It is now, as the spring semester draws to a close and final exams lie graded on my desk, that I face the fruits of my long labors in Fundamentals of Economics. Despite my extensive dwelling on the basically cooperative nature of the market and the signal characteristic of government as being the legitimated possession and use of coercive power, the majority of my two sections of Fundamentals answered INCORRECTLY the question “How does the text distinguish between government and the market?” Their most preferred answer was “The government is based on cooperation; the market is based on competition.” And we wonder why corporate managers go to jail for “obstruction of justice” while war criminals govern this nation.
A Cry in the Wilderness
