In class, on February 2nd, we broke off into small groups to discuss examples of different energy conversions that took place during Hank Morgan’s journey, but it was the discussion of wasted energy that truly piqued my interest. While addressing the class, Professor Perrone told a story about his father’s work as a dentist. His father found out that the more he worked, then the greater the amount of money the government would take out in taxes. Dr. Perrone found out that for all of the extra work he was doing, it was not worth the minute additional income he was receiving in return. As an accounting and financial management major at Bucknell, I found this story intriguing because I am currently enrolled in Corporate Finance and I deal with tax questions daily. In the corporate world, large corporations try to add additional expenses onto their income statement so that they can reduce their taxable income.
This comparison between Dr. Perrone and large corporations led me to think about people in general, the shortcuts we take in our daily lives, and what is responsible for our motives to conserve our energy output. My answer to this is the rapid advancement in technology. Everyday, new technology is being invented and developed, and when it is released to the public the advertisements all say the same thing: “buy this new and updated piece of technology because it does things quicker and easier, and it will save you time in your daily lives”. Being born in 1997, I cannot even begin to imagine what life was like before televisions, cell phones, or computers, but I can imagine that people had to work a lot harder to achieve things in their daily lives.