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Toxic Textbooks A movement to
encourage schools and universities to use economics textbooks that engage
honestly with the real world |
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What does “toxic textbooks” mean? As an epistemological event,
the 2008 meltdown of the global financial system ranks with the observation
of the 1919 solar eclipse. The latter
proved that classical physics pertained only to a special case and so
prompted physicists to introduce new textbooks. In the wake of today’s global disaster
economists must do likewise. The fact
that the economic system that collapsed had been tailored to fit traditional
mainstream teachings means that its textbooks harbour and promote fundamental
misconceptions about the way economies, most especially their markets,
function. These misconceptions led to
one global disaster and could lead to more.
In other words, these textbooks are toxic. “The first thing that the
global financial crisis should therefore do to economics is to galvanise student protest about the
lack of debate within academic economics itself, because dissident academic
economists will be unable to shift the tuition of economics themselves
without massive pressure from the
student body.” Steve
Keen [ |
Toxic
textbooks helped cause the economic meltdown The current economic
meltdown is not the result of natural causes or human conspiracy, but because
society at all levels became infected with false beliefs regarding the nature
of economic reality. And the primary sources of this infection are the
“neoclassical” or “mainstream” textbooks long used in introductory economics
courses in universities throughout the world. Mass miseducation Every year these
“mainstream” books serve to indoctrinate millions of students in a quaint
ideology (perfect rationality of economic agents, market efficiency, the
invisible hand, etc.) cunningly disguised as science. This mass miseducation
deprives society of the moral and intellectual capacities it needs in order
to design and maintain the support systems required by market economies. We need new,
non-toxic textbooks More economic catastrophes
will befall us and our children if we do not replace these toxic textbooks
with non-toxic ones immediately. If
decency and good sense prevail in academia, then affecting this reform will
not be a problem. But textbook reform
will damage many economic faculties and toxic textbook authors. The former
will suffer losses to their reputations, the latter to their royalties, which
in some cases run to millions of dollars.
Together, we
can overcome these vested interests Society can therefore
expect well-placed and richly-funded strategic resistance to doing the right
and necessary thing. This website and
the associated Facebook group exist to help citizens, especially students,
mobilize and organize themselves to overcome these vested interests. “This modern risk management paradigm held sway
for decades. The whole intellectual edifice, however, collapsed in the summer
of last year." Alan Greenspan, 2008 Professors of economics who
over the years have protected the neoclassical monopoly should be held
responsible and accountable. Advocating a specific ideology in the name of
science can hardly be defended. Peter Söderbaum [Mälardalen
University, Sweden] Contact: editor@toxictextbooks.com |
What
can be done? Gregory Mankiw’s
Principles of Economics, in its five versions, has internationally been the
dominant basic text for more than a decade.
Also its author was chairman of President Bush’s Council of Economic
Advisers from 2003 to 2005. If universities continued to
use for nuclear engineering a textbook by an engineer who had headed a team
managing a nuclear power plant that without external causes exploded causing
huge devastation, there would be an enormous public outcry, including student
demonstrations. There should be a similar
outcry if Mankiw-type textbooks continue to be
foisted on the world’s million or so young people who every year in good
faith take up the study of economics. We cannot undo current economic
disaster, but we can greatly reduce the chances of one happening again by
demanding that universities use introductory textbooks that are pluralist in their approach and
thereby prevent economics courses from becoming programs of ideological
indoctrination. “Unless mainstream economics
takes heed of these warnings and proves its relevance for the understanding
of the most severe crisis of the capitalist system since the 1930s, then it
will be doomed to irrelevance. My
suggestion is that a world protest of academic, student and business economists
be organised to drive home this point.” Geoffrey
M. Hodgson [ |
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Essays From monopoly to
pluralism new Toward a new sustainable economy Will economists wake up in 2009? Economics needs
a scientific revolution What would a scientific economics look like? Economic Indoctrination: Cartoons Warning:
suitable for use only in imaginary worlds Comedy Video |
News Toxic
Textbooks, Externalities, and Sustainability Design-impact, June 3
Organizing
for a Better Economy “Toxic Textbooks is one of the latest
social causes being promoted through Facebook to
rid the world of misperceptions, particularly when it comes to economics
versus the environment. Students around the world are joining the fight to
end the publication and use of economic textbooks that perpetuate myths we
all know to be false.” more June 2 After only 12 days, Toxic
Textbook’s Facebook group passes the 1,000 members mark, May 27.
Sorry
Greg, This Crisis Was Completely Predictable and Predicted The American Prospect “What
a load of Bollocks” Fuori i titoli
tossici dalle università Megachip - Five days after its launch, the Facebook Toxic
Textbooks group has 700
members. - May
19, 2009 Harvard Strike 40th Anniversary
The
Nation - May
18, 2009
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