Popping the Grad School Bubble
I've learned a lot of microeconomic theory this year, especially now since I'm a TA for 100A. But everyday I feel further and further from reality. There's something about doing math problems and solving nonlinear programming problems that prys you away from the real world. Firms are Ys, inputs are Xs, consumers are Us. It's like we're examing sand on a beach, noting that they're made of silica, that if we melt them they turn to glass. They are rough when examined closely and of different shapes and sizes and colors. Like examining sand individually, there hasn't been much so far in grad school that has passed the "so what" test for me, yet I'm still here. The reason, I think, is because I want to see the beach -- to see how everything, how each grain of sand, fits together. I want to bury myself in it for a few moments and feel it with my belly, maybe find the sun glinting off it and find some satisfaction and beauty in what I'm studying. I want to build a sand castle... this no longer has anything to do with grad school or economics. I just want to hit the beach, go sailing.
Or, as a close substitute, read more about the real world: trade, social security and universal health care.
The Trade Tightrope By PAUL KRUGMAN You can't blame the Democrats for making the most of the Bush administration's message malfunction on trade and jobs. When the president's top economist suggests, even hypothetically, considering hamburger-flipping a form of manufacturing, it's a golden opportunity to accuse the White House of being out of touch with the concerns of working Americans. ("Will special sauce now be counted as a durable good?" Representative John Dingell asks.) And the accusation sticks, because it's true.