MY RENAISSANCE Essay

Kyson Peterson BUS-1050 Summer 15

BUS 1050 has truly been an intellectual and spiritual journey for me. I can honestly say
that I have loved every second of this class. Going into this semester, BUS 1050 had been the
class I was dreading the most, the short timeframe, the fact that it was a BUSINESS class for
goodness sake, ugh, how boring and challenging was this going to be? That is what I asked
myself, I remember sweating bullets waiting for it to start, waiting for that first time I could login
through Canvas.
And then the day came, and our first assignment was to watch an hour-long video about
the Industrial Revolution, and I have to say, I was transfixed from then on. How could I have
known I would enjoy a class so much, be so interested in reading the material (except Marx), so
curious about how this idea of capitalism and the free market system had evolved. One need
only ask a family member or co-worker this question, Has Kyson brought up the topic of
Capitalism in the last 3 months?
About 4 weeks ago I had a pipe fitter from Western Automatic Sprinkler Company show
up at my building to fix a broken sprinkler pipe. He was an older gentleman, likely in his late
50s early 60s, with white hair. He walked with his head at a slight hunch, marking the years of
construction he had put behind him. Hi, my name is Steve he said as we shook hands. We
introduced ourselves and I began to walk him back to the area of the building that had the
problem. As we walked, we made small talk, mostly about the economy and how busy his shop
was. Once we arrived at the room that had the sprinkler pipe issue, he began to assess the
damage. As we were walking around the room, I just blurted out you know, in this business
class I am taking, we are discussing the formation of the idea of a free market and it is really
interesting! Steve said, Oh, you are going to school, thats great, what type of degree are you
looking at getting? I told him I was pursuing my Associates Degree. He said Oh, thats great.
You know, I never took a business class, but I have done pretty well for myself with my
investments, and I always seem to be the one all of my family flocks to for financial advice.
As the day went on, I checked in with Steve often, and by about 3:30 PM he had
completed his work and I was escorting him out of the building. As we walked, we talked about
Adam Smith, the idea of laissez-faire, the formation of our free market system and modern life.
When we arrived at the front of the building we stood there for 10 solid minutes discussing the
downfall of Roman society and how Christianity had played a major role. That last fact actually
surprised him.

MY RENAISSANCE Essay
Kyson Peterson BUS-1050 Summer 15

Just today, I had a vendor fly in from Austin, Texas. At around 2:30 PM this afternoon
we were standing in an electrical room chatting about simpler times, times when we didnt have
a mortgage or kids, or jobs that required so much of our time. It sent me off on a tangent about
authoritarianism and dictators and how the world worked before someone realized that an
economic policy could be built around people waking up each morning to pursue their own
fortunes however they saw fit. I went off for about 5 minutes on how electrician s made $12 an
hour in the 1970s but a house only cost around $30,000, and how it seemed like our standard of
living had gone up since then but that it really had not, and, oh, did you know that before
capitalism and the free markets people only had the option of being employed in a trade similar
to their fathers trade or whatever the King or Dictator of their time chose for them to be and.
he stopped me there and he said you know, this conversation would be a lot better over a beer.
Understanding how business and more specifically, the Industrial Revolution, has
changed our world would have never come to me if not for this course. One of the biggest
revolutions, or renaissance moments, if you will, that I encountered was the realization that we
are all working and toiling merely to buy products we dont need. More importantly, our work
and our toil is driving the creation of more and more products we dont need, and those products
are getting more expensive and in that way, driving down the value of my dollar and thus, the
value of my time, and because we all spend so much of our time at workthese products are
actually driving down the value of my lives
Now some people may disagree with that last statement, but if we truly look at our daily
lives, most of us, not all, but most, would see the devaluation happening all around us, every
dollar that gas rises, every time our kids wont put down the cell phone, every time we shove
them in front of the TV instead of read them a book, every time we drop them off at daycare
because both parents now have no choice but to work. For all these times, we should be
reminded how greatly our value as a living human being, free on the earth, has been greatly
diminished. How the products we work so hard to buy and put on credit, are actually sucking the
value out of our lives.
This is not to say that all is lost. But I would challenge anyone to look back at the
generations that had come before them and ask, Am I better off, am I happier, than my
grandparents were? Most people would probably say yes. They would say well, my parents
couldnt afford to send me to college, but I can now afford to send my kids or I grew up in a 2
bedroom home with 5 brothers and sisters, my kids have their own rooms and a pool! To those
of us that believe we are better off I would ask, how much debt did your grandparents need to
carry in order to live? I bet very little. How much debt do YOU have to carry in order to live? I
bet quite a lot. That to me is the greatest realization I have received in this class, that is to say,

MY RENAISSANCE Essay
Kyson Peterson BUS-1050 Summer 15

the idea that at one time an interest-laden loan would have gotten someone jailed. But today, it is
as common as brushing your teeth. The idea that a good credit score is more valuable than cash
in the bank.
I will be taking every step I can in the coming months and years to better my life and my
financial situation, so that when I die, I do not pass on a mountain of debt to my children. This is
then, my final lesson from this class. Question what the society of the present says is normal,
right and justifiable