Prompt:
In What Do We Deserve?, Namit Arora considers the problems that emerge when we confuse economic and social outcomes with merit or worth; in other words, when we assume that economic or social outcomes equate to moral desert (59). Using the sources you found in the Research Exploration assignment, write an essay in which you make an argument about how our beliefs about economic justice or fairness impact a particular issue. (For example, how is the issue of student loan forgiveness connected to beliefs about economic justice and fairness? How do our beliefs about economic justice shape our feelings on this issue? What does applying an economic justice lens to this issue help you understand?)
Your goal in this essay is to apply the lens of economic justice to a specific issue, explain how this issue is shaped by beliefs about economic justice, and take an informed position on this issue in response to economic justice concerns. Your position on the actual issue (for or against student loan forgiveness, welfare reform, living wage, etc.) is only part of the job; you must also explain how the issue is affected by beliefs about economic fairness, and show how your position responds to these beliefs/concerns. Apply specific ideas and quotes from Arora as well as 2-3 sources from your research in order to support your analysis.
My position on this topic:
To inform the reader why policy makers and financial institutions should not outright pay off student loans and provide forgiveness through debt cancelation policies, but instead should enroll borrowers into IDR plans in contrast to universal forgiveness, which further helps borrowers in the middle of income-distribution. Quote the research that I provide links for to support why universal student loan forgiveness should not be employed and tie the ideas to the essay by Namit Arora.
Three sources:
https://www.nber.org/papers/w28175
link.gale.com/apps/doc/A550492858/PPBE?u=gale15691&sid=bookmark-PPBE&xid=e4d24b4b
Tie ideas to this essay and quote from it:
https://thehumanist.com/magazine/may-june-2011/features/what-do-we-deserve/
