Nathanial Gronewold - Anthill Economics

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Copyright 2021 by Nathanial Gronewold

All rights reserved.No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Name: Gronewold, Nathanial, 1977, author.

Title: Anthill economics : animal ecosystems and the human economy / Nathanial Gronewold.

Description: Lanham, MD : Prometheus, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: Anthill Economics puts forth an innovative and cross-disciplinary approach, asserting that the laws of nature and physics global economy as they are to animal ecosystems. This clearly written book full of illuminating ecological analogies gives readers an informed and engaging introduction to the cutting-edge field of biophysical economics that seeks to provide a more complete understanding of the global economyProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020035974 (print) | LCCN 2020035975 (ebook) | ISBN 9781633886520 (cloth ; alk. paper) | ISBN 9781633886537 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Economics. | Animal communities.

Classification: LCC HB171 .G76 2021 (print) | LCC HB171 (ebook) | DDC 330dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020035974

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020035975

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Man has always deceived himself when he abandoned experience to follow imaginary systems.He is the work of nature.He exists in Nature.He is submitted to the laws of Nature.He cannot deliver himself from them:cannot step beyond them even in thought. It is in vain his mind would spring forward beyond the
visible world: direful and imperious necessity ever
compels his returnbeing formed by Nature, he is
circumscribed by her laws; there exists nothing beyond
the great whole of which he forms a part, of which
he experiences the influence.

Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron dHolbach,
The System of Nature(1770)

Does modern economic theory violate some very basic, fundamental laws of physics? I passed this question on to my readers several years ago. Few people bother to ask economists such a thing in polite circles, and even fewer economists feel compelled to answer them. In fact, when posed with this inquiry, most economists openly reject it, sometimes with hostility. Some in modern academia have spoken to me lately of apparently underhanded moves by the defenders of classical and neoliberal economic theory to quasi-blacklist those rare scholars in their profession who dare to muse about this question or seek out a dignified response should they come across it.

And why shouldnt most mainstream economists reject this question outright, as they apparently do? What does it mean anyway? Look at things from economists perspective. Though its practitioners are often accused of succumbing to what critics have termed physics envy, given their extreme fondness for complex mathematical modeling, economics is at its heart a social science. Its often characterized as a sophisticated study of supply and demand or a professional inquiry into how humans with infinite wants but finite cash and time acquire the goods and services they desireor think they desire or are told to desirein an open market with an abundant variety of choices. A study of trade-offs, motives, and rational decision making based on ample information.