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60 sats \ 19 replies \ @Undisciplined 20h \ parent \ on: Are Pro-Natalists the Real Malthusians? econ
I think the issue is that Malthusians use strict deterministic relationships between resource availability and reproduction rates.
We might say that those are toy models to be tested empirically, but alarmists treat them as fully causal, which does deny agency to the people in question.
The Malthusians also ignore the role of the state and the economy in the decisions, especially time preferences and inflation (which can only be initiated by the state). The use of mathematical or computer models seems to be less than useful in any area where human agency ignored. Human agency and action are, IMHO, are the determining factors in many decisions where there are not guns pointed at heads.
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Models can be plenty useful. They just shouldn’t be confused with The Truth.
Since people are involved, any observed relationships are subject to change.
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Since people are involved, any observed relationships are subject to change.
This is always true and why mathematical and statistical models do not seem to work in the realm of human actions and interactions. Too many people are wrapped up in the model of physics to understand that humans are not random acting particles,
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I guess that’s where we differ. I’d say models often work fine, until they don’t.
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Perhaps the models only work within specified limits and any time other factors or going outside the limits of the model happens, they fail. I guess you could say that within the limits models work fine. That is my problem with models. There seems to be less problems with deductive or inductive reasoning, IMHO.
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I think the word "models" is just too broad. There's a wide range of models, from statistical models that just illustrate relationships in the data without any reference to human action, to theoretical models that start by positing the rational choice framework and works their way up from there--these are explicitly based on human action, but they often make bad assumptions about the humans. And then of course there's everything in between.