Challenging the Income Risk

At the age of twenty, “401(k)” and “retirement funds” do not pass in normal conversation quite often. However, the reality of the situation for many college undergraduates now is that “the real world” and real financials are just around the corner.

My senior year of high school actually consisted of quite a bit of thinking about this matter. Between deciding in state or out of state schools and what major/career path to pursue, I began panicking and overanalyzing every part of what could be my life. The first choice I decided to tackle was what major/career. Coming from a family of engineers and computer science majors, my parents had already been steering me in the direction of physical sciences. From science camps to AP Chemistry, science had already been built into my background and something I felt I could handle. However, while I had memorized over fifty organic molecules and the entire periodic table of elements, I didn’t feel any sort of passion about a single one of them. Friends told me to pursue what I liked, others told me job security was everything. But the thing was, my other option seemed so different, business. It was the classic business verses science debate that went through my head. But when push came to shove, I decided to take the income risk reducing path and pursue Chemistry. I figured, with my chemist father and my prior knowledge in the subject, I could learn to develop a niche for it and be successful. So on I moved to the school choice.

        

If it hadn’t had been for my brother, who went to school at UIUC seven years before me, UIUC wouldn’t have even been an option for me. My school choices had consisted of in state second tier schools and city schools within the state. However, once my brother insisted I at least apply and visit UIUC, there were much larger factors to weigh and decisions to make. The in state schools had many advantages, significantly lower costs, proximity to home, friendly faces from high school, and demographic benefits. However, simply put, it would be like going to school at home. Over seventy five percent of my high school had dispersed to those same schools and would result in the same niches. So while my parents continued to tell me that it was my choice and that they would support me financially whichever way I chose, I guiltily choose the out of state and high tuition school. The chance for a new demographic with all new people on this new chapter of my life was something that I couldn’t resist, even if it increased my debt amount and income risk.

        

One year into my schooling at UIUC though, I made yet another choice that would affect my income risk. I decided to transfer into economics, which seemed like a happy medium for me, a social science with quantitative structure. However, I knew that the job search would be more strenuous and the pay would start out smaller. Regardless, sitting here, three semesters away from graduation, I don’t look back in regret.

In the end I choose to make the choice I thought would be smarter and cause me to be more successful in life in the long run, whether it be financially related or not.

When Ethics Beats Opportunism

This blogpost actually comes to me at quite the prime time. Referring back to my previous post, my position within the same student organization has been one I have been deliberating and contemplating for quite some time now. With classes, jobs, other organizations, and a looming early graduation date piling up on me, I have begun to panic. After prioritizing, I find this organization on the bottom of my list. However, this hasn't been the first time it has been there. Around this time last year, I found myself faced with the same situation: whether or not to resign from my board position or not.

The poster child for this organization has always been about spreading cultural awareness to the University of Illinois campus, however, for many, the real mission has been to provide a safe place and family for individuals. More likely then not, each board member is on board because of an instance, an instance where a new student walks into our event and looks for a friendly face or an instance when one reaches out in a time of need. This organization has served as a resource and home for many individuals and honestly is the main reason why many choose to dedicate their time and effort each year.

However, this instance never happened for me. I came onto board after only being a part of the organization for a month or so. I had developed a close friendship with an executive officer off the bat and ultimately joined as an extension of our friendship. While I also identified with the organization's cultural aspect and truly wished to find my cultural identity as well, I honestly never really felt any tangible results. So when school and other priorities started to topple on last year, I struggled to decide what to do. The opportunistic thing would have been to quit and finally be able to take a deep breathe of relief, be able to enjoy class and campus, take time for myself, and catch up with old friends. However, instead, a moral and ethical question arose for me. How was I to betray my friend whom got me this position, a position that had been sought after by many, and how was I to let down the rest of the board just so I could sleep a couple extra hours or go out to eat more often? When it came down to it, my moral code just wouldn't let me quit. I struggled through the year doing what I could but not enough. So now I ask myself again this year, but a different question: is it fair of me to only give the board half the vice president internal they could have? With other qualified candidates with twice the heart I have for the organization available, my moral code tells me maybe it is right to quit and face the distaste of many. This year poses a similar but different dilemma, and the opportunistic choice just might be the right one this time instead.

My Own Experience With Organizations

Looking around the University of Illinois campus, culture organizations can be found high and low. From the Bulgarian Association to the Korean Law Students Association, it seems as if students can find an organization for practically any interest they seek. Being involved in a fellow cultural organization this past year and taking up an executive position for the same organization this year, I have seen the gap between being a board member and being an executive. That gap includes the nitty-gritty details: the confrontation and arguments, the panic and confusion, and the defining decisions for the organization.
Upon my first few days of this new position, I arrived a little lost but a whole lot excited. Interviews for board positions were to be made within the next couple of days but this new executive board had yet to collaborate and figure out our own groove. All new to the executive board, except our president, we looked to him for structure and command. However, he was a democratic man and instead let us speak and choose for ourselves. While in theory this seemed like the nice and right thing to do, we quickly found out, it was quite the opposite.
When interviews rolled around the next week we all found ourselves thinking to ourselves the night before, "wait where are we meeting and what are we doing?" However, none of us said anything and we all showed up that morning eager for someone else's direction. Unfortunately, we didn't find that from our president once again. The first interviewee sat down and the interview began, awkward silence. I glanced to my left and right and all of executive board was either panicky, staring at their computer screen or straight ahead at the wall. So instead of falling suit, I started speaking, "So why don't you first off tell us a little about yourself." I saw silent exhales of relief around me. Interviews continued with me taking the lead and my fellow executive members slowly but surely gaining more confidence and asking supplementary questions.
By the end of the day, I was quite fed up. When I voiced my concern, finally our president spoke up. He apologized for the lack of direction he had been giving us new members and spoke of how the last executive board had been much different, causing him to panic and lose sight of leading. After hearing his reasoning, I still believed he had been wrong to throw us into the waters unguarded, but understood that this was simply a transaction cost that we had had to sacrifice: our peace of mind and confidence for the day had been taken away. However, instead we gained important knowledge and experience that has actually been proving useful as we continue throughout this year. We continue to pay transaction costs, giving up time for schoolwork or offering our apartment or time to contribute, however we all do it. Why? Because the benefits, seeing the impact and knowledge we are spreading to the campus, outweigh the costs for us. Just like many other organizations and this organization beforehand, we act in the benefit of ourselves, however it also aligns with the benefit of the organization.

Francis Edgeworth

Francis Edgeworth may be the face of my blog site, however, prior to this assignment, Francis Edgeworth has held little to no meaning to me. However, upon discovery, one can concur that Mr. Edgeworth is a man worth noting and appreciating. His natural inclination and tact for statistical and mathematical application to the social sciences contributed to many modern day economic theories and uses. 

Born in Edgeworth, County Longford, Ireland on February 8, 1845, Francis Edgeworth was raised on his grandfather's estate by his parents, two well known children's book writers, and grew up educated by private tutors until he attended Trinity College, Dublin, and Balliol College, Oxford. Surprisingly, Francis did not start out studying mathematics or statistics. Instead he studied ancient and modern languages: Spanish, French, German and Italian. However, Francis had a natural aptitude for mathematics, and after assuming that he self-taught himself, one could predict that his work with mathematics would surpass his studies in language. Through a series of published papers, Mathematical Psychics: an Essay on the Application of Mathematics to the Moral Sciences, Methods of Statistics, and Correlated Averages, Francis made discoveries in the area of index numbers, indifference curves, contract curves, the Edgeworth box, utility functions, and terms of trade. Working until the year of 1922, Francis remained unmarried yet full of youth and happiness. Peers noted his satisfaction with walking, mountaineering, golfing, and boating, unwavering until his death on February 13, 1926. 

Francis Edgeworth's work contributed to the economic subjects of international trade, taxation paradox, monopoly pricing, marginal productivity theory, and much more. His significance in economic history is one that I plan to uphold and dignify as I continue this course under the alias of a well known and respected man. It is my hopes to do his name justice and honor his legacy. 

Citations: http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Edgeworth.html, http://www.policonomics.com/lp-neoclassical-economics-francis-ysidro-edgeworth/