Should we listen to ecomomists or sociologists when organizing the structure of money and taxes?

Question

I have never met a conservative sociologist
or a liberal economist.
I must admit that i have been around hundreds of sociologists and only a few economists but it is the norm, i gather.

Economists look at the bottom line (money)
sociologists look at the happiness of the people.

Americans are rich and unhappy
judging by the suicide and depression rates

yes, i am a little slow
i come here for people to teach me so i will be smart

Answer 1

Well.. I guess you have already answered the question - meaning it depends on the end goal.

If you want a happy, well contented society, then sociologists should handle money and tax structure.

If you want to maximize profit no matter the cost to society, then economists....

What gets me is the naivety of so many of my fellow Americans. I hear so many say things like, '.. if ppl will just pay attention and work hard they will be profitable and happy...'. I have met 100,000s of ppl in my lifetime that played by the rules... they worked, never committed a crime, had children, went to church, paid their taxes,... spent their entire lives as instructed... only to wake up 60+ with nothing but stress related health problems, job loss after being replaced by a younger, cheaper person, a house that they had to refinance to pay for medical bills after losing their health insurance..

I could go on and on but it is depressing.

Answer 2

As an economist I can tell you the truth here.

What people seem to do is lable all Economists as people who only care about money. This isnt true, an economist is simply an analyst, someone who breaks down an issue and looks at what really makes it tick.

The sad reality about the world is that even though we all long for a simpler place where we can all just live for free, have fun and no one live in poverty the truth is the world is expensive and getting more so. Even without people like me driving to the bottom line the natural way of things (creatures competing with others) demands that we take into account the reasons for why the world turned out the way it did. It isnt the way it should be but people didnt know when we were creating the world we live in.

Economists are really interested in making the built environment self sustainable. If we get the infrastructure behind us right we will eventually get to the point where people begin to have enough to meet their needs without having to fight about it. Economists are not all conservative, I personaly am a libertarian and as an Economist and a libertarian I long for a wold were everyone has what they need. Sadly after thousands of years of unmanaged progress we have the devide that we are faced with today. With free energy this will all change, long way to go but we will get there and once we are all will prosper. Remember the whole arguement that Economists like taking from the poor is crazy and flies in the face of economy of scale. If EVERYONE does well then we do better.

Answer 3

What the sociologists don't realize is that if people paid attention to the economists and learned how money works and how to earn it wisely, they would be happy without the efforts of the sociologists, who seem to look for ways to make people feel unhappy.

Answer 4

If we pay attention to the economists first, we might be able afford a few sociologists.

It won't work the other way around!

Answer 5

I think we listen to a combination of both but take what they say with a grain of salt and draw our own conclusions based on our own experience.

Answer 6

YES, BUT RADICAL ONES. yOU SOW COMMON SENSE TOO.