A One Page Economics Lesson

Posted by strugatsky 9 years, 10 months ago to Economics
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Here's a one page lesson for high school students. The topic was chosen at random.

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  • Posted by strugatsky 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    My pleasure. I've read many complicated texts trying to portray one side or the other. The most unreadable, of course, is Marx's Capital. My thought was, why not boil it down to the basics that a kid can understand?
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The chance of drowning in a capitalist system is small, but finite. The chances of drowning in a socialist system are almost certain.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 9 years, 10 months ago
    This one page economics lesson made my day. Thanks.
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  • Posted by strugatsky 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I will re-do the lesson - A one sentence capitalist version and a book for the socialist version...
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  • Posted by Scoutmom 9 years, 10 months ago
    There's a big section missing in that. The lifeguard needs to be trained and there's all the regulations and guidelines for the type of training, the limitations of training, the liability assumed by the lifeguard, the lifeguard's competence testing (to strict government standards) and their continuing education, requalification and licensure. More jobs! More regulation! More control! Aren't you happy how safe you are?
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  • Posted by strugatsky 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That's where I acquired most of my nearly 1,000 tomes. My local libraries got rid of pretty much anything worth reading and restocked the shelves with videos and abridged garbage. It's like Fahrenheit 451! I refuse to have my kids read the abridged trash.
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  • Posted by gafisher 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I used to donate the good books our library didn't have, until I found some of them being sold - unused - at the library's annual used book sale.
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  • Posted by strugatsky 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    How did I manage to forget an environmental study?! Next time, I'll have my lesson plans reviewed by a committee...
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  • Posted by H6163741 9 years, 10 months ago
    Don't forget the additional taxes & surcharges for:
    Subsidies for those who can't afford the fee
    Interpreters for those who can't understand the lifeguard's instructions in English
    Flotation devices for those who want to enjoy the ocean, but aren't interested in learning to swim
    And, of course, Environmental study of effects of human swimming on the ocean ecosystem
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  • Posted by strugatsky 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Yes, I agree. We are failing and falling just as the Roman Empire fell when the Christian virus afflicted it. And humanity was sick for well over a thousand years. But eventually, the seeds will sprout again.
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  • Posted by wiggys 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    "some years down the road" ; by then they will no longer have time to do anything about the predicament that they have been raised in.
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Don't disagree. I go my way and take responsibility. In that particular case it was well worth the swim. Wasn't the only time. I wear a helmet most of the time on a motorcycle. I'm anal with scuba safety. I did get the suntan lotion applied.
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  • Posted by strugatsky 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I will ask my local library for a copy. They know me well there... They never have ANY of the books that I request. Wonder why?
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  • Posted by Herb7734 9 years, 10 months ago
    To continue in this vein, I recommend "The Incredible Bread Machine" by Richard W. Grant. It was originally written as a satirical poem (Grandpa possibly of Poppa Possum) it was subsequently turned into a book which clearly explains free market economics. The frontspiece of the book contains a stanza from the poem:
    "People ask from where it came,
    Would very seldom know.
    They would simply eat and ask,
    Was it not always so?"
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  • Posted by strugatsky 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    And I don't really have an issue with people that want to voluntarily put themselves in jail, believing that it is safer there (it's not). I just have an issue when they put me in jail along with themselves.
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  • Posted by nln1219 9 years, 10 months ago
    Just reading these pages is a joy! How about I swear by my life and love of it that I will never swim in anyone else's kiddie pool, nor require them to swim in mine.
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Some of them are marked for families and some of them are topless and some of them are nude beaches. In an country that has a never ending coastline and is bigger than the lower 48 they cannot life guard every grain of sand. They also have more poisonous insects, reptiles and marine life than most places. On the other hand I didn't have any problem swimming from the family beach to white tip beach in the Surfers Paradise area. Until I got there. Clothing was not an option. Hence the name white tip. lucky me. That's the explanation I was given while trying to borrow suntan lotion. Australia is a purpose built socialist country. What's our excuse?
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  • Posted by strugatsky 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Ah, but the actual example that Freedomforall posted above would strike a cord with the high school crowd. Otherwise, yes, the federal school system sees to it that the hatchlings don't ever become smarter than the chickens. That's why it's so important to squeeze whatever one can early on so that perhaps some years down the line, the seeds may take root.
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  • Posted by wiggys 9 years, 10 months ago
    since economics is a term that high school age people do not understand nor the concept of what economics is they will never understand the example.
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