I am grading final exams this week. The second essay question on my macroeconomics final exam reads: "What caused The Great Depression? Fully explain the Keynesian solution for this problem."
Here is an answer I just read. It has not been edited.
"The Great depression was caused by World War II and the major increase on taxes to be able to afford it. The was a low unemployment rate during that time mainly becauses businesses couldn't afford to pay people to work. their are always consequences to decisions the Gov't make. Keynesian would have suggested that we bring the Gov't into this and let them help. Put caps on whatever he wanted to make sure it was at a price the people could afford. Never mind the fact that there will be major shortages and companies will probably collapse. This approach would not be smart at all; I may be helpful to the people, but only temporarily because once their is a shortage either the prices are going to increase massively or the business would close."
Folks, it is answers like this that are all too common in my classes today. With every passing semester of reading this __________ I age more rapidly. At this pace I think there is a reasonable chance that I will die - while grading exams - sometime in the next semester or two.
At my funeral, please tell people that I tried to help.
Thank you. Now, back to my grading...
