Professor Timmy's Rants and Raves

When I was an undergraduate Philosophy major at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, I became very enamoured with Economics. At that time the professors were very conservative and they tended to lecture exclusively free market principals. For some reason, perhaps it was my rebellious nature, I really like to listen to the words of Senator Edward Kennedy. He made sense to me and that created a world of paradoxical thought. I had lectures and textbooks that explained the functional problems of the minimum wage, all of which are true. But Senator Kennedy made the point that if you work 52 weeks a year in the United States, you shouldn't live in poverty. Maybe it was my blue collar background, but that simple statement summed up how I felt. He inspired me and in order to read what he was saying in politics (and usually on the Senate floor) was not easy task. Back in 1984 we didn't have the Internet. So I had to scurry to the newspaper section of the Maybe Library and hunt down t

Okay after seeing some dear in the headlights looks from last night, I am posting my tips for how to draw indifference curves and solve problems that seem to be real buggars (yeah, that's a technical term.) Some students have trouble getting their minds around the concepts of indifference curves. Because these concepts are abstract, this makes solving word problems a bit taxing. No problem, help is on the way. The SET-UP. Setting up the problem is 90% of the solution. Here are a few tips to Set Up correctly. 1. Draw and label the axis first. 2. Draw the first budget constraint line. 3. Stop. Get a cup of coffee or tea and ponder what you just drew. 4. Read the problem again. NOTICE YOU HAVE YET TO DRAW A CURVE! AHA, THAT IS THE TRICK. 5. Consider if you can draw another budget constraint line next or if you need to draw your first Indifference curve. Save the Indifference curves for last if possible. 6. Slowly (and in pencil lightly) draw your first indifference curve mirroring the

The free market is a great engine and occassionally some students think that's not such a great thing. They point out some of the negatives of the free market such as pollution, unemployment, exploited child labor in less developed countries or the more recent mortgage meltdown. When I hear these stories, I tell them of the lawnmower analogy. So here that is. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The Lawnmower Analogy Let's say that we invent the most kick ass small engine ever. It's so efficient and powerful that it can run and run on very little fuel and has tons of horsepower. We decide toput this engine on our self propelled lawnmower and after turning a few bolts it works great. So Bing badda boom, we mow the front lawn in 5 minutes rather than the typical hour it usually takes. We decide to go inside adn get a glass of iced tea but for get that the mower is still running. When we were not watching it, the mower r