Economic Understanding should be Acquired Before Exercising Union/Voting Powers

My opponent's position rests upon one fallacious notion: that economists are better at handling the economy than people without their professional training. One quick look at the field, however, will show us that there is little in the world of the economically savvy that would justify that optimism.Economists and the deficit It does not take an economist to say, as the video Pro provides does, that deficit spending is foolish. Any farmer will tell you you can't promise someone five bushels of wheat where you only reap three, and any housewife will tell you a household can't be habitually run by borrowing money. Economists, however, are much more likely to argue themselves into considering it wise to spend what they don't actually have. From Marxist economics to the Austrian School with the Keynesians nestled in between, you can find an economist to defend nearly any economic proposal in existence.Just to name a few policies that Pro either mentions in his first argument or provides in his source materials:1. Deficit Spending: Perhaps the easiest proposal to find disagreement on, from Nobel laureate Paul Krugman (1) who opposes austerity measures vehemently, to OBE Bridget Rosewell (2) who argues for the necessity of deficit control as my opponent would.2. The Euro: Due to its political connotations, it is no surprise there are economists who offer their services to rationalize every conceivable option for the euro. Those who offer blanket opposition as many American economists did,(3) those who defend the monetary union such as professor Huerta de Soto,(4) those who recommend a fiscal union to boot like , and even those who propose two different euros like Nobel laureate Christopher Sims.(5)3. Labor strikes: There are without a doubt many conservative economists who decry the economic damage done by labor strikes and point at the damage they often inflict on the strikers themselves. Others, however, take the position that in the long-run these help the overall economy by driving down inequality. Not only union members say this, but others who cannot be considered economic laymen, such as Aditya Chakra, The Guardian's senior economics commentator.(6)All of this shows that economics is not a hard science, it has so little predictive value (except in the sense that a fortune teller who gets lucky may be considered predictive) it could justifiably be referred to as a pseudoscience. Being an economist is no guarantee that one will take Pro's view on the issues at hand, it doesn't even guarantee that economic policy will change significantly, only that it will be explained in language even more arcane and separate from the general population who will still suffer the consequences.Are Union leaders necessarily foolish?I would agree with my opponent that many, if not most, labor leaders today are foolish in their actions. I do not, however, think this is a function of their lack of training in the pseudoscience of economics. Cesar Chávez did not need to know about the macroeconomic implication of migratory fluxes to know that migrant workers were being exploited, and he did a wonderful job defending their interests by founding the United Farm Workers association. Lech Walesa was not an economist but an electrician, and yet he was more than capable of understanding that the communist regime was harmful to the interests and rights of workers, and organized an effective defense in his union, Solidarnosk (he was also a pretty good president, but that is beyond our scope in this debate). Had there been a limitation placed on the ability to form, join or lead a union based on economic knowledge, these fine labor leaders would have been lost (or more likely faced and overcome one more hurdle).It ain't just the economy, stupid (No offense intended towards my opponent by this parody of Bill Clinton)Many of these decisions have political implications beyond the purview of economists, and there is more to voting and political office than economic matters anyways. Limiting the right to political participation to those who have an advanced understanding of the conflictive pseudoscience of economics would be so inadmissible a limitation on the rights of the citizens as to disqualify such a country from being referred to as a democracy.In fact, if we were to take Pro's argument to the extreme, we could say that we ought to do away with popular elections altogether, and have only those people participate who are experts on the range of subjects the political system addresses. In order to vote one must have advanced understanding not only of economics, but of law, sociology, pedagogy, criminology and moral philosophy. I'm sure our readers would be able to furnish some other -ology we need must add, lest we be governed by knaves and fools.There are issues, such as the definition of marriage, our attitude towards migrants, setting the priorities of the educational system, the focus of the penal system or the establishment of holidays which are incumbent on everyone. Even an economic matter such as the proposed establishment of a fiscal as well as a monetary union in the EU affects the non-economic matter of sovereignty and national pride so deeply that it would be offensive to put it exclusively in the hands of an economic elite. My opponent's proposal, in short, is contrary to the primary tenet of democracy. I cannot put it better than the great journalist and social commentator G.K. Chesterton, and so I will quote him in closing:"The democratic contention is that government (helping to rule the tribe) is a thing like falling in love, and not a thing like dropping into poetry. It is not something analogous to playing the church organ, painting on vellum, discovering the North Pole (that insidious habit), looping the loop, being Astronomer Royal, and so on. For these things we do not wish a man to do at all unless he does them well. It is, on the contrary, a thing analogous to writing one's own love-letters or blowing one's own nose. These things we want a man to do for himself, even if he does them badly." (7)Sources:(1) http://nyti.ms...(2) http://bit.ly...(3) http://bit.ly...(4) http://bit.ly...(5) http://reut.rs...(6) http://bit.ly...(7) http://bit.ly...