Source: The Daily Economy
by Mani Basharzad
“As Deirdre McCloskey put it: ‘The phrase ‘the dismal science’ was coined by Thomas Carlyle not because economics was gloomy or mathematical — but because economists opposed slavery. That made their science dismal — in Carlyle’s eyes.’ The basic facts of supply and demand weren’t pleasant to extremists then, and still aren’t. Carlyle first used the term in his essay Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question, where he mocked economics for explaining the world with such ‘simplistic’ tools as supply and demand. Did he offer a better alternative? No — but he worried that a world governed by price theory would reduce ‘the duty of human governors’ to ‘letting men alone.’ One may call it simplistic, dismal, or even cold, but the simple idea of price theory — letting people decide for themselves — has been a guardian of liberty from the time of Hume and Smith to today.” (08/27/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/why-enemies-of-liberty-hate-economics/