Do good economists need to be right wing?

[Foucaulf]

More serious answer:

I don't think it is true that economists need to be right wing. There are economists on the left of the mainstream economics (marxist, post-keynesian economists) and also economists on the right of the mainstream economics (Austrian).

Most of them aren't; you can do macro and be left-wing without being a wingbat.

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There is more to economics than macro.

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Tobin's not a New Keynesian. Stiglitz's work isn't strictly macro. Krugman's macro research is still mostly focused on trade, apart from his interest in liquidity traps.

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The problem is that this post is all over place. There are many ways that economists contribute to policy that goes beyond the "muh fiscal policy" angle, whether it's labour, antitrust, education, monetary policy or insurance. There's plenty of government in the U.S. already, and what gets talked about less is tweaking state intervention already in place - until it seriously threatens some group's interests. You would do better to think outside this cycle.

[Foucaulf]

but why would we gamble with societal utility

Are you a Communist, or what?

Aren't most economists utilitarians? We're not usually communitarians, though, and the dividing line between the utilitarians is Kaldor-Hicks v Pareto.

I'm curious why you made that a "We economists" statement, but if you were one your instinct should have associated ag's comment to a social choice problem. (Not that his response wasn't a painfully theorist one)

Labor unions can support protectionism in the benefit of the industries where they work.
However, protectionism can also mean more expensive goods for the low class and higher profits for some business.

There is sort of a point here: if you ascribe to a Ricardo-Viner world of trade - where only a few factors of production can be used in all industries and everything else is industry-specific - then free trade can benefit industries who produce productively compared to world prices. If specialized labour exists in some industries, unions who are part of those industries should then lobby for opening up trade.

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This is just a whole different point entirely (against which free trade advocates have been far less successful).