ABSTRACT
The role of the mainstream economist is to build a paradigm; the role of the heterodox economist is to tear that paradigm down and to replace it with an alternative. Despite repeated attacks by a wide variety of critics, mainstream economics has ensconced itself and flaunted the techniques, assumptions, and conclusions that have been the target of heterodox criticisms. The existence of a set of tasks in a theory becomes important because of the nature of the US institutions that provide employment for US economists. The US economics profession is academically dominated; to succeed, US economists must write dissertations and journal articles. Marshallian economics ended when the simple conundrums within a partial equilibrium framework were explored and replaced with Walrasian economics, with new, more complicated, conundrums for researchers to explore and write papers about. As important as communicating with mainstream economists is communicating and socializing with other heterodox economists.
