Beau Sjodahl, Introduction, Question 2

The central idea of this chapter I believe is that economics is not just for the smart or the
Big time economist of the world but rather it is for everyone. The ideas of economics and having a general overview of what economics is about will affect my life everyday, if I don't take the time to learn economics it could be tough understanding money management later in life so I would say economics affects my life daily. In my opinion the issue that the soviets collapse due to inability to use allocative efficiency. It was great for the soviets short term but not long term. The issues I saw raised were mostly negative and I would agree with Charles in saying that "most politicians could use a dose of economics 101".

Trenton McCarthy, Chapter 1, question 6

The thing I found most interesting when I was reading chapter one was the idea of "price discrimination." The amount of work some of these companies go through is astounding to formulate a uniform equation that involves who buys what, when they buy it, and how much they want to buy it. To be honest, I never realized that companies did this behind the scenes. I guess I will have to try and ask a passenger adjacent from me what the price of their airline ticket was and compare it to my own.  It's good to know now because from here on out, I will be trying to cheat the system.

Anne Warnke, Chapter 1, Question #6

I found the section on weighting cost benefit, not only in terms of dollars, but in the actions we take to get the goods we want highly interesting because it made me realized what I do on a regular basis, but also the huge span of questions I could be asking and weighting every time I do anything. I often hear myself thinking as I'm walking down the halls "If I turn this corner at a tighter angle, the length I'll have to walk will be shortened"  or "I'll use the force created from using this railing to turn to propel me past this students who are walking slower."I realized I tend to also rationalize my actions in terms of physics
I find it fascinating that as humans we tend to think only of the money involved in a purchase and rationalize the work involved to actually obtain whatever it is we want without even thinking about it. His line about physic benefits and how "That is a perfectly legitimate benefit," really stuck me because we as a society, and a world tend to over play the power of money and forget that we are social beings who dwell on our emotional urges and sympathies. It was a pleasant reminder that I don't need to set my goals with the idea of how much money I'll make as a judgement of how successful I am, just that I come home from the day feeling good about the work I've done.

Andrew Johnson, Chapter 1, Question #3

Being that Wheelan points out the importance of market's influence and brings to light the reality of human fallibility to make irrational decisions, the future is a realm which I am very unsure about. Individuals will naturally (by acting out of self interest) behave with others to produce profit and utility for themselves or for their companies. I am not concerned about that. What I am concerned with is the fact that we as humans are irrational in some of our cost/benefit analyses, some of which are very influential to the individual or the society as a whole. If the society continues to naturally behave in self interest but with growing irrational judgement, economic abuse and centralization of power may come as a bye-products of society's poor judgement.

Emma Spreng, Chapter 1, Question #6

The passage that stuck out to me the most was the one about gas prices going up and how that resulted in more motorcycle accidents." A study in the American Journal of Public Health estimated that every $1 increase in the price of gasoline is associated with an additional 1,500 motorcycle deaths annually". Buying a motorcycle, while gas prices were so high, initially seemed like it would be a great idea, a smaller vehicle would result in you paying less for gas, but because so many were in the road, and probably many were inexperienced at riding a motorcycle the death rate went up.

Betsy Elliott, chapter 1, question # 7

I have learned that what you do now in life can and will effect you later in life. On page 9 Wheelan says, "Indeed, every decision that we make involves some kind of trade-off. We may trade off utility now against utility in the future. For example, you may derive some satisfaction from whacking your boss on the head with a canoe paddle at the company picnic. But that momentary burst of utility would presumably be more than offset by the dis utility of spending many years in a federal prison." This passage remained me of the talk Mrs. Julie Johnson gave us about credit cards. A women in college had a credit card and spent money she didn't have. She is now paying off more than $7,000 of credit card debt and her everyday expenses. I know this doesn't mean I have to live off of ramen noodles and Mac-n- cheese my whole college life but it just reminds me that when I buy something I will have to give up something later I life. This has broadened my perspective on buying and spending. This idea has made me think of putting away 5 or 10% of every pay check I will get in college so I will have money to spend in case of a emergency.

Shern,Carissa Chapter 1, Question 6

I found the passage about Cuban cigars very interesting, it blew my mind that you can't bargain and shop around for a deal because the prices are regulated.  I found it even more interesting that no matter how many cigars each vendor sold they would each get paid the same cigar wage.  No wonder communist governments were asking capitalist governments how to regulate trade.  The traders had no incentive to do their job well because they would be payed the same no matter what, and thus they were not self-interested.

Drew Hanson, chapter 1, question #6

The most interesting example of the power of markets, in my opinion, was the competition in airlines in whatever aspect they could compete in. When prices of air travel were regulated, the airlines had nothing to compete in except quality of the flight so they tried to make flying as pleasurable of an ax pertinence as possible. When the regulation was lifted, the competition went back to default: a competition for the lowest possible price for the service. This example of competition is essential to the free market system. With an incentive to be better than the competition, businesses will compete. 

Tyler Coughlan, Chapter 1, Question #6

The issue of cost benefit was interesting to me how every behavior we have reacts to cost in at least one way. Wheelan's best example was time and how when we decide to put our time in something we are losing putting time in something else. Time is our scarcest resource. We are suppose to balance play and work. Wheelan uses the example of the investment banker who works 90 hour weeks and makes a wealthy living. That investment banker barely has time to spend that money based on the amount of hours he is working. So he is not allocating his time well. He also talks about himself and how he could drive 90 miles to get 50$ shoes but just goes around the corner to get $250 shoes. That is a smart decision because as an author he gets paid on what he produces with his time. So he could make more money by writing then driving the 90 miles to get the cheaper shoes. Also the example of taking the slower $1.50 subway instead of a $7 dollar taxi but if you arrive late to a client they might pull a $50,000 deal on you. So saving the $5.50 is not worth it. So we must use our time wisely.

Anders Chelgren, Chapter 1, Question #6

           The passage that was most interesting to me in chapter one was the passage about cashews. This example stood out to me because it was a bit of a curve ball to my still novice understanding of economics. "Given that economics is build upon the assumption that humans act consistently in ways that make themselves better off, one might reasonable ask: Are we really that rational? Not always, it turns out" (p.25). This quote preceded Richard Thaler's story about how cashews ruined the appetite's of hungry guests at his dinner party. The moral of this story was that these rational people, knowing that they would be better rewarded if they waited to consume the main meal, made the choice to spoil their appetite's. He then claimed that these people could not help but eat the cashews and by removing them from the table, he did them a service. "In theory, it should never be possible to make rational individuals better off by denying them some option [but it is]" (p.25). This economic idea was quite intriguing. Prior to his examples, I would have agreed with the statement about people always acting to some degree in their own self interest, yet with examples like cashews, smoking, and dieting I realized the validity of his later point. People do in fact, not always make the choice that is rationally the best in the long term, instead they often subconsciously or carelessly choose otherwise. This is both interesting and true but it then begs further questions. If its better for someone to stop eating cashews, or smoking for another example, is it our business and our job to limit that persons decisions? Wheelan claims, "If humans lack the self discipline to do things they know will make themselves better off in the long run, then society could conceivably make them better off by helping them to do thing they otherwise would not or could not do--the public policy equivalent to taking the cashew bowl away" (25). After reading this chapter I am even more split between what may be economically sound, and what is the best coarse of action. If the cashew idea was played out in real life, limiting a persons decision making opportunity's, even for their benefit, is in my eyes a oppression of freedom. A public policy forcing people to be healthy may pay off physically, but at what cost to freedom. Even this situation is one including opportunity cost.

Bre Kelley, Chapter 1, Question 6

There was one sentence in this chapter that stuck out the most to me. "The World Bank estimates that half of the world's population survives on less than $2 a day."  There is an estimate of currently 7.125 billion people in the world and half of that is 3.56 billion people.  Our school lunch costs more money than half the world population survives on a daily basis.  I will never understand how we can pay professional athletes millions of dollars and still know that billions of people on earth have to rummage through trash cans to find their next meal.  Is it possible to spread out the economy's spendings without following the rules of a communist central planning government?

Rachel Zellie, Chapter 1, Question 6

The example of the gas prices in 2008 Wheelan used to support the idea, "Becaue we use price to allocate goods, most markets are self correcting," I thought was really interesting because I had never heard the statistics surrounding the situation. I thought it was nice to hear that most of the behavioral changes such as buying subcompact cars, driving less, and using public transportation increased. But I was really surprised and intrigued by the statistics regarding motorcycle drivers. Wheelan listed the numbers that when gas prices rose for every $1 increase there was an additional 1,500 motorcycle deaths annually. These statistics were really interesting because not only were they surprising but they statistics show how the market directly relates to our lives. But overall, Wheelan was making the point in this passage that the markets are self correcting; because as gas prices rose oil producers began pumping more oil to take advantage of the prices. Because they were pumping more oil the supply grew greater then the demand resulting in a decrease in gas prices. In conclusion, this was a interesting and surprising passage that resonated with me because I had never realized how prices and supply and demand all worked together.

Trenton McCarthy, introduction, question 7

After reading the introduction, I realized how important economics truly is. It isn't just for the top business men or the top government officials. Economics can be used by the ordinary citizen every day to improve their decision making. It's funny to think that we usually expect those top business men and government officials to be the best economic thinkers when in all reality, they could be considered some of the most ignorant economists. Why are we voting them into power in the first place then? It must just be good politics. By reading this intro, it has become clear to me that by reading the entire book, I will be enlightened to the true ways of an econimist. As the author stressed, it is extremely important to be knowledgable instead of being illiterate in terms of economic thinking.

Anne Warnke, Introduction, Question #7

After reading the introduction to Naked Economics, I could see and understand some of the concepts we'd talked about in class put into practice. Not only was I interested in the examples and explanations he provided, especially his illustration of discrimination in the work place, but I also saw the economist in Whelan through his writing. I saw how he was setting up the incentives for students or adults, hinting at future chapters, and making broad references and touching on a variety of issues to draw in a larger crowd with the introduction.  It certainly worked in drawing me in, and with his fun writing style, I'm actually excited to see what else he has to say.

Drew Hanson, introduction, question 6

The passages I thought were most interesting were passages like "even many of our political leaders could use a dose of Econ 101" and "Were Obama's comments good economics, or just good politics?" These passages stuck out to me along with the examples that support them because they make a distinction between the decisions that should be made and the decisions that people in very powerful positions are making on a regular basis. How is it that the people who make most of the economic decisions are allowed to be so uneducated economically? If the "drive by delivery" and the "dey-took-our-jerbbbs" policies are so economically unsound how are they not screened by an economist before making it onto a politicians platform? How Can We Make Less Dumb Decisions? WHAT ARE WE DOING WRONG??????

Carissa Shern, Introduction, Question #6

In the introduction of Naked Economics, I found two sections specifically interesting: the first was about American politicians claiming that the U.S. is "losing jobs" to other countries when in reality the jobs were not essential, and the other was the example of the French government cutting worker hours in order to have more work for others that backfired.  I've never thought about situations like these in an economical way before, but now I understand. In order to make more jobs you don't have to ration what you have, you must expand technology/industry to make more jobs.  Sadly, some jobs are sacrificed but normally these jobs are insignificant within the big picture.

Anders, Chelgren, Introduction, Question #7

Question Seven:
Truth be told I had little interest in reading this book. The basic white background and little green man did nothing to draw me in as a reader, nor did the cliche title "Naked Economics." I am not always predisposed, as some are, to detest the chore or reading from a school appointed novel or textbook, however in this case I was. I grumbled to myself as I flipped to the introduction, however after reading through the first page I nearly laughed aloud at the irony.  Charles described the student's mindset of "suffering through Econ 101" and continued to convince the reader of the importance of the subject. I could not help but draw the parallel to my own attitude and took the opportunity to adjust it. After completing the introduction, I was presently surprised by the broad number of subjects in which Charles made connections too, reinforcing his claim that economics are real and important regardless of your interest in them. This claim is illustrated best with the sentence, "Economics is like gravity; Ignore it and you will be in for some rude surprises." I fancy myself a logical thinker and therefor I was interested in the real world problems touched on throughout the introduction. The fixes proposed by politicians and protesters alike on issues such as women in the workforce, affirmative action, etc. often seem so good, but end disastrously. This chapter has opened my eyes to the importance of economics and allowed me to proceed with a new perspective on its relevance in my life, and the world as a whole. Despite the mundane exterior of this book, the introduction has done an excellent job of citing the importance of economics, road mapping the book's structure,  and emphasizing the idea that economics does not need to be complex, but can be natural and often intuitive.

Emma Spreng, Intro ,Question #2

In the intro, Wheelan is basically trying to convince us how important being educated in economics is, and that being economically literate will help us in the long run. He brings up a ton of different examples involving economics, that you might not think would have anything to do with it to prove to us how prominent it is in everybody's life. The example he uses talking about how when we purchase a car, we don't really pay for everything that has to do with owing an automobile. I found this interesting because I think it really proves how economics affects everyone, we just need to be aware of the bigger picture.

Tyler Coughlan, Introduction, question #7

From reading the introduction I have learned that economics is for everyone and will effect everyone. If you stay unaware of economics you could be causing unknown destruction. Like Charles Wheelan's example of buying a car. We can't just simply think that we are buying a car and paying its expenses and that is all. The car's emissions are causing air pollution, destruction of roads, etc. we need to think about our actions and economics has you thinking deeper about the positive and negative consequences of your actions. So this chapter has caused me to think deeper about my actions and their consequences. It has shown me a new way of thinking that economics can tell you why something happened in the past and future.

Betsy Elliott Introduction Question #6

While reading only the intro to Naked Economics, the seems as the only thing in High School that I will actually need to use in the real world. Charles Wheelan has two main reasons for writing  his book, the second reason was the one that stood out to me. He writes, "...many of our brightest citizens are economically illiterate...just about every political debate includes an assertion by one or more candidate that outsourcing and globalization are 'stealing' American jobs, leaving us poorer and more likely to be unemployed" (XViii). This brought me back to the hanger issue we talked about in class. When your outsourcing some goods are way cheaper than the original price in America due to the cheap labor costs from outsourcing. Bringing jobs back to the U.S. may help the unemployment rate but if goods are more expensive this may cause companies to go out of business. More jobs will be lost and the unemployment rate will continue to increase if companies close.

 

Rachel Zellie, Introduction, Question #2

Throughout the entirety of the introduction Charles Wheelan focuses on the significance of learning and understanding economics. Wheelan makes the claim that, "Economics is like gravity: Ignore it and you will be in for some rude surprises." If economics is similar to gravity that means that economics directly affect my life and the lives of everyone else as well. You are affected by economics every time you get into your car or buy gas. You were affected by economics the last time you went to the doctor or you will be affected the next time you visit the hospital. Economics is also seen as an aid regarding social issues, such as racial and gender discrimination. Wheelan focuses his introduction on convincing the reader his book is worth reading and that an understanding of economics is necessary and avoidable, because everyone is affected by economics.

Bre Kelley, Introduction, Question #6

After reading the introduction, the passage I found the most interesting was "We do a lot of things that we wouldn't do if we had to pay the whole bill."  The example that came with the passage was about buying a car.  We pay for the car, the maintenance, insurance and gasoline.  But we do not necessarily pay for the dangers of driving or the destruction of public roads.  Individuals don't have to pay for their behavior, but the rest of society does.  I found this passage interesting because it talks about the bigger picture, including air pollution and global warming.  The information I got from the introduction is that Economics is about the bigger picture.  To understand Economics you can not focus on one group of individuals, instead you have to focus on all individuals in every social group.

Andrew Johnson, Introduction, Question #7

From reading the Introduction, I believe that economics requires that one thinks broadly. Being that every action comes with costs to the individual, society, or both, I have to change my viewpoint of economics. I have always seen economics as a way of minimizing one's personal costs and preparing for the future. I believe that Charles Wheelan is trying to tell that me (as an reader and individual) that I must open my mind in how economics is used, presented, and integrated into all personal & societal situations in order to recognize the plausible implications that come with such situations.

Victoria DuBois, Introduction, Question #6

The passage in the introduction about the environment and driving cars seemed interesting to me. What struck me as interesting was how most of the time we don't think about consequences of our actions because they don't directly affect us individually. Most of the time when we're driving our cars we don't think about the air pollution it's creating because it doesn't directly affect each of us individually, but it is affecting us as a society so we actually should be thinking about it. I also had never thought about the most effective way to help change this environmental problem is to raise taxes on cars and gas rather than making some huge campaign about being environmentally friendly. I feel like most people think the most effective way to fix problems is to raise awareness, when in actuality, in this situation at least, the solution is to somewhat force people into not wanting to drive their cars.

Blog Instructions

For each chapter you read, you should answer question #1 below in a handwritten journal that you will submit at the end of the term. This journal should highlight significant ideas, passages, stories, or facts that display knowledge of having done all of the reading. This can be post-reading reflection, or kept while you read. Throughout the semester you are to answer any other question from #2-7 below on the class blog (please list which question you are answering in the title of the blog post or at the start of the post itself).These responses will be used to facilitate discussion in class, and should prove that you did the entire reading and are prepared for class. Your responses and interactions on the blog will be graded on a 2 (excellent), 1 (sufficient), and 0 (insufficient) scale. Nothing can be added late. You should have 15 entries (including Preface and Epilogue) - comments on the work of others is considered excellent! Repeating what has already been written is not, and will get you a zero.Title your blog post like this: Name, Chapter, Question being answered (e.g. David Hoffner, Chapter 1, Question #5).

Journal
1. What is the central idea discussed in the chapter? What issues or ideas does the author explore? (Display knowledge of the full chapter, not simply one aspect).

Blog

2. Do the issues affect your life? Directly or indirectly? On a daily basis, or more generally? Now or in the future? 
3. What are the implications for the future? Are there long- or short-term consequences to the issues raised in the 
   book? Are they positive or negative, affirming or frightening? 
4. What solutions does the author propose to any problems mentioned? Who would implement those solutions? 
   How probable is success? 
5. How controversial are the issues raised in the book? Who is aligned on which sides of the issues? Where do you 
   fall in that alignment? 
6. Talk about specific passages that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, 
   disturbing, sad. What was memorable? 
7. What have you learned after reading this chapter? Has it broadened your perspective about a difficult issue— 
   personal or societal? Has it introduced you to a new idea or way of thinking?