George Will, in a column about how no one really knows what they are doing in trying to fix the economy, points out the role of metaphors in our economic thinking:
Economic policymaking in turbulent times is a science of single instances, meaning no science at all. When economic theories matter most — when the economy is in uncharted waters — all theories are necessarily untested. Hence attempts to derive prescriptions from the New Deal are somewhat surreal.
Furthermore, our language is bewitching our intelligence. Long ago — a year ago — Russell Roberts, an economics professor at George Mason University, deplored terms that suggest that economics is a science akin to medicine. With a “stimulus,” of a sort that makes the legs of a dead frog twitch, the government will “inject” money as a doctor gives a blood transfusion. Or as a life-reviving “jolt” from a defibrillator.
What other metaphors are at work in our economic discourse?
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