I will post by the end of each Monday. When it is your week to write, you will have until the following Sunday night to respond to the post. If you reply by the end of the day on Wednesday, you will have a second opportunity to comment to improve your mark for that week. Replies after Wednesday will only have one chance. This is meant to encourage you to reply early, which will improve the opportunity for everyone to engage with the content. Late posts will not be accepted.
There are several ways you can achieve these marks:
- You can respond to a specific question I have asked in the post
- You can reply to the comment of another student, by supporting, building on, or criticizing their comment
- You can post your own, substantive question related to the post. It cannot be a one-liner; there must be some discussion / explanation leading up to the question posed.
- You can post information, video, links or other internet or non-internet related information to the post (in other words, add to the post) with some discussion / explanation of the relevance.
Your response will be marked on a scale of 0-3, according to the following criteria:
0 = you have not replied that week or your reply is inappropriate (unpublishable)
1 = you have replied, but your post looks like something Joe or Jane Schmeckelhead (man and woman on the street) could have written
2 = you have replied and you demonstrate a link to your knowledge and understanding of economics
3= you have replied and you demonstrate an insightful link to your knowledge and understanding of economics
The following boundaries will apply for marking purposes:
? - ? = 7
? - ? = 6
? - ? = 5
? - ? = 4
? - ? = 3
? - ? = 2
? - ? = 1
? - ? = 0
(These boundaries will be determined in a few weeks, once the posting has begun and we can determine how many posts there will be in a semester.)
In the first semester, the blog responses will count for 10% of your grade. If the process goes smoothly, we may increase this to 20% in the second semester and next academic year. This change will be discussed with students at the end of semester one.
Natascha Mainz
ReplyDeleteGrade 10
Economics Standard
How should kidneys be allocated? I never thought much about this question, probably because I haven’t been in a situation involving the need of a kidney. However, this issue is extremely important due to the fact that 4,000 people only in America die per year waiting for a kidney transplant.
In the United States, the buying and selling of organs has been outlawed. Instead, a non-profit organization called UNOS runs the organ system. During our class discussion I started to think about alternative ways of making the kidney-allocating situation a bit better.
Why shouldn’t? Kidneys be bought and sold? I mean, this would provide an incentive for the provider and there for more kidneys would become available. After watching the short video clip about the black market organ trades in India the whole situation became more real to me. Seeing the people in the village, who had donated an organ and were then left without the promised price nor a healthy future left me shocked!
People will be people. We cannot allow the buying and selling of organs, knowing that people will use this law wisely. As seen on the clip the poor are desperate for money and often get cheated by the rich. They are then left with one kidney, and a small amount of money in return. How is that fair? It simply isn’t.
However, if the buying and selling of organs would be organized and allowed by the official government, there would be a set price to each and every organ. This would provide the donors with the correct amount of money. It is their own decision, if they want to donate a kidney or not. However, it is very important that they are respected and given the money promised and as much care and support that they need.