[Reincarnate]

Originally Posted by All_That_Chaz

That question is a bad one, and it's not the only one. Protectionism is important in some markets and bad in others. The current state of the economy has a huge impact on how acceptable it is.

Another question which really made me laugh was deciding whether it's more important to control inflation or unemployment. There's a really basic concept of macroeconomics called The Phillips Curve.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillips_curve

There is a direct corrollation between inflation and unemployment. If you reduce inflation, unemployment goes up. If you reduce unemployment, inflation rises. The test-makers didn't know this, I guess. It's an internet quiz, so you can't expect much.

Yeah a lot of questions on that quiz were poorly worded and needed a lot more detail in order for the answers to be meaningful.

That protectionism question, too, is a bad one because it said something like, "Is it sometimes necessary?" It's like, well, sure, sometimes it's a good idea -- but answering "yes" to that question probably gets you pegged as a protectionist in the end calculation.

When it comes to most economic concepts, their designation as being "good" or "bad" depends so much on context. Is raising minimum wage a good thing? Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't, etc.