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- Adam Smith was from County Fife, Scotland, the same place that where Macbeth originated, in the famous Shakespeare play Macbeth.
- Ricardo was from
- Reverend Thomas Malthus, better known as Robert, was from Surrey, England, which is the same place where Harry Potter of the J.K. Rowling series is from.
- Karl Marx, the writer of the Communist Manifesto and the anti-capitalism, was from the Prussian Province of Germany. Throughout his life Marx was persecuted because he was a Jew so he converted to Lutheranism to keep his position as a prestigious lawyer.
The Communist Manifesto was written by Karl Marx with the help of Friedrich Engels. The main goal of the two authors was to start a movement to overthrow capitalism and replace it with communism, the also wanted to create a society without social classes and/or aristocracies. So far no government has succeeded in the use of communism, some governments still use communism but they do not have strong economies because of lack of motivation, as George F. Kennan predicted in his “Containment Policy” in 1947.
Reasons why communism wouldn’t work would be lack of motivation among laborers, because nobody would want to work if they be given money for sitting around their houses all day long. Another reason communism wouldn’t work is because communist governments tend to ration out item such as gas and other necessities and everybody feels like they are not getting enough of anything. When communism is in use people in high positions tend to abuse their power and become corrupt, for example Fidel Castro allows drug cartels in Cuba to use his military forces as personal bodyguards.
David Ricardo had an important theory called the Iron Law of Wages. Ricardo believed that wages were set by population and population was set by wages. When population increases, wages and salaries go down and layoffs go up this causes the market to balance.
Malthus was an important user of demographic sciences, the study of population sizes. He put most of his beliefs into a published book/essay, called An Essay on the Principle of Population. In this essay Malthus stated that population grows geometrically while food grows arithmetically this eventually causes starvation after population exceeds food production. Malthus believed that starvation was inevitable because the geometric growth of population, he didn’t believe that it was right but that it was normal and natural.
I think that there hasn’t been one single great moment in economics everyday has been great, interesting and very funny. But on behalf of Hans Bremmer, I would have to say that was my favorite experience that happened in class. Thank you Mr. Haskell for making it all the more interesting keeping me in line telling great stories and jokes, this has been a truly valuable and unforgettable learning experience, thank you.
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| | Posted 5/24/2005 10:40 AM - 1 View - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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