"1. Write a short essay (4-8 paragraphs) that answers the question, "Why do we study economics?"
You should not only provide your personal thoughts to this question, but include the opinions of others. Interview your friends, colleagues, family members, teachers, etc. and ask them this question. Ask them if they think studying economics is important and why or why not. How can understanding economics benefit you as you prepare for life? Do you think understanding the economy is more important now than it was 20, 30, 50 years ago? Ask yourself and others these questions and include the answers in your short essay."

As you can see I have an essay to do for this online class thing, and need input from some other people, anybody have any ideas. I'd be really happy if you did. It would assist borg too, right borg?

Yep. These online class things are neat.

Only problem is that I have to do work... I can't just pass the tests and pass the class, dammit.

OK, maybe it's too late for your essay. Anyway, I've got a few ideas…
I spare you the usual crap about economy being useful in professionnal life, or important to understand the way society works and so on.
I belive that economy has becomen the main way of understanding the world.More than a science, it is nearly a religion, or to be more precise : a catechism. This has started with Marx and the class struggle, and it is now more true than ever with Adam Smith's theories. Many authors try to explain history, sociology or even psychology trough an economic analysis. Alvin Toffler is one that comes to my mind, you can certainly find much more.

Econmy is nice for this purpose because it looks like a "hard" science - you can use a lot of math and complicated formulas if you like it - but it is impossible to experiment, and thus it is very hard to refute. It looks extremely rational while in fact it is often absolutely not.

Ooo, good point. And no, it is not too late... it could have been due Sunday, or next Sunday. I love these online classes...

I'll include yours as your point of view, and bullshit the rest of the essay by extrapolating, if you don't mind. Better than getting all touchy feely with the "bettering your life" crud that everybody else in the class is gonna use.

Thank you. Another thing : I do not know how economy is taught to you, but my lover who studied economy in Europe and in Canada was quite shocked by the way it was studied in Canada. While in France (and probably most of Europe) various economic theories are studied, compared and criticized, it seemed that the canadian approach was only focused on the neo-classic theories (Galbraith…) which xere presented as "the truth". Not talking about Keynes or of course Marx…
is it also true in the USA ?

From what I've seen so far, we get to study American Capitalism.

Yep, I looked it over, comparative systems are one module. And they define communism as command economy and label Cuba and China as examples. And they spend an entire assignment telling you how bad socialism is... and giving incorrect definitions. It is an American class, that is all I can say I guess...

And this is not economy but politics ! Communism is not Marxism.