Monday, January 23, 2012
Market Systems In Relation to Children
Recently in school, a teacher told me about an article that he had read about how children wanted discipline and rules. As we talked about market systems in economics this week, I thought that article would be an interesting article to analyze in relation to a market system. Now why in the world would kids want rules? No rules means absolute freedom to do whatever they want much like the market system that Adam Smith heavily supported. But just like the Lord of the Flies example in class, with absolute freedom comes complications and problems that can turn bad very quickly. If kids were given a world without rules, they would have to fend for themselves, make decisions and essentially survive solely by themselves. If the world was a market system, I believe chaos would break lose. We need some type of governmental structure to maintain order or else everyone would be competing with each other without rules or regulations. Life could become dangerously challenging if nobody was required to run businesses, pay employees properly, organize taxes or regulate the economy. The world is a very fragile place and without order, we would simply fall into a cycle of trouble and recklessness just like kids would do without rules.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
This is a great observation and discussion. Think about how we have evolved as a species. We originally started without rules and for survival purposes began to form governing bodies. As an educator, I would say kids/students want rules because they would get bored left to their own devices. However, there is a push in education to follow the no rules philosophy because they believe it breeds “true creativity”.
Amber, I really enjoyed your blog post. The analysis of child psychology is a very controversial topic. Where some parents believe that children should be left to their own devices, many believe strict instruction is the only way to teach their children to behave properly. As you said, this embodies the contrast seen between a market economic system and a command economic system. Strict parenting is relatable to the strong centralized government control in command economic systems. One of the main detriments to this system is it includes a lack of incentive for children to ever perform properly because they feel that no matter what they do, they will not meet their parent's standard. I agree that children want rules, but at the same time, restricting a child's ability to be a child always has disastrous consequences. In my mind, there is a time for strict rules and a time for freedom, a balance only good parents have mastered. However, there are some flaws to comparing economic systems to child behavior because the economy has less room for error. Children are creatures of habit, but when faced with difficult times, they often rebound stronger than before. The economy, however, does not always bound back as quickly. Thus, the ‘parenting restrictions’ placed on the economy have to be more intense to avoid economic problems because these techniques do not only affect one child’s life, but rather the entire world at large.
Being a teenager I love the idea of freedom from my parents. Being able to go and do anything I want without permission would be nice but in reality to much freedom can set kids up for disaster. If your parent method is “commanding” teens WILL find a way to get around it maybe by lying. As to a “mixed system” teens probably won’t be as rebellious and will be more close to their parents because there is no fear of, for example, not being able to go to a party. In a “mixed system” the parent wound probably know where their child were at but tell you what time to be home. A “commanding” parent would not know where their child is, just the lie they have been told.
Amber, I love the relation you made between us, the world, and kids needing rules. Many times we all would like to think that we can handle responsibilities, and entrust in ourselves to do the right thing given a situation. Like you mentioned, Lord of the Flies provides a great example of what the world would be with out any sort of guidance. As a child however I am sure we can all remember being told, "no", and "you can't do that". Back then we hated it but now as growing adults we are thankful for the rules and directions. I think our government has found the perfect in between, from making us feel like a little kid and a responsible adult. Good job Amber.
I enjoyed this post, you brough up very valid points that we can all relate to. I think if we didn't have rules, we would definitely all be lost. I feel like the regulations and laws in the U.S. have gotten stricter and stricter as years pass. Perhaps the reason for this is the growing population, immigration, and thus crime. Crime is obviously not only social, but economical. Like Daniella said in her comment above, the government must an equilibrium that makes us feel responsible, yet cared for. These conditions may be different for everyone, so the government must make and enforce laws depending in the population majority. Overall you did a great job analyzing this article and what it has to do with us.
Post a Comment