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Carregando... The Economic Naturalist's Field Guide: Common Sense Principles for Troubled Timesde Robert H. Frank
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Ask a dozen talking heads about how the economy works and what course of action we should take and you'll get thirteen different answers. But what if we possessed a handful of basic principles that could guide our decisions -- both the personal ones about what to buy and how to spend but also those national ones that have been capturing the headlines? Robert H. Frank, (a.k.a. the Economic Naturalist) has been illustrating those principles longer and more clearly than anyone else. In The Economic Naturalist's Field Guide, he reveals how they play out in Washington, on Wall Street, and in our own lives, covering everything from tax policy to financial investment to everyday decisions about saving and spending. In today's uncertain economic climate, The Economic Naturalist's Field Guide's insights have more bearing on our pocketbooks, policies, and personal happiness than ever. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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My personal opinion as someone with an interest in economics and an advanced education in the field (although certainly not on his level), is that he did miss the mark on housing as it relates to education. Robert Frank puts forth the idea that people want bigger and more expensive houses so they can go to the better neighborhood schools for a superior education.
I would argue that the houses are certainly more costly than ever, but of more inferior quality than ever, and what is driving the demand is the wish to escape escalating crime in other neighborhoods. Too many Americans no longer value education (both the formal and informal kind) at all on any level, from elementary to post-graduate, but want to obtain a degree from a "good" school so they can secure a lucrative (and easy) job after graduation. Unfortunately, their goals often have nothing to do with broadening their mind, acquiring skills, or gaining useful insight and experience with other, different kinds of people.
Likewise in the battle for bigger cars, Robert Frank rightly ascribes the choice of bigger and bigger gas-guzzlers to a wish for safety, with the American public's misplaced trust in the size and not the quality of a vehicle and skill of the driver as most residents of other countries could have told us already.
Robert Frank mentions the winner-take-all markets but neglects to explain completely that competition has frequently been driven out of business, often aided and abetted by government cronies and lobbyists. With large numbers of citizens unemployed or under-employed, I'm hoping we individually and collectively get to work and create all those products and services that we have a desperate need for, and then find a way to get it to market. If you have any interest in your own paycheck and escalating personal expenses as well as the direction of our country's future, this book is definitely worth a look. ( )