I think a lot of people think of the field of development as an "aside." It's an extra topic, thrown in after everyone is done talking about "the economy," "national security," and "oil prices."
But, in reality, studying development - and everything that goes with it, including poverty, malnutrition, lagging/unequal health and educations systems, the middle class (or decline of it) - is like uncovering the symptoms and struggles that underlie a much bigger problem: a broken U.S. (and global) economy.
