This blog contains posts and comments written by students in Dr. Tufte's economics classes at Southern Utah University.
3/05/2010
Pride? What is it good for?
After Speaking to Dr. Tufte, he gave me a cite that i found very interesting. Countries don't trade with each other people do. A country is nothing but a borderline of land, so why do some think that we must compete with others? I'm going to take the viewpoint that our "pride" is created by a cultural institution that makes us want to be better people; better than the next you could say. This pursuit to be better is a strong economic drive. We eliminate complacency and low self-satisfaction of our own lives and we search out our dreams. Many may have seen this mindset does not exist outside of our country borders when visiting third world countries. We have no limitations which makes us want to be better. Pride is a good thing as an individual basis which creates "pride" for our country.
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Pride and hopes of becoming better is what brings most of us to college. Incentives to become successful and become financially/economically better off are what creates progress. ~ "Pride is a personal commitment. It is an attitude which separates excellence from mediocrity." ~ Unknown
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Pride and hopes of becoming better is what brings most of us to college. Incentives to become successful and become financially/economically better off are what creates progress. ~ "Pride is a personal commitment. It is an attitude which separates excellence from mediocrity." ~ Unknown
Found@
The type of pride that drives one to excel is founded in one's own actions and abilities. However, the kind of pride discussed in this post is distinctive from self-pride. Pride in the accomplishments of others who live the same area is not rational. For example, you or I getting a sense of accomplishment, because us the number of medals the US received in the Olympics, or similarly fans of a sports team taking pride in the accomplishments of "their team". If one did not contribute to the success or failure of the group it is not reasonable to take pride in the accomplishments of the group.
In my opinion, the competition between human beings has existed since the beginning of the world. We compete for such things as being the first ones to watch a movie, the best one in a sport or being the richest one. We compete against our families and friends, so how are we going to avoid competing with other countries as a nation? I think this is impossible according to the way our minds and thoughts are set.
I'm torn.
This sentiment is not rational (points to Menger) but it very human.
I would add, though, that in the examples mentioned that we're talking about outcomes or consequences, rather than motivations. There are a lot more people who like the outcome of medals being won by Americans than there are people who use being American as a motivation for their athletic actions.
Having said that, when we make policy, there is certainly a big divide between people who judge policy based on motivations and those who judge them based on outcomes or consequences.
So, here's the problem. When we look at trade with China and decide we don't like the numbers, we are making an irrational but human judgment about outcomes. But, when we turn around and use that as a motivational tool to justify policy (they are doing bad things, so we need to do something in response) it isn't clear that we're doing anything at all to address the outcome that bugged us in the first place.
With my opinion stated, "self-pride" is what creates the cultural institution and i believe this pride to be very strong in the founding fathers. They wanted something new and to be better than the next. We know that most of those around us, or those in our imaginary border lines, also want the same thing - to be better than the next. The USA has made it's own economic drive. What is it?
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