The Invisible Heart: An Economic Romance

Sam enters the classroom on the last day of classes, which is likely to be his last day at Edwards as well. He is tired but introduces the lesson on environmental regulation. He surprises the students when he asks whether they believe he is for or against environmental regulations and reveals he isn’t opposed to them.

He gives an example that seems initially unrelated—prisoner ships to Australia. They were inhumane, with many prisoners dying on the voyage. British citizens were bothered by this, so the government attempted to fix the problem. Ultimately, the only solution that worked was the pay the private captains only for the prisoners who disembarked alive in Australia. He explains the connection to the environment with emissions permits. If a power plant is required to install specific equipment, the costs of that is passed on to the consumer, but there’s no incentive to innovate and reduce pollution further. However, if a plant must purchase permits based on how many tons of emissions, they want to produce they have an incentive to innovate and find ways to reduce their pollution themselves.

Sam tells the class that governmental regulations can make sense and work in cases where no one and/or everyone shares ownership of something, like the ocean or the air. The free market works, says Sam, because of private property. Rights to private property harness self-interest, and each person cares for their own property. The problems arise largely when something is hard to own, which is why governmental regulation can become useful, so long as it considers the power of self-interest. He uses a story of how the Zimbabwe government gave ownership rights of elephants to villages. As a result, they protected the elephant population, and Zimbabwe saw growth in elephant populations when across the rest of the continent those populations were in decline.

He tells the class about a trip he took to Yellowstone where he saw elk as he hiked with friends. He believed at the time that those elk highlighted the wildness of the park. But on further research he discovered that eliminating wolves from the park at the turn of the 20th century significantly affected the entire ecosystem. He tells them to remember the lesson of the elk, that to make one small change with the best of intentions can have long-reaching unforeseen consequences.

He leaves the students with a final thought on the nature of economics, how it is not concerned with money but with how to view the world and how to understand the choices available. He tells the students he is leaving the school without appeal, that he’ll miss them, and that he’s enjoyed teaching them. The students slowly file out, and he asks Amy to stay. It was Amy who left the envelope outside his door months ago. He returns it to her. She says, tearfully, that she knew her father was involved with Sam’s dismissal and thought the documents would help. He says they would have, but that they aren’t his to use. He wishes her well and asks her to keep in touch. When she leaves, he surveys his classroom, sits at his desk one last time, and begins to pack his things.

Sam and Laura enjoy a picnic lunch near the Jefferson Memorial. They discuss Jefferson and the origins of the country. Then Sam tells Laura what happened with his job at Edwards school. Amy’s father, a prominent progressive senator and member of the school board, initiated an investigation into Sam’s teaching. The claim was that he was biased in his presentation of information and was attempting to convince the students of his worldview rather than teaching them economic theories and principles.

Laura asks when he’ll appeal, and he says he’s leaving the school instead. Laura is offended at the unfairness of his leaving. He explains that he’s had two opportunities to fight it and turned them both down. The first was Amy giving him receipts from a hotel either demonstrating the senator was having an affair or that he was meeting with unsavory people. Sam couldn’t justify using them, so he returned them. He also cancelled the appeal hearing because he knew he wouldn’t win. Laura asks why not give a statement of his principles, and he says he didn’t know whether he could stay calm, so he chose to try to accept the decision.

The thing that made him angriest, he tells Laura, was the claim that the class was pro-business. He draws a strong distinction between pro-capitalism and pro-business. His position as pro-capitalism is directly tied to the consequences of governmental and non-governmental actions. Business plays a major part in creation and innovation, but ultimately allowing businesses to operate with minimal regulation is about an understanding of the self-regulating effects of the market, rather than an affection for business itself.

In the discussion of whether the school’s decision is fair, and whether Sam has made the right choice not to fight it, they discuss anti-discrimination law and the general value of law. In most cases, Sam argues, laws have long-reaching unintended consequences. Therefore, his ideal society has precious few laws, only those required to maintain a society relatively free from violence and theft. Laura listens, and then asks what she can do to make the world a better place if not go to law school. Sam answers that she can take all nature of individual steps that make the world better. That if she actively works to make the world what she wants it to be by investing her time, energy, and compassion into it, she’s likely to see much higher returns than if she advocates for a law requiring or banning certain things.

When Laura says that they’re back to seeing the world differently, Sam says he hopes they’ve moved forward. No longer debating but discovering and exploring. They walk hand-in-hand around the Jefferson Memorial. They sit together in silence for a bit. She thanks him for telling her about leaving the school. She tells him she likes his contrarian nature, and that she’ll miss him at school. She asks him to accompany her to the senior skit night.

The senior skit night is a tradition at the Edwards school and typically contains jokes and performances by the seniors poking fun at teachers. Every year it is overseen by a teacher, and this year Laura is the advisor. Sam stands with her while the students impress with their wit and talents. At the end, after the applause, they have an encore performance. To the tune of “If I Only Had a Brain” from The Wizard of Oz, they literally sing Sam’s praises as well as critique the administration’s choice. The principal is incensed, but Sam has already left, and Amy makes sure the audience knows Laura had no knowledge of the song.

Three months after graduation, Laura is at the subway station escalator. Fast Eddie asks her for change, and she gazes into the distance for a moment before dropping $1 into his hat. She hears Sam’s voice repeat her question of a year before, she smiles and returns his answer. They ride the train together and discuss what’s happened over the summer. Sam went to see his sister and eventually decided to come back when he received a video of the song and a letter of explanation from Laura. She still feels terrible that he was the centerpiece of the show when she’d told him he’d be left out of it. She asks his plans, and he says he’ll substitute while he looks for more regular work. And he wants to “woo” (255) Laura if she’ll let him. She flirtatiously teases him, but when he quotes Robert Burns to her they pick up naturally where they left off months before.