Tag: #indifference curves

Education is life

Today the World is becoming a superficial place. Our time appoints the absurd, making social networks as a real-world by a considerable part of the younger generations.

It is a virtual reality, more precise than high-definition video games, more addictive and harmful to the mind and the body.

This fake reality indeed kills the neurons converting people into zombies led by a leader of unknown appearance.

Ignorance acts as the lock, and manipulation working as the key entering every mind. Then, it hacks and promotes war even over the most absurd topic that any influencer shares in a post.

The social network profile becomes an epicentre of empty universes, universes that conflict with the real-life, where, as in the war, leads to the destruction of entire generations.

Using actualized tools, but the same indoctrination mechanisms used in the world wars. Again, the end justifies it, annulling individuals’ conscience and making them members of the social mass.

Even though each social profile is seemingly unique, there is no perspective on what life is in its essence. The network is a game that only favours some private interests.

We know the truth: countries born from interests, wars arise, passions move. Interests motivate greed. Greed sooner or later destroys life. Life, which, without a doubt, is the only thing we have.

Blood wars are no longer an option in our time across the rich countries. New wars are too expensive and risky.

Wars are now abstract. Wars involve factual powers whose shadow is unknown and whose attacks are directed to control the terrestrial and the extraterrestrial.

The end of empires has never come. In our time, empires are mainly commercial, managing everything that allowed us to be free.

Now empires dictate what to be and how to be.

Indeed, commercial or blood, all war implies the destruction of every trace that makes us human.

Every war, directly and indirectly, destroys our soul and breaks the only thing we take when we leave.

War destroys what we have lived and what we will no longer discover for ceasing to be ourselves.

There are not strong leaders to help us. Corruption and secrets are always leaked by someone who is behind the scenes.

We are the unique leaders of our time; we are the bosses of our destiny.

We must not perish. Responding to Hamlet, the worthiest thing for the soul is to fight for our fortune, live our lives, and rebel against this wild sea of misery.

The only thing that saves us from interest, the only thing that separates us from greed, the only thing that allows us to see reality is education.

However, all education is written by the victors and not by the vanquished. Our salvation involves investigating, delving into every little remorse and lack of meaning of our multiple thoughts.

The only thing that educates us is ourselves.

What do I mean when I say “Education for Life?” I can present the problem and the solution. The problem is that people in traditional forms of education usually approach it from the standpoint of just preparing a person for a job. But one’s job isn’t the definition of one’s life—it’s only that which enables you to have enough money to meet your needs. Our lives encompass a much broader arena than one’s capacity to earn money. Any educational system that teaches only job skills or offers only intellectual information is neglecting the essential needs of human beings. The solution is a form of education that trains us in that which is most relevant to us—how to find lasting happiness in life.

We deeply need proper training in “how-to-live” skills such as how to find the right mate, how to raise our children, how to be a good employee, how to get along with our neighbors, and how to concentrate our minds so that we can draw success into all our endeavors. There are many such skills that are essential to prepare a child for adulthood, and in traditional education many of them are completely ignored. Education for Life is a system that prepares the child to face the challenges of living as a human being, and helps him to achieve balance and harmony in all he does. What we’re really talking about is preparing everyone, not just children, for true maturity. This is a much bigger concept than just coming of age. As defined it in the book, Education for Life, maturity is the ability to relate appropriately to other realities than one’s own. You’ll find that even people of advanced years are often childish and immature with regard to this definition, yet this ability to relate to others’ realities is what education should accomplish.

INDIFFERENCE CURVES

In microeconomics, the study deals with the different individuals and their decisions and its effect on the economy. The decisions such as the level of consumption, savings, investment are never the same. But a consumer strives to get the best deal for his commodities which give him highest satisfaction given the budget constraint. The consumer tries to attain that point in the indifference curve where he can get the most utilities from both goods.

An indifference curve or IC is the graphical representation of combinations of two goods that yield the same level of satisfaction to the consumer. The indifference curve operates on the principle of diminishing Marginal Rate of Substitution(MRS). Every point on the indifference curve shows that an individual or a consumer is indifferent between the two products as it gives him the same kind of utility.

There is also a concept of indifference map which is the graphical representation of two or more indifference curves showing the various combination of commodities with different quantities, which a consumer consumes, given his income and the market price of both the commodities.

Before going forward with IC, let’s look what is Marginal Rate of Substitution.

Marginal Rate of Substitution is the rate at which a consumer substitutes some units of one good or willing to forego units of one commodity for additional units of another good which provides the same level of utility or satisfaction. MRS measures the changes in the units of consumption of the combination of two goods but does not influence the utility.

Formula for calculating is MRSxy = MUy / MUx = Px / Py

where,

MRSxy – Marginal Rate of Substitution of good x and good y

MUy and MUx – Marginal utility of good y and good x respectively

Px and Py- Prices of good x and good y respectively

The indifference curve is convex to the origin because of the diminishing Marginal Rate of Substitution.

ASSUMPTIONS OF INDIFFERENCE CURVES

  • There are only two goods, say good x and good y. It is also assumed that the prices of the commodities are constant.
  • The consumers are rational and thus aim to have the highest utility from the pair of goods. The consumer moves to higher indifference curves for attaining maximum satisfaction.
  • The utilities are ordinal because the utility or the amount of satisfaction cannot be quantified.
  • The income of the consumer is fixed. Thus, there is a budget constraint.
  • There is Diminishing Marginal Rate of Substitution where good y is substituted for good x.

PROPERTIES OF INDIFFERENCE CURVES

  • The indifference curve is convex to the origin due to the decreasing marginal rate of substitution. It can never be concave as it violates law of diminishing marginal utility.
  • The indifference curve is slopes from left to right as one commodity substitutes another.
  • The indifference curves never touch the axes because the assumption states that each point represents different utilities of two goods. If it touches the axes, the utility of one commodity becomes zero.
  • Higher indifference curves represent higher quantities of both the goods and thus higher utility.
  • Two indifference curves never intersect each other because the two curves represent different utilities.

From the above diagram, we can infer that point c is where the consumer is in equilibrium.

Consumer equilibrium is a situation in which a consumer purchases a combination of goods which gives him maximum satisfaction given the income and prices, he is not willing to make any changes in it.

Conditions for consumer equilibrium

  1. Slope of IC = Slope of price line (budget line)
  2. MRSxy=Px / Py

In U1, points a and e cannot be equilibrium points because there are opportunities for consumer to move to U2. Points b and d cannot be equilibrium points because at both points MRSxy is not equal to Px / Py.

At point c in U3, MRSxy= Px / Py and thus the consumer is in the state of rest and attains maximum utility.

The consumer cannot move to U4 because the prices of goods exceed the budget line of the consumer.

RELEVANT LINKS:https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/economics/indifference-curve/ https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/glossary/indifference-curves/