Monday, 15 June 2015

Unit 0: What I knew before the course

Before the course started

My idea of what the course would teach me

          Before, attending the very first class I was able to create a small outline of what the course would be like as well as, what I might learn from economics. Conversing, with friends who were enrolled in the course in semester one, gave me the impression that the course had relatively easy work with not much thought into actual concepts and theories. However, I was more concerned about actually learning from the material as well as the concepts from the course, which would help answer some questions that I had going into the course. 

Questions before the start of the course

Question 1: How did some countries arrive at the point to choose/adapt capitalism compared to other economic systems, which became quite prevalent in the 20th century?

Question 2: How do government policies like fiscal and monetary policy affect the everyday consumer?

Question 3: How/Why is the wealth gap increasing between the middle class and the 1%?

Question 4: How did the depression help prepare today's economists' actions when economic crises hit? 

Question 5: How does the economy affect the habits and spending patterns of consumers?

The First Day

Instead of receiving the insights or even the slight flow of knowledge necessary to help answer my questions I, instead was welcomed by even more questions followed by, even more as the first month of the course past.