During my six decades + years as a lifelong student of economics, I still remember the first course I took at St. John's Uiversity that it changed my life with no hyperbole whatsoever.
I had grown up in a family of teachers of English and in Chinese languages. The pros and cons of various solutions to society's problems generated fervent debates among my friends. But I had been drawn to the hard sciences initially. Whereas economics seemed vague, rambling and subjective, hard science was analytic, systematic, and objective. While political economy continued without end,both hard and soft science made progress for humanity.
My sophomore courses on the principles of economics opened my eyes to a new way of thinking. Economics combines the virtues of social sciences. Its subject matter is society - how folks choose to lead their lives and how they interact with one another. By bringing the methods of science to the problems of daily living, economics tries to make progress on the challenges that all societies face in all nations.
I was invited to write a research project at the US Department of Labor with a subject in which a little knowledge goes a long way. The same cannot be said of the study of phyusics or the Chinese language. Economists have a unique way of viewing the world and my goal in writing "Keys for Economic Understanding" is to transmit my thoughts to the widest audience and to convince readers that it illuminates much about the world on earth. Cf. www.ask.com or www.borders.com for information of the paperback.
I have reason to believe that everyone should study the fundamental ideas that economics has to offer. Professor John K. Galbraith published "Almost Everyone's Guide to Economics" would be an excellent reference. A book review was published by Atlantic Economic Journal in September 1979. One purpose of general education is to inform folks about globalization and thereby make them better citizens. The study of economics, as much as any discipline and in any field, serves the goal. As Professor Paul A. Samuelson put it, "I don't care who write a nations's laws, or crafts its advanced treaties, if I can write its economics book." Here is the succinct words in a nutshell.
Francis Shieh aka Xie Shihao on December 25, 2009 at 1.40 p.m.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment