Written by Rana Tahir ’13
As a foreigner, when U.S. elections come around, my ear is mostly open for the foreign policy issues; it’s my shtick.
But this week in “Elections 2012!” (enthusiastic name, isn’t it?), we discussed the economy with associate professor of economics Carol Scotton.
Rana Tahir in Election 2012 class
No, we didn’t talk about “buying gold.” The lecture portion — called “It’s the Stupid Economy, Folks!” — presented an alternative to the regular “big or small government” argument. Why are we expecting supply and demand to fix problems when the market has no critical thinking skills? Good question, it seems to me.
Markets can’t discriminate, but they can’t be compassionate either. Instead of letting something arbitrarily make decisions for us (whether it is government or the market) without knowing the specific facts in specific places, maybe we should all get together in the messy process of democracy and decide for ourselves.
That’s not so bad, is it? I really appreciate this new view on the question of the economy and size of the budget. It’s so much more interesting, and seems to have a better ability to move forward than the “big vs. small” argument.
Food for thought is a big part of this class.
What do you think Governor Romney and President Obama should be discussing in terms of the economy?
For the third week of the Elections class, my section will be discussing the environment in the elections!