When first asked to assess the nation's economic health, my immediate reaction was to flip on the television and skim through the various cable news channels. My goal? To find the most distressing economic reports to backup the fact that the United States' economic status is in shambles. However, my quest for economic disaster soon ended in an hour special on the Discovery Health channel. My point is (1) that I assume anything on the news is generally bad (and that scary word, economy, is on there every once in awhile); (2) I don't know what the main economic issues are; and (3) I better get started on that summer reading if I want to understand this class.
My assumption that the US economy is in such bad shape, is solely based on the fact that I hear more complaints than praises of the system. It seems that people assume the economy should be working perfectly at all times--so when it does deviate from the norm we get upset.
The public tends to look at healthy economic growth, like "creative destruction" as an economic downfall; when in all actuality it is an improvement for our country. The Economist.com is covering a story on George Williams, one of Scottsdale's last remaining cowboys. He has been raising horses and cattle for 20+ years and is now at risk of losing the farm because he has not had enough business.1 Yes; it is this personal story that makes us dislike the impersonal economy, but when you think about it, would you rather pay for a $10 burger at the expense of the cowboy to keep his high cost farm? Heck no! You want a $4 burger from a restaurant that buys from a large cost-effective beef distributor.
The burger prices are my guesses;...