[rvega]

"In 2004, a bread roll cost 40 cents. For the wheat that went into it, the farmer received less than 2 cents. What do you think about that?"

Am I supposed to be alarmed by this question? It looks to me to be an invitation to an interesting line of thougt. "Where'd the other 38 cents go?" is the obvious next question. Answering it would, I suppose, reveal other players in the production- and supply-chain, and would probably indicate that the farmer received a fair price. It might even lead one to consider other ideas like economies of scale and the role of industrialization in agriculture. And so on.

This article is almost comically biased. Replace a few pejoratives with antonyms and the author's unreasonableness becomes clear: In Texas, they're not "filling students with negative preconceptions and suspicions about businesses and the people who run them." No, they're "filling students with positive preconceptions and faith about businesses and the people who run them."

Are we supposed to prefer the latter?

[mixmax]

coming from a European school I have seen many questions like this, and unfortunately your reasoning is wrong.

The premise is that the farmer only gets a small percentage of the selling price, and hence is abused by a capitalist global economy.

I have discussions with intelligent people on a regular basis that still hold on strongly to the belief that the little man is being abused by the system.

We're a bunch of commies :-)

[cstejerean]

You make a very good point about the kind of discussion a question like that should bring up. The problem is it depends on the teachers to lead the class in that direction. I've seen far too many folks however not make that logical next step (not with this particular problem).

For example in the restaurant business on average 10% of the sales price of an item goes towards the food itself (leaving aside super expensive restaurants). Most folks see this and somehow feel they are being robbed of their hard earned cash for having to pay such a "premium". Few take the time to think about other associated costs such as the cost of operating the physical restaurant (employees, the building, utilities, the tables, chairs, silverware, etc).

I really hope that you are right regarding where that question was supposed to lead.

[run4yourlives]

My only problem with it was that it was quoted as being from a math textbook. I don't find a discussion of economic morality relevant for math class, to be honest.