Charles 'Charlie ' Wheelan is the author of Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data, Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science, and was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate in the special election for Illinois 's 5th congressional district, the seat vacated by Rahm Emanuel.[1]…
On the opposite end on the spectrum, Paul Collier addresses inequality as the Alcatraz for developing nations. His prescriptions for poverty directly reflect his thesis on inequality that “as the bottom billion diverges from an increasingly sophisticated world economy, integration will become harder” (Collier 202). Collier views globalization as a series of “chutes and ladders” in which countries can rise or fall to the bottom and he views the poor nations of the world as the “unlucky minority” who “are stuck” and are unable to escape the “fourteenth-century conditions” (203). This leads to his call for international and domestic actions to avoid the “large islands of chaos” that leave “the twenty-first century world of material comfort, global travel and economic interdependence. increasingly vulnerable” (202). As such he believes that when addressing the bottom billion data must be focused on the population rather than income because the negligible income of the poor does little to skew the data appropriately. The author notes that the manner in which we address the data of the impoverished alters the manner in which we address poverty. Moreover, he asserts…
For my fourth quarter book report I decided to read Freakonomics by Steven D. Levit and Stephan J. Dubner. To be honest, I was dreading reading this book. My first thought was that it was going to be boring and like all economic textbooks, but I am happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised! Not only is this book easy to read and understand, but it also completely changed my outlook on the subject of economics. I now have an appreciation for economics and understand that it plays an important role in all of our lives.…
3. The Black Disciples street gain was set up just like a common business is set up. The top people in charge of both were called the board of directors. Under them,…
Economics is described by Lionel Robbins as the science, which describes human behaviour as a relationship between (given) ends and scarce means, which have alternative uses. Consequently assumptions have to be made about people, how they behave, and how they make decisions. Moreover, the behavior of an economy reflects the behavior of the individuals that make up that economy (Mankiw and Taylor, 2006), supporting how important these assumptions are.…
Poverty is existent in every country, but in developing countries, the poverty cycle can prove very hard to break. This essay will examine the difficulties surrounding the developed nations as they try to break the poverty cycle.…
To be completely honest, when I first signed up for the course entitled ‘AP Macroeconomics,’ I truly had no idea what the ‘macro’ in the word meant. Of course I knew the meaning of economics—it’s everywhere in these trying times of the economy, plus, it was a vocab word in middle school. Now that I’ve read Super Freakonomics, I have an understanding of what the prefix in the word actually means and I find it interesting, perhaps even a future career option, or major in college. This book made me think in different ways, ways that I never imagined to think of before; in one way, I may even say it changed my life in opening my mind to different outlooks on numerous topics such as prostitution and life insurance, to using seat belts and making…
After reading the book, please complete the following questions for discussion. Your responses must be typed, and they will be collected on the first day of class.…
According to the World Bank, the international plan to reduce poverty by half was originally supposed to be reached by the year 2015, but the high number of poor people is high, and they are spread out everywhere. The developing states are trying to recover, but the financial crisis’ that have occurred have stunned the growth and opportunities that we are supposed to be experiencing.…
At the time of Christmas Day of 1989 was when there was an overlap of crime rate. While in Romania the abortion Nicolae Ceausescu went out of power the crime rate in the United States was at its peak. Eventually in 1990 crime rate began falling, so fast that no one had a clue as to what was going on and what was the cause of this. In 1991 to 2001 there was 8 articles published as how law changes the crime rate. When in all reality only three can be shown to have contributed to the drop in crime. Levitt believes that the rest of the articles are simply imagination. He also believes that one of the greatest causes of the crime drop does not appear on the list and also did not get any sort of mention on the newspaper.…
Throughout the course of modern history, many academics and policymakers have all proposed various methods to eradicate poverty. Because each of these suggestions is unique, not all of them agree on a common approach to tackle poverty or hold the same views on the subject. For example, Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University insists that poverty in impoverished nations can be eradicated by investing foreign aid in development and technology in order to stimulate growth and allow people to exit the vicious poverty trap (Scientific American, 2005). On the other hand, Dr. William Easterly of New York University argues that such aid does not in any way provide for sustainable growth and is in fact a small piece of a much larger picture in which the rights of people afflicted with poverty are not respected (The Wall Street Journal, 2014). However, despite many conflicting views, the focus of a large majority of these proposals and a recurring theme is: stimulating human…
If there is one main idea of this book, it is that economics can explain many things. What the authors of the book are trying to do is to promote economic thinking. Chapter one (What do school teachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?) mainly talks about the human nature of cheating. For every clever person who goes to the trouble of creating an incentive scheme, there are many of people who will inevitably spend more time trying to beat it.…
There are millions of people around the world who go to concerts, clubs, and musical events every day. What if there was a way you can do all that and more without leaving your house and still be able to be in the concert and have the same feeling? Vision Music System or (V.M.S) is your solution to a great experience in your own home. It is a device that is similar to the size of a D.V.R, which allows a person no matter where he/she is to turn his/her bedroom, garage, apartment etc., into a virtual concert, nightclub, and stadium; To where he can have any artist or artists playing right in his/her very own home. It is simple a program that helps you choose the place, artist, and type of audience you want and once your done the system takes a couple of seconds to collect the data and a concert or venue will be right in your home with a visual projector. The projection from the V.M.S displays all of this to your convenience. The device itself will cost about Five hundred dollars, but the service will cost twenty-five dollars a month, and no contracts. The person can cancel the service anytime they want without being charged any fee. This device will revolutionize the music industry and it will allow singers to be able to relive their concert experience. It can also be used as a teaching device at schools. It can not only become a concert, but a teaching tool as well, whether the student is homeschooled or missed class they can always view their teacher’s recordings of the lecture. Millions will want this product. It can be used for special occasions, parties, special venues etc. The device is wireless and it only needs Internet connection to activate. The device also comes in four colors black, white, red and navy blue. The possibilities of what a person does with the V.M.S are endless and it is another way someone can enjoy the music they…
Yaari, M. E. (1985). “On the role of ‘Dutch Books’ in the theory of choice…
Rodrik, Dani, 1996. “Understanding economic policy reform,” Journal of Economic Literature, vol. XXXIV, March, pp. 9-41. Solomon, Jay, 2003. “India”s elephantine economy may be poised to run,” The Wall Street Journal, 25 September, p. A17. Wade, Robert, 1985. “The market for public office: Why the Indian State is not better at development,” World Development, vol. 13, 4, April, pp. 467-497. World Economic Indicators 2001, 2001. (Washington, D.C., The World Bank).…