Looking back on this project, I'm struggling to think of anything to write.
I don't mean to say that I didn't learn anything from this project but that it wasn't so much a learning experience as it was a confirming experience.
I had to ask a really stupid question to the participants during this project, namely: were jobs that your company received beneficial to your company? Well, of course they were! They weren't hired to work for sub-standard wages like the grape pickers in California (Krissman's Week 4, 11 lectures) nor were they subject to any poorly planned, table tilted, environmentally destructive, or culturally oblivious policies from the World Bank or International Monetary Fund (RCA p. 73). They were simply receiving money from their government in exchange for work that needed to be done. This is far from government simply giving "hand-outs".
The ironic part of the stimulus bill was that many on the Left wanted it to be larger. This makes me wonder what the stimulus could have accomplished if it was as big as Paul Krugman wanted it to be. So much for all the right-wing noise about Obama being a socialist.*
Reading over some sections of the textbooks (specifically C&C Part 4, RCA Ch. 2, 3) has often upset me. To plainly see just how loaded the dice are when it comes to upper 1% in this world is sickening. There even could have been parts of the stimulus that disproportionately benefited the Upper class in this country, people are doing phenomenally well, despite the recession.
But even after reading overall of this, I still firmly believe in the ability of the government to do good, to work for everyone, to represent everyone's best interests and to ensure a better overall world. Hokey, I know and especially odd during a time where most people (liberal and conservative) believe governments to be a force for evil in the world. But I hope to have shown that it doesn't have to be this way. Imagine what could be accomplished if all of us unite behind the idea that government can work to improve the lives of everyone, not just the upper class. Government can't give us everything, but it can certainly do a much better job.
