Naked Economics: It Depends

        Another prime example of an economic dilemma is a question proposed by Amartya Sen, the 1998 Nobel Prize Winner in Economics, “Three men have come to you looking for work” (Wheelan, pg 60). One of the three is very poor so hiring him would increase his welfare, the second is not poor but was just recently deprived, and the third has a chronic health condition. So if you are the employer who would you chose to most benefit the economic society you live in? Would you help the common welfare by choosing the poorest, or increase the esteem of the second, or help the third survive his health condition. The answer to this is tough and debatable, and has many solutions. One of the solutions could be to hire the one who has a health condition because he may be on the verge of death. A simple yet potential problematic solution could be to split the shifts and wages amongst the three workers, because something is always better than nothing. This way you could also help increase spending as all three workers would be making an income and all three would add to the employment rate. The answer is thus based rather on opinion than based on fact. Because all three workers give the same effort statistically for the economy they would all three be beneficial, so the answer still stands, who to choose?

        Finally a good debate topic is that of free trade which is the opposite of protectionism (Wheelan, pg 193). By allowing everyone equal access to all markets, you guarantee the most efficient allocation of resources and the cheapest prices for consumers. Can such a theory work in practice however? The questions of free trade is debatable because there are many sides to the argument of whether allowing foreign trade to be accepted everywhere across the world giving cheaper prices but more domestic competition or to barricade trade globally and allow more domestic citizens to keep their jobs. A positive aspect of free trade is that it keeps different countries interlocked in a network of trust and fellowship thus preventing war, however, if trade goes badly the opposing country maybe provoked to indulge in war. A key concept of free trade however is cheaper prices, and maximum global efficiency can only be maintained by a tariff free international economy. The more efficiently allocated are the world’s resources the less waste there is and more affordable goods will be prevalent for consumers. However, some economists say otherwise that international economics isn’t as simple as increasing the efficiency of global trade. They believe that even though cheaper prices will become more available the jobs and companies on American soil will be less prevalent. Clearly the USA would want to favor their own citizen’s jobs rather than the cheaper prices right? Thus the answer still stands with no correct answer but rather opinion based ones, should we do this or that? Similar to all the above questions in economics it sometimes depends.