Skip to main content

Week 12 [20.01-26.01.20] Milton Friedman - I, pencil

By



    Milton Friedman was an American economist and a Nobel prize winner in the field of economics who was best known for his strong belief in free-market capitalism. He still remains to be one of the biggest icons of the libertarian ideology as well as one of the greatest financial experts. In the video below one of his short but thought-provoking speeches is presented.

Questions:
  1. Do you agree with the presented statement?
  2. Are you interested in economics? What other economic icons do you know?
  3. Were you aware of the libertarian ideology? If yes – do you agree with its concept of the market?


Sources:

Comments

Olga Przytula said…
I don’t know if there is much to agree or disagree with. Milton Friedman has presented the audience with facts about the manufacturing process of the pencil and therefore proved that the demand for goods and services and the price system fosters cooperation so remarkable that it is unimaginable for any person to manage.

I am somewhat interested, as my brother and boyfriend both graduated from economic schools. You could say that I learn by osmosis :D

I have heard about few: Adam Smith, Murray Rothbard, John Keynes and Karl Marx.

I have heard about it. I do agree to some extent. However, I believe that the “invisible force” works too slow sometimes and you cannot assume perfect market knowledge of all involved parties. That being said, sometimes regulations are necessary to ensure fair exchange.
22 January 2020 at 20:20
Maciej Szczypek said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
26 January 2020 at 11:33
Maciej Szczypek said…
Any way of learning economics is the right way, as far as it is legit knowledge and it surely is in your case :). I understand your point and I agree that there should be some regulations in order to keep the market fair for everybody, however I think the number of this regulations should be as small as possibile to keep it "free".
26 January 2020 at 11:35
Anna Klimkiewicz said…
1. It was more a fact than a statement. He described entire process of the creation of the pencil. It is true that it takes more than one human being to create something as simple as pencil.

2. I am not interested in economics and i don't know any well known economist.

3. Like i said i am not into economics that much but i don't believe it creates a peace and harmony in the world.
26 January 2020 at 21:03
Maciej Szczypek said…
Well, one can simply state a fact just like Milton Friedman did :) I understand, but don't you think, that everyones life without the most basic economics would be just a chaos? I do not claim that it makes our world peaceful, but still it somehow keeps many aspects together.
26 January 2020 at 22:12
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 8 [28.11-04.12] The phenomenon of bilingualism

By
In times of globalisation contact with other languages is inevitable. It is estimated that more than half of the population is bilingual. The increase in migration, intensive economic exchange and fast developing tourism industry force people to learn foreign languages. Mass media and modern means of transport enable us to spread languages even faster. International marriages have never been more popular. All of these factors contribute to the growing number of bilingual people. Among them, there is one particular group which seems to benefit the most. They are called simultaneous bilinguals: people who acquire two languages from birth. http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2015-05-21-1432234752-9588891-Bilingual_kid.jpg According to many studies, simultaneous bilingual children seem to exceed monolingual children in tasks requiring abstract thinking, executive control and greater attention. In addition to having a huge impact on the human mind, bilingualism also influences emotion...
48 comments
Read more

List of blog moderators

By
Put your name on the list of blog moderators (choose a week when you would like to do it). Remember, blog moderation is an obligatory part of the course. What do you do as a moderator? Choose some theme for your week. Put on the blog links to interesting articles, films, presentations, etc. Comment on them and encourage your group to discuss them with you and other course participants. 1 . 07.10-13.10.19 2. 14.10-20.10.19 Marcin L., Anna K., August M.,  3. 21.10-27.10.19 Hubert M.,Maciej S., Igor G., Piotr B., Yekateryna P., Bakhodir I.,  4. 04.11-10.11.19 RostyslavTre,  Cem A., Vitalii O., Hanna P., Olha R., Anastasiia Ch., Patrycja W., Roman B., 5. 12.11-17.11.19 Lukasz B.,Mateusz H., Mikołaj W., Iryna L., Dawid P., Oleksandr N. Karol M., Mehmet K., Monika L., Piotr Dz.,  6. 18.11-24.11.19 Kacper G.,Aleksander Ch., Daniel W., Wojciech S. Maciej Szcze., Denys P., Bartosz W., Michał Sk, Cezary R.,  Bartosz B.,  7. 25.11-01.12.19 Zy...
107 comments
Read more

Week 4 [04.11-10.11.19] Dark matter

By
If you don't live in a big city in Poland, you can observe many stars at night. Did you ever wonder how would look our sky in the next millions of years if we would count only on existing proven astrophysical theories and calculations? It would be absolutely empty. All  celestial bodies  in the galaxy are rotating around the biggest black hole in the middle of galaxy (in Milky Way this black hole is 6.4  billion times heavier than our sun)  with such speed that the gravity generated by galaxy’s observable matter could not possibly hold them together. This leads us to  conviction   that something we cannot see is at work and is giving galaxies extra mass, generating the extra gravity that galaxies need to stay intact. Something, that will ensure us that our sky will remain the same as it was a million years ago. The official name of this strange and unknown matter is the “dark matter”. Unlike normal matter, dark matter does not interact with the electroma...
73 comments
Read more