a poem about free markets
As I may have mentioned, this will be my last semester of coursework at SJSU (although I won't get the degree itself until August, due to paperwork issues). So I'm faced with the question of what I should do afterwards, as I am still rather undecided between policy and academia. One of the policy options is the Koch Associates program, which is kind of like a year-long internship program, but instead of a stipend, you get paid a salary commensurate with your experience (some of which is covered by the Charles G. Koch foundation) plus benefits. It's very competitive (they had a 14% acceptance rate last year), so my other main option at this point is to teach a couple of economics principles classes at San Jose State in the fall while I prepare to apply to Ph.D. programs. Alternately, I may just look for a policy job.
The Koch Associates application was interesting. In addition to a resume, they asked several short essay questions... plus a poem relating to free markets that begins with the words, "Roses are Red..." As you might have guessed, I had quite a bit of fun with that one. For those of you well versed with the libertarian movement, you can probably skip down to the poem. For the rest of you, it requires a little bit of backstory (like some of my previous poems did -- note, that post is friends-locked).
Most of you probably know my first exposure to both economics and libertarian ideas was through Nobel-prize winner Milton Friedman. He's a pragmatic moderate libertarian, and so some of the more anarchist folks here at SJSU consider him (and me) to be somewhat of a statist, as he does believe in a role for the government, just a limited one. But for the most part, he is beloved in the movement, and the econ department's conference room prominently features a photograph of when he visited the school (alas, this was before I started there).
Some other prominent libertarian thinkers I've been introduced to in the past few years include Ronald Coase, who is probably most famous for the Coase Theorem. Many economists argue for government intervention to address market failures, such as externalities, which are cases where there are costs or benefits not borne by either the buyer or seller (the classic example is pollution). Coase instead argued that, as long as transaction costs were low enough, the affected parties would transact with the buyers and/or sellers to handle externalities themselves (although note that pollution is generally a case where the transaction costs would be high).
And then there's Frederic Bastiat, a writer who was able to convey several economic concepts, including opportunity costs, to the masses in his excellent essay, "That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen". For example, most people think breaking a window helps the economy because it provides work for the window-maker -- but that ignores what people could have spent their money on instead of fixing the window! He also wrote a cool satire about candle-makers lobbying against the sun. I would say that Friedman and Bastiat form the ideal model of the public intellectual that I would like to be someday.
Anyway, I think that's enough econ geek talk for now. Here's the damn poem. One of the folks at the Institute for Humane Studies did tell me that part of the reason they ask for the poem is to see if you're capable of not taking yourself too seriously. But I may have gone a little overboard in silliness. We'll see.Roses are red, and the violets are blue.
Statism stinks like a bucket of poo.
Fresh poo, no less, cuz the stench is quite strong.
But strength is no use when ideas are all wrong.
Roses are red, and the violets are too.
Stained with the blood of the innocents who
Died at the hands of the socialist scums.
Who shoved central planning up all of their bums.
Violets are blue and the roses are red.
Lovers of gummint are sick in the head.
Why can't they listen to Milty or Coase?
Instead of those "thinkers" who're simply verbose.
Violets have faded and roses are wilt.
Do not be proud of the state they have built.
No one knows what kind of things might have been
As Bastiat says, don't forget the unseen!
The flowers have died and are starting to rot.
We're left with a mess and a war to be fought.
It's tough to see what could be done by this bloke...
Unless I get funding from Charles G. Koch!
The Koch Associates application was interesting. In addition to a resume, they asked several short essay questions... plus a poem relating to free markets that begins with the words, "Roses are Red..." As you might have guessed, I had quite a bit of fun with that one. For those of you well versed with the libertarian movement, you can probably skip down to the poem. For the rest of you, it requires a little bit of backstory (like some of my previous poems did -- note, that post is friends-locked).
Most of you probably know my first exposure to both economics and libertarian ideas was through Nobel-prize winner Milton Friedman. He's a pragmatic moderate libertarian, and so some of the more anarchist folks here at SJSU consider him (and me) to be somewhat of a statist, as he does believe in a role for the government, just a limited one. But for the most part, he is beloved in the movement, and the econ department's conference room prominently features a photograph of when he visited the school (alas, this was before I started there).
Some other prominent libertarian thinkers I've been introduced to in the past few years include Ronald Coase, who is probably most famous for the Coase Theorem. Many economists argue for government intervention to address market failures, such as externalities, which are cases where there are costs or benefits not borne by either the buyer or seller (the classic example is pollution). Coase instead argued that, as long as transaction costs were low enough, the affected parties would transact with the buyers and/or sellers to handle externalities themselves (although note that pollution is generally a case where the transaction costs would be high).
And then there's Frederic Bastiat, a writer who was able to convey several economic concepts, including opportunity costs, to the masses in his excellent essay, "That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen". For example, most people think breaking a window helps the economy because it provides work for the window-maker -- but that ignores what people could have spent their money on instead of fixing the window! He also wrote a cool satire about candle-makers lobbying against the sun. I would say that Friedman and Bastiat form the ideal model of the public intellectual that I would like to be someday.
Anyway, I think that's enough econ geek talk for now. Here's the damn poem. One of the folks at the Institute for Humane Studies did tell me that part of the reason they ask for the poem is to see if you're capable of not taking yourself too seriously. But I may have gone a little overboard in silliness. We'll see.Roses are red, and the violets are blue.
Statism stinks like a bucket of poo.
Fresh poo, no less, cuz the stench is quite strong.
But strength is no use when ideas are all wrong.
Roses are red, and the violets are too.
Stained with the blood of the innocents who
Died at the hands of the socialist scums.
Who shoved central planning up all of their bums.
Violets are blue and the roses are red.
Lovers of gummint are sick in the head.
Why can't they listen to Milty or Coase?
Instead of those "thinkers" who're simply verbose.
Violets have faded and roses are wilt.
Do not be proud of the state they have built.
No one knows what kind of things might have been
As Bastiat says, don't forget the unseen!
The flowers have died and are starting to rot.
We're left with a mess and a war to be fought.
It's tough to see what could be done by this bloke...
Unless I get funding from Charles G. Koch!