The Economics of Everyday things

I had the most interesting dinner conversation with a friend today. The discussion centered around issues that have always fascinated me... These are topics that I've always wanted to spend considerable amounts of time on. And hopefully will... after I hand in my dissertation, six weeks from now. :)

Pet projects for the next part of my life (in no particular order)

*) Socio-politico-economic philosophies: Capitalism, communism and socialism.
*) Styles of government: Democracies, dictatorships, communism.
*) The role of government (vs. the market)
*) The everyday economics associated with these social structures. Possible mathematical analyses for when it make sense to have one over another.
*) The sustainability of a utopian society. (Open source software?)
*) The economic sense (or the lack, thereof) of the Bhagavad Gita's core philosophy.

These are questions economists keep asking time and again. Some questions don't really have clear answers. And as the old joke goes... you can put twenty economists in the same room, and no two of them will share the same opinion on anything!

The study is fun, nonetheless.

If you think you can point me in the direction of some useful resources, do write me a note. If you're also interested in similar areas, and are looking for starting points, try:

*) Economics, Samuelson and Nordhaus
*) The Argumentative Indian, Amartya Sen
*) India Unbound, Gurcharan Das
*) The Constitution of India
*) The Constitution of the United States of America.

And I missed the Gita discussion session today!

So much for being regular, but there was much else to do and only one of me.

Here's what the Hitchhiker's guide has to say about the existence of God though...

(quote)
Now it is such a bizarrely impossible coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the nonexistence of God. The arguement goes something like this:

"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."

"But," say Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED."

"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't though of that" and promply vanishes in a puff of logic.
(end quote)

While we are on the subject of faith, here's Stephen Colbert on truthiness, his word of the year last year. Hilarious :)