Angela Scharf, Epilogue, Q.4

     What I gained from the epilogue is that economics and productivity in all its power is worth nothing if we don't use it to its full potential. In the markets we've established that the most effective way to get something done is to give people incentives to be productive, but this can also have a negative effect on things such as social problems and ethics. The example used in the book regarded the topic of a serious illness that were too rare to be profitable by drug companies if they chose to research them. Technology today, especially in America, is bountiful yet we only choose to help if we get to benefit. Although this is not necessarily the case in all situations, and striving for benefits is not always detrimental, we need to shift incentives so that people will want to be more productive (and also profit) from things that actually matter, things like education and medical research.