My understanding of the social
contract between immigrants and
Americans is such that we should not abuse the social welfare
institutions of this country.
One of the beliefs I've been
holding regarding United States is that
one can aquire college educationat any age.
Growing up in Europe in latter
part of the twentieth century I've come
to believe that a life led by most of the people in civilized countries
is at least basically worthwile.
***
STRATEGY OF PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
The domain of humanity's knowledge
is very vast. Many of its vistas are
alluring. One has to wonder how to best use of his finite time. Seems
like this is an issue to which rational thinking should be applied.
It would be wise to accumulate
considerable cache of experiences and
observations by trowing onself into the whirlwind of life.
Idealistic and Practical imperative
Practical challenge; existential
challenge
One of the quintessential
constituents of the American character is the
conviction that everyone can arrive to occupy the place in social
structure that corresponds to one's mental abilities. I don't subscribe
to that claim.
***
Play
WITH other kids, don't play THEM.
( I'm a socialist, which means I
believe it's appropriate to ... )
***
In our lives we try to compromise
between what we WANT and what we HAVE
to do.
The purpose of life is to make it
good.
Good life is the one that in which
a person has a lot of fun.
In order to have fun we need
things (this is where we enter the area of
life which is the subject of economics).
Things can we bought, so we need
money.
In order to obtain money, you have
to produce something useful, so
people
are willing to pay money for it.
*
In life, one type of things that
count is accomplishments.
Higher education does not
guarantee accomplishments. There are many
people who have accomplished something commendable even though they
don't have higher education.
***
FAILURE OF ACADEMIA
The fundamental
source of
knowledge is experience.
The domain of knowledge is very
vast
Get to know life first, then theorize about it.
self-directed education
experiential learning
DEFINITION OF ECONOMICS:
Economics is a discipline which
attempts to make a science of society's
activity aimed at providing goods.
REASONS TO STUDY:
It seems to be one of the founding principles of American society that
opportunity for financial success is available to anyone here.
One of the beliefs most widely shared among the people in United States
is that the opportunity for financial success is available to anyone
here. The more acurate description of the reality we are faced with
would be that opportunity is not officiallly denied here to any group,
like it was the case in Europe when first American colonist were it
leaving behind, yet it still needs to be brought within the reach
of everybody.
ECONOMIC IDEAS AND QUESTIONS:
If income was moved from the rich to the poor, how much better of would
the poor be ?
Social environment is for most of people more important than
natural environment.
Pure economic liberty leads to suffering of economic depravation of
many.
To libertarians the supreme principle is the right to keep all the gold
that drips into their pots along the chain of contractual relationships
as long as people are forced into those relationships by fear of
deprivation rather than of
inflicted pain.
Big profits are made on taking advantage of unjust imbalances. Those
who make them are entitled to finders fee rather than entire
purse.
Entrepreneurs are truffle pigs of the society.
If businesses models are patentable, then just like patents, they are
subject to limitations such as expiration date.
People are the resource on which profits are made.
Sovereignity over this fundamental resource belongs to the people.
People have the right to determine the rules by which they play the
economic game.
The longer and more complicated the chain of relationships producing
profit, the more diluted the strenght of the harvester's entitlement to
it.
Capitalism needs help in
fulfilling its role as a platform for
satisfying needs of people.
COLUMBIA GS ESSAY DESCRIPTION:
I. Autobiographical Essay
(1,500 – 2,000 words):
Tell us about your educational
history, work experience, present
situation, and plans for the
future. Please make sure to address
why you consider yourself a nontraditional student, and have chosen to
pursue your education at the School of General Studies of Columbia
University.
Successful essays should not
only identify and describe specific
elements of the program, academic or otherwise, that meet your needs as
a nontraditional student, but should also explain why GS is the place
for
you.
II. Optional Essay:
You may attach one additional
page to tell us anything else you would
like us to know about you.
PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY:
You have to work so you can have fun.
Points to be made:
• why now not earlier - I saw a
necessity to accumulate experiences and observations /Columbia slide:
"life experience as reference"/.
Learning from books is an attempt to give structure to experiences.
• why I am sufficiently motivated now- because I
finally know what I want to do. Before I did not
know which major to chose.
• why I have abilities to meet the demands of a
degree program at an
institution of higher
education widely recognized for its excellence.
• what is my intention
I 've been acting on presumption/assumption that desirable
development of my human potential can be achieved by means other than
institutional education, and there are few places in which this
assumption is as likely to turn out true as New York City.
expose the fallacy of certain articles of American faith
CONTRIBUTION to the ACADEMIC PROCESS:
/LoC:/ challenge the thinking of the group and stimulate discussion.
NOTES / QUOTATIONS / EXPRESSIONS
Wil Fenn-
NYTimes July 13,2006:
“Everyone talks
about free-market solutions,” he said, speaking of
the city’s shortage of lower-priced housing. “But the solution now is
the rich get richer and for everyone else it’s the equivalent of being
a sharecropper in the city. I’ve been working five or six years now,
trying to save up and buy something. Every time I get closer, the goal
moves farther away.”
Asked how
adult-dorm life differed from
college-dorm life, Mr. Fenn said: “You’re not really at the same place
where you were psychologically. Now, for me, I’m kind of wondering:
When does this end? When do I get to be able to buy a place and settle
down?”
I believe that the only true education comes through
the stimulation of the child's powers by the demands of the social
situations in which he finds himself. (John Dewey)
ascendancy of a strain of economic philosophy that puts the
freedom of
capital above the interests of society
(editors of The Nation)
"... fundamental systemic
assumptions concerning control and
distribution of the nation's extraordinary wealth ...[need to be
challenged] "(about Gar Alperovitz's book AMERICA BEYOND CAPITALISM: Reclaiming
Our Wealth, Our Liberty , and Our Democracy)
"... Thus in France, where lack of job security is increasing,
the idea of
offering the right to take the financial initiative to all is spreading
and the demand for solidarity loans is growing. ...
(president Chirac) intends first to boost the activities of the French
social cohesion
fund, by enlarging the scope of its work.... The aim of this body... is
to make
access to bank credit easier for people on low incomes who wish to set
up or take over a business."
/publication of French Foreign Ministry/
flexicurity - Denmark's solution
explicit versus implicit
as a result of = due to
... education, rather than property, became the basis of social and
economic position. ...
blossom ~ flourish ~ bloom
academic setting
surging momentum
concurrence -
cooperation, as of agents, circumstances, or
events.
Simultaneous occurrence; coincidence.
To have a share, as in an act
or result
component - constituent element
capitalism on the loose
What we need is a science that incorporates first-person experience
(emotions, ethical intuitions, contemplative insights, etc.) into the
charmed circle of rigorous theory and experiment. - Sam Harris @
Free inquiry mag
Simple arithmetic definition of morality: good moral principle is
the principle adherence to which results in maximum good within the
population.
For decades the so-called "Swedish model" of socialist values combined
with vibrant enterprise has been the envy of many governments, and many
still look to Sweden to study its example when the time comes for
reforms. ...But rather than making radical changes that would move
Sweden to the
right of the political scale, the Alliance says it has no plans to
abolish the welfare system -- it just wants to "tweak" it."To be
elected in Sweden you have to defend the welfare state," Munkhammar
notes. (sweden.se)
OUTTAKES
I find current economic conditions
even
in highly developed countries such as
USA unacceptable.
was susceptible to the
allure of
overpropagandized accounts of enviable success achieved by famous
dropouts such as Bill Gates, Jim Clark or Steve Jobs.
"Frustration
is implicit in any attempt to express the deepest self" (Patricia Hampl).