How does the housing market affect the stock market so much?
It's purely psychological. The "housing market" is really the "real estate" market which accounts for a lot of money. There is also a lot of related industries which is affected if the real estate market goes down. First is the home builders or construction industry (contractors), then there is the materials suppliers, then the mortgage industry which makes loans to buyers and then there's the real estate agents, title companies, escrow companies, home insurance companies, furniture companies - all their jobs hang on how well the housing market is doing. They were in fear for the past 2 years when the housing or real estate market peaked and began sliding down. Investors in the stock market finally decided that there is too much fear and decided to sell their stocks. Selling causes the stock market to drop.
How much money does the medical industry stand to lose if a cure for cancer is discovered?
Your question is based upon a fallacious, but oft-repeated, assumption. There is no one cancer, there are around 250 different ones, all with different causes, pathophysiologies, and treatments. There probably will never be a single "cure" for cancer, unless we find out that every single cancer has the same root cause and can be treated in the same way. I think that would be an implausible, possibly impossible, assumption.So, changing the assumption to "what would Big Pharma lose if it developed 250 cures," the question becomes much more difficult to answer.A single cancer drug costs around $1 billion to bring to market. What most people don't know is that over 90% of cancer drugs that enter Phase 1 clinical trials (the first of 3-4 phases) never make it to market. Usually the FDA or clinical trial results stop it from going forward.So, at a minimum, 250 cures would require $250 billion in investment. And that's before capital costs to build manufacturing, distribution and marketing. So these medications will be very expensive to cover the cost of development and manufacturing. Big Pharma would love to have 250 cancer cures. Even if there was "one cure to rule them all," one company would own that patent, and they would have gold bars shipped to them by patients.There's another false assumption in your question. Cancer prevention is probably the best investment. Quit smoking. Quit drinking to excess. Quit laying in the sun. Get vaccinated against cancer causing viruses like HPV and HepB. Keep a low and healthy body weight. If the world did that, the cancer incidence could drop significantly, which would eventually harm Big Pharma profits. On the other hand, 20% of Americans still smoke, even though it's essentially banned every where, and only a fool would think it's safe.
Why are so many teachers afraid of privatizing Education?
"privatization" doesn't mean "only the rich can afford it". Why do people assume that? Just because many utility companies are private doesn't mean that the poor don't have access to running water or electricity. What if every STUDENT were given a private voucher that they could take whereever they choose? It seems that people put up a wall as soon as you say "privatization" rather than asking "how could we privatize it AND solve current problems and make the system better for EVERYONE?
What is "Good Cause" for quitting a job and still get unemployment benefits?
Examples of qualifying reasons are: * You were laid off due to lack of work. * You are still working but the employer reduced your hours. (Your reduction in hours must not be the result of a disciplinary action.) * You were fired without work-related misconduct. Examples of misconduct are a violation of company policy; violation of law; neglect or mismanagement of your position; or failure to perform your work acceptably if you are capable of doing so. * You quit your job for a good well-documented work-related or medical reason. WC may rule good cause if the work situation would cause a person who truly wants to keep the job to leave it. o Examples of possible good cause are unsafe working conditions or a significant change in hiring agreement, or not receiving payment for your work. o Examples of medical reasons are quitting on your doctor's advice, or quitting to care for a minor child, or quitting to care for a terminally ill spouse if there is no alternative care provider. * You quit to protect yourself from family violence or stalking, evidenced by an active or recently issued protective order, a police record documenting family violence or stalking directed against you, or medical documentation of family violence against you. In addition: * If you quit to move with your husband or wife, you may be able to receive benefits after a disqualification of 6 to 25 weeks. This is a disqualification of both time and money, because we must subtract the number of disqualified weeks from your total benefits. * If you quit to move with your military spouse, Texas lets you receive benefits without penalty if your spouse has a permanent change of station longer than 120 days, or a tour of duty longer than one year.
If the US decides to stop importing from China, how much will China suffer?
There are many very good answers here. I would like to point out that “stop importing from China” is a very vague rule. So what could you mean by that phrase? Let’s give two extreme scenarios:(1) You cannot import anything sold by a Chinese-domiciled company.This is very easy to get around. Neighbouring East Asian countries will benefit greatly because of their new ability to play middleman between China and USA. So company “McChinaman Limited” will sell to “Singapore Middleman Co” and then “Singapore Middleman Co” will sell to “USA Importer LLC”.China has FTAs (free trade agreements) with most countries in the Asia-Pacific region. So it’s pretty trivial for them to re-route the goods through a third party, and the third-party can get a fee for doing pretty much nothing at all.(2) You cannot import anything which has, in its supply chain (recursively, so to any depth of the supply chain), anything sold by a Chinese-domiciled company.This means you basically can’t import almost anything at all. That would massively debilitate the US economy. Keep in mind US-manufactured products often also contain Chinese-made parts in their supply chain.Therefore:Probably you need some rule about how much of the “value added” is done in China, or some other quantitative “line in the sand”.Hey guess what: China’s “value added” is often not that much! How much money do you think Foxconn makes from every sale of an iPhone? How much money do you think Apple makes?So your import ban is most likely to result in case (1).Conclusion:USA will suffer. China will suffer. Other countries (middlemen) will benefit. Go ahead USA, make us non-Chinese non-US people richer. We’re looking forward to it.
Do you want lower costing US healthcare or not?
The American medical products & services industries have been very successful in creating shareholder value, and increasing revenues far beyond inflation and population growth rates. Improving health outcomes? Not so much. We simply can't afford this inefficient industry. Yes, there will be job loss. We can manage it. EDIT: > (jakemcclake) Do you want lower healthcare cost? Of course I do. Let it come from a reduction in corporate profits, and unnecessary capital expenditures. (e.g.: I've got three big medical centers within 20 miles; each with full-on CAT scan and MRI facilities. The demand isn't there to pay for all that - unless the bean counters tell the doctors to funnel patients that way, for the revenue.)