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Passamos o Domingo descansando em Chaval, agradabilíssima cidade...
Fizemos as coisas de sempre, quando o dia era de descanso, lavamos as roupas, fomos à lan house mandar notícias aos nossos progenitores e assistimos ao clássico sansão na Band! Felipão ficou deveras feliz ao saber que veria seu time do coração duelar contra o time dos craques Paulo Henrique Ganso e Neymar...

No dia seguinte nos preparamos para o nosso último dia de pedal! Felipe ainda seguiria por muitos quilômetros sozinho, ou melhor, acompanhado pelas aventuras da estrada e pelas pessoas incríveis que se conhece quando se abre o coração. Eu, infelizmente, via minha jornada se aproximando de seu fim, afinal havia restrições financeiras, acadêmicas e físicas que me impediam seguir no pedal dos sonhos.

Jantamos 1 Kg de camarão por 10 reais se não me engano, só me lembro que achamos muito justo o preço! Em seguida passeamos pela cidade por um bocado, antes de nos entregarmos a uma belíssima noite de sono.

Na manhã seguinte pedalamos de Camocim a Chaval, foram 57 km em 4 horas e meia. Pensamos que o pedal seria mais rápido e simples, mas com o vento contra e o sol de rachar mantivemos apenas 12 km/h de média esse dia. Ademais, as coisas do Felipe caíam da Silver Hammer constantemente. Meu pé também doeu muito esse dia em função da ferida que já vinha aumentando há alguns dias. O domingo que passamos em Chaval não cicatrizou a ferida, com efeito talvez tenha até piorado. Uma senhora me deu um remédio na praça na noite anterior, dizendo que era sei lá o que, mas que tava no vidro de não sei o que lá, e que eu podia confiar que ela era enfermeira. Enfermeira eu acredito que ela era, mas se o remédio melhorou ou piorou meu pé nunca saberei, só sei que durante esse último dia de pedal eu tinha uma bela cratera em meu pé, cultivada ao longo de toda a viagem, e que agora se enchia desse remédio não-identificado para formar uma piscina, com a qual eu bastante me diverti...

Chegando em camocim vimos a deslumbrante vista de tatajuba, foi a paisagem mais linda de toda a viagem, embora os lençóis também tenham sido incríveis! Daqui já é possível sentir o cheiro de jeriquaquara. A paisagem mudou demais de Chaval para Camocim, impressionante como as coisas mudam depressa mesmo no lombo da magrela, num dia de sol, com vento contra, buraco no pé, sem dinheiro, lenço e documento.

Passamos a noite em Camocim e no dia seguinte pegamos uma balsa e depois uma toyota para Jeriquaquara, onde ficamos alguns dias curtindo a viagem louca que tínhamos acabado de fazer.


                          (Jeriquaquara - Pedra Furada)


De Jeriquaquara tomamos um ônibus para Fortaleza, onde também ficamos mais alguns dias para conhecer a cidade.

De Fortaleza Felipe seguiu viagem, adoraria relatar se soubesse o que aconteceu...

Todavia, para a mim, a viagem acabou ali.

Vão-se as viagens, ficam-se as fotos e o diário...

Cansei de ser canguru

Nascimento (2006) investiga as razões, vantagens e desvantagens que acompanham o fenômeno prolongamento da juventude. Grande parte de sua tese de dissertação é uma excelente revisão da bibliografia nacional e internacional sobre a transição para a vida adulta. No que tange ao prolongamento da juventude, Nascimento divide a bibliografia em duas partes, a primeira trata da “geração canguru”, como ficaram conhecidos esses jovens que têm permanecido cada vez mais tempo na “bolsa” dos pais. A segunda parte analisa a “geração bumerangue”, como ficaram conhecidos os jovens que saem e retornam para a casa dos pais. Além da extensa revisão da bibliografia, a dissertação de Nascimento também conta com uma análise numérica da situação dos jovens brasileiros para as regiões nordeste e sudeste do Brasil nas décadas entre 1970 e 2000. O autor mostra que o percentual de jovens morando na casa dos pais aumentou década a década no período analisado, para todas as idades (NASCIMENTO, 2006, pág. 148). 


Todavia essa tendência se inverteu durante o governo lula, devido ao bom crescimento econômico. Estou escrevendo um artigo sobre isso, quando publicar coloco o link para quem tiver curiosidade.

(33-37) The savages AKA The satiation point eaters.

Notes on Robinson Crusoe, Chapters 33 through 37.

“I had been on the island eighteen years before I saw the first footprint. I had been there twenty-three years before I saw any other signs of savages. It was likely that many more years would pass before any harm should come to me”

This week’s reading of Robinson Crusoe rendered fragments to reinforce the concept I talked about last time, satiation point.

Last week I said that Robinson had reached the satiation point within the confines of the Island². That is to say Robinson wasn’t quite satiated, after all he would very much enjoy leaving the Island, if he dared. But, as we’ve seen, he stopped daring to undertake such an adventure after his first attempt to do so. Nevertheless, once he gave up the idea of leaving the Economic Island, he managed to harvest and produce everything he needed, thus reaching satiation point. 

However, when savages arrived at the Island in order to have their feast, not only they ate human beings, for they were cannibals; but, economically thinking, they actually ate Robinson Crusoe’s satiation point:

“I had now been twenty-three years on this island. If it had not been for fear of savages, I would have been the happiest man in the world. During all those years I had been very busy. I did not work all the time, as you know, but I amused myself in various ways (…) Thus I lived very pleasantly in my island home. I would have been content to live there always if I could have felt safe from savages"

---

2 Or the confines of the model, in economic analysis. That is, as I’ve pointed last week, when we let one of the goods be a composite good, the satiation point becomes unreachable. But, for a limited set of goods, satiation point is reasonable. That’s why Robinson’s story is so insightful to economists; it actually portrays a limited set of options and isolation of social influence, which is pretty much the starting point of microeconomics. 

Sinestesia

Ao te ver passar por mim será melhor fingir que sei o que está escrito em seu olhar?
Evito o erro, melhor calar.
Na balança, seduzir contra exagerar.
Não me cansa ouvir o seu olhar.

Ao te ver sorrir ruim será possível não te acompanhar?
Imaginar que fui eu quem te deixou assim não adianta,
melhor pensar em não mais errar.

Você me fala mais que pode dizer.
Eu te peço mais que posso cobrar,
mas quando fala ABC,
o alfabeto posso imaginar...

(27 - 32) MicrOikonomia.

Notes on Robinson Crusoe, chapters 27 through 32. 

Aristotle,  Chrematistics, Oikonomia and Microeconomics, it's all on the island!

Economics is usually called the science of scarcity, which is a very proper definition concerning mainstream economics. Scarcity, put broadly, implies that people face trade-off when making choices. If we live in a world of scarcity, as we certainly do, people live below their “dream-bundle”. One may point that such a “dream-bundle” is unreachable, by definition. Philosophically, it could be argued that human beings are insatiable, and that provided to an agent his “dream-bundle”, automatically his “dream-bundle” would change into something else, even more expensive, probably out of his budget constraint. Aristotle’s distinction between “Oikonomia” and “Chrematistics” explores such idea. It’s ironic how the name Economics comes from “Oikonomia” but, actually, we live in a world of “Chrematistics”.  A world ruled by the monotonicity of preferences, meaning more is better.

In microeconomics we usually deal with two representative goods. In order to tackle the restrictiveness of these models, we define one of these goods as a composite good that stands for everything else, that is, the money left after you bought the actual good. If one of the goods is composite, than it’s hard to think that an individual will reach his satiation point, as Aristotle has shown. Satiation point, by the way, is the proper Microeconomic concept for what I have being calling “dream-bundle”, or, a bundle that has everything you want.

On the other hand, when we think of a finite number of real goods (by real I mean a non-composite good), the satiation point may be reached, according to Microeconomics analytical framework.

To place this discussion into Robinson Crusoe’s story, there are two different ways to answer whether or not Robinson Crusoe has reached the satiation point in the passage below:

 “Before coming to the island I had never milked a cow, much less a goat. I had never seen butter made, or even cheese. But I learned how to do everything of the kind. And now I had more butter and cheese than I could eat. After dinner it was my custom to go out for a stroll. How proud I was of my little kingdom! If you had seen me then, you would not have laughed. You would have been frightened. For a stranger-looking fellow you never saw. Be pleased to take a picture of me”.

For finite number of goods, or, in our story, considering the whole range of possibilities the island has offered Robinson, it can be said that Robinson has reached his satiation point, as depicted on the figure:

We have argued, however, that, in order to be more realistic, the model defines one of the goods as composite. In that sense, all other goods / states in the world should be included in the composite good. Thus, “leaving the island” is a desired good / state that Robinson has no idea how to pursue.

My point is that Robinson has reached the satiation point within the limits of the island / model. If we restrict the set of options it’s possible to conceptualize a satiation point. For instance, every day we reach our satiation point regarding hunger after lunching, or else we wouldn’t have stopped eating. But, as we loosen our model restrictiveness, expanding our bundle options, it becomes clear that such point is not reachable, prevailing, thus, monotone preferences. 

(20 - 26) The day Robinson learned Adam Smith's diamond-water paradox.

Notes on Robinson Crusoe, Chapters 20 through 26.

1 year has passed. Robinson had sown grains of barley and rice.

After doing so, he decided to take a big trip and explore the island, which took about a month. At the other side of the island, he looked to the horizon and saw land, but he couldn’t tell whether that was another island or the mainland of America.

Either way it was risky to go there, he thought, for there might be savages.

So he returned to his castle and harvested his grains, which quite pleased him.

At this point, seeing how much he had accomplished at the island with his bare hands (figure of speech), for the first time in the book Robinson felt actually happy about everything that happened:

“My life was much happier than it had been while I was sailing the seas. I took delight in many things that I had never cared for before”.

He enjoyed himself for a little while, but, a few chapters / months later, he started wondering whether he could live there for all his life:

“I was always trying to think of some way to escape from the island. True, I was living there with much comfort. I was happier than I had ever been while sailing the seas. But I longed to see other men. I longed for home and friends”.

Then he built such a huge and heavy canoe (big enough for twenty men), that he couldn’t manage to push it into water! After working very hard in such a non-sense project, he went back to his cave feeling foolish, sad and thoughtful…

This was the day when Robinson learned Adam Smith’s diamond-water paradox, or its solution, as the passage below shall demonstrate:

“Why should I be discontented and unhappy? I was the master of all that I saw. I might call myself the king of the island. I had all comforts of life. I had food in plenty. I might raise shiploads of grain, but there was no market for it. I had thousands of trees for timber and fuel, but no one wished to buy. I counted the money which I had brought from the ship. There were above a hundred pieces of gold and silver; but of what use were they? I would have given all for a handful of peas or beans to plant. I would have given all for a bottle of ink”.

Como virar um economista (medíocre) ...

(16-19) The importance of being idle

Notes on Robinson Crusoe, Chapters 16  through 19.

The importance of being idle is an idea that Robinson would never support.

Even when the rain got tougher, and he could not get out of his cave, he would work inside of it in order to widen his house (or kitchen as he named it).

After 10 months on the island, Robinson has built a castle and a summer house. He has learned to dry grapes and make raisins, which fed him during winter.

Probably his attitude toward labor prevented him from getting mad. Had he followed the Greeks and their idle worship, instead of working hard every day of his life on the island, he wouldn’t have raisins when the first winter arrived. Or, even worse, he would go completely crazy after a few days. The calm days would be dull and the rainy days would be quite scary without his fortress to shelter him.

The Greeks had slaves to work physically while they worked their minds.

In that context, idleness might have had a positive outcome in terms of how much beautiful knowledge the Greeks have given us. 

It would be nice, however, if we could ask a Greek slave whether he agrees with this statement...