For the 9am MWF class today we did a lab in class. And then you assigned a lab after that. Was that lab due this Friday (3/28) or on Monday. Thanks

The Free-Rider Lab is due on Monday (March 31) for the 9am and 10am MWF sections.

You described this as ultimately a 'redistribution of income' from tax payers to farmers.  Aren't all purchases or transactions involving money a 'redistribution of income'?  I think this can be looked at another way.  When we agree as a country to support farmers with price supports what we're doing is paying for the culture we want.  We as a nation (assuming our representative government is representing us) want to support the tradition of having farmers make up a part of our nation and culture.  Without the price supports the free market would eliminate or greatly reduce these farmers and impact our culture accordingly.  So we've decided to pay for this culture by supporting farmers through government price supports.  Is this thinking still economically correct?

While voluntary market trades (or transactions) are facilitated by an exchange of money, the essence of such trades is that both buyer and seller experience net gains--otherwise they wouldn't voluntarily make such exchanges.  Arguably, taxes represent an involuntary transfer of resources.  You are probably correct in your assessment that without price supports there would be fewer farmers.  The decision to support agricultural prices at artificially high prices is clearly a political decision, perhaps motivated, as you suggest, by some notion of preserving the farming way of life.  The point I was trying to make is that such a choice does not come free: somebody's got to pay for this "way of life"!    (Willie Nelson, where are you?)

This has nothing to do with class it is pertaining to the lab assignment.  i have major issues with the fact that i am already paying an insane amount of money to go to this school and i still have to use all my paper and all my ink to print out assignments.  it irritates me to no end that each and every week i am using at the very least 10 pages of my paper and my ink.  the least you could do was run copies of our assignments.

There is nothing to prevent you from simply downloading the documents and completing them in electronic fashion, thereby avoiding all paper and ink!  I would be quite happy to accept such electronic documents.  Alternatively, you could go to any of the computer labs on campus and print the documents there (of course, this would cost you the opportunity cost of your time to trek over to one of these labs).

I liked working on the problems some, since some people probably don't do them out of class, it was probably very helpful.

I am shocked to discover that some students are not working on the problem set out of class! LOL
As I've said many times before: the best way to learn economics is by doing economics.  This means working through the questions on the problem sets.

I was just wondering how much of our grade comes from Aplia on the computer? Thanks.

Homework counts for 15% of your course grade. I suspect you'll have at least 15 assignments over the course of the semester (covering material from Aplia and those questions coming from my own problem sets).  I will drop your lowest 6 scores and then calculate your average homework score.

We talked about the Production Possibilities frontier concept. I especially enjoyed the way that Dr. D used familiar examples to explain the lesson. The time where he asked students questions about their smoking habits seemed somewhat intrusive, but that was merely from my perspective, as the students answered the questions freely.

I appreciate your concern about students' personal lives becoming public knowledge.  Students are under no obligation to reveal anything personal if they choose not to.  I was merely trying to illustrate that the economic way of thinking can be applied to a wide variety of human behaviors, including the decision to smoke.

I have to be honest....I think that Aplia is an extremely frustrating and boring system....I definitely like the text much more.  I still have no idea where the questions that are being asked are located, and I still don't know what is due when?  All I can seem to find is answers, but no questions.

The homework questions on Aplia do not come from the textbook.  They are self-contained questions that provide you an opportunity to apply what you are learning about in the classroom and from your own reading.  I would be curious as to why you feel Aplia is frustrating?  The due dates for the homework assignments are clearly displayed on the Aplia course page.  I am also not sure what you are referring to in your last sentence.  Please contact me soon so you are not at a disadvantage as the semester progresses.

Good use of the worksheet.  I personally found it very helpful and the explanation that went along with it.  Also helped with Aplia.

I aim to please!  Sometimes, it's necessary to approach a problem from several angles before you finally get a grip on what's going on.  If you ever feel that the material is not making sense, or you don't see the purpose, let me know so that I can try a different approach on you.

Great lecture today. It was entertaining and very helpful. Keep up the good work.

Gosh, either you guys are brown-nosing big time, or I'm getting better with age!

I liked it very much, able to relate a complicated concept in everyday terms through example.

It's a good idea to always challenge me to come up with a real world example of any theory that I present or you come across in the readings.  Economics is something that you should be able to apply yourselves in your daily lives--but, it takes practice!

I liked how we outlined what we were learning and used examples to help us understand the information.  I also think that you did a good job of keeping the class interested for 3 hours.

Thanks for the compliment.  I think the best way to learn economics is by applying what you learn.  That's the role of examples and the homework questions....practice, practice, practice!  Remember: Come to class with at least one question in mind and you'll have a more fruitful learning experience!

Nice way of breaking the ice and introduction.

Hmmm....I suspect this student is referring to my request for an email detailing your concert attendance history. Economics can be used in a wide variety of situations, even analyzing concert attendance.  Based on your email responses, by far and away the most popular musician viewed by students in my classes is Dave Mathews.

"I was wondering if there are going to be more extra credit opportunities offered?"

Yes, there will be additional bonus point opportunities toward each exam.

"I'm so glad you use real life examples in class.  Aplia uses illogical situations about producing ice cubes and fur hats, just as the book picks two items at random to make into an example.  I don't see how anyone is going to relate to giving up 4.5 CDs for 1 measly bottle of water.  I wouldn't give up on CD for a bottle of water; the logic behind the example  is lost to me because I'm too busy wondering who, in the US, would choose to give up 4.5 CDs to get a bottle of water.  Perhaps it's just me, but I like the crimes and cars examples - it just makes good sense.  Thanks"

Admittedly economics is an abstract science and sometimes the product choices used for the examples may seem alien to some.  However, don't lose sight of the general principles being described in the problems.  Regarding CDs and Bottled Water (or Ice Cubes versus Fur Hats), the PPF merely illustrates the opportunity cost of producing one more unit of a good.  It is a fact of economic life that scarcity forces us to give up some goods in order to get more of others.  The rate at which we must trade off the production of these goods is largely governed by the technology of the production process.

"Good job keeping it interesting. I really liked the crime examples that we have done and almost everything has been related to some aspect of real life. I found the repitition on the PPF's to be a little boring because of the aplia assignment. If people did the assignment than they should have already known about them. But overall, this is turning out to be one of my most interesting classes this semester. Not what I expected at all, especially after being told how hard it would be."

Thanks for the compliment.  I will try to do a better job of avoiding repetitive questions regarding the Aplia assignments in the future.

"This Aplia program is very confusing.  I have been talking to some students who are in and have been through your economics class and have showed them this Aplia program and they are confused by it.  Not the concepts, but the wording and the lack of clarification in the problem questions.  I think we need to go over the concepts more in class before we go into the problems because most of the Aplia concepts we haven't even gone over before we have to do the problems." [There were a couple of comments along this same train of thought.]

No doubt some questions can be better worded---it would be helpful to me (and to Aplia), however,  if specific questions were identified so that I would know which ones lack clarity.  In the future, don't be bashful about identifying the exact questions.  The comment that we need to go over the concepts more in class before doing problems is a matter of learning theory.  I do not see my job merely as a dispenser of knowledge--students must take an active role in learning on their own to be successful.  I am here to guide your learning and challenge you in new ways of thinking.  Sometimes this means putting the burden on your shoulders to explore the material without much hand-holding.

"It wasn't really about today's class, it's all a matter of aplia.com.  There were so many questions saying the same thing but just a little bit different that I got mixed up and very angry.  I was sick of reading about corn, wheat, dry land, wet land, farmer #1, farmer Jim and the dragging the little dot from point to point.  The assignment was too long and while it taught me patience, I was too aggravated at the end to care what I was reading, doing, or even understanding.  Perhaps if the lesson was shorter, one wouldn't want to tear one's hair out...just a thought"

Point well taken about the length and repetitiveness of the questions.  Though the two assignments for Friday's class were not graded---they were merely practice problems--I will not assign any such lengthy assignment for a grade in the future.  I appreciate your patience regarding the Aplia material as this is a learning experience for me also to some extent.