Subject: SD in the news

Posted by Tim Joy on 12/7/2009
In Reply To:SD in the news Posted by Dan Chay on 12/5/2009

Message:

On feeding frenzy and SD in the news . . .

I can imagine a bulletin board in every school: an archetypal diagram of, say, unintended consequences, accompanied by a lucid explanation, and SURROUNDED by examples from the popular press of "when the best laid schemes o' mice an' men/gang aft agley."

About a month ago, NPR ran a wonderful piece on the fishing v farming economy of Kiribati (somewhere in the Pacific). The fishing grounds were in declining. The government subsidized its citizens to farm rather than fish. It worked. More people farmed. Wealth increased. And around the islands, the fish stocks collapsed. Huh?

The answer to this lies more in human psychology than anywhere else. People like to fish. Farming had worked well, people made money, and the new leisure bought to time to pursue favorite past times - fishing.

Here's the link:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120536304

By the way, the last part of Burns' oft-quoted poem reminds us that those "best laid schemes" usually leave us in "grief an pain/For promised joy!"

Tim Joy
De La Salle North
Catholic High School
Portland, OR