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From the WSJ's Real Time Economics. This is an interesting look at how professional economists and average Americans differ in answering some important questions. Did any of the answers surprise you? On the 'Buy American' provisions, why do you think there is such a disparity between the answers of Americans and economists?
Before we get into studying supply and demand, let's play a little ECO 2301 vs. Economists. The poll is on the home page and the questions is, "All else equal, making drugs illegal raises street prices for those drugs because suppliers require extra compensation for the risk of incarceration and other punishments."
Matt Huebert
1/29/2012 02:03:57 pm
I think this is another example that Americans in general do not understand what they are talking about, or even the reasoning for their own opinions. How can one possibly think that raising the tax rate, won't raise revenue. The only explanation is the trickle down theory which I agree with, However in order for this to work there has to be a much larger than 1% change in the tax rate. I am stunned by the drug question, if drugs were legalized they would definitely go down in price, save the government taxing the hell out of them.
10403422
1/29/2012 02:59:28 pm
In every day life people usually buy their everyday products from retailers, the retailers buy from wholesailers, and wholesailers buy from the manufactures. As a result of this, the customers are paying far more than what it actually takes to make the product. The same thing goes with drugs except the prices are highly inflated because they usually go through a similar process with twice the steps. This and the fact that the products are illeagal greatly increase the price of the drugs and make it a very profitable buisness for the cartel and other low-life dealers. If drugs were made legal, the prices would fall derastically because they wouldnt be as difficult to obtain.
R10438726
1/29/2012 03:56:05 pm
I beleive that the United States lost the trust of the people by installing systems that were bound to fail such as Medicare and Medicaid. If the government wants to gain the trust of the other 77% of Americans they need to implement systems that are going to work.
R10389097
1/29/2012 11:30:45 pm
I agree that the government has lost the trust of most people, but was Medicare and Medicaid really bound to fail? Also, where does your statistic come from?
R10368811
2/6/2012 07:23:38 am
I also agree the government has lost the trust from American citizens, and maybe Medicare and Medicaid were not bound to fail...but the procedure and the way the systems were carried out caused it to become a failure.
R10371553
2/9/2012 10:28:37 am
I agree as well that they have lost the peoples trust but I think you have missed the mark by saying Medicare and Medicaid were going to fail from the start.
R10409604
1/31/2012 12:07:08 pm
I don't think people actually know enough about their own opinions to even know what they're talking about when it comes to the tax rate. It took me by surprise how they wouldn't think that it would raise the revenue if they raised the tax rate. As for the drug question I definitly think the prices would go down if the drugs weren't illegal.
R10374650
1/31/2012 03:10:52 pm
I think people and businesses buy up the tickets and sell them at higher prices. So even though the NFL says they cost $800 to $1200 the actual price is around $4000. It's wrong of the NFL to repay the individuals that didn't get a seat they paid for at a lower rate then they bought it for, but it's not the NFL's fault that people buy and then sell at a higher price.
R10412296
2/4/2012 12:21:27 pm
It does not surprise me that the opinion of the economists and the opinion of Americans in general differed so much because maybe Americans do not know a lot of information about the issues, don't care so they just pick an answer or because Americans think a lot differently than economists do. The results for Americans in this survey could and does have to do a lot with the composition fallacy,while economists are trained to think beyond that fallacy.
R10492644
2/8/2012 12:44:02 pm
I really agree with what you are saying. I think that Americans really do not know what is actually going on. It may be the lack of teaching they get in high school ( I do not remember anything from high school economics) and maybe they just didn't pay attention if the went to college. I think that it takes years to actually think like a economists do and a lot of Americans don't really want to think like that! I think that the reason there is no middle consent between economists and average Americans is that most of the American citizens are uneducated in topics like these. Many Americans form their opinions from what they hear from other sources, wether they be reliable or not. I believe that raising the tax rate will DEFINATLY raise revenue. As far as drugs being legalized, I beleive that they would decrease in price.
R10175535
2/8/2012 02:42:59 pm
I agree with your opinion on lack of education. A little over a third of Americans hold college degrees, so the other two thirds are left in the dark concerning economical issues. And thats assuming those with college degrees have a strong understanding of economics.
R10175535
2/8/2012 02:38:19 pm
I do NOT understand how only 10% of economists agree to "Buying American Provisions" this process only seems beneficial to the united states by brigning in not only money that can be further dispersed into the economy, but also jobs that are so valuable at this time. "Buy Locally" and "Made in the USA" is so important these days I only think its fair that the Government be almost required to honor it. Comments are closed.
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