Learn economics, be entertained
May 22nd, 2009I think economics turns students off because of its Libertarian bent… all the invisible hand stuff1 makes ‘em think economics=”greed is good”. This, on the other hand, is how economics should be taught:
In fact, if Joseph Heath’s Filthy Lucre turns out to be any good, I’ll use it as an intro economics text.
- All of which I buy hook, line and sinker. [↩]
May 23rd, 2009 at 11:12 am
Heath’s book “Nation of Rebels’ is really good. A little unfair on some points, creating straw men out of certain types of countercultural types, but I am excited to read this book.
May 26th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
That dairy co-op bit around 23:00 was really excellent.
May 26th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Funny you liked that… and encouraging. I wrote down that analogy to share with my history students this summer (the class doesn’t have intro econ as a prereq so its an intro to econ class, too).
May 27th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
I liked it on two levels:
It was clearly described and easy to follow.
Likening corporate investors to small farmers gives investors a face, which I think sidesteps some of the “investing for profit = greed = bad” feelings your students may come into class with.