Unit 1 - Infant Mortality In Memphis, TN The first day of class in my Econ courses, I like to discuss the infant mortality rate (meaning babies that die before their first birthday) in Memphis. It is the highest in the nation. Our infant mortality rate rivals that of places like Mexico and Palestine. Why? We can list the possible reasons...lack of quality prenatal care, poor health among citizens of Memphis, drugs and alcohol, poor education, high unemployment, young mothers, poverty, the list could go on and on. But let's start with what is the biggest cause of babies to die before their first birthday, being born prematurely. What causes women to deliver prematurely? The most common reasons would probably be no prenatal care and being very young. Also, the City of Memphis has one of the highest poverty rates in the nation (compared to other cities this size.) 6 out of 10 babies born in Memphis are to single mothers. How do you solve that or does it matter? Imagine that you are a leader of this city and you are charged with attempting to solve this horrible problem. You are given a set amount of resources to achieve the goal of lowering the infant mortality rate in the city. How are you going to do it? Each semester I get a variety of responses and none of them are necessarily correct or incorrect they are just different approaches to solving a difficult problem. I like to have this discussion because it illustrates some very important economic points. 1. Tradeoffs- we only have so many resources to use to solve this problem. You must realize what resources you put towards healthcare reduces the amount we can spend toward education or vice versa. How do you decide what is more important? 2. Politics is closely related. I have a hard time not relating these principles to political issues. We will discuss heated political issues like this all semester. Be respectful of each other in our discussions. We may not always agree, but we can be mature enough to hear the other people out. Also, we will discuss many times this semester the disastrous unintended economic consequences that certain decisions create. Seemingly good decisions can create havoc on our economy. This leads to one of the most important things I want you to walk away from in this class- start thinking with reason not just emotions. 3. Put on your thinking cap and take off your emotional hat. We as a society are guilty of reacting emotionally. This is dangerous. Start thinking of issues from other perspectives and question the information you receive. In this class we will look at the information from a business perspective. More important than how you feel, I want to know what you think. If you tell me your feelings, please back it up with reasons. When answering your homework or discussion ALWAYS explain why. There are no yes or no responses in college, you must always justify and defend your answer. I look forward to hearing what you have to say!