At university, I've heard people advised not to take economics because "it's just codified common sense." Be that as it may, people are quite bad at codifying and generalizing common sense when they aren't forced to, and the kind of common sense that economics deals with is fundamental to the functioning of society. That's why I was so depressed to read the following sentence on the BBC's website:
Only three economics teachers were trained on teacher training courses in the whole of England last year.
Three?! Out of 38.000 new teachers? No wonder Labour is in power. Right now, twice as many students study Media Studies as study economics, and economics' popularity is expected to dwindle with the number of teachers. The decline in popularity means that universities are also having a harder time getting students to study economics.
The more I hear the public discuss policy, the more convinced I am that the world would be a much better place if more people took the time to study economics. We all vote, and at least understanding the basic language of economics is crucial to making sense out of policy. A functioning democracy requires an informed citizenry. If economics continues to be neglected, I must say, I fear for the future...
