Econ Ramblings

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/business/yourmoney/17every.html?ei=5090&en=6e569c2dbfa2afa4&ex=1316145600&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
Ch1
Hey, it's my first blog!

This article is basically a description of conditions in one of Germany's camps in WWII; this psychiatric hospital in Hadamar was transformed into a euthanasia center on Hitler's orders. Not only Jews and Gypsies were sent here - people who were mental or "antisocial" in any way (like divorcing too much or drinking a lot) were delivered in curtained buses here. They would be led to a white-tiled 25 by 15 ft room, locked in tightly, and suffocated by carbon monoxide gas that flowed through valves into the cell.

The author of this article is worried that history will repeat itself in the United States; he fears what is down the road for Americans when retirements and the baby boomer era will cause shortages because the burden of having to support them will become too much for the rest of America.

The reason for this center (and what it has to do with Chapter 1) is the focus on the concept of scarcity. Hitler saw resources as being in definite limited supply; that means that almost everyone who wasn't Aryan (blonde hair, blue eyes) was a "useless eater." Because of the limited availability of resources, Hitler saw it as being necessary to conserve all resources for the use of true Germans, and not to be wasted on people who were of not the idealistic German race.

Like Chapter 1, this article talks about the significance of scarcity in determining the value of a product, and also what is to be done with it. Just the idea that something valuable will sooner or later run out is enough to make anyone want to conserve it and hoard it as much as possible. It can be understood why Hitler wanted to simply save more resources for his people, but what is inconceivable is how that motive could turn into genocide and the mass killings of human beings, just because they grew and consumed just like everyone else in the world.

1 Comments:

  • Hi Grace! When I first read your summary on the article, I thought I was reading a blog on history because i don't see the connection between the Germans, Jews and scarcity. You did a great job relating the concepts we covered in class to this historic issue. I believe that conservation is important but the methods used to conserve resources must not be harmful. Although Hitler's intention was good but he was killing too many people.

    By Blogger wini_lao, at 6:27 PM  

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