A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 18 “No Woman but a Blockhead Wrote for Anything but Money” In this chapter, Dr. McCloskey is continuing with the idea initiated the last chapter: Jane Austen illustrates the bourgeois ideals in her writing, though she herself was not bourgeois. Austen is gentry, not…
Tag: Self-interest
Bourgeois Equality
Capitalism — I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 11 “Poverty Cannot Be Overcome from the Left by Overthrowing ‘Capitalism’” I will admit, I struggled with this chapter, not because I think she is wrong but because there is a lot of nuance to the matter. Her basic argument is the word, “capitalism,”…
Bourgeois Equality
Are You a Malthusian?
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 2 “For Malthusian and Other Reasons, Very Poor” We established in the previous chapter that historically, people lived on a subsistence level averaging $3 a day for most of human history. Now McCloskey wants to explore why and is starting with an argument that is…
Economic Thought
It Was Never Only About Profits
A Discussion “The Social Responsibility of Business: Milton Friedman Reconsidered” As an economics professor, I know I have some misconceptions to overcome every semester a new crop of students appear in my intro microeconomics course. Economics is about greed. It is immoral. Capitalism is bad. Elrick and Thies (2018) offer…
Economic Thought
Capitalism: Value, People, and Planet
A discussion of “Revisiting the Purpose of Business” I am an economist and a lot of what drew me to the field early on is the Adam Smith story of the Invisible Hand. Briefly, it is the idea that our self-interested nature is channeled, as if by an all-knowing Invisible…
Pedagogy
We Could Do Better If We Tried!
A Discussion of “Measuring Success in Education: The Role of Effort on the Test Itself” US students tend to score lower than we Americans would like on international tests. For example, on the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) that was taken in 65 countries around the world including…
Economic Thought
Communism, Attitudes, and Political Sustainability
A Discussion of “The Long-Term Effects of Communism in Eastern Europe” Communism ended in Eastern Europe over three decades ago, but does that mean the market system that took its place is secure? What impact do the cultural and economic attitudes of the people have on the sustainability of the market…