The trouble with economists, Isabella Weber believes, is they do not behave like dentists. They obsess over ideological purity and are inflexible when searching for solutions, regardless of society’s symptoms.(他们痴迷于意识形态的纯洁性，在寻找解决方案时僵化死板，全然不顾社会的症状。) Dentists have no such pretension(虚饰；自命不凡)s – patients have little patience for dogma(教条；信条) when in insufferable pain.
伊莎贝拉·韦伯认为，经济学家的问题在于他们不像牙医那样行事。他们痴迷于意识形态的纯洁性，在寻找解决方案时僵化死板，全然不顾社会的症状。牙医没有这种虚架子——当病人疼痛难忍时，他们对教条可没什么耐心。
John Maynard Keynes, Weber clarifies in the canteen of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin(柏林高等研究院，德国著名跨学科研究机构) (Berlin’s Institute for Advanced Study), was the first to draw this dental comparison – and she is running with it. As she sees it, the symptoms could not be more severe. “The status quo for the majority is entirely unbearable,” while extreme inequality and corporate concentration has reached levels “simply incompatible with democracy” worldwide. This is exacerbated by a climate crisis that “generates massive windfall profits” for big business as the “ecological foundations of our lives disintegrate”.(气候危机又加剧了这一局面：随着“我们生活的生态基础瓦解”，气候危机为大企业“带来了巨额意外利润”。) All the while the far right is making hay.
韦伯在柏林高等研究院（Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin）的食堂里解释说，约翰·梅纳德·凯恩斯是第一个做出这个牙医比喻的人——而她正沿着这个思路走下去。在她看来，症状再严重不过了。“对大多数人来说，现状完全无法忍受”，而极端不平等和企业集中已在全球达到“与民主完全不相容”的程度。气候危机又加剧了这一局面：随着“我们生活的生态基础瓦解”，气候危机为大企业“带来了巨额意外利润”。与此同时，极右翼正在趁乱得利。
This analysis echoes much mainstream liberal and left-leaning thinking. But Weber is concerned that her peers in the economic establishment act as if they are oblivious.(但韦伯担心，经济学界建制派的同行们却表现得好像对此浑然不觉。) “What’s common sense to most people is not to economists,” she says, and as such our economic system has “promised but not delivered”. She reels off disturbing statistics that highlight the growing disparities between haves and have nots(富人与穷人；有产者与无产者). “As economists, we should do better. People’s dignity, and democracy, is at stake(处于危险中；攸关).”
这一分析呼应了许多主流自由派和左倾思想。但韦伯担心，经济学界建制派的同行们却表现得好像对此浑然不觉。“对大多数人来说是常识的东西，对经济学家却不是，”她说，因此我们的经济体系“许下了承诺却未能兑现”。她一口气列举了令人不安的统计数据，凸显出贫富差距日益扩大。“作为经济学家，我们应该做得更好。人民的尊严与民主危在旦夕。”