Business 1050 was taken as a general requirement, and a pre requisite for a business degree. I anticipated this course to be an overview of business practices, but was surprised to find that the main objective was to highlight the importance of critical thinking in business. I am happy to say that this course has shown the weak spots in my education, and highlighted some of my strong reasoning skills. I am pleased that I chose this course. Below is one of my assignments completed.
Annalee Schille
Bus-1050-042
June 3, 2013
Assignment 7
Standard Six
1. The Economic Revolution was written by Robert L. Heilbroner. He was an American economist, and author of at least 20 books, including the The Worldly Philosophers. Heilbroner was a well educated economist, and he was elected Vice President of the American Economic Association in 1972.
2. The Economic Revolution is about the turn of the mind set of man from doing common good, to making profit for personal wealth. For as long as man had known, at this time period, things were traded and work was done for survival. A new notion that personal riches could be attained was not an easily accepted idea, and in turn, a revolution of sorts would be required to change the way business was done.
3. The Economic Revolution was written in 1953. During this year, the Soviet Union had a new leader, following the death of Stalin. The United States has a new president in Eisenhower. During this time, the world was struggling to make peace with each country. A new revolution, so to speak, was happening with changes during post World War II.
4. The Economic Revolution was most likely written in New York, NY, since this is where Heibroner was born and spent his life. During this post World War II era, many new ideas in business and philosophy seem to have been taking shape on the East coast.
5. The Economic Revolution is definitely relevant to the study of modern business because it is important to understand the history of economics and where the first ideology originated. Without knowing the history, mistakes can be repeated. Also, new ideas can be started by studying the philosophies of centuries ago.
6. This text was surprisingly interesting to me. I always find myself fascinated by the people in history who were the “Pioneers” of any new idea, and by those who were so passionate in their ideas to push forward no matter what the obstacles. I can’t imagine a world today where custom and command still prevailed.
Text Specific
1. Heilbroner assumes that the reader knows that man came down from the trees because he agrees with Darwinism, which implies evolution. If evolution is true, man evolved from apes, who lived in trees.
2. The sole reason man has succeeded in perpetuating himself at all is because man is a socially cooperative creature.
3. Cooperation is more conducive to survival of the species than self-centeredness, because when man becomes self-centered, the working world becomes disorganized and chaotic.
4. The conflict between self-centeredness and cooperation takes care of itself in a primitive environment when people have to work together to survive. But when people begin to step away from cooperation, and self-centeredness kicks in, a society may not be able to survive.
5. Modern Society hangs by a hair because if man decides to stop working cooperatively, and choose profit seeking tasks, the community faces the possibility of breakdown. If the farmers don’t produce enough crops, or the miners stop mining, or the construction workers stop building, the society may fall apart. The human society all works in a chain reaction.
6. There are three methods humanity has developed to guard against social collapse. The first is handing down varied and necessary tasks from generation to generation. For example, a family may always do the same occupation. The second is by authoritarian rule. Consequences are held for those who do not complete a task. The third is the “market system”, where each person does as his best monetary advantage.
7. Examples of tradition-based societies would be a grandfather who was a mason taught the trade to his son (the father) who then taught the trade to his son, and so forth. The tradition carries through generations, all who use the same trade or profession.
8. Examples of societies using Authority-based thinking making important decisions are the pyramids being built in ancient Egypt, and the Five Year Plan in the Soviet Union.
9. The “Market System” works by each person doing what is best for their own monetary advantage. Each individual would do as they saw fit.
10. If custom and command no longer ran the world, the dirty work of society would only be done with a revolution.
11. The change from custom and command of the past to the Market Economics of the present represents a revolution because revolution, by definition, can mean: activity or movement designed to effect fundamental changes in the socioeconomic situation. This specifically is what was done when man began to move away from custom and command, and begin to seek personal wealth.
12. The view of personal gain in the interval from the fall of Rome to the end of the middle ages was that economic life and social life was one and the same thing. There was no such thing as personal gain.
13. The medieval world could not depart from custom and command because there was no need for any sale of land, profit for personal gain, or for the deviation away from lords and their servants. That idea was completely foreign to them.
14. After the revolution, society viewed the profit motive with some resistance. They had a dread of change.
15. The Renaissance meant the rise of personal gain because during this time period, merchants moved from custom and command to realizing the profits that could be made by expanding their businesses to other areas and to adding in banking to their trading. The Hanseatic League was created to protect the merchants, and many notable men took their businesses to new levels never seen or thought of before.
16.
17. The market system must understand the relationship between land, labor, and capitol because they all coincide with each other. One must labor to gain capitol, to acquire land, for example.
18. Enclosure was a process of transferring common property to private property. No longer was the use of land for common usage of the land, but no for “rent” or for sole usage of the owner.
19. The decay of Religious Spirit contributed to the rise of Capitalism, and the Market System by allowing man to seek the wealth and riches more than the acceptance of a God. Protestantism allowed men to accept that it is worthy to profit from their talents and seek riches from them.
20. Scientific curiosity became the most important factor contributing to the economic revolution because it made innovation and experimentation a friendly idea. Merchants were now able to invent new ideas to expand their businesses, and it was accepted by the masses.
21. Early mercantilists would say “we must keep the poor, poor” because without the ignorant & poor, there would be no one to do an honest days’ work and labor without expecting a large paycheck.
22. Some would call Adam Smith the Antichrist because he showed the world how to expand the wealth for the good of oneself, instead of serving God. Others may refer to him as the father of the New World Order for the exact same reason; he was part of the new world economic revolution.
Vocabulary
1. revolution: activity or movement designed to effect fundamental changes in the socioeconomic situation.
2. Precapitalist: before the time of a person who has capital especially invested in business; broadly : a person of wealth
3. Impetus: stimulation or encouragement resulting in increased activity
4. Shepe: Wages; hire.
5. Pyrotechnic: a combustible substance
6. Enclosure: the process of changing land from common use to private use.
7. Insidiously: awaiting a chance to entrap.
8. Economic progress: Christopher Columbus, Cortez, and Francis Drake were all agents of economic progress; moving the economy in a new direction.
9. Bullionists: group of pamphlateers and essayists who wrote on the trade.
10. Melee: a confused struggle; especially : a hand-to-hand fight among several people
