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Doctoring the Afflicted and Demythifying Public Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2015

Larry D. Sanders
Larry D. Sanders*
Affiliation:
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma
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Extract

“The ultimate test of a set of economic ideas… is whether it illuminates the anxieties of the time. Does it explain problems that people find urgent? Does it bear on the current criticism of economic performance? … Does it bear upon the issues of political debate? For these, though many have always preferred to believe otherwise, do not ignite spontaneously or emerge maliciously from the mouths of agitators to afflict the comfortable.“—John Kenneth Galbraith, Economics & the Public Purpose, 1973

Type
Lifetime Achievement Awards
Information
Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , August 2009 , pp. 339 - 345
Copyright
Copyright © Southern Agricultural Economics Association 2009

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References

1 I begin with an editorial apology. A rule of professional writing about which I am strict is that it may be done only in the third person. I have been unable to draft this seminar presentation for my own lifetime achievement award without violating that rule and speaking in the first person.

2 Those classes include high school Social Studies and Government, undergraduate Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Introduction to Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics, Agribusiness Marketing and Management, Agricultural Public Policy Issues, Natural Resource Economics, Natural Resource and Environmental Ethics, and graduate level Benefit Cost Analysis.

3 Jim Hildreth was the long-time director of Farm Foundation. While he made this statement many times over his career, I first heard it at a national meeting in Denver, CO, in 1987.

4 The NPPEC was for many years actively supported by the Farm Foundation.

5 Hank Wadsworth, an administrator and agricultural economist at Purdue University, made such a statement several times. I took this quote from his guidance at a meeting while I was on sabbatical in Washington, DC, leading the Managing Change Initiative for USDA-CSREES.

6 In my first few months as a public policy specialist at OSU, I issued a newsletter discussing the “pros and cons” of the 1985 farm bill. Basking in the pride of my apparent initiative, I was stung when an associate from Texas A&M called and rightfully dressed me down for the faux pas. Making mistakes is how we learn. It is not unusual for me to need to relearn several times before it sticks.

7 Variety of sources; this is a more recent source: Anderson, Carol L., ed. Family and Community Policy: Strategies for Civic Engagement. Alexandria, Virginia: American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences, 2004 Google Scholar.

8 Op cit.; in particular see Chapter 4 of above cited publication, written by C. Sue Miles and this author.

9 Ibid.

10 Sources vary on exact numbers and how “hunger-related diseases” are defined. Check data provided by World Food Day programs, the UN and FAO. For example: UN-World Food Program: http://www.wfp.org, http://ww.fao.org; Vallee, J. “Conflicting global hunger numbers”, message at: http://developmentgateway.org.

11 Hamm, M.. “Integrating Local and Global Food Systems.” National Public Policy Education Conference, St. Louis, September 2004 Google Scholar.

12 Copeland, John. “Global Water Outlook 2025: Averting an Impending Crisis.” National Public Policy Education Conference, Fayetteville, AR, 2006 Google Scholar.

13 Schumpeter, J.. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy 5th ed. New York: Harper, 1976 Google Scholar.

14 Noted economist Paul Krugman. See any of his numerous books on the economy or read several of his columns in The New York Times.