Prioritizing National Economic Goals

Lesson Purpose:

As we move into macro-economics, the study of the operations of the economy as a whole, it is important to remember that scarcity extends beyond the decision-making of individuals in households and businesses.  Government officials, citizens, and public workers also have limited resources to satisfy a burgeoning list of wants and needs, and the reality is that in public life, as in private life, choices have opportunity costs.  Public choices, like private choices, are driven by goals.  Through government, we establish economic goals and design policies to achieve them.  Because we have multiple national economic goals and because individuals’ ranks and weightings of goals vary with time and circumstance, policy creation is an ongoing process of making trade-offs.

This lesson creates a framework for study of macro-economic topics by identifying national economic goals and then engaging students in a consensus-building exercise in which they must prioritize goals in a variety of policy contexts. In combination with lessons 7-12, it offers a model for organizing and tying together macroeconomic topics in the high school classroom.

Key Terms:

scarcity

trade off

opportunity cost

macroeconomics

marginal

 

Content Standards:

Standard 1: Students will understand that Productive resources are limited.  Therefore, people cannot have all the goods and services they want; as a result, they must choose some things and give up others.
Benchmarks:
grade 8:

Standard 2:  Students will understand that Effective decision making requires comparing the additional costs of alternatives with the additional benefits. Most choices involve doing a little more or a little less of something; few choices are all-or-nothing decisions.
Benchmarks:
grade 12:

Standard 16:  Students will understand that There is an economic role for government to play in a market economy whenever the benefits of a government policy outweigh its costs. . . .
Benchmarks:
grade 12:

Session Objectives:

Key Content:

Mythconceptions:

Frequently Asked Questions:

Classroom Activity Options

  1. Discuss the following analogy with students:

Suppose that your family sets a goal of going to Disney World for spring break next year.  You would adopt a series of “policies” to enable you to accomplish that goal.  For example:

The process of setting goals and adopting policies for the national economy is analogous to the process your family used.  Like your family, our nation sets goals and priorities and then works toward them. 

The similarities don’t end there, however.  Is it likely that Disney World was everyone’s first choice in your family?  What about the “policies” you adopted about spending?  Did everyone agree on who should pay for what?  Not likely, is it?  Reaching agreement on goals and policies for the nation is often at least as difficult as getting a family consensus about spring break!

The exercise we’re going to complete in class today should help us to better understand how we prioritize our economic goals and policies.

  1. Distribute the “Goals of Economic Policy” handout.  Identify the list of national economic goals and review the definitions with students.
  2. Discuss with the students the compatibility of the various goals, pointing out, for example, that emphasizing freedom may necessitate giving up some security.  (Relate the necessity of these trade-offs to the ubiquitous condition of scarcity.)
  3. Ask students to think about their own individual priorities.  Direct them to rank order the economic goals by placing the numbers 1 – 7 in the column labeled “Priority Rank (Individual).”  #1 is the highest priority and #7 the lowest. 
  1. After students have had a few minutes to complete their rankings individually, divide the class into small groups of 4-6 students and direct them to come to a group consensus on their rankings.  (The appropriate analogy here is that of a governmental body – for example, a city council trying to adopt policies regarding public transit.  The individual members’ goal rankings will shape their evaluations of alternative policies.)
  2. Debrief.  Note the differing priorities.  (Commonly, there is a strong split between those students who rank equity or security first and those who rank economic freedom first. The trade-offs among these goals are a constant theme running through our country’s history.)
  1. (Individual or small groups)  Direct students’ to write “Minimum Wage Policies” at the head of the first of the 3 policy columns on the second grid on their handout.  Direct them to mark a +, -, or ? in the boxes to indicate whether they think minimum wage legislation promotes (+) or undermines (-) each goal.
  2. When all have completed the task, direct students to refer back to their original goal priority rankings to see whether minimum wage policies are compatible with the goals that they’ve identified as being most important.
  1. Repeat the exercise, in small groups, with 2 current policy issues on which students have shown interest or strong feelings.  (Examples:  immigration, health care reform, defense spending, drug, alcohol, cigarette policies, etc.)
  2. Debrief. 
  • Interdisciplinary Activities:
    1. Assign students to choose an event/era in U.S. history (Great Depression, Viet Nam War, Constitutional Convention) and to create a ranking of goals prior to, during, and after that time period.
    2. Assign students to research 2 or more countries (from World History studies or contemporary) and create an economic goal ranking for each nation.  Compare/contrast and explain the countries’ rankings.
    3. Survey (email, phone, or mail) the economic goal rankings of one of the following groups:

    Analyze your findings.  What are the implications of the rankings in terms of policy decisions these people will make that might affect your life?

    Handouts and Supplemental Materials

    “Goals of National Economic Policy” (pdf)
    “National Economic Goals in Policy Contexts” (pdf)