Reflections after Monday AM Econ

I had a fun first day!  Jamestown is an interesting opportunity to examine how incentives and private property can make the difference in survival or not.  It continues to work to this day with the examples of whether countries are prosperous or not.

As I was saying,  I was in Cuba - a country of real problems with incentives and private property rights.   This picture shows

The Communist government led by the Castros lets a person own their own apartment - and many Cubans have great apartments with many of the features we  have in our apartments. Frankly,  I was surprised at what I saw.  But there is no ownership or infrastructure (word from your readings) to maintain the building or the streets.  Hence,   things are a bit of a mess.  There are no incentives to try to fix more than what you know you own.  So, when you walked the streets and into the walk ups to apartments,  when the doors opened and you saw bright colors and 54-inch flat screen tvs playing Game of Thrones - I had an aha moment about Jamestown.  

Early in the history of the United States - the colonists figured that out and in a New World where the old traditions of Europe could not be enforced - our country quickly developed.  

We also talked about profit and psychic income as incentives to work.  More about that next week!  In the meantime,  begin to think about the role of incentives in the choices that you make.  

I also discovered that you are all too nice.  Usually with this simulation I have people screaming, threatening, and eating all the candy in front of the workers.  People went on strike a lot sooner.