April 2013
pages:October 2009 pages
Opinions 5/14/2013
Page 2 • April 2013 • MARINERS’ LOG
1:33 PM
Page 2
The 2013 Oscars: Should We Listen to the Academy or Not? BY DEAMBER PATTERSON
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, were presented as always in a gala celebration held on February 24 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California. This ceremony is to honor amazing productions within the filming industry throughout the year. Although we are all aware of the most popular and “must-see” movies, these aren’t always the films that are chosen for the top awards, such as Best Picture. Nine movies this year were nominated for Best Picture: Amour, Life of Pi, Argo, Lincoln, Beast of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Zero Dark Thirty, and Les Miserables. You no doubt recognize some of these titles; but some you may not. According to the current box office ratings, Lincoln has grossed $182,204,430, beating out all of the other nominees. However, 12 movies took in more money than Lincoln, so what makes Lincoln so special, and why did none of the 12 that did better at the box office not even get nominated, much less win? Marvel’s The Avengers was the top money-maker in 2012, earning three times what Lincoln did. Next were The Dark Knight Rises and The Hunger Games, incredibly entertaining films—but definitely
light-weight compared to Lincoln. Also in the top ten are The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Amazing Spider-Man, Brave, and Ted—all of them decent movies, but none better than Lincoln, either. The Academy apparently knows its stuff when it comes to not letting money cloud the issue of how good a movie is. So Lincoln came in 12th in box office receipts. How did the movie that took home Best Picture honors do? The winner of Best Picture turned out to be Argo, number 22 in box office receipts. How does one explain that disconnect between the Academy and the viewers who pay dearly to go to the movies? Clearly, what attracts the voters for the Academy Awards and what people actually demonstrate they like by going to see movies are two quite different monkeys. So, how does a movie end up winning Best Picture? For starters, the nominees are chosen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a body whose membership currently numbers over 5,000 people. It is said to be a very credible organization. The association looks carefully at many aspects of movies that the regular population will never notice, such as the accuracy of the story line and specifics involving filming as a profession. Critics state that Argo does not
stand up very well to several other nominees. Possibly that criticism should make a person want to see a movie even more! Apparently the people who have the money to spend on movies have pretty predictable taste. They like action flicks, they like super-heroes, and they’re apparently pretty young. I like to think I’m a little more complex than that, and maybe the Academy’s picks should be viewed as those movies that it’s worth stepping outside one’s comfort zone to see. And if Argo was the winner, there must be something just a little bit more special about that movie compared to the other nominees that makes it worth exploring. For the same reason, I should perhaps make it a point to rent Zero Dark Thirty and Beasts of the Southern Wild. Definitely I need to see Life of Pi, which, even though it missed out on Best Picture, took home Oscars for visual effects, music, and directing. Most of the time, I’d say it’s best to pick your own winners. I rarely see eye to eye with the critics, but the Academy is a different story. When they identify the best in the different categories, I’ve learned to listen. In my opinion, if they nominate a movie for any category, it’s a movie I’d more than likely consider seeing!
professor is still here. Why take a chance? Get those letters of recommendation now. Not now, actually, but ask if you can come back a week or two after exams and graduation to pick up your letter. Your references will be able to write much stronger recommendations now than if you wait and ask later. And the better the letters, the better the chance of your gaining a future employer’s attention.
Clothing
An Economic Explanation of Marital and Cohabitation Trends in the U.S. (with special thanks to my ECON 4400 class) BY
DON MATHEWS
This semester I am teaching a wonderful group of students in Public Economics (ECON 4400). The students inspired this article. If there’s anything messed up about it, the fault is mine, not theirs. Near the end of a recent class period, we introduced the concept of moral hazard. Moral hazard is the phenomenon in which people behave adversely after agreeing to a contract because the contract reduces the cost of adverse behavior. Classic cases of moral hazard involve insurance. For example, people buy auto insurance to protect themselves financially if they have a car accident. But because they have insurance, they drive less carefully than they would if they didn’t have insurance, which results in more car accidents. Moral hazard is also a problem in banking. If banks know the Federal Reserve will bail them out (to prevent a larger banking crisis) if they make bad loans, banks will tend to make riskier loans than they otherwise would, which will result in more bad loans and more bank bailouts. My ECON 4400 students quickly recognized that moral hazard rears its head in all sorts of situations in life. The situation my students mentioned? Marriage. One student noted, with spirit and vigor, that men in particular seem prone to succumb to moral hazard in the case of marriage: men are often less— sometimes much less—kind, generous, helpful, and so on, after they are married than when they
Ready for College Graduation . . . but Ready to Be a Graduate? BY JESSICA WHITTLE-FRAZIER
For some of us this year, May 11 marks the day we can finally call ourselves a college graduate! It’s a day we all look forward to: walking across the stage, accepting that diploma, and showing the world that we are ready for whatever it throws our way. But are we really ready? There are a few things that college graduates need to know and do before they can really prove to the world outside of college that they are ready for it! Many things that they may have become accustomed to, things they have considered normal, must change. No longer will the college mindset work. It’s time for reality beyond the campus lifestyle. Right now, before May 11 gets here, there are still a few things we graduates will want to get done before we leave with that diploma in hand.
Get letters of recommendation
Wise graduates are taking advantage of these opportunities while they still can. Before leaving campus, graduates would be smart to contact a select group of professors, administrators, counselors, or coaches who will write good things about their college performance, whether in the classroom or as an employee. Maybe you have made such a lasting impression upon a professor that you can come back two years from now, when you’re applying for the job you’ve studied all these years to get, and the professor will remember you—if the
Meet with Career Services
Even if you’re pretty sure you know where you’re going next, it’s smart to take advantage of the opportunity to talk to someone else who can go over all the different paths you could go down. Who knows, that other person might have a plan that you would like a lot better. CCGA’s career counselors want to smooth out as many bumps in the road as they can. Why would you not take advantage of this?
Leave with things in order
Last but not least, make sure things are in order when you leave the College. Do you know how upset your parents will be if you don’t graduate because of an unpaid parking ticket? Making sure that your residence hall room is spotless and that any random fees you may have racked up are taken care of shows responsibility. No more coasting through life on Easy Street!
As a new graduate, you will discover that summers will never be the same again. Being responsible is now an expectation year-round. So what can you expect this summer?
College of Coastal Georgia Mariners’ Log Staff
Editor-in-Chief
Staff Writers
Faculty, Staff, and Student Contributors
Faculty Advisor
Jessica Whittle-Frazier
Rainey Gregg, DeAmber Patterson
Matthew Cullens, Wendle Grantham, Don Mathews, Connor Hayes, Valerie A. Hepburn, Jenna Kindle, Amanda Mincey, Jessica Mobley, Richard Tucker, Brian Weese, Cassie Whitten Sharon L. Bartkovich
Mariners’ Log is published six times a year by College of Coastal Georgia students under the direction of Student Affairs personnel, is funded with student activity fees, and is distributed without additional charge to students and other college perstonnel. The staff reserves the right to edit any article submitted. Opinions expressed may not be those of the College of Coastal Georgia or the Board of Regents. Address correspondence to College of Coastal Georgia, 1 College Way, Brunswick, GA 31520. (912) 279-5898. The College of Coastal Georgia is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity/Equal Access Institution in compliance with ADA regulations and is a state college in the University System of Georgia. For Auxiliary Aids, contact Student Affairs at 279-5800 five days before any event. Students who need more information concerning auxiliary aids and academic support available to those with disabilities should complete the Student with Disabilities Data Sheet and return it or call the Student Affairs office. MARINERS’ Log is printed by Brunswick News Publishing Company $534.21 Brunswick, Georgia 1,200 copies
For many, it’s been easy to walk out of the residence hall or leave the house in whatever feels comfortable, whether that’s a too-short dress or, sometimes, whatever we slept in. But once we graduate, we can’t dress like that anymore. A graduate never knows when he or she is going to get called in for that dream job interview or run into a future business opportunity. Therefore, it’s best to stay presentable—maybe even professional—not just for the work place, but also for the quick trip downtown or to the grocery store. High on the summer’s agenda probably needs to be a major closet cleaning, followed by a carefully concocted shopping list and a summer of watching for sales. The way we’ve dressed as students is not going to fly now that we’re graduates.
Managing time
Before graduation, weekends might have been filled with late nights and extended parties—maybe weekdays, too—but as a college graduate, you have to manage your time better. That’s not to say there won’t be time for a fun; it’s just that the idea of “fun” will change form keg stands to golf tournaments with future employers. Networking is important when trying to find that dream career, and you won’t find that break at a frat party or daily happy hours. Changes in the way you choose to spend your free time are all a part of being grown up.
Managing money
A look at checkbooks and credit card statements shows we’ve become accustomed to spending a lot of our money on gas, takeout, and books. Hopefully, now that we’re graduating, there will be more money coming in—because there’s certainly going to be more money
Graduate Reception for the Class of 2013 on the Conference Center Brick Front Patio Friday, May 10 3:30 - 4:30 p.m.
going out. Entry-level paychecks will have to stretch to cover healthy meals and, unfortunately, new bills. And many of us, now that we’re graduates, have been turned loose by Mom and Dad. Being independent is a wonderful feeling, but it requires constant attention to how much is going into the checkbook and how much is coming out. And until you get the student loans paid off, balancing the checkbook may be quite a challenge. Make sure you’ve checked for that small window of opportunity that allows you to postpone repaying loans until you have a job. Talking to a professor or an older sibling who has already gone through the transition from college to the work place may give you a better understanding of what to expect. They will all probably give you the same advice. • Stick to your plans. • Expect things to hit you every now and then, but just keep moving forward. • When something happens that you can’t get through, build a path around it. • Trust in yourself. You’ve made it this far, so don’t give up now. Congratulations to those graduating this semester and to those still working towards that goal. It will all be worth it in the end!
were courting. Now it happens that earlier that very day, the National Center for Health Statistics released a report titled “First Premarital Cohabitation in the United States: 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth.” The report, based on interviews conducted between 2006 and 2010 of 12,279 women aged 15 to 44, found that cohabitation—male and female partners living together but not married—is now at the highest levels ever recorded in the U.S. Of the women interviewed in 2006-2010, 48 percent cohabited with a partner as a first union, up from 34 percent in 1995. Only 23 percent of women interviewed in 2006-2010 said their first union was marriage, down from 39 percent in 1995. The percentage of women living alone was up slightly, from 27 percent in 1995 to 29 percent in 20062010. Cohabitation is now more common among young women than living with a spouse or living alone. Recent trends in marriage, divorce, and cohabitation are often explained as the consequence of a decline in traditional values. I think this is in part true, but not so much because of a decline in traditional values regarding marriage. The traditional values in decline behind the trend away from marriage are the values that generate pervasive discrimination against women in the labor market: the belief that women are inferior to men and are not fit for many types of jobs. Another factor may well be behind the decline in marriage and the rise in cohabitation. This is the factor inadvertently suggested by my ECON 4400 students: the cost to a woman of moral hazard by her partner is likely to be significantly less in cohabitation than marriage. Let me illustrate. My grandmother was born in 1907 and lived to be 92. In the fall of 1924, she went off to the University of Illinois, and in the spring of 1928, she graduated with a bachelor of arts in history. It was uncommon for a woman to attend college in those days; my grandmother estimated the malefemale ratio at Illinois at the time was about ten to one. My grandmother did not go to college to get a good job. She had no desire to be part of the work force. She went to college, she told me in no uncertain terms, “to find a husband.” In response to my question, “But why go to college just to find a husband?” she said, “I was not about to marry just anyone.” In my grandmother’s day, women were severely discriminated against in the labor market. Many occupations were simply closed to them, meaning that for most women, the only route to a decent standard of living was marriage. What if the marriage turned sour? What if the husband became abusive? Divorce was not an attractive option for two reasons: few and poor labor market opportunities, and the social stigma of divorce. In my grandmother’s day, divorce carried a substantial social stigma, and it was much worse for a woman than for a man. My grandmother was no gold digger. She simply wanted a decent life—no easy thing for a woman to negotiate
at that time. In the 85 years since my grandmother earned her college degree, discrimination against women in the labor market has decreased considerably. Better labor market opportunities make leaving a bad marriage easier. Note what that means: other factors being equal, less labor market discrimination against women means a higher divorce rate. What about the increasing rate of cohabitation and the decreasing rate of marriage? Divorce no longer carries the same social stigma, but it can be a costly legal affair. For younger couples without a lot of shared assets, ending a cohabitation is likely to be significantly less costly than ending a marriage. And because ending a cohabitation is likely to be less costly than divorce, moral hazard is likely to be less of a problem in cohabitation than in marriage. Consider the implicit threat: “You mess up, and I’m out of here.” It’s not much of a threat if getting “out of here” is costly and difficult. But if getting “out of here” is not costly or difficult, the threat is serious and is more likely to check the “messing up” behavior of the partner. In other words, cohabitation is a way to reduce moral hazard by a partner. The source of all moral hazard problems is uncertainty: when two parties engage in an explicit or implicit contract, at least one of the parties does not know with certainty how the other will behave. In romantic relationships, neither party knows with certainty how the other will behave. This uncertainty is especially present in the lives of younger people living together, married or not, for the first time. These people don’t even know how they’ll feel or behave, never mind how their partners will feel or behave, when they live with a partner in close quarters day after day after day. The arrangement might turn out to be wonderful. It might turn out to be awful. People simply don’t know ahead of time. How do people find out if living together, married or not, will work out? Only by living together, married or not. Marriage is costly to enter and costly to terminate. It is not something to be wrong about. Cohabitation is less expensive to enter and less expensive to terminate. It is better protection against uncertainty and moral hazard.