Gary Becker - An Intellectual Portrait (5)

Gary Becker takes a thoughtful, intellectual, logical approach to understanding human behavior. In this light, he could very well be coming from a psychological perspective, not just (or not even) an economic perspective. In other words, I think his field of study doesn't matter as much as the measured, systematic approach he takes.
 

Gary Becker - An Intellectual Portrait (4)

Many (if not all) aspects of society - including law and crime - arguably have an economic implication, e.g. benefits and costs, and are therefore amenable to economic study. In this regard, Gary Becker was clearly one pivotal figure in this wider view and application of economics.
 

Gary Becker - An Intellectual Portrait (3)

"Why do we have different disciplines of economics, political science and sociology anymore? Don't we need to rethink these divisions that were carved out a century ago, and reorganize the American academy in a way that takes account of the fact all of these disciplines have changed, and none of the existing barriers make really any sense whatsoever?" inquires Ed Glaeser.

Gary Becker, receiving the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1992

Professor [Gary] Becker’s Nobel Lecture was his sharpest defense against these charges [i.e. that his "world was populated by a hyper-rational economic man, obsessed with maximizing his wealth"], and he recounted how he “tried to pry economists away from narrow assumptions about self-interest.” Instead, he said, “behavior is driven by a much richer set of values and preferences.” Purposeful decision making doesn’t mean that behavior is driven by financial concerns, but rather, in his view, “individuals maximize welfare, as they conceive it, whether they be selfish, altruistic, loyal, spiteful or masochistic," writes Justin Wolfers, with The New York Times.
 

Gary Becker - An Intellectual Portrait (2)

"Issues like Black-White differences, male-female type of differences, and other sort of differences are, number one, very important to the economy and, number two, economists have something to say about that. These is very obvious statement, but that was considered heretical and some unacceptable," explains Gary Becker.
 

Gary Becker - An Intellectual Portrait (1)

"We've [economists] changed really from being a field about subject to being a field about methodology, to being a field about approach. Of course certainly the general view is that you [Gary Becker] were the great figure moving us along that change," prompts Ed Glaeser.

A truly open, competitive market may reduce discrimination, but not quite eliminate it (rf. discrimination coefficient and nepotism coefficient).
 

Sadako Sasaki and a Thousand Cranes (5)

Perhaps a tribute to Sadako Sasaki

Sadako Sasaki, in her too short of a life and her way untimely death

Sadako Sasaki and a Thousand Cranes (4)

On August 6, 1945, the first-ever nuclear weapon was used. CNN's Ivan Watson has the details on how Japan remembered the horrific event.

"Many here today hope the horrific memories of 1945 will make people think twice, before taking the path to war."
 

Sadako Sasaki and a Thousand Cranes (3)

(image credit)

 

"Thousand Cranes," by the jazz band Hiroshima, is a memorial to Sadako Sasaki, who was only 2 years old when the US dropped an atomic bomb in Hiroshima. That was August 6th 1945. Amazingly Sadako survived the devastation, and grew up seemingly normal and healthy. But nine years later, she came down with Leukemia.

The following is the story about her and a thousand cranes:

In August of 1955, after two days of treatment, she was moved into a room with a roommate, a junior high student who was two years older than her. It was this roommate that told her the Japanese legend that promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish and she taught Sadako how to fold paper cranes. [a] A popular version of the story is that Sadako fell short of her goal of folding 1,000 cranes, having folded only 644 before her death, and that her friends completed the 1,000 and buried them all with her. This comes from the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. [b] An exhibit which appeared in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum stated that by the end of August 1955, Sadako had achieved her goal and continued to fold more cranes.

Though she had plenty of free time during her days in the hospital to fold the cranes, she lacked paper. She would use medicine wrappings and whatever else she could scrounge up. This included going to other patients' rooms to ask to use the paper from their get-well presents. Chizuko would bring paper from school for Sadako to use.

During her time in the hospital her condition progressively worsened. Around mid-October her left leg became swollen and turned purple. After her family urged her to eat something, Sadako requested tea on rice and remarked "It's tasty". Those were her last words. With her family around her, Sadako died on the morning of October 25, 1955 at the age of 12.

Reference: Sadako Sasaki.
 

Sadako Sasaki and a Thousand Cranes (2)

Show her now that we do care
With a love that we all share
Send her a thousand cranes
Send her your thousand cranes

Show her now that we do care
With a hope that we all share
Send her a thousand cranes
Send her your thousand cranes

Thousand Cranes, by Hiroshima