All I really need to know I learned in Economics

            It occurred to me while practicing English with my nephew from Ukraine that not everyone has a taken a course in economics. 

            Try teaching an English learner the law of diminishing returns – it’s not exactly English basics.  Our biggest fear was that he would have to interpret an economics lecture as part of his final English exam.  Thankfully, it didn’t happen.

            Nevertheless, I gave him one of my old economics text books to brush up on economic theory.  For some reason he hasn’t taken me up on it since passing his exam.  He prefers John Grisham.  Sheesh!

            The theories of economics are actually quite interesting, never mind the horrendous formulas that prove these theories.  Economics can be broken down into simple concepts, which help explain so much about our world today.  In fact, economics is so basic, it can even be taught to children before they set foot into school.

Like a true nerdy parent, I’ve come up with my own economics lesson plan for young children.  Feel free to use these rudimentary lessons on your own children, if they are of age (and no, 40 is still not too old).  You can improvise, but the lessons would go something like this:

            Lesson #1: Why Do Toys Cost So Much?  Remember the dolly you’ve been saving up for the last three months, where every penny (I mean, nickel) from your allowance was put in your piggy bank so you could buy it at Christmas?  Well, the cost has gone up by $5 and you probably will have to save for one more month before we can go to the store and pick her up.  Don’t cry, this is a simple reality of life – it’s called INFLATION.

            Lesson #2: Why Can’t I Have Both?   I’m going to give you two choices, but you can only pick one because you only have one dollar to spend.  You can either have the candy, or you can have the toy.  You want the toy?  Okay, then you can’t have the candy – no, you can’t, and stop crying.  The candy is the OPPORTUNITY COST of spending the dollar on the toy.

Economics: it's so much better than playtime

            Lesson #3: When Cookies Hurt.  How much did you enjoy that first cookie?  You really enjoyed it, didn’t you?  Here’s another one – is it better than the first?  Here’s a third, how about this one – is it even better?  How about the fourth?  You like it even more?  Are you serious?  Oh, now your tummy hurts.  Okay, so what did we learn?  With each additional cookie, your overall enjoyment level diminishes.  In consumer and production theory, this is called THE LAW OF DIMINISHING RETURNS.

            Lesson #4: Where Does Money Come From? (For advanced learners)  Let’s say that you borrowed some money from your friend so that you could buy some candy at the store.  Your friend wants her money back tomorrow, but you get your allowance only in three days.  You know it’s wrong, but you go into Daddy’s wallet anyway and “borrow” some money to pay back your friend.  This is very bad, but governments do it all the time.  This is a form of MONETARY POLICY called QUANTITATIVE EASING.

            And that, my child, is the wonderful world of economics.  You still crying??

Technology creeping me out

            I started reading a book about the “creepiness” of today’s technologies.  Since I was using the non-technologically advanced method of reading a book by borrowing it from the library, I didn’t quite finish before it came due.  But I read enough to get the gist: technology is slowly eroding our privacy.

            In Technocreep: The surrender of privacy and the capitalization of intimacy, Thomas Keenan talks about some of the creepy issues resulting from new technology.  Take, for example, that Smart TV you just bought with the built-in camera.  Sounds like a novel idea, if you like to see over-sized images of your friends on Skype.  But it’s also relatively easy for a hacker to get into your TV and watch you from that camera.  Same goes for your smart phone, laptop or tablet.  There are websites now that show real-time videos from hacked laptops, where a new form of reality TV is occurring.  

And about that smart phone you own... There are now technologies that can monitor shoppers’ movements in malls, by setting up transmitters that collect the “pings” sent automatically from your cell phone.  This is a way to pick up on customer’s shopping patterns. While this may sound somewhat benign, I’m sure there are many other ways to track people with the built-in GPS in your phone.  The feature can be great when wondering why your spouse is late to pick you up, but imagine a stalker tracking your child’s whereabouts through his or her smart phone.

            Understandably, there are always safety issues that arise with new technologies.  But for young people, especially, it seems a little too easy for them to be lured into unsafe places, without even leaving the home.  Amanda Todd is a prime example of this, a young teenager from BC who was stalked online and black-mailed by a person in the Netherlands, eventually leading to her suicide. 

            It’s easy to be deceived on the Internet, much more so than in person.  We can keep our kids away from those on the street much easier than those lurking in chat rooms and other social media sites.

            I was always a little leery of Facebook and how much privacy you give up by participating, but I would feel a bit ostracized if I didn't have access to all my social contacts goings-on (yes, I spy on you through Facebook).  If I feel this way as an adult, imagine how a teenager must feel, when so much of their worth depends upon being accepted in social circles.

Private information on websites can potentially be used by anonymous people who want to cause you harm.  But it’s not only creeps on the Internet, it’s private companies, too.  Insurance companies are loving these new technologies.  They can monitor you like never before, and aren’t hesitant at looking on social media sites to find out anything they can to build a case against your claims.

            Keenan relates the example of a woman whose disability insurance was cancelled because her Facebook page showed pictures of her on a beach while suffering depression.  The insurance company concluded that she was having too good a time to be seriously depressed.

            It’s Big Brother monitoring like this that not only violates our privacy, but may also not tell the whole story.  That picture that your friends took of you doing a jig on a bar table without your pants on 10 years ago may not be the same person who is applying for a job today.  Yet that might be the first image that comes up when the company does a quick Internet search on you (and no, I'm not admitting to anything!)

            The author talks of a whole host of issues that could come up in the next few years, as people find new ways to invade your privacy, whether you participate in social media sites or not.  Google Glass is one such technology, where Google has invented a pair of glasses that serve as mini-computer and video camera that can record without you knowing it.

            According to the author, it won’t be long before facial recognition technology is so advanced that you’ll simply have to do a scan of someone with these glasses on, and you’ll know exactly who they are.  You’ll be able to do a quick online search to have all their background information at your fingertips (like that picture of them doing a jig at the bar 10 years ago).

            It’s one creepy technology I hope doesn’t become mainstream.