The Invention of Rational Economic Man

Ali Al-Jamri

The dismal scientist taps a test tube,
turns his half-formed theorem over,
empties the bugger.
Externalities, oozing out, are brushed under.

He places it back,
pictures it filled – 
a man is born,
the dismal scientist has found his Truth.

The man cuts a cigar on a supply-demand curve,
he inhales, he balloons,
he bulges.
Curved glass cracks,

shatters at this dismal fact;
the test tube man tumbles free
to sweep aside the glass with a dreary smile – 
a perfect theory, a perfect fact,

vision fashioned as reality.

The Science

This poem pokes at the lack of scientific grounding behind common economic theories, focusing particularly on the concept of ‘Rational Economic Man’, an imaginary 'agent' who interacts within economic systems and theories in a manner perfectly imagined by the economist.

The Poet

Ali Al-Jamri is a Bahraini British poet and writer. He has been a notable contender in the Bristol Short Fiction Prize, long-listed in the QuietManDave Prize, a participant in BBC Words First 2020, and has a translation out in Modern Poetry in Translation. When not writing, he works in the education sector.

Next poem: The Map Conundrum by Devayani Khare