Pros And Cons Of Government Spending

1. GDP. Government spending as a percentage of GDP: Pg. 357 The U.S. government spends very little for nonmilitary foreign policy purposes. The U.S. is ranked 4th from the bottom among the member countries of the organization for economic co-operation and development of the democratic countries in the gross domestic product.

2. Federalism: Pg. 9 This is a system that limits the national power by reserving the many powers and functions to the government of the country’s states. Government was designed to be accountable to the people. These people of the government were invited into the political process as participants.

3. Monetary Policy vs. fiscal policy: Pg. 86 The monetary policy is the effort to stabilize the economy by controlling

Mandatory vs. Entitlement spending: Pg. 309 Mandatory spending includes payments on the national debt. Now when it wants to regain its access to credit, the government must pay of its debt when it comes due. But the most expensive form of mandatory spending is in the form of entitlement programs. This provides benefits to citizens as long as they meet certain eligibility requirements. This makes their cost open ended and the government will provide benefit to all who qualify.

12. Federal Reserve and democratic accountability: Monetary policy is in the hands of the Federal Reserve Board. Their mandate is to maximize employment, stabilize prices, and moderate long term interest rates. When there is an increase in the reserve rate that means that the bank has to hold more of their funds in reserve and therefore have less money to lend out. With this it applies to the democratic accountability to be able to lend money out and have reserves on hands.

13. People with what type of profession usually gets to be a governor on the Federal Reserve Board: Pg. 313 The fed often adopts the perspective of banks becusae thay are its primary constituency with over 2,000 banks that belong to the federal reserve system. Most of the federal reserve board members either worked for banks or are economists trained in finance, after all the fed is a bank

Civil war pensions and welfare state: Social assistance program, in the form of veteran’s pensions, expired when the generation of Civil War veterans passed away. As these payments were ending, a materialist welfare state developed that promoted motherhood.

16. Social rights: *Social rights are based on the freedom you have as a citizen. Social rights grant every person with things to meet their needs.

17. Widows benefits and Welfare state: Widows benefits are when the widower can get the partners full benefits, if the person worked long enough, at the age of full retirement. The welfare state is a government protection of citizen’s economic and social well-being through instruments of social insurance and transfers to the needy.

18. Social insurance vs. Social Welfare: Pg. 325 Social insurance steps in when market is unable to offer material security in the face of life’s hazards. Whereas social welfare is when a family or individual can apply to get insurance through Medicare or Medicaid, and food stamps on their own.

19. White Affirmative Action: This policy is factoring the members a disadvantaged group who have been suffering from discrimination in the culture. This I feel falls more on blacks that people discriminate against