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Economics Today
Eighth Edition
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Issues in
Economics Today
Eighth Edition

ROBERT C. GUELL
Indiana State University
ISSUES IN ECONOMICS TODAY, EIGHTH EDITION
Published by McGraw-Hill Education, 2 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10121. Copyright © 2018 by McGraw-Hill
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Guell, Robert C., author.

Issues in economics today/Robert C. Guell, Indiana State University.
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To Susan, Katie, Manny, Angel, Matt, and Lilly
About the Author
Dr. Robert C. Guell (pronounced “Gill”) is a professor of economics at Indiana State University
in Terre Haute, Indiana. He earned a B.A. in statistics and economics in 1986 and an M.S. in
economics one year later from the University of Missouri–Columbia. In 1991, he earned a Ph.D.
from Syracuse University, where he discovered the thrill of teaching. He has taught courses for
freshmen, upper-division undergraduates, and graduate students from the principles level, through
public finance, all the way to mathematical economics and econometrics.
Dr. Guell has published numerous peer-reviewed articles in scholarly journals. He has
worked extensively in the area of pharmaceutical economics, suggesting that the private
market’s patent system, while necessary for drug innovation, is unnecessary and inefficient
for production.
In 1998, Dr. Guell was the youngest faculty member ever to have been given Indiana
State University’s Caleb Mills Distinguished Teaching Award. His talent as a champion of
quality teaching was recognized again in 2000 when he was named project manager for the
Lilly Project to Transform the First-Year Experience, a Lilly Endowment–funded project to
raise first-year persistence rates at Indiana State University. He was ISU’s Coordinator of
First-Year Programs until January 2008, when he happily stepped aside to rejoin his depart-
ment full time.
Dr. Guell’s passion for teaching economics led him to request an assignment with the larg-
est impact. The one-semester general education basic economics course became the vehicle
to express that passion. Unsatisfied with the books available for the course, he made it his
calling to produce what you have before you today—an all-in-one readable issues-based text.

vi
Brief Contents
Preface xviii 17 International Trade: Does It Jeopardize
Issues for Different Course Themes xxviii American Jobs? 201
Required Theory Table xxx 18 International Finance and Exchange
Rates 213
1 Economics: The Study of Opportunity 19 European Debt Crisis 222
Cost 1 20 Economic Growth and Development 231
2 Supply and Demand 19 21 NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT, TPP, WTO:
3 The Concept of Elasticity and Consumer Are Trade Agreements Good for Us? 238
and Producer Surplus 40 22 The Line between Legal and Illegal
4 Firm Production, Cost, and Revenue 56 Goods 248
5 Perfect Competition, Monopoly, and 23 Natural Resources, the Environment,
Economic versus Normal Profit 68 and Climate Change 258
6 Every Macroeconomic Word You 24 Health Care 271
Ever Heard: Gross Domestic Product, 25 Government-Provided Health Insurance:
Inflation, Unemployment, Recession, Medicaid, Medicare, and the Children’s
and Depression 79 Health Insurance Program 283
7 Interest Rates and Present Value 98 26 The Economics of Prescription Drugs 296
8 Aggregate Demand and Aggregate 27 So You Want to Be a Lawyer: Economics
Supply 107 and the Law 304
9 Fiscal Policy 119 28 The Economics of Crime 310
10 Monetary Policy 131 29 Antitrust 319
11 Federal Spending 145 30 The Economics of Race and Sex
12 Federal Deficits, Surpluses, and the Discrimination 327
National Debt 155 31 Income and Wealth Inequality:
13 The Housing Bubble 168 What’s Fair? 339
14 The Recession of 2007–2009: Causes 32 Farm Policy 349
and Policy Responses 177 33 Minimum Wage 358
15 Is Economic Stagnation the 34 Ticket Brokers and Ticket Scalping 366
New Normal? 186
35 Rent Control 373
16 Is the (Fiscal) Sky Falling?: An
36 The Economics of K–12 Education 379
Examination of Unfunded Social Security,
Medicare, and State and Local Pension 37 College and University Education: Why Is
Liabilities 193 It So Expensive? 390

vii
viii Brief Contents

38 Poverty and Welfare 400 45 Unions 478

39 Head Start 411 46 Walmart: Always Low Prices
40 Social Security 418 (and Low Wages)—Always 488

41 Personal Income Taxes 429 47 The Economic Impact of Casino

and Sports Gambling 494
42 Energy Prices 440
48 The Economics of Terrorism 499
43 If We Build It, Will They Come?
And Other Sports Questions 455 Index 505
44 The Stock Market and Crashes 467
Table of Contents
Preface xviii What on God’s Green Earth Does This Have
to Do with Economics? 18
Issues for Different Course Themes xxviii
Required Theory Table xxx Chapter 2
Supply and Demand 19
Chapter 1 Supply and Demand Defined 20
Markets 20
Economics: The Study of Opportunity Quantity Demanded and Quantity Supplied 20
Cost 1 Ceteris Paribus 22
Economics and Opportunity Cost 1 Demand and Supply 22
Economics Defined 1 The Supply and Demand Model 22
Choices Have Consequences 2 Demand 22
Modeling Opportunity Cost Using the Production Supply 23
Possibilities Frontier 2 Equilibrium 24
The Intuition behind Our First Graph 2 Shortages and Surpluses 25
The Starting Point for a Production Possibilities Frontier 3 All about Demand 25
Points between the Extremes of a Production The Law of Demand 25
Possibilities Frontier 3 Why Does the Law of Demand Make Sense? 25
Attributes of the Production Possibilities Frontier 5 All about Supply 26
Increasing and Constant Opportunity Cost 5 The Law of Supply 26
Economic Growth 6 Why Does the Law of Supply Make Sense? 26
How Is Growth Modeled? 6 Determinants of Demand 27
Sources of Economic Growth 7 Taste 28
The Big Picture 7 Income 28
Circular Flow Model: A Model That Shows the Price of Other Goods 28
Interactions of All Economic Actors 8 Population of Potential Buyers 29
Thinking Economically 8 Expected Price 29
Marginal Analysis 8 Excise Taxes 29
Positive and Normative Analysis 8 Subsidies 29
Economic Incentives 9 The Effect of Changes in the Determinants of Demand
Fallacy of Composition 9 on the Supply and Demand Model 29
Correlation ≠ Causation 10 Determinants of Supply 31
Kick It Up a Notch: Demonstrating Constant and Price of Inputs 31
Increasing Opportunity Cost on a Production Technology 32
Possibilities Frontier 10 Price of Other Potential Outputs 32
Demonstrating Increasing Opportunity Cost 11 Number of Sellers 32
Demonstrating Constant Opportunity Cost 11 Expected Price 32
Summary 11 Excise Taxes 33
Subsidies 33
Appendix 1A The Effect of Changes in the Determinants of
Graphing: Yes, You Can. 15 Supply on the Supply and Demand Model 33
Cartesian Coordinates 15 The Effect of Changes in Price Expectations on the
Please! Not Y = MX + B . . . Sorry. 16 Supply and Demand Model 35

ix
x Table of Contents

Kick It Up a Notch: Why the New Equilibrium? 35 Perfect Competition 69

Summary 37 Monopoly 70
Monopolistic Competition 70
Chapter 3 Oligopoly 71
The Concept of Elasticity and Consumer Which Model Fits Reality 71
and Producer Surplus 40 Supply under Perfect Competition 73
Normal versus Economic Profit 73
Elasticity of Demand 41 When and Why Economic Profits Go to Zero 73
Intuition 41 Why Supply Is Marginal Cost under Perfect Competition 74
Definition of Elasticity and Its Formula 41 Just Words 74
Elasticity Labels 42 Numerical Example 74
Alternative Ways to Understand Elasticity 42 Graphical Explanation 75
The Graphical Explanation 42 Summary 76
The Verbal Explanation 43
Seeing Elasticity through Total Expenditures 44
Chapter 6
More on Elasticity 44
Determinants of Elasticity of Demand 44
Every Macroeconomic Word You
Elasticity and the Demand Curve 44 Ever Heard: Gross Domestic Product,
Elasticity of Supply 46 Inflation, Unemployment, Recession,
Determinants of the Elasticity of Supply 47 and Depression 79
Consumer and Producer Surplus 49 Measuring the Economy 80
Consumer Surplus 49 Measuring Nominal Output 80
Producer Surplus 49 Measuring Prices and Inflation 81
Market Failure 50 Problems Measuring Inflation 83
Categorizing Goods 50 Real Gross Domestic Product and Why It Is Not
Kick It Up a Notch: Deadweight Loss 51 Synonymous with Social Welfare 86
Summary 52 Real Gross Domestic Product 86
Problems with Real GDP 86
Chapter 4 Measuring and Describing Unemployment 87
Firm Production, Cost, and Revenue 56 Measuring Unemployment 87
Production 57 Problems Measuring Unemployment 89
Just Words 57 Types of Unemployment 90
Graphical Explanation 58 Productivity 90
Numerical Example 58 Measuring and Describing Productivity 90
Costs 59 Seasonal Adjustment 91
Just Words 59 Business Cycles 92
Numerical Example 60 Kick It Up a Notch: National Income and Product
Revenue 62 Accounting 94
Just Words 62 Summary 95
Numerical Example 63
Maximizing Profit 64 Chapter 7
Graphical Explanation 64 Interest Rates and Present Value 98
Numerical Example 64
Summary 65 Interest Rates 99
The Market for Money 99
Chapter 5 Nominal Interest Rates versus Real Interest Rates 99
Present Value 100
Perfect Competition, Monopoly, and
Simple Calculations 100
Economic versus Normal Profit 68
Mortgages, Car Payments, and Other Multipayment
From Perfect Competition to Monopoly 69 Examples 101

Future Value 102
Kick It Up a Notch: Risk and Reward 104
Summary 104
Chapter 8
Aggregate Demand and Aggregate
Supply 107
Aggregate Demand 108
Definition 108
Why Aggregate Demand Is Downward
Sloping 108
Aggregate Supply 109
Definition 109
Competing Views of the Shape of Aggregate
Supply 109
Shifts in Aggregate Demand and Aggregate
Supply 110
Variables That Shift Aggregate Demand 110
Variables That Shift Aggregate Supply 113
Causes of Inflation 114
How the Government Can Influence
(but Probably Not Control) the Economy
Demand-Side Macroeconomics 115
Supply-Side Macroeconomics 115
Summary 116
Chapter 9
Fiscal Policy 119
Nondiscretionary and Discretionary
Fiscal Policy 119
How They Work 119
Using Aggregate Supply and Aggregate Demand
to Model Fiscal Policy 120
Using Fiscal Policy to
Counteract “Shocks” 121
Aggregate Demand Shocks 121
Aggregate Supply Shocks 122
Evaluating Fiscal Policy 123
Nondiscretionary Fiscal Policy 123
Discretionary Fiscal Policy 123
The Political Problems with Fiscal Policy
Criticism from the Right and Left 125
The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of
Discretionary Fiscal Policy 125
The Obama Stimulus Plan 126
Kick It Up a Notch: Aggregate Supply
Shocks 128
Summary 128
Table of Contents xi
Chapter 10
Monetary Policy 131
Goals, Tools, and a Model of Monetary Policy 132
Goals of Monetary Policy 132
Traditional and Ordinary Tools of Monetary Policy 132
Modeling Monetary Policy 133
The Monetary Transmission Mechanism 134
The Additional Tools of Monetary Policy Created
in 2008 135
Central Bank Independence 137
Modern Monetary Policy 138
The Last 30 Years 138
Summary 143
Chapter 11
Federal Spending 145
A Primer on the Constitution and Spending Money 146
What the Constitution Says 146
Shenanigans 146
Dealing with Disagreements 147
Using Our Understanding of Opportunity Cost 148
115 Mandatory versus Discretionary Spending 148
Where the Money Goes 149
Using Our Understanding of Marginal Analysis 151
The Size of the Federal Government 151
The Distribution of Federal Spending 151
Budgeting for the Future 151
Baseline versus Current-Services Budgeting 151
Summary 152
Chapter 12
Federal Deficits, Surpluses, and the
National Debt 155
Surpluses, Deficits, and the Debt: Definitions
and History 156
Definitions 156
History 156
How Economists See the Deficit and the Debt 159
Operating and Capital Budgets 159
Cyclical and Structural Deficits 159
124 The Debt as a Percentage of GDP 160
International Comparisons 160
Generational Accounting 161
Who Owns the Debt? 161
Externally Held Debt 162
A Balanced-Budget Amendment 162
Projections 165
Summary 166
xii Table of Contents

Chapter 13
The Housing Bubble 168
How Much Is a House Really Worth? 168
Mortgages 170
How to Make a Bubble 172
Pop Goes the Bubble! 173
The Effect on the Overall Economy 174
Summary 175
Chapter 14
The Recession of 2007–2009: Causes
and Policy Responses 177
Before It Began 177
Late 2007: The Recession Begins as Do the
Initial Policy Reactions 180
The Bottom Falls Out in Fall 2008 181
The Obama Stimulus Package 182
Extraordinary Monetary Stimulus 183
Summary 184
Chapter 15
Is Economic Stagnation the
New Normal? 186
Periods of Robust Economic Growth 187
Sources of Growth 187
Causes and Consequences of Slowing
Growth 187
Causes 187
Consequences 188
What Can Be Done to Jump-Start Growth,
or Is This the New Normal? 189
Summary 191
Chapter 16
Is the (Fiscal) Sky Falling?: An
Examination of Unfunded Social Security,
Medicare, and State and Local Pension
Liabilities 193
What Is the Source of the Problem? 193
How Big Is the Social Security and Medicare
Problem? 194
How Big Is the State and Local Pension
Problem? 196
Is It Possible That the Fiscal Sky Isn’t
About to Fall? 198
Summary 199
Chapter 17
International Trade: Does It Jeopardize
American Jobs? 201
What We Trade and with Whom 201
The Benefits of International Trade 204
Comparative and Absolute Advantage 204
Demonstrating the Gains from Trade 205
Production Possibilities Frontier
Analysis 205
Supply and Demand Analysis 206
Whom Does Trade Harm? 206
Trade Barriers 207
Reasons for Limiting Trade 207
Methods of Limiting Trade 208
Trade as a Diplomatic Weapon 209
Kick It Up a Notch: Costs of Protectionism 210
Summary 210
Chapter 18
International Finance and Exchange
Rates 213
International Financial Transactions 213
Foreign Exchange Markets 215
Alternative Foreign Exchange Systems 217
Determinants of Exchange Rates 219
Summary 220
Chapter 19
European Debt Crisis 222
In the Beginning There Were 17 Currencies
in 17 Countries 222
The Effect of the Euro 223
Why Couldn’t They Pull Themselves Out?
The United States Did 226
Is It Too Late to Leave the Euro? 228
Where Should Europe Go from Here? 229
Summary 229
Chapter 20
Economic Growth and Development 231
Growth in Already Developed Countries 231
Comparing Developed Countries and Developing
Countries 233
Fostering (and Inhibiting) Development 234
The Challenges Facing Developing Countries 235
What Works 236
Summary 236

Chapter 21
NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT, TPP, WTO:
Are Trade Agreements Good for Us? 238
The Benefits of Free Trade 239
Why Do We Need Trade Agreements? 239
Strategic Trade 240
Special Interests 240
What Trade Agreements Prevent 240
Trade Agreements and Institutions 241
Alphabet Soup 241
Are They Working? 242
Economic and Political Impacts of Trade 243
The Bottom Line 245
Summary 245
Chapter 22
The Line between Legal and Illegal
Goods 248
An Economic Model of Tobacco, Alcohol,
and Illegal Goods and Services 249
Why Is Regulation Warranted? 249
The Information Problem 249
External Costs 250
Morality Issues 252
Taxes on Tobacco and Alcohol 253
Modeling Taxes 253
The Tobacco Settlement and Why Elasticity
Matters 254
Why Are Certain Goods and Services
Illegal? 254
The Impact of Decriminalization on the Market
for the Goods 254
The External Costs of Decriminalization 255
Summary 255
Chapter 23
Natural Resources, the Environment,
and Climate Change 258
Using Natural Resources 259
How Clean Is Clean Enough? 259
The Externalities Approach 260
When the Market Works for Everyone 260
When the Market Does Not Work for Everyone 260
The Property Rights Approach to the Environment
and Natural Resources 262
Why You Do Not Mess Up Your Own Property 262
Why You Do Mess Up Common Property 262
Table of Contents xiii
Natural Resources and the Importance
of Property Rights 262
Environmental Problems and Their Economic
Solutions 263
Environmental Problems 263
Economic Solutions: Using Taxes to Solve
Environmental Problems 265
Economic Solutions: Using Property Rights
to Solve Environmental Problems 265
No Solution: When There Is No Government
to Tax or Regulate 267
Summary 268
Chapter 24
Health Care 271
Where the Money Goes and Where
It Comes From 271
Insurance in the United States 272
How Insurance Works 272
Varieties of Private Insurance 273
Public Insurance 273
Economic Models of Health Care 274
Why Health Care Is Not Just Another Good 274
Implications of Public Insurance 275
Efficiency Problems with Private Insurance 276
Major Changes to Insurance Resulting from PPACA 277
The Blood and Organ Problem 279
Comparing the United States with the Rest
of the World 279
Summary 281
Chapter 25
Government-Provided Health Insurance:
Medicaid, Medicare, and the Children’s
Health Insurance Program 283
Medicaid: What, Who, and How Much 284
Why Medicaid Costs So Much 285
Why Spending Is Greater on the Elderly 286
Cost-Saving Measures in Medicaid 287
Medicare: Public Insurance and the Elderly 287
Why Private Insurance May Not Work 287
Why Medicare’s Costs Are High 288
Medicare’s Nuts and Bolts 289
Provider Types 289
Part A 289
Part B 290
Prescription Drug Coverage (Part D) 290
Cost Control Provisions in Medicare 291
xiv Table of Contents

The Medicare Trust Fund 292 Chapter 29

The Relationship between Medicaid and Antitrust 319
Medicare 293
Children’s Health Insurance Program 293 What’s Wrong with Monopoly? 319
Summary 294 High Prices, Low Output, and Deadweight
Loss 319
Chapter 26 Reduced Innovation 320
The Economics of Prescription Drugs 296 Natural Monopolies and Necessary Monopolies 320
Natural Monopoly 320
Profiteers or Benevolent Scientists? 297 Patents, Copyrights, and Other Necessary
Monopoly Power Applied to Drugs 297 Monopolies 321
Important Questions 299 Monopolies and the Law 322
Expensive Necessities or Relatively The Sherman Anti-Trust Act 322
Inexpensive Godsends? 299 What Constitutes a Monopoly? 323
Price Controls: Are They the Answer? 301 Examples of Antitrust Action 323
FDA Approval: Too Stringent or Too Lax? 301 Standard Oil 323
Summary 302 IBM 324
Microsoft 324
Chapter 27 Apple, Google, and the European Union 325
So You Want to Be a Lawyer: Economics Summary 325
and the Law 304
Private Property 304 Chapter 30
Intellectual Property 305 The Economics of Race and Sex
Contracts 305 Discrimination 327
Enforcing Various Property Rights and Contracts 305
Negative Consequences of Private Property Rights 306
The Economic Status of Women and Minorities 327
Women 327
Bankruptcy 306
Minorities 328
Civil Liability 306
Summary 308 Definitions and Detection of Discrimination 330
Discrimination, Definitions, and the Law 330
Detecting and Measuring Discrimination 331
Chapter 28
Discrimination in Labor, Consumption, and
The Economics of Crime 310 Lending 332
Who Commits Crimes and Why 310 Labor Market Discrimination 332
The Rational Criminal Model 311 Consumption Market and Lending Market
Crime Falls When Legal Income Rises 311 Discrimination 333
Crime Falls When the Likelihood and Consequences Affirmative Action 334
of Getting Caught Rise 312 The Economics of Affirmative Action 334
Problems with the Rationality Assumption 312 What Is Affirmative Action? 335
The Costs of Crime 312 Gradations of Affirmative Action 335
How Much Does an Average Crime Cost? 313 Summary 336
How Much Crime Does an Average Criminal
Commit? 313 Chapter 31
Optimal Spending on Crime Control 314 Income and Wealth Inequality:
What Is the Optimal Amount to Spend? 314
What’s Fair? 339
Is the Money Spent in the Right Way? 315
Are the Right People in Jail? 315 Measurement of Inequality 339
What Laws Should We Rigorously Enforce? 315 Income Inequality 339
What Is the Optimal Sentence? 316 Wealth Inequality 342
Summary 317 The Shrinking Middle Class 343
 Table of Contents xv

Causes of Household Income and Wealth Inequality 344 Why Promoters Charge Less Than They Could 369
Costs and Benefits of Income Inequality 345 An Economic Model of Scalping 369
Summary 347 Legitimate Scalpers 370
Summary 371
Chapter 32
Farm Policy 349 Chapter 35
Farm Prices Since 1950 349 Rent Control 373
Corn and Gasoline 350 Rents in a Free Market 373
Price Variation as a Justification for Government Reasons for Controlling Rents 374
Intervention 351 Consequences of Rent Control 375
The Case for Price Supports 351 Why Does Rent Control Survive? 377
The Case against Price Supports 352 Summary 378
Consumer and Producer Surplus Analysis
of Price Floors 352 Chapter 36
One Floor in One Market 352 The Economics of K–12 Education 379
Variable Floors in Multiple Markets 353
What Would Happen without Price Supports? 353 Investments in Human Capital 379
Price Support Mechanisms and Their History 353 Present Value Analysis 380
Price Support Mechanisms 353 External Benefits 380
History of Price Supports 355 Should We Spend More? 381
Is There a Bubble on the Farm? 355 The Basic Data 381
Kick It Up a Notch 356 Cautions about Quick Conclusions 383
Summary 356 Literature on Whether More Money Will Improve
Educational Outcomes 385
Chapter 33 School Reform Issues 385
Minimum Wage 358 The Public School Monopoly 385
Merit Pay and Tenure 386
Traditional Economic Analysis of a Minimum Private versus Public Education 386
Wage 359 School Vouchers 387
Labor Markets and Consumer and Producer Surplus 359 Collective Bargaining 387
A Relevant versus an Irrelevant Minimum Wage 360 Summary 388
What Is Wrong with a Minimum Wage? 361
Real-World Implications of the Minimum Wage 361 Chapter 37
Alternatives to the Minimum Wage 362 College and University Education:
Rebuttals to the Traditional Analysis 362
Why Is It So Expensive? 390
The Macroeconomics Argument 362
The Work Effort Argument 363 Why Are the Costs So High? 390
The Elasticity Argument 363 Why Are College Costs Rising So Fast? 392
Where Are Economists Now? 363 Why Have Textbook Costs Risen So
Kick It Up a Notch 364 Rapidly? 393
Summary 364 What a College Degree Is Worth 395
How Do People Pay for College? 396
Chapter 34 Summary 398
Ticket Brokers and Ticket Scalping 366
Chapter 38
Defining Brokering and Scalping 367
Poverty and Welfare 400
An Economic Model of Ticket Sales 367
Marginal Cost 367 Measuring Poverty 400
The Promoter as Monopolist 367 The Poverty Line 401
The Perfect Arena 368 Who’s Poor? 401
xvi Table of Contents

Poverty through History 402 Why Social Security Is in Trouble 424

Problems with Our Measure of Poverty 403 The Social Security Trust Fund 424
Poverty in the United States versus Europe 404 Options for Fixing Social Security 425
Programs for the Poor 404 Summary 426
In Kind versus In Cash 404
Why Spend $789 Billion on a $96 Billion Chapter 41
Problem? 406 Personal Income Taxes 429
Is $789 Billion Even a Lot Compared to
Other Countries? 406 How Income Taxes Work 429
Incentives, Disincentives, Myths, Issues in Income Taxation 434
and Truths 406 Horizontal and Vertical Equity 434
Welfare Reform 407 Equity versus Simplicity 434
Is There a Solution? 407 Incentives and the Tax Code 434
Welfare as We Now Know It 408 Do Taxes Alter Work Decisions? 435
Is Poverty Necessarily Bad? 408 Do Taxes Alter Savings Decisions? 435
Summary 408 Taxes for Social Engineering 435
Who Pays Income Taxes? 435
Chapter 39 The Tax Debates of the Last Two Decades 436
Summary 437
Head Start 411
Head Start as an Investment 411 Chapter 42
The Early Intervention Premise 411 Energy Prices 440
Present Value Analysis 412
External Benefits 412 The Historical View 440
The Early Evidence 412 Oil and Gasoline Price History 440
The Remaining Doubts 412 Geopolitical History 441
The Head Start Program 413 A Return to Irrelevancy 442
The Current Evidence 414 OPEC 445
Evidence that Head Start Works 414 What OPEC Tries to Do 445
Evidence that Head Start Does Not Work 415 How Cartels Work 445
More Evidence Is Coming and Some Is In 415 Why Cartels Are Not Stable 445
The Opportunity Cost of Fully Funding Back from the Dead 446
Head Start 416 Why Do Prices Change So Fast? 446
Summary 416 Is It All a Conspiracy? 447
From $1 to $4 per Gallon in 10 Years? 447
Chapter 40 Electric Utilities 449
Electricity Production 449
Social Security 418
Why Are Electric Utilities a Regulated Monopoly? 450
The Basics 418 What Will the Future Hold? 451
The Beginning 418 Kick It Up a Notch 452
Taxes 419 Summary 453
Benefits 419
Changes over Time 419 Chapter 43
Why Do We Need Social Security? 420 If We Build It, Will They Come?
Social Security’s Effect on the
And Other Sports Questions 455
Economy 421
Effect on Work 421 The Problem for Cities 455
Effect on Saving 421 Expansion versus Luring a Team 455
Whom Is the Program Good For? 422 Does a Team Enhance the Local Economy? 457
Will the System Be There for Me? 424 Why Are Stadiums Publicly Funded? 458

The Problem for Owners 458
To Move or to Stay 458
To Win or to Profit 459
Don’t Feel Sorry for Them Just Yet 460
The Sports Labor Market 461
What Owners Will Pay 461
What Players Will Accept 461
The Vocabulary of Sports Economics
What a Monopoly Will Do for You 464
Summary 465
Chapter 44
The Stock Market and Crashes 467
Stock Prices 468
How Stock Prices Are Determined 468
What Stock Markets Do 469
Efficient Markets 470
Stock Market Crashes 470
Bubbles 470
Example of a Crash: NASDAQ 2000 471
The Accounting Scandals of 2001 and 2002
Bankruptcy 473
Why Capitalism Needs Bankruptcy Laws 473
The Kmart and Global Crossing Cases 473
What Happened in the Enron Case 474
Why the Enron Case Matters More Than
the Others 475
Rebound of 2006–2007 and the Drop
of 2008–2009 475
Summary 476
Chapter 45
Unions 478
Why Unions Exist 478
The Perfectly Competitive Labor Market 478
A Reaction to Monopsony 479
A Way to Restrict Competition and Improve Quality 480
A Reaction to Information Issues 481
A Union as a Monopolist 481
The History of Labor Unions 482
Table of Contents xvii
Where Unions Go from Here 485
Kick It Up a Notch 486
Summary 486
Chapter 46
Walmart: Always Low Prices
(and Low Wages)—Always 488
461
The Market Form 488
Who Is Affected? 490
Most Consumers Stand to Gain—Some Lose Options 490
Workers Probably Lose 491
Sales Tax Revenues Won’t Be Affected Much 491
Some Businesses Will Get Hurt; Others Will Be
Helped 491
Community Effects 491
Summary 492
Chapter 47
The Economic Impact of Casino
and Sports Gambling 494
472
The Perceived Impact of Casino Gambling 494
Local Substitution 494
The “Modest” Upside of Casino Gambling 495
The Economic Reasons for Opposing Casino
Gambling 495
Sports Gambling and Daily Fantasy 496
Summary 497
Chapter 48
The Economics of Terrorism 499
The Economic Impact of September 11th and
of Terrorism in General 499
Modeling the Economic Impact of the Attacks 500
Insurance Aspects of Terrorism 501
Buy Insurance or Self-Protect or Both 502
Terrorism from the Perspective of the Terrorist 502
Summary 503
Index 505
Preface
This book is designed for a one-semester issues-based general education economics course,
and its purpose is to interest the nonbusiness, noneconomics major in what the discipline of
economics can do. Students of the “issues approach” will master the basic economic theory
necessary to explore a variety of real-world issues. If this is the only economics course they
ever take, they will at least gain enough insight to be able to intelligently discuss the way eco-
nomic theory applies to important issues in the world today.
Until the first edition of this book was published, instructors who chose the issues approach
to teaching a one-semester general economics course had to compromise in one of the follow-
ing ways: they could (1) pick a book that presents the issues but that is devoid of economic
theory; (2) pick a book that intertwines the issues with the theory; (3) ask students to buy two
books; or (4) place a large number of readings on library reserve.
Each of these alternatives presents problems. If the course is based entirely on an issues text,
students will leave with the incorrect impression that economics is a nonrigorous discipline that
assumes that all of the issues are relevant to all students in the course. In fact, some issues are not
relevant to some students and others are relevant only when the issue makes news. For example,
at Syracuse my students never understood why farm price supports were interesting, whereas at
Indiana State no student that I have met has ever lived in a rent-controlled apartment. The prob-
lem associated with using multiple books is the obvious one of expense. Having multiple reserve
readings, still a legitimate option, requires a great deal of time on the part of students, teachers,
and librarians and is usually not convenient to students.
The eighth edition of this book meets both student and instructor needs simultaneously. By
making the entire portfolio of chapters available for instructors to select and include in a print
book as they see fit within McGraw-Hill’s CREATE platform, we allow instructors maximum
flexibility to design a product that keeps students interested.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

Issues in Economics Today includes 8 intensive core theory chapters and 40 shorter issues
chapters. The book is designed to allow faculty flexibility in approach. Some colleagues like
to intertwine theory and issues while others like to lay the theoretical foundation first before
heading into the issues. Some faculty will choose to set a theme for their course and pick is-
sues consistent with that theme while others will let their students decide what issues interest
them. There is no right way to use the book except that under no circumstances is it imag-
ined that the entire book be covered.

McGraw-Hill CREATE
To address the recommendation that no instructor should assign the entire book to be cov-
ered in their course, the eighth edition takes advantage of the capabilities in McGraw-Hill’s
CREATE platform (www.mcgrawhillcreate.com) to give instructors the flexibility to easily
design a print product customized to their issues course: instructors can easily add chapters to
their product in the same way someone might add purchases to their cart when online shop-
ping. Once the table of contents is set, the instructor can easily view the net price of their
xviii
 Preface xix

course text (often much lower once extraneous chapters have been removed). When the prod-
uct is approved by the instructor, the system will generate an ISBN for the customized product,
which can be provided to the bookstore. Once an order is placed, the copies will be printed
on demand for each institution. The process is very straightforward; however, a McGraw-Hill
representative can assist instructors or build products based on syllabi if required. This work-
flow makes it feasible for an instructor to revisit their product and make tweaks every time
they teach the course. It also makes it a possibility for me to author and make available chap-
ters that address current economic issues in a timely manner as events arise.

Organization of the Issues Chapters

There are 40 issues chapters that I have divided into the following categories: Macroeco-
nomic Issues (Chapters 9–16), International Issues (Chapters 17–20), Externalities and Market
Failure (Chapters 22–23), Health Issues (Chapters 24–26), Government Solutions to Soci-
etal Problems (Chapters 27–31), Price Control Issues (Chapters 32–34), and Miscellaneous
Markets (Chapters 36–48). These groupings will be helpful as you navigate through the
Contents looking for a particular topic. To help you decide which issues chapters to cover,
see the table on pages xxx–xxxi, entitled “Required Theory Table.” It shows at a glance
which theory chapters need to be covered before pursuing each of the issues chapters. On
pages xxviii–xxix, the table entitled “Issues for Different Course Themes” includes my
recommendations for courses that focus on social policy, international issues, election year
issues, or business. Within the CREATE platform these different course structures are al-
ready assembled into ready-made Express Books to make it easy for you to customize your
text according to these themes.

CHANGES TO THE EIGHTH EDITION

Due to the CREATE-delivery of the eighth edition, issues chapters that have previously been
hosted on the website have now moved back within the table of contents so instructors can
more easily add them to custom products. These chapters include:
• Chapter 21 NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT, WTO: Are Trade Agreements Good for Us?
• Chapter 28 Antitrust
• Chapter 35 Rent Control
• Chapter 39 Head Start
• Chapter 48 The Economics of Terrorism

Furthermore, many instructors have requested with previous editions that we provide assign-
able material within Connect, McGraw-Hill’s online assessment platform. We are happy to
report that Connect is now available with the eighth edition including an adaptive reading ex-
perience, assignable homework (with additional quantitative and graphing problems beyond
what is found at the end of each chapter), test bank content, and a host of instructor resources.
For more information, please review the Connect portion of this preface.

Chapter 1: An entire section has been added on modeling economic growth using a pro-
duction possibilities frontier. Both generalized and specialized growth are depicted in both
a world of increasing and constant opportunity cost. In addition, the sources of economic
growth are explicated.

Chapter 2: Content and data updates have been made as needed to reflect the most current
information available.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Lake country sketches
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Lake country sketches

Author: H. D. Rawnsley

Release date: September 25, 2023 [eBook #71718]

Language: English

Original publication: Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons, 1902

Credits: Al Haines

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LAKE

COUNTRY SKETCHES ***
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, AETAT 77.
 Lake Country
Sketches
By the Rev.

H. D. Rawnsley
Honorary Canon of Carlisle

Author of
"Literary Associations of
the English Lakes."

Glasgow
James MacLehose and Sons
Publishers to the University
1903

GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO.
 TO A
TRUE LOVER OF NATURE
AND THE ENGLISH LAKES
EDITH MY WIFE

"From Nature and her overflowing soul,

I had received so much, that all my thoughts
Were steeped in feeling; I was only then
Contented, when with bliss ineffable
I felt the sentiment of Being spread
O'er all that moves and all that seemeth still;
O'er all that, lost beyond the reach of thought
And human knowledge, to the human eye
Invisible, yet liveth to the heart;
O'er all that leaps and runs, and shouts and sings,
Or beats the gladsome air; o'er all that glides
Beneath the wave, yea, in the wave itself,
And mighty depth of waters. Wonder not
If high the transport, great the joy I felt,
Communing in this sort through earth and heaven
With every form of creature, as it looked
Towards the Uncreated with a countenance
Of adoration, with an eye of love."

CONTENTS

REMINISCENCES OF WORDSWORTH AMONG THE PEASANTRY OF

WESTMORELAND
WITH THE BLACK-HEADED GULLS IN CUMBERLAND

AT THE GRASMERE PLAY

JAMES CROPPER OF ELLERGREEN

A DAY WITH ROMAN AND NORSE

ARCTIC SPLENDOURS AT THE ENGLISH LAKES

WILLIAM PEARSON OF BORDERSIDE

JOSEPH HAWELL, A SKIDDAW SHEPHERD

A FAMOUS YEW TREE

LODORE AFTER STORM

A NORTH COUNTRY NIMROD

A WINTER DAY ON DERWENTWATER

WORDSWORTH AT COCKERMOUTH

MOUNTAIN SILENCE AND VALLEY SONG

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, AETAT 77, FROM CRAYON DRAWING

BY MR. LEONARD C. WYON, Frontispiece

DOROTHY WORDSWORTH

JAMES CROPPER OF ELLERGREEN

ARCTIC SPLENDOURS AT THE LAKES

JOSEPH HAWELL

THE LORTON YEW

LODORE AFTER STORM

A NORTH COUNTRY NIMROD

A WINTER'S DAY ON DERWENTWATER

FROM MONS BEATA, BRANDELHOW

NOTE

The Publishers have to thank Professor Knight and Mr. David Douglas
for permission to reproduce the first illustration; Mr. Gordon Wordsworth for
the second; Mr. J. Henry Hogg, Kendal, for the third; Mr. G. P. Abraham,
Keswick, for the fourth and eighth; Mr. Mayson, Keswick, for the fifth and
seventh; Mr. Rupert Potter for the sixth; Mr. A. Pettitt, Keswick, for the
ninth and tenth illustrations.

REMINISCENCES OF WORDSWORTH
AMONG THE PEASANTRY OF
WESTMORELAND.
 Having grown up in the neighbourhood of Alfred Tennyson's old home
in Lincolnshire, I had been struck with the swiftness with which,

As year by year the labourer tills

His wonted glebe, or lops the glades,

the memories of the poet of the Somersby Wold had faded 'from off the
circle of the hills.' I had been astonished to note how little real interest was
taken in him or his fame, and how seldom his works were met with in the
houses of the rich or poor in the very neighbourhood.

It was natural that, coming to reside in the Lake country, I should

endeavour to find out what of Wordsworth's memory among the men of the
Dales still lingered on.—how far he was still a moving presence among
them,—how far his works had made their way into the cottages and farm-
houses of the valleys.

But if a certain love of the humorous induced me to enter into or follow

up conversations with the few still living among the peasants who were in
the habit of seeing Wordsworth in the flesh, there was also a genuine wish to
endeavour to find out how far the race of Westmoreland and Cumberland
farm-folk—the 'Matthews' and the 'Michaels' of the poet as described by him
—were real or fancy pictures, or how far the characters of the dalesmen had
been altered in any remarkable manner by tourist influences during the
thirty-two years that have passed since the aged poet was laid to rest.

For notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Ruskin, writing in 1876, had said
'that the Border peasantry (painted with absolute fidelity by Scott and
Wordsworth)' are, as hitherto, a scarcely injured race,—that in his fields at
Coniston he had men who might have fought with Henry V. at Agincourt
without being distinguished from any of his knights,—that he could take his
tradesmen's word for a thousand pounds, and need never latch his garden
gate, nor fear molestation in wood or on moor, for his girl guests; the more
one went about seeking for such good life and manners and simple piety as
Wordsworth knew and described in fell-side homes, or such generous
unselfishness and nobility among the Dale farmers as would seem to have
been contemporaries of the poet, the more one was a little saddened to find a
characteristic something faded away, and a certain beauty vanished that the
simple retirement of old valley-days of fifty years ago gave to the men
amongst whom Wordsworth lived. The strangers with their gifts of gold,
their vulgarity, and their requirements, have much to answer for in the
matter. But it is true that the decent exterior, the shrewd wit, and the manly
independence and natural knightliness of the men of the soil is to a large
extent responsible for raising expectations of nobility of life and morals, the
expectation of which would be justified by no other peasant class in
England, and which, by raising an unfair standard for comparison, ought to
be prepared for some disappointment. All said and done they are Nature's
gentlefolk still.

One's walks and talks with the few who remember Wordsworth, or
Wudsworth as they always call him, have done little to find out more than
the impression that they as outsiders formed of him, but it allowed one to
grasp by the hand a few of those natural noblemen who by their presence
still give testimony to a time and a race of men and women fast fading away,
and in need already of the immortality of lofty tradition that Wordsworth has
accorded them.

While these few of his still living peasant contemporaries show us the
sort of atmosphere of severely simple life, hand-in-hand with a 'joy in
wildest commonalty spread,' that made some of Wordsworth's poems
possible, I think the facts that they seem to establish of Wordsworth's
seclusion, and the distance he seems to have kept from them and their
cottage homes, not a little interesting. For they point to the suggestion that
the poet lived so separate and apart from them, so seldom entered the 'huts
where poor men lie,' or mixed with the fell-side folk at their sports and
junketings, that he was enabled, in his swift selection and appreciation of the
good and pure and true in their surroundings, to forget, quite honestly
perhaps, the faults of the people among whom he lived.

Be that as it may, this paper aims at establishing no new doctrine or view

about the man, but at simply putting on record reminiscences still in the
minds of some of those who often saw him, knew his fancies and his ways
(as only servants know the fancies and ways of their master), and spoke with
him sixty, fifty, or forty years ago.[1]
 [1] This paper was written in 1881 and was read at the annual meeting of
the Wordsworth Society in London in 1882—Robert Browning in the
chair.

These reminiscences may seem worthless to many, just from the fact that
they are the words of outsiders. They will seem to others of interest for that
very reason. And this much must be said, they are trustworthy records from
true mouths. The native love of truth, or perhaps better, the native dislike
ever to hazard suggestion, or to speak without book, is guarantee for that. To
ask questions in Westmoreland is the reverse of asking them of Syrian
fellaheen and Egyptian dragomans. The Cumberland mind is not inventive,
nor swift to anticipate the answer you wish, and one is always brought up
sharp with—

'Nay, I wadnt say that nayther':

'Nay, I'se not sartain aboot that':

'Might bea, but not to my knowledge howivver:

'Its nea good my saaing I kna that, when I doant, noo than,'—and so on.

Twenty summers had let the daisies blossom round Wordsworth's grave,
when, in 1870, I heard of and saw the old lady who had once been in service
at Rydal Mount, and was now a lodging-house keeper at Grasmere. She shall
be called as first witness, but what kind of practical and unimaginative mind
she had may be gathered from the following anecdote. My sister came in
from a late evening walk, and said, 'O Mrs. D——, have you seen the
wonderful sunset?' The good lady turned sharply round, and drawing herself
to her full height, as if mortally offended, answered, 'No, Miss R——, I'm a
tidy cook, I know, and, 'they say,' a decentish body for a landlady, and sic-
like, but I nivver bodder nowt aboot sunsets or them sort of things, they're
nowt ataw i' my line.' Her reminiscence of Wordsworth was as worthy of
tradition as it was explanatory, from her point of view, of the method in
which Wordsworth composed, and was helped in his labours by his
enthusiastic sister.

'Well you kna,' were her words, 'Mr. Wordsworth went bumming and
booing about, and she, Miss Dorothy, kept close behint him, and she picked
up the bits as he let 'em fall, and tak 'em down, and put 'em on paper for him.
And you med,' continued the good dame, 'be very well sure as how she didn't
understand nor make sense out of 'em, and I doubt that he [Wordsworth]
didn't kna much aboot them either himself, but, howivver, there's a gay lock
o' fowk as wad, I dar say.'

And here it will be well to put in a caution. The vernacular of the Lake
district must be understood a little, or wrong impressions would be got of the
people's memory of the bard. 'What was Mr. Wordsworth like in personal
appearance?' I once asked of an old retainer, who still lives not far from
Rydal Mount. 'He was a ugly-faäced man, and a mean liver,' was the answer.
And when he continued, 'Ay, and he was a deal aboot t' roads, ye kna,' one
might have been pardoned if one had concluded that the Lake poet was a sort
of wild man of the woods, an ugly customer of desperate life, or
highwayman of vagrant habit. All that was really meant when translated
was, that he was a man of marked features, and led a very simple life in
matters of food and raiment.

The next witness I shall call to speak of the poet is none other than the
lad whose wont it was to serve the Rydal Mount kitchen with meat, week in
week out, in the poet's days. A grey-haired man himself now, his chief
memory of Wordsworth is that of a tall man, 'rather a fineish man in build,
with a bit of a stoop, and a deal of grey hair upon his head.'

In some of the days of close analysis that are coming upon us, poets will
perhaps be found to have depended for the particular colour of their poems,
or turns and cast of thought, upon the kind of food—vegetable or animal—
that they mostly subsisted on. It will be well to chronicle the fact that
Wordsworth had an antipathy to veal, but was very partial to legs—'lived on
legs, you med amost say.' But as my friend added, almost in the same breath,
that the poet was 'a great walker i' t' daäles,' he had uttered unconsciously a
double truth.

The next fact that remained clear and distinct in the butcher's mind was,
that whenever you met the poet he was sure to be 'quite [pronounced white]
plainly dressed.' Sometimes in a round blue cloak; sometimes wearing a big
wideawake, or a bit of an old boxer, but plainly dressed, almost 'poorly
dressed, ya mun saay, at the best o' times.' 'But for aw that, he was quite an
object man,' he added, meaning that there was a dignity that needed no
dressing to set it off, I suppose, in the poet's mien and manner. It was
interesting to hear, too, how different Wordsworth had seemed in his grave
silent way of passing children without a word, from 'li'le Hartley Coleridge,'
with his constant salutation, uncertain gait, his head on one side, his
walking-stick suddenly shouldered, and then his frantic little rushes along
the road, between the pauses of his thought. 'Many's the time,' said my
friend, 'that me and my sister has run ourselves intil a lather to git clear fra
Hartley, for we allays thowt, ya kna, when he started running he was efter us.
But as fur Mister Wudsworth, he'd pass you, same as if yan was nobbut a
stean. He niver cared for childer, however; yan may be certain of that, for
didn't I have to pass him four times in t' week, up to the door wi' meat? And
he niver oncst said owt. Ye're well aware, if he'd been fond of children he 'ud
'a spoke.'

But Mrs. Wordsworth had made her impressions too on the youth's mind.
'As for Mrs. Wudsworth, she was plainer in her ways than he was. The
plainest wooman in these parts,—for aw the warld the bettermer part of an
auld farm-body.' He intended nothing disrespectful by this simile, he only
wished to say she was simple in manner and dress. But if Mrs. Wordsworth's
personal appearance had impressed him, her powers of housekeeping had
impressed him more. She was very persevering, and 'terb'le particular in her
accounts, never allowed you an inch in the butching-book.' It did not raise
one's opinion of Lake country butcher morality to find this a grievance, but
the man as he spoke seemed to think a little sorely of those old-fashioned
days, when mistresses, not cooks, took supervision of the household
economies.
 I bade my friend good-day, and the last words I heard were, 'But Mr.
Wudsworth was quite an object man, mind ye.'

It is an easy transition from butcher-boy to gardener's lad, and I will now

detail a conversation I had with one who, in this latter capacity at Rydal
Mount, saw the poet daily for some years.

It was Easter Monday, and I knew that the one-time gardener's lad at
Rydal Mount had grown into a vale-renowned keeper of a vale-renowned
beer-house. I had doubts as to calling on this particular day, for Easter
Monday and beer go much together in our Lake country. But I was half
reassured by a friend who said, 'Well, he gets drunk three times a day, but
taks t' air atween whiles, and if you catch him airing he will be verra civil,
but it's a bad day to find him sober, this.' I explained that I wanted to talk
with him of old Wordsworthian days. 'Aw, it's Wudsworth you're a gaan to
see about? If that's the game, you're reet enuff, for, drunk or sober, he can
crack away a deal upon Mr. Wudsworth. An' i'se not so varry seuer but what
he's best drunk a li'le bit.' I was reassured, and soon found myself sitting on
the stone ale-bench outside the public-house, the best of friends with a man
who had been apparently grossly libelled—for he was as sober as a judge—
and whose eye fairly twinkled as he spoke of the Rydal garden days.

'You see, blessed barn, it's a lock o' daäys sin', but I remember them
daäys, for I was put by my master to the Rydal Mount as gardener-boy to
keep me fra bad waays. And I remember one John Wudsworth, Mr.
Wudsworth's nevi, parson he was, dead, like eneuf, afore this. Well, he was
stayin' there along o' his missus, first week as I was boy there, and I was
ter'ble curious, and was like enough to hev bin drowned, for they had a bath,
filled regular o' nights, up above, ya kna, with a sort of curtainment all round
it. And blowed if I didn't watch butler fill it, and then goa in and pull string,
and down came t' watter, and I was 'maazed as owt, and I screamed, and Mr.
John come and fun' me, and saäved my life. Eh, blessed barn, them was
daäys lang sen'.'

I asked whether Mr. Wordsworth was much thought of. He replied,

'Latterly, but we thowt li'le eneuf on him. He was nowt to li'le Hartley. Li'le
Hartley was a philosopher, you see; Wudsworth was a poet. Ter'ble girt
difference betwixt them two wayses, ye kna.' I asked whether he had ever
found that poems of Mr. Wordsworth were read in the cottages, whether he
had read them himself. 'Well you see, blessed barn, there's pomes and
pomes, and Wudsworth's was not for sec as us. I never did see his pomes—
not as I can speak to in any man's house in these parts, but,' he added, 'ye kna
there's bits in t' papers fra time to time bearing his naame.'

This unpopularity of Wordsworth's poems among the peasantry was

strangely corroborated that very same day by an old man whom I met on the
road, who said he had often seen the poet, and had once been present and
heard him make a long speech, and that was at the laying of the foundation
of the Boys' Schoolroom at Bowness, which was built by one Mr. Bolton of
Storrs Hall.

On that occasion Mr. 'Wudsworth talked lang and weel eneuf,' and he
remembered that he 'had put a pome he had written into a bottle wi' some
coins in the hollow of the foundation-stone.'

I asked him whether he had ever seen or read any of the poet's works,
and he answered, 'Nay, not likely; for Wudsworth wasn't a man as wreat on
separate bits, saäme as Hartley Coleridge, and was niver a frequenter of
public-houses, or owt of that sort.' But he added, 'He was a good writer, he
supposed, and he was a man folks thowt a deal on i' t' dale: he was sic a
weel-meaning, decent, quiet man.'

But to return to my host at the public. Wordsworth, in his opinion, was

not fond of children, nor animals. He would come round the garden, but
never 'say nowt.' Sometimes, but this was seldom, he would say, 'Oh! you're
planting peas?' or, 'Where are you setting onions?' but only as a master
would ask a question of a servant. He had, he said, never seen him out of
temper once, neither in the garden, nor when he was along o' Miss Dorothy
in her invalid chair. But, he added, 'What went on i' t' hoose I can't speak till';
meaning that as an outdoor servant he had no sufficiently accurate
knowledge of the in-door life to warrant his speaking of it. Wordsworth was
not an early riser, had no particular flower he was fondest of that he could
speak to; never was heard to sing or whistle a tune in his life; there 'was noa
two words about that, though he bummed a deal';—of this more presently.
 'He was a plain man, plainly dressed, and so was she, ya mun kna. But
eh, blessed barn! he was fond o' his own childer, and fond o' Dorothy,
especially when she was faculty strucken, poor thing; and as for his wife,
there was noa two words about their being truly companionable; and
Wudsworth was a silent man wi'out a doubt, but he was not aboon bein'
tender and quite monstrable [demonstrative] at times in his oan family.'

I asked about Mr. Wordsworth's powers of observation. Had he noticed

in his garden walks how he stooped down and took this or that flower, or
smelt this or that herb? (I have heard since that the poet's sense of smell was
limited.) 'Na, he wadna speak to that, but Mr. Wudsworth was what you
might call a vara practical-eyed man, a man as seemed to see aw that was
stirrin'.'

Perhaps the most interesting bit of information I obtained, before our

pleasant chat was at an end, was a description of the way in which the poet
composed on the grass terrace at Rydal Mount. 'Eh! blessed barn,' my
informant continued, 'I think I can see him at it now. He was ter'ble thrang
with visitors and folks, you mun kna, at times, but if he could git awa fra
them for a spell, he was out upon his gres walk; and then he would set his
head a bit forrad, and put his hands behint his back. And then he would start
a bumming, and it was bum, bum, bum, stop; then bum, bum, bum reet
down till t'other end, and then he'd set down and git a bit o' paper out and
write a bit; and then he git up, and bum, bum, bum, and goa on bumming for
long enough right down and back agean. I suppose, ya kna, the bumming
helped him out a bit. However, his lips was always goan' whoale time he was
upon the gres walk. He was a kind mon, there's no two words about that: if
any one was sick i' the plaace, he wad be off to see til 'em.'

And so ended my Easter Monday talk with the poet's quondam

gardener's boy, the now typical beerhouse-keeper, half pleased, half proud,
to remember his old master in such service as he rendered him, in the days
when it was judged that to keep a boy out of mischief and from bad
company it was advisable to get him a place at Rydal Mount.
 I must ask you next to take a seat with me in a waller's cottage. If tea and
bread and butter is offered, you had better take it also, it is almost sure to be
pressed upon you, and it is of the best. I will be interrogator, only by way of
introduction saying, that our host is a splendid type of the real Westmoreland
gentleman labourer, who was in his days a wrestler too, and whose
occupation at the building of Foxhow and Fiddler's Farm in the Rydal
Valley, often allowed him to see the poet in old times.

'Well, George, what sort o' a man in personal appearance was Mr.
Wordsworth?'

'He was what you might ca' a ugly man,—mak of John Rigg much,—
much about seame height, 6 feet or 6 feet 2,—smaller, but deal rougher in
the face.'

I knew John Rigg by sight, and can fancy from the pictures of the poet
that the likeness is striking in the brow and profile.

'But he was,' continued George, 'numbledy in t' kneas, walked numbledy,

ye kna, but that might o' wussened wi' age.' In George's mind age accounted
for most of the peculiarities he had noticed in the poet, but George's memory
could go back fifty years, and he ought to have remembered Wordsworth as
hale and hearty. 'He wozn't a man as said a deal to common fwoak. But he
talked a deal to hissen. I often seead his lips a gaäin', and he'd a deal o'
mumblin' to hissel, and 'ud stop short and be a lookin' down upo' the ground,
as if he was in a thinkin' waäy. But that might ha' growed on him wi' age, an'
aw, ye kna.'

How true, thought I, must have been the poet's knowledge of himself.

And who is he with modest looks,

And clad in sober russet gown?
He murmurs by the running brooks,
A music sweeter than their own;
He is retired as noontide dew,
Or fountain in a noonday grove.
And indeed, in all the reminiscences I have obtained among the peasantry,
these lines force themselves upon one as corroborated by their evidence.

'He' [Mr. Wordsworth], continued George, 'was a deal upo' the road,
would goa moast days to L'Ambleside i' his cloak and umbrella, and in later
times fwoaks would stare and gaum to see him pass, not that we thowt much
to him hereaboots, but they was straängers, ye see.'

It is curious, though natural, perhaps, to find a sort of disbelief among

the natives in the poet's greatness, owing somewhat to the fact that it 'was
straängers as set such store by him.' They distrust strangers still, almost as
much as they did in old Border-times.

But the secret of Wordsworth's unpopularity with the dalesmen seems to

have been that he was shy and retired, and not one who mixed freely or
talked much with them.

'We woz,' said George, 'noan of us very fond on him; eh, dear! quite a
different man from li'le Hartley. He wozn't a man as was very compannable,
ye kna. He was fond o' steanes and mortar, though,' he added. 'It was in '48,
year of revolution, one Frost, they ca'd him rebellious (Monmouth), and a
doment in Ireland. I mind we was at wuk at Fiddler's Farm, and Muster
Wudsworth 'ud come down maist days, and he sed "it sud be ca'ed Model
Farm," and sa it was.'

Speaking of Foxhow, he said, 'He and the Doctor [Dr. Arnold], you've
mappen hard tell o' t' Doctor,—well, he and the Doctor was much i' yan
anudder's company; and Wudsworth was a girt un for chimleys, had summut
to saay in the makkin' of a deal of 'em hereaboot. There was 'maist all the
chimleys Rydal way built efter his mind. I can mind he and the Doctor had
girt argiments aboot the chimleys time we was building Foxhow, and
Wudsworth sed he liked a bit o' colour in 'em. And that the chimley coigns
sud be natural headed and natural bedded, a lile bit red and a lile bit yallar.
For there is a bit of colour i' t' quarry stean up Easedale way. And heed a girt
fancy an' aw for chimleys square up hauf way, and round t'other. And so we
built 'em that road.' It was amusing to find that the house chimney-stacks up
Rydal way are in truth so many breathing monuments of the bard. The man
who with his face to the Continent passed in that sunny pure July morn of
1803 over Westminster Bridge, and noticed with joy the smokeless air,
rejoiced also to sit 'without emotion, hope, or aim, by his half-kitchen and
half-parlour fire' at Town End, and wherever he went seems to have noted
with an eye of love

The smoke forth issuing whence and how it may,

Like wreaths of vapour without stain or blot.

But if from the highland huts he had observed how intermittently the
blue smoke-curls rose and fell, he was most pleased to watch on a still day
the tremulous upward pillars of smoke that rose from the cottages of his
native dale. In his Guide to the Lakes (page 44) Wordsworth has said, 'The
singular beauty of the chimneys will not escape the eye of the attentive
traveller. The low square quadrangular form is often surmounted by a tall
cylinder, giving to the cottage chimney the most beautiful shape that is ever
seen. Nor will it be too fanciful or refined to remark that there is a pleasing
harmony between a tall chimney of this circular form and the living column
of smoke ascending from it through the still air.'

And my friend George's memory of Mr. Wordsworth's dictum about the

need of having the chimney coign 'natural headed and natural bedded, a lile
bit red and a lile bit yaller' is again found to be true to the life from a passage
in the same Guide to the Lakes (p. 60), in which the poet, after stating that
the principle that ought to determine the position, size, and architecture of a
house (viz., that it should be so constructed as to admit of being incorporated
into the scenery of nature) should also determine its colour, goes on to say
'that since the chief defect of colour in the Lake country is an over-
prevalence of bluish-tint, to counteract this the colour of houses should be of
a warmer tone than the native rock allows'; and adds, 'But where the cold
blue tint of the rocks is enriched by an iron tinge, the colours cannot be too
closely imitated, and will be produced of itself by the stones hewn from the
adjoining quarry.' How beautiful the colouring of the Rydal quarry stone is,
and how dutifully the son of the poet carried out his father's will in his recent
rebuilding of a family residence near Foxhow, may be judged by all who
glance at the cylindrical chimneys, or look at the natural material that forms
the panels of the porch of the 'Stepping-stones' under Loughrigg.