Subject: Quote about Systems

Posted by Lees N. Stuntz on 11/12/2011
In Reply To:Quote about Systems Posted by Richard Turnock on 11/12/2011

Message:

Dear All,

I am posting here three answers to Richard's post because there is rich fodder in this thread for how we teach SD in K-12 as well as what SD is good for in K-12. However, I am not posting any more of this thread unless it actually addresses the central goal of this list- SD in K-12. We could easily diverge into a political discussion or go down paths which, although delightful to discuss, are not pertinent to this list.

Take care,
Lees

This message was originally submitted by sharon@SHARONVILLINES.COM to the
K-12SD list at SYSDYN.CLEXCHANGE.ORG.

On 14 Nov 2011, at 1:55 PM, Bill Braun wrote:


The other is the book "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond, in which he puts forth the theory that areas richer in natural resources (those required to forge arms, for example) when viewed over time, might explain the dominance of one area (and its people) over another area (and its people).

I'm sorry I don't have the references at hand but there are several books available and many people studying the effects of culture on the economy. They make convincing arguments that religious beliefs and social codes have more influence than resources.

One method is to compare counties with similar resources and different levels of wealth. The contrasts are striking. Refusal to use wheels, beliefs that cows are stubborn and won't produce milk no matter what you do, placing more importance on the display of power than on trade, etc.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines, Washington DC
"Behavior is determined by the prevailing form of decision making." Gerard Endenburg

This message was originally submitted by pedrodago@GMAIL.COM to the K-12SD list
at SYSDYN.CLEXCHANGE.ORG.
Dear Richard:

What a pleasure to hear from you, this time I write some things I learned in
my way.

Very interesting your question, I like 20 years ago, I have been
developingbetter
ways to manage the inventory management in retail and distributioncompanies.

This phenomenon occurs in this case, for example, perhaps no more than 5%
of your inventory items, make up over 80% of your winnings and for us to
improve those numbers, modeling and simulation have a fantastic opportunity in
this area , I have found the flows, stocks, delay, cycles ofpositive and
negative feedback to improve the performance of suchcompanies and supply
chains.

I have no doubt that using the system dynamics, it is possible to improve
outcomes for systems that follow this type of distribution with these
patterns of behavior.

You can download a presentation of my model in my personal blog:

ITESM IQ80 » Sinapsys Distribution Model. By Pedro D. Almaguer Prado
(Tato)


If you are interested in this field, I will share what I have written.

Muchos saludos desde Monterrey, México

This message was originally submitted by wade.schuette@GMAIL.COM to the K-12SD
list at SYSDYN.CLEXCHANGE.ORG.

Regardless of what feedback loops structurally ("naturally") make it easy for the rich to get richer, there are also in many cultures and most religions cultural values and imperatives to be merciful, take care of the poor, share the wealth, etc. These are based on many things, from altruism and spirituality to the hard-won lesson that extremes of wealth are socially unstable and lead to catastrophic collapse of a society.

It's one thing to say "Not my fault!" and quite another to consciously blame the victims for their plight, and take joy in punishing them further on every front, if not outright killing them with baseball bats for sport.

Wade