In pondering what I could write these economic stories about, I referred to text in the book “How to Think Like an Economist”, with in this book Mr. Arnold had a great revelation that caught my attention. That of the question “can there ever be too little of a bad thing?” (Arnold, 2005), this tidbit of information got me to think just in everyday life, is it possible to want what to monopolize happiness so much that the bad in life can destroy you. In reflecting upon various life situations and relationships I found that the influences of economic principles where everywhere and in order to monopolize life you have to notice the principles and theories. This thought further lead to me pondering life and all that it has to offer. In doing …show more content…
There constant need and want to obtain complete control of your financial and emotional facets. Children have this wonderful form of persuasion, they use your love and admiration for them as a too maintain your resource even when there is a scarcity. Which often times proves successful, no matter how old they get. Your first instant is to ensure that they are safe and happy at all cost, however these cost can often be your demise. A prime example of their persuasion ability is when something new comes out and they want it. The power of advertising and imagery draws them in and in turn you are drawn in. Whether it is a pair of the latest tennis shoes, toys, video games, or just food they set their minds on it they are relentless in obtaining it. From their point of view and the facade that we display, our parental capital is abundant, or maybe we have resources on trees in our backyards. No matter what they do or the task that we have them to do to receive resources or revenue they still believe and know that our hearts will not see them disappointed. As a compromise with my children I offer then jobs that they can do around the home that will allow them to get resources or revenue for the items that they want. In offering this compromise the demands that once occurred everyday has reduced to a biweekly or a monthly occurrences. Although it is still a battle of the wills there is still nothing that I will not do for any of my children, therefore they have almost monopolized my life with the main task of keeping them content and helping them achieve their goals and
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Show MoreIn Alexander Kern’s “Emerson and Economics,” Kern draws attention to the economical aspects found in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s texts. Specifically, Kern discusses the lack of attention that Emerson’s economical notions receive. Emerson is not associated with being an economist writer, but Kern draws attention to how “he so frequently touched the subject than an understanding of his economic ideas is a prerequisite to the evaluation of his entire thought on any relative or absolute scale” (Kern 678). Kern’s theory that readers must extract the economics out of Emerson in order to comprehend his texts is extremely useful because it sheds insight on the difficult problem of viewing Emerson as an economist, yet he views Emerson as a moral philosopher because of the author’s views towards society. Alexander Kern’s call to view Emerson as an economist is yet to be answered. Moreover, it is crucial to evaluate Emerson as an economist in order to analyze his texts differently. Consequently, using economics to evaluate Emerson’s “Self Reliance” in a new way will show it is meant to be a call for social reformation. More specifically, by considering the economic panic of 1837 and its effects on Emerson’s views towards society, a new way to interpret “Self Reliance” is achieved.
Economics take part in many daily lives can be seen in the music people listen to. Harry Chapin’s “Cats in the Cradle” song is no exception. The song describes a young father trying to live up to capitalistic America’s economy and needs. Sometimes in life choices must be made. People respond to incentives put in place by Homo Economicus. For many, just as it is in the song, that incentive is money. The song states, “My child arrived just the other day. He came to the world in the usual way. But there were planes to catch and bills to pay. He learned to walk while I was away.” These lines relate to opportunity cost. The father had to give up one thing in order to achieve another. The opportunity cost is the time that the father lost watching his son grow up. He felt there was a higher demand for his job than for his time with his son. He chose to be on that plane and to be at a job that would keep him from his family. In his mind, the father used marginal analysis to make this decision. He simultaneously, even though he might not have realized he
Renowned economist, Steven D. Levitt, and well-known journalist, Stephen J. Dubner, in their collaboration of the book, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, write in a mostly inoffensive style about extremely controversial topics. Levitt’s and Dubner’s purpose is to inform readers of frequently disputed topics from a purely economic standpoint. They use second person to directly speak to their readers, an impartial tone to show an unusual perspective, and contrast to provide both sides of an argument.
Adam Smith has developed and created the most influential works of economic, philosophy and beyond. Adam Smith made an economic model for his theory involving the economic market through his books. Adam Smith produced his own book titled “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” which revolved around morals of humans and mercy toward a person or a community. On the other hand, the book did have a slight vision of the rejection of loving yourself and the slim idea what an individual wants for his or her self. Adam Smith also produced another book titled “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” that was based on the concept of the politics of economy. This book also gave the idea that wealth’s amount is determined by the amount of work not by length. Adam Smith’s book eventually g...
This simple fact that Hazlitt brought up is the dominating factor that separates good and bad economics. A good economist will look at the effects a certain policy will have on all groups, while a bad economist will only see the effects that a policy will have on a particular group. This ties in with the long-run effects because if a group is only looking at how a policy will affect itself then in the future another group that was affected could lose their business because of the way the first group viewed a policy. For example if a clothing company decides to increase revenues by selling more products at a lower price, it will cause the company that has to supply the materials for the shirt to have to increase the amount of materials they need to use in order to keep up with the sales the clothing company makes. If the shirt company acted in the best interest of all the groups they would make sure the company that is supplying the materials is able to increase production instead of making the decision on their own. The bad economist believes that tomorrow is not as important as what is at hand today. “Nine-tenths of the economic fallacies that are working such dreadful harm in the world today are the result of ignoring this lesson. Those fallacies are stem from one of two central fallacies or both: that of looking only at the immediate consequences of an actor o proposal, and that of looking at the consequences only for a particular g...
Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know About Wealth and Prosperity, written by James Gwartney, Richard Stroup, Dwight Lee and Tawni Ferrarini, explains the foundation of economics and how it all works in all aspects of our lives from the role of the government trickling down to personal credit cards and savings. This book was written with clear language for the audience to understand and comprehend the large amount of information within its condensed size. The authors’ target audience for this book seemed to be for those individuals wanting to learn the mechanics of economy including economic growth and stability. Gwartney separates his book into four parts: Part I, Twelve Key Elements of Economics, Part II Seven Major Sources of Economic Progress, Part Three Economic Progress and the Role of Government, and Part IV Twelve Key Elements of Practical Personal Finance.
Economic liberty is an ideal initiated in the late eighteenth century by philosopher Adam Smith (p.40). This domain of liberty pertains to the freedom of the marketplace. It was Smith who stated in The Wealth of Nations that “the consumer is king”, urging also “that government, interfering in the market by granting mercantilist monopolies, abetted this injustice” (p.
At one point in time poverty was the general fact of the world. Man was always expected to live on the line of poverty, majority of the economic thinkers couldn’t see the world moving away from this standard but we did and have gained great affluence. As Society has grown from this poverty stricken state it once was in, into an affluent one the ideas used to run it have yet to change in some ways. In The Affluent Society John Kenneth Galbraith explains how with great economic growth there should be growth in economic ideas as well. The old idea that were for a country that barely could stay above the water are inappropriate for society today. He proves this by naming numerous issues like The conventional Common wisdom,
In closing, it is ludicrous to romanticize that the tendency toward capitalism in man is as primal as eating or procreating. On the other hand, the same curiosity hard-wired into humans that compels us toward theism compels us toward advancement, gain and acquirement. Initially, conquering these curiosities, as history has shown us, is through a method of ‘by any means necessary’. Eventually, dare I say- inevitably, it becomes by the most efficient means available; consequently, an accurate description of capitalism. Therefore, it follows that although man faces struggle that require his ingenuity, this in no way undermines the occurrence of inevitable events; it merely reinforces the existence of them.
McMahon, Darrin M. "The Market and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Society 43.2 (2006): 53-61. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 20 July 2011.
The desire for more and the one thing that keeps the economy of today’s world running. We are continuously being bombarded with images of things that we can accomplish, that once we possess them we are supposed to feel happier and more fulfilled than ever before. Greed is an insatiable need for more, where more is never enough. Greed can never be satisfied, once you attain your heart’s desire another desire takes its place. Greed is egocentric and destructive. Neighbors’ are no longer friends but rivals in a competition. Family members are no longer loved ones but obstacles in the quest for the newest, brightest and best. Greed is like a whirlpool, it keeps drawing victims nearer it 's center and in due time as the center is reached the force pulls victims under and destroys them. We have seen how the story Necklace portrayed greed as an addiction in the fictional world, with examples of the real world. The paper went on to discuss how greed is potentially destructive for the society, connecting ECON 101 concepts. And lastly we touched upon how greed is manipulative, with examples from Shakespeare’s famous play Macbeth and also from real life experiences. According to an experiment by University of California, Berkeley, “Riches are less ethical because they see greed as good, ‘The drivers of the most expensive vehicles were four times more likely to cut off drivers of lower status vehicles’” (Szalavitz). They conducted 5 other experiments to finally come to the first
“I do not like money, money is the reason we fight.” Karl Marx. A “free market” economy is based on competition; it is the essence that keeps the momentum of the exchange process. Capitalism allows for a variety of employment options, but the class system still exists, middle and lower class individuals struggle to support themselves and their families because of this wild goose paper chase. The overwhelming desire for money may manifest dangerous ambitions within those at the bottom and the top, people will kill, steal or even enslave to gain more of that precious paper. This struggle is correlated with the idea of competition, but considering all forms of natural competition, there always must be an entity atop the pyramid. The pinnacle of the monetary obelisk is vacated by the most affluent and selfish megalomaniacs our society has concieved, these individuals are those that control the flow of money, therefore the instigation of inflation, a...
I really like economics, it is an interesting combination of math, behavioral science, and logic, that can be used to make unique observations of the world as we know it. Unfortunately, like most academic disciplines it suffers from its faults. Even though these faults are not unique to economics, instead they are pervasive in many academic disciplines. Nor are the new, as they have been around more or less since the start of modern academics. Yet until they are fixed they need to be continually addressed, so that we can take in to account the inherent bias that comes with them. These faults can be expressed in one phrase “Rich White Men.” This phrase incorporates the three biggest failings in the field of economics. Which are, that most people in the field have a greater level of means than many of those that they choose to study, they are mostly of European Caucasian descent, and that they tend to be male. Qualities that introduce an inherent bias in to their world view. This is not to say that people in the field of economics are
Today, more than ever, there is great debate over politics and which economic system works the best. How needs and wants should be allocated, and who should do the allocating, is one of the most highly debated topics in our current society. Be it communist dictators defending a command economy, free market conservatives defending a market economy, or European liberals defending socialism, everyone has an opinion. While all systems have flaws and merits, it must be decided which system is the best for all citizens. When looking at both the financial well being of all citizens, it is clear that market economies fall short on ensuring that the basic needs of all citizens are met. If one looks at liberty and individual freedom, it is evident that command economies tend to oppress their citizens. Therefore, socialism, which allows for basic needs to be met and personal freedoms to be upheld, is the best economic system for all of a country’s citizens.
According to Sloman (2003), many people think that economics is about money. Well, to some extent this is true. Economics has a lot to do with money: with how much money people are paid; how much they spend; what is costs to buy various items; how much money firms earn; how much money there is in total in the economy. But despite the large number of areas in which our lives are concerned with money, economics is more than just the study of money. It is concerned with the production of goods and services and the ...