Nobel laureate Edmund Phelps (also a Kauffman grantee) published this stellar essay last month, which I belatedly read today:
The definition of economics with which most textbooks begin—“the study of the allocation of scarce resources”—is accurate but misleading, for it leaves out the most interesting part of the problem.
In truth, we are forever innovating to stretch our resources. Transportation was one of the scarcest goods during the first half of America’s nineteenth century, but by the end of the century the railroads had made it so abundant that the face of America changed irreversibly. That could be said today about information. Innovation makes scarce goods abundant. This quest to do better, to go farther, to extend our reach is part of what makes us human. There is more to economics than the desire to consume and to avoid risk.
Which brings us a step closer to connecting morality and economics. Morality, after all, is more than obedience to the rules of social conduct; to be moral is to foster the betterment of humankind. If we place innovation at the center of economics, then we in effect make a sweeping assertion about human nature—for we claim, at some level, that man is an innovator.
How do you go about Non-profit funding I am opening a Non profit art space much like the Bloch Space near the Kemper and Nelson Atkins and I want to know how to get funding for the Solar ARt project called "the Wave"> "Join the wave and go green. A visible solar sculpture on top of a rectangle building in PAlm Springs to people will be conscious about going green in their day to day lives.
Brad Jones- Visioneer
ArtInfusion
562-714-1443 or jonz99@aol.com
Posted by: Brad Jones | November 18, 2009 at 01:16 PM
Completely off-topic subject that came to mind in the wee hours of internet surfing:
Can you do some sort of piece/analysis on what would have happened if all $700 billion (or whatever the figure is) of the stimulus package had been used to provide heavily subsidized/free tuition for the nation's public colleges? Has this been done elsewhere?
Posted by: anon | November 27, 2009 at 02:59 AM