By Hope Elena Sardella
LSTD 1313-201 What are the Social Sciences?
Professor Jeffrey Roby
University of Oklahoma – College of Professional and Continuing Studies
Seventeen seventy-seven, Adam Smith, father of early capitalist philosophy, made a prolific statement that would shape the field of economics by describing the seen and unseen forces that influence the world. According to Smith:
“He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest nor knows how much he is promoting it. By directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his gain. In many other cases, he is led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for a society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his interest, he frequently promotes that of society more effectually than when he intends to promote it.”
Adam Smith, 1777
The initial quote is interpreted as human beings possess no cognitive awareness that their perceived self-interest is not their own. Financial players design interests to promote interest to be consumed by society; interests are programmed into the consumer’s conscious and unconscious actions. Thus, individual agents influence humans to make choices, reflecting early concepts of microeconomics. Comparatively, Smith’s second position embodies early macroeconomics concepts by stating that this process of individual agents influencing society is not inherently unethical if the manipulated interests serve a greater purpose for humanity on a large scale than the self-interest of the person’s true desires.
This essay is built upon social sciences and economics foundations to examine methods that public and private actors perpetrate corruption within state governments. Likewise, the research proceeds with primary definitions of microeconomics and macroeconomics. I then describe and analyze the fundamental principles that make them different from one another. In light of these ideas, it makes sense also to explore the crucial reasons why the comprehension of market-systems is vital for society. Finally, I highlight a recent occurrence which state government officially was subject to scrutiny from, in an attempt to sway public perception away from predators within their organization, through an organized press conference with a local news station orchestrated to tranquilize public perceptions through interpreting the public what they statistics truly meant. For decades Oklahoma’s Department of Human Services has been under review by many child-welfare reform watchdog groups attempt to diminish its importance of the event the public used a variety of socio-psychology
Microeconomics & Macroeconomics
At the outset, microeconomics & macroeconomics’ study gives one a detailed account of specific economic markets’ inner workings and niche consumer choices. The discipline of Microeconomics is also a branch of social science that analyzes consequences of agency of individuals decisions on the world of finances, regarding impacts of choices concerning how funding is circulated and consumed (Barnier, 2020). The decisions and what motivates those choices ultimately impacts the amount of money available for specific products. Examining a product’s valuation identifies independent agents & corporations that impact trade and business through structured operations (Barnier, 2020). The previous evidence proves that fluctuations in a product’s value are impacted by individual agencies and big businesses’ processes because individual agents ultimately control the constituents’ choices. Macroeconomics is a subdivision of economics that studies architecture, achievement, conduct, policy development, and implementation of adoptive judgments (Investopedia, 2020). The macroeconomics research is categorized based on the analysis of long-run economic expansion, interpreting rhythms & frequencies’ of short term circuits of economic business growth.
Market Systems & Society
Societies need to read between primary economic lines in order to creating and sustain culture of transparency and ending public corruption. Government policies commonly designed for equity shared goals with aspiring and carrying out economic prosperity reformations through taxation, and socialized public welfare does not always reflect the intended or unintended outcomes (Mankiw, 2011). The perceived intentions of government policy do not always translate to a promise of the future. An example to analyze is: “Public Policy is made not by angels but by a political process that is far from perfect. Sometimes policies are designed to reward the politically powerful. Sometimes they are made by well-intentioned leaders who are not fully informed” (Mankiw, 2011).Similar to Smith’s description of individual agents, one can infer the author was addressing the existence of state policies conjured-up annually, designed with intentions not reflective that of the constituents but forces utterly unknown to the public and more than likely the public official may not be fully aware of the magnitude of disruption a proposed policy could create. One cannot ensure that the laws written create doorways for economic power to benefit the population in which it is infiltrating. The moral of the story is that a well-informed society retains the long term objectives of freedom that our founders built this great nation—the ability to understand how an enemy walks and talks also means how an enemy makes money. One cannot know their enemy if they cannot define it. The application of micro and macroeconomics gives an individual the power to make connections of how corruption thrives.
Statistical Fallacies & Oklahoma Department of Human Services;
A literally historical example of corruption & economics surfaced in twenty-seventeen, per a public relations clean-up to curb the perceived by ‘recent’ evidence of Oklahoma’s child welfare systems, representatives of the state department are scrambling to sway public perception away from the cold hard fact that predators have been running rampant within their organization for quite some time. Using an organized press conference with a local Oklahoma news station KOCO 5 News, DHS sent Director of Communications and Community Relations; Sheree Powell to tranquilize public perceptions by interpreting statistics of the ACF’s 2015 report on foster-care perpetrators.
KOCO 5 News Anchor Abigail: “150 cases of child abuse and neglect are confirmed in the foster care system in 2015. The Oklahoman Reports that is 121 more than Texas, Which has seven times as many people. We are breaking down the statistics. DHS joins us. Thank you so much for being with us, Sheree. I think what viewers need to know is Oklahoma was reporting on the number of perpetrators, not the number of victims. Is that what we are talking about here? They are comparing perpetrators and not cases. The Biggest question is why? Why does Oklahoma have this many cases.”.
Sheree Powell: “Right! I think what viewers need to know about that statistics is that what Oklahoma was reporting on was the number of the perpetrator, not child victims, So that is an important distinction to make” (KOCO 5 News, 2017).
To start, KOCO 5 anchor Abigail misrepresents the statistic of 150 confirmed foster care perpetrators as only “cases of child abuse and neglect confirmed in the foster care system in 2015” (KOCO 5 News, 2017). This statement implies that only 150 cases have occurred in the entire year of 2015, leaving out immediate context such as what foster care system? Offhand the absence of such detail may confuse viewers’ understanding by referencing the entire foster care system, allowing the audience to assume their own interpretation.
In the same light, the comparison to Texas speaks volumes on the psychology of Oklahoma’s priorities. Abigail states: “The Oklahoman Reports that is 121 more than Texas, Which has seven times as many people”. In making this statement, the anchor does the math for the audience by subtracting the number of foster-care perpetrators in Oklahoma to the number of perpetrators in Texas, which is 150-29 = equaling 121 more victims than Texas. I got to give it to KOCO 5; Abigail needs a raise and a pat on the back; she knows how to do math… As if foster care perpetrators are not bad enough, vain comparisons to Texas are not unique here. Despite trite misrepresentations of foster-care perpetrator data, the prior miscarriage of justice lies in the complacency of KOCO 5’s ethics in reporting.
In retrospect of Sheree’s spirit to “make necessary distinctions,”; I think it is crucial to expose fallacies where fallacies are due to Ms. Powell and the whole of the department of Oklahoma’s Department of Human Services. What the local Oklahoma metropolitan news station failed to acknowledge is the long term consequences for blatantly omitting the truth when they made the decision to go through with the report. Network writers failed to mention precise statistics the entire interview was centered around, supported on manipulating the public perception of the statistic being promoted through an acting agent of a state government. Precisely the statistic Abigail with KOCO 5 news exploited also set a historical record for Oklahoma being #1 in the entire United States for the most perpetrators of child abuse by foster-parents, New York; by 149 perpetrators, and California, with 116 foster-care perpetrators (ACF, 2015, pg. 74). Both the news anchor and public relations representative for OKDHS acted as individual agents of influence, defined by microeconomics, while in the same breath grossly misrepresenting the truth of the macroeconomic information provided by the ACF.
For decades child-welfare agencies have been closely examined by watchdog groups such as the Children’s Bureau, Office of The Administration for Children & Families (AFC). The ACF documents statistics about abuse on children, including crimes on foster care children from 1995-2018, reporting annual reports every two years. At the time of the Sheree Powell interview with KOCO 5, it was 2017, but the 2015 ACF report was mentioned when mentioning the 150 perpetrators. This interview’s timing suggests the interview was created to manipulate opinion before events occur (i.e., the release of the 2016, 2017 reports that would not be released until 2018,2019). The undeniable fact Oklahoma had ranked number one in the nation for child abuse perpetrated by foster care in the 2015 ACF report speaks volumes to the interview’s real purpose. Just one year later, In 2016, Oklahoma ranked third for most foster care child abuse cases in the nation, with Oklahoma at 108 foster care perpetrators, California, at 121. New York at 192 (ACF, 2016, pg. ). In 2017, Oklahoma increased its rank number two in the nation for child abuse perpetrated by state administrative foster-care with 103, California was ranking third at ninety-two cases, and New York was coming in first with one-hundred-eighty-eight cases (ACF, 2017). Even after managing to decrease their number one ranking to the bottom three in a matter of a year, OKDHS’s rank was back up the previous year
Conclusion
One would imagine Oklahoma being the proud state that it would be more concerned with their ranking in ACFs Perpetrators by relationship to Their Victims ranking of foster parents rather than devaluing victims’ experience through targeted misinformation campaigns. Through analyzing the 2017 DHS KOCO 5 news, we see that obstruction of statistical macroeconomic data by individual agents in microeconomic networks (state agencies, and news stations) in order to accomplish a variety of nuanced political gains and premeditative preventions. The purpose for obstructing the data was discovered by looking at the entire picture and reading the truth through macroeconomics. By observing in what some would think are seemingly insignificant events, with the application of simply economic analysis there will allow the average person effectively discern.
References
Barnier, B. (2020). Microeconomics. Investopedia.com. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/microeconomics.asp
Children’s Bureau An office of the Administration for children & families (AFC). (2019). Pg. 76. “Child Maltreatment 2017 “. Retrieved from https://www.acf.hhs.gov/cb/resource/child-maltreatment-2017
Children’s Bureau An office of the Administration for children & families (AFC). (2018). Pg. 75. “Maltreatment 2016 “. Retrieved from https://www.acf.hhs.gov/cb/resource/child-maltreatment-2016
Children’s Bureau An office of the Administration for children & families (AFC). (2017). “Maltreatment 2015”. Retrieved from https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/cb/CM2015.pdfc
Khan Academy. (2012). “Introduction to economics Supply Demand, and Market Equilibrium Microeconomics” (YouTube). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/8JYP_wU1JTU.
Mankiw, NG. (2011). Principles of Economics (Ed. 5). South-Western Cengage Learning. Retrieved from http://www.cengage.com/resource_uploads/downloads/0324224729_119077.pdf
Investopedia. “Macroeconomics.” (2020). Retrieved from https://www.ivestopedia.com/terms/m/macroeconomics.asp