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Example research essay topic: Wall Street Journal Cents An Hour - 1,756 words

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The Invisible Heart: An Economic Romance by Russel Roberts Dr. Roberts has broad experience as a lecturer and consultant and has done extensive research on economics. His jargon-free book on international trade, The Choice: A Fable of Free Trade and Protectionism, was named one of the top 10 books of 1994 by Business Week and one of the best books of 1994 by the Financial Times. Dr. Roberts is a frequent commentator on National Pubic Radio's Morning Edition. In addition to numerous academic publications, he has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other respected publications.

His most recent book, The Invisible Heart: An Economic Romance, is a love story that unravels the "mystery" of economics and trade through a couple's debate over how best to make the world a better place. Dr. Roberts received his PhD in economics at the University of Chicago and his B. A. from the University of North Carolina. In The Invisible Heart a author Roberts doesnt stop at forcing on the general reader 200 -odd pages of economic fare.

He also insists on conveying that material through the improbable device of a fictional love story. The setting is Washingtons toney Sidwell Friends, or some other private high school like it. Sam, the uncultured high school economics teacher, bids for the affection of Laura, the auburn-haired Yale humanist. Alas, their backgrounds differ. Sam subsists on his mini teachers salary. Laura by contrast lives the familiar parents in the wings scenario.

Her school pay is the same as Sams, but her attorney parents sweeten her life with high-end gifts (we hear about a La Pavoni espresso machine). The family home lies on a Georgetown street where the red brick of the buildings seem to sing of money and power. To compound the mismatch, our suitor reckons he can woo his girl with bon mots on school vouchers and diminishing marginal utility. This recipe for disaster somehow proves a triumph is a credit to Mr Roberts abilities as teacher-convinced. Through Sam, he proves that free market thought can be elegant, efficient, and even as aesthetically pleasing as a La Pavoni. Sams case for charity is a good example.

First he lays out the classic arguments for private sector giving over government-subsidised welfare if government subsidy were abolished, citizens would step in, as they did (he reminds us) in periods like the early years of the Great Depression, when there were no big programmes from Washington. Next Sam makes the case that private charity itself is under appreciated, its subtle beauty obscured by the modern and blinkered commitment to a visible public sector. In place of the flabby LBJ and his Great Society, Sam offers Laura the medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides, who believed there were eight levels of charity, the lowest being when the giver gives grudgingly, and the highest, to give a gift that makes the needy person independent. Other levels of the hierarchy reveal other nuances it is better, for example, to give anonymously than not.

The whole construct is so enticing that even the doctrinaire Laura begins to relent. Still, the greater charm of The Invisible Heart lies not in its argumentation but in its insights into the challenges of conveying free market ideals. Sam, like most free marketers, rarely encounters a like spirit in the upper-middle-class salon. That salon habitually mocks him, and quite often, actually ejects him. Alas, this part of the story is not fictional. For whatever reason, our society often derides free market ideas as hackneyed or primitive and ostracizes their advocates.

Years of hostility eventually wear these independent souls down; they develop various neuralgia's and retreat to the intellectual bunker. Rather than go this route, Sam tries to outclass his opponents. When Laura's brother, a Consumer Product Safety Advocate, declares him a snake and throws him out of a Georgetown soiree, he wisely waits things out, rather than strike angrily back. As a sympathetic party, his sister the engineer, explains, in the business world passion is valued, anger or agitation is not So, the next time you feel your thermostat rising, think of the impact on your listeners.

Theyre not going to be impressed with how worked up you are. This is wonderful advice for todays sarcastic conservatives. Corporate life instructs not only about the profit motive but also about the importance of demeanor and equanimity. If free marketers recall this point when they encounter resistance, they will find that Mr. Roberts is right. Love and social acceptance on the one hand and free market thought on the other may make an awkward pair.

However, they are not entirely irreconcilable. The Invisible Heart takes a provocative look at business, economics and regulation through the eyes of Sam and Laura. Lets now look at this book from economic point of view. Sam lives and breathes capitalism. He thinks that most government regulation is unnecessary or even harmful.

He believes that success in business is a virtue. He believes that our humanity flourishes under economic freedom. Laura prefers Wordsworth to the Wall Street Journal. Where Sam sees victors, she sees victims. She wants the government to protect consumers and workers from the excesses of Sam's beloved marketplace. While Sam and Laura argue about how to make the world a better place, a parallel story unfolds across town.

Erica Baldwin, the crusading head of a government watchdog agency, tries to bring Charles Krauss, a ruthless CEO, to justice. How are these two dramas connected? Why is Sam under threat of dismissal? Will Erica Baldwin find the evidence she needs?

Can Laura love a man with an Adam Smith poster on his wall? The answers in "The Invisible Heart" give the reader a richer appreciation for how business and the marketplace transform our lives. This book is also is a tale of love; romance, not only about free-market economics. Although, throughout the book, Sam and Laura engage in debates over how to make the world a better place. They debate economic concepts ranging from private charity to school vouchers.

At one point, they discuss government regulation of big corporations. As we know, Sam is a fan of unrestrained capitalism. Laura believes that corporations should be required to act responsibly that they should treat their workers well, make products that are safe, and care about the community. Nevertheless, what does it really mean to be a responsible firm? "Does the responsible firm never fire a worker?

Always offer health insurance? Day care? Eight weeks of vacation?" (112) Where do you draw the line? They continue the discussion, and Laura brings up a hypothetical example, a shoe company that puts plants in some Asian country and exploits the workers there by paying them 30 cents an hour. While paying this may seem morally wrong, Sam argues, "It beats the alternative, which is earning less than 30 cents an hour, or earning nothing at all. In Indonesia, 30 cents an hour is the living wage.

When a factory comes, the people dance in the streets and line up for the opportunity to be exploited. The tragedy is not that they earned 30 cents an hour. The tragedy is that 30 cents an hour is their best alternative. They are near subsistence because their economy is low on capital and they lack skills and education.

Not because they are being exploited by multinational corporations" (113). Laura argues they should receive a higher wage, but Sam asks who should pay for it. Consumers, in the form of higher prices? Americans who work for the shoe company, in the form of lower wages?

Conversations like this one, where economic concepts are discussed in layman's terms, take place in every chapter of the book. As Sam and Laura engage in passionate debates over such issues, a romance seems to heat up between the two. Across town, a parallel story unfolds. Erica Baldwin, the crusading head of a government watchdog agency, is trying to bring Charles Krauss, a ruthless CEO, to justice. How are these two dramas connected? Why is Sam under threat of dismissal?

Can a wacky, free-market economist and a Ulysses-loving, poetry-reading English teacher find true love? Is it possible that well-intentioned government intervention can actually hurt the very people it aims to help? There is great satisfaction in knowing that your insight, labor, struggle, and failures prevent people from dying, but without the money, there will be less effort. That is one of the reasons Poland and China and Cuba do not lead the world in pharmaceutical innovation. America and Germany do. In addition, the profit motive has driven the pharmaceutical revolution of the last 100 years.

Nevertheless, don't drug companies make enough money already? It would be nice if new drug discoveries were like manna that fell from heaven, but they are not. New drugs come from hours of toil and millions of dollars (The Invisible Heart). I do know what happens when we lower the profits from discovering new drugs. We reduce the incentives to find the yet to be discovered drugs of the next 100 years that can eradicate cancer, heart disease, AIDS and Alzheimer's. It may seem compassionate for the government to take away profits- but politicians always like policies where the benefits come today and the costs come tomorrow.

Still, isn't it wrong for people sick with anthrax to have to pay for something that could save their lives? In addition, when we force or intimidate drug companies to give away their products, we are not really making the drugs free. We are making investors pay for them. Moreover, we are also making our children and grandchildren pay. They will not get the drugs that would have been discovered had we left incentives in place. I would rather have Congress tax all of us to pay for the needed drugs or have charities covered the cost of drugs for people who cannot afford them.

Roberts has an unusual ability to communicate sound economics in clear, simple English. He does an excellent job of explaining complex economic concepts in a very enjoyable way. For this reason, The Invisible Heart is especially useful for both students and teachers, and is a necessary supplement to any economics textbook. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking to understand the basics of free-market economics without formulas, graphs, and numbers.

Words: 1 714 Bibliography: Arnold, Roger A. , Economics, South-Western College Publishing, fifth Edition, 2001. Criticism of the book "Invisible Heart" by Russel Roberts by David Bradley, The Economist, 2003.


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