RE: We all should be able to be privileged
Mainstream economic thought lacks the understanding to properly evaluate many of the phenomena that are studied. In my opinion, the problem with economic thought nowadays started just about the same time the whole field of political economy started to evolve ( which is just about the same time the industrial revolution started).
The need (?) to categorize and make general assumptions on matters of production/distribution on a large scale has lead to the use of utilitarian terms. That probably wouldn't be a problem if the field of study was limited only on organizational matters but in microeconomics the application of strictly utilitarian terms in order to explain the behavior of persons, corporations ( agents as they call them in general ) narrows the scope of investigation and often leads to false impressions and assumptions and this can actually be dangerous if those assumptions are treated as the only rational explanations.
it suffers as it is reifying its own beliefs and lacks empirical analysis and alternatives. true, and political economy itself implies the whole system is political, which means class and money driven.
That's a good observation.
Nowadays the ''political'' part is purposefully ommited in order to establish trust in the field, but I also believe that it is always ''silently implied'' and treated as some kind of sacred or something. Don't know if you get me here :P