Dismalness, Science, Justice

The usually jocular banter over whether or not Economics is a "dismal" Science obscures the more serious premise that it is a 'Science' at all. Entailed in that premise is that the object of Economics is an inherent regularity of phenomena, with respect to which, e. g. the 'Law of Supply and Demand' is descriptive, and, not, say, wishfully fictitious. More generally, that classification preempts the possibility that Economics is primarily a normative problem, i. e. a topic under the category of Retributive Justice. Contributing to that preemption is the common restriction of 'retributive' to punishment, and, hence, to jurisprudential issues, whereas the term in its literal meaning includes rewards, as well, and, therefore, pertains to the allocation of resources. The concept of Economics as a 'Science' thus circumvents the possible interpretation of it as a system of exploitation, e. g. in which the actual producers of wealth are not its beneficiaries, and for whom, therefore, Economics is indeed dismal as a Science.