No. 1 Issue: The Economy?

[Wio]

In the U.S. we have this upcoming presidential election.
Anyway, I was watching the news and heard it was said that the #1 issue was...
-drum roll-
...the economy.

This, to me, is a ridiculous statement. "The economy" encompasses so many issues within it. There's health care, taxes, welfare, stimulus packages, trade, etc.
The only "issue" that could compete with "the economy" would be one which wraps up abortion, illegal immigration, marriage, illegal drugs, etc into one single issue (such would most likely be called "the society" respectively.)

It irritates me because it seems that no one wants to understand the mechanics behind the economy beyond "taxes are bad but inevitable" and "buy low sell high".

I had a friend who took the Economics/Government course and it turns out that they only spent one quarter of the time on Economics while they spent 3/4 of the year on Government. When he was done with the economics quarter I asked him what a "dead weight loss" was and he looked at me with this confused expression.
I thank God I took Micro-Economics AP or I never would have learned anything about the Economy.


Do you think that there is a failure on the schools part to teach economics? I do.