It’s not supply and demand – it’s demand and supply.
One of the blogs I really like to read is Evonomics. They have a really great essay on an arabic economist from the 14th century and highlight the similarities and difference between him and Adam Smith - who is usually the person western textbooks cite as the - father of modern economics.
Here is the article - https://evonomics.com/amazing-north-african-scholar-beat-adam-smith-half-millennium/
First - one of our unending problems is that - western science and western education is really ignorant of all things not western. Which is why - most economists don't even know this guy existed or that - the way he framed things makes more sense.
To quote the article: "The invention of supply and demand analysis wasn’t invented in the 19th century: the Islamic scholar also described the relationship of demand and supply, and also took the role of inventories and merchandise trade into account."
There are some important things to learn from his work.
1) Demand matters. Creating demand is what creates the market. When supply side people say - we need to create a supply - they are missing something important - that is the customer. Without the customer - there is no business.
2) The government matters. Particularly - taxation matters. Taxation helps create civilization. Government helps people see themselves as a united group - which allows commerce to happen since we tend to want to trade with people - we view as friendly. This is expensive and requires money. Money to build the infrastructure that allows all that trade to occur. The government is one of the biggest creators of demand! And this is true in most countries. The government hires more people than - pretty much anything else and spends more money than anything else. We don't need government to get out of the way - as much as we need government to use it's purchasing power for good - and not evil.
3) Greed/Hoarding wealth is bad. Basically - greed is what brings the downfall of the civilization. Khaldun’s words are telling: “dynasty and government serve as the world’s greatest market place, providing the substance of civilization. Now, if the ruler holds on to property and revenue, or they are lost or not properly used by him, then the property in the possession of the ruler’s entourage will be small. Thus (when they stop spending), business slumps and commercial profits decline because of the shortage of capital”. “ […] Furthermore, money circulates between subjects and ruler, moving back and forth. Now, if the ruler keeps it to himself, it is lost to the subjects” (Khaldun p. 365).
Lowering taxes on rich people, allows the money to be hoarded and when this happens it is lost to the people. And when it is lost to the people, consumption slows and stops - and the economy crashes.
One of the blogs I really like to read is Evonomics. They have a really great essay on an arabic economist from the 14th century and highlight the similarities and difference between him and Adam Smith - who is usually the person western textbooks cite as the - father of modern economics.
Here is the article - https://evonomics.com/amazing-north-african-scholar-beat-adam-smith-half-millennium/
First - one of our unending problems is that - western science and western education is really ignorant of all things not western. Which is why - most economists don't even know this guy existed or that - the way he framed things makes more sense.
To quote the article: "The invention of supply and demand analysis wasn’t invented in the 19th century: the Islamic scholar also described the relationship of demand and supply, and also took the role of inventories and merchandise trade into account."
There are some important things to learn from his work.
1) Demand matters. Creating demand is what creates the market. When supply side people say - we need to create a supply - they are missing something important - that is the customer. Without the customer - there is no business.
2) The government matters. Particularly - taxation matters. Taxation helps create civilization. Government helps people see themselves as a united group - which allows commerce to happen since we tend to want to trade with people - we view as friendly. This is expensive and requires money. Money to build the infrastructure that allows all that trade to occur. The government is one of the biggest creators of demand! And this is true in most countries. The government hires more people than - pretty much anything else and spends more money than anything else. We don't need government to get out of the way - as much as we need government to use it's purchasing power for good - and not evil.
3) Greed/Hoarding wealth is bad. Basically - greed is what brings the downfall of the civilization. Khaldun’s words are telling: “dynasty and government serve as the world’s greatest market place, providing the substance of civilization. Now, if the ruler holds on to property and revenue, or they are lost or not properly used by him, then the property in the possession of the ruler’s entourage will be small. Thus (when they stop spending), business slumps and commercial profits decline because of the shortage of capital”. “ […] Furthermore, money circulates between subjects and ruler, moving back and forth. Now, if the ruler keeps it to himself, it is lost to the subjects” (Khaldun p. 365).
Lowering taxes on rich people, allows the money to be hoarded and when this happens it is lost to the people. And when it is lost to the people, consumption slows and stops - and the economy crashes.
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