Participants: Amy, Maggie, Fanny, Stacy, Angela
Final Statements:
After I read their stories, I was so shocked by the real situation in the US right now. And I realized that how large an impact government policies have, every policy, including economic policy and tax policy and so on. So I think for the government, they have a responsibily to allow people to cleary and easily know what they are doing right now, and every policy they take, the have the responsibility to let people know the pros and cons of these policies. Before, I didn't care so much about politics, I thought I didn't want to waste my time seeing these people doing stupid things. But now I think if I don't care about those issues now, maybe I will have no idea how it will be in the future, and why this bad future will have happened. So that's what I found out tonight.
2011/09/30
2011/09/29
9/30 任重道遠 Occupy Wall Street
Okay, I've changed our topic tonight, because there's something really important going on in the US right now. We had the 'Arab Spring', and now we're having the 'American Fall'. This is really worth talking about, especially on the heels of our economic discussions. They are so inspiring!
Occupywallst.org
Longer video explaining the situation from occupytogether.org:
Occupywallst.org
Longer video explaining the situation from occupytogether.org:
2011/09/16
9/16 課堂筆記 Writing Exercise Changes Perception
Closing Statements from Writing Exercise Changes Perception discussion:
I think we are all struggling with this stereotype in this society. And I realized all of us are being affected by others expectation or others behavior or words. Therefore, i'm thinking we need to say good for others, do good for others, because any words we say, and any behavior we do, will make a huge impact on others, and we'll never know our effect.
And besides, even though it's hard to live without using stereotypes, but we still have to try to be ourselves.
I would say, and let other people be themselves, too. I think that it's harder. I think it's really hard to remember that the person across from you has all their layers of experience and ideas and things.
After today's discussion, I'm reminded that stereotypes are closely related to what we were talking about a few weeks ago, with normal, and not-normal. Behavior matching stereotypes is "normal", so if you break the stereotype, then you're not normal, and that's weird.
Well, I think stereotype is a kind of predjudice, just like I said about the autistic person, what comes in our mind is a man or a boy.
I just realized, helping people is not just letting them be who they are, but actively figuring out ways to help them, like having women or black people write about their values in class, so that it helps them fight stereotype threat.
You know, how do we help children build their values?
Say good things to them?
That's one way.
Or give them more choices.
I think you ahve to actively support that their judgement is correct.
You know, we say good things about kids all the time, we praise them about everything, but we do it wrong, what we do doesn't help. We have to praise them in a useful way.
Yeah, like only when they've done something worth praising, not like "wow, you caught the ball!" when they like catch a ball all the time. And give them real critique when something could be improved.
I think the point is, you take them seriously, like an adult person, not treat them like some weird small being that has to be managed, like a pet or something.
I think we are all struggling with this stereotype in this society. And I realized all of us are being affected by others expectation or others behavior or words. Therefore, i'm thinking we need to say good for others, do good for others, because any words we say, and any behavior we do, will make a huge impact on others, and we'll never know our effect.
And besides, even though it's hard to live without using stereotypes, but we still have to try to be ourselves.
I would say, and let other people be themselves, too. I think that it's harder. I think it's really hard to remember that the person across from you has all their layers of experience and ideas and things.
After today's discussion, I'm reminded that stereotypes are closely related to what we were talking about a few weeks ago, with normal, and not-normal. Behavior matching stereotypes is "normal", so if you break the stereotype, then you're not normal, and that's weird.
Well, I think stereotype is a kind of predjudice, just like I said about the autistic person, what comes in our mind is a man or a boy.
I just realized, helping people is not just letting them be who they are, but actively figuring out ways to help them, like having women or black people write about their values in class, so that it helps them fight stereotype threat.
You know, how do we help children build their values?
Say good things to them?
That's one way.
Or give them more choices.
I think you ahve to actively support that their judgement is correct.
You know, we say good things about kids all the time, we praise them about everything, but we do it wrong, what we do doesn't help. We have to praise them in a useful way.
Yeah, like only when they've done something worth praising, not like "wow, you caught the ball!" when they like catch a ball all the time. And give them real critique when something could be improved.
I think the point is, you take them seriously, like an adult person, not treat them like some weird small being that has to be managed, like a pet or something.
2011/09/15
9/16 (五) Writing Exercise Changes Perceptions
1. What is a stereotype?
2. What are stereotypes of Taiwanese as a group?
3. Are you personally different from these stereotypes? How are you different?
4. What are stereotypes of women as a group?
5. Are you personally different from these stereotypes? How are you different?
6. What stereotypical groups have you been placed into?
(ex: woman, girl, intelligent/nerd, white, tall, artistic, american, midwesterner, foreigner)
7. Have you ever been told you're not as good as other people? What part of you were they talking about? How did it make you feel?
2. What are stereotypes of Taiwanese as a group?
3. Are you personally different from these stereotypes? How are you different?
4. What are stereotypes of women as a group?
5. Are you personally different from these stereotypes? How are you different?
6. What stereotypical groups have you been placed into?
(ex: woman, girl, intelligent/nerd, white, tall, artistic, american, midwesterner, foreigner)
7. Have you ever been told you're not as good as other people? What part of you were they talking about? How did it make you feel?
2011/09/09
9/9 課堂筆記 Political Compass
Participants: Amy, Fanny, Allie, Stacy, Angela
We all discussed each question together, but scored our tests separately. Here are our results:
You can read the Political Compass explanation of their graph here.
We all discussed each question together, but scored our tests separately. Here are our results:
2011/09/02
9/9 The Political Compass
Ok, so this week we're going to do an experiment. We're going to take the Political Compass test together, as a class, to see where we as a group fall on the political spectrum.
The Political Compass is a bi-directional graph. One axis measures where power in society should lie, from Libertarian (the Individual is more important than the State) to Authoritarian (the State is more important than the Individual).
The other axis measures how our economic life should be organized, from Left (collective economics) to Right (totally unregulated capitalist markets).
You can read the Political Compass explanation of their graph here.
The Political Compass is a bi-directional graph. One axis measures where power in society should lie, from Libertarian (the Individual is more important than the State) to Authoritarian (the State is more important than the Individual).
The other axis measures how our economic life should be organized, from Left (collective economics) to Right (totally unregulated capitalist markets).
You can read the Political Compass explanation of their graph here.
9/2 課堂筆記 The Apple Discussion
To see the essay produced from this discussion, "Apple Economics" (with illustrations!), go here.
We're discussing Darius Guppy's article in the Telegraph, called Growth: It Ain't Happening.
For the actual discussion we used a summary of the article, found here.
Summary of last week's article, Our World Balances on a Sea of Debt.
Our economy is a fraud. The banks are lending out money that doesn't exist, (the so-called fractional reserve lending), in a bizarre virtual economy.
The exponentially growing virtual economy is forcing the real economy to grow in ways our world can't support. We have to work so hard to increase productivity in order to allow the real world value catch up with virtual value, which is important so that we can avoid inflation. Inflation means that the value of everyone's money would decrease.
So how does inflation work, really?
The apple model, to explain inflation:
Imagine that there are 5 apples on the table, and there are 5 people sitting around the table. If each person around the table has 1 coin, then the way our economy works, each apple will cost 1 coin. If each of us had 2 coins, the apples would cost two coins each. If there were 10 apples, each apple would cost half a coin, or you could buy two apples for one coin.
The apple model, to explain the problem with banking:
Now, if there were a 6th person at the table (a bank), and that person had 25 coins, and the rest of us at the table only had one coin each, then there would be totally 30 coins in the system, and so each apple would then cost 6 coins, because of the total amount of money in the system is 30 coins, and there are only 5 apples. So the cost of the apples rises.
We're discussing Darius Guppy's article in the Telegraph, called Growth: It Ain't Happening.
For the actual discussion we used a summary of the article, found here.
Summary of last week's article, Our World Balances on a Sea of Debt.
Our economy is a fraud. The banks are lending out money that doesn't exist, (the so-called fractional reserve lending), in a bizarre virtual economy.
The exponentially growing virtual economy is forcing the real economy to grow in ways our world can't support. We have to work so hard to increase productivity in order to allow the real world value catch up with virtual value, which is important so that we can avoid inflation. Inflation means that the value of everyone's money would decrease.
So how does inflation work, really?
The apple model, to explain inflation:
Imagine that there are 5 apples on the table, and there are 5 people sitting around the table. If each person around the table has 1 coin, then the way our economy works, each apple will cost 1 coin. If each of us had 2 coins, the apples would cost two coins each. If there were 10 apples, each apple would cost half a coin, or you could buy two apples for one coin.
The apple model, to explain the problem with banking:
Now, if there were a 6th person at the table (a bank), and that person had 25 coins, and the rest of us at the table only had one coin each, then there would be totally 30 coins in the system, and so each apple would then cost 6 coins, because of the total amount of money in the system is 30 coins, and there are only 5 apples. So the cost of the apples rises.
2011/08/28
9/2 Growth: It Ain't Happening
Instead of our usual series of questions to think through an issue, this week and the previous week we are studying an article written by Darius Guppy for the Telegraph, a British newspaper, that was published in February, 2010.
I’ve made a summary of the article for us to discuss, as he uses quite complex English to make his points. The original article can be found here.
Darius Guppy was educated at Eton and was a member of the Bullingdon Club, of which David Cameron (prime minister of Britain) and Boris Johnson (Mayor of London) were also members. He was once a close friend of the brother of Princess Diana, Charles Spencer, but later Guppy became angry at him and broke the friendship. Guppy now lives in South Africa. The articles he’s written have been dismissed since he was once put in jail for insurance fraud, but I think they’re the clearest descriptions I have yet read about what is going on in the finance system.
The summary:
We don't grow our economies because we want to, we're forced to do so because of how banks work. In my previous article I argued that because of the fact that banks can lend out 10 times the money that's actually in their vaults--that they can in effect lend out 10 bars of gold for every bar of gold in their bank--is in effect a hidden fraud that separates finance from the real world, and creates a virtual economy based on debt that is bound to implode.
I’ve made a summary of the article for us to discuss, as he uses quite complex English to make his points. The original article can be found here.
Darius Guppy was educated at Eton and was a member of the Bullingdon Club, of which David Cameron (prime minister of Britain) and Boris Johnson (Mayor of London) were also members. He was once a close friend of the brother of Princess Diana, Charles Spencer, but later Guppy became angry at him and broke the friendship. Guppy now lives in South Africa. The articles he’s written have been dismissed since he was once put in jail for insurance fraud, but I think they’re the clearest descriptions I have yet read about what is going on in the finance system.
The summary:
We don't grow our economies because we want to, we're forced to do so because of how banks work. In my previous article I argued that because of the fact that banks can lend out 10 times the money that's actually in their vaults--that they can in effect lend out 10 bars of gold for every bar of gold in their bank--is in effect a hidden fraud that separates finance from the real world, and creates a virtual economy based on debt that is bound to implode.
2011/08/26
8/26 課堂筆記 Our World Balances on a Sea of Debt
Participants: Amy, Maggie, Fanny, Stacy, Angela
Concluding statements:
I must say what I learned in this article. This article made me have more orgainzed clear idea of how the monetary system works, and solves some questions of why bank failed, gvt failed, and why our economy becomes so terrible. And the most interesting thing I learned is the story of Jewish law, how the Catholic Church made interest illegal, and so that's one reason why some people hate Jewish people so much. (because the Jews were the moneylenders, and charged interest)
I think I'm so surprised that the money base and the circulating money is 10 times of the money base, because I never thought about this question before. I always thought, yes, the bank and the gvt will have so much money to circulate in the economic system. so I know that why the economy will collapse, or decrease, because they created a virtual economy system, that's not equal to the real money, or real economy. So I'm very shocked, and I learned about that. The other thing is, I still have some question about the, how do we know that the value of the currency. Because I wonder if the US gvt printed more and more money, how wouldn't that solve things!
But Fanny answered that question!
Concluding statements:
I must say what I learned in this article. This article made me have more orgainzed clear idea of how the monetary system works, and solves some questions of why bank failed, gvt failed, and why our economy becomes so terrible. And the most interesting thing I learned is the story of Jewish law, how the Catholic Church made interest illegal, and so that's one reason why some people hate Jewish people so much. (because the Jews were the moneylenders, and charged interest)
I think I'm so surprised that the money base and the circulating money is 10 times of the money base, because I never thought about this question before. I always thought, yes, the bank and the gvt will have so much money to circulate in the economic system. so I know that why the economy will collapse, or decrease, because they created a virtual economy system, that's not equal to the real money, or real economy. So I'm very shocked, and I learned about that. The other thing is, I still have some question about the, how do we know that the value of the currency. Because I wonder if the US gvt printed more and more money, how wouldn't that solve things!
But Fanny answered that question!
2011/08/20
8/26 (五) 7:30pm Our World Balances on a Sea of Debt
Is our economy based on the actual value of goods and services exchanged?
Do governments have any real control over the economy?
How does economic ‘growth’ actually work?
Instead of our usual series of questions to think through an issue, This week and next week I would like to study two article written by Darius Guppy for the Telegraph, a British newspaper, that was published in February, 2010. The points he makes are quite similar to an idea brought up earlier this year when we were discussing Time Banking, the idea that if your economy is based on interest, it means that it is based on permanent growth, which is ultimately unsustainable, considering that the planet has a finite amount of resources.
I’ve made a summary of the article, as he uses quite educated English to make his points. The original article can be found here.
2011/08/19
8/19 課堂筆記: Redefining Normal
Closing Statements:
Well, I think it's always hard for people to change, because of the fear, we are not sure about the change afterwards, if its going to be better or worse. But in my own experience and in my friends' experience change usually gives us a better life. just like one of my friends quit her job for over one year at the age of 40, that takes courage, and actually she had a very good job. But now she already started her new job, and after this one year of refreshing herself, I think her life will be different. and from my own experience i have the same feeling. Before you change, you feel so scared, it's too hard for people to change, but it's always worth the effort, and the struggle, if you want to change, I mean.
Just like she said, if we want to change, we will be scared, or uncertain, so actually I don't like to change.
I don't think anybody does.
But I think some people, they like to change their style often.
But that's minor.
But how do we define the change, if it's minor, that's okay, but if it's a big major change it matters, i think. Actually, when I moved near the school, that led me to do my experiments, but then I can't sleep in my soft bed. Because now where I live, I don't have a fridge, it's very inconvenient, but I'm getting used to this lifestyle, so maybe the change is not so bad for us, but we fear the uncertainty of the change i think. So if we conquer the difficulty of the, it's hard to say, but maybe it's not so difficult to fact the change itself.
Well, I think it's always hard for people to change, because of the fear, we are not sure about the change afterwards, if its going to be better or worse. But in my own experience and in my friends' experience change usually gives us a better life. just like one of my friends quit her job for over one year at the age of 40, that takes courage, and actually she had a very good job. But now she already started her new job, and after this one year of refreshing herself, I think her life will be different. and from my own experience i have the same feeling. Before you change, you feel so scared, it's too hard for people to change, but it's always worth the effort, and the struggle, if you want to change, I mean.
Just like she said, if we want to change, we will be scared, or uncertain, so actually I don't like to change.
I don't think anybody does.
But I think some people, they like to change their style often.
But that's minor.
But how do we define the change, if it's minor, that's okay, but if it's a big major change it matters, i think. Actually, when I moved near the school, that led me to do my experiments, but then I can't sleep in my soft bed. Because now where I live, I don't have a fridge, it's very inconvenient, but I'm getting used to this lifestyle, so maybe the change is not so bad for us, but we fear the uncertainty of the change i think. So if we conquer the difficulty of the, it's hard to say, but maybe it's not so difficult to fact the change itself.
2011/08/15
8/19 (五) 7:30pm Redefining Normal
Questions to Think About:
1. What is normal?
2. What are some of the things in your everyday life that you consider normal?
3. What do you normally talk about with people you know?
4. What sorts of things do you normally see in the media?
5. What are some changes you’ve chosen to make in your life?
6. What are some changes you’ve been forced to make in your life?
7. When you’re dealing with change, who do you talk to about it?
8. What are some of the things you do when you’re faced with a sudden change?
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