whitty’s world

BISD has decided to no longer offer dual-enrollment courses at high school campuses. They are to be phased out over the next couple of years, with reduced course offerings each year. The stated reason as I understand it is that the availability of dual-enrollment credit reduces the number of students taking AP exams, and this harms the schools’ performance against Texas Education Agency performance measures.

What do you think of this decision? Is dual-enrollment helpful or not? How has it effected you? Is it good to eliminate the program or harmful?

What is the most significant new knowledge you have gained from this class so far? Learning this subject in the context of recession makes many class days quite bleak – perhaps the question is better phrased “what is the most significant concern raised for you by what we are learning?” Or maybe not – I respect and admire “glass half full” people.

In the course of learning about Islam, as my misconceptions have fallen away, I have been pleasantly surprised by much of what I have learned. What has been your pleasant surprise? Tell the rest of us.

The economists who developed the theory of comparative advantage lived in the late 19th century – a world obviously very different from ours. They could not imagine a world where satellites and the world wide web have made distance meaningless in many production processes. Advances in transport have made those costs so much lower that it has become commonplace for people on the other side of the globe to make our stuff. In fact, this “globalization” has redefined our world.

Improvements in technology and transportaton have allowed exploitation of differences in labor costs at levels that are completely unprecedented. This leads to my question: is it truly comparative advantage to exploit the fact that people in the developing world will work for so much less, under conditions that are so much worse? Dangerous workplaces, child labor, low wages, long hours – all of those are practices we outlawed long ago, so why do we support them in other nations? Are we morally accountable for the conditions under which others work when they make things for us?

Conversations over the past several days have caused me to reflect on the decision point our society faced a year ago. We acted decisively to change leadership with full knowledge of the direction in which that would take us – large-scale public policy actions to intervene in the economy and attempt to cure our rising unemployment and decreasing output. 

Most people in our state are, of course, adamantly opposed to these measures. As a student said today (I am paraphrasing as accurately as I can) “When did Americans become a people who want freedom and at the same time want to be taken care of?” My colleague yesterday spoke of our national debt and this year’s budget deficit as the prepossessing concerns. A student recently mentioned to me that Glenn Beck, pundit extraordinaire, was voicing concerns about inflation in the economy as a result of current policies. Mr. Beck conveniently explained his concerns about inflation at a time when no inflation was occurring by saying that it typically takes two years for inflation to occur. Oh – that’s good to know.

So much sharpshooting – so little time. My question is this – if current policies designed to expand output and employment through stimulus spending and tax cuts are so bad, what alternatives do critics suggest? I am fascinated to hear. Please reply with a mind for what you have learned in class – let’s leave ignoring accuracy and truth to our professional political entertainers. Take some responsibility for the consequence of your suggestions. This is, after all, a question of tradeoffs in the end. How much unemployment is “freedom” worth? Would you feel the same about rejecting stimulus spending to achieve a balanced federal budget if it was your father and mother that were unemployed and had no ready prospects for making the house payment or feeding you?

George Santayana, Poet Laureate of the United States, once said that those who do not study the past are doomed to repeat it. The implication that those who do study history can learn from the past may make it even more depressing that we seem to repeat the same costly mistakes. Our current financial crisis bears saddening similarities to the Great Depression and the Savings and Loan Crisis of the 1980s.

Greed is good – it leads to tremendous benefits from efficiency, innovation, and responsive allocation of resources. It also leads to tremendous costs. Right now we are experiencing high unemployment and seriously diminished productivity that is causally related to greedy, self-absorbed behavior. My question is this: why can’t we as a society have the best and leave the painful catastrophe behind? How could this be done? Why is it so difficult?

I was serious today when I said that the solution, if there is one, lies with your generation. Ours has failed repeatedly. You are new at this subject, but you have the framework both to undestand the dilemma and to say very meaningful things about it.

What that you have learned in this class has impacted your thinking? What that you have learned is most valuable? Perhaps this question involves hopeful assumptions.:-) If the answer is “nothing”, then know that there will always be room for you under the bypass, and I will share my twinkies thrown by passers -by. You have to brush the gravel off of your twinkie-half yourself, though – sharing only goes so far.

It is an absolutely beautiful afternoon. It occurs to me that this wonderful benefit creates a cost – the opportunity cost of being inside, learning in a classroom, is much higher. How does this change the relationship between the cost of learning and its benefits? Remember that learning benefits not only the student and the teacher, but many others in the world – it is a classic example of a transaction that creates positive externalities (Chapter 5).

Your assignment: blog on the above question. How does Spring change the cost/benefit equation? What is your personal analysis? I look forward to your thoughts.

This blog is going to be a little different – a friendly competition to see who is beginning to think like an economist. First, the method for the contest. You will respond to the prompt below. The student who responds with greatest clarity and accuracy will win a three-course feast for two at Dairy Twin, courtesy of me. I will choose five finalists, but the ultimate victor will be chosen by Mr. Allard through a ‘blind’ (no names) reading of the finalists’ blog entries. Everything matters: accurate application of economic theory, knowledge of current events, grammar, syntax, spelling, and composition will all distinguish the winner. I suggest a grilled cheese sandwich as the appetizer – truly ambrosial. You know what the main course has to be.:-)

The prompt:

Over the past few months, crude oil prices in world markets have dropped to low levels while the price we pay for gasoline at the pump has risen. What is going on here? After all, crude oil is the principal resource involved in refining gasoline.