79-04-B8

- Main Page \ Reagan Radio Commentaries \ 1979

<< Previous Broadcast

Next Broadcast >>

Student Economists

Transcript Someone once called economics "the dismal science", but there's nothing dismal about it for a few hundred junior high school students who are taking an unusual course in the subject in Texas, Colorado, Iowa and California. Called "Understanding Our Economic System", the course was developed by the University of the Pacific's Center for the Development of Economics Education. Basically, it is the study of how people produce, distribute and consume goods and services. According to both students and teachers, the course is anything but dry. By using examples of goods, services and institutions that touch on the youngsters' daily lives it deals with things that interest them. For example, the course has them trace the origin of a pair of blue jeans for sale in a local store. The trail takes them to the manufacturer, the textile mill, a cotton farm -- even the banks that lend the money to the various producers. Dr. Elmer Clawson, director of the Center that created the course says "We aren't teaching comparative economics or survival skills, but how the economy works." Funding for the pilot course came from Foundation for Teaching Economics, whose founder, J. L. Hume, reasoned that a lot of legislation and regulation which hampers the smooth functioning of the U.S. economy has been the result of widespread ignorance about the basic economics. "Jack" Hume believes that those junior high school students who learn the basics today will be more savvy adults; adults who understand that their own self-interest is closely linked to a smoothly functioning market economy. The same reasoning underlies another economic education institution, but this one is beamed at workers in American business and industry. It's the Center for the Study of Private Enterprise at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Headed by economist Dr. Arthur Laffer, this Center has as its purpose the development of information programs about basic aspects of the economy which companies can give to their employees. The causes and effects of inflation is one program. Through newsletters, posters, payroll envelope stuffers and other media, the program traces the history of inflation and nails the basic cause -- continuous government deficits. There have been programs on the role of productivity, profits, taxes and such current issues as the social security tax increases. In the three years since it began, the Center for the Study of Private Enterprise has developed a list of more than 2,000 U.S. companies which regularly get its materials. Like the Foundation for Teaching Economics, this Center began as the idea of one man, Justin Dart of Dart Industries, who believed that economics was not a "dismal science". This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 79-04-B8 Production Date 6-Mar1979 Book/Page N/A Audio Youtube? No
		Added Notes