A Dead Lawn, a Running Mower and Slovakia's Economic Literacy Gap
An opinion essay published by Forbes Slovakia opens with a scene from a village near the author's home: a municipal worker cutting a brown, scorched lawn with a loud gasoline mower while temperatures approached 40°C. The grass had stopped growing weeks earlier, and the machine, the author writes, mainly churned dust from dried-out soil. He describes the scene as an illustration of what he sees as a broader failure — the absence of serious economic reasoning in Slovak public debate.
The author deliberately avoids an environmental critique and instead applies economic concepts. The dust, he suggests, might force nearby residents to wash windows, buy cleaning products and use more water — spending that looks like economic activity. He compares this to Frédéric Bastiat's 19th-century broken-window fallacy: money spent repairing damage creates visible work, but the same money would have been spent on something useful if the damage had never happened.
The essay then extends the argument to public policy. Free train travel for seniors, a popular measure, is not actually free: it is financed through value-added tax paid by everyone, including seniors. Money diverted to subsidized transport is money not available for other priorities, such as healthcare. The author cites Peter Gonda of the Conservative Institute M. R. Štefánika, who says weak economic and financial literacy makes people more accepting of populist proposals and less effective at managing their own money.
Finally, the piece turns to education. It notes that economic thinking occupies a small place in Slovak schools, and highlights the institute's 'Classical Economics for High School Students' course, which currently has 190 participants across the Žilina, Košice and Nitra regions, and a planned summer course for secondary-school teachers. Forbes is listed as a media partner of the project.
What the Mower Anecdote Actually Argues About Public Spending
A Modern Retelling of Bastiat's Fallacy
The mowing anecdote is a deliberate echo of Bastiat's essay What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen. The visible part of the story is the worker doing his job; the invisible part is what the fuel, time and municipal wages could have produced elsewhere. The author's claim is not that the worker is lazy, but that the task creates no real value because the lawn has no grass — so the money and effort are wasted. This is an interpretative argument, not a reported fact, and the author acknowledges the chain of consequences (dirty windows, cleaning costs) is speculative.
The Real Price of 'Free' Public Services
The seniors' free-train example is the essay's most concrete policy point. In economic terms, a subsidized service still consumes resources. If the state pays for rail travel, those funds are unavailable for healthcare, education or other spending. The author argues that voters rarely hear politicians explain these opportunity costs, which is why the concept of 'no free lunch' is often ignored in Slovak political debate. The article does not provide the cost of the train measure or an official breakdown of trade-offs.
Why Economic Literacy Matters for Careers and Growth
The piece links poor economic education to practical outcomes: young Slovaks often choose state or EU employment over entrepreneurship, and the country has weak growth and innovation. Whether that connection is fully causal is not proven in the essay, but it frames the stakes of efforts like the Conservative Institute's courses. The figures — 190 students in three regions — also illustrate how small such programs are relative to the total student population.
Putting Opportunity Cost to Work in Schools and Public Debate
For teachers and school leaders: The Conservative Institute's summer course for secondary teachers is a concrete, named opportunity to bring opportunity-cost and public-choice concepts into civics and economics classes. Schools can ask whether their current curriculum covers concepts such as opportunity cost and 'no free lunch' before students graduate.
For students weighing career paths: The essay's central example applies directly: choosing a state-sector job over entrepreneurship carries an opportunity cost — the possible earnings and experience from building a business. It is worth making that trade-off explicit rather than implicit.
For voters: When politicians present measures as free, the article suggests asking how they will be funded and what spending would be displaced. The seniors' rail travel example shows why the question matters, even for measures that benefit many citizens.
Comments 0