Rick Kelo – How to Teach Economics to the Public

In today’s world of social media and digital technologies, more and more leaders are turning to the world wide web as a source or platform for sharing their messages and getting their voices heard. The importance of using the digital sphere as a platform for leadership is that is has high potential for reaching audiences around the world. There is no denying that communication has been made more effective and faster than ever before. This communication has largely been limited to superficial social media usage. However, in recent years, thought-leaders and political advocates have recognized the untapped potential that social media has for educating the public on important issues and in a way that is familiar to them.

For financial expert and economist RickKelo, helping to engage the wider public on issues surrounding the economy has been his motivation for using social media. He currently operates and writes for a number of websites that publish his opinions on economic, social, and political theory. With a Bachelor’s degree in General Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point and an MBA from the University of Illinois at Chicago, his audience of devoted followers and commentators is rapidly growing.

The reason for this is first and foremost because of his use of social media. His opinions are disseminated more quickly than they would be through print media. Second, publishing online gives him control over the content and frequency of his writing. He is not at the mercy of a publishing house that is simply trying to make money. He has total control over his work. Finally, he is gaining a large millennial following through his use of social media, the digital sphere, and cleverly written articles about topics that matter to all generations. For example, he has published straightforward articles such as  “The Minimum Wage Issue”, “What is the Optimal Progressive Tax?”, “Answering for the 2008 Global Economic Crash”, and “Free Market Capitalism and the Drive Towards Progress”. He has also published articles such as “Socialism and Star Wars” in which he compares traditional socialist theories to the political structure of the Star Wars universe. With these types of accessible articles, more and more people are taking the economy seriously.

Rick Kelo, a guardian for liberal democracy, is using the power of his individual voice in order to educate individuals in engage ways about issues that matter to our society. In doing so, he is creating a deeper understanding and more responsible civil engagement.

Rick Kelo – Eating Like Kings in America

In the United States, consumers secretly control everything. This is a product of our capitalist system where individuals are constantly demanding more and more goods at cheaper and cheaper prices. Talk all you want about politics and the distribution of power, but capitalism runs our country and the leaders of that system are the people with money. One of the effects that this has caused on American society is obesity. While it may not come off as immediately apparent, obesity is a problem in the United States as a result of decreasing prices in food. Over humanity’s entire 200,000-year history, starvation has been the number one killer of humans. However, we now have seemingly more food than ever before, to the point where we are consuming it at unhealthy levels.

In his article, How Capitalism Makes You Fat, economist and financial expert Rick Kelo explains that there isn’t more food than ever before, we have just found ways of producing it more cheaply. “It’s not the glorious provision of nature,” he writes, “it’s more like the glorious division of labor”. For example, when adjusting for inflation, the price of a McDonald’s hamburger has dropped by 32%, and the amount of hamburger you get for that reduced price has doubled. Since the year 2000, Americans have spent less than 10% of our disposable income on food. Before that, food expenditures were in the double digits as far bas as economists have data

In contrast to the abundance caused by capitalism in the Western World, communist countries in the east experienced massive starvation into the modern age. Under Chairman Mao in the late 1950s, 40-70 million people died in China under communist rule, largely as a result of the Great Chinese Famine caused by the country’s efforts to industrialize at all costs. Countries like Laos, India, Vietnam, and North Korea have all experienced some of the worst Global Hunger Index ratings of modern times, and they’re either communist or partially socialist systems.

It is easy to villainize capitalism for it’s seemingly superficial goal of producing wealth. But honestly, are we so evolved as a society that we cannot appreciate that production of wealth is the secret to the vast majority of happiness and comfort we all want on a daily basis? People have to eat, and when you look at the numbers, there is no economic system more bountiful than capitalism. For more information  about Rick Kelo and other economics writings, visit his website.