"Education is one of the things you will pay for and not get." - Jon Aliri, economics professor at UM.
I believe that this is true. So many students blow off their classes and homework even though they pay through the nose for them. I did it as a freshman, but now I've seen the light. Who wants to waste all that money and time?
I had my first Micro economics class today. It was very exciting and I'm sure the teacher will provide many insights for me. He is dedicated to the socratic method which is an exciting change from my lecture classes. Aliri said that everything is a trade off, but there is one fundamental trade off that all countries face today: Efficiency and Equity within a capitalist system. I am glad that he brought this up on the first day because its exciting when I get to speak my mind, especially in a class packed full of business majors who have devoted their lives to efficiency, and I have devoted mine to something else. I know that what I really want is a balance between the two with environmental conservation determining where that balance point lies. This is why when Aliri asked, "which side do you lean towards?" I suppressed the urge to yell "EQUITY!" from the back of the room.
I feel like I'm secretly taking this class in order to figure out the weaknesses in our current system and throw a monkey wrench in its gears. But What's more likely is I'll gain an appreciation for economic functions and allow the new knowledge to gently guide me in whatever way.
The world has chosen Efficiency. Which do you choose? Where is that balance?
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3 comments:
Welcome back. I missed your blog.
I am so jealous. I went to Swarthmore College twenty years ago, and if, at the time, I had had it together like you do, I could have learned so much more. When I was in college, I couldn't have cared less about economics, but now that I am the sole bread-winner of a family of four, I have a different view. I make more money than most people in Vermont, yet I live in a small house with a tight budget and a fear that some major medical expense is going to come along and wipe out our savings. Yet we still spend extra to buy local as often as we can.
While you are talking about effiency versus equity, ask your professor about the economy of waste versus an economy of thrift (cf. Wendell Berry). Along those lines, you also might check out The Story of Stuff, a short (fifteen minute) on-line video that sums up the problems of our production economy very succinctly.
First day back and two great posts!
I never took economics, although probably the most fascinating day I ever spent in trial was back in 1992 when I was involved in a month-long trial at the Public Service Board on the structure of the telecommunications industry in Vermont. The witness was an economist in private practice in Meeteetsee, Wyoming (there may be too many e's in that) named Nina Cornell, and she presented what amounted to a great seminar on pricing theory for telecommunications. Aside from my work in public utilities, I have used economic concepts in some of my other work in landlord-tenant and other areas of law.
When studying economics it's important to keep in mind the need to question the underlying assumptions of economists, including the theory that regular human beings are actually rational economic actors, where that is far from certain.
I have a book that you might be interested in reading, which I'll mail out to you if you're interested, called Economists Can Be Bad for Your Health.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120113473219511791.html?mod=hpp_us_pageone
Hey Adam...good post...great article in todays Wall Street Journal regarding Bill Gates and his views on improving capitalism ....
Free enterprise has been good to Bill Gates. But today, the Microsoft Corp. chairman will call for a revision of capitalism.
In a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the software tycoon plans to call for a "creative capitalism" that uses market forces to address poor-country needs that he feels are being ignored.
"We have to find a way to make the aspects of capitalism that serve wealthier people serve poorer people as well," Mr. Gates will tell world leaders at the forum, according to a copy of the speech seen by The Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Gates isn't abandoning his belief in capitalism as the best economic system. But in an interview with the Journal last week at his Microsoft office in Redmond, Wash., Mr. Gates said that he has grown impatient with the shortcomings of capitalism. He said he has seen those failings first-hand on trips for Microsoft to places like the South African slum of Soweto, and discussed them with dozens of experts on disease and poverty. He has voraciously read about those failings in books that propose new approaches to narrowing the gap between rich and poor.
In particular, he said, he's troubled that advances in technology, health care and education tend to help the rich and bypass the poor. "The rate of improvement for the third that is better off is pretty rapid," he said. "The part that's unsatisfactory is for the bottom third -- two billion of six billion." ......
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