We welcome back Lev Moscow of the Beacon School to discuss his approach to teaching political economy, which actually applies to any social science. It’s not primarily about the numbers but about the human choices behind them. How do we determine who gets paid what and who gets to spend 80,000 hours in a lifetime engaged in meaningful work? Also, how our mantra of continuous economic growth will end life as we know it.
Overview
00:00-00:39 Intros
00:39-02:25 Why teach economics
02:25-08:55 “What Money Can’t Buy”: When are markets corrupted; ethics of markets
08:55-12:34 “Political economy” as distinguished from “economics”
12:34-18:09 Consequences of using increasing growth as metric of healthy economy
18:09-22:43 Ethical questions of teaching from textbooks that don’t correspond to how things work
22:43-26:20 Education for democracy vs education for workforce preparation
26:20-30:36 “80,000 Hours”: Encouraging students to think of maximizing the potential usefulness of their work lives
30:36-32:43 Grades as part of the economic system
32:43-35:37 Supporting young women to become economists
35:37-37:00 Outro
Transcript
Click here to see the full transcription of this episode.
References
Soundtrack by Podington Bear
Photo by Thomas De Luze
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