Category: 12th Grade Government

How was the standard of living affected by the Industrial Revolution? According to Wikipedia, “Standard of living is the level of income, comforts and services available, generally applied to a society or location, rather than to an individual. Standard of living is relevant because it is considered to contribute to an individual’s quality of life.” How was the standard of living affected by the Industrial Revolution? Many people will probably say that the Industrial Revolution was a big failure and nothing really change, but that was not the case. In fact, the Industrial Revolution had many positive effects. It increased wealth, production of goods, and even the standard of living. People also had an increasing access to healthier diets, better houses, and cheaper goods. And as an added “bonus”, there was an increase in education. The Industrial Revolution was a big success.

Was the New Deal was a wise series of government actions that healed the problems afflicting the economy? Well, the New Deal did help heal the economy, and it did help the US win WWII, but I do not think that it was “wise”. According to the National Archives (.gov), “Roosevelt’s “New Deal” aimed at promoting economic recovery and putting Americans back to work through Federal activism. New Federal agencies attempted to control agricultural production, stabilize wages and prices, and create a vast public works program for the unemployed.“

What are the different African government successes for different African economies? There are many different examples of African governments, but I will mention two of the most well-known.

One of the worst ones was Zaire under Mobutu Sese Seko. Zaire had rich copper mines and experienced an economic boom in the 1970s with copper prices rising. Zaire became prosperous because of this. However, this wealth was absorbed by the government and mainly Mobutu. He spent enormous sums of money on monuments and palaces. He made himself one of the world’s wealthiest men. He also launched the African “authenticity” program. Basically, Africans were to replace their Christian names with African names, they could not wear Western clothing, Christmas was canceled, and Mobutu’s portraits were in all the churches. He also drove out Asian merchants and Belgian technicians and businessmen. And when copper prices fell in the 1980s, his economic boom ended. And of course he had to invite the Asian’s and Belgian’s back. He also had high price inflation. He also had high debt. In summary, this form of government was a total failure.

The other one was Kenya under Jomo Kenyatta. He did not socialize the economy, he retained capitalist incentives, he did not tax people incredibly high, Kenya did not have mineral deposits, and less than 20% of its land was suitable for farming. Yet, Kenya did much better than Zaire did. He did not tax people to death. He did not drive out Europeans, in fact, he wanted their know-how, so that Africans could learn from them and have an even more prosperous society. Tourism and foreign investment were even encouraged. There was also the one-party rule. So you can see the massive differences between these two countries.

What are some of the major arguments advanced by the Public Choice school of economics? What is the public choice theory in economics? According to Wikipedia, “Public choice refers to the behavior and process of what public goods are provided, how they are provided and distributed, and the corresponding matching rules are established. Public choice theory expects to study and influence people’s public choice processes to maximize their social utility.” What are some of the major arguments? According to Econlib, “Public choice economists make the same assumption—that although people acting in the political marketplace have some concern for others, their main motive, whether they are voters, politicians, lobbyists, or bureaucrats, is self-interest.“

What is front-loading? According to the dictionary, front-loading means to “distribute or allocate (costs, effort, etc.) unevenly, with the greater proportion at the beginning of the enterprise or process.” It basically means to over-promise what it can deliver.

What is political engineering? It is when the military (or any other organization) spreads around a project to different infirmaries to make sure the job gets done. For example, if an organization wanted to build a plane, one infirmary would build one part of the plane, another infirmary would build another part, and another infirmary would put the pieces together, forming an airplane.

What is capitalism? According to the dictionary, capitalism is “an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit.” The USA uses capitalism, for an example. What are Marx’s criticisms of capitalism? According to Econlib, “Marx condemned capitalism as a system that alienates the masses. His reasoning was as follows: although workers produce things for the market, market forces, not workers, control things. People are required to work for capitalists who have full control over the means of production and maintain power in the workplace.” He also said that capitalism will eventually destroy itself. That is not how I see it. I do not think capitalism alienates the masses, in fact, I think it helps the masses. And I do not think capitalism could destroy itself. He thought that capitalism would alienate the workers so the workers would overthrow the owners and take control themselves. This only takes place if the workers do not enjoy the working conditions or pay they get for working, but even then, why don’t they just leave and find another job? And this is not the case for all workers. Some workers could really enjoy their job. I do not think capitalism could destroy itself.

What Is To Be Done is a novel written by Vladimir Lenin. According to Wikipedia, “In What Is to Be Done?, Lenin argues that the working class will not spontaneously become political simply by fighting economic battles with employers over wages, working hours, and the like.” As you can probably already tell, the target audience were the workers.

What was the New Economic Policy? According to Britannica, “The New Economic Policy reintroduced a measure of stability to the economy and allowed the Soviet people to recover from years of war, civil war, and governmental mismanagement. The small businessmen and managers who flourished in this period became known as NEP men.” This policy was a huge success in creating an economic recovery after World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the Russian Civil War.

What was the Ukrainian terror-famine? According to Wikipedia, “The Holodomor, also known as the Great Ukrainian Famine, was a man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians. The Holodomor was part of the wider Soviet famine of 1930–1933 which affected the major grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union.” About 28,000 people died every day. This famine was horrific. Ethnic discrimination, and lack of favored industries was what caused this devastating famine.

The primary values of fascism. What is fascism? According to World101, “Many experts agree that fascism is a mass political movement that emphasizes extreme nationalism, militarism, and the supremacy of both the nation and the single, powerful leader over the individual citizen.” That doesn’t sound good. What are the primary values of fascism? According to Wikipedia, “Common themes among fascist movements include: authoritarianism, nationalism (including racial nationalism), hierarchy and elitism, and militarism. Other aspects of fascism such as perception of decadence, anti-egalitarianism and totalitarianism can be seen to originate from these ideas.” Fascism is not a good thing, as you can just see from these values. Nations that used fascism include Germany, China, Brazil, Austria, France, Greece, and many others.

What was life like for the businessman in Nazi Germany? One thing is that they lived in a socialist society under Hitler. According to the dictionary, socialism is “a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.” Socialism is a terrible thing. It never works. There was price control, which means that the government decides what can be sold for a specific amount of money. Business found a way to get around this, but then the government found out. Government officials dressed like normal people then go to these businessmen and try to get them to violate the laws and see if they do. There was also the lowering of product quality to cope with price controls. There was no free market in Germany. The economy was just a huge mess.

What is the idea of a “living Constitution”? What does it mean to have a “living constitution?” A “living constitution” means that the constitution considered to be living can be changed. This is not a solid constitution. If people can change the law to fit today’s standards, that constitution is not a solid foundation for a government. If people can change the law nilly willy, how do you know what the law is? And people can change the law to fit their standards, and not the standards of other people. Now, if somebody wanted to change the law, they would have to get permission from most of the states, but they can still change it. A man named Kevin Gutzman once said “the “living, breathing” Constitution is actually a dead Constitution.” The idea of a Constitution that can just change with the time is dead. How can a dead Constitution protect your liberties?

What is nullification? According to Wikipedia, “Nullification, in United States constitutional history, is a legal theory that a state has the right to nullify, or invalidate, any federal laws which they deem unconstitutional with respect to the United States Constitution. There are similar theories that any officer, jury, or individual may do the same.” So nullification is an act people can do to point out if they think that a law, etc. does not go with the Constitution.

Compact and nationalist theories of the Union. What was the compact theory of the Union? According to Wikipedia, “In United States constitutional theory, compact theory is an interpretation of the Constitution which holds that the United States was formed through a compact agreed upon by all the states, and that the federal government is thus a creation of the states.”  So the compact theory is just an interpretation of the Constitution which says that the federal government was formed by the states. What was the nationalist theory of the union? According to Wikipedia, “It holds that each nation should govern itself, free from outside interference (self-determination), that a nation is a natural and ideal basis for a polity, and that the nation is the only rightful source of political power.” This simply states that each nation should be in charge of itself without any outside interference.

Can smaller political units contribute to the cause of liberty? I think they can. Smaller states tend to have more economic freedom. Now, a question is raised: Are large states necessary for security? I do not think so. Think of it this way, how safe were the large states involved in the 20th century? And you do not need great military power in order to keep a nation safe. You could use diplomacy, or economic power. Smaller states can really contribute to the cause of liberty if they have the necessary ‘equipment’ for it.

What is the origin of money? Here is a little history lesson. Way back when money did not exist, people used to barter for things, like trading paper for a bag of apples. But there was a problem with this. If you had a frisbee, and you wanted a hat, you could trade that frisbee for a hat, but the trick was to find a guy who had a hat, and also wanted a frisbee. Also, if there was a barber, and wanted a meal, would he trade a free trip to the barber for a meal? What if the waiter was bald? Also, if all you had was a castle, and you wanted a loaf of bread, would you cut your castle into little sections and trade that for a loaf of bread? What would someone do with a chunk of a castle? So there were a ton of problems with bartering. Well, people began using things of value to replace for bartering, like gold. Then a man could trade his frisbee with someone for gold, then he could use that gold to buy a hat. People started to use gold as a form of exchange, and it was widely accepted. Years later, people were still using gold as a form of exchange, but gold was too heavy to carry around places, so the government started using paper money. People could trade in gold for the same value of paper, then they carried around paper money that represents gold. Then, if people wanted to buy something, they could trade in paper money for the same value of gold to buy things. But people began to realize that if paper money was worth the same as gold, then they could just trade paper money instead of trading it for gold then trading it. This is how paper money came into use. This worked well, because the government could not print more money without mining more gold, and it worked great. But then the government became greedy, and started to print more money without mining more gold, causing inflation (the prices of products rise without people’s pay checks rise, so things got more expensive, but people did not get any richer, to put it into simple terms). People spent their lives collecting paper money, only to lose it all to inflation. Be careful with your money.

What problems do price controls cause? According to the Dictionary, price control is “a government regulation establishing a maximum price to be charged for specified goods and services, especially during periods of war or inflation.” Price control causes many problems. Tons of economists think so. According to Hoover Institution, “The negative effects of price controls are many. By creating shortages, they often cause people to wait in line, they often cause the quality of products whose prices are controlled to fall, and they can lead to favoritism by suppliers. All those effects remain until the price controls are ended.” Every time price control was used anywhere, it ended very poorly.

According to Wikipedia, the benefit principle is “a concept in the theory of taxation from public finance. It bases taxes to pay for public-goods expenditures on a politically-revealed willingness to pay for benefits received. The principle is sometimes likened to the function of prices in allocating private goods.” The benefit principle was supposed to help the government decide what projects to take on, and who pays for it. But there are problems with the benefit principle. According to Hello Vaia, “Two main drawbacks of the benefit principle of taxation are: it’s often difficult to accurately determine the level of benefits each individual receives from public services, and it may exacerbate wealth inequality as lower income earners may pay a disproportionately higher amount for services compared to higher income earners.”

What was the Washington Monument Syndrome? According to Wikipedia, “The Washington Monument syndrome, also known as the Mount Rushmore syndrome or the firemen first principle, is a term used to describe the phenomenon of government agencies in the United States cutting the most visible or appreciated service provided by the government when faced with budget cuts.” Years ago, the Department of Interior was told it needs to make budget cuts, so they shut down the Washington Monument and did not allow access for tourists. They did this because they knew the public would scream for it to re-open. Now, their were some things that the Department of the Interior could have shut down besides the Washington Monument, but they purposefully chose the thing the public would scream the most for, so that the public would get the budget restored.

What are anti-poverty programs? These things include food assistance, housing assistance, family tax credits, etc. Anything that keeps millions of Americans for poverty each year. It also reduces hardships for other millions. These programs are just supposed to keep people out of poverty.

What are the primary problem facing a policymaker trying to design a program to benefit people in unfortunate circumstances? A policymaker is a person involved in formulating policies, especially in politics. According to standardfusion.com, here are some problems facing policymakers, “Inconsistent Document Creation and Editing, Poor Policy Maintenance, Lack of Accountability, Outdated Documents, Improper Policy Mapping.”

How can private-property rights help solve environmental problems? The kind of environmental problems in this essay are pollution, like air pollution, sound pollution, etc. Now, as you can probably tell, pollution is not a good thing. The title says “How can private-property rights help solve environmental problems?”, and here is how. According to World Health Organization, “Air pollution is contamination of the indoor or outdoor environment by any chemical, physical or biological agent that modifies the natural characteristics of the atmosphere. Household combustion devices, motor vehicles, industrial facilities and forest fires are common sources of air pollution.” How can our right to private property reduce pollution? Since air pollution can travel anywhere, it can be in your yard, or other place that’s yours. Now, you have a right to your property, and this air pollution is a violation of your right to property, which is why air pollution needs to stop, but that is not the only reason air or other types of pollution need to stop. These problems can cause all types of other problems for the environment, and they all need to stop.

What have been some of the problems with the federal prohibition on certain drugs? Prohibition basically means that people can not manufacture or sell certain drugs. What were some of the problems with prohibition? According to DocsTeach, “Prohibition was enacted to protect individuals and families from the “scourge of drunkenness.” However, it had unintended consequences including: a rise in organized crime associated with the illegal production and sale of alcohol, an increase in smuggling, and a decline in tax revenue.” The attempt at this prohibition was an economic failure.

Factors contributed to rising health-care costs in the United States. What are some of these factors? According to People Keep, nine reasons why healthcare is more expensive, “1. Medical providers are paid for quantity, not quality, 2. The U.S. population is becoming more unhealthy, 3. Newer healthcare technology is more expensive, 4. Many Americans don’t choose their own healthcare plan, 5. There’s a lack of information about medical care and its costs, 6. Hospitals and providers are well-positioned to demand higher prices, 7. Fear of malpractice lawsuits, 8. Inflation’s impact on the economy, 9. The U.S. population is growing older.” These are all plausible explanations for why healthcare is growing more expensive, and I totally agree with them.

“World War II was a time of great prosperity in the United States.” Is this true? Was World War II was a time of great prosperity in the United States? Yes and no. Let me show you what I mean.

During the war, there was an economic boom. According to The American Prospect, “During the war 17 million new civilian jobs were created, industrial productivity increased by 96 percent, and corporate profits after taxes doubled. The government expenditures helped bring about the business recovery that had eluded the New Deal.” So the War was good for the economy, but what about the people? With more products being spent on military equipment, there was less for the people to buy, and with people working for the military, there was less people to work at regular jobs. So the war may have been good for the economy, but not for the people.