Pre Week 1 f2f post:
Economics is not simply about money; it allows people to re-examine how they approach and understand issues from different perspective. Just like the incentives mentioned by the presenter in the video can directly lead to higher survival rates for prisoners; make your career choices more valuable. I changed my way of giving value points after I watched the video. All students informed to be given a value point, but they are told to make effort as a whole class to prove everybody’s behavior deserved the teacher’s reward. I was pleased to see a positive change in the entire classroom discipline. I’m wondering, as the presenter mentioned, what kind of action acted as “an invisible hand” can ultimately reduce poverty and inequality in the world we live in? What invisible hands lead to the wealth gap?

• Lu Chen

Pre Week 1 f2f post:
I like the presenter’s description of “local knowledge and interest as a whole being guided by an invisible hand”. He does not frame it with a more negative connotation of self-interest. 

We know that Adam Smith’s view that individual self interest in a free markets leads to economics outcomes that are beneficial to all is a flawed one. 

My wonderings thus lead me to think about how government interventions can be better designed and implemented to ensure that markets do end up producing the socially desirable outcomes we need.
Can the invisible hand be nudged in the right direction which would help solve our pressing global issues rather than exacerbate them?

• Robin Ford Coron

Pre f2f post: The price mechansism seems to be an organsing factor that distracts humans from taking action based on empathy. This makes me wonder why social entrepreneurship is not a more powerful force and what needs to change in order for it to be so. Why are so many social enterprises non profits? Why can't we profit off of solving major issues in the world today without it 'corrupting' or being corrupted? Why are we not incentivised to solve the issues of our times to take action and make decisions that balance our world in a way that is equitable? What are the mechanisms of capitalism and how do countries operating as a businesses prevent a global population from thriving? Who is benefitting from poverty? Why is there such a disparity between 1st and 3rd world countries? What are the economic factors that have put us in the position we are today ?

• Joanne Anderson

What would happen if we took money away from the world ?

• Joanne Anderson

I liked the idea that Economics is beyond the benevolence and sentiments. That was a new insight to me. This way Economics can be regarded as the tool to achieve the objectives set by the government, for example. I also like the reference that economic principles may help solving both macro- and micro- problems. It builds stronger reference this way to the new branch of economics – behavioural economics, where strong links can be made to the business and psychology as well. I wonder what the current views on economics are, whether the governments consider the moral dimension when they set the objectives, achieved via the economic tools. Whether the general use of economics has changed over the time since Adam Smith published his works.

• Kristina Pilgueva

Wonder & wondering: Adam Smith's first book was on The Theory of Morality and I think perhaps he was basing his second book on the sympathy he has developed from the first book? Although most incentives around the world are quite often based on money, how it is allocated has an huge impact on the delivery of outcomes. Hence, we need to re-imagine the ways resources are allocated so that all parties's interest or benefits are taken care of. Overall, I think most invisible hands are visible once there is a benefit to it.

• Tammy Cheng

@Tammy Cheng, Hi Tammy, i am trying this again.
Thanks for sharing about Adam Smith's first book - that's new to me! Interesting wondering you have there.

I do want to encourage you to answer the prompt more closely and also expand on some of your good ideas. In this way, our dialogue can be more focused and may allow us to delve more deeply into the topic. In this case - what is the common understanding of Economics? After this weeks' materials, what do you think is Economics now?

You had some great ideas, will you be able to expand them. For eg. you mentioned that monetary incentives are used widely in our world but how it is allocated impacts outcomes - would you be so kind as to explain this more and maybe give us an example of this?

When you said re-imagine the ways resources are allocated to benefit all - that's a great point - do you have ideas on what this re-imagination could be like? Or what questions/ideas do you have?

Thanks....if you write about 3 -4 full paragraphs, this will probably make the comments more clear and allow for better dialogue to ensure. Thank you!

• Cat Ho