

Sunday, April 20, 2014

12 Rules

In a few weeks, students will begin to receive their undergraduate and graduate degrees from universities across the country. They will enter an economy that remains bleak, with few good jobs, slow growth, and a wide variety of impediments so that change for the better is unlikely to occur. Those who leave degree programs in gender studies, or theatre arts, or similar soft curricula will be ill-prepared for the real world, and as a consequence, struggle to find meaningful jobs. Worse, they will be in debt because of the college loans they were encouraged to accept.

Rob Wile remembers a 335-word commencement address, presented at Cal Berkeley in 2007 by Nobel economist Thomas Sargent. Every graduate should read it, and then re-read it. Here's what Thomas Sargeant had to say to a large audience of Berkeley grads:


1. Many things that are desirable are not feasible.

2. Individuals and communities face trade-offs.



5. There are tradeoffs between equality and efficiency.







Concise and wise economic 'rules' that govern both personal actions and the actions of institutions. It's really too bad that most students won't understand their broader meaning and won't recognize when our current national leaders try to convince them that these 'rules' can be broken.