Mingyu (StA) and Oscar (Sc) have both been successful in the prestigious international John Locke Institute 2022 Essay Prize Awards in the Economics category.
Entrants had a choice of four questions to address in an essay of up to 2000 words. Oscar was Commended for his shortlisted essay titled “Is Henry George’s land value tax fair, efficient, both, or neither?” He argued it was fair due to the potential for allocative and dynamic efficiency gains.
Mingyu was Highly Commended for his response to the question, “Is Bitcoin a blessing or a curse?” He concluded that Bitcoin is a curse because it fundamentally fails to achieve the basic functions of money and is environmentally unsustainable.
The John Locke Institute essay competition aims to encourage young people to cultivate independent thought, depth of knowledge, clear reasoning, critical analysis, and persuasive style. The essays challenge pupils to explore a wide range of questions beyond their school’s curriculum. The competition typically attracts four thousand entrants from over one hundred different countries, and only the highest quality essays are shortlisted.