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Economic Realities I Confront Students with in Public University
Helping students to understand the outcomes of their assumptions.
These are comments I send to each student after they have written their final project for one of my classes. The lines of thought deal with issues of economics based on the movie “Parasite” (Joon-ho, 2019). Most students write about class, capitalism, discrimination, equity, or the like as a theme that they draw from the movie and then do a semester full of research on their topic. I have suggested alternate viewpoints throughout the semester, pointing out economic approaches students in a public university do not always hear. Student tendencies espouse a general socialistic perspective where “government” is seen as having jurisdiction over monetary affairs. I never press my views on students but I surely have them consider the implications of theirs (or any) economic theory.
My general comments about the “Argumentative Writing” final project:
- Definitions of words matter. Words such as flourishing, economics, discrimination, prejudice, class, status, bourgeoisie, or capitalism all deserve to be defined as they are used in your paper. And remember, whoever controls the definition, controls the conversation. Your responsibility is to be evenhanded in your coverage.
- Humility and charity matter even with those groups with whom you desperately disagree. Verbiage that demeans any individual or institution detracts from rather than adds to your position.
- Beliefs about humanity and authority are woven through every single discipline. What you believe about the nature of people – whether people are perfectible or corruptible – and what you believe about authority – is the source of right and wrong solely human or does it include a supernatural source? – will impact every single point of view you hold.
- There are three “families” in Parasite, not just two. Joon-ho’s point is that status is not simply one pitting the “rich” against the “poor” but includes how the “poor” treat those who are “poorer.” The “human condition” intersects all ethnic, national, and class lines.
- Try to consider problems as “human” rather than pitting one group against another. To point out a problem and seek a solution is one thing; to disparage others – and in the process, making enemies – is quite another.
- Discussions of economics are, at their core, ethical discussions. The trust we put in a system of stewarding wealth assumes our predisposition to right and wrong. And if the “human condition” is the central problem of ethics, then any economic system can degenerate.
- If you believe you must replace an economic system such as capitalism, you must immediately ask, “What is the replacement?” And if you choose a replacement, have you investigated how that economic system has been a benefit or a detriment to the poor where it has been tried elsewhere in the world and throughout history? How does any economic system impact the poor, who you wish to serve?
- Considering your general concern for the poor, what will you do personally to care for those less economically fortunate around you, right now, where you live? Remember, change begins with you.
- Never forget that a government does not have any money. Government does not create wealth (though its policies surely impact wealth creation). Government services are available only through taxpayer dollars. When you say, “The government should pay . . .” remember it’s your money you are talking about.
- Always remember that there are different points of view on any subject. Be wary of accepting the arguments of those with whom you already agree. Search out the other side. Consider your sources. Ask, “Am I being fair to the position or people I’m critiquing?”
Originally posted here.
Published in General
Thank you so very much for this!!
I teach history/politics at a high school in Lawrence Kansas. I teach Thomas Sowell….with lots of administrative pushback by the way….and this will fit right in line with that!!
Thanks again!
Ask them if they have ever given serious consideration to the nutritional value of Venezuelan rat meat.
Or just seen (or worn) a pair of Bulgarian shoes.
Yes! I wear my Thomas Sowell t-shirt to class during one class period to make a statement. I have all Sowell’s books. His scholarship in economics is the basis for my own. And I tell public university students about he and Walter Williams constantly.
Us old HS teachers need to stick together! [out of my 38 years of teaching, 20+ were in Jr/Sr HS). See my replies to other comments. Also see my review of Jason Riley’s book here: https://markeckel.com/2021/07/10/maverick/ and my two minute video overview of Maverick here: https://markeckel.com/2021/09/13/thomas-sowell-maverick-2/
Rock on, my fellow high school compatriot, rock on!
I will absolutely make it an addendum in future comments ;)
Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World: https://youtu.be/WK4M9iJrgto
Walter Williams: Suffer No Fools: https://youtu.be/YZGvQcxoAPg
Omg. Another conservative in academia. Unicorn!!!! I love it.
We don’t practice capitalism. For starters, the central bank should simply back up the financial system in a punitive way. What we do now is push the economy around with it and it just makes everything worse. It’s impossible to manage and we are living through it, now.
Then people wonder why conservatism and libertarianism doesn’t work or sell.
We did every single thing wrong in the face of the wage deflation and job distraction from automation and globalized trade. That is why people are questioning capitalism and populism and Socialism are on the table.
I don’t think economics discussions – as opposed to economics truths – are ethical. They are esthetic. Maybe even the worst sort, the sort that are interested not in beauty but in ugliness. And maintain that the apportionment of these two things is a zero-sum game. So much of economics discussion – or maybe it’s economics declaration – is frankly vengeful, or at least punitive. So many people with big economics ideas want those ideas to hurt somebody else.
Economics discussions should be ones of ethics, or at least informed by a sense of ethics. Just getting anyone in the classroom to accept that view must be a great feat.
Good questions and thoughts you have your student contemplate. Hopefully high school students are smarter than when I was that age. Does any of it register on a 15 and 16 year old? Same question to those who use Sowell, are high school kids able to grasp Thomas Sowell, he makes it as simple and as rooted as it can be? If so then we can fix matters easily, just replace public schools with individually run schools with parents, freed from the taxes that go to schools, paying tuition directly to the school they choose
Right. My point in #6. From my theological view, sin will always produce extremes, infecting everything with degenerative behavior.
“Should” is the issue. Any time the word is used, an ethical system is assumed.
I would add, incentives matter
e.g. when you don’t police theft, you get lots of it
So you are teaching them what real life is all about. Must be scary for those kids. At least they don’t have the draft to worry about.