How does the notion "econmic man" tend to lead to environmental problems? (consider perfect knowledge and assu?

last word is assumption. ok can a smart econmist or just someone smart who knows exactly what this means tell me the answer. Im getting behind in my work which seriously sux. thanx.|||i studied economics and business. never heard of the "economic man"./


i think you took the word from sociology test.





i guess the definition of economic man. relates to a person that has a rationality of maximising profit





perfect knowledge means- that every one in the market (consumer and supplier) have the knowledge about everything in it so they dont incur any searching or information costs








so the answer, will be along the lines that all what the economic man considers is to maximise his profits while producing negative externalities that rise the social costs.


(if you have an economic text book. look for the section where you see the analysis in diagrams of social and private costs/benefits and their effects, which is the "externality")





a good idea is to find the film "The Corporation" it will help you with example giving and the understanding of how the "economic man" behaves|||The term "Economic Man" was used for the first time in the late nineteenth century by critics of John Stuart Mill’s work on political economy.[1][2] Below is a passage from Mill’s work that those 19Century critics were referring to:





"[Political economy] does not treat the whole of man’s nature as modified by the social state, nor of the whole conduct of man in society. It is concerned with him solely as a being who desires to possess wealth, and who is capable of judging the comparative efficacy of means for obtaining that end."[3]





Later in the same work, Mill goes on to write that he is proposing “an arbitrary definition of man, as a being who inevitably does that by which he may obtain the greatest amount of necessaries, conveniences, and luxuries, with the smallest quantity of labour and physical self-denial with which they can be obtained.”





An 'economic man' very often may not be worried about environmental problems