Popular films, such as Batman Begins, demonstrate misunderstanding about how the field of economics is defined. In that film, the lead member of the League of Shadows (a group responsible for toppling entire societies at their decadent pinnacles) claims to have invented economics to destroy Gotham. As Henri Ducard explains to Bruce Wayne,
“Over the ages our weapons have grown more sophisticated, with Gotham we tried a new one, economics.”
These continuing apprehensions have not changed much over more than half a century. To progress beyond equivocation, reading more of Human Action is critical. In the first two chapters, Mises attempts to broaden the field’s scope, calling the resulting discipline ‘praxeology’. (A term credited to Alfred Espinas.) It was not successfully socialized, and ambiguity surrounding whether economics as more than just the study of market prices remains.
The textbook definition of economics I learned was ‘the study of human choices made given unlimited wants and limited resources (scarcity)’. When asked to define economics in the Count of Monte Cristo (2002), Edmond responds, “Economics is a science that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of commodities.” Mises wants to expand this definition, suggesting that,
“It is much more than merely a theory…of man’s striving for commodities and an improvement in his material well-being. It is the science of every kind of human action. Choosing determines all human decisions…No treatment of economic problems proper can avoid starting from acts of choice; economics becomes a part, although the hitherto best elaborated part, of a more universal science, praxeology.” (3)
Tags: Batman Begins, Economics, praxeology, scarcity
