To be the top 1% of colorado you have to make:
$405,000
Poverty level 2016:$11,880 for 1 person
$16,020 for 2 people $24,300 for 4 people 2016 poverty rate:14.8%
2016 Minimum wage:$8.31 Colorado
$7.25 Federal Economics:A social science concerned with the way society chooses to use its limited resources, which have alternative uses to produce goods and services for present and future consumption.
How healthy is our economy?Ways to tell:
Inflation - the rise in price of goods and services Wages - how big the middle class is Housing - affordable Dept - deficit GDP - gross domestic product / total value of goods and services Unemployment Stock Market High crime rate longer hours less benefits fear of immigration fear of crime cost of college literacy rate children in poverty number of homeless leisure time pollution income gap number of parks How is our economy right now?According to CNN money we have a B grade in our economy. Its good but its not great, we could do a lot more improving on our economy. With a 4.9% unemployment
What is the American dream?Looking at this picture (Mr. & Mrs. David Vincent and daughter, Martha, by their sod house: near White River, South Dakota) It seems to me that the american dream in their eyes in being self sufficient. If they want something they just have to put in some hard work and they can get it.
In my eyes The American Dream means something else. It means living a nice life, where you don't have to worrying about losing your job or if you can play next months rent. Its you work your time and and get to relax and not worry about a thing. Is the American dream dead?Simply put: yes and no. I believe that the american dream is both alive and dead, its just really depends in who you ask. According to some people they are living the american dream, but to others the dream has been dead for along time. Its really about what you think the american dream is and what you have been through to try to achieve it. So in closer I don't believe that there is a right or wrong answer to "Is the american dream dead?" It depends on weather you think its dead or alive and what you're going to do about it.
Why the poor stay poor/Its expensive to be poo(r)why is it more expensive to be poor? its because it costs money to save money(I know it sounds stupid but bear with me here).
Usually the more expensive goods seem to be better build therefor lasting longer, but what happens if you cant afford the expensive well built item? You buy the cheap one that breaks after 3 uses because that's all you have the money for. Then you go back to the store to buy another one, and guess what you only have money for the cheap breakable one and the bill keeps adding up. Its an infinite loop of sadness. Family friendly agendaFree schooling
Free healthcare Paid leave extend medicare Make the first $20,000 of income tax free Bring back estate tax on estates over $2 million Close offshore tax Support marriage equality Will the family friendly agenda help or hurt our economy?I think this would help our economy if its done right. Since small business cant really afford this we can put in place things that exclude them from some of the agenda.
How can children living in poverty get ahead when their schools don't prepare them for life or success?With the increasing gap in education this question is getting harder and harder to answer. I think really the only way that they can get ahead is themselves working to achieve their goals. With the way we are going right now I don't think we will ever have a fully fair and equal education system. So people(for now) are going to have to give it their all to get ahead when behind. Its the sad truth not all people are going to get ahead.
The Economic Plans of the Presidential CandidatesDonald Trump
- Build a wall so we don't have to pay as much money to imprison immigrants. - Reform the trade between the U.S. and China, Immigration, and Veterans administration. - Change healthcare and taxes to benefit the working families Hillary Clinton - Rase incomes Bernie Sanders - The Fed - The nations bank
- Stabilize money - Set interest rate - Manage inflation Stop blaming the richhttp://www.forbes.com/sites/danbigman/2015/05/22/warren-buffett-stop-blaming-the-rich-for-income-inequality-if-you-want-to-help-increase-tax-credits/#22b69b131f78
Warren buffett says that people should get a tax credit if they are working. to relieve some of the taxes put on lower income families. This way the taxes somewhat even out between the rich and the poor. I believe that the tax credit would work like this: You work X number of hours and you are exempted from paying Y much money in taxes. People like usThis was quite an interesting movie. It talked about all the different classes and how they viewed others and themselves.
From WASPS to people waking 6 miles in the rain to get to work our classes very dramatically. Yet we like to think how there is no class system in the US. Throughout the movie many examples are give to about how your class affects who you are. One of the big examples I remember is based on what class you're in you buy different types of bread. Higher income homes bought a lot more of the fancy breads (sourdough, multi-grain, Etc.) while the lower income homes tend to buy a lot more of the cheap white bread and want nothing to do with the more expensive "fancy" bread. Boosts and blocksWhat are boosts and blocks? Boosts and blocks are things that our country did/make laws about that either helped(boosts) or hurt(blocks) people trying to get or are already US citizens. Some examples of these are: A boost would be The Homestead Act allowing lots of people to obtain large quantities of free land. A block would be: The Jim crow laws or the Asian exclusion act, anything that hinders some groups of people
I think these boost both helped and hurt people and the blocks also hurt and helped people. It really depends on what side of the fence you're on The Mission ShelterThough, I didn't go on the field trip I've had previous experience working with the homeless. Its hard to see so many people down on their luck, but you do feel like a better person after, Is that selfish? who knows.
Do we have an obligation to help the poor?It depends on the type of "we" you're using. If its we the government, Yes I do believe that they are obligated to give their citizens basic human needs to keep them from dying. But, if you're talking about we the people, no I don't think we are obligated to help. Is it a nice and good thing to do? yes it is and more people should do it. As an obligation though? That's more of a human moral question. Some people believe, yes we must put others before ourselves. While others put themselves over others. neither one is "right" or "wrong" It all depends on the person and what they think.
DefinitionsCapitalism: an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.
Socialism: State ownership of common property, or state ownership of means of production Communism: a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs. (community ownership) Solutions to povertyhttps://www.americanprogress.org/issues/poverty/news/2014/09/17/97287/the-top-10-solutions-to-cut-poverty-and-grow-the-middle-class/
10 Solutions for society 1. Create jobs 2. Raise the minimum wage 3. Increase the Earned Income Tax Credit for childless workers 4. Support pay equity 5. Provide paid leave and paid sick days 6. Establish work schedules that work 7. Invest in affordable, high-quality child care and early education 8. Expand Medicaid 9. Reform the criminal justice system and enact policies that support successful re-entry 10. Do no harm 5 Solutions for me to stay out of poverty 1. Save now and start investing 2 Avoid addiction 3 Finish high school and pursue higher education 4. Wait to have children 5. Avoid jail |
Public school students are in poverty/The education gapBoth of these articles have a big similarity, this being if you come from a low income household are at a big disadvantage compared to those who come from a wealthier background. About the education gap and how People who have more money tend to get a better education then those who are poorer. The article mostly just talks about how this is a tough problem to fix, if you patch up one hole another one forms on the other side. As for the most of kids in public schools are in poverty this issue would be easier to address then the education gap in my option, but still tough to do. We could make school free, but then we would have to pay more taxes and no one likes to do that. We could shift more government spending over to education people always say we need to do this, but it never seems to happen.
Top 10 highest paid CEO'sJohn Hammergren $131.2 mill
Education: Williams college of business, university of Minnesota, and Xavier university Ralph Lauren $66.7 mill Micheal Fasciteili $64.4 mill Richard Kinder $60.9 mill David Cote $55.8 mill George Paz $51.1 mill Jeffery H. Boyd $50.2 mill Stephen Hemsley $48.8 mill Clarence P. Cazalot Jr $43.7 mill John C Martin $43.2 mill Infographic http://www.faireconomy.org/infographics
The info graphic that i picked is trying to convince the reader that all of us grew together with a rather even spread of wealth during 1947-1979, but after we all started to spread apart and the top 5% gained all the money, while the bottom 20% got stomped into the ground. As for how accurate it is, I would say that its pretty accurate. How would you know that its accurate? you could just look up more information about the topic and see all the other information that lines up this is graphic. If I was defending the top 1% in response to this graphic I would say the following: I would talk about how much money we put back into the economy and hows its not our fault that people arnt working as hard as they could be. Signs on the lineBeing a single parent with 2 kids you need around $50,000 just for living wage. with the poverty line being $20.090 if you are working minimum wage you cant support a family. so there is a huge gap between these numbers. so you better have a good job or find some way to make up the money.
Harder for Americans to rise from lower rungsIs it harder for Americans to get ahead ? Yes I do believe that it is harder for Americans to become rich from starting off poor compared to some other counties(not all). The prices are going up and the wages are going down.
What are rich people like?In my eyes the stereotypical rich person is as follows:
Greedy, has a cold heart cares about no one but themselves and their money. Looks down on people who don't have money. Would destroy their friendships and family just to make more money. Yes I know this isn't true about all rich people, maybe even nobody. This is just what I think of when I hear the word rich. Families and the economy What kind of things make it difficult for families to do well?
Health problems - The bills can really start to add up and if you cant pay you cant get better, so you cant work Not making enough money Criminal background - places dont want to hire you. Bad credit The area they live in Their education children paying for things on time Small and medium amounts of wealth$1,500: own a used car
$50,000: send your kids to college $200,000 own a house Large 1 million own a medium sized house 10 million own several mansions Huge $50 million tax breaks $300 million own a sports team $1 billion buy out companies How does social class affect the lives of Americans?It affects what we eat, and what we buy.
Race and the economyA lot of studies show that white families have it a lot better then off in this economy then African american and Hispanic people. An example of this is shown in the unemployment rates of race in 2015-16. Whites only have an average of a 5% unemployment rate while African Americans and Hispanics had up to a 10% unemployment rate, double that of the white family. Does race really play that big of a role in our economy? Sadly yes, but its not because they don't work as hard or they don't pay off loans. Its because of they way the richer people believe all of these things about them or how they exploit them for personal gain.
Economic policies of presidential candidatesWhat I have learned about all of these policies is that its they can be very similar and its hard to figure out who said what. Hilary and Bernie are very similar in what they plan to do with the country. As for Donald... you can tell what he says.
How much influence does the president have over the economy?In most cases Its actually the fed whose policies affect the economy.
- Monetary policy - Create $ - Raise and lower interest rates Schools and children in PovertyThese days there are so many children in poverty in our school system its hard not to think "How have we not addressed this issue?" People are always talking about how we are going to make things better, yet nothing really ever changes. For these children education is a lot harder to get and/or focus on. Its hard to remember to do your homework when you don't know if you are going to be able to eat that night. This is part of what is causing the education gap .
Athletes and teachersThe salary gap between teachers and athletes is just growing bigger and bigger everyday. In today's society we seem to value sports over our children's education. The average MLB player makes around $3.2 million dollars a year while as the average teacher only makes around $45,278. Just think of what would happen if you switched those two salary's around. How much better would our education system become. Sports would have to be played at the park and not these huge stadiums, Boo hoo!. You might be saying to yourself "but, random person who wrote this don't sports and their stadiums fund our cities?" and to you I say "not really, we pay for the stadium with our tax dollars and all the revenue that they make goes to the owner of the team. How in anyway is that fair?"
10 Best things the government has done for us.1.) Protecting our freedoms.
2.) Giving away the land. 3.) Educating everybody. 4.) Helping us retire with dignity. 5.) Improving public health. 6.) Building our transportation networks. 7.) Investing in communications. 8.) Building our energy supply. 9.) Inventing the future. 10.) Defeating totalitarianism. "No government is the best government" is a statement I don't fully agree with yet for some people this is all they want, why is that? It could be that they don't believe in what the government is doing or they feel like the government has just screwed them over and ruined their lives. They just think they can do better The pros and cons of CapitalismPros
- Have the opportunity to become very wealthy - The more money people are making in turn theoretically more jobs should become available Cons - Not all start the race in the same place - Disregard for environment and peoples health and well-being. - Very competitive Alternatives to Capitalism I think there are many alternatives to Capitalism. An Idea of one I had it that everyone starts at a baseline of income that can support themselves with all of the human needs(food, water, housing, etc) |
Part C Directions: On a separate piece of paper (or on a Google Doc), answer the following questions as fully as you can, using supporting evidence (facts and data from notes, readings and research on your website) to show what you have learned in this class.
Economics affects our lives on the daily. So it's a very good to know a thing or two about it. Without people who study our economy we wouldn’t know the trends of it, and we wouldn’t know when to expect the booms and crashes to prepare for them. Economics relates to our lives as americans all the time. It affects how much we make and how much we spend on goods and services. There's so many things i'm going to take away for this class but the big main one is I now know (mostly) how our economy works and how factors affect it. Before this class I only knew the very basics about our economy(I didn't even know we were a capitalist society). But know I don’t only know what we are but the differences between all of the types of government( Capitalist, socialist, etc)
Our economy is currently on the rise. According to the cycle of economy we are getting close to another big boom in the economy. We have already passed the crash back in 2009 ever since we’ve been in this recovery stage. If the economy ever starts doing bad again there are many traditional signs you can look out for.such as: Inflation, wages going down, housing market going down, the unemployment rate going up, the stock market crashing, and our country's overall GDP going down. There are also many alternative ways to measure the state of the economy. A few examples of these are: Crime rate on the rise, the fear of more immigrants coming in to take what few jobs we have, not caring about our environment, and the overall literacy rate of the population going down.
A lot of the assumptions we make about poor people are just stereotypes. Being an addict spending all of their money on drugs and alcohol, being a criminal are just a few examples of these stereotypes. Some of the assumptions I made about poor people are just the stereotypical ones I listed earlier. After taking this class many of my thoughts about poor people have changed.. I now think of the other possibilities we learned about: Not being able to pay for healthcare, getting laid off, or taxes were just getting too high for them to pay. The reasons just keep going and going. So next time you see somebody down on their luck don’t just think they are an addict or some criminal there are countless hardships they may have went through.
Just like the poor, we have stereotypes for rich people. stuck up, greedy, monocles, cold dead heart, only cares about themselves, only wants money, etc. Some of the assumptions I've had about the rich are that they only really want the economy to benefit themselves and just ignore the lower middle and bottom classes. Also they just wanted to make more and more money. However after taking this class I did learn a lot more about not all rich people are like that (trust me there are still some, but not all). Warren Buffett is an example of the rich trying to help out the lower income. He's proposed a plan to help people pay taxes with his income tax credit. This would allow hard workers to get more tax breaks based on how much they work.
Income inequality is the difference of what makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. The top 20% of americans own 85% of our country's wealth. Why do we think is fair? On average CEOs make around 204 times what their median worker makes. I’m not saying we need a whole new government but, we do need some major changes to distribute the wealth a little more evenly. Maybe not completely even though, I do think people should have more money if they work for it or contribute something great to our society but, not as much as they have now. Spread some of that wealth down the class ladder and help those who don’t even really have basic human necessities. Just balance it out a tiny bit more.
The poor have many disadvantages in this race of our government. Education, housing, lower wages just to name a few. But all these things add up and it becomes harder and harder to get ahead. Our government does however provide some resources to those in need. Such as if you are disabled and can’t work you can get paid disability. Or they may help you pay for a home for you can your kids and maybe even pay to help you raise those kids. But I do think they could be doing a lot more for those in need, but thats just my opinion. As for “Do we have an obligation to help the poor” It depends on the type of "we" you're using. If it's we the government, Yes I do believe that they are obligated to give their citizens basic human needs to keep them from dying. But, if you're talking about we the people, no I don't think we are obligated to help. Is it a nice and good thing to do? yes it is and more people should do it. As an obligation though? That's more of a human moral question. Some people believe, yes we must put others before ourselves. While others put themselves over others. neither one is "right" or "wrong" It all depends on the person and what they think.
If we think of our government as a race and the finish line as becoming successful many people are directly on the starting line waiting for the starting pistol. While others are far ahead just because their parents were rich. And far behind the starting line are all the people who have had troubles either getting a job or paying off something or maybe they just were born into debt. Not a very fair race huh? Our Capitalistic society can offer some very good things who do well in it.(You have the opportunity to become very wealthy, you can create more jobs, you can live the “american dream”) for others though, it a whole different story. If you get behind is can be hard to get back on even grounds with other people. Be it job loss, wages being cut, homes being foreclosed or any other of the countless possibilities that could happen to set us back.
I think there are many good alternatives to consider but most of what I think we would do is augment what government we have now to fit what we need. We could add something like the scandinavian countries have such as paying our citizens for resources we sell or we could be like alaska and build up a fund with money from our profits to help future generations start on their feet when maybe it will be a bit harder to earn money right out of the gates of employment. A drawback to this may be less funding in other areas of our government. Less military funds, maybe roads won’t get repaved as often. But something like this would be a bit though to achieve in america just because so many people have so many different ideas and they think there’s is the best one.
- Why study economics? How does it relate to your life and to the life of all Americans? What things did you learn in this class that might be useful to you in the future?
Economics affects our lives on the daily. So it's a very good to know a thing or two about it. Without people who study our economy we wouldn’t know the trends of it, and we wouldn’t know when to expect the booms and crashes to prepare for them. Economics relates to our lives as americans all the time. It affects how much we make and how much we spend on goods and services. There's so many things i'm going to take away for this class but the big main one is I now know (mostly) how our economy works and how factors affect it. Before this class I only knew the very basics about our economy(I didn't even know we were a capitalist society). But know I don’t only know what we are but the differences between all of the types of government( Capitalist, socialist, etc)
- How is our economy doing? What are traditional measures of the state of our economy and what might be alternative ways that better measure our economic well-being?
Our economy is currently on the rise. According to the cycle of economy we are getting close to another big boom in the economy. We have already passed the crash back in 2009 ever since we’ve been in this recovery stage. If the economy ever starts doing bad again there are many traditional signs you can look out for.such as: Inflation, wages going down, housing market going down, the unemployment rate going up, the stock market crashing, and our country's overall GDP going down. There are also many alternative ways to measure the state of the economy. A few examples of these are: Crime rate on the rise, the fear of more immigrants coming in to take what few jobs we have, not caring about our environment, and the overall literacy rate of the population going down.
- What assumptions do we make about people living in poverty? What assumptions did you have before taking this class? What thoughts have stayed the same and what thoughts have changed about the poor and about poverty?
A lot of the assumptions we make about poor people are just stereotypes. Being an addict spending all of their money on drugs and alcohol, being a criminal are just a few examples of these stereotypes. Some of the assumptions I made about poor people are just the stereotypical ones I listed earlier. After taking this class many of my thoughts about poor people have changed.. I now think of the other possibilities we learned about: Not being able to pay for healthcare, getting laid off, or taxes were just getting too high for them to pay. The reasons just keep going and going. So next time you see somebody down on their luck don’t just think they are an addict or some criminal there are countless hardships they may have went through.
- What assumptions do we make about rich people? What assumptions did you have before taking this class? What thoughts have stayed the same and what thoughts have changed about the rich?
Just like the poor, we have stereotypes for rich people. stuck up, greedy, monocles, cold dead heart, only cares about themselves, only wants money, etc. Some of the assumptions I've had about the rich are that they only really want the economy to benefit themselves and just ignore the lower middle and bottom classes. Also they just wanted to make more and more money. However after taking this class I did learn a lot more about not all rich people are like that (trust me there are still some, but not all). Warren Buffett is an example of the rich trying to help out the lower income. He's proposed a plan to help people pay taxes with his income tax credit. This would allow hard workers to get more tax breaks based on how much they work.
- What is income inequality? How much more do CEOs make than the average worker? Why is this wage gap seen by some as a real problem for America? What do you think should be done about it?
Income inequality is the difference of what makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. The top 20% of americans own 85% of our country's wealth. Why do we think is fair? On average CEOs make around 204 times what their median worker makes. I’m not saying we need a whole new government but, we do need some major changes to distribute the wealth a little more evenly. Maybe not completely even though, I do think people should have more money if they work for it or contribute something great to our society but, not as much as they have now. Spread some of that wealth down the class ladder and help those who don’t even really have basic human necessities. Just balance it out a tiny bit more.
- What disadvantages do poor people have in our economy? What kind of resources are available to them as a safety net? Do we (and our government) have an obligation to help the poor?
The poor have many disadvantages in this race of our government. Education, housing, lower wages just to name a few. But all these things add up and it becomes harder and harder to get ahead. Our government does however provide some resources to those in need. Such as if you are disabled and can’t work you can get paid disability. Or they may help you pay for a home for you can your kids and maybe even pay to help you raise those kids. But I do think they could be doing a lot more for those in need, but thats just my opinion. As for “Do we have an obligation to help the poor” It depends on the type of "we" you're using. If it's we the government, Yes I do believe that they are obligated to give their citizens basic human needs to keep them from dying. But, if you're talking about we the people, no I don't think we are obligated to help. Is it a nice and good thing to do? yes it is and more people should do it. As an obligation though? That's more of a human moral question. Some people believe, yes we must put others before ourselves. While others put themselves over others. neither one is "right" or "wrong" It all depends on the person and what they think.
- In what ways does capitalism harm some people and benefit others?
If we think of our government as a race and the finish line as becoming successful many people are directly on the starting line waiting for the starting pistol. While others are far ahead just because their parents were rich. And far behind the starting line are all the people who have had troubles either getting a job or paying off something or maybe they just were born into debt. Not a very fair race huh? Our Capitalistic society can offer some very good things who do well in it.(You have the opportunity to become very wealthy, you can create more jobs, you can live the “american dream”) for others though, it a whole different story. If you get behind is can be hard to get back on even grounds with other people. Be it job loss, wages being cut, homes being foreclosed or any other of the countless possibilities that could happen to set us back.
- What are some good alternative economic systems to communism and capitalism? What do the Scandinavian countries like Norway do for their citizens that Americans might consider? What might be some drawbacks to this model? What would make this difficult to achieve in America?
I think there are many good alternatives to consider but most of what I think we would do is augment what government we have now to fit what we need. We could add something like the scandinavian countries have such as paying our citizens for resources we sell or we could be like alaska and build up a fund with money from our profits to help future generations start on their feet when maybe it will be a bit harder to earn money right out of the gates of employment. A drawback to this may be less funding in other areas of our government. Less military funds, maybe roads won’t get repaved as often. But something like this would be a bit though to achieve in america just because so many people have so many different ideas and they think there’s is the best one.
- What are the best solutions to ending poverty and building the middle class?
- What are the major economic policies of the 3 presidential candidates? Whose ideas do you think are the best?