This time I will write in English. I remember that someone told me once that as a first year undergrad in civil engineering, one of the teachers showed him the photograph of a collapsed bridge. The guy would be quite categorical about it: in this job, if you make a lazy work, if you make mistakes, there are consequences. So if you think you cannot stand the responsibility, you better choose another career. In this job, you never let the bridges fall.
And now that we start a new academical year, I think this message should be exported to undergrads in Economics. Were I teaching them, I think I would show one of those striking pictures easily found in the internet, like the infamous one taken by Kevin Carter, months before committing suicide. I would say: guys, this is what happens when you don't take your job seriously. In the end, this is all about people, and when you make mistakes, it is people who pay them . This is not about showing the others that you are the smartest guy, that you have envisaged a fancy theory about economic organization that will work out all the problems and lead us to utopia. Models can help you to do your job, but in the end, they inevitably fail in describing the human nature. There is not a theory about human behavior. People don't maximize utilities, don't aspire to maximum profit. People make mistakes, and sometimes on purpose. If you aspire to get such a theory or model, if you want your wisdom to be acknowledged, then I can suggest you a couple of innocuous fields where you will have a lot of fun without harming people.
When you are an economist, it is easy to hide behind charts and numbers, production rates, inflation and taxes. And then you finish your studies and you might end up working in a central bank, in the ministry, or an international organization, whatever. There, you try to reproduce the dogma somebody passionately filled your head with, fight for it, make it your life goal. Or maybe you simply try to keep some numbers within a range, no matter the price. If that happens, then you are already making mistakes, you are doing a lazy work. If that's gonna happen, then you better leave this class now. If you cannot stand the consequences of your mistakes, choose another career. If you don't see the part of your responsibility when looking at this picture, we, the rest of the people that will suffer from your mistakes, don't want you in charge. It is simple: please, if you are gonna stay here, make sure that you never let the bridges fall.
