The difference between economics and politics

 

the old joke -

"The first law of economics is, scarcity is real; the first law of politics is, ignore the first law of economics." 

from George Will 

It used to be that economics and politics were closely intertwined. There were departments of political economy not economics departments. Economics developed from those studying philosophy like Adam Smith. 

Nevertheless, the joke focuses on some fundamental differences. Economics is often worried about what is the size of the pie while politics is focused on how we get slices with the promise that all slices will be bigger. Economics focuses on how pries are used to solve the scarcity problem while transactional politics is focused on promises today that may not be kept in the future. 

This funny truism suggests that tempering politics and economics is important. For politics, it is learning to control through constraints. For economics, it is loosening controls through productivity and technology.