The number one thing that makes me want to leave economics is the contempt we have for the people we study. It’s not always explicit. Which is part of why it’s so sinister. Paternalism and white savior complex are so embedded in our discipline that we don’t even recognize it.

Which isn’t to say I *will* leave economics. It’s just so draining to see the way marginalized groups have been excluded in our society. Completely disempowered at every turn. And then to have economists treat marginalized people as lab rats.

Theorizing from above. Trying to figure out what they need. What do the poor need? What do Black people need? Without, you know, consulting them. As if they are helpless. As if they have no agency of their own.

The fact is we’ve never given poor people or people of color the chance to wield power. Never. And so if you think the fundamental problem is just ignorance. That we didn’t know what the good policies were. Instead of actually pushing to empower the disempowered. That is contempt

Not to mention empirically wrong. The bad policies we see today aren’t ignorance. They were designed intentionally to disempower marginalized people. We are so far off on morality and empirical reality. And sometimes I just can’t stomach it