Political Science class question...globalization, etc. opinion?
Normally 'globalization' means dropping borders to allow more sharing, more import/export, etc. It sounds like a good idea. But the problem is not with globalization but how we're doing it. The Reagan/Bush/Clinton version of globalization allows capital to roam the earth but labor has to stay put. A manufacturing company, for instance, can search the globe for the cheapest labor and resources, but workers have to stay where they are, and take what jobs are available in his own country. Of course this leads to a 'race to the bottom' as jobs shift inevitably to the countries with the lowest wages, which puts strong downward pressure on wages in better-paying countries. GHW Bush (the first president Bush) tried his entire single term to pass NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, a treaty which would have made borders porous to capital between Canada, the US and Mexico. He wasn't able to get it passed and the Republicans whined and moaned about 'Democrat obstructivism'. But when Clinton came to office he got NAFTA passed easily. Of course now that Clinton got credit for it the Republicans decided it was just the worst idea ever. 8^P But NAFTA has had the effect of lowering wages and deteriorating working conditions in all three countries! How could it do that? It was DESIGNED to do that. The effect of globalization has been worldwide concentration of wealth, as unemployment increases in all but the lowest-paid countries but profits skyrocket. And less freedom, as the governments grow more and more corrupted by corporate money.
Is GDP a good measure of economic growth? Why or why not?
GDP is the final value of goods and services produced in a country. To measure its effectiveness as a measure to describe an economy's indicator, one must look both at its advantages and disadvantages and also the possible alternatives.Advantages:Using GDP as a measure of a nation's economy makes sense because it's essentially a measure of how much buying power a nation has over a given time period. GDP is also used as an indicator of a nation's overall standard of living because, generally, a nation's standard of living increases as GDP increases.Disadvantages:1. It doesn't count unpaid volunteer work.2. Wartime disaster increase the GDP of the country.3. It doesn't show the distribution of income among different people.4. It doesn't show whether people belonging to a country having high GDP are happy or not.5. It does not account for quality of goods.If you measure India's GDP, it is the 10th richest country but this measure also does not take into account the purchasing power of people. By measuring GDP with respect to purchasing power parity, India becomes the 3rd richest in the world.But then again, this measure has its drawbacks. One can't say for sure what all goods should be included to calculate it.Human Development Index that can be used to measure economic progress. It uses statistics like life expectancy, education and income levels to measure a country's progress but then again it has its drawbacks like failure to include any ecological considerations, lack of consideration of technological development or contributions to the human civilization, focusing exclusively on national performance and ranking, lack of attention to development from a global perspective, measurement error of the underlying statistics, and on the UNDP's changes in formula which can lead to severe misclassification in the categorisation of 'low', 'medium', 'high' or 'very high' human development countries.Bhutan uses yet another measure as an indicator. It is the Gross happiness Index which measures the happiness level of people in an economy. As cheesy as it might sound, it is very difficult to calculate something as qualitative as happiness.That leaves us with just one measure i.e GDP.Even though we are all well aware of its shortcomings, we don't really have a choice simply because it is the only thing that can be precisely calculated and can be used as a measure to compare economic progress of various countries.
What was the Great Depression?
What was it exactly? Why did it happen? What caused it? Who caused it What years were it? How was the economy affected? How were Mom & Pop stores affected? How were large companies affected? How were factories affected? How was farming operation affected? How were the rich affected? How was the middle class affected? How were the poor affected? If it never happened, how would life in America be like today? You don't have to answer all of the questions, just the ones you want.
Is The Top 1% Greedy; Because They Only Pay 40% Of The Income Taxes?
They don't pay that much, people worth that much stash much of their money off shore and away from the IRS. there are law firms that specialize in hiding people's money in tax havens like the Cayman Islands, Switzerland and Lichtenstein. There was a big story about 2 months ago about a former employee of one of these banks who went public about all the Americans who had money deposited ( tax free ), in these banks.