We, the undersigned, make this accusation: that you, the
teachers of neoclassical economics and the students that you
graduate, have perpetuated a gigantic fraud upon the world.
You claim to work in a pure science of formula and law, but yours is a
social science, with all the fragility and uncertainty that this entails.
We accuse you of pretending to be what you are not.
You hide in your offices, protected by your mathematical jargon,
while in the real world, forests vanish, species perish and human
lives are callously destroyed. We accuse you of gross negligence in
the management of our planetary household.
You have known since its inception that one of your measures of
economic progress, the Gross Domestic Product, is fundamentally
flawed and incomplete, and yet you have allowed it to become a global
standard, reported day in, day out in every form of media. We accuse
you of recklessly projecting an illusion of progress.
You have done great harm, but your time is coming to a close. Your
systems are crumbling, your flaws increasingly laid bare. An economic
revolution has begun, as hopeful and determined as any in history. We
will have our clash of economic paradigms, we will have our moment
of truth, and out of each will come a new economics – open, holistic,
human-scale.
On campus after campus, we will chase you old goats out of power.
Then, in the months and years that follow, we will begin the work of
reprogramming your doomsday machine.
Sign the manifesto at
kickitover.org