[PEN-L:10514] Re: Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: request on teaching
I have heard Phil Harvey of Rutgers Law School use this story on more than
one occasion in public presentations. No matter how much dogs are trained
to be good bone gatherers, as long as the number of bones remain fixed,
there will still be dogs left without bones. Even if all dogs had excellent
training, this still holds. So training may be good, but by itself it does
not address chronic bonelessness. If affirmative action programs are
instituted, some dogs may be assisted in getting bones, but others will be
displaced, leading to continued bonelessness as well as resentment, etc. So
the bottom line is the number of bones has to be increased. There is a bone
shortage (shortage of jobs), so increasing bones must be a part of any
public policy to address bonelessness (unemployment). Training or
affirmative action must be accompanied by bone creation (job creation).
Manning Marable makes this point for the affirmative action analysis in his
"Full Employment and Affirmative Action," in _Black Liberation in
Conservative America_ (1997, Boston: South End Press). Harvey makes the
point for training in a number of papers, including "Liberal Strategies for
Combating Joblessness in the Twentieth Century," _Journal of Economic
Issues_ (June, 1999). Nobel Memorial Prize winner Bill Vickrey also makes
this point for training, using a story about chairs instead of bones,
calling training programs by themselves without job creation "a cruel game
of musical chairs," with the "keepers of austerity" making sure the total
number of chairs stays fixed ("A trans-Keynesian manifesto (thoughts about
an assets based macroeconomics)," _Journal of Post Keynesian Economics_,
Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 495-510.).
Mat Forstater
-Original Message-
From: Ellen Frank [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Tuesday, August 31, 1999 3:32 PM
Subject: [PEN-L:10502] Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: request on teaching
RE: unemployment
I tell my students about an essay I read a few years back
(I think in Harpers and I don't recall who wrote it). The writer
said imagine a dog kennel containing 100 dogs. Each morning
the dogs are released into a large yard where there are 90
bones. The dogs fight and scrape for the bones and at the
end of the day, 10 dogs are boneless. The kennel operators,
unaware that there are more dogs than bones, notice that
it is the same dogs, day after day, who are boneless. The
small dogs, the old dogs, the less aggressive dogs. To deal with
the problem of chronic bonelessness, they begin a training program
for boneless dogs, stressing tough love and individual initiative.
Ellen
[PEN-L:10513] RE: Re: RE: Re: Co-optation and Heterodoxy
James Craven Clark College, 1800 E. McLoughlin Blvd. Vancouver, WA. 98663 (360) 992-2283; Fax: (360) 992-2863 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.home.earthlink.net/~blkfoot5 *My Employer Has No Association With My Private/Protected Opinion* -Original Message- From: Yoshie Furuhashi [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 1999 4:40 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:10512] Re: RE: Re: "Co-optation" and "Heterodoxy" Hi Jim: Actually I wasn't myself so much inveighing against "counterculture" as wondering what it is exactly and wondering how much of what is called Heterodox economics is ersatz or is a co-opted caricature of some other "real thing"; or, perhaps, a self co-opted caricature of other "non-heterodox" caricatures that have been at least partially accepted in that the proposed refutations address and react to other "non-heterodox" caricatures and in doing so create another caricature. It was just some random musings on taking the model to another level and across disciplines. I think it would be worth doing the Baffler-type dialectical criticism in economics, because I don't think such a thing is done very often (if at all) in this discipline. (My criticism was only meant to apply to Thomas Frank and his repetition; also I think that what's worth doing once in a while is not necessarily worth doing all the time. Perhaps I was unclear) If you have a dialectical criticism of "heterodox" economics, I will be all ears. Yoshie Yoshie: David Colander and some others began to do more work in "The Spread of Economic Ideas" and by whom and how orthodoxies are defined, spread and fall; how and by whom heterodoxies in turn are defined, spread and become the new "orthodoxies" and then fall (sort of like Thesis--Antithesis--Synthesis---Thesis) I remember at a conference in Vancouver BC at a session on applying core concepts of "mainstream" economics and presumably "heterodox" economics as well, (homo oeconomicus, opportunity cost, maximization and calculation on the margin, etc) to what economists do: the subjects chosen, methodologies, defining orthodox versus heterodox, mainstreaming versus marginalizing/demonizing, academic placement and promotions, tenure criteria, criteria for publishability, "permissible" versus heretical concepts/methodologies/media etc.)there wasn't much enthusiasm for "introspection" and self-examination as I remember. Certainly some of the economists I met appeared to fit the Homo Oeconomicus model (crude or "refined") to a tee such that the model itself and their heavy reliance on it, appeared to be a form of Freudian projection--they were describing and legitimating themselves. I think that any dialectical examination of orthodoxy or heterodoxy would have to include the concept of cognitive dissonance (contradictions between fact vs belief, fact vs emotion, emotion vs belief create mind/physiology disturbing dissonances in need of resolution via altering either facts, emotions or beliefs to resolve contradictions or dissonance) I think that any dialectical examination of orthodoxy or heterodoxy in academia would have to include an examination of institutional imperatives and mechanisms of survival, success and influence in academia, government or "private" sectors: toadying and whoring, sycophancy, scholar despotism, networking, mentoring, rhetorical intention dressed up as "value free", self-censorship, Faustian bargains and forms of rationalizing them etc. Also who and on what basis is "orthodoxy" versus "heterodoxy" defined? Is there any generalizable definition of "heterodox"? Is there such a thing as a uniform "heterodox" paradigm? Is "heterodox" just a general concept for all those subjects, methodological approaches, sources and authorities considered "taboo" by the old fools--and their younger whores/toadies--who dominate the usual associations and conventions? Who are the "leaders" of heterodoxy and how and by whom did they become defined/accepted as leaders? To what extent do they mirror, in reacting to orthodoxy, the very orthodoxy to which they have reacted thus creating the notion of a heterodoxy? Is heterodox synonomous with anti-orthodox or with reformed orthodox? To what extent, in accepting and applying some of the methodologies and tools utilized/over-utilized by the "orthodoxy", have the heterodox sought approval from or at least a truce with orthodoxy, at the expense of relevance,impact and accessibility for those who are the professed objects of concern/research of the heterodox--poor, oppressed etc? Are the heterodox mimicking the orthodox in terms of insulation, criteria for accceptability of research for publication, notions of "permissibility" versus taboo in subjects and venues? Is heterodox some kind of marketing gimmick to get new undergrad/grad students--in the face of declining enrollments/revenues--with no mind or stomach for the ultra-math (mathurbation) and reductionism/positivism and irrelevance of
[PEN-L:10510] FW: The Circle Game Part I
James Craven
Clark College, 1800 E. McLoughlin Blvd.
Vancouver, WA. 98663
(360) 992-2283; Fax: (360) 992-2863
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~blkfoot5
*My Employer Has No Association With My Private/Protected
Opinion*
-Original Message-
From: Craven, Jim [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 1999 11:17 AM
To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'; '[EMAIL PROTECTED]';
'[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
Subject: [PEN-L:9684] "The Circle Game" Part I
Part I
The following are exercepts from a Speech by Dr. Roland Chrisjohn,
member of the Iroquois Confederacy (Oneida), Healer ("Psychologist")
delivered in Edmonton, Alberta (date unknown)
"Residential schools were one of many attempts at the genocide of
the Aboriginal Peoples inhabiting the area now commonly called
Canada. Initially, the goal of obliterating these peoples was
connected with stealing what they owned (the land, the sky, the
waters, and their lives, and all that these encompassed); and
although this connection persists, present-day acts and policies of
genocide are also connected with the hypocritical, legal and
self-delusion need on the part of the perpetrators to conceal what
they did and what they continue to do. A variety of rationalizations
(social, legal, religious, political and economic) arose to engage
(in one way or another) all segments of Euruocanadian society in the
task of genocide. For example, some were told (and told themselves)
that their actions arose out of a Missionary Imperative to bring the
benefits of the One True Belief to savage pagans; others considered
themselves justified in the land theft by declaring that the
Aboriginal Peoples were not putting the land to 'proper' use; and so
on. The creation of the Indian Residential Schools followed a
time-tested method of obliterating indigenous cultures, and the
psycosocial consequences these schools would have on Aboriginal
Peoples were well understood at the time of their formation.
Present-day symptomology found in Aboriginal Peoples and societies
does not constitute a distinct psychological condition, but is the
well-known and long-studied response of human beings living under
conditions of severe and prolonged oppression. Although there is no
doubt that individuals who attended Residential Schools suffered, and
continue to suffer, from the effects of their experiences, the tactic
of pathologizing these individuals, studying their condition, and
offering 'therapy' to them and their communities must be seen as
another rhetorical maneuver designed to obscure (to the world at
large, to Aboriginal Peoples, and to the Canadians themselves) the
moral and financial accountability of Eurocanadian society in a
continuing record of Crimes Against Humanity.
I'm not denying that people in the Residential Schools--some of
them-- are having troubles today. But I don't want to talk about the
pathology, the alcohol and drug abuse, and the suicide of people who went
to Residential School when that takes us away from talking about the
real issues, and that is, what are the political, the economic and
the legal ramifications of what occurred to First Nations People in
these schools. We keep talking about how sick we are but we never
ask: how sick were these people who created these things? Why is the
sickness on our side? Why is it we have to prove how sick we are in
order to get something done about these kinds of things?
I was in a room, early on in the Royal Commission work [Royal
Commission on Aboriginal Peoples], and everybody was telling me oh,
well, all this great work you are going to do, that is going to talk about
the
healing and the therapy that is necessary with Residential Schools.
And I'm looking around, there's a former Supreme court Justice,
there's a lawyer, there's another judge over here, there's another
person with legal training who has written law books or whatever,
they're sitting around telling me all of this and I said "it sounds
like I'm in a room with damn psychologists." In a room full of judges
and lawyers does nobody recognize that crimes have been committed
here? And why aren't we talking about crimes? No, no that's not even
a fit topic for conversation. What we have to talk about is how sick
the damn Indians are; and well we are going to take care of them.
Right. Let's see how that game works; how the "Therapeutic State"
works here. Well the Indians are sick, so do we do? We're going to
take some money, we're going to give to largely, white, anglo-saxon
protestant Eurocanadian therapists, and they're going to visit with
these people for 20 fifty-minute hours, after which time they're
going to be cured. So isn't interesting that we're going to transfer
white people's money from one pocket to another pocket and we're
going to call this 'money spent on Indian People.'
The same game is being played in the education system. Where what we
do, is if weve got a child with
[PEN-L:10511] pt 2 The Circle Game
James Craven Clark College, 1800 E. McLoughlin Blvd. Vancouver, WA. 98663 (360) 992-2283; Fax: (360) 992-2863 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.home.earthlink.net/~blkfoot5 *My Employer Has No Association With My Private/Protected Opinion* Part 2 of Excerpts from a Speech by Dr. Roland Chrisjohn on "The Circle Game" given in Edmonton, Alberta (date unknown) "...we must misunderstand Indian Residential School to the extent to which we think that the pathology in the system lies within the survivors of the individual survivors of the Residential School experience. The pathology that you are looking for is not in the pathology of the people who went through the experience, the pathology is in the system of order that gave rise to that Residential School, that saw it in operation, that put it in operation, that thought it was a good thing, that patted itself on the back occasionally saying: 'aren't we doing well by our brown cousins?; we're bringing them freedom and we're bringing them into this particular world; aren't we generous?; and all they are paying for it is all of their land, all of their trees, all of their minerals, all of their water, their freedom, their language, their religions, every aspect of their form of life, that's all their paying.' Now the fact that they didn't make that bargain, that they didn't ask for that, means that well they are kind of stupid you know; they don't recognize just how superior our way is. So even though they are kicking and screaming, we're going to do for them. There's the patriarchy, there's the patronizing aspect of it. The "Therapeutic State" will constantly congratulate itself that it's doing good as it is doing the most horrendous thing. the extent to which we ourselves as First Nations People have continued that task, by not examining those kinds of questions, by accepting that the problem is our own individualized pathology, by running all kinds of workshops where we'll say 'we'll let's get together and we'll hug a lot and this will overcome what happend to us in the Residential School.' Oh, I'm sorry, it is a political problem, it is a legal problem, for the churches and for the Government of Canada, it's also a financial problem, because they've got mighty big bills to pay if the Canadian public begins to realize what what done to human beings in their name. This is one of the reasons you won't find the United Nations' Genocide Charter inside history books, textbooks and in Canadian schools because the Canadians don't want to tell their people what they've been doing in their name. They don't want to see, starkly, in Article Two and Article Three, what their responsibilities were as human beings, and how, the acquiesence to the Residential School, even if they never even heard of an Indian or ever saw an Indian, how they were implicated in the crime as well--by their governments, by their churches. They don't want to hear about that, so we don't put this in the textbooks. We don't put in the textbooks what Canadian responsibilities are in terms of language, religion, education, our educational rights as human beings on this planet. Where they say 'oh, well, we don't have enough money for that. You want to have your own Indian university or you want to have your own Aboriginal research center, we'll, there's just not enough money.' Well, that's a violation of the Common Law of Nations that Canada is signatory to. Their avoiding their responsibilities and they're covering-up by putting over it all the veneer of the "Therapeutic State." And God help us; a lot of us are involved in that "Therapeutic State." We sit down and we do not go into the grounds of what's going on, why is this happening, what are the historical backgrounds for this. One of the wisest things Dr. Szasz has ever said is: 'the libraries are open, go and read, you want to find out about this stuff..' There's nothing here in "The Circle Game" that's esoteric; we didn't have to burrow into the national archives late at night and come out with secret scraps of paper. Everything we've got is public, and open and available. But we've got blinders on, and the blinders are 'oh well Indian people are suffering and we've got to deal with that.' I'll tell you. Give us back all the land, gives back the payment for everything stolen, meet your obligations under the Treaties and I will see how many of us are still sick. Even if we are sick, we have the right as sovereign people to decide what we are going to do about it--not accept Health and Welfare Canada's pronouncement that 'it's twenty sessions with a psychologist and you're out the door, that's it, you're cured.' These are part of our sovereign responsibilities. We do not need research; we need to think clearly about these issues. I come to a conference like this and I hear people saying 'there aren't any practical suggestions. Well, I'm sorry, when Dr. Szasz
[PEN-L:10508] Billary's Digs
Poor Billary are going around New York carpetbagging and looking for some digs. Perhaps they could ask the Oneida or Cayuga or St. Regis or Seneca or Tuscarora or Onondaga or Tonawanda if they could move in on the Rez. I'm sure they could scare up an old HUD house for them to move in. I'm sure they will love the water as some of the Rez's have been designated as official or unofficial toxic waste dumps. And for scenery, well in addition to gorgeous hills and valleys and trees and streams, they can catch some of the sights sitting around one of the overworked and understaffed Indian Health Clinics. There are some local bars that would give them a real and rather memorable welcome on a Saturday night. They could give lectures on violations of Human Rights in China and about freeing "captive dependent nations" like Tibet and about how the U.S. stands for freedom, equality before the law, "trickle-down" prosperity, stopping genocide in Kosovo and Bosnia, etc--the "locals" would love it. If Bill gets the "old itch", he could sneak out and join some of the notable and known (photographed) judges, cops, lawyers, politicians and clergy who regularly prowl for very young Indian boys and girls for their twisted "evening pleasures." The could get some paying consulting work from some of the corrupt Tribal Councils that they and the BIA helped to put/keep in office and/or from some of the Casino dollars that never wind up anywhere near the average Indian on an average Rez. Plus the photo ops for Hillary, you know, the "OK-look-'concerned-and-caring'-take-three" ones, would be plentiful. Jim C James Craven Clark College, 1800 E. McLoughlin Blvd. Vancouver, WA. 98663 (360) 992-2283; Fax: (360) 992-2863 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.home.earthlink.net/~blkfoot5 *My Employer Has No Association With My Private/Protected Opinion*
request on teaching
At 04:54 PM 8/31/1999 -0400, you wrote: When in public debates, people try to promote "entrepreneurship" , urging only it as the best economc career for people to follow, I say but everybody can't be the boss. Somebody has to be the workers. In fact, most people must be workers. So entrepreneurship is a solution for only , what, 10 % ? What about the other 90% ? People get it. yeah. but what they don't get is their problem with the assumption that everyone deserves to be where they ended up. the dog economy examples shows how, as on m-fem, the number of bones [positions in school, etc] are purposefully created to be scare. i have two different exercises that i use for teaching about equality and equity and i'llf orward them on to anyone who wants. one involves a chocolate cake [or a bag of mini candy bars] and having students figure out ways to fairly divide it up. the other is a way of showing how, in one sphere of social life, sports and the pro sports draft, we use one way of thinking about how to divvy up the goods [the loosing teams get first pick of best players] but in the economy/schooling we don't use this mechanism at all, the winning teams keep hording resources in other words. they all think that fair in the economy and they'd be apalled if we let that happen in sports. [it'd be boring to watch! they complain]they generaly love the chocolate cake exercise, but hate me for mucking around with sports. after all, who wants to be told that the pro sports draft is nothing other than an affirmative action policy for the losers in the great seasonal [generational] competition? it kind of blows their mind and they get angry, but there are ways to negotiate that one.
[PEN-L:10506] Re: Co-optation and Heterodoxy
Jim Craven wrote: So I wondered about the application of this dialectical model (what is counterculture vs "mainstream" culture; fake counterculture vs "real" counterculture; influence of counterculture on "mainstream" culture vs de facto co-optation of counter-culture by "mainstream" culture nominally passed off as increasing acceptance of aspects of "counterculture" within "mainstream" culture; etc ass applied to "Heterodox" versus "Orthodox" Economics. snip These were some of the questions that crossed my mind. I see all sorts of academic programs now openly proclaiming "heterodox" approaches available (after a thorough grounding in the orthodox) but I wonder if this is not simply analogous to the synthetic counterculture that is in reality neither "counter" or any kind of real sub or separate culture from the dominant culture of crass eogism, materialism, competition, racism, sexism, etc. Sort of like the fake Ken Kesey bus that tours the US for Coca Cola's "Fruitopia" drink line? I'm afraid that the Buffler model of dialectical criticism of culture will fall into an impasse, _especially if repeated endlessly_ (it may be worth doing only once in a while). Yes, capitalism can incorporate most (if not all) seeming criticisms of it as "novelty" or "cutting-edge" items to market on its own terms. Yes, all reforms (esp. cultural reforms like curriculum reforms), if successful, will end up becoming part of capitalist mainstream. But that is to be expected. To inveigh against the fate of 'counter culture' endlessly in a way that Thomas Frank has done gives credence to what he is supposedly criticizing: a naive faith in 'counter culture,' 'multiculturalism,' or whatnot. It's like criticizing affirmative action under capitalism because it helped to increase "the black middle class" or failed to cause Revolution! As if it could end up otherwise! Yoshie
[PEN-L:10505] Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: request on teaching
Jim Craven asks:
"more-scientific" NAIRU?
The NAIRU (non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment) is simply a
description of a posited way in which the economy may (or may not) operate
-- as opposed to the "natural" rate, which assumes that the NAIRU is
somehow a gift from Nature (tastes technology), in Adam Smith's "realm of
natural freedom."
I do go through NAIRU in parallel with the-called Phillips "Trade-off" and
then also bring in the ol "Industrial Reserve Army" of Marx to compare and
contrast with NAIRU.
It's partly a matter of definition.
I interpret the industrial reserve army as _one theory_ of the NAIRU. The
neoclassical "natural rate" theory of the NAIRU says in essence that the
NAIRU (the threshold unemployment rate, below which the inflation rate is
posited to take off into the stratosphere if the NAIRU U for long) is due
to frictions in "labor" markets; thus, the NAIRU corresponds to structural
(mismatch) and frictional (search and turnover) unemployment.
I think a Marxian theory would say that maybe structural and frictional
unemployment exist, but there also needs to be a reserve army ("bargaining
power" unemployment) to keep workers' wage demands from hurting profits. If
the reserve army is too small compared to what is needed by capitalists to
allow an adequate profit rate, not only can they punish us with investment
cut-backs, but with inflation (even accelerating inflation). Among other
things, this says that the NAIRU is higher than implied by theories of
frictional and structural unemployment.
(There are some limits to the usual NAIRU theory, i.e., the assumption that
inflation falls as easily as it rises. But I don't want to repeat the pen-l
discussion of last year at this point.)
I see this interpretation of the NAIRU not only as following the view of
Marx but also the recent sophisticated work concerning the "conflict
theory" of inflation, e.g., Carlin Soskice, MACROECONOMICS AND THE WAGE
BARGAIN and Burdekin and Burkett, DISTRIBUTIONAL CONFLICT AND INFLATION.
Strangely, the latter uses the "natural rate" terminology, even though the
NAIRU is endogenous to their model.
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/jdevine.html
[PEN-L:10504] Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: request on teaching
When in public debates, people try to promote "entrepreneurship" , urging only it as the best economc career for people to follow, I say but everybody can't be the boss. Somebody has to be the workers. In fact, most people must be workers. So entrepreneurship is a solution for only , what, 10 % ? What about the other 90% ? People get it. Charles Brown Ellen Frank [EMAIL PROTECTED] 08/31/99 04:27PM RE: unemployment I tell my students about an essay I read a few years back (I think in Harpers and I don't recall who wrote it). The writer said imagine a dog kennel containing 100 dogs. Each morning the dogs are released into a large yard where there are 90 bones. The dogs fight and scrape for the bones and at the end of the day, 10 dogs are boneless. The kennel operators, unaware that there are more dogs than bones, notice that it is the same dogs, day after day, who are boneless. The small dogs, the old dogs, the less aggressive dogs. To deal with the problem of chronic bonelessness, they begin a training program for boneless dogs, stressing tough love and individual initiative. Ellen
[PEN-L:10503] RE: Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: request on teaching
The Boneless Dog Economy is one of my favorites also. I also use some of Donald/Deidre Mcclosky's stuff on rhetorical intention and ask students to identify examples of hidden and not-so-hidden ideology and rhetorical intention in apparently "value-free" concepts like "consumer optimality", "efficiency", etc. When I am discussing efficiency, I give a short paper that includes quotes from several standard texts like Parkin that allege that "efficiency" (doing more with less)is always desirable and should be maximized whenever possible, and ask them to present the opposite point of view or to present cases where "efficiency"--technological or economic--would not be desireable at all; in fact the less "efficiency" the better: e.g. the genocide system of the nazis, the genocide system of the US, etc. Only after the papers are turned in do I give them a hand-out of a captured SS document that gives some of the marginalist calculus of genocide at Auschwitz. BTW, I wonder how many of the "Austrians" who ran and did the marginalist calculus of genocide at Auschwitz were indeed "Austrians"? Jim C James Craven Clark College, 1800 E. McLoughlin Blvd. Vancouver, WA. 98663 (360) 992-2283; Fax: (360) 992-2863 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.home.earthlink.net/~blkfoot5 *My Employer Has No Association With My Private/Protected Opinion* -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 1999 1:28 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:10502] Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: request on teaching RE: unemployment I tell my students about an essay I read a few years back (I think in Harpers and I don't recall who wrote it). The writer said imagine a dog kennel containing 100 dogs. Each morning the dogs are released into a large yard where there are 90 bones. The dogs fight and scrape for the bones and at the end of the day, 10 dogs are boneless. The kennel operators, unaware that there are more dogs than bones, notice that it is the same dogs, day after day, who are boneless. The small dogs, the old dogs, the less aggressive dogs. To deal with the problem of chronic bonelessness, they begin a training program for boneless dogs, stressing tough love and individual initiative. Ellen
[PEN-L:10502] Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: request on teaching
RE: unemployment I tell my students about an essay I read a few years back (I think in Harpers and I don't recall who wrote it). The writer said imagine a dog kennel containing 100 dogs. Each morning the dogs are released into a large yard where there are 90 bones. The dogs fight and scrape for the bones and at the end of the day, 10 dogs are boneless. The kennel operators, unaware that there are more dogs than bones, notice that it is the same dogs, day after day, who are boneless. The small dogs, the old dogs, the less aggressive dogs. To deal with the problem of chronic bonelessness, they begin a training program for boneless dogs, stressing tough love and individual initiative. Ellen
[PEN-L:10501] Re: Re: Re: Re: request on teaching
Rod wrote: I find it hard enough getting students to understand the concepts in a first year principles course. Economic thinking is counter intuitive for most first year students. To other criticise of the concepts howerer desirable, seems only to confuse them. I had thought of just teaching an alternative course, but then they would suffer by not being prepared for courses at a more advance level. The critical courses seem more effective at a third year level, when they have a good grasp of neoclassical thinking. I find it hard in macro to teach too critical a course. But in micro, I find it easy. In fact micro is so blatantly ideological, it cries out to be criticized. Right from the start, there are the notions of insatiability and relative scarcity. The presumption that competitiveness is the natural inclination of humankind. Then there are all the value-laden concepts - consumer soveriegnty, dollar votes, rational self-interest, rationing by price. One good article about advertising or on the consumer experience of inner city residents makes a mockery of thing. Then we move on to such zingers as "normal profit" and "perfect" competition. You don't have to get very far into such concepts to see that they're heavily ideological in intent and shed little light on real world markets. Ellen
[PEN-L:10500] RE: Re: Re: Re: request on teaching
Jim Devine wrote: I must admit that when I teach intro. econ. I like to pretend to be a scientist, using this against the NC theory: I make it clear, for example, that the term "natural rate of unemployment" is a value-laden term, with fuzzy connotations (like "natural granola"), as opposed to a more-scientific NAIRU (non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment). Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/jdevine.html "more-scientific" NAIRU? I do go through NAIRU in parallel with the-called Phillips "Trade-off" and then also bring in the ol "Industrial Reserve Army" of Marx to compare and contrast with NAIRU. I suggest to some male students that if they are unemployed, and have been having problems at the old singles bar when asked the first most important question (before what's your sign, what's your name or do you have any nasty diseases): "What do you DO?", and you don't want to say "unemployed" or "on welfare", They can dress up in a self-designed uniform, maybe with the rank of colonel, and say that they are a staff officer in the Industrial Reserve Army, sworn and standing guard to protect the real value of the dollar and super-speculative profits on Wall Street. Jim C
[PEN-L:10499] Re: Re: Re: request on teaching
Rod wrote: I find it hard enough getting students to understand the concepts in a first year principles course. Economic thinking is counter intuitive for most first year students. To other criticise of the concepts howerer desirable, seems only to confuse them. I had thought of just teaching an alternative course, but then they would suffer by not being prepared for courses at a more advance level. The critical courses seem more effective at a third year level, when they have a good grasp of neoclassical thinking. Isn't it possible to make it clear that NC thinking is simply a special case of a more general model? For example, I treat perfect competition as a special case of a more-realistic monopolistic competition and make it clear to the students that I teach PC first only because it's simpler. I make a big thing about the unreality of the simplifying assumptions. I must admit that when I teach intro. econ. I like to pretend to be a scientist, using this against the NC theory: I make it clear, for example, that the term "natural rate of unemployment" is a value-laden term, with fuzzy connotations (like "natural granola"), as opposed to a more-scientific NAIRU (non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment). Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/jdevine.html
[PEN-L:10497] Re: Re: request on teaching
Thanks to Wojtek for his comments and reminder that economic sociology is a good source of materials. Dollars and Sense is located in Somerville, MA (617-628-8411). Like Wojtek, I used to ask students to write about their jobs with fascinating results. I once had a student write a paper about the different control techniques employed in the restaurant industry. But this past year, I taught a class of mostly traditional students with little job experience outside of work-study. Also with little knowledge of what things cost or who controls markets they deal with daily. So now I require them to do an investigation, using journalistic, not academic, techniques. Ellen Frank
[PEN-L:10498] RE: Re: Re: request on teaching
I do an exercise called "The Microeconomics of Single's Bars" and ask students to visit a local meat market and identify and give examples of which forms of "efficiency" (technological, economic, productive, consumer, exchange and allocative) are being manifested (with concrete examples); further I ask them to identify aspects of the typical model of Homo Oeconomicus are being manifested (give concrete examples); to illustrate consumer optimality in a trade-off between beer and wine with given income and an assumed "indifference map" with given prices of beer and wine at the meat market; what is the "dance of maximization and optimization" often evident at local singles' bars? What is commodification and how is it manifested at the local singles' bar and with what consequences? What are examples of positive and negative externalities not typically included/accounted for in the prices paid at the singles bar? How could they be accounted/paid for in the prices charged? who would do the assessments for positive and negative externalities? So for example, I get stuff like: "The guy obviously wants to pop some woman in the sack with minimum time expenditure (minimizing input per unit of output or maximizing output per unit of time expenditure or "technological efficiency" and at minimum cost--"economic efficiency" or minimum total cost per dollar value or benefit value of output)" "The woman obviously is loooking for "the ring" if she is going to come across or technological efficiency--maximizing return or output per unit of input; or she is looking to put in minimum effort (physical and time) to find a marriageable mate that can pay the bills or minimizing inpout per unit of ouput." This often comes from women as well as men interestingly. I get some very outrageous stuff. I wanted to put this exercise in Dave Colander's Economics Third Edition but he thought it might kill the book in even less time than some of his other included stuff would. James Craven Clark College, 1800 E. McLoughlin Blvd. Vancouver, WA. 98663 (360) 992-2283; Fax: (360) 992-2863 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.home.earthlink.net/~blkfoot5 *My Employer Has No Association With My Private/Protected Opinion* -Original Message- From: Rod Hay [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 1999 11:58 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:10496] Re: Re: request on teaching I find it hard enough getting students to understand the concepts in a first year principles course. Economic thinking is counter intuitive for most first year students. To other criticise of the concepts howerer desirable, seems only to confuse them. I had thought of just teaching an alternative course, but then they would suffer by not being prepared for courses at a more advance level. The critical courses seem more effective at a third year level, when they have a good grasp of neoclassical thinking. Rod Hay [EMAIL PROTECTED] The History of Economic Thought Archives http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/index.html Batoche Books http://members.tripod.com/rodhay/batochebooks.html http://www.abebooks.com/home/BATOCHEBOOKS/ __ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
[PEN-L:10496] Re: Re: request on teaching
I find it hard enough getting students to understand the concepts in a first year principles course. Economic thinking is counter intuitive for most first year students. To other criticise of the concepts howerer desirable, seems only to confuse them. I had thought of just teaching an alternative course, but then they would suffer by not being prepared for courses at a more advance level. The critical courses seem more effective at a third year level, when they have a good grasp of neoclassical thinking. Rod Hay [EMAIL PROTECTED] The History of Economic Thought Archives http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/index.html Batoche Books http://members.tripod.com/rodhay/batochebooks.html http://www.abebooks.com/home/BATOCHEBOOKS/ __ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
[PEN-L:10495] FW: UN Dioxin POPs Urgency - E-mail Correction/Changes
James Craven Clark College, 1800 E. McLoughlin Blvd. Vancouver, WA. 98663 (360) 992-2283; Fax: (360) 992-2863 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.home.earthlink.net/~blkfoot5 *My Employer Has No Association With My Private/Protected Opinion* -Original Message- From: LISN [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 1999 11:09 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; NativeWeb News; Sovernet-l; sovernspeakout; Warriornet Subject: UN Dioxin POPs Urgency - E-mail Correction/Changes Subject: UN Dioxin POPs Urgency - Changes Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1999 10:16:46 -0500 From: Indigenous Environmental Network [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], Correct e-mail and other changes in previous message: RE: UN Dioxin POPs Urgency The correct spelling for Mr. Yeager is: Mr. Brooks Yeager His email address is: [EMAIL PROTECTED] He is on leave this week and will be going directly to Geneva...fax him a copy at: International Hotel, Geneva, Switzerland Fax: 011 41 22 919 38 38 Correct spelling for Mr. Muehling is: Mr. Brian Muehling [EMAIL PROTECTED] The corrected email address for: Mr. Dick White Office of Pesticides, Prevention Toxic Substances e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The Plan is still to direct your comments to Ms. Albright. The U.S. team will be meeting today and tomorrow, so your comments are important. Indigenous Environmental Network P.O. Box 485 Bemidji, Minnesota 56619-0485 USA Phone (218) 751-4967 Fax (218) 751-0561 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Internet Web Site: http://www.alphacdc.com/ien "An alliance of Indigenous Peoples empowering Indigenous communities towards sustainable livelihoods, environmental protection of our lands, water, air and maintaining the sacred Fire of our traditions." -- League of Indigenous Sovereign Nations of the Western Hemisphere "Many Nations, One People" L.I.S.N. is an alliance created to unite all Indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere into one great Confederation to politically empower our Nations as one people. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] LISN Web Site: http://www.lisn.net To subscribe to the mailing list on the new server, please send an email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the content: subscribe league Disclaimer: This material is distributed in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107. All copyrights belong to original publisher. LISN has not verified the accuracy of the forwarded message. Forwarding this message does not necessarily imply agreement with the positions stated there-in.
[PEN-L:10487] Re: Re: e: normal profits, etc.
Doesn't the definition of "market" include "widely bought and sold" ? CB Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] 08/31/99 12:18PM The relationship between initial production prices and prices on the second hand market is very loose for capital goods, except for those that are widely bought and sold. Charles Brown wrote: Don't the costs to the seller for getting the capital good have some relation to what the buyer pays for it ? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901 -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
[PEN-L:10486] Re: Re: re: Single-Payer National Health Insurance
Patrick Bond wrote: Do you want Hillary's big insurance co's running everything? Putting them out of business through a single-payer is surely the first necessary if insufficient step towards more thorough-going reform of capitalist health care? It seems to me that the political strength of the insurance companies is such that achieving this aim would require a mass movement *at least* equivalent to the civil rights and anti-war movements of the '60s combined. Does anyone see this reform as possible through normal channels of politicking and lobbying? Does anyone see how the necessary mass mobilization could be achieved? I don't. Carrol
[PEN-L:10485] Baker on inflation
In his on-line Economic Reporting Review, Dean Baker comments on a New York TIMES article by Sylvia Nasar: The article also asserts that increased competition due to the deregulation of industries such as airlines, railroads and telecommunications has been a major factor in keeping prices down. This claim seems dubious, since corporations have managed to increase their profit margins considerably in the last two decades. In 1978, at the profit peak of the late '70s business cycle, the capital share (profits plus interest) of corporate income was 19.1 percent. By comparison in 1997, the profit peak in the current cycle, the profit share of corporate income had risen by more than two and a half percentage points to 21.6 percent. The fact that firms have been able to significantly increase their profit margins seems inconsistent with the claim that they are feeling greater competitive pressures. It's not inconsistent with the claim that businesses are feeling greater competitive pressures if labor is feeling _even greater_ competitive pressures. US businesses, especially import-competing ones, are suffering from increased international competition, but they are more than able to get labor to pay for it. This shouldn't be surprising, given deunionization, increased threat of movement of capital to Mexico, etc. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/jdevine.html
[PEN-L:10484] Re: Re: re: Single-Payer National Health Insurance
Patrick Bond wrote: The small insurance folk put out endless inane commercials which (U.Penn Annenberg School media researchers convincingly show) tipped the public consciousness-balance. Actually, if I'm remembering right, the Harry Louise commercials ran mainly in New York DC, to convince the opinion-making classes that there *was* a big national blitz underway, but there wasn't. Doug
[PEN-L:10482] GLOBALIZATION REPORTING REVIEW 8/30/99 by Dean Baker
Globalization Reporting Review By Dean Baker August 31, 1999 Analysis of reporting on the IMF and globalization issues in the New York Times and the Washington Post. Excerpted from the Economic Reporting Review, by Dean Baker. You can sign up to receive ERR via email every week at www.preamble.org/columns/subbaker.htm. ERR is archived at www.fair.org/err/. RUSSIA "Hardened to Hardships, Russians Simply Stretch the Rubles Further" Michael R. Gordon New York Times, August 23, 1999, page A1 This article examines the state of the Russian economy one year after the collapse of the ruble. The article notes that Russia's economy and its people appear to have survived this financial crisis in spite of predictions of disaster from the IMF and the Clinton administration. The article suggests that this result is surprising, attributing it to a "strange mixture of self- reliance, humor and weary resignation." Standard economic theory would have predicted much of the economic resilience described in the article. Therefore, Russia's relative economic health should not be viewed as surprising. Prior to August of 1998, at the insistence of the IMF and the U.S. Treasury Department, Russia was maintaining a grossly over-valued ruble. This made its exports uncompetitive on world markets, and allowed imports to undercut the sale of domestically produced goods. This policy also forced the Russian government to spend tens of billions of dollars to maintain the value of the ruble in international currency markets, as it had to buy rubles using its reserves of dollars and other currencies. This sort of intervention in currency markets essentially amounts to transferring government funds to currency speculators. Since the Russian economy is approximately one-fifteenth the size of the U.S. economy, the actions of the Russian government would be comparable to the U.S. government spending $300 to $600 billion dollars in international financial markets. Once the Russian government finally decided to ignore the IMF and allow the value of its currency to be determined by the market, it no longer had to continue this massive outflow of money to currency speculators. In addition, its exports suddenly became far cheaper around the world and imports became much more expensive relative to the price of domestically produced goods. Under these circumstances, it would be expected that Russia's industrial production would begin to surge, as it has, once the nation had weathered the immediate financial fallout from the collapse of the ruble. While this outcome is exactly what economic theory would predict, the article suggests that the result is surprising and somehow unnatural. At two points it describes the weakened ruble as "protecting" Russian industry, completely reversing the standard economic use of the term. While this article presents a relatively positive picture, it is worth noting that virtually all of the news reporting on the financial crisis last summer predicted that the devaluation of the ruble would be disastrous for the Russian economy. (See, e.g., " U.S. Expects Yeltsin Will Survive Economic Woes," by Thomas W. Lippman, Washington Post, 8/15/98, page A12; "Yeltsin and Crew Are Sinking Like the Ruble," by Michael Wines, New York Times, 8/22/98, page A1; and "Yeltsin Must Resort to Reform by Decree," by Sharon LaFraniere, Washington Post, 7/18/98, page A14.) This article also exaggerates the hardships that have resulted from the collapse of the ruble relative to the impact of the prior seven years of IMF-supervised transition to a market economy. (See "Wither Reform: Ten Years of the Transition," by Joseph E. Stiglitz, www.worldbank.org/research/abcde/stiglitz.html.) According to the article, Russian government statistics show that the number of people living below the national poverty line jumped by more than 60 percent from 1998 to 1999. The reliability of this assertion is questionable. The United States government does not yet have data on family income for 1998. It would be quite impressive if a country in as much disarray as Russia already has data on family income for 1999. ECUADOR "Sharing Ecuador's Debt Burden, but at What Cost?" Jonathan Fuerbringer New York Times, August 27, 1999, page B1 This article discusses Ecuador's efforts to reach an arrangement with its creditors to reschedule its debt. At one point the article asserts that "without a viable economic plan that is backed by the IMF and appears credible to investors, there is not much chance the country can work its way out of its current predicament." It is not obvious that Ecuador will necessarily fare any better if it follows a path advocated by the IMF than if it doesn't. In the last year and a half, both Malaysia and Russia have managed to weather economic crises without reaching an agreement with the IMF. (See, e.g., "Russia, One Year After the Fall," by Daniel
[PEN-L:10481] Re: e: normal profits, etc.
Don't the costs to the seller for getting the capital good have some relation to what the buyer pays for it ? Charles Brown Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] 08/31/99 10:57AM The problem that Ajit ignores is that most capital goods do not have a *price*. For example, a specialized piece of capital goods may be specific to my firm. It might have a very low value for any other firm or have to be sold for scrap. If an accident destroyed this machine, I would buy a new one. What is its price? The cost of a new machine? Its price on the second hand market, which is as yet undetermined? Prices are hard enough to calculate. What is its value? Ajit Sinha wrote: I find it hard to believe. If a capital good has no value in the market today, then of course it should be valued at zero dollars. However, all firms do have some market value, which must be arrived at by some estimation of the value of old capital goods today. Cheers, ajit sinha Ajit Sinha wrote: We take the price of the computer today to value the capital stock. What is the problem with that? Cheers, ajit sinha -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
[PEN-L:10480] Re: Re: re: Single-Payer National Health Insurance
At 10:08 AM 8/31/99 +, Patrick Bond wrote: Is this true? The small insurance folk put out endless inane commercials which (U.Penn Annenberg School media researchers convincingly show) tipped the public consciousness-balance. The small business lobbyists beat up on wavering members of congress. It was quite a revealing war; there's a debate between Skocpol and Navarro about how to interpret it. I think the Clinton folk wanted a relatively universal coverage plan that would at least have got some 95% into 'coverage,' but under the rubric of a handful of big national plans marketed by the Jackson Hole group of big insurance companies (led by Aetna, Prudential, etc). That would have been most profitable for the Jackson Hole firms, with respect to the mix of cross-subsidies and access-limited health services that would maximise both insurance premium/investment profits and health-system utilisation profits (a completely contradictory mix, of course, which managed care has brought into the same organisation). The main point raised by Hitchens is that it was not the insurance industry opposition that killed Clinton's health reform, as Hillary claimed. In fact it was written by big insurance companies with their benefit in mind. Consistent with that view is the argumewnt proposed by Navarro that industrial execs did not like Clinton's idea either, mainly because of its byzantine design that would offer few real savings while taking away their important bargaining chip (health insurance) with labor. ... I do not think that cost-efficiency should be of primary concern to the Left for a number of good reasons, chief among them being that insurance companies can take of that. But they don't. They cut access and quality dramatically in the process of destroying overaccumulated health capital, but the share for admin keeps going up (to pay for expensive MBAs who sit between physicians and patients, saying the latter can't get the specialty care the former recommend because the averages don't justify it). Surely outrageous CEO salaries are surface evidence of massive overhead loading? There are plenty of studies on this, including by the Harvard group who lobby for a national health system. What they do in practice is another thing. I was really arguing that, at least in theory, efficiency can be taken care of by the "market forces" but universal coverage - not. Even conventional economists admit that (the so called market failures). So from that standpoint, universal coverage is entirely in the domain of political struggle, whereas efficiencly may be taken care of by more conventional economic forces, at least in theory. A much better strategy is to focus on universal coverage - which as I have argued - can be achieved by institutional arrangements that are not limited to a single payer public insurance scheme. Do you want Hillary's big insurance co's running everything? Of course not. But having to choose between a universal health care plan run by a handful of large co's, and cherry-picking perforemed by the "democratic plurality" - I would certainly prefer the former. But I have no problems with central planning and teaching the multi-culti crowd some discipline and the value of work either. Diversity for diversity's sake is liberal bourgeois crap. Putting them out of business through a single-payer is surely the first necessary if insufficient step towards more thorough-going reform of capitalist health care? I certainly agree, but I would not hold my breath to see it happen. Maybe some day during my life time, but not in the foreseeable future. That is almost certainly too long for people who have no access to health insurance now. (Sorry I missed you in Baltimore last week, Wojtek... no transport left me less flexible than I thought.) no problem - perhaps some other time, looks like i'll be stuck in this dump for some time. cheers wojtek
[PEN-L:10483] Re: Re: e: normal profits, etc.
The relationship between initial production prices and prices on the second hand market is very loose for capital goods, except for those that are widely bought and sold. Charles Brown wrote: Don't the costs to the seller for getting the capital good have some relation to what the buyer pays for it ? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901 -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
[PEN-L:10479] Re: request on teaching
At 12:01 PM 8/30/99 -0400, you wrote:
Penners,
I had replied to Mitch's questions off-list. But
since Michael thought the questions of general interest,
I'm forwarding my responses to the list.
Ellen Frank
1. Especially in introductory classes, how do you balance conveying
information and helping students to think critically?
Introductory classes, in my opinion, are not fundamentally about
conveying information. Look at an introductory textbook - all
theory, very little hard facts. The object of an introductory economics
course is to indoctrinate, to teach a theory uncritically. It's fairly
easy
to subvert this intent (and teach students to think critically) simply
by assigning readings that take issue with the textbook. I use the
Dollars and Sense readers and other materials.
Anothe suggestion is to include texts on economic sociology and sociology
of organizations that generally adopt a critical view og the prevailing
economic instiutions, there is w whole bunch of publications - check for
book and articles by Richard Swedberg, Charles Perrow, DiMaggio, Mark
Granovetter, Fred Block - also Kathy Ferguson, Nancy Hartsock, Barbara
Reskin for a feminist perspective on the subject.
Another good resource is the bi-montly _Dollars and Sense_ and the readers
they put together.
2. How do you evaluate the development of your students as critical
thinkers?
I ask for a lot of compare and contrast papers. I organize debates.
I also have students do an investigative project, finding out
all they can about a particular market or program and compare
the actual to the textbook ideal.
Another thing that I tried was linking theory with student's own experience
- especially on the job. For example, in one class (intro to sociology) I
covered the topic of deskilling ("strandard" Braverman's text) and then
asked students to find examples of that process (or its opposite) in the
places they work. Other assignments may include the analysis of different
interaction types at the workplace (cf. Burawoy, _Manufacturing Consent_)
and asking students to do a similar analysis of their own workplace.
3. How important is it to you that classes be structured democratically?
I'm not sure what it means to structure a class democratically, at least
in introductory classes. When I started teaching, I tried very hard
not to be authoritarian, to seek students input and so on, but the nature
of an introductory course is that I know alot more than the students and
I have a much better sense of how they learn than they do. I do try
not to lecture too much and I always stop talking immediately when
a student raises his/her hand. I don't require students to raise their
hands, actually, and sometimes, if I have a very motivated and talkative
group of students, my classes turn into free-for-alls. But I reserve the
right to pull rank and move on.
I tend to agree with Ellen on that - "democracy: is often seen as a lack of
structure and does not help very much. The students are expecting to learn
something from the instructor - otherwise they would not be in the
classroom - and that by definition implies an unequal relationship = it
makes to sense to pretend otherwise. But that, of course, does not mean
teaching a clas in an authoritarian manner. IMHO, the key here is to make
the classroom experience relevant to what students do outside the
classroom, especially at work. This way, not only do they learn something
of practical significance, but will also have a chance to contribute
something other class participants (including the instructor) do not know.
For example, one paper on deskilling I just described and which I remember
quite vividly because I learned something from it was written by a female
student who worked as a cashier at a local supermarket, and described how
the introduction of the bar codes changed their job - a truly exciting
stuff.
4. How much freedom do you have to plan your own syllabus, or to alter
your syllabus so as to better meet the needs of students?
Well, nobody's standing over my shoulder telling me how to teach
and my colleagues are generally supportive of pedagogical
experimentation. But I work within the context of broader
institutional and social constraints. I need to be cognizant
of discipline boundaries, to make sure my courses
transfer to other institutions, to give grades that will be
understood by graduate institutions and so on.
A good idea is to check the syllabi put together by experienced teachers.
I know that the American Sociological Association sells such sample syllabi
for economic sociology and organizational sociology - check their website
for more info
http://www.asanet.org/
also check _Dollars and Sense_ based in Somerset, MA they may have
soemthing to say on that subject too.
I would be a bit reluctant recommending the same for "mainstream" economics
classes, because they are known to slavishly
[PEN-L:10478] Re: e: normal profits, etc.
The problem that Ajit ignores is that most capital goods do not have a *price*. For example, a specialized piece of capital goods may be specific to my firm. It might have a very low value for any other firm or have to be sold for scrap. If an accident destroyed this machine, I would buy a new one. What is its price? The cost of a new machine? Its price on the second hand market, which is as yet undetermined? Prices are hard enough to calculate. What is its value? Ajit Sinha wrote: I find it hard to believe. If a capital good has no value in the market today, then of course it should be valued at zero dollars. However, all firms do have some market value, which must be arrived at by some estimation of the value of old capital goods today. Cheers, ajit sinha Ajit Sinha wrote: We take the price of the computer today to value the capital stock. What is the problem with that? Cheers, ajit sinha -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
[PEN-L:10476] Re: re: Single-Payer National Health Insurance
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 18:40:05 -0400 From: Wojtek Sokolowski [EMAIL PROTECTED] Two points. First, Christopeher Hitchens argues that Hillary's "reform" was, in fact, a move designed by big insurance firms and received a relatively mild oppsotion from smaller guys in the insurance biz. So it was hardly a propaganda blitz that "killed" that initiative. Au contraire, the whole "initiative" was a scham never intented to be implemented as advertised. Is this true? The small insurance folk put out endless inane commercials which (U.Penn Annenberg School media researchers convincingly show) tipped the public consciousness-balance. The small business lobbyists beat up on wavering members of congress. It was quite a revealing war; there's a debate between Skocpol and Navarro about how to interpret it. I think the Clinton folk wanted a relatively universal coverage plan that would at least have got some 95% into 'coverage,' but under the rubric of a handful of big national plans marketed by the Jackson Hole group of big insurance companies (led by Aetna, Prudential, etc). That would have been most profitable for the Jackson Hole firms, with respect to the mix of cross-subsidies and access-limited health services that would maximise both insurance premium/investment profits and health-system utilisation profits (a completely contradictory mix, of course, which managed care has brought into the same organisation). ... I do not think that cost-efficiency should be of primary concern to the Left for a number of good reasons, chief among them being that insurance companies can take of that. But they don't. They cut access and quality dramatically in the process of destroying overaccumulated health capital, but the share for admin keeps going up (to pay for expensive MBAs who sit between physicians and patients, saying the latter can't get the specialty care the former recommend because the averages don't justify it). Surely outrageous CEO salaries are surface evidence of massive overhead loading? There are plenty of studies on this, including by the Harvard group who lobby for a national health system. A much better strategy is to focus on universal coverage - which as I have argued - can be achieved by institutional arrangements that are not limited to a single payer public insurance scheme. Do you want Hillary's big insurance co's running everything? Putting them out of business through a single-payer is surely the first necessary if insufficient step towards more thorough-going reform of capitalist health care? (Sorry I missed you in Baltimore last week, Wojtek... no transport left me less flexible than I thought.) Patrick Bond email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * phone: 2711-614-8088 home: 51 Somerset Road, Kensington 2094 South Africa work: University of the Witwatersrand Graduate School of Public and Development Management PO Box 601, Wits 2050, South Africa email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] phone: 2711-488-5917 * fax: 2711-484-2729
[PEN-L:10475] Locating a quote
G'day all, Anyone know exactly where I got this Karlism? I've lost the cite and I haven't a clue where I picked it up. "... the *practice* of philosophy is itself *theoretical.* It is the *critique* that measures the individual existence by the essence, the particular reality by the Idea." Ta. Rob.
[PEN-L:10474] Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: normal profits, etc.
michael wrote: For some capital goods with an active national second hand goods, say cars with blue book values, you can do what you say. For most capital goods, you cannot. Many capital goods are too specialized to have a "price today." _ I find it hard to believe. If a capital good has no value in the market today, then of course it should be valued at zero dollars. However, all firms do have some market value, which must be arrived at by some estimation of the value of old capital goods today. Cheers, ajit sinha Ajit Sinha wrote: We take the price of the computer today to value the capital stock. What is the problem with that? Cheers, ajit sinha -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:10463] Re: Re: Re: Re: competition vs monopoly
G'day Ann, With all due respect for Castells I think our Doug is one who believes that may not amount to too much - and I do reckon Castells pays for that gratifying big picture approach and pleasantly rambling style with too little specificity/definition on the very criteria with which he wants to drive his story. , the issue still centers not on IP regimes ( although the 'regime' mentality always rings true for the (neo)liberal, (neo)realist political 'scientists' ( are these distinctions more or less dismal in these days of ratchoice?), but on infrastructure, for example the (de)valued story of Iridium and its satellites and other networks has yet to be completed. Low earth orbit satellites are yet to be tested in the world of low cost fast high capacity - it all seems a little behind schedule already - and certainly they're not attracting the press they were two years ago. Bypass may be a more compelling issue for haves and have-nots. I'm not sure whether the flag of the win95 key will become the (trans)national symbol yet. Well, it's my vote for that role - and bigger than the twin arches, too. Y2K may be a much better test, I haven't met a single person who reckons they have a clue how that one is gonna wash out - and then there's the real possibility it becomes a technical non-event and a whopping great sociological phenomenon (panic buying and panic selling etc). especially with the more basic electricity networks ( and their deregulated disintegration ). Yeah, I'm told these are where we're to expect a lot of undiscovered 'deep-level' old 286 chips to be. Networks that have been corporatised or privatised apparently made the job of finding these, and the likely tendrils of consequence of their failure, very much harder - said companies having sacked their engineers to build up their marketing departments. Still not sure it bites any more deeply into MS's flesh than anybody else's, though ... Waddya reckon? Cheers, Rob.
[PEN-L:10516] job opening
"Philip J. McLewin" wrote: This is a re-posting of a search that did not lead to appointment last Spring. To apply formally apply to Dr. Hutchins (address listed in announcement below. You can contact me informally by e-mail. Philip J. McLewin Professor of Economics -- Forwarded message -- Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1999 14:29:05 -0400 (EDT) From: Joan C Capizzi [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Joan C Capizzi [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Assistant Professor of Economics ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS Position #724 Tenure track position, responsible for teaching and overseeing introductory undergraduate Business Statistics. The individual will also teach econometrics and general economics classes at the undergraduate level. Teaching in the MBA program possible. The program is interested in candidates in the fields of health and environmental economics, but will consider other areas. The candidate must also demonstrate strong teaching qualifications, and scholarly potential. Ph.D. in economics preferred; ABD considered. Since its beginning, Ramapo College has had an intercultural/international mission. Please tell us how your background, interest and experience can contribute to this mission, as well as to the specific position for which you are applying. Website: http://www.ramapo.edu. Position offers excellent state benefits. We will start to review resumes on October 1, 1999 and will continue until the position has been filled.. To request accommodations, call (201) 684-7379. Qualified persons should send letter, vita, and a list of three references to: Teresa Hutchins, School of Administration and Business. Joan C. Capizzi Affirmative Action and Workplace Compliance Ramapo College of New Jersey 505 Ramapo Valley Road Mahwah, N.J. 07430-1680 Phone: 201-684-7540 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fax: 201-684-7508 -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] This is a re-posting of a search that did not lead to appointment last Spring. To apply formally apply to Dr. Hutchins (address listed in announcement below. You can contact me informally by e-mail. Philip J. McLewin Professor of Economics -- Forwarded message -- Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1999 14:29:05 -0400 (EDT) From: Joan C Capizzi [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Joan C Capizzi [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Assistant Professor of Economics ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS Position #724 Tenure track position, responsible for teaching and overseeing introductory undergraduate Business Statistics. The individual will also teach econometrics and general economics classes at the undergraduate level. Teaching in the MBA program possible. The program is interested in candidates in the fields of health and environmental economics, but will consider other areas. The candidate must also demonstrate strong teaching qualifications, and scholarly potential. Ph.D. in economics preferred; ABD considered. Since its beginning, Ramapo College has had an intercultural/international mission. Please tell us how your background, interest and experience can contribute to this mission, as well as to the specific position for which you are applying. Website: http://www.ramapo.edu. Position offers excellent state benefits. We will start to review resumes on October 1, 1999 and will continue until the position has been filled.. To request accommodations, call (201) 684-7379. Qualified persons should send letter, vita, and a list of three references to: Teresa Hutchins, School of Administration and Business. Joan C. Capizzi Affirmative Action and Workplace Compliance Ramapo College of New Jersey 505 Ramapo Valley Road Mahwah, N.J. 07430-1680 Phone: 201-684-7540 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fax: 201-684-7508
