Abstract
In this paper, I describe a course, “The Beloit Economy and Adam Smith,” which I designed for a first-year initiative program at Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin. The course, as the title suggests, includes readings from Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, as well as experiential or community-based learning experiences. These experiences include tours of the local community and visits to local businesses.
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Notes
- 1.
The learning goals for the First Year Initiative Program are: (1) Encounter and Exploration—offers students an introduction to our campus community, our mission, and our curriculum; (2) Agency—provides a strong emphasis on helping students find their own path through college, giving them the tools and support they need to follow it successfully; (3) Higher-Order Communication Skills—helps students to become more aware of expectations for effective communication at the college level by providing concrete strategies for developing as writers and speakers as well as opportunities for improvement; and (4) Social Identities—acquaints students with the presence, interests, and needs of various communities within and beyond Beloit College—local, national, and international—while asking students to reflect upon, analyze and evaluate their own position in relation to communities of which they are (and of which they aspire to be) a part.
- 2.
One view is that all important things were said in the past, and that ‘the moderns’ (M) are “feebler repetitions of the past” (M < A, where A refers to ‘the ancients’) (Boulding 1983, p. 225). A second view is that the ancients and the moderns are of equal value (A = M). And a third view is that “man continuously transcends his previous achievements and that therefore the moderns exceed the ancients and indeed make them obsolete, so that the moderns include all that the ancients have to say” (A < M) (Boulding 1983, p. 226).
- 3.
“To give the monopoly of the home-market to the produce of domestick industry, in any particular art of manufacture, is in some measure to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, and must, in almost all cases, be either a useless or a hurtful regulation. If the produce of domestick can be brought there as cheap as that of foreign industry, the regulation is evidently useless. If it cannot, it must generally be hurtful (Smith 1981, p. 456).”
- 4.
Admittedly, we completed just two business visits during the semester. Some of my knowledge here comes from organizing business visits for a department annual event, which I’ve led for the past 5 years. For that event we have visited various businesses in Chicago, including Groupon, The Center for Neighborhood Technology, the Fulton Street Business Incubator (now Make City), Studio Gang, and Legacy.com (founded by a Beloit alumnus and trustee of the College).
- 5.
For readers interested to learn about how potato chips are made and unable to tour a factory, see Roberts (2011).
- 6.
Smith (1981, Book 1, Chapter 1, Paragraph 8) notes that division of labor increases output by increases in dexterity, a reduction in switching costs, and the invention of machines. Elaborating on the third reason, “In the first fire-engines, a boy was constantly employed to open and shut alternately the communication between the boiler and the cylinder, according as the piston either ascended or descended. One of those boys, who loved to play with his companions, observed that, by tying a string from the handle of the valve which opened this communication, to another part of the machine, the valve would open and shut without his assistance, and leave him at liberty to divert himself with his play-fellows. One of the greatest improvements that has been made upon this machine, since it was first invented, was in this manner the discovery of a boy who wanted to save his own labour.”
- 7.
Reviewing the class list, approximately half of the students went on to major in economics.
- 8.
Prepare students by asking them to come up with 3–5 questions to ask at the business. Also send a follow-up thank you note—include students.
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Grube, L. (2021). Exploring Your Own Local Economy Using Adam Smith. In: Hall, J., Holder, K. (eds) Off-Campus Study, Study Abroad, and Study Away in Economics. Contributions to Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73831-0_1
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