Economics and Physics

Influenced by Newton, and perhaps by Spinoza, contemporary Economics often consists in a Physics of behavior.  Usually, the fundamental law of this system is the maximization of Profit, which is analyzed as the combination of the maximization of acquisition and the minimization of expense.  Accordingly, one derived thesis is that one spends as little money as is necessary, or, perhaps, as they perceive to be necessary.  However, that thesis is implicitly contested by Nietzsche, who proposes that the fundamental principle of behavior is Will to Power, defined as seeking to discharge strength.  Now, spending exemplifies the discharging of strength, from which it follows that expenditure is independent of Profit-seeking.  Tending to support this interpretation is the common phenomenon of recreational shopping, in which people spend money just for the sake of spending, i. e. in violation of the thesis that they seek to minimize it.  If the interpretation is correct, the phenomenon is as disruptive to the system as would be the discovery in Newtonian Physics of an action that is independent of any equal and opposite reaction.  Nevertheless, between the entrenchment of Profit as the highest good of these systems, and the marginal, at best, influence of Nietzsche on them, the Physics of behavior to which they subscribe is unlikely to change any time soon.