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David Harold Chester's avatar

I like this approach to good government, but there are difficulties in how to decide on the best policy, not only on a criterion for its use, but for who is most likely to be affected in both favorable and unfavorable ways. What I wish to propose is that the introduction of the knowledge of our social system of macroeconomics needs a complete revision so that it is greatly improved and becomes true science which is arranged with any biased or political or even commercial effect being eliminated. This is possible only when we recognize this subject to be a true science (to replace its current pseudo-science form) and therefore should not be subject to any unjustified biasing.

This knowledge is vital for good government decision-making and is now available due to my research and discoveries of how it can and should be organized in a cold-logical way, to replace past unsound intuitions. The following article is an introduction to my free e-book which derives a better way for understanding of what it REALLY comprises and how it ACTUALLY works.

Making Macroeconomics a Much More Exact Science

Today macroeconomics is treated inexactly within the humanities, because it appears to be a very

complex and easily confused matter. But this does not give it fair justice, because we should be trying

to find a viable approach to the topic and examine it in a way that avoids these problems, and for us to better understand of what it comprises and how it works.

Suppose we ask ourselves the question: “how many different KINDS of financial (business) transaction occur within our society?” The simple and direct answer shows that that only a limited number of them are possible or necessary. Although our sociological system comprises of many millions of participants, to properly answer this question we should be ready to consider the averages of the various kinds of activities (no matter who performs them), and simultaneously to idealize these activities so that they fall into a number of commonly shared operations.

This approach uses some general terms for expressing the various types of these transactions, into what becomes a relatively small number. Here, each kind is found to apply between a particular pair of agents—each one of which has individual properties. Then to cover the whole sociological system of a country, it requires only 19 kinds of exchanges of the goods, services, access rights, taxes, credits, investments, valuable legal documents, etc., verses the mutual and

opposing flows of money.

The argument that led to this initially unexpected result was prepared by the author. It may be found in his working paper (on the internet) as SSRN 2865571 “Einstein’s Criterion Applied to Logical

Macroeconomics Modeling”. In this model these double-flows of money verses goods, etc., necessarily pass between only 6 kinds of role-playing entities (or agents). Of course, there are a number of different configurations that are possible for this type of simplification, but if one tries to eliminate all the unnecessary complications and sticks to the more basic activities, then these particular quantities and flows provide the most concise yet fully comprehensive result, which is presentable in a seamless manner, for our whole social system and one that is suitable for its further analysis.

Surprisingly, past representation of our sociological system by this kind of an interpretation model has

neither been properly derived nor formally presented before. Previously, other partial versions have

been modeled (using up to 4 agents, as by Professor Hudson), but they are inexact due to their being

over-simplified. Alternatively, in the case of econometrics, the representations are far too complicated

and almost impossible for students to follow. These two reasons of over-simplification and of complexity are why this pseudo or non-scientific confusion has been created by many economists, and it explains their failure to obtain a good understanding about how the whole system works.

The model being described here in this paper is unique, in being the first to include, along with some

additional aspects, all the 3 factors of production, in Adam Smith's “Wealth of Nations” book of 1776.

These factors are Land, Labor and Capital, along with their returns of Ground-Rent, Wages and

Interest/Dividends, respectively. All of them are all included in the model, as a diagram in the paper.

(Economics’ historians will recall, as originally explained by Adam Smith and David Ricardo, that there

are prescribed independent functions of the land-owners and the capitalists. The land-owners speculate in the land-values and rent it to tenants, whilst the capitalists are actually the owners/managers of the durable capital goods used in industry. These items may be hired out for use. Regrettably, for political reasons, the concept of these 2 different functions were combined by John Bates Clark and company about 1900, resulting in the later neglect of their different influences on our sociological system-- the terms landlord and capitalist becoming virtually synonymous along with the expression for property as real-estate.)

The diagram of this model is in my paper (noted above). A mention of the related teaching process is

also provided in my short working paper SSRN 2600103 “A Mechanical Model for Teaching

Macroeconomics”. With this model in an alternative form, the various parts and activities of the Big

Picture of our sociological system can be properly identified and defined. Subsequently by analysis, the way our sociological system works can then be properly seen, calculated and illustrated.

This analysis is introduced by the mathematics and logic, which was devised by Nobel Laureate

Wellesley W. Leontief, when he invented the important "Input-Output" matrix methodology (that he

originally applied only to the production sector). This short-hand method of modeling the whole system replaces the above-mentioned block-and-flow diagram. It enables one to really get to grips with what is going-on within our sociological system. It is the topology of the matrix which actually provides the key to this.

The logic and math are not hard and are suitable for high-school students, who have been shown the basic properties of square matrices and the notation of the calculus. By this technique it is comparatively easy to introduce any change to a pre-set sociological system that is theoretically in equilibrium (even though we know that this ideal is never actually attained--it simply being a convenient way to begin the study). This change creates an imbalance and we need to regain

equilibrium again. Thus, sudden changes or policy decisions may be simulated and the effects of them

determined, which will point the way to what policy is best. In my book about it, (see below) 3 changes

associated with taxation are investigated in hand-worked numerical examples. In fact, when I first

worked it out, the irrefutable logical results were a surprise, even to me!

Developments of these ideas about making our subject more truly scientific (thereby avoiding the past

pseudo-science being taught at universities), may be found in my recent book: “Consequential

Macroeconomics—Rationalizing About How Our Social System Works”.

Please write to me at chesterdh@hotmail.com for a free e-copy of this 310 page book and for any additional information.

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