My government class has faded out with the solstice and has risen again transformed into economics. It is possible that economics can explain (most) of the world around us, although sometimes just in probabilities, likelihoods and statistics. How romantic it is.
My first lesson of the new year began with a list of things that my students want and need. We sorted out the difference and then discussed unlimited wants and the problem of scarcity. I told them how when I was their age few students (if any) had cell phones, that the common practice was always to have a couple of quarters. They asked me how old I was and if I wore bell bottom jeans.
We talked about the car phone and the early cell phones, you know... the one my dad has. The one Steve Porbunderwala (ha, I can still spell it!) carried around... the one that was the size of a chiwawa. I talked about the smaller and smaller phones and the more color and the mp3 players and... The Razr (or whatever). They told me that it was now "out" and what was "in" was the chocolat and the BlackJack and some other thing I'd never heard of. One kid has GPS & Google maps built into his...
Now 90% of these kids are on free and reduced lunch. There is a lovely Irish woman at the school that collects coats for them, because they have none. Their SAT and AP tests are paid for, as is night school when they fail the class the first time. And yet... well over 70% have phones that are "cooler" (and more expensive) than mine... and bills to match. They had the Razr last year and now they have whatever new thing is inundating my computer with popup ads and banners. They'll drop out of school because they need to pay their bills... but they aren't really talking about food, water, rent, and electricity.
This isn't all of them of course... but I'm not anxious to do my taxes either.
For further explaination of this concept I recommend Numeroff's economic classic If you Give a Mouse a Cookie.
Another economist note: Thanks to New England for having a mild winter, you are keeping my gas prices down. I think y'all should wear sweaters next year. I'll send you some yarn and we can get to knitting.
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4 comments:
thanks to all the suv drivers for sending enough CO2 into the air to give NE such a mild winter so that gas prices can go down so that no one feels any economic pressure to worry about conservation so that no one cares about their emmissions so that more CO2 goes into the air so that next year's winter is even more mild.
but all that aside, i am learning to knit.
It's probably too late to do it now, but there is a foundation that provides free copies of PJ O'Rourke's Eat The Rich to highschool students. The free copy is a condensed version, but still excellent - and much more amusing than any other economics writing I know.
You, in your classes, are experiencing what we call the economic "sheep" that make up the vast majority of this planets population. Their only appointed task is to consume and not to understand.
And it would be a shame if you changed that through education. That just makes live harder for the people who truly understand the power of economics.
On the plus side, your children won't have much competition for high tech jobs. And there will always be plenty of staff at McDonalds when you're hungry.
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