The Making Of Economic Society - Chapter 7

Twelfth Edition

Robert L. Heilbroner / William Milberg

1. How do you explain the change in political philosophy between the Hoover and the Roosevelt administrations? Does it suggest that economic policies reflect political pressures as much as economic ideas? Or does it show that without new ideas, policy changes are hard to bring about?

2. Why are market structures so important? What policies make sense to you with regard to the U.S. wheat or corn markets? What about the automobile or airplane markets? Why do you (we hope!) choose different policies for each? What about new inventions, such as computers antibiotics, or toothpastes? Is some sort of regulation needed here too? If not, why not?

3. Do you think that government spending is inherently waste-prone, if not necessarily waste-ful? Can wasteful spending also be stimulative? Do the same considerations - and the same responses - apply to corporate spending? How does one measure "waste"?

4. What would invalidate the idea that government spending is a proper and useful policy for a capitalist economy? What would validate it? Does the impact of World War II on the economy provide such a test? Why or why not?