The Manichaean Character of Economics

Abstract

Manichaeus, nary, was a Persian philosopher of the third century a.D., whose system held some sway throughout the Roman empire and Asia until the fifth century (with some elements lasting to the thirteenth). He believed in dualism, the coexistence of good and evil, with Satan coequal with God. I suggest that economics has a heavy dose of dualism, though I hesitate to characterize views that differ from mine as evil or satanic.