resources better than all other means or political institutions. History has proved that markets are political institutions and price data is insufficient as a guide to desirabble outcomes.

The second is that price data is a more reliable measure of value than data associated with the stated purpose and eventual costs of work and related product. Price data is notoriously defective when unrecorded cost is ignored or deliberately shifted to burden people who are made victim of effects felt long after work is done.

The third is that free trade is more important than its long term effects.

If these notions have failed our national and global economies, yet there persistence is not obviously imposed by an enemy's force of arms, is there a democratic method for replacing them with greater skill and better results?

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