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The economic principle I researched was institutions are the “rules of the game” that influence choices. An example of this are laws, customs, moral principles, superstitions, and cultural values influence people’s choices There are many situations where this economic principle can be applied to the real world. For instance, while studying How far should government institutions (e.g. NSA, CIA, FBI) go in monitoring digital information, especially during crises (e.g. terrorists)?, I found many examples of this principle. First, In my third blog post, I focused on the specific roles of the different defense organizations. Each one (FBI, NSA, and CIA), has a structure of goals and principles that guide them in their decision-making and to inform the public that they are there for those particular reasons, all centered around maintaining the safety and security of the country and those living within it. This shows that a lot of the faults we constantly hear about them trump the good they do because the bad things stick. Second, in my fourth blog post, I researched the highly controversial NSA event regarding Edward Snowden. He leaked sensitive NSA intelligence and records that put the NSA in an unfortunate position in the eyes of the public. This demonstrates that there is hard evidence proving that the NSA goes around what their roles are and end up doing things that many of us view as unconstitutional. Third, in my fifth blog post, I researched the FBI investigation that leads them to try to excavate private phone records from Apple to help with their information regarding the terrorist attack that occurred at the Boston Marathon. Apple denied releasing this information and this means that the company viewed providing this information as breaching their customers’ privacies and hurting their reputation. Overall, you can see that these government institutions have an extreme amount of power and can easily get around the law due to their extreme power. However, it is important to understand their different roles and where the line should be drawn. It is our jobs as Americans to be able to trust the organizations that are in place to protect us, so their abilities should be more clear in order to preserve the trust we have within them and to enable them to carry out their tasks in morally correct ways.
