Switch it up, y0

[squyd]

I've decided that I want to go into economics. When trying to get into college and thinking about what I wanted to do with my life, I came to the conclusion that politics and science needed some form of unification. My personal statement was centered on that very topic.

Comments

[mahannon]

Good luck! :)

[squyd]

Shankyou

[mahannon]

tr.v. shanked, shank·ing, shanks

To hit (a golf ball) with the heel of the club, causing the ball to veer in the wrong direction.

[squyd]

Yup, that.

::konks you over the head with a golf club::

I suppose unconscious might be considered the wrong direction.

[nostrademons]

Actually, bachelor's degrees in physics have lots of options. A physics major is usually more in demand on Wall Street than an econ major. I went to an info session for an economics consulting firm, and when I said I was a physics major, they said "Oh, that should be no problem." Physics majors are also highly in demand in computer firms and political think-tanks.

A physics Ph.D is somewhat less useful. But then, a Ph.D in just about anything is typically useless if you aren't planning on going into academia.

And I loved Atlas Shrugged when I first read it, but now I think it's an incredibly simplistic book that misses the point entirely. I love the alternate ending that somebody did of it, where Dagny and John Galt go off to live in their utopia with all the other titans of industry, then realize that they have no domestic servants to take care of their chores, and then start squabbling over who's going to do the dishes. Moral of this story: it's a lot more complicated than CEO Good, Worker Bad.

[squyd]

Yeah, but... I like economics better.

Also, I disagree with your interpretation of atlas shrugged as CEO good, worker bad. I'd interpret it more as: work ethic and proper utilization of the supply<->demand relationship good, government mandates bad.

[goatintheface]

Unfortunately, just when economics started to get good at applying quantitative stuff to politics, political scientists stole much of their methodology. The econ most applicable to politics nowadays is either the extreme micro stuff - almost more sociology than politics - or the wide-lens macroeconomics of trade. Still useful, but there's a long history of failed attempts to apply economic principles to politics. Still, not nearly as long history of failed attempts to apply Political Science's principles to politics, so maybe you're on the right track.

Regarding Atlas Shrugged, it's a great expression of anti-socialist feeling, pride in one's work, and a defense of property rights. But it's pretty well divorced from the study of economics, which (when done well) doesn't describe free trade or property rights as ends unto themselves, but rather as methods to attaining greater economic efficiency - of attaining the greater common good.

[squyd]

Yeah, well, hopefully I am. Anyway, it's not even the political side of economics that's the really cool one -- it's the... economy side. Which you wouldn't think you have to differentiate, but whatever.

Re: atlas, yes, it's not about the study of economics, but it's... a critique of a school of thought regarding economies, which is why I tend to think of it and economics at the same time. Reading it was the first time I ever thought of socialism/communism/etc in the context of money, distribution of wealth, and its effect on economies. Before that I'd kinda been like, "yeah, it's a nice idea, and if not for people being inherently corrupt it might work" -- after reading it I thought, "wow, that makes very little sense from a market point of view."

Also the first time I observed someone writing philosophy actually interacting with the things people say it should be applied to -- politics, trade, etc. in a not-a-complete-satire way.

[zackkain]

It's TB.
<3

[squyd]

If it's TB, you're gonna catch it in august. Better cross your fingers.

<3 as well.

[zackkain]

You had TB last semester too.

I'm hoping I don't have Mono, so... my fingers are already crossed.

[squyd]

...abouts when would you have caught said mono?

[theholysquare]

I don't know you, and don't ask how, but somehow I ended up on your blog and saw the phrase "uniting politics and science," and since those I are my two primary interests, I looked at your post again. I saw that you were considering studying economics, and I said "I, too, am considering studying economics." Then I saw you compare it with physics and politics majors, and I said, "I'm a physics major and politics minor." Then I saw what you wrote about General Motors and was compelled to leave a comment because those are my thoughts exactly. It isn't so much that GM needs to make thousands of lay-offs or cheap marketing deals so much as they just need to make better carsI chose physics because I knew that it was my last chance really to explore a science because while you can still do graduate study in law or economics or public policy with only an undergraduate degree in physics, you can't go on to get a PhD in physics without an undergraduate degree in physics. An undergrad physics degree is actually very versatile, I'm told, since it

[squyd]

And their cars aren't even poor quality, I've had a chevy suburban that's like ten years old and still runs fine. It's that their cars don't fit the needs of the market right now.

I was talking to an economist at Cal today, and he's amazing and he had a degree in physics, too. According to him, all the really good economists were either math majors or physics majors at the undergrad level. So I'm now rethinking whether I want to ditch physics.

No worries, as long as strangers don't try to give me candy, they're usually alright. Luck to you as well.