My brother, who has been out of the country for several months, recently sent me an email asking about our newest president. He said that he and the people he’s traveling with have heard a lot about “the changing face of America.” He wanted to know what he should check out to figure out what that really means. Three things came immediately to mind:
1. I don’t know if he was here for this point in the election, but I will first tell him to check out the speech that Obama gave on race relations. You know when the news wanted to talk about his pastor. I thought that speech was pretty good
2. The next thing I will tell him to check out I learned about in a Time article. They mentioned how Obama and his team are sort of leaving classical economics behind in favor of what is called “behavioral economics.” Apparently classical economics is based on the theory that consumers will make decisions in their best interest, and those consumers will keep companies in check; this way if you feed the systems it works in the best interest of all involved. As I read it part of the new approach says that consumers won’t always choose in their best interest (they won’t spend more money for the electric car even though it’s better for them in the long run) so the government puts things in place to nudge the system in the direction of the greater good. Sounds smart until you realize that someone has to decide what the greater good is.
3. The last thing that came to mind is that his first interview with al jazeerah. I will tell him to read some about his approach to foreign policy. He seems to be ready to talk in a fairly open-ended way.
He usually reads this blog, so you should tell him how you think Obama is contributing to a changing face.
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