Ask the Wizard!

OH MAJESTIC MAGICIAN AND WONDERFUL WARLOCK: I really need to improve my grade through the extra credit quiz, but I really want to be at the BIG Greek Week party on Friday. I can't be at two places at once! What should I do?

THE WIZARD SPEAKS: Oh true seeker of wisdom, draw near. You pose a classical question of economics. Since all resources are scarce, including your time, you must choose between mutually exclusive alternatives. You can't be in two places at once. You must decide the value of the opportunity to earn extra credit, and compare that value to your participation in one hour of Greek Week. Consider what you have learned in class, (use the force, Luke) and you will choose wisely!

OH NOBLE NECROMANCER: Please grant your dedicated students a great wish: to hear you explain aggregate demand once more.

THE WIZARD SPEAKS: Your request has reached me in the realm beyond; to grant your wish I must call on John Maynard Keynes, a noted (but dead) economist.

The voice of John Maynard Keynes:

markets don't always move toward full employment; that is a market may come to rest at an equilbrium with large scale unemployment. Say was wrong to suggest that lower wages will produce higher employment. I say the market is not self- clearing.

the level of aggregate demand (or total spending in an economy) may be too low in the economy. Because of low aggregate demand factories can't sell all they produce; workers are laid off, the economy grows smaller, then more workers are laid off, and the economy grows smaller, and so on.

Thanks for your question, its alot more fun discussing economics with THE WIZARD than with Karl Marx!

OH GREAT MAGE OF EARTH AND FIRE! Could you find it in your fierce heart to grant thy students an opportunity to show their earnestness by allowing them extra credit?!

THE WIZARD SPEAKS: The secrets of extra credit may be unlocked in the lab assignments and class syllabus. Your request is both earnest and true, so I will reveal these mysteries to you:

lab extra credit - find some NEW political economy web sites - see the GTA in the lab for more information and the SPECIAL form.

pop quizzes can add up to 5 points of your final grade.
Now, the Wizard must ask the Delphic oracle a question: do my students want a pop quiz for extra credit? The Delphic Oracle responds: Though the ether is unstable I sense a great longing by your students for a pop quiz, or maybe a weekend on the beach, anyway, I said the ether was unstable.
OH POWERFUL AND SUPPORTIVE WIZARD: Why has this class become increasingly more difficult than it has been in previous quarters? The U-102 classes are more difficult than in the fall and winter. I have learned that incoming freshmen for fall '95 will not have to even take the U series of classes. I find this to be most discouraging and unfair. If the department is going to make this year's students "suffer", then all subsequent years should have to do the same. I hope that you can shed some light on this grievance.
THE WIZARD SPEAKS: Thank you for trusting your question to the Wizard; though the void is wide and deep, I will speak what I know. First, most discussions of class difficulty are generally anecdotal. Compare the grade distributions in each of the classes and you will have some sense of their relative difficulty.
Second, Auburn University is maintaining its commitment to the University Core, that is all U classes. The rumor of discontinuing U classes occurs every quarter, about mid-quarter. Hmmm I wonder why, could it be (midterms?).
Finally, it is not the intention of my class to make you suffer; unless you equate learning with suffering. The questions that we raise bear on the structure of our society, therefore they are important. To insist that courses appear as immediately relevant and gratifying not to mention easy is to perpetuate a myth about liberal arts education. If you want technical training, go to a trade school. If you want to examine the economic and political forces that underlie our democracy, shape our society. and govern our market, then take a U-102 class.