I decided to pay a visit to the oracle today. Things haven't been going all that well at home, and I've been deeply disturbed by where the country is going. Things in general look a bit grim and I'm feeling down. Depressed, so to speak.

I'm also scared as well as being tangled up in blue. The pundits say that property prices are going to fall bigtime. That means we could be left owing more on the mortgage than the apartment is worth. Trapped by what happens in the US.

So I decided to go down to the stock market to consult the oracle. Since I live in the city it is little more than a popping around the corner. So it was no bg deal.

I wanted to asked the oracle about projected economic growth rates. I was concerned about my happiness. I had heard the talking heads on free-to-air television discussing it. Things sounded confused, what with the housing boom, the world economy and Greenspan spin. It was difficult to connect this to my search for happiness. There was a connection but I could not put my finger on it. I was not a professional economist.

I found the oracle in a back room of the Stock Exchange. There were no flags or ornaments in the room. Just a voice activated computer to ask the oracle questions. I wasted no time thinking about the minimal design and got straight to it. Speed is what the stock exchange is all about and I wanted to be in harmony with the spirit of capitalism.

"What is the projected increase in GDP for next year?", I asked.

A computer voice--like the ones you hear on the telephone---- said oh so sweetly that the rate of increase in GDP in the coming year was around 3.5% and that it may go to 4%. The voice said the economists differed on the figures, but they agreed that it would be within that range.

Now I'm only a philosopher with little experience of the real world. I felt a bit lost. After all, its not everyday that you consult an oracle. I felt that all I could do in these circumstances is what I had been taught. So it is best to fall back on the old custom and habit thing. I asked a naive question.

"Is 4% increase in economic growth better for the nation than 3.5%?" I was thinking as a reponsible citizen, you understand.

"Four is greater than three", the oracle replied.

Plucking up my courage I asked another question.

"Will an increase in economic growth improve my well being?".

There was silence. I could hear the sounds of the day traders cutting deals on tech stocks valued at 13 cents. Excitement was in the air. That 13 cents would be 26 cents after lunch. I could see that I was standing in the engine room of wealth creation. I could feel the throb of the machinery in my body. It felt like a power surge.

Then the oracle spoke. "It is obvious."

"What is obvious", I asked. I was feeling more confident that I could do philosophy on the floor of the stock exchange. I remembered Socrates advice in situations like this. The appropriate stance to take is that all you know is that you don't know.

"I'm unclear here. Is it obvious that more economic growth will not make me better off? That I could be unhappy even if the miralce economy delivers the goods?

The oracle replied quickly. "No economist concedes that. The relationship between GDP and wellbeing is perfectly clear. People prefer to recieve a higher income and enjoy higher expenditure. All the textbooks written by economists say so."

And that was that. The screen went blank with a seductive goodbye before I could formulate my little questions about supply side economics and its growth fetish. Then I had some really big questions about economic inequality and happiness.

I wandered slowly home through the city streets passing the bookshops, cafes and music stores by. I did not spend even though I was tempted. I felt flat and retail therapy would pick me up. My consumer confidence was too shaky for me to be a good consumer exercising their free choice.

And I was distracted. I was thinking about the foundations of economics. I twigged that it was all built around that little word 'prefer'. What I, as an individual, prefer is what is good for me. Subjectivism, said the philosophical voice in me.

I turned the corner into my street, passing a homeless teenager sitting in the gutter sniffing petrol. Clearly, prefering to sniff petrol is not good for you. We would not measure her wellbeing by the number of sniffs she had---maximisimg her utility.

'Attaboy', said my philosophical voice. 'You've still got your philosophical quicks. And you've knocked a hole in the moral foundations of utilitarian economics.'

You know what the economists say to that. We have nothing to say about human preferences. We take them as a given. Go see a psychologist if you want to talk about human nature. We are interested in the maximisation of utility and Pareto optimality.

Yet, upon this given the theoretical edifice of economics is built.

Oh my. Such shaky foundations. No wonder people think that economics as a science is a bit suss.