Sunday, November 1, 2009

Reflection

I would first like to comment on a topic that was only touched upon for a few moments in our class's last session. In the final minutes of class, we discussed the motives behind decision-making. Now, I strongly believe that every single decision made is made on a cost-benefit analysis basis, but several people disagreed, which I find confusing. In every decision I make, and every decision that everyone makes, they are evaluating what is best for the situation at hand. I actually can't even think of another way that people make decisions.

On another note, I am still shocked at the spending of 35 million dollars on the radio station. I do understand and support the hosting of such an important radio station, but 35 million dollars definitely seems excessive. Honestly, how much can it cost for upkeep of a station? I would really like to see the breakdown of where that money goes and why, it cost that much. For 35 million dollars, you could become an astronaut 175 times. You could buy 88 Saleen S7's, one of the most expensive cars in the world. You could buy 14582 toygers. You could buy more than a TON of gold, according to market prices. You could pay for 700 people to go to AU for a year, or you could invest it and create a scholarship, earning 1,400,000 a year off the interest (at a 4% rate). At any rate, 35 million dollars is an enormous sum of money, and the spending of such an exorbitant amount should be monitored and considered very carefully.

2 comments:

Alex said...

That's actually what PTJ was presenting in class during our college discussion. Why did you choose to come to American? Surely cost-benefit and concrete reasons like financial aid play a role. But, just like in Bellah, many people have underlying stories in their lives, or reasons they find difficult to express -- and thus amorphous reasons -- that lead them to choose AU.

ProfPTJ said...

While it might be the case that you use a cost-benefit logic in every decision that you make, it doesn't follow that everyone uses such a logic in every decision that they make -- unless, of course, you are making than an article of faith? (In other words: how do you know that everyone uses such a decision-making logic?) And I'd be careful with the slippage from cost-benefit analysis to doing what is best for the situation at hand; "best" can be defined in a number of ways, not all of which reduce to costs and benefits. There are, for instance, considerations of morality . . .