The failure of market catallactics in no way denies the following truth: given sufficient knowledge the optimal decisions can always be found by scanning over all the attainable states of the world and selecting the one which according to the postulated ethical welfare function is best. The solution 'exists'; the problem is how to 'find' it.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the challenge of finding the best decisions even when solutions theoretically exist, reflecting on the role of knowledge and ethical considerations.
Paul Samuelson's quote highlights the complexity of decision-making in economics and ethics. While optimal solutions are believed to exist given perfect knowledge, the real challenge lies in how to locate these solutions amidst the myriad possible states of the world. It suggests that although we may understand the nature of an ideal decision, achieving it in practice requires thorough exploration and analysis of available information and ethical frameworks.
In practice
In a discussion about economic strategies, this quote can highlight the importance of informed decision-making.
To a person of analytical ability, perceptive enough to realise that mathematical equipment was a powerful sword in economics, the world of economics was his or her oyster in 1935. The terrain was strewn with beautiful theorems begging to be picked up and arranged in unified order.
I can't think of a president who has been overburdened by a knowledge of economics.
My belief is that nothing that can be expressed by mathematics cannot be expressed by careful use of literary words.
Politicians like to tell people what they want to hear - and what they want to hear is what won't happen.
My family was well off but not rich. I spent the four years I was an undergraduate working on the beach. And it wasn't because I was lazy; it was because my freshman class would go to a hundred different employers and wouldn't get a nibble. That was a disequilibrium system. I realized that the ordinary old-fashioned Euclidean geometry didn't apply.
Economics has never been a science - and it is even less now than a few years ago.
Death is given in a kiss; the dearest kindnesses are fatal; and into this life, where one thing preys upon another, the child too often makes its entrance from the mother's corpse.
The Bible says that God has a reason for keeping us here; if He didn't, He would take us to Heaven far sooner.
I do not quote from the scriptures;_x000D_ I simply see what I see.
I want to be identified with the negro; until he gets his rights, we shall never have ours.
Is not the beautiful moon, that inspires poets, the same moon which angers the silence of the sea with a terrible roar?
There must be right and wrong answers to questions of morality and values that potentially fall within the purview of science. On this view, some people and cultures will be right (to a greater or lesser degree), and some will be wrong, with respect to what they deem important in life.
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