The Urgent Need for an Economics of “Hategoatism”

Arbeitspapier

The word “scapegoat” is defined as “a person made to bear the blame for others,” and similarly, “scapegoatism” refers to “the act or practice of assigning blame or failure to another, as to deflect attention or responsibility away from oneself” (Collins English Dictionary and Dictionary.com, respectively.) While these definitions do not mention economics specifically, in most cases the blame on the scapegoat is economic in nature. Scapegoatism also provides a convenient, though extremely inferior, substitute for valid analyses of economic problems. Scapegoatism, however, has a partner, dehumanization, which is the process of demonizing certain people as less than human and unworthy of humane treatment. Scapegoatism is not only accompanied by dehumanization, but it is often motivated by it. Thus, “scapegoatism” is a euphemism and it is understudied as a result, because there is no single term of art that combines scapegoatism and dehumanization. This paper offers a solution to this semantic dilemma by proposing the new term, “HATEGOATISM,” for the simultaneous existence of scapegoatism and dehumanization. Only one subfield of economics regularly embraces hategoatism, which is Libertarianism (where the “HATEGOAT” is government workers). Economists must lead by example by combating hategoatism, and that requires cleaning their own house first.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: GLO Discussion Paper ; No. 365

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; History of Economic Thought since 1925: Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Austrian; Stockholm School ; Current Heterodox Approaches: Austrian ; Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior ; Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption ; Structure, Scope, and Performance of Government ; Crisis Management ; Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health ; Education: Government Policy ; Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination ; Value of Life; Forgone Income ; Public Sector Labor Markets ; Labor Discrimination ; Capitalist Systems: Political Economy ; Capitalist Systems: Performance and Prospects ; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification
• Subject: scapegoat ; Libertarianism ; hate ; discrimination ; prejudice ; government ; ethics ; economics ; labor ; blame ; fairness ; responsibility ; economists ; demonization ; dehumanization

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Payson, Steven
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Global Labor Organization (GLO)
• (where): Essen
• (when): 2019

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/200108
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET