Talking about the economy with any group of people is no easy task. It’s not as simple as asking about something like the weather. Talk of money, who should have it, and how we should use it is laden with political and personal biases that can make for a minefield of a discussion.  I decided, in an attempt to make this easier and ease some tensions to pose a single question, what do you think could and/or should change about the economy? 

Some of the responses were just as I expected to come from college students. The way that we fund education needs to change. “Depending on the area, public schools are really bad,” my friend Katie remarked, holding a plate piled high with food in one hand and scratching her temple with the other. “A good education is expensive,” she concluded as my friends standing with us in the dining hall nodded along in agreement. And of course the same could be said for college. College can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. And it feels like you have to jump through flaming hoops over shark-infested waters just to try and get a few thousand dollars taken off your tuition. I think my friend George summed it up best when he so eloquently said, “FAFSA sucks.”

Some of the responses were much more in-depth than I was expecting. One of my friends gave specifics involving the stock market and how “consumer expectations” have been causing some interesting effects on the market. He also spoke about bull vs. bear markets and how the Coronavirus has caused several ripples in the economy. I don’t know nearly as much about the economy as he does and so I learned a lot from what he had to say. 

I think my favorite response to the question I posed was my roommate Audreys. She simply said “Bernie Sanders needs to be elected president.” and then laughed, though I knew she was serious. Then, her face fell and she pursed her lips in thought. “Actually,” she said “I just heard something about healthcare the other day.” she then proceeded to tell me the rather jarring fact she had just learned. People who need wheelchairs have their checking accounts monitored by the state. If their balance goes above a certain point, they can lose funding for medical expenses and more specifically, their wheelchairs. “Healthcare should be more protected and funded than it is,” she said solemnly and I couldn’t help but agree. 

As usual, I walked away from this assignment with more knowledge than when I started. Hearing from my peers about their opinions on the economy was much more interesting then hearing about it from some TV news personality. While there were some variations, I found that most of us had similar beliefs. The main one being, education and health care should be more affordable.