Issue 50 习作

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写了一小会提纲然后又写了30分钟。喵的，时间太紧了，写到熟悉的例子就控制不住了，结尾都来不及写。怀念45分钟的日子啊。



Government officials should rely on their own judgment rather than unquestioningly carry out the will of the people they serve.       

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the recommendation and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, describe specific circumstances in which adopting the recommendation would or would not be advantageous and explain how these examples shape your position.

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Government officials should listen to the voices from the people and also experts to form a judgment.

It is necessary to hear the voices from the people and understand their need. This is required by the nature of the government or nation. Although there are possibly many reasons why government is founded, nations in the modern ear can be viewed as a set of Social Contract, which is a commonly acceptable way of interpreting nations. Then, the government is empowered by the people and serves the people. Therefore, it is fundamental that government officials serve the people, rather than certain interest groups or themselves. Only in this way, government can be entrusted and survive. Consequently, in order to fulfill this purpose, the very first step to listen to people and understand they need before making any decision.

However, I don’t agree with the second half of the prompt. Rather, it is simply impossible to carry out the will of the people. First, people don’t have a unanimous will to carry out. People belong to different interest groups or different classes. Any decision that benefits certain groups can hurt other groups. For example, in the US, a state government may want to collect tax from online sales. This will definitely championed by brick-and-mortar stores like Walmart but not online sellers like Amazon. Then, how can the government carry out the will of battling parties? In this case, doing so is just infeasible. Second, people can be myopic and may not make the best decision for their welfare in long run. People tortured by poverty will surely ask the government deforest the field, establish more factories and hire more people, but may overlook the environmental cost in the long-run. In this case, carrying out the will of the people and destroying the environment can leave the environment at risk and jeopardize the social welfare in the long run.  To the contrary, the government needs to stand up, to educate the people and to make sure environment is protected using either regulatory or economic tools. The two examples above demonstrate that we can’t or shouldn’t simple carry out the will of the people.

Since political decision making can be difficult, government officials should consult experts to form a judgment. I have mentioned the case where the crowd can have very diverse or even conflicting opinions. Then the government needs to choose which party to side with. However, political decision making can be hard and to make sure that the decision is not willful or arbitrary, officials should consult experts familiar with the related matter to evaluate possible consequences of different decisions. Consider the sales tax example again. The government should consult its economic committee to understand the impact of online sales tax. The online sales tax will effectively reduce the welfare of the buyers since they pay more money and will also deliver a deadly blow to the online resellers, causing online business contraction and increasing unemployment. Then the economists need to scrutinize the issue and understand which effect is dominant so the government official can make an intelligent choice.