Essay on the Most Important Issue of This Presidential Election

"As the nation approaches its 57th Presidential Election, we're asking the future leaders of this country, students, to define the single most important political issue in this election. Tell us not only what that issue is, but also tell us why and how you propose we come to a solution that benefits the majority?"

Due to the declined condition of the economy in the United States, and its uncertain future, the single most important political issue in this election is the economy. The economy should be the central focus of this election because the United States teeters on the brink of a monumental change in its approach to the economic system. In the past, the market system has been based on democracy, thus creating a mixed market. A mixed market involves a free market with some interference from the government, making it not completely a free market. So far, the United States has been a symbol of prosperous living and guaranteed success to less wealthy countries. Advances in technology and the fields of science and medicine have cultured in the cesspool of wealth and success of the United States. To say that the economy of the United States has brought about good things is an understatement. Although other countries have helped technology advance, the bulk of advancement that the United States caused far outweighs all of the others.

However, the current mixture of government and free market in the United States cannot sustain economic growth. The government’s involvement in the economy is too extensive in order to accommodate economic efficiency. The next president will have to help the government make changes that support the economy. Currently, there are two main economic perspectives that prevail in U.S. politics. The first suggests that the U.S. government should control the economy more than it does now in order to redistribute wealth among citizens. The second, evident in the TEA party, wants the government to recede in its economic involvement and let free market reign.

Centrally planned economies, towards which some politicians wish to steer the U.S., have failed in the past. Basic economic principles can explain why centrally planned economies fail. For example, in the Soviet Union, central planning attempted to control the amount of resources allocated to producing outputs. However, because in any economy there are millions of market interactions, the government could not possibly keep track of each aspect of the economy and make decisions that would create economic growth. This resulted in surpluses of some goods which rotted in storage facility, while there were shortages of other goods and people had to wait in long lines for small portions of those goods.

Free market economies, however, tend to produce an economically efficient amount of output. An economic principle, coined by Adam Smith as “the invisible hand”, observes that, when supply and demand are allowed to interact freely, the entirety of market interactions creates economic efficiency and growth. Economic growth arising from free or mixed market economies have caused many nations to increase in prosperity. In South Korea and the Ivory Coast, when their governments decided to step out of controlling the economy, economic growth caused poverty levels to drop drastically.

Almost all economists agree that free or near-free market economies succeed while centrally planned economies cannot last. In order to come to a solution that will support the economy, politicians and voters should educate themselves in economics and agree that the government should have less involvement in the economy if the U.S. is to grow economically. The amount of government intervention in the economy is a complex issue, but change is certainly necessary. 

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