Wednesday, September 05, 2007

What Can I do with a Degree in Economics?

Students are fond of asking that question and often the response is something 'blase' like go to Law School, be a consultant, go to business school, or work for an NGO. One of my former students works for AEI in Washington and from now on, when students ask me, "what can I do with a degree in Economics" my response will be "read this."

Nice work Tom!!!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What is being said is that if the government reduces farm subsides, overtime, more efficient and beneifical uses of funds will be found. I agree with this artical. Why has our government taken a protectionist stand on agricultural products? It seams to me that the government "we" are preserving a lifestyle that is out of date and doing so, not because it is what is best but because it is what is popular.

Sean Keneipp

Anonymous said...

I agree with this article, the government should not be trying to protect the farmers. I believe that it is okay to help farmers, but they should not get so much from subsidies. It is obvious that this system is not working.

Anonymous said...

As I am very familiar with farming I see some subsides as a necessary evil. With our exponential growth and constant want for riches no man in their right mind would be a farmer as a career choice when assessing the pure risks and benefits without the reassurance of subsides. Farming income can be enormous one year and horrible the next and on an individual level each farmer needs motivation to try again after the horrible years. If not what would we eat? Synthetic laboratory-produced foods? Recently an article on Yahoo News listed Farming as one of the professions that one can enter to make as close to a six-figure salary with as little education. Yes, that can be worrysome if said income is from subsides. Farming though is hard work and if one experiences farming for themselves they would realize that these people deserve large incomes, not as much for their years in college and valuable book knowledge but for the literal blood, sweat, and tears that go into making their living and putting necessary goods in the market for society. Therefore I believe that regulated subsides are necessary to keep the system stable without making it unaffordable to purchase agricultural products.

Anonymous said...

Great Post Matt. I have often thought that farmers do not get the credit they deserve as being the backbone of society.

Anonymous said...

Maybe I could be wrong, but these are not single family farms we are talking about. Rather, large corporations then shouldn't they have the fiscal responsiblity to plan for years with low crop yeild? I do think that farming is a noble field of work. However, if money wasn't going to these larger corporate farms then more could go to support the small farmer. Also, should the price of food not be reflected in the purchase price, I feel that I pay enough for food without being taxed so that a large corporation will benefit.

Sean Keneipp