Economists as Priests

It's not an original idea, but here's some of my thoughts:

Priests deliver an unrealistic code of ethics and say that divergence from this code will bring disaster and adherence to the code will bring happiness and success n' life. There's enough commonsense in this ethical code ("do not kill," "don't be a drunkard," "don't have promiscuous sex with all and sundry") that people can fool themselves into believing the whole dog's breakfast makes sense in a vague sorta way. Until the inanities and ridiculousness are just too apparent or personally inconvenient ("don't wear wool and cotton," "don't ever have a lustful thought," "give all your money to the church and walk the earth preaching the word o' God").

If you follow all the priest's instructions, you'll be fine. Except it's impossible to follow them all. ("Oh no! I had a lustful thought!") But even if you could follow everything to the letter ("Marge everything is a sin. Have you ever sat down and read this thing? (holds up the bible) -Technically we're not allowed to go to the bathroom. ") it's impossible that everything is going to work out. Because shit happens. And because we all die. And there's no evidence that we go to a better place and our just rewards after we die. Not even after centuries of people looking for evidence. At the end it all rests on faith. And if you do what the religion asks and things go disastrously for you here on Earth, well, maybe God's got a sick bet with Satan and they're both testing your faith.

So for capitalist economics: There aren't supposed to be any regulations or government interventions, except to defend property and enforce contracts. But once you have a government strong enough to do those things, it's impossible to believe that wealthy people won't try to co-opt it to their own purposes. We're supposed to live within our means, only the economy is 70% based on consumer spending that has to grow every year. But there must be no deficit spending, ... except when that benefits the powerful, then their moral standards accept reality.

Mainstream economists who bleat about corruption, moral hazards, market distortions, etc., ... are to business people, like the priest who yammers about unrealistic moral codes (whilst downloading kiddie-porn 'natch) is to the men in the community who openly reject them whenever these codes become too unrealistic.