Winter 2016

Use course concepts (e.g. rational actor, self-regulating markets, laissez-faire, class, structural inequality public goods) and draw on the assigned readings about economic theorists such as Adam Smith, Marx, Hayek, Keynes and Galbraith, to make your own argument about the Flint water crisis. What does the crisis in Flint tell us about how economic ideologies shape the government policy? What does the crisis tell us about government’s role in balancing public and private goods?

How water crisis in Flint became federal state of emergency

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/01/19/michigan-flint-water- contamination/78996052/

Doctor’s fight to expose Flint’s water crisis

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/21/health/flint-water-mona-hanna-attish/

State of Emergency Declared Over Man-Made Water Disaster in Michigan City

A Question of Environmental Racism in Flint

Flint’s Water Crisis Is No Accident

http://inthesetimes.com/article/18794/flint-water-crisis-neoliberalism-free-market-reforms-rick- snyder

Directions:

Use concepts from the assigned readings and course lectures to respond to the prompt. We are not asking you to summarize the readings. We are not asking for your unsupported opinions. We are asking you to make your own coherent and well supported argument about the topic. Cite specific concepts, short quotes and examples from the readings as evidence to support your own argument.