Choose two out of the six essay prompts, and write full answers to the two prompts using the materials from class and your own perspective. Please follow the format rules below:
• – Minimum of 1 page, maximum of 2 pages for each essay.
• – Single-space text
• – Use a header with only your name and prompt number in a single line at the top of the first
page
• – 1 inch margins
• – 12-pt. font
Remember that you can consult the course materials and your notes as you write your essay responses. You will submit your response in a pdf file on the Gradescope assignment. On Gradescope, the midterm assignment will show you two questions. Please match the pages of your first essay with Question 1, and the pages of your second essay with Question 2.
Remember to keep your essay short and to the point (that’s why there is a page limit). I expect you to take ideas from our readings to build your answer. You should summarize and introduce ideas from the class materials in a clear and concise way. Do not forget to include your own thoughts and perspective into your answers. Once the exam is posted on Gradescope, you can email me for clarification about the essay prompts, the format requirements, and the process for submission.
You can cite the materials by referencing the authors of the course materials, or the persons interviewed in the videos and podcasts. You can reference the Netflix videos by their title (e.g. The Stock Market, The Racial Wealth Gap). There is no need to follow an academic citation format, and there’s no need to provide the full titles of the books or chapters. Just make sure to paraphrase or use direct quotes appropriately.
Also, avoid reproducing the essay prompt substantially within your response. You can certainly include queues from the prompt and paraphrase the prompt throughout your answer, but avoid repeating entire parts of the prompt.
Essay Prompts:
1. Are companies today focused in improving the quality of lives of consumers, workers, and the communities where they operate? What would be some indications that they are, and some indications that they are not? In particular, what have publicly-traded companies done with their profits in the past few decades, and why does this matter in terms of our living standards? Where do you stand on the debate about the purpose of a company?
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2. The prices of insulin in the U.S. reveal signs of being arbitrarily higher than they should. Why has insulin become so expensive? What problems would Charles Lindblom identify in the insulin industry? What are insulin patients doing in response to high insulin prices? How could governments or the market fix this issue?
3. What do social scientists mean by “deep poverty”? What are some ways of measuring deep poverty and what are some recent trends in deep poverty in the U.S.? What groups are affected by deep poverty the most? What are some of the survival strategies employed by people in deep poverty? What are your thoughts on the deep poverty situation in America?
4. An expert panel from the National Academies has estimated that child poverty in 2015 was 13% using the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), and that child poverty rate for the same year was 20% according to the Official Poverty Measure (OPM). What explains the differences in these measurements and what do you think about these differences? Also, the expert panel has proposed expansions of the safety net that can cut the 13% child poverty rate in half. Some of these expansions were implemented in the American Rescue Plan, yet there is still a case against a permanent expansion. What are some of the arguments regarding the expansion of the safety net? Where do you stand on this matter?
(Hint: the materials that we read in class cover these topics – you won’t need to review the report by the expert panel)
5. One of the economic results of the Covid-19 pandemic has been a labor shortage. How do we know that there is a shortage of workers? What sectors in the economy are undergoing this shortage? What are some of the possible causes of the shortage? What do you think about David Autors’ arguments about the consequences of higher wages?
6. Why is it important to consider the wealth gap between black and white Americans in economic terms and in historical perspective? What are some of the causes of the wealth gap, and why is land so important to the wealth gap? What could be done to overcome the racial wealth gap? Make sure to draw upon arguments and facts from our course materials to answer these questions, along with your opinion on these matters.
