Economic analysis and public policy / by Mary Jean Bowman and George Leland Bach v.1

In every country of the world today the public and its leaders are making decisions that vitally affect the economic lives of the people of their own and other lands. Everywhere controls over economic life are becoming more and more centralized, whether in the hands of governments, large business corporations, labor union leaders, or other groups. Central planning with respect to the production of goods, their purchase and sale, and the distribution of incomes has largely displaced the automatic mechanism of free enterprise in some countries. It is play ing an increasingly important role in all. Meanwhile, to an extent un matched in history, the people of the entire world are being drawn together in one huge economic, social, and political community. Even though a nation may attempt to insulate itself from the economies of other lands, its attempts at national isolation are futile. Economic and political life, both domestic and international, are inextricably enmeshed.

The urgent challenge to human understanding in our day is a social challenge. The face of the future for every one of us will depend more on our mastery of economic and social life around the world than on any new technological inventions. True, economic relationships constitute only a part of the social structure. But this part is a highly significant one. Wise public decisions are as essential for the preservation of an efficient private-enterprise economy as for the operation of a collective or totalitarian one. In fact, for a people who believe in democracy, widespread understanding of economic processes and economic condi tions has become indispensable.