Yes, economics teachers in Japan are just as dorky as their American counterparts.
I personally don’t like my economics class at all. If I have to sit through another hour and a half of examples using apples and pears, I’m going to loose it.
Today was really something else though. Today we talked about, or rather he talked and we listened about probabilities of something happening in any given situation. Yes, that’s right, we first started by learning how to effectively gamble. Next week I’m hoping for his recommendations about which pachinko parlor is the best. The next example was even better. Enough of the frivolous things like gambling your life away, now it’s time to learn how to make important decisions in our lives … using probability and the expectations theory.
So, what’s the most important decision a Japanese person will ever make in their life? Why which company to enter of course. But rest assured, we could apply this theory to ANY decision, even which girl to chose when more then one ‘confesses their love for you’ at the same time. It’s simple, just take the amount of ‘happiness’ you can expect to get from any of the girls and combine that with the chance that you’ll be able to keep the girl if you accept her offer. The girl that gives you the most happiness for the greatest assurance of stability is the girl for you!
Yea, because we all know this guy has been in this situation before. Please, lets go back a few weeks and review some material. First, an indifference curve charting the chances of my teacher getting a chick compared to his years studying economics.
Now he’s kinda cute, in a pudgy dorky kind of way, so I we will assume that he had a 25% chance of getting a chick when he first started studying economics as a college freshmen. But the more he studies the more frequent his nose bleeds become, and the less attractive he becomes as well. However why he’s a junior, he’s beginning to look better in the eyes of a Japanese girl because he’ll probably get a good job, which means money. As a new graduate, his at his peak with an amazing 50% chance of getting a chick. He’s got a good job, a teacher at a prestigious university, which equals good money, PLUS the added benefit of always being busy at work, never around to cramp the wife’s style. But what you don’t see on this graph is what happens from this point on.
If he doesn’t get a chick with his new found money, social status, and non-pesky-ness, he will spiral into decline as he spends more and more time in an office or in a classroom lecturing with less and less contact with actual human beings. However, an increase in his income would cause his ‘chances of getting a chick’ indifference curve to shift up as chicks that were previously out of his reach now our. Unfortunately, an increase in income would probably mean a promotion, which means more time spent at work, less chance to meet people, in turn causing his curve to shift down.
Anyways, in class the expectations theory being applied to proper ‘chick choosing’ was only only mentioned in passing. Instead the actual example he worked through in class was how to choose an employer. Let’s say there are three companies you took the entrance exams for, A B and C. Your preferred ranking is as follows: A>B>C. You’re already got the okay from C and can start working for sure, B has said you’re good for go, and they want you to commit by signing a contract. You’re #1 choice, A is still up in the air. Here’s the problem; B wants you to sign a binding contract with them BEFORE the results to your interview and test with company A are released. If you say okay to B and then find out that you could have worked at A, you’re stuck at B for the rest of your life knowing you could have had it better at A. Adversely, if you told B ‘no thanks’ and waited for A hoping you would get in only to find out they tell you ‘no thanks’, then you’re stuck at C with no future (and no chicks!). Well, Mr. Economics says we can apply the expectations theory to all those difficult choices in life, so lets see how it works for this one.
It’s actually quite simple, take the chances of you getting accepted to company A (a1), and multiply it by the happiness you could get by working at company A (Ua). Now take the chance of you NOT getting into company A (a2) and multiply it by the happiness you can expect to get from working at company C (Uc). Now add both of these numbers together and you get variable Y. Put that aside for a second, now take the happiness you could get from company B and set that to equal X. Now we compare X and Y. If X is greater then Y, then we settle for the job at company B, if Y is greater then X, then we take the chance at getting into our first choice, company A.
I have a better answer. Go to America where not everything is decided by tests, where you have more then a one month window in your lifetime to choose your job for entire life and you can quit your job and change to a new one without the new one being McDonalds.
Now don’t get me wrong, he’s actually a fun guy because he says lots of stupid stuff like this all the time, and I don’t think even he takes himself seriously. He’s also married and drives a classic 1960′s Corvette.
Anyways, I thought I’d put my notes for the day up too. Even if you don’t understand Japanese, I think you can see how dull class is.
ahah,it’s quite funny!