My church is considering having a series of Wednesday night "Sunday-school-like" classes, with a service, dinner, and then several "breakout" groups in the classrooms of its school.
I was thinking a good series for one of the groups would be a semester-length course on economics from a Christian viewpoint.
The motivation for this course is that many Christians (especially Episcopalians, but other denominations as well) don't understand economics, and are easily swayed by "bad ideas" they hear (both at home and abroad on missions).
My "thought" was to present the basic economic toolkit in a series of lectures, each dealing with a "particular problem", and then to drag in guest lecturers to speak about their experiences in third-world countries.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to proceed, or what type of outline I should put together? I don't want to just pull out my micro syllabus from the last time I taught, but I wanted to do something that is relavant to the concerns of my fellow church members.
Does anyone have a good "textbook" that would be interesting to follow, or a format suggestion? Again, this is in the "maybe I have an idea" stage.
You might want to try Gene Callahan's Economics for Real People it's a really great introductory text that's easy to follow and does not suppose any prior knowledge.
I would help more but I don't really know what sort of people you're teaching, in terms of prior economic knowledge and age, so it makes it difficult. Great idea though, and if it helps you could look at this: http://mises.org/classroom/syllabus.asp
If you look through that you'll get a feel for what sort of texts Austrians use in their own classes.
"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows"
Bob Dylan
Scott Grizzard:Does anyone have any suggestions on how to proceed, or what type of outline I should put together? I don't want to just pull out my micro syllabus from the last time I taught, but I wanted to do something that is relavant to the concerns of my fellow church members.
You might want to have a format somewhat like Economics in One Lesson where you focus on fallacies, and showing why they are false.
Thomas Woods has great articles about these sorts of things. Here's an article by him.
Abstract liberty, like other mere abstractions, is not to be found.
- Edmund Burke
I also would recommend "Economics in One Lesson". I think it is downloadable somewhere here on the Mises site. Or maybe "Economics for Real People" by Gene Calahan, which is downloadable.
Have you tried contacting Robert Murphy? He is a Christian and may be sympathetic enough to the cause to help out(?) His works may also be useful.
Greg
Christians, like the general population don't understnd economics, major misconcpetions really are founded on derivations of the labour theory of value. I woul at the beginning outline basic economic theory using to refute anti-subjectivist economic positions then apply this to the areas which they are most concerned: protectionism, sweatshops and third world development , the environment which covers the "left" and to defence, education and policing to the "right"; and for both of them banking as you may get quite a bot of cross party support.
The atoms tell the atoms so, for I never was or will but atoms forevermore be.
Yours sincerely,
Physiocrat
I had some furthur thoughts for an outline:
It may be two long... I think the spring "semester" of Wednesday night programs is going to be from Janurary to May, so I might not have 22 weeks. Also, I wanted more topics that could be taught by other people, instead of me. I am thinking of trying to get a professor or two from USF to teach the special topics, but I am not sure if I can.
Does anyone have any suggestions for readings or additional topics? I am just trying to throw "all the ideas" up on the board, and trim them down later.
Thou Shall Not Steal.
Taxation is theft!
Voilà! Class dismissed!
Conza88: Thou Shall Not Steal. Taxation is theft! Voilà! Class dismissed!
Thou shalt not murdereth!
That's very libertarian.
Also, there's Gray North's Capitalism and the Bible: http://www.garynorth.com/public/department57.cfm
I had one more idea - a lecture on monopoly pricing (tying to medical drug prices) After the Supply and Demand lecture.
I am trying to keep the outline as politically neutral as possible (yes, good economics implies Libertarianism, but I want to stick to economics). I also want to present both Austrian and Neo-Classical economics, taking tools from both. I think that would be more engaging than a 20 week rant about what is wrong with the government.
For these reasons, I am hesitant to use Economics for Real People as a text book - I would much rather have something with the tone of Ekelund, Ressler, and Tollison's textbook for Microeconomics, but I don't want them to need to buy the book (rather stick to free resources), and I don't want to present it as a college class that a) is difficult and b) builds upon itself from lesson to lesson.
I want to keep the lectures as isolated from one another as possible, with the acknowledgement that marginal utility and supply and demand cannot be taken in isolation.
I also want to present the basic principles of economics as tools to look at the world and decide what to do, not to say what should be done. My general guideline is this: if an argument is accepted by most newly graduating economists as bull $%#, (like Keynsianism), then it's fair game for critisim without a "balanced opinion".
I want people to get from the course a few main points:
Economic "General Rules"
I had a thought about the "General Rules" of economics I wanted to teach, with the basic intention of saying "If it appears one of these are being violated, there is something fishy going on". I want to say "General Rules" because then you don't have to go into all of the mathematical detail associated with the Law of Demand (Hicksian demand curves are downward sloping), etc., or get into arguments about whether or not the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility is tautological or not.
I think the best single thing you can teach your class is the 'economic way of thinking', teach them to look for the unseen.
they can learn economic laws on their way, when it helps them in their analysis, they will thus integrate this *by doing* which is a powerful memory technique, and the fact that these rules are demonstratably useful motivates the learning of such rules, rather than "what good are all these rules?" syndrome.
don't underestimate how many accomplished economists started out on hazlitt, nor how many professors still set it as mandatory course text.
Where there is no property there is no justice; a proposition as certain as any demonstration in Euclid
Fools! not to see that what they madly desire would be a calamity to them as no hands but their own could bring
Of liberal Christians that I know, a few things may need coverage. And I think it would be wise to consider these problems since I've found many liberal Christians aren't really as liberal as one may assume.
1. The significance of private charity vs 'public' charity [Welfare].
2. The reasons why safety regulations in food, medicine, workplaces, and other areas are negative contributors to the public welfare.
3. [Any additional issues of fairness, price controls, and etc].
"The power of liberty going forward is in decentralization. Not in leaders, but in decentralized activism. In a market process." -- liberty student
nirgrahamUK: I think the best single thing you can teach your class is the 'economic way of thinking', teach them to look for the unseen. they can learn economic laws on their way, when it helps them in their analysis, they will thus integrate this *by doing* which is a powerful memory technique, and the fact that these rules are demonstratably useful motivates the learning of such rules, rather than "what good are all these rules?" syndrome. don't underestimate how many accomplished economists started out on hazlitt, nor how many professors still set it as mandatory course text.
I agree, but again, I am trying to avoid the apperance of being biased, and Hazlett's book, while important, talks about nothing but issues after the first chapter.
I have no idea of how to present the material without taking a side, but I am determined to try. How, though, can you present an economics that people might be interested in without talking about specific issues?
Perhaps I could start as being unbiased, and then move into more "controversial" issues, but I don't know how to do that either...
You can still teach them the "unseen". Talk about the minimum-wage laws for example. Show them the short term benefits for a few. Then show them the long term problems. And so on.
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