People Are Stupid
MichaelW on Mar 04 2007 at 6:03 am | Filed under: Economics, Humor, MichaelW's Page
But not that stupid.
You will have to watch the following (via Kyle N) to understand:
Technorati Tags: Economics, Mankiw, Yoram Bauman, standup economist
Sphere: Related Content
This guy skewers every failure of first year economics I’ve ever seen.
I took a special first year econ course, in which we contrasted Friedman (Capitalism and Freedom) vs. Galbraith (Economics and the Public Purpose), so it was pretty good. But my roommate took the standard first year econ course, so he often asked me to explain the stuff in his text.
It was just dumb as this video suggests it was. Apparently, making economics acceptable to both businesspeople (econ is usually in the college of business) and leftists results in a mishmash that is borderline incoherent.
For you college students out there – if you’re thinking of taking first year econ, and the text is by Mankiew, Samuelson, or McConnell, then skip it and take something useful. Instead, read Thomas Sowell’s Basic Economics, or Dale Franks Slackernomics, or a half dozen other works that cut through the pap and tell you how economics actually works. (As opposed to how lots of people wish it worked.)
I liked my Econ101 textbook; I don’t remember who wrote it. But the first chapter was entitled “Scarcity.” The first sentence was “Scarcity is not popular.”
yours/
peter.
I loved this Michael. Thanks. I also learned something, I wasn’t aware Mankiw’s text was the top seller. While I will not argue with Billy, I will say that that is at minimum a big improvement over Samuelson or McConnell.
I have to admit I almost fell out of my chair when he “interpreted” all three macro economic principles as “blah blah blah.” He’s not only funny, he’s a good economist.
yours/
peter.