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| Hints for Using the Teachers' Guide: Newcomers |
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Economics
As this exercise shows, certain economic principles are often misunderstood. The law of supply and demand states that a functioning marketplace will achieve a price that balances the pressures of supply and demand, but Insull was the first broad supplier of electricity in Chicago, and he did not face a competitive market. As a result, Insull had much more flexibility in setting prices than a modern-day gas station. His real problem was an excess supply of electricity, and his pricing tactics reflected a desire to boost demand in order to meet that supply, lowering prices where necessary in order to increase off-peak consumption of his product. Giannini's bank was formed on the premise of confidence in the "little guy," the ordinary worker who was not wealthy but nonetheless could be counted on to repay his debts. Giannini's response to the San Francisco fire following the earthquake of 1906 showed his confidence that just as these workers wouldn't default on their own loans, they would have faith in the stability of his bank and wouldn't make a run on the deposits. Had they done so, his bank would have collapsed, since he did not have sufficient cash on hand to cover all his obligations. An interesting example of the same baking principles (with an equally happy result) can be found at the Bailey Building & Loan in the classic Frank Capra movie, It's a Wonderful Life.
Geography
The point should also be made that many people who came to the United States did not "choose" to come here, but were forced to leave their homelands: Africans sold into slavery or Jews escaping persecution are prime examples. Many important American innovators, such as Sarah Breedlove (Madam C. J.) Walker and Charles Richard Drew, were descended from slaves. If any students and their families do not identify with a particular immigrant, ethnic or racial group, they might wish to explore an innovator from their home state, or alternatively study an innovator's motivations in migrating from state to state within the U.S. (as did Walt Disney, Cyrus McCormick, and Raymond Smith, to name a few).
In discussing whether there is something distinctly "American" that encourages entrepreneurship, it may be useful to compare our society with two other nations that had produced many innovations, England (which is a monarchy), and Japan (which, while a democracy, has less social mobility and more rigid mores than America). The class may also want to consider the impact of Eli Whitney's "American system" of production, and how that itself served as a spur to further innovation.
Civics
As the television program notes, Insull's lawyers put on a defense based largely on his life's accomplishments, with the result of a quick acquittal. The Martha Stewart trial in particular provides an interesting comparison to that. Stewart has a very well-developed and in many respects favorable public image -- indeed, numerous products are sold on the strength of her name -- but she was still convicted. Resistance to immigrants has taken various forms -- from the Nativist and Know-Nothing political parties, to legal restrictions on the number of immigrants from specific racial groups (such as the Chinese), to internment of Japanese-Americans in World War II, to current debates over the advisability of issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.
After role-playing the politician, students should be encouraged to consider whether rising immigration really leads to greater unemployment, especially when the current problem in the employment field seems to be "outsourcing" of jobs to non-immigrant foreign workers. Conversely, students role playing the graduate student should be pressed to explain why the United States should educate students who may simply take all the information they have gathered back to their countries of origin.
History
Socialist Rosenthal sought the betterment of womankind, Lauder was in it for the money, and Nidetch (at least initially) had solely personal weight-loss goals. In debating the role of motivation, it may be interesting to consider even more glaring examples, such as a comparison between the abolitionist Lewis Tappan and Hiram Maxim, who took the advice that if he wanted to make money, he should build a machine that would help Europeans kill each other.
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