I was very curious on how people around my age viewed our economy.  So, I went around campus and found some of my friends.  I asked all of them one question, which is, “when you hear the word economy, what do you think of?”

The first person I interviewed was my roommate Marc.  I asked him first because he is majoring in Economics.  When I asked him the question, the first thing he said was “money.”  I knew this was going to be a popular answer, so I told him to go more in depth.  After he took a couple of minutes to think, he said, “when I hear the word economy, I think about how Professor Schubert just taught us about Gross Domestic Product (GDP).”  He goes on to say that, “I am currently taking macroeconomics, so if you come back to me with the same question at the end of the semester, I definitely can give you a better response.”

The next person I interviewed was my other roommate Grant.  I interviewed him because I know how much he loves money.  When I asked him the question, he answered with no hesitation.  He stated that, “when I heard you say the word economy, all I could think about was making money.”  I asked him to explain why he thinks of money.  Grant tells me, “the first check I received was the best feeling ever.  That is why I work so hard in everything I do because I want to make money.”

The next 2 people I interviewed was Cassandra and Grace.  This interview went very different from my other ones.  I was expecting them to say money like everybody else, but they did not.  When I asked both of them the question, they both responded by saying “Donald Trump.”  This caught me off guard, so I asked them, “why?”  They both go on to say that, “since the presidential election, the economy has added around 6 million jobs.”  I am not big into politics, so this sounded crazy to me.  After the interview was over, I looked this up and it turns out to be true. 

The last person I interviewed was my friend Raj.  He was in a hurry when I asked him the question, but I still really liked his response.  Raj said, “when I hear the word economy, I think of the place I was born and raised until I was 6 years old.”  The place he is talking about is India.  I asked him if can explain a little bit more about his response.  He starts to tell me that the economy in India is very different than the economy in the United States.  He adds on by saying, that the part of India he was born in, was very poor.  The last thing he said, “it is crazy to see how hard my parents had to work, to get us here.”

Everybody I interviewed gave me interesting responses.  It was great to here what my friends had to say about the economy.  I enjoyed receiving a large variety of responses.  I learned a lot from everybody, and this helped me broaden my knowledge about the economy.