Economics

I think about money a lot.  This has something to do with the fact that I'm poor.  It also has something to do with the fact that I graduated from Harvard and am on track to graduate from Stanford and I would be a statistical anomaly if I didn't end up at least kind of rich.  I think that's weird.  Here I am, just about as poor as the day I was born, and yet there's a lot of indicators saying I'll make good money when I get done getting my doctorate.  What will it be like to have discretionary income?  What will I do when I can afford something ridiculous, like, say, having McDonald's hashbrowns every single morning?  What if I could have juice at every meal?  What if I could afford to fly to Utah for a weekend?  What if I could afford to build a home? A real home, maybe with a little study just for me - something with a comfortable chair, a nice set of bookshelves, and a bay window?  Does that kind of thing happen in real life?  Could it happen to me?

And then there's this weird feeling I get from mingling with rich people all the time.  Well, at least, rich people's kids.  There's something different about rich kids at nice schools like Harvard and Stanford that makes me feel a little out of place ... I think it's the way they know that they're going to be rich their whole lives.  Yes, the economy might go up and down, and yes, they might not get perfect grades ... but they don't ever seem insecure about the money they spend or the plans they make.  It's like they've already made it, like all the applications and job interviews and internships are just formalities to wade through before the money starts rolling in.  It makes sense, I guess.  Since I was raised poor, I don't have a good idea of what it means to be rich ... and they must feel the same way about being poor.

Anyway, this stuff makes me think about money.  Not my money, necessarily - that still seems far away.  But money in general.  What makes people rich, what makes people poor.  Why people stay rich, why people stay poor, why some people go from poor to rich, and how many people come back down from rich to poor.

So I'm going to talk about economics on this blog sometimes.  And that's why.