Comments on: Some Hope for Economics… http://readethos.com/2008/04/20/some-hope-for-economics/ A blog on race, class, politics & culture Sun, 29 Mar 2009 03:55:29 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: iamchloe http://readethos.com/2008/04/20/some-hope-for-economics/#comment-86 iamchloe Fri, 09 May 2008 04:46:34 +0000 http://ourtwocents.wordpress.com/?p=54#comment-86 Wow, thanks for such a lengthy comment. Your HR comment is so real...and how fitting that such a thing was uttered in your Ethics class, of all places. And as for the unemployment rate-- I had that EXACT epiphany one day. People just regurgitate that-- "some employment is good because my business professor said so"-- without thinking about how it would feel to be that 5 percent. We just need more people to question the standard pedagogy-- and more tools like Hope Street's EOI...and then we'll get somewhere. Wow, thanks for such a lengthy comment.

Your HR comment is so real…and how fitting that such a thing was uttered in your Ethics class, of all places. And as for the unemployment rate– I had that EXACT epiphany one day. People just regurgitate that– “some employment is good because my business professor said so”– without thinking about how it would feel to be that 5 percent.

We just need more people to question the standard pedagogy– and more tools like Hope Street’s EOI…and then we’ll get somewhere.

]]> By: Perk http://readethos.com/2008/04/20/some-hope-for-economics/#comment-73 Perk Sat, 03 May 2008 00:53:48 +0000 http://ourtwocents.wordpress.com/?p=54#comment-73 I agree. As a Business/Economics student I'm starting to realize, it's "ALL about the Money." My Concentration is HR Management. I got into the field hoping that at one point I'll be able to help people. But nowadays, Human Resources is turning into "Human Capital." The reason companies worry about employees is because employees are costly. It's costly to train them, to hire them, and most importantly firing them is extraordinarily costly. As one professor recently stated, HR is certainly not about the people. It's about the bottom line financial results from these people. I realize that businesses are in existence to make money and it's very important for them to do so, but it's a tad bit disturbing that a lot of them don't inherently care about the people, they only care about the costs of these people. Sorry that was a bit off topic, but the point is that it's frustrating to realize that everything is always about the money. I've heard many comments like the Katrina comment because it would "hurt" the bottom line. One student in my Ethics class recently stated that if someone doesn't have insurance, an ambulance shouldn't pick them up because it'd hurt the hospital's bottom line. Only some seemed appalled at this. It's awful that in all of my Econ courses, not Once did I hear of anything based on a market that wasn't free. We should learn about those things because it is in fact the real world in which we reside. I agree that we should be taught about a market that isn't so free because that's simply how it is. The current "unemployment rate" is about 5 percent right now. To Economists, this is great because it's about where it should be. But, tell that to those 5 percent who are barely getting by in life. It's appalling that we think any unemployment is a "good thing." Quite frankly, it's not. Also, the rate is very misleading because it doesn't take into account those discouraged workers who stopped looking for work, nor the workers who work part-time, but would definitely rather work full time. Great blog, and hopefully with Hope Street, Econ can take a new direction and tell the entire truth to people. I agree. As a Business/Economics student I’m starting to realize, it’s “ALL about the Money.” My Concentration is HR Management. I got into the field hoping that at one point I’ll be able to help people. But nowadays, Human Resources is turning into “Human Capital.” The reason companies worry about employees is because employees are costly. It’s costly to train them, to hire them, and most importantly firing them is extraordinarily costly. As one professor recently stated, HR is certainly not about the people. It’s about the bottom line financial results from these people. I realize that businesses are in existence to make money and it’s very important for them to do so, but it’s a tad bit disturbing that a lot of them don’t inherently care about the people, they only care about the costs of these people.

Sorry that was a bit off topic, but the point is that it’s frustrating to realize that everything is always about the money. I’ve heard many comments like the Katrina comment because it would “hurt” the bottom line. One student in my Ethics class recently stated that if someone doesn’t have insurance, an ambulance shouldn’t pick them up because it’d hurt the hospital’s bottom line. Only some seemed appalled at this. It’s awful that in all of my Econ courses, not Once did I hear of anything based on a market that wasn’t free. We should learn about those things because it is in fact the real world in which we reside. I agree that we should be taught about a market that isn’t so free because that’s simply how it is. The current “unemployment rate” is about 5 percent right now. To Economists, this is great because it’s about where it should be. But, tell that to those 5 percent who are barely getting by in life. It’s appalling that we think any unemployment is a “good thing.” Quite frankly, it’s not. Also, the rate is very misleading because it doesn’t take into account those discouraged workers who stopped looking for work, nor the workers who work part-time, but would definitely rather work full time. Great blog, and hopefully with Hope Street, Econ can take a new direction and tell the entire truth to people.

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