February 14, 2026
Value at the margin, patience at zero
Marginal Revolution
Marginal Revolution: Econ love letter sparks “ChatGPT wrote this” pile-on
TLDR: A Substack explainer celebrating the “marginal revolution” in economics and the Marginal Revolution blog drew fire as readers accused it of having a “ChatGPT voice,” especially after the post cut off mid-word. Fans defended the clear, teachy style, while others argued the real fight should be about power and inequality, not format.
An earnest Substack explainer by Sebastian Galiani re-ups the old-school “marginal revolution”—the simple idea that choices happen one unit at a time—and tips its cap to the iconic Marginal Revolution blog. Think: not “is water useful?” but “is one more glass worth it?” Cue Jevons, Menger, Walras, Marshall, and a breezy tour through “hire the next worker if they’re worth the wage” basics. So far, so Econ 101.
Then the comments detonated. The top vibe wasn’t “great primer,” it was “did a bot write this?” One reader blasted the piece for “ChatGPTism,” calling it unreadable and dunking on headings like “Why this changed everything.” Making it spicier, the post literally cuts off mid-word (“realloca”), which became Exhibit A for the skeptics. Defenders snapped back that clear section headers are how you teach, not a smoking AI gun, and argued the content is solid: keep redistribution debates separate from how markets allocate stuff. Meanwhile, jokesters had a field day: “my marginal patience is zero,” “the last paragraph’s value is negative,” and riffs on the water–diamond paradox (“one more Substack post? pass”). The thread split three ways—AI-truthers, econ-nerds defending clarity, and folks insisting the real issue is power and inequality—not whether one more unit is worth it. Drama at the margin, indeed.
Key Points
- •The article connects the blog name Marginal Revolution to the 19th-century marginal revolution in economics.
- •Jevons, Menger, and Walras shifted value theory to marginal valuation, away from Ricardian labor-cost explanations.
- •Alfred Marshall synthesized the revolution into practical tools: supply and demand, elasticities, consumer surplus, marginal cost/product.
- •Economic choices occur at the margin; this framework explains prices, allocation, reallocation, and productivity growth.
- •Common errors arise when marginal analysis is ignored, such as injecting identity into firm conditions and conflating redistribution with allocation.