Class Summary #10 for 9/23/11

Today's class involved Prof. Rizzo continuing to share facts about our societal improvements.

Some of the facts he mentioned were:

1. In earlier days, there was no threat of nuclear war but bubonic plagues were rampant because of the lack of medical care. Nowadays, our medical technology prevents bubonic plagues but nuclear war is very well a possibility. We had no nuclear wars before because we are poor, now that we are rich we have that threat.
2. We have fewer conflicts and less deaths in war than before, which results in having more people alive today.
3. Despite the common belief of many, we have not wrecked the environment we have today to accomplish all we have accomplished. Around the world, resources are more abundant than ever. Every single resource is more abundant than before. The belief that the extravagant western lifestyle came at the expense of the environment is a myth.
4. The environment is also in better shape today than before- we have better air and water quality.
5. Many studies have shown that America is no more happier than poor countries, despite the fact that America is one of the richest countries. Political and social liberation is what seems to be where happiness comes from, not money.
6. Suicides have increased in US in the past 50 years. Potential reasoning for this? As Prof. Rizzo says:
1. there is better technology than ever to commit suicide, and there are different benefits/costs of committing suicide than there were in the past.
7. Although we continue to improve economically as a society, there has indeed been a slowdown in economic growth in recent years.
1. Biggest difference in terms of technology: between great-grandparents vs. grandparents, as opposed to parents and me. This shows growth is indeed slowing down.
8. Another phrase for the Industrial Revolution is the Commercial Revolution.

Prof. Rizzo then went on to talk about children in today's society vs. the past, which I found to be very interesting. Economically, this is how we think about children today:

1. Today: Child quality if more important than child quantity
2. Before: Quantity was more important than quality

Today, many people prefer to have productive, smart children over having a lot of unintelligent children. This explains why the average fertility rate per woman has fell in poor countries from 6 to 3 since 1950.

It is interesting when you think about it because in the past, people had a lot of children so the kids could help with chores and tend to the farm. Today, that is not how society is run as much of society is suburban nowadays. Now, families are content with only having a few children because we have more money and don't need to have a lot of children to help with work. As the poor moves up in society as well, they are needing less and less children and the children even become somewhat of a financial burden in some instances as having kids is expensive (raising them, buying things, medical bills, etc.)

The bottom line is that throughout human history, parents aren't making monetary profit off kids, especially in contemporary times.