Exam 2 Study Guide

Recent changes to Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (Trump Administration) (Part 1)

1. Individual mandate eliminated What is it? The individual mandate is the requirement that all U.S. residents either have health insurance or pay a penalty. The mandate was intended to help keep the premiums for ACA policies low by ensuring that more healthy people entered the health insurance market. What changed? The 2017 Republican-backed tax overhaul legislation reduced the penalty for not having insurance to $0. 2. States allowed to add "work requirements" to Medicaid What is it? Medicaid expansion was a key part of the ACA. The federal government helped pay for states (that chose to) to expand Medicaid eligibility beyond families to include all low-income adults, and to raise the income threshold, so that more people would be eligible. So far, 37 states and Washington have opted to expand Medicaid. What changed? Under Trump, if they get approval from the federal government, states can now require Medicaid beneficiaries to prove with documentation that they either work or go to school. 3. Cost-sharing reduction subsidies to insurers have ended What is it? Payments from the federal government to insurers to motivate them to stay in the ACA insurance exchanges and help keep premiums down. What changed? The Trump administration suddenly stopped paying these subsidies in 2017.

Recent changes to Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (Trump Administration) (Part 2)

4. Access to short-term "skinny" plans has been expanded What is it? The ACA initially established rules that health plans sold on HealthCare.gov and state exchanges had to cover people with preexisting conditions and had to provide certain "essential benefits." President Obama limited any short-term insurance policies that did not provide those benefits to a maximum duration of three months. (The original idea of these policies is that they can serve as a helpful bridge for people between school and a job, for example.) What changed? The Trump administration issued a rule last year that allowed these short-term plans to last 364 days and to be renewable for three years. 5. Funds to facilitate HealthCare.gov sign-ups slashed What is it? The ACA created Navigator programs and an advertising budget to help people figure out specifics of the new federally run insurance exchanges and sign up for coverage. What changed? In August 2017, the administration significantly cut federal funding for these programs.

Uncompensated Care

A large part of health spending in the United States covers uncompensated care, care that is given to people who do not pay. In 2012, hospitals experience approximately $46 billion in uncompensated care costs to pay for individuals who could not afford to pay for their own care. This accounted for nearly 6 percent of hospitals' total expenses. With approximately 200 million adult US citizens, this means that every adult would need to be taxed about $230, to pay for individuals who required care but did not have insurance or other means of paying. This is a negative externality of an individual's choice to not carry or inability to afford health insurance.

Methods of receiving permanent resident status (Part 2)

A refugee is a person fleeing their home country because of a well-founded fear of persecution. An asylee, or asylum seeker, is a person requesting refugee status in another country. If granted asylum, then an individual is allowed to become a permanent resident. The central difference between a refugee and an asylee is their geographic location when they apply for residency. A refugee applies for residency while living outside of the host country, while an asylee applies for residency once present in the host country. Persons obtaining permanent status as refugees or asylum seekers have increased through the 200s, even surpassing the number of new residents through the employment-based system in 2009. This change is because it is more difficult to obtain an employment visa since 2001, and the United States has been admitting more refugees from Iraq in recent years. Non-citizens can become legal immigrants through the diversity lottery. It awards up to 50,000 visas annually. To be eligible, a person must be from a country that has sent fewer than 50,000 non-refugee immigrants in the last five years to the United States. Broadly stated, the diversity lottery awards visas to people from Europe (except Great Britain and Poland, as many immigrants come from those countries) and Africa. Permanent residents can remain residents of the United States forever without becoming citizens. Legal residents do not have the right to vote, hold government jobs, or sponsor other immigrants. They may also be expelled from the United States if they commit a felony. To become a U.S. citizen, legal permanent residents go through the naturalization process. This involves living in the United States for at least five years, taking a citizenship test (in English), and wearing an oath of allegiance to the United States.

Adverse selection

Adverse selection occurs when individuals seek insurances because they are of particularly high risk. If an insurer does not know that person seeking coverage is a smoker, there is information asymmetry: one has more information than the other. Insurers wish to guard against adverse selection through screening of applicants for coverage. There is a concern as well that insurers may screen applicants who may have genetic predispositions toward illness as they attempt to reduce the risk of paying large amounts for treatments.

Risk Profile

All else equal, the price one pays for health insurance is based on one's risk profile and the risk pool. A risk profile is a general assessment of how much an individual will spend on health care in a given period of time. One type of risk profile is an experience rating, which is largely a function of age, gender, and health. From the perspective of an insurance company, young and health individuals are low risk, for they are not likely to consume much health care.

The Population Bomb (Paul Ehrlich 1969)

As 1968 began, Paul Ehrlich was an entomologist at Stanford University, known to his peers for his groundbreaking studies of the co-evolution of flowering plants and butterflies but almost unknown to the average person. That was about to change. In May, Ehrlich released a quickly written, cheaply bound paperback, The Population Bomb. Initially it was ignored. But over time Ehrlich's tract would sell millions of copies and turn its author into a celebrity. It would become one of the most influential books of the 20th century—and one of the most heatedly attacked. The first sentence set the tone: "The battle to feed all of humanity is over." And humanity had lost. In the 1970s, the book promised, "hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death." No matter what people do, "nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world death rate." The sheer count of people, the critics said, matters much less than what people do. Population per se is not at the root of the world's problems.

Inequality, fear of falling, helicopter parenting

But as inequality increased, and as the earnings gap between those with and those without a college degree widened, college mattered more. So did college choice. Today, students commonly seek out the most selective college that will admit them. Parenting styles have also changed, especially among the professional classes. As the income gap grows, so does the fear of alling. Seeking to avert this danger, parents became intensely involved with their children's lives--managing their their time, monitoring their grades, directing their activities, curating their college qualifications. This epidemic of overbearing, helicopter parenting did not come from nowhere. It is an anxious but understandable response to rising inequality and the desire of affluent parents to spare their progeny the precarity of middle-class life. A degree from a name-brand university has come to be seen as the primary vehicle of upward mobility for those seeking to rise and the surest bulwark against downward mobility for those hoping to remain ensconced in the comfortable classes. this is the mentality that led panicky, privileged parents to sign up for the college admissions scam.

Charter schools

Charter schools are established by each state and as a result the details of their charters vary. They are publicly funded schools that are created as the result of petitions by parents, community groups, or teachers. Charter schools are relieved of some requirements of other public schools. To receive the charter, schools must consent to produce some agreed-upon outcome for which the school must demonstrate accountability. A US Department of Education-contracted policy evaluation of the effectiveness of charter schools reported no conclusive evidence of their positive or negative effects on learning.

No Child Left Behind Act of 2002

Critique: emphasis on high stakes tests as a disincentive for students to do work that moves beyond the state or nation-mandated level for "excellence," and claim that the program gives teachers strong incentives to "teach to the test."

Environmental Decade

Each of these legislative initiatives represents a singular event in environmental regulatory policy, with each concentrating regulatory power away from the states and toward the federal government. Within one decade (1970 to 1980), the breadth of the federal government had expanded into what had traditionally been the domain of the states. The federal government would continue its traditional role in encouraging land conservation, providing research and development, and assisting states with funding, but now would be the lead government entity in setting and enforcing environmental standards across a host of policy domains. In fact, much of the contemporary debate over the proper role of the federal government and its relation to the states grew out of the regulatory expansion in the 1970s.

Social esteem and meritocracy

Elites have so valorized a college degree--both as an avenue for advancement and as the basis for social esteem--that they have difficulty understanding the hubris a meritocracy can generate, and the harsh judgment it imposes on those who have not gone to college. Such attitudes are at the heart of the populist backlash and Trump's victory.

Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905)

Facts of the case A Massachusetts law allowed cities to require residents to be vaccinated against smallpox. Cambridge adopted such an ordinance, with some exceptions. Jacobson refused to comply with the requirement and was fined five dollars. Question Did the mandatory vaccination law violate Jacobson's Fourteenth Amendment right to liberty? Conclusion The Court held that the law was a legitimate exercise of the state's police power to protect the public health and safety of its citizens. Local boards of health determined when mandatory vaccinations were needed, thus making the requirement neither unreasonable nor arbitrarily imposed.

U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark (1898)

Facts of the case The Chinese Exclusion Acts denied citizenship to Chinese immigrants. Moreover, by treaty no Chinese subject in the United States could become a naturalized citizen. Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco to parents who were both Chinese citizens who resided in the United States at the time. At age 21, he returned to China to visit his parents who had previously resided in the United States for 20 years. When he returned to the United States, Wong was denied entry on the ground that he was not a citizen. Question Is a child who was born in the United States to Chinese-citizen parents who are lawful permanent residents of the United States a U.S. citizen under the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment? Conclusion Because Wong was born in the United States and his parents were not "employed in any diplomatic or official capacity under the Emperor of China," the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment automatically makes him a U.S. citizen. Justice Horace Gray authored the opinion on behalf of a 6-2 majority, in which the Court established the parameters of the concept known as jus soli—the citizenship of children born in the United States to non-citizens. Justice Joseph McKenna took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.

Fiscal Policy (Part 1)

Fiscal policy tools involve taxing and spending decisions. One way to increase economic growth is to reduce taxes so that people have more money to spend, which they in turn can circulate through economic activity. A central reason for taxes is redistribution of wealth from the haves to the have notes. Redistribution reduces income inequality and can contribute to economic growth. Some in society want less redistribution and a less progressive tax system. Progression taxation schemes involve the wealthier members of society paying a higher portion of their incomes as taxes, as with the progressive income tax. Flat tax proposals are less progress. With a flat tax, all earners pay the same rate. The flat tax leads to a much higher incidence of taxes on low income people, making it a more regressive taxation scheme. Regressive taxation occurs when poorer persons pay a larger share of their income. In recent years, a less progressive income tax schedule and a changed job market have contributed to an increased concentration of wealth among the wealthiest in most industrialized countries.

Forced riders

Forced riders are individuals who have to pay for something and do not receive direct benefits from it. Property taxes, state-income taxes, and sales taxes all recreate forced-riders.

Origins of U.S. employer-based system of health insurance (also reasons for persistence) (Part 2)

Forces in the economy and politics prohibited the United States from developing a system of universal coverage akin to that in other wealthy nations. This was not a function of ideology so much as one of circumstance, and to some extent, this continues to occur. Americans are wary of government involvement in the provision of health care. The existence of private office physicians, the presence of trade-group and employer-based coverage, and initially voluntary and now mixed voluntary and for-profit hospital industry largely shaped the discussion about how best to provide health care. In all of these cases, failures of large-scale policy changes were met with incremental changes that built upon the established health system and the Medicaid and Medicare systems.

Meritocracy and Clinton-Obama era Democrats (Part 2)

Frank argued that all the education talk distracted Democrats from thinking clearly about the policies that had led to inequality. Noting that productivity rose during the 1980s and 1990s but that wages did not, he doubted that inequality was due mainly to a failure of education. "The real problem was one of inadequate worker power, not inadequate worker smarts. The people who produced were losing their ability to demand a share in what they made. The people who owned were taking more and more. Failing to see this led Democrats "to ignore what was happening in the real economy--from monopoly power to financialization to labor-management relations--in favor of a moral fantasy that required them to confront no one.

School vouchers

Friedman initially proposed school vouchers, which would provide families with a voucher with which they could purchase school services on an open market rather than be limited to a school choice forced by what Friedman viewed as a monopoly provider, the single public school. He said "There is n doubt what the key obstacle is to the introduction of market competition into schooling: the perceived self-interest of the educational bureaucracy." School vouchers' chief supporters are free-market conservatives and people who prefer parochial schools and their chief opponents are established school districts and teacher interest groups like unions. The principal equity concern about school vouchers focuses on information asymmetries. A recent series of reviews of a well-known public school voucher program in Milwaukee, WI suggest that the presence of vouchers does not affect student performance in schools. There is little evidence for a meaningful effect on the largest, longest, and most evaluated school choice program in the United States.

Private Health Insurance in the U.S. (Early History)

Germ Theory of Disease: The germ theory of disease is the currently accepted scientific theory for many diseases. It states that microorganisms known as pathogens or "germs" can cause disease. These small organisms, too small to be seen without magnification, invade humans, other animals, and other living hosts.

Meritocracy and affirmative action (conservative v. progressive arguments)

If this familiar view is right, then the problem with meritocracy is not with the principle but with our failure to live up to it. Political argument between conservatives and liberals bears this out. Our public debates are not about meritocracy itself but about how to achieve it. Conservatives argue, for example, that affirmative action policies that consider race and ethnicity as factors in admission amount to a betrayal of merit-based admission; liberals defend affirmative action as a way of remedying persisting unfairness and argue that a true meritocracy can be achieved only by leveling the playing field between the privileged and the disadvantaged.

Methods of receiving permanent resident status (Part 1)

Immigrant: a person who leaves one country to become a permanent resident in another country. When non-citizens come to the U.S., the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) classifies them as either immigrants or non-immigrants. Immigrants have the right to live and work permanently in the United States; once here they are officially designated as permanent residents. The identification card for a permanent resident is green in color; thus, the description of a non-citizen acquiring a green card. Non-immigrants can only live and work in the United States for a temporary time and for a specific purpose. Non-citizens may become legal immigrants through one of four paths: the family-based system, the employment-based system, asylum and refugee status, or through a diversity lottery. The family-based system awards immigration status to family members of US citizens, with immediate family members having precedence over siblings and their children. The employment-based system includes a number of priority levels. Priority workers are classified as those with "extraordinary abilities." Priority two works are classified as having "exceptional abilities." Priority three workers are individuals with specific skills, but lacking an advanced degree, who are of limited supply in the United States. Priority four workers include translators who work for the US military and individuals who work for US embassies abroad. To qualify for a priority five immigration status, a person has to invest at least $1 million and create at least ten new jobs.

1970, 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments

In 1970, congress and president Nixon signed a major overhaul of the nation's air pollution program. The amended law included a new regulatory program that implemented pollution standards for six criteria pollutants. This system of limitations was to be enforced through a new pollution permitting system. Under this permitting system, the national government would issue permits to stationary sources, or fixed emitters of air pollution, limiting the emissions of these and other hazardous pollutants. Violations of these permit limitations could result in firms being cited, fined or even brought to civil or criminal cases. Legislation also allowed citizens to bring lawsuits against entities thought to be in violation of the terms of the law.--a particularly innovative change in the approach to environmental issues. The law has since been amended in 1977 and 1990, with the greatest change being the creation of an emissions trading scheme added with the 1990 amendments. The 1990 amendment of the Clean Air Act introduced a nationwide approach to reduce acid pollution. The law is designed to reduce acid rain and improve public health by dramatically reducing emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx).

Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976

In 1976, congress passed and president ford signed a bill that created a process to test and document the potential toxic effects of existing and new chemicals. Information on tested chemicals is stored in the TSCA inventory. Upon notification by a firm of its intention to produce a new chemical, EPA must review the chemical's properties and assess whether it may present an "unreasonable risk." The TSCA permits EPA to regulate chemicals that may present such a risk.

Fiscal Policy (Part 2)

In addition to tax rates, policymakers focus on tax incidence. Tax incidence refers to who pays the tax. There is an issue in tax collection: the tax collector wants to be sure that taxes are paid. Schemes like Social Security, Medicare, or income taxes result in fairly certain collections. Use fees, sales taxes, and other taxes that must be collected via a mechanism less certain than automatic withholding are not so easily collected. In the United States, tax rates are complicated by a series of tax deductions that are used as incentives for certain types of behavior. Deductions serve the dual purposes of encouraging certain types of behavior that are deemed valuable, and rewarding certain groups, like lends who are able to promise a tax break to people who borrow money for houses.

Classical Economics (Part 2)

In recent years, there has been much discussion about austerity policies. Austerity means policies that reduce a government's budget deficit. These policies involve reducing government spending, raising taxes, or both. Those favoring the Classical approach tend to favor austerity in times of a recession. The argument for austerity in tight economic times goes like this. If the economy is weak and tax collections are down, then the government should rein in spending. Proponents of austerity often compare a country's economy to a household economy. They note that the solution to not having money is seldom borrowing money, which is "borrowing from Peter to pay Paul." A paper by economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff provides one contemporary justification for the austerity approach. They wrote that economic growth is slowed dramatically as the ratio of public debt to gross domestic product (GDP), which is the total monetary value of all goods and services produced within a country in a given time period, rises to 90 percent and above. That report provided policymakers with justification to pursue policies of low taxation and austerity. However, Reinhart and Rogoff (2013) themselves note that poorly done austerity policies result in more difficulties for the working and middle classes than for more affluent people.

Property taxes in education funding

In the past, schools were funded principally with local property taxes, which are assessed against the value of residential and commercial property. Property taxes are a good source of revenue inasmuch as they are a dependable source, but they are also a problem in at least two ways. First they are based on property values, so changes in property values produce changes in school revenues. A property tax is based on a millage rate, which is tax rate per $1,000 value of a property. In addition, property taxes are sometimes a source of political conflict. Second, when school revenue depends greatly on property taxes districts with more expensive housing receive greater school tax funding than districts with less expensive housing.

Keynesian Economics (Part 1)

Keynesianism is named after the twentieth-century British economist John Maynard Keynes who, writing in the midst of the Great Depression in 1936, argued that government could act as an employer and contractor of last resort, as in the Depression when there was too little money in the economy for producers to make things for consumers to buy, and too high unemployment for consumers to afford to buy much of anything. Keyne's solution was to conceive of aggregate demand as the product of consumption, government spending, and investment, and to argue that when demand lagged because of lags in those elements, it is appropriate for government to use deficit spending, that is, to spend more than is budgeted, to pay for public works and to pay workers. Thus, where the classical model calls for less government spending during a recession, Keynesianism calls for more government spending.

Keynesian Economics (Part 2)

Keynesianism's most prominent practitioner was President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who used deficit spending and a Keynesian model to develop and pay for his New Deal program of economic recovery. Roosevelt, like most people, opposed deficit spending prior to his experience governing during the Depression. He created the National Recovery Administration, which was later ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Civilian Conservative Corps, the Works Progress Administration, and other agencies designed to get people off the street and put them to work. Although the Depression-era programs provided sustenance to many people, and in the case of the dams and art works provided lasting effects, these government fiscal policies were less influential on ending the Depression than government monetary policy. The most important monetary policy was abandoning the gold standard. The countries that left the gold standard recovered from the Depression more quickly than countries that remained on gold. It was the increase in the money supply that led to increased economic growth and the end of the Depression. In recent years, perhaps the most significant macroeconomic debates have been between Keynesians. While all Keynesians embrace government deficits in a recession, they disagree about how large those deficits should be and how the government should produce them. Broadly speaking, those with a more liberal bent favor government spending and significant monetary stimulus, while those with amore conservative bent have favored tax cuts and a less significant monetary stimulus.

Inflation, Unemployment, and Policy (Part 1)

LOW INFLATION Low inflation is desirable because inflation affects the price producers must pay to produce goods and services and also affects the price consumers pay for goods and services. Inflation occurs when there are too few goods and services (and labor supply) available in the market, making prices rise. Inflation is thought of as too little production or services pursuing money. Unemployment, inflation, and policy tools to address them To manage economic growth, inflation, and unemployment, governments sometimes manipulate both fiscal and monetary policy tools. A natural trade-off or tension exists between inflationary and employment goals. When the economy contracts, buying and selling falls off. In turn, suppliers try to cut costs by laying off workers. Having no or lower income, workers buy fewer goods. This cycle can continue, eventually pushing an economy into recession. To fight recessions, governments manipulate both fiscal and monetary policy tools to encourage consumers to buy more goods and business to hire more workers. Governments use fiscal policy to cut taxes or monetary policy to lower interest rates - both of which increase available money, encouraging people to borrow and spend. However, when fiscal and monetary policy are very generous, the economy can "overheat," with higher employment and arising supply of money.

Medicaid and Long-term Care (Nursing Home) (Part 1)

Medicaid is administered by the national government under the Center for Medical Services. it differs from Medicare in that Medicaid requires state government participation to gain entry. The national government pays for at least one-half of each state's expenses. Medicaid is a means-tested program, in which persons gain eligibility due to having low income an resources; eligibility is determined by state government rules that vary among the states. Medicaid covers benefits for young and old alike, with a large portion of Medicaid spending being devoted to nursing home care for the elderly. Because Medicare covers only 100 days of skilled nursing facility care, a significant portion of elderly persons "spend down" to Medicaid eligibility after their Medicare benefits and other resources are depleted. The costs of care for elderly and disabled people far outstrip that of children and adult eligible enrollees. This spending discrepancy has led some people to question the benefit to cost ratio of spending on the elderly versus the young, with some claiming that higher investments in young people would likely provide better returns than investments in the elderly.

Medicare

Medicare is a national government program that provides health insurance coverage for persons aged 65 and over, persons under 65 with certain disabilities, and persons of any age with end-stage renal disease. Medicare is divided into four parts, each of which covers specific services and has different costs. Medicare Part A provides hospital insurance, inpatient hospitalization, skilled nursing facilities, hospice care, and home health care. Medicare Part A is "free" for people who have paid Medicare taxes through their payroll taxes and their spouses. People who have not paid those taxes may purchase Medicare insurance. Medicare Part B pays for medical insurance, fees for doctors, outpatient care services, durable medical equipment, home health care, and some preventive services. B is purchased by the individual or by a third party. Some people who want to improve the coverage of Part B purchase "Medigap" insurance policies. Medicare Part C is called Medicare Advantage and provides the benefits of Medicare Parts A and B via a Medicare-approved private insurance company. Most Medicare Advantage policies provide drug benefits, which are covered under Medicare Part D Medicare Part D is the prescription drug benefit, which provides drug insurance from Medicare-approved private companies. Part D provides some discounts on drugs, but the drugs covered and discounts vary by private plan; the private plans are subsidized. Medicare is expensive.

Medicare and Medicaid

Medicare is provided as an entitlement that is not means-tested. Medicaid is also an entitlement, but it is means-tested. Both were originally fee-for-service programs, meaning that providers were paid an agreed-upon price for services rendered. Most state governments have moved toward capitated payment models. Capitated payments contract with a provider or group to insure a client for some period of time for a fixed price payment. The provider then has an incentive to provide care efficiently so that the organization receives a profit at the end of the capitation period. This is the health maintenance organization, preferred provider organization, or otherwise capitated plan.

Points-based immigration systems (esp. Canada) (Part 2)

Migrant health Immigrants to Canada must undergo medical examination by one of a list of physicians in their country of origin approved by the Canadian government. There are no diseases whose possession would immediately halt an application to immigrate - all cases are assessed individually. Medical inadmissibility is likely to be declared for applicants whose condition: is a danger to public health or safety, or would cause excessive demand on the Canadian healthcare or social services systems Education Canada offers a student visa to any applicant who has: been accepted by an institution of higher education enough money to pay for tuition fees, living expenses, and return transportation from Canada no criminal record a bill of clean health, with a medical exam if necessary a definite plan to leave after the course of study

Monetary Policy (Part 1)

Monetary policy involves managing the supply of money. The U.S. accomplishes this by having the Fed act semi-independently from the executive and legislative branches. The Federal Reserve Board consists of a chairperson, who is appointed by the president and approved by the Senate to a four-year term, and six other members of the Board of Governors, who are also appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate and serve terms of fourteen years. A Chairman's service is independent of his or her service on the Board, although he or she is appointed to the Board before becoming Chairman, so chairs may serve more than fourteen years. The current Chairman is Janet Yellen, who was appointed in 2014. Her predecessor, Ben Ernanke, served eight years, and Bernanke's predecessor, Alan Greenspan, served nineteen years. Service on the Fed is an especially influential position, and the Board's role in managing the economy is pronounced. In the United States, the Federal Reserve Board is responsible for managing the supply of money in the economy. It operates with considerable autonomy from the executive and legislative branches of government and the members of the board and its chairman wield considerable power quietly. Regulations are rules that affect the incentives for undertaking various activities. All economic activities are influence by regulations

Naturalization Act of 1790

Naturalization Act of 1790 • "free white person" • Not discussed by Barrilleaux, Reenock, and Souva Congress first defined eligibility for citizenship by naturalization in this law, and limited this important right to "free white persons." In practice, only white, male property owners could naturalize and acquire the status of citizens, whereas women, nonwhite persons, and indentured servants could not. Access to citizenship would become more expansive over time; although, the racial restriction was not eliminated entirely until 1952. This law produced the legal category of "aliens ineligible for citizenship" which largely affected Asian immigrants and limited their rights as noncitizens to key realms of life in the United States such as property ownership, representation in courts, public employment, and voting.

Air Pollution Trends Post-1970s

Of the six primary pollutants regulated by the Clean Air Act, all six have seen dramatic reductions since the 1970 Clean Air Act amendments. IN fact, between 1970 and 2008, there was a 60% reduction in these six pollutants, with the greatest decreases occurring in the first 20 years of the program. The greatest advances have been made against lead, particulate matter, and sulfur dioxide. Nearly 120 million people live in counties across the United States where ground level ozone levels exceed the levels allowable under the Clean Air Act. The primary reason for this is mobile sources of air pollution--trucks and cars. When the CAA was adopted, carbon dioxide was not included as a primary pollutant. Yet, CO2 emissions in the US have increased dramatically since 1970. As a result, one of the primary greenhouse gasses produced domestically has remained essentially unregulated. The two primary sources of CO2, emissions derive from electricity generation and transportation. The second most prevalent greenhouse gas, methane, has also risen over the past decades. Main sources are enteric fermentation and landfills.

Water Pollution Trends Post-1970s

On average, industrial pollution of our waterways has decreased. Only 26% have actually been assessed for pollution. Of those that have been assessed, about half have been designated as impaired. Industrial pollution from point sources that is regulated under NPDES of the Clean Water Act is nearly 97% compliant with the law. The top three causes of pollution or impairment of our current waterways are pathogens, sediment, and nutrients - less relevant here are the heavy metals and chemicals associated with industrial pollution. The more likely culprit is more non-point sources that derive from the agribusiness of farming and cultivation, bio-industrial production of concentrated animal feeding operations, and to a lesser extent personal home use of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. The Clean Water Act's Section 319 program attempts to deal with non-point source pollution and has been relatively successful. For non-point source pollution, the greatest challenge is educating resource users about the consequences of their actions and then offsetting the costs of addressing these actions. Best management practices increase costs to the user. Rather than issue a mandate that users employ these practices or face penalties, the Section 319 program uses a different approach. Section 319 provides grants designed to address these challenges. Specifically, these grants are used to transfer federal funds to state programs that in turn use the money to educate farmers and land owners to apply best management practices to reduce run-off into surface and ground waters. They can also be applied to defray the costs to farmers or other landowners of construction projects that might reduce run-off from their properties. Critics have pointed out that such grants always fall short of the total need of applicants.

Medicaid and Long-Term Care (Nursing Home) (Part 2)

One controversial recommendation that is gaining popularity among some Republican members of Congress is to move Medicaid from a categorial grant to a block grant. Categorical grants establish a formula that the recipient follows in order to get some agreed-upon payments. The Medicaid categorical grant is open ended: spending is regulated by eligibility, service coverage, and prices, but it has no cap. A block grant sets an amount of spending that is agreed upon and the grantee has flexibility, within limits, to spend the money as best fits the state's needs. Proponents of the block grant support it as the only way to set an established Medicaid budget. Critics claim that it will unduly cut access to services for people in need and increase the uncompensated care burdens that already strain not-for-profit hospitals. In the past, state governments have been leery of a block grant because Medicaid payments form the national government to the states have been generous, and even conservative governors viewed it as "free money" for their populations.

Open/closed political divide

One of the deepest political divides in American politics today is between those with and those without a college degree. In the 2016 election, Trump won two-thirds of white voters without a college degree, while Hillary Clinton won decisively among voters with advanced degrees. A similar divide appear in Britain's Brexit referendum. Voters with no college education voted overwhelming for Brexit, while the vast majority of those with a postgraduate degree voted to remain.

Points-based immigration systems (esp. Canada) (Part 1)

Points-based system Canada was the first country to introduce a points-based system, in 1967. According to a report by the think-tank Centre Forum, the Canadian system's distinguishing feature is that it "prioritises broadly desirable human capital, rather than a specific job offer". Like other countries, Canada distinguishes between skilled workers and other kinds of immigrant. Those applying for a federal skilled worker visa without a job offer are capped at 25,500, plus 1,000 each for a number of professional and technical professions. Some migrants can receive greater weighting for going to a particular territory, such as Nova Scotia. To qualify for Canadian immigration, a person has to meet a minimum of 67 points, with the maximum for each area as follows: 25 points from their educational background, 24 points from proficiency in the English and French languages, 21 points for previous work experience, 10 points for being in the prime age of employment, and up to 10 if one has an offer of employment. Financial background is also taken into consideration.

Nozick (1974)

Pressing further the anti-consequentialist aspects of John Rawls' A Theory of Justice, Nozick argued that respect for individual rights is the key standard for assessing state action and, hence, that the only legitimate state is a minimal state that restricts its activities to the protection of the rights of life, liberty, property, and contract. Despite his highly acclaimed work in many other fields of philosophy, Nozick remained best known for the libertarian doctrine advanced in Anarchy, State, and Utopia.

Principal-Agent Problems (esp. ex ante control and ex post control)

Principal-agent theory is the study of the challenges face whenever one actor (the principal) delegates authority to another actor (the agent) to carry out some task. The core problem in principal-agent theory in the policy arena is rather simple: the principal (the legislature) must ensure that the agent (the bureaucracy) will dutifully implement the law as intended. Ex post control is the direct monitoring of agent activity and punishing deviations after the fact is referred. Not necessarily attractive solutions. Ex ante control tactics are the alternative and refer to any actions that a principal takes prior to an agent's action to incentivize a desired behavior. They are essentially incentive packages that attempt to alter the costs and benefits of agents pursuing different behaviors.

Regulation (Part 1)

Regulation involves government intervention int eh decisions that firms make or in market outcomes. The economic rationale for most regulatory interventions is market failure. Regulation may include legal regulation, social and environmental regulation, direct control of market outcomes by the use of tariffs, price regulations, and the like, by taxes, by providing subsidies. Regulation, along with redistribution and distributive policy, is among the core tools of government, and as such is controversial and often breeds conflict. The government may use price setting, which may involve an outside source, like a government, to establish a price ceiling or floor on an industry with limited competition. Producers setting prices is considered price fixing and is illegal. Another form of economic regulation is setting entry restrictions. Entry restrictions may also serv as a form of economic protection for a trade by introducing a barrier to entry. Finally, economic regulation involves oversight of costs and of investment decisions. Banks in the United States are subject to regulation in order to maintain transparency in their actions.

Regulation (Part 2)

Regulation is controversial: some critics view it as a hindrance to economic growth and demand less regulation. Early research on the politics of regulation depicted regulatory politics in which the regulated entity usually received favorable treatment. The logic holds that politicians (the regulators) seek re-election, business interests provide support for re-election with more influence than voters and regulation favorable to business interests ensues. More contemporary research on regulatory politics includes bureaucratic incentives to seek rents, as well as those of business and elected officials. Bureaucracy is an important participant in regulatory politics, with administrative design and implementation of regulatory policies ensuring its central role in regulatory politics. Complaints against bureaucratic red tape are often complaints against regulations that slow economic activity.

Rent-Seeking and Regulatory Capture

Rent-seeking, or regulatory capture, refers to a situation where a regulatory agency advances policy decisions based not upon the public's interest, but on the narrow interest of the industry that it regulates. Given its role in regulation, government decisions can benefit some individuals at the expense of others. Rent-seeking behavior arises when, given their financial stake, members of a specific regulated industry attempt to extract extra benefits, or ernst, for themselves from government actions. Given that individual members of the public possess a relatively low stake in a specific industry, they are likely to abstain from lobbying the agency. The result is the agency having a pro-industry bias "captured," and being more inclined to produce rents for the specific industry. If an agency's structure and procedures are designed to be politically independent from outside forces, then the prospects of rent-seeking may be lower compared to when the agency is designed to be politically dependent.

Texas Constitution - Article VII, Section 1

SUPPORT AND MAINTENANCE OF SYSTEM OF PUBLIC FREE SCHOOLS. : A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools.

School choice

School choice refers broadly to a set of policy proposals that allow parents or guardians to choose their children's schools rather than have them assigned to specific schools within specific school districts. In an idealized setting, school choice would be entirely open within a community, and schools would succeed or fail based on consumer preferences. If people were unconstrained in their choice of schools, real estate markets would be altered given that families' choices of housing are often driven by their desire to live near good schools. In some areas, choice is used to create specialized academic programs. In others, students cluster in certain schools to play particular sports.School choice is often a source of conflict because its backers and opponents sometimes base their support or rejection upon ideology or fear of change. School choice was first suggested by the Nobel prize-winning free market economist Milton Friedman in the 1950s and his wife and long-time collaborator Mary Friedman.

Push factors

Some of the primary push factors are political repression, political violence, and economic hardship. Policies in the sending country may inadvertently incentivize immigration.

1921 Emergency Immigration Restriction Act

The 1921 Emergency Immigration Restriction Act restricted immigration across the board by establishing quotes for each country and region. The quotas were based on the percentage of ethnics already in the United States from that country. For this reason, the system created by the 1921 law is sometimes called the national-origins system. The chief effect of these policy changes was to reduce immigration from Asia. There were about half as many immigrants from Asia in the 1920s as there were in the 1910s. Immigration from European countries also dropped significantly in the 1920s, but this was more a result of economic growth in Europe, outside of Germany, which still sent many immigrants to the United States during this period.

Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (esp. Title I) (Part 2)

The Act has changed incrementally. In the 1980s, the Reagan Administration revised ESEA to provide more local control over spending, reducing the power of the national government by reducing the restrictions on spending that were previously imposed on the states. Later in the decade, it was altered to place greater emphasis on skills like critical thinking and greater parental involvement. The passage of the Improving America's Schools Act was created to provide education that was less focused on rote learning and standardized test taking and more focused on activities like reading novels, conducting experiments, and the like.

Monetary Policy (Part 2)

The Board meets quarterly to set the discount rate for member banks; lower discount rates to banks translate into lower interest rates for consumers, which in turn affects borrowing and the cost of doing business. When interest rates are low and money is inexpensive to borrow, it is more likely that companies will expand facilities, people will build houses, buy cars, and otherwise spend money. More expensive interest rates constrain economic activity. Higher interest rates are desirable when inflation is too high, the cost of money goes up and people will have less money to buy products, which in turn should reduce inflation. The Fed is sometimes criticized for wielding too much power that cannot be checked through regular political channels. The Federal Reserve is governed partly by the public, but partly by banks, and thus is not entirely free of the bank's influence. Some critics of the Fed claimed that by failing to raise interest rates in 2001, it helped create the financial collapse of 2008. Some Republican and Tea Party supporters call for the abolition of the Fed on the grounds that it is printing money without gold to back it in order to repay the debt, that it favors banking interests and extending the recession unnecessarily, and the like.

Classical Economics (Part 1)

The Classical model of economics holds that supply and demand are natural regulatory tools; thus, the economy regulates itself. This perspective is sometimes described as the laissez-faire model of economic governance. Laissez-faire is a French word that invokes a policy that there should be interference by government or anyone else in the regulation of an individual's affairs. In the Classical model, significant macroeconomic problems, like high unemployment or high inflation, result from changes in technology and/or government interference in the economy. From the laissez-faire perspective, the best way to address these problems is to let the economy regulate itself. There are two problems with this completely hands-off approach. First, as we discussed above, it is not possible to have a large market economy without the government. The government establishes property rights and other institutions that allow the market to operate. To say the government should be completely hands-off is to call for a very small economy. Second, under a variety of conditions (information asymmetries, poor institutions, liquidity deficits, monopoly, etc.), markets operate inefficiently. In reality, there are few supporters of a pure laissez-faire approach. However, many inspired by this Classical model of the economy believe the government should spend less.

Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is the main law for K-12 public education in the United States. It replaced No Child Left Behind. ESSA is a large, complex law. It affects all students in public schools. The main purpose of ESSA is to make sure public schools provide a quality education for all kids. It gives states a central role in how schools account for student achievement. This includes the achievement of historically disadvantaged students who fall into one or more of four key groups: Students in poverty Students of color Students who receive special education services Those with limited English language skills Under ESSA, each state creates an education plan for its schools within a framework provided by the federal government. The law gives parents and caregivers a chance to weigh in on these plans. Each state plan must describe: Academic standards Annual testing School accountability Goals for academic achievement Plans for supporting and improving struggling schools State and local report cards These aren't the only requirements for states and school districts. But they're the ones that most directly impact kids who learn and think differently. ESSA also provides funding for literacy programs and other grants. And it encourages innovation in how schools teach kids.

National Defense Education Act of 1958

The National defense Education Act (NDEA) was rushed through Congress in 1958 and provided public schools with an infusion of federal money to stockpile microscopes, chemicals, slide rules, and other supplies that were "scientific" in nature. The NDEA was reserved entirely for public schools, although private and parochial schools could borrow materials and books from public schools. Also, following the norms of the times, the NDEA was segregationist in its application. Funds were not provided to non-white schools.

No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 (Part 1)

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) passed under President George W. Bush was a significant change from the early ESEA, in part because it strengthened the role of the national government in public education by using the typical "carrot" of federal funding as an incentive for schools to achieve certain goals. The NCLB Act, which was passed with bipartisan support, established the goal of all children being able to meet state academic standards for reading and math by 2014. NCLB funded a set of federal programs designed to improve the performance of US schools. NCLB is built on five main objectives: standards and assessment, accountability, adequate yearly progress, corrective actions for chronically failing schools, and assurance of specific staff qualifications. The "standards and assessment" objectives focus on the national government assuring that state governments adopt challenging academic standards for their students. Schools that fail to meet AYP for two consecutive years are identified for corrective action. the AYP is the crucial test for states' schools: they were required to develop single state-wide accountability systems to apply to all public school students, and their AYP is determined by how well students meet those accountability measures each year. NCLB required that teachers receive more specialized certification in their specialty areas. The final prong of NCLB is an increased parental role. The carrot that led to NCLB's passage was rises in federal government spending. NCLB pitted the national government against state education departments in some instances, and especially against state teacher unions.

History and federalism

The absence of mention of education in the US Constitution led it to be treated as a state and local concern. Aside from spurring the creation of NASA, Sputnik created an understanding, correctly or not, that the US was lagging behind the Soviet bloc in math and science training, and that spurred federal government investments in schools at all levels.

U.S. states and reserve/police powers

The division of police power in the United States is delineated in the Tenth Amendment, which states that "[t]he powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." That is, in the United States, the federal government does not hold a general police power but may only act where the Constitution enumerates a power. It is the states, then, who hold the general police power. This is a central tenet to the system of federalism, which the U.S. Constitution embodies.

Delegation/Principal-agent theory in education policy

The education performance problem may be seen as a principal-agent problem, and more specifically a problem of delegation. There is a large number of childhood problems and a variety of tasks that affect school-age children and their families. A teacher who must attend to his or her students being fed, clothed, inoculated, parented, and so on has a much more difficult task than one who needs only to teach the students. This delegation problem, in which much is delegated to the schools without realistic assessments on how to complete the task, may prove especially costly, especially for low-income schools where some of the problems may be most pronounced. In Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Independent School District, et al., the court decision represents a circumstance in which an agent - the teacher - successfully reused to follow the decision of the school board - the principal. Given that legislators cannot implement policies directly, they must hire unelected bureaucrats for the task. Of course, this sets up a classic agency problem. The bureaucrats that are hired to implement a given public policy may not share their principals' policy preferences. Elected leaders hire teachers to educate children. Thus, enter an agency agreement with teachers in which the official (the principal) hires an agent (a teacher) to accomplish what the elected officials' principals (voters) elected him or her to produce (education).

Deficits and Debts

The golden rule of public finance is that spending must not exceed revenue. If it does, the sole justification for deb is government investment. The U.S. Government has had a budget deficit for all but four years since1995. The deficit increased dramatically following the war in 2001 and even more with the bail-out in 2009. The U.S. Congressional Budget Office notes that the only way to reduce the deficit (and the debt) is to cut spending, raise taxes, or both. The services-taxes trade-off is the problem that results in the deficit and in rising debt. The US government is able to go into debt by selling bonds for which investors receive an established rate of interest. There are several types of treasury bonds. They typically pay fairly low interest, but are safe, that is, they are unlikely to default. They also are desirable because they are treated favorably for taxes. State governments do not have as much flexibility for managing their deficits as the national government; they cannot issue treasure notes, but must raise money by selling bonds on private markets. As their debt frows, so does the cost of borrowing, as they are charged higher prices to borrow when they are judged to be poorer risks.

Origins of U.S. employer-based system of health insurance (also reasons for persistence) (Part 1)

The initial creation of widespread insurance began immediately following WWII, and took the form of employment-supported programs that were paid for as a portion of benefits for returning veterans. During the war, wage and price controls led to there being a premium on labor. Employers responded by providing workers with pensions and health insurance in lieu of pay increases, which were not available as a way to retain workers. Those benefits were tax-deductible by employers and were not taxed as income for workers, which made them especially popular. After the war, when those controls were lifted, insurers, workers, and employers had come to accept the fact of employment-linked health insurance. Political scientist Paul Pierson argues that the development of the US health system is a function of path dependence in which the system's initial developments - borne largely in the 1930s Great Depression - have seen stablished the path to health policy development and change in the current era. In the States, private insurers and medical providers likened early attempts to require universal coverage to collectivist sentiments that were popular in some parts of the nation during the 1930s and, later, to socialized medicine, long a potent rallying call in opposition to universal care in the United States. This long-term opposition helps explain why it is so difficult to reform health care in the US or in any nation. People may understand that health care is expensive, that insurance prices are rising, but they are not willing to risk worsening their own situations by supporting change.

Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (esp. Title I) (Part 1)

The initial goal of ESEA was to reduce the educationally differences between the poor and the larger public and to improve the educational performance and training of school systems. It was designed to help reduce differences in the quality and performance of schools. The Act initially had six "titles." 1. Financial Assistance to Local Educational Agencies for the Education of Children of Low-Income Families 2. School Library Resources, Textbooks, and other instructional Materials. 3. Supplementary Educational Centers and Services 4. Educational Research and Training 5. Grants to Strengthen State Departments of education 6. General Provisions Title 1 was the most controversial. Title 1 set the stage for a federal role in redistributing education resources for the poor. Education had long been managed by the states and local governments and there were, and remain, substantial differences in education spending according to the wealth and tax efforts of states and localities. Title 1 was the first large-scale federal move into public school finance. The ESEA titles expanded the federal government role in education by providing benefits to states and school districts that expanded their programs and made them dependent on the national government for maintenance of that spending.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (changes made by original law)

The moral hazard problem even extends to those without insurance: Much of the rationale for the controversial health insurance mandate that is the centerpiece of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010 reform law/Obamacare) is based on this problem. The Act has a mechanism that requires people either to have health insurance or to pay a tax of $2,500 is they choose not to carry insurance. People are guaranteed some form of charity care even when they disavow responsibility for their health care. As a result, an incentive to take risks that may not be taken in the absence of some insurance coverage exists. To explain, physicians and hospitals are required to provide care to people regardless of their ability to pay. However, if they are not critically injured, their insurance may be checked before receiving treatment; their ability to pay may determine whether treatment is received in a private hospital versus a public or not-for-profit hospital. Moral hazard may give people the incentive not to enroll in an insurance plan because they know that they must be given care if they are in need.

Moral hazard

The moral hazard problem is especially crucial in the health care setting. Moral hazard exists when insurance leads a person to behave in ways that may be more risky than they might be in the absence of insurance. Because of the presence o health insurance, people have the incentive to take more risks than they might in the absence of insurance. Moral hazard may also lead health service providers to provide more services than are needed in order to boost billings. Insurers have a strong incentive to provide coverage that is adequate, but is regulated in a manner in which overuse of services is not a regular problem.

Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965

The national-origins system changed in 1965. Two factors motivated the change to the country's immigration laws. First, unemployment was low and economic growth was high. Second, the Civil Rights Movement was calling Americans to be true to its founding principles and national ideals. Significant restrictions on immigration seemed inconsistent with American principles, motivating changes to the country's immigration laws. Under the new law, the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965, family ties were made a central factor for determining admittance and specific country quotes were abolished. With the end of the country quotes, a significant change in the national-origins of immigrants to the Untied States occurred after 1965.One important connection to make is tat the national-origins system and the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965 are institutional solutions to a coordination problem. In the mid-1960s, because of the Civil Rights Movement, the dominant frame of reference changed from ensuring ethnic homogeneity to recovering the ideal of America, one element of which is that the United States is a country of immigrants. With this new focal point, maintaining country quotes on immigration was untenable.

Rawls (1971)

The philosopher John Rawls, in a Theory of Justice, creates a thought experiment in which he asks readers to image a world in which they are born in an original position behind a "veil of ignorance." By "original position," Rawls means that people would enter the world in some set way of being, disregarding their intelligence, and the veil of ignorance means they would not know the circumstances into which they would be born. Rawls argued that the most desirable way to organize the would would be to maximize the resources available to the least well off in society so as to ensure a floor for the poorest in society, which may be described as a maximin plan.

Precautionary Principle

The precautionary principle states "if a product, an action or a policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, protective action should be supported before there is complete scientific proof of a risk" (Olsen and Motarjemi, 2014). Based on this principle, policy-makers have taken precautionary actions to various issues where scientific uncertainty is high, arguing that precautionary stances are legitimate if they prevent or reduce exposure to risk. Despite controversies over its application (Peterson, 2017), it has been considered a favorable decision-making approach for risk management (Wilson et al., 2006).

Risk Pool

The risk pool is the set of individuals covered by insurance. The more healthy the individuals covered, the lower the insurance company's expected costs, and vice versa if the risk pool contains an inordinate percentage of less healthy individuals. The riskiness of the pool depends on the risk profiles of those in the pool. Insurance, generally, is an annual policy, suggesting that one should focus on the year. Doing so, however, gives more incentive for health individuals not to purchase insurance until they desperately need to. This leads to the pool of insured being relatively more risky. For similar reasons, to counter the adverse selection problem, some advocate that the price of health insurance should be based on the expected health costs of the larger population within which they live. This is called a community rating. The choice of risk profiles has a significant effect on the risk pool and the price of health insurance.

Laffer Curve

The supply-side approach, sometimes called trickle-down economics, favors tax cuts. This approach leads to a less progressive taxation scheme with much lower taxes on wealthy earners and holders of capital. The logic motivating the supply-side approach is that excess taxation reduces the incentive to invest in the economy as holders of capital and dividends choose leisure over investment as a way to use their time. According to the Laffer Curve, tax cuts can lead to an increase in tax collections. That is, moving from a tax rate of zero to some value t* government revenue decreases. If taxes are far to the right in this figure, there is an argument to be made that cutting them can increase government revenue. With lower taxes and more government revenue, everyone benefits. In other words, the effect of lower taxes on the wealthy "trickles down" to the less wealthy through an increase in government revenue, which resulted from an increase in economic growth. Saez contends that the optimal marginal tax rate is between 50 and 80 percent. Currently, the highest marginal tax rate in the United States is 39.6 percent. It is very difficult to predict precisely how tax policy will affect labor supply and economic growth.

Command and Control, Also Authors' Arguments About its Use in Democracies

The third and more common corrective mechanism is the setting of output standards. Output standards are either outright bans or limitations on the amount of a given externality (air pollution) that may be produced. To implement an output standards mechanism, government bureaus area created and charged with setting the level of the output standard. They are also responsible for inspecting and punishing firms or individuals who exceed their output limitations. This approach to correcting a market externality is often referred to as command and control regulation. Opponents of command and control regulation argue that the sources that must be spent on the creation of a bureaucracy to implement such a regulatory system, can lead to an insufficient use of resources. As an alternative, opponents of command and control generally advocate consumption taxes or subsidies to manipulate the total costs of certain products or services. The costs of command and control regulation are rarely represented on the sticker price or sales receipt of a good. For this reason command and control remains the primary tool that modern democracies use to address market externalities.

Pigouvian Tax

There are several mechanisms that can be used to correct negative externalities including consumption taxes-also called Pigouvian taxes. The consumption tax is an added cost applied to a good or service thought to be generating a negative externality. Consumption taxes, conditioned on the size of the tax, are generally believed to be effective at inducing lower consumption of targeted goods and services. Setting the optimal level of the tax is a delicate choice, however. It is is set too low it will likely not induce a behavioral response. IF it is set too high, it will likely incentivize the development of a black market, where citizens can purchase the goods at lower cost. One difficulty associated with a consumption tax is the potential for political conflict. Gas Guzzler taxn

Inflation, Unemployment, and Policy (Part 2)

These conditions lead to inflation, where the purchasing power of a dollar declines. If inflation rises too high, governments may use policies to push back on growth prospects by increasing taxes or raising interest rates. Higher taxes and interest rates give incentives to save rather than borrow and buy. Consumers buy fewer goods and suppliers draw back, laying off workers, and the "cooling" cycles begins. This implies a trade-off: at full employment, inflation runs high; at low inflation, unemployment runs high. Given US Government policy to pursue low inflation, the United States will always have roughly 5 to 5 percent unemployment rate (currently roughly 4 or 5 million out of about 100 million workers).

Meritocracy and Clinton-Obama era Democrats (Part 1)

Toward the end of the Clinton-Obama era, some commentators generally sympathetic to the Democratic Party questioned the meritocratic liberalism that had come to define it--embracing globalization, valorizing a college degree, and believing that the talented and well-credentialed deserved to land on top. Christopher Hayes, an author and host of an MSNBC television program, observed that in recent years the left had had its greatest successes on issues that involved "making the meritocracy more meritocratic," such as combating racial discrimination, including women in higher education, and advancing gay rights. But it had failed in areas "that fall outside the meritocracy's purview," such as "mitigating rising income inequality." Thomas Frank, and author with populist sensibilities, criticized liberals focus on education as the remedy for inequality: "To the liberal class, every big economic problem is really an education problem, a failure by the losers to learn the right skills and get the credentials everyone knows you'll need in the society of the future. Frank found this response to inequality implausible and self-serving.

Unemployment (U.S. Definition)

Unemployment remains a large problem in the post-recession economy. The amount of unemployment is measured and reported by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The non-institutionalized civilian workforce is defined as people not in prison or other institutions aged 16 and over. Given that rising employment is one component of economic growth, these unemployment numbers are not good news, and the variation by race points to long-term problems in the jobs sector. The economic recovery since 2009 has been described as a jobless recovery. Full employment is desired, but not really achievable. Typically, an employment rate of 4 to 5 percent is considered full employment, as some people are naturally between jobs, such as seasonal laborers and people who are changing industries or jobs for various reasons. Moreover, the drive to keep inflation low creates an unemployment floor, below which unemployment will not be allowed to move. Persons are classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work. Persons who were not working and were waiting to be recalled to a job from which they had been temporarily laid off are also included as unemployed. Receiving benefits from the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program has no bearing on whether a person is classified as unemployed. The unemployment rate represents the number unemployed as a percent of the labor force. Unemployment data also are available by demographic characteristics. See also Labor force and Employment.

Public schools

Urban test scores are persistently lower than in rural and suburban schools.Our principal-agent problem in this area is the relationship between the community and teachers.Education is thought of as a great equalizer: support for public education remains strong despite objections to other forms of income redistribution, because education si thought to provide people with the skills they need to improve their ability to earn money an to rise in the economic system.One justification for the investment in public education is that it increases economic productivity, and it does.Public school systems are often criticized for doing a poor job of training students and for being heavily bureaucratized and unable to respond quickly to changing educational needs. School choice has been criticized for failing to ensure that all economic, racial, and ethnic groups are equally able to take advantage of educational choice. Education traditionally has been a state and local government function.US school districts are locally administered, but their geographic organization and structure varies according to state and region. States' contributions to education spending come through state income taxes and state sales taxes. The national government's entry into education is typically eased by the contribution of federal funding to local districts.

Zucht v. King (1922)

Zucht v. King, 260 U.S. 174 (1922),[1] was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court held, 9-0, that public schools could constitutionally exclude unvaccinated students from attending, even if there was not an ongoing outbreak.[2] In the case, the school district of San Antonio, Texas enacted an ordinance that prohibited any child from attending a school within the district unless they had been vaccinated against smallpox. One parent of a student who had been excluded, Rosalyn Zucht, sued on the basis that there was not a public health emergency.[3] Justice Louis Brandeis wrote for the unanimous court that requiring students to be vaccinated was a justified use of "police power" to maintain public health and safety.[4] Brandeis invoked a previous decision, Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905), in which the Court upheld the authority of the states to enforce compulsory vaccination laws.

Modern Monetary Theory

the belief that fiscal expenditure and taxes determine output and price levels, while money is supplied or withheld merely in response to fiscal policy

Utilitarianism

the doctrine that actions are right if they are useful or for the benefit of a majority. The theory, proposed by Jeremy Bentham in the late 1700s, that government actions are useful only if they promote the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

14th Amendment - Birthright citizenship

• 14th Amendment • Birthright citizenship • Somewhat unusual • Most countries that do this today are in the western hemisphere The first sentence of the Fourteenth Amendment states: "All persons born or naturalized int he United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the united States and of the State wherein they reside." Put plainly, the Fourteenth Amendment grants citizenship to anyone born int eh United States. Arguments Against: 1. It encourages illegal immigration. 2. In 2008, approximately one in twelve births in the United States were born to illegal immigrants. 3. The principle of jus soli, or birthright citizenship, is held by a minority of states, almost all of which are in North, Central, or South America. Arguments For: 1. The United States receives many more immigrants than other states; as a result, to end birthright citizenship would greatly increase the number of undocumented persons int eh country and it would be a bureaucratic nightmare to deal with the non-citizens. 2. The argument that "anchor babies" encourage illegal immigration is fatuous. 3. Many Republican supporters of the Fourteenth Amendment note that it is politically unwise to alienate Hispanic voters as they will soon be the largest minority group in the United States.

1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act

• 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act • Outlawed knowingly hiring unauthorized migrants • Amnesty for roughly 3 million people without legal status As in the 1920s, public opinion in the 1980s started showing concerns about the new immigrants. Opinion on the new immigrants was salient enough to again prompt the federal government to change its immigration policy. The result was the 1986 IRCA, which made two significant changes to US immigration policy. First it made it illegal for employers to knowingly hire illegal immigrants. Second, it granted amnesty to about 3 million illegal aliens in the United State. Both of these policies had significant ramifications and contributed to the more recent illegal immigration problem in the United States.

Pull factors (Barrilleaux, Reenock, and Souva's argument)

• Authors argue the economy is typically the #1 pull factor. • Are they leaning too much on rational choice theory? Pull factors include political freedom, connectedness, and economic opportunity. The United States scores well on each of these pull factors. Connectedness is anything that greatly reduces the transaction costs of moving to and living in a new country. The economy tends to be the most important pull factor. The Heckscher-Ohlin theorem tells us that a country tends to export products that make intensive use of its abundant. The United States is capital abundant and Mexico is labor abundant. The theorem tells us that Mexico is likely to export people to the United States.