Why do we use a microcontroller to make things blink?

[Chuckt]

If all you need are 4 resistors, 2 capacitors, and 2 transistors to make a few things blink, do we really need microcontrollers? Wouldn't this be cheaper?

Wouldn't it be better for others to teach discreet components and give people a better understanding of electronics than to lose that understanding and teach using a $30 microcontroller like Arduino?

[brad]

You are correct it would be cheaper!

However you could also go cheaper again and just buy one of those LED's with the flashing circuitry built into the LED silicon.

So I guess my answer would be that we use micro controllers to flash LED's as a stepping stone to bigger and better things, of course it is extremely helpful to know about all other discrete components too