Metaeconomics (eBook)

This book presents the Metaeconomics Framework and Dual Interest Theory, which weave the empathy-based moral and ethical dimension back into key economic questions. Metaeconomics addresses the problem of placing too much emphasis on the market or the government, and thus argues that seeing the link between ego and empathy, self- and other-interest, and market and government will lead to a more just, fair, and sustainable polity. The unique Dual Interest Theory proposes that ego-based self-interest and empathy-based other-interest are joint and internal to each person: it maintains the original proposition from Adam Smith that each person maximizes their own-interest, which Metaeconomics makes clear involves balancing the two joint interests, although self-interest is more primal. The book begins with an explanation of how Metaeconomics connects the other kinds of economics. The book then provides a series of applications of Metaeconomics in heated policy issues, such as elections, finance, family, food, health, natural resources, education, taxes, and extreme inequality, among others. Finally, the book concludes that the only way to save capitalism is to bring empathy into both private and public actions and bring about a more humane balance in market and government.

Gary D. Lynne is Professor Emeritus at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA. Lynne earned BS and MS degrees from North Dakota State University and a PhD from Oregon State University, all in Agricultural Economics. He specialized in Natural Resource Economics. He worked mainly in research, holding positions at the University of Florida and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Lynne has published over 180 journal papers, book chapters, reviews, reports, and articles-all connected into the related science that gave form and substance to the empirical foundation for Metaeconomics. It also led to coining the notion of Empathy Conservation. For further information about the research program and the author, see the website https://www.metaeconomics.info.