A story of FEA: Majoring paradox

Few weeks ago, one of my juniors asked my opinion towards majoring in Econs fac. Undoubtedly, my respond was "why not?' Though tons of reasoning given, it is a self-serving action, however.

The final effect of majoring is merely an outcome of familiarization as final examination will offset the knowledge that we've learned in majoring courses. Indeed, most of students will actually forget the things that they learned in classrooms after final exams. But, when they look back to the these things in working place or it is a necessary chapter that has to be read through in order to understand further chapters, it would be easier for them to absorb - familiarization.

Neither the "valuable" financial economics nor the "easy-to-get-A" applied statistics, all majoring are subjected to this undesirable result. It may caused by the deficiency of FEA course system or differing lecturers' methodology. (I won't comment much on these) What I see clearly is the attitude of some students here. In fact, majoring or not majoring is not a problem. Is is the SPECULATION TO GET AN A that causing much of the fuss here. And sadly to say, MANY students belong to the latter category.

So, what is actually the real definition of DEAN LIST in our beloved Econs fac? My say:

Besides an over-whelming luckiness gifted during the three-year course, it is a recognition of being a splendid speculator of easily-scored subjects regardless of any majoring intention, with little bit of hardship and of course, assuming analytical skills to be constant.

While there are flaws in the current structure, surprisingly, there are some more "enlightened" students in choosing their academic path. Frankly, I really happy to see some of the students intend to major in developmental economics, human resource management and international affairs (my favorite). Nevertheless, although they are not majoring in any block, they picked up a list of different courses due to their interest and curiosity. *salute*

There is no right or wrong in this issue as a first class holder may bypass the debt payment. But i believe the true gainer will be reflected in post graduate study.

Beauty-nomics: Demand should rules

The concept of utility or satisfaction is actually founded by Jeremy Bentham. Bentham's ambition in life was to create a "Pannomion", a complete utilitarian code of law - to fight for freedom, economically and politically. Utilitarianism argued that the right act or policy was that which would cause "the greatest good for the greatest number of people".

"Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the one hand the standard of right and wrong, on the other the chain of causes and effects, are fastened to their throne. They govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think.."

His principle of utility regards "good" as that which produces the greatest amount of pleasure and the minimum amount of pain and "evil" as that which produces the most pain without the pleasure. In direct sexiness industry, there is nothing wrong to buy a revealing model products as long as customers extract utility from it. I would say even the models are more than happy to do this. Direct sexiness industry gives them money, fame, self-satisfaction and most importantly, it digs a subway for them to become real star.

Just like the idea of marginalist Jevons, it is not "a sexy model should be paid because she has to reveal her body part" but, "a sexy model do it because it give her the value to do so". By right or wrong, gravure idolism has already developed significantly in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and Thailand. Not counting yet the western countries.

Beauty-nomics: Introduction

Frankly, I'm too obsessed with "beauty economics". I shall figuring out what are the core beauty industries and those peripheral areas that can contribute to economy. Of course, this is lame but seriously, I personally think that my motherland has not done enough in utilizing her beautiful people. Let's talk about demand before I analyze the supply.

There are two dis-utilizing wastage. First, here, we only sell face, shape of the body, skin fairness or height (indirect sexiness) but, we don't sell boobs, etc. (direct sexiness). E.g. I call it the "Amber Chia Way". Second, we prohibit lust industries, no 18sx entertainment, no kiss screenplay and performers have to wear as they are living below 0 Celsius in all concerts. (direct sexiness)

We fulfill our citizens' lust horny thirstiness by importing foreign direct sexiness products (FDSP). I.e. maybe wild Hollywood movies, Japanese hentai, foreign gravure idol, etc. In fact, economics is not about moral value. It is about how we allocate limited resource to satisfy unlimited human desires. Hence, we actually relying on imports to satisfy Malaysians' hunger which also meaning that, we left out a great room of desires to be fulfilled. We have to understand that whatever things that visible in this world, is actually the manifestation of invisible world. Economy borne from human's desires, sins, and lust is a great sins for businesses to grow! These desires create demand, and demand should be meet by supply to create a market. And market creates jobs.

Needless to say, religion is the greatest enemy of this "beauty economics". Religion controls human conduct by limiting our desires. Bad desires. However, this issue seems had been evolved until a complicated case. Why? While "religion to overcome lust" is a typical scenario, "lust arise more strongly as religion prohibits stricter with easy accessibility of FDSP". Rape cases have been growing faster than our GDP growth. And again, statement like "religion must play a stronger role" or "we have to strengthen our moral aspect" being summoned repetitively. Any improvement?

It comes again to implementation. How our beloved police force do their job, how our trade ministry STOPS the FDSP, and how ridicule our religion institutions are. (This is about supply-side which I will discuss later) .We should fulfill all these horny demand by allowing direct sexiness industries. Import substitution plays a great role here. (to be continued)

"Invisible hand"

While abundance of handsome and pretty labor may become a good asset for a country, sexual harassment is working on the opposite side - reducing labor force and night-time consumption.

Survival of the prettiest III

Someone put a correlation between the advance of a country and the frequency of plastic surgery. The argument is like this – more plastic surgery creates more nice faces, thus keeping GDP high and enabling more working opportunities. I would say this statement rather ambiguous. More plastic surgery of course will stimulate GDP since surgery is one type of service, a tertiary industry.

Different people from different countries have their diverse view of being “beautiful”. Domestically, yes, Korea’s job market is having a real survival of the prettiest. But does it mean their GDP would increase since more and more ladies and gentlemen desire to be Asian Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitt? No. The real indicators of labor market’s competitiveness are mobility, education level, skills and productivity. (I don’t include wage and price level here as it would requires complicated economic model).

Second, until now, we don’t have any calculator or indicator that can prove the quantity of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie between countries. The saying, “Japan or Korea got a lot of hot chicks and gorgeous guy” is just simply base on animal spirit or the influence of J-drama, Korean drama and Japanese pornography industry. To be clear, the whole story is all about HOW A COUNTRY PROMOTE THEIR BEAUTIFUL AND HANDSOME populace. Hence, we are actually talking about publicity, advertisement, entertainment industry, and idolization. Yes, it is all concerning MARKETING and industry development.

However, it is true that beautiful and handsome citizens are assets to a country. (As I’ve discussed this in Korean Waves and Economy). Another example would be Japan Adult Video (AV) Industry which makes around a ¥100 billion ($1.2billion) a year.

Chronic Hero Syndrome

I must admit that I’ve really got some kind of disease called Chronic Hero Syndrome. Apparently, the same thing happens to the famous figures in FEA such as Liksheng and Xinmin.

Just like most main characters in comics or movies, Chronic Hero Syndrome is an "affliction" of particularly idealistic protagonists which renders them unable to say "It's Somebody Else's Problem". Every wrong within earshot must be righted, and everyone in need must be helped, preferably by Our Hero him- or herself. Of course, Peter Parker in Spiderman is a good example.

Vincent Lim is a patient too. The only difference between us and him is he cares more about educating and transforming the local capital market so that investor can be more knowledgeable. (Wow, sounds great but this is what an economics student should dreams about)

The ex-president of Facebook quotes “The only reason we won was because of the gross incompetence of MySpace.” Yes, what has really been the main virus of our syndrome is the suckness of former president of PEKUMA. But the thing which keeps severing our syndrome is the Malaysians who always look local undergraduates through a tinted glass. Worst, even undergraduates themselves do that. FOR EXAMPLE, the act of Thierry Fool (not real name) which keeps licking the shoes of famous-abroad-university-student is really disgusted. (Oops, I said it but who cares!)

Sometimes, even knowing you will get stomachache, you won’t care what you shouldn’t eat when having steamboat. The good thing about this disease is it motivates us to do the RIGHT thing before graduating.

Just like Liksheng said “there are still a lot of geniuses in FEA where we should cooperate with them”. Agree, and I also believe that there are a lot of patients with Chronic Hero Syndrome in FEA who are being de-motivated by those ThierryFool-like species.

“This is John Connor. If you're listening to this, you are the resistance”
John Connor,Terminator Salvation

Survival of the prettiest II

Last week, my auntie just gave me a great advice – Two workers. One is very smart and productive but ugly. Another one is beautiful but not very smart and not productive. Boss will choose the beautiful one. First impression is the king of all selection.

Extraordinary but I’m not surprise with that. Yeah, you can just compare these two candidates. If you are an owner of an organization, which one would you prefer? Regardless of age and EPF, I confirm you will choose the first one.


Angelabay. She is beautiful, tall and has an alluring body. Those with straight dick will die to have just a conversation with her.

She is ugly and seems like a nerdy workaholic.

You know what. Fxxk those people that judge others by their appearance. As an economics student, I think that four-letter word is good since it can indicate my passion and aggressiveness in stressing my point. It is effective.

Well, actually the second picture is one of the 2009 Nobel Laureates in economics science. Her name is Elinor Ostrom She has challenged the conventional wisdom that common property is poorly managed and should be either regulated by central authorities or privatized. Based on numerous studies of user-managed fish stocks, pastures, woods, lakes, and groundwater basins, Ostrom concludes that the outcomes are, more often than not, better than predicted by standard theories. She observes that resource users frequently develop sophisticated mechanisms for decision-making and rule enforcement to handle conflicts of interest, and she characterizes the rules that promote successful outcomes.

Sorry but I’m still holding to my old wisdom – don’t judge a book by its cover. My credit will be given to those “ugly” people who contributed so much in knowledge development.