I come into Microeconomics class today. The following was on the board:
"US Rich and Poor
Top 1% owns 38%
Bottom 40% owns 1%
Top 3 million own same as bottom 113 million
(2002)"
I respond on the board:
"So What?
The bottom 113 million are still better off than the majority of the world.
Thought Experiment
What would happen if we took everything away from the top 3 million and gave it to the bottom 113 million?
Who is John Galt?"
The professor gave a positive argument that in capitalist countries inequality is expected. The rich accumulate. The poor do not. He did not have the courage to make any normative claims about income equality. He did not discuss how graduate students or hippies sacrifice wealth for (perceived) happiness. He did not discuss anything of importance. He did not discuss how the top 1% got their wealth.
And the students (including myself) passively accepted his response. It made me angry but I sat there like the Chinese Communist I have become.
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Links:
http://www.tcsdaily.com/Article.aspx?id=032306D
http://cafehayek.typepad.com/hayek/2006/03/the_persistence.html
Calling yourself a communist is perhaps a touch mellow dramatic. I think it goes back to the question of why you are in school. The professor certainly isn't here to teach truth, rather the literature about macroeconomics. That you didn't argue with him about it doesn't mean anything other than you both realized that you weren't there to discuss the normative aspects of the issue. There is a time for what is and a time for what should be. The relative importance economics places on each could be part of our problem. You really should read "The Pentagon's New Map." Unless you have a so what, what is there to discuss. What we need as a profession is a vision worth creating.
"Calling yourself a commuinst is mellow dramatic. Why are you in school? The professor is there to teach microeconomics. Not arguing meant you knew it was not the proper time for argument. The classroom is for positve economics...The profession needs a clear vision."
I do not know what mellow dramatic means. I know stretching the truth is part of writing.
A Chinese Communist accepts the party's orders. He does not question. He has no courage to defy tradition. He is educated. He knows many useless things
I am a Chinese Communist in the important aspects.
Everything is normative.
Economics best serves as a way of thinking that requires critically examining life. It requires investigation. It requires honesty. It requires philosophy.
You are right I have no clear vision. But I know the current quagmire cannot be sustained.
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