My family was well off but not rich. I spent the four years I was an undergraduate working on the beach. And it wasn't because I was lazy; it was because my freshman class would go to a hundred different employers and wouldn't get a nibble. That was a disequilibrium system. I realized that the ordinary old-fashioned Euclidean geometry didn't apply.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the challenges faced by students in finding job opportunities despite their background and education.
Paul Samuelson's quote illustrates the difficulties many students encounter when they enter the job market, despite being well-educated. He emphasizes that traditional methods of job searching might not work in a changing economic landscape, where supply and demand do not match up effectively. This statement sheds light on the complexities of employment where even diligent efforts can lead to frustrating outcomes, thus highlighting a misalignment in the job market.
In practice
In a university seminar discussing job readiness, this quote can emphasize the competitive nature of the job market.
To a person of analytical ability, perceptive enough to realise that mathematical equipment was a powerful sword in economics, the world of economics was his or her oyster in 1935. The terrain was strewn with beautiful theorems begging to be picked up and arranged in unified order.
I can't think of a president who has been overburdened by a knowledge of economics.
My belief is that nothing that can be expressed by mathematics cannot be expressed by careful use of literary words.
Politicians like to tell people what they want to hear - and what they want to hear is what won't happen.
Economics has never been a science - and it is even less now than a few years ago.
There's nothing in Keynesian economics that would allow you to solve stagflation. But there's nothing in neoclassical economics that would allow you to solve stagflation, either.
We have a lot of kids who don't know what works means. They think work is a four-letter word.
The way positive reinforcement is carried out is more important than the amount.
We need to get to kids who have no idea what we do. We need to open the doors wide and let them in. There are many undiscovered voices out there - voices that, against all odds, can rise up and enrich this culture and perhaps change the very nature of the marketplace for the better.
All my mind was centered on my studies, which, especially at the beginning, were difficult. In fact, I was insufficiently prepared to follow the physical science course at the Sorbonne, for, despite all my efforts, I had not succeeded in acquiring in Poland a preparation as complete as that of the French students following the same course.
The more that everyone has access to the same educational opportunities, the more society will tend to accept some receiving disproportionate rewards. After all, they themselves have a chance to be winners.
Our task - and the task of all education - is to understand the present world, the world in which we live and make our choices.
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