One of my friends on Facebook reminded of a Freakonomics podcast, about gender pay inequality, I'd heard earlier this year. It had crystallized my thoughts on the subject and pretty much confirmed my existing intuitions.
Here are the salient points in the podcast:
"That's pretty strong. I will say you've shown up what thin stuff clergymen were peddling, most of them. When I had a congregation before the war, I used to tell them that the life of their spirit in relation to God was the biggest thing in their lives, and that their part in the economy was nothing by comparison. Now, you people have engineered them out of their part in the economy, in the market place, and they're finding out - most of them - that what's left is just about zero. A good bit short of enough, anyway. My glass is empty."
Economics is an interesting science. For me, one of its appeals is its dual nature; it makes use of both sides of the brain. In some ways, it has elements of a hard science, mathematical models, empirical data, etc. However, at its core, it is a social science. We can see an example of this in the concept of value. It can be both intangible and tangible. The value of a human life is subjective.
My first interest in computers, programming, etc. was video games. It made for an obvious choice when I went into college. A Computer Science curriculum however has much more to do with math than video games. Conceptually there is some overlap, but most of what you learn and do is more like math than anything most people would associate with video games. That is a major weed out factor in would-be CS graduates. You like video games or computers? Great. You like thinking and learning mathematical concepts? No? GTFO.
I just finished reading an interesting book called The Logic of Life. Much in the same manner of Freakonomics, the book covers a number of various insights gathered from academics in the field of behavioral economics. The book does a good job of explaining some big concepts in the field without going into too much jargon. Like with Freakonomics and its summary of The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime (argues that the significant drop in crime in the 90's was the result of Roe v.