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William Baumol Econ 490 fall 2017

I am a student in Professor Arvan's Econ 490 class, writing under an alias to protect my privacy, using the name of a famous economist as part of the alias.

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September 03, 2017

here we go

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Click it or Ticket

September 30, 2017

Monday through Friday, I'd get dropped off to school by my mom. One fine morning, while pulling into the drop off lane, a cop approached the window and peered down. I was in the front seat. I wasn't buckled. The cop, clearly seeing this, directly asked me whether or not I was buckled before he approached. Tell the truth or avoid a ticket? Lie or get fined? The cop had no way of knowing the truth. The "law" and parents are probably the two biggest figures of authority in a child's life, and this situation seemed to pit the two against each other. Had I been in the back seat and looked in the rear view mirror, the glare I'd have seen looking back at me surely would have affected my response. Nevertheless, I was in the front, with my full attention on the cop. When you're jay walking, speeding or not wearing your seat belt, and then you see a cop, your heart jumps and you quickly correct yourself, hoping you don't get caught. If you don't it...

Gift Giving

November 03, 2017

When someone dies, they often distribute what was theirs through a will. The most common possession that is doled out is any money they might have left over, along with any other valuables. With the person dead, there really can't be any quid pro quo going on here, and even if there was, the deceased wouldn't experience any of the economic benefits that might come from it. So why have a will? Why not just invest all the money into a really nice grave stone or plot of land? Perhaps they want their legacy to live on, or maybe they're more altruistic and want to leave the people or causes they care about better off. Maybe they're not a fan of the government, and believe that their money would be better off anywhere other than there. The idea of a will has been around for ages. One of the earlier examples is the middle eastern version called the waqf. By protecting the deceased's wealth from the government and locking it into an investment of their choosing, the needs...

Check Your Facts

November 30, 2017

Description: With the abundance in resources and the ease in which people use to spread information, the issue of misinformation has become more and more prominent. Facebook is one of the platforms that has received lots of attention as of late for not handling misinformation. With the claims that there were campaigns to misinform people during the Brexit vote and even the recent presidential election, the company made the decision to combat it. There were a bunch of solutions that people suggested Facebook take. Some wanted a bunch of moderators to be hired, or have some program created that would automatically detect false information. In the end, Facebook decided to outsource the task to third party fact checking companies. Many of which are news publishers themselves. A year into this attempted solution, and many are protesting this solution. One reason being that these journalist companies are hurting for money, and that the opportunity presented by Facebook would create...