John Maynard Keynes Econ 490 fall 2017

In Ocean’s 11 (2001) a group of eleven men, gather together to rob a casino in Las Vegas. As a side note the Las Vegas Strip and pretty much everything that Las Vegas is known for is actually in Paradise, Nevada. Paradise is an unincorporated town, which allows the casinos to pay fewer taxes. The leader of the group (Ocean) is trying to get his ex-wife back from the man who runs the casino that the group is going to rob.  This leads to a conflict between the group. While the majority of the group are only there for the heist, Ocean and his friend are there for the money and Ocean’s ex-wife. In the beginning the rest of the group does not know about Ocean’s secondary mission. Throughout the movie more people find out about it, until the problem comes to head and everyone confronts Ocean. Ocean’s motivations are pretty simple, he loves his wife and so he wants her back. The heist is a way for this to happen, while allowing him to mess with his wife’s current boyfriend. The rest ...

I found the third article “The Power of Altruism” to be really interesting. In every example but one that David Brooks, the author, givers there is only a mechanism meant to dissuaded a certain behave and not one meant to encourage. In every example that he gives there is only one mechanism involved. This mechanism is meant to either dissuade or to encourage. Each example does not provide the carrot and the stick. It either provides the carrot OR the stick. This strikes me as incomplete. In the two “stick” examples the people involved are given a mandate. You will be punished if you have already taken 15 sick days and you take another, or you will be punished if you do not pick up your kids. In both of these cases the participants are not give an incentive. Brooks says that “arrangements that arouse the financial lens alone are messing everything up.”  I do not think that this is true. I think the major problem with all of these example is that the mechanisms do not fit with the p...