Students should post a short, relevant essay related to that week’s material: it should open with a thesis, briefly defend that thesis, and have a useful title. You may write an essay about anything related to this week’s material, so you do not need to respond one of my prompts. If your post does originate as an answer to one of my questions, write it as a standalone essay (i.e. leave out the question that motivated it). You are encouraged to link to relevant articles or videos from outside of class. Please respond to your peers’ posts by either agreeing or disagreeing with them while presenting a new idea, anecdote, or data point. Disagreement is fine, but do so respectfully and remember we’re discussing ideas not people.
Possible prompt: Is there a tradeoff between equity and efficiency? If so, what’s more important: equity or efficiency? How equitable and efficient is the US economy? Is the Gini coefficient a good measure of economic inequality? What aspects of inequality does it miss? How and why does income inequality vary across cities, state, or countries? Has income inequality in the US changed over time? How do governments and families affect economic inequality? What are the costs or benefits to redistribution? What sorts of policies could redistribute the surplus and increase efficiency in the US?
