Principles of economics, translated

"Mankiw's 10 principles of economics, translated for the uninitiated", by Yoram Bauman, http://www.standupeconomist.com . Presented at the AAAS humor session, February 16, 2007. For the record, the talk contains two unattributed quotes ("9 out of 5" is adapted from a line attributed to Paul Samuelson---although apparently he said it about Wall Street indices, not macroeconomists---and "wrong about things" is paraphrased from P.J. O'Rourke's Eat the Rich) and, of course, the Einstein "simple" quote is an intentional misquote. The talk is based on a published article in Annals of Improbable Research (see http://www.improb.com/airchives/paperair/volume9/v9i2/mankiw.html ), which sponsored my talk and to which you should subscribe (http://improb.com/subscribe/ ). In the paper you can see the "constructive example" of how trade can make everyone worse off (or you can just wait 50 years to see what happens with climate change). More info and other clips on my website (http://www.standupeconomist.com ), and please sign up for my email list. (No spam I promise.)

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[Cmaglim]

there's one idiot laughing excessively to prove how much he understands.

[kingkongwong007]

im about to graduate with an econ degree. wtf am i supposed to do now?

[zxcv73]

@lee0122333 I didn't suggest anything. I simply said that as an economist you don't deal in the realm of good vs bad, if you do you are going outside the realm of economics. A physicist's job isn't to explain the morality of gravity, just to explain the implications of it. A physicist may judge if things always falling is a good or bad thing, but that has nothing to do with physics. Understand?

[lee0122333]

@zxcv73 so are u suggesting they just keep continuning the system regardless of whether its good or not? doesnt make any sense to me. the first question should always be "is this good or bad for mankind and what are the alternatives?". chris hedges has said that professors nowadays are more propogators/ part of managing the system and continuing it, regardless of whether the system works.

[zxcv73]

@lee0122333 Economics isn't a philosophy of morality vs immorality aka good vs bad. It's a philosophy to explain the world. You do A you get X, you do B you get Y. You can judge which outcome is more moral to you, but that has nothing to do with Economics.

[nadolsw2010]

w w w .youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSo­jo

[nadolsw2010]

@lee0122333 I know, right? As proof, we can just look at the rate of technological and scientific progress since the advent of the Industrial Revolution (modern capitalism) or the effects of capitalism in the developing world

[lee0122333]

@kingkongwong007 or you can do something good for humanity.

[lee0122333]

the problem with economics professors, namely the best ones, is that theres no discussion of whether money is good for humanity or bad. the top economics professors are propogators of a system which has benefited themselves. really sad, because then maybe we wouldnt have a for profit system which delays science and exploits human life.

[lee0122333]

@kingkongwong007 be a greedy banker.

[thesadmanshope]

@kingkongwong007 u cud go into politics or business