I'm not too sure what the prompt is asking me to write about, but I will try my best to write something with substance that connects the three articles.
My own example of team production with gift exchange would be to have some sort of centralized entity that "collects" all the work or product that people produce and divides it up equally among the parties involved. I guess this is just another way to describe socialistic societies, although I don't agree with that form of government. Setting up a neutral centralized entity would be beneficial because it would be able to gather up all the production and distribute it without anyone getting more or less than the person before them. These "gifts" that the people receive would be the product of the collaborative work of the group, and in reality it serves as their own individual salary for the work one individual put in. My example is closely related to the first article How to Get the Rich to Share the Marbles by Jonathan Haidt, specifically the first example the author proposes; where two kids pull on the same rope in order to get marbles out of it. My example has elements of that condition because two or more people have to work together in order to increase their wealth (marbles). In my example people have to do their part in order to increase the wealth of the centralized entity to ultimately get equal compensation for their production. In the example in the article, the kids have to do their part in order to get what they want. The only difference is that in my example the centralized entity automatically divides the production/wealth up evenly, and in the article's example one kid gets three marbles and the other gets one marble but the "richer" kid shares one of his marbles to make it even. In theory they are the same once the "richer" kid gives the "poorer" kid one marble because then they have an equal amount, just like my example produces an equal amount through a centralized entity.
Friday, October 21, 2016
Friday, October 14, 2016
Thinking About the Future
Before transferring into the University of Illinois I went to a community college. I was "forced" to go there because my parents decided that they didn't want to pay for my tuition so I had to pick up a full time job and attend a community school. Senior year of high school is when I thought of this plan in order to transfer into the University of Illinois, so I would say that I've had the future in mind since high school.
After attending that community school for two years I had accumulated enough money to pay my tuition at the University of Illinois for my last two years without taking out loans, meaning no debt after college. My main motivation for this was seeing my older brother basically do the same at a private school but with far more scholarships than me and without going to community college. Seeing him support himself for four full years was quite inspiring, ultimately making me realize that one day I would do the same. Senior year of high school came and I was extremely interested in my AP Economics class and ended up getting a 5 which made me even more interested in majoring in economics. When I decided on majoring in economics and realized that I would have to do the same thing as my oldest brother, I knew I needed to plan for the future, so instead of just getting a job I decided that going to community college would be the smartest thing to do. While there I researched the required classes in order to transfer into the University of Illinois so I took all my gen eds there so that I could mainly focus on economics courses here.
As far as summer activities and clubs/organizations go I was not able to plan ahead because as I previously mentioned, I worked a full time job while going to school for my first two years. This is one consequence of wanting to graduate with no debt. Had I not taken one of my main priorities into consideration (no debt after college) and taken out loans, I would have had more time to get involved in organizations and activities, ultimately making it easier for me to get an internship. This is a dichotomy that I struggled with the first two years of college. I regret working full time and not taking out loans to a small extent, but I was planning for the future. Although simultaneously I was not planning for the future because an internship is crucial in getting a good job after college.
Watching my oldest brother go through a small private college near my hometown and struggling to find a job after graduating in 2010 was a hard thing for me to process. He doubled majored in chemistry and education and double minored in biology and Spanish literature, yet it took him 3 years to find a job in his field. Seeing that was unsettling. Today I still wonder how long it'll take me to find a job as an analyst, which means that I haven't really planned ahead enough. However, he did graduate 2 years after the 2008 recession so the unemployment rate was high. Now that the unemployment rate has gone down significantly since then I have more hope in a career as an analyst.
All in all, I would say that I have planned for the future to the best of my ability instead of focusing on the here and now.
After attending that community school for two years I had accumulated enough money to pay my tuition at the University of Illinois for my last two years without taking out loans, meaning no debt after college. My main motivation for this was seeing my older brother basically do the same at a private school but with far more scholarships than me and without going to community college. Seeing him support himself for four full years was quite inspiring, ultimately making me realize that one day I would do the same. Senior year of high school came and I was extremely interested in my AP Economics class and ended up getting a 5 which made me even more interested in majoring in economics. When I decided on majoring in economics and realized that I would have to do the same thing as my oldest brother, I knew I needed to plan for the future, so instead of just getting a job I decided that going to community college would be the smartest thing to do. While there I researched the required classes in order to transfer into the University of Illinois so I took all my gen eds there so that I could mainly focus on economics courses here.
As far as summer activities and clubs/organizations go I was not able to plan ahead because as I previously mentioned, I worked a full time job while going to school for my first two years. This is one consequence of wanting to graduate with no debt. Had I not taken one of my main priorities into consideration (no debt after college) and taken out loans, I would have had more time to get involved in organizations and activities, ultimately making it easier for me to get an internship. This is a dichotomy that I struggled with the first two years of college. I regret working full time and not taking out loans to a small extent, but I was planning for the future. Although simultaneously I was not planning for the future because an internship is crucial in getting a good job after college.
Watching my oldest brother go through a small private college near my hometown and struggling to find a job after graduating in 2010 was a hard thing for me to process. He doubled majored in chemistry and education and double minored in biology and Spanish literature, yet it took him 3 years to find a job in his field. Seeing that was unsettling. Today I still wonder how long it'll take me to find a job as an analyst, which means that I haven't really planned ahead enough. However, he did graduate 2 years after the 2008 recession so the unemployment rate was high. Now that the unemployment rate has gone down significantly since then I have more hope in a career as an analyst.
All in all, I would say that I have planned for the future to the best of my ability instead of focusing on the here and now.
Saturday, October 8, 2016
Reflecting On Previous Posts
I think that the themes do have some connection. Since this is an economics course on organizations, all the posts are about how organizations behave and function. For example the prompt about my experience with organizations basically asked me to think about how they function from within. While the prompt about a time I had the chance of being opportunistic made me ponder how organizations behave. The Illinibucks prompt was a way to get the students to think about different things that organizations can offer their customers to create a better environment for them, at a cost though.
I think everything the professor assigns us is assigned for a reason. In this case it is to get us to think about how organizations are. Consequently that spills over to the classroom where we discuss those ideas in greater depth. I personally think that everything we talk about during class is very relevant to what we write about in our blog posts. This is especially true when I am assigned something that I don't understand why it was assigned, although I know its for some reason. Then when we discuss it during class I see why it was assigned and make those connections. For example when I was assigned the opportunistic prompt I was wondering why the professor wanted us to talk about a time we could have taken an opportunity but didn't. Then when we discussed it it became more clear that it was because that is how organizations behave; they try to take any opportunity that will increase their profits even if it screws other people over.
My writing process has not changed significantly, but I do try to think about how the prompt connects to the class and organizations before writing. That way I am able to make a more accurate and focused response that is tailored to the prompt's underlying meaning instead of just simply answering the question.
Since I am not a professor or a TA I don't think I have enough experience assigning prompts, but if I had to choose one thing that I would like to see it would be a prompt that targets a specific part of an organization such as human resources or something like that. I honestly have very little ideas on what I would like to see since I don't know how the course will continue to be. This class is very different than other economics classes because of the format so I don't have much experience with these types of courses.
I think everything the professor assigns us is assigned for a reason. In this case it is to get us to think about how organizations are. Consequently that spills over to the classroom where we discuss those ideas in greater depth. I personally think that everything we talk about during class is very relevant to what we write about in our blog posts. This is especially true when I am assigned something that I don't understand why it was assigned, although I know its for some reason. Then when we discuss it during class I see why it was assigned and make those connections. For example when I was assigned the opportunistic prompt I was wondering why the professor wanted us to talk about a time we could have taken an opportunity but didn't. Then when we discussed it it became more clear that it was because that is how organizations behave; they try to take any opportunity that will increase their profits even if it screws other people over.
My writing process has not changed significantly, but I do try to think about how the prompt connects to the class and organizations before writing. That way I am able to make a more accurate and focused response that is tailored to the prompt's underlying meaning instead of just simply answering the question.
Since I am not a professor or a TA I don't think I have enough experience assigning prompts, but if I had to choose one thing that I would like to see it would be a prompt that targets a specific part of an organization such as human resources or something like that. I honestly have very little ideas on what I would like to see since I don't know how the course will continue to be. This class is very different than other economics classes because of the format so I don't have much experience with these types of courses.
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