Monday, October 27, 2008

Would Paul Krugman write this letter to himself

and reject the Nobel prize:
First of all, it's just not fair that only you should get this prize this year when there are hundreds of thousands of other economists in this world. Honoring only one person in this way is a totally non-egalitarian thing to do.

Second of all, a white man like you getting the prize — again! — is racist and sexist to the max. I just checked out the list of laureates in economics since 1969 and almost all of them are white men!!

Third of all, the amount of money — $1.4 million — that Riksbank is offering is obscene. Who deserves that kind of money anyway, when coal miners in third world countries — many of them barely 14 years old — don't make even $30 per month — and they are the ones risking their lives every day! As you have pointed out in your writings, the gap between the rich and the poor is rapidly widening.

Fourth of all, the selection process employed by Riksbank was neither transparent nor democratic.

Fifth of all, the prize sends a wrong message to the society. We agree that you worked hard all your life. You went to MIT, you got your Ph.D. ... You were studying your ass off while others were partying like crazy. Now you got the Nobel Prize and they don't. That's just not fair. Do you know what message it sends? That if you work hard in life, you can achieve things that others can't! That's a nasty and brutish message to send. Conservatives say things like that, not liberals like you!

Sixth of all, the prize perpetuates the shameful legacy of colonization and imperialism. Almost all of the laureates have been from the first-world countries.

Seventh of all, you accepting this prize will lead to global warming. You and your loved ones will be traveling to Stockholm in an airplane that will be consuming hydrocarbons — yes the same hydrocarbons that pollute the environment and prop up the dictatorial regimes.
Read the whole thing.

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