Assignment/Activity Title— Economics
Essay Year—2014
Skill— Writing,
researching Portfolio
Category—Critical Reasoning
My economics essay allowed me to apply previous
knowledge in an area I was interested in while solidifying some of my own views
on the subject matter. Economics
in an area that, while may seem dull and dry, affect all of our lives. When we are looking into macroeconomic
solutions to America’s problems, we are looking for ways to help Americans
better feed their children, get a better job, or buy something new that they
want. I found it useful to look at
economics from the human perspective.
This makes the discipline more interesting. For this project, we were-at the most base level-asked to
solve America’s economic woes. Of
course, dozens, if not hundreds, of books have been written about the subject
and it was very difficult to take all of the information available and turn it
into a short essay. In the end I
didn’t actually do a very good job at this, writing an essay that was likely
multiple pages longer than it should have been. However, this experience allowed me to improve my skills at
writing in a concise way: my next few essays in other classes were of a more
reasonable length. I really
enjoyed this assignment because I had done a lot of research into macroeconomic
theory over the summer and was happy to apply that knowledge to a school
assignment.
This summer and fall, I read books by people
such as Bill Clinton, Paul Krugman, and Milton Freidman on the government’s
role in the economy. Krugman was
in favor of a major role, whereas Freidman believed strongly in allowing the
free market to dictate. Clinton
was somewhere in the middle. I
knew before I wrote the essay that I would stray from the ideals of Friedman,
but I wasn’t really sure how liberal I was. This is what the essay taught me. I spent quite a bit of time deciding where I fell on issues
relating to government spending and taxation. Clinton took the threat of government debt more seriously,
whereas Krugman pointed out that record low interest rates made it nearly
painless to borrow money to boost the economy. I took Krugmam’s side on this one. I found his argument of the effectiveness of government
investment in education and infrastructure very compelling. I also leaned towards Krugman on
taxation, favoring major middle class tax cuts and an immediate rise in the
rates of wealthier tax brackets-though I didn’t go in as radical of a direction
as Krugman. This essay allowed me
to flesh out my positions on a basic economic ideology on these domestic
issues. After the completion of
the essay, I was motivated to learn more about other economic issues. For example, I fell more on the Clinton
side on welfare reform and I am still trying to discover my thoughts on issues
of free trade. By writing about an
issue I was truly interested in, I was able to write an essay that I was proud
of.
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