Adam Smith Econ 490 fall 2019

             Throughout high school, I competed in one of the most competitive football programs in the entire state of Illinois. We went undefeated freshman, sophomore, and junior year to eventually lose my first high school game in the state championship of the 7A playoffs. We experienced this amount of success right after our high school experienced one of the most notorious hazing scandals in Illinois high school football history. However, no matter what my team went through, we did it as a team. We won as a team, lost as a team, did homework as a team, and even bled as a team. Being able to put the scandal behind us and still experience this grade of success is almost unheard of. Although, if any team could persevere, it was my high school football team. All of this was possible through hard work and unmatchable organization from our top-notch coaching staff. My football team was more than just a team, it was a bro...

By definition, opportunism is taking advantage of opportunities when they arise without considering the consequences or morality of the action. Some people choose not to act opportunistically since they have a set of morals and values that guide them throughout their decision-making process. In class, we discussed what it meant to be a “good citizen” and what motivates them to remain level headed in enticing situations. By an enticing situation, I mean one in which they can benefit themselves (increase their utility) by taking advantage of a situation. Furthermore, some people choose not to act opportunistically since they believe that, “good things come to those who wait.” In other words, patience is often rewarded. One concept we did not discuss that could be a reason for not acting opportunistically is whether people believe in karma or not. Karma is the concept of what goes around, come around. So if I steal someone’s bike, in the future something ill-mannered wil...

Throughout my educational and professional journey, I have always been involved in organizations. Some have been more structurally sound than others, with a strong hierarchy of administrators put in place. Others have had abusive management authority leading to negative externalities in the workplace. In the following paragraphs, I will touch on a few organizations to highlight the failures to optimize their overall success. Freshman year I took on a role working at a bar on campus which I still work at to this day. The overall structure of the promotional ladder is that you start out as a “door guy” which is at the bottom of the ladder. You do not have any respect from the workers or patrons of the bar. Your job is to simply overlook the customers and ensure a safe environment. At times you may be required to kick someone out of the bar or confiscate drinks from underaged students. However, the main role is to pick up cups and take out the trash after the bar has...

Adam Smith, a Scottish philosopher, and economist was born on June 5th, 1723 in Kirkcaldy, United Kingdom. He is best known for his book, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations which was published in 1776. Smith argued the benefits of "free trade" and the importance of importing goods during a time in which these were viewed as a "folly". Many people had the perception that a countries' success is measured by amount of gold and silver they had in reserve. However, as we now know, it is the gross national product that plays one of the largest roles in determining the health of an economy.  Before I was assigned this alias, I was previously exposed to his work in an economics class I took my senior year of high school. Before the class officially began, we were assigned a few books to read over the summer. One of them happened to be sections of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations along with another book by John Maynard Keynes. His writin...

Hello Professor Arvan, this is simply a test post to demonstrate the functionality of my blog.