Holistic Planning

Who is better suited to plan a major community development program, a panel of experts, or the people who live in the community affected? I think most people in the class would say that it is the people in the community that would know whats best for them. So what are we spending all this money for training at University? What is the point of having experts if you are going to let lay people make the decisions? In my experiences with the masses, in general, people will make more short-term beneficial decisions. People want lower taxes, lower prices, more variety.... and NOW, regardless of the future consequences. Hoe else can you explain the climate crisis we find ourselves in?

Trained experts are hired in order to prevent rash decisions. During class discussions I heard a variety of opinions on this topic and my best culmination of those ideas is that a panel of experts should be hired to create a plan based on the general desires of the masses and let the people edit and/or choose from options created by the experts. This will maintain the integrity of the quality of work while allowing the public to feel involved in the process. Its like Ive heard from many nurses who say they know more about the patients than the doctors, but it is important to always make them feel like what you are doing was their idea, to maintain their dominant stature over the nurses.