1. Are companies today focused in improving the quality of lives of consumers, workers, and the communities where they operate? What would be some indications that they are, and some indications that they are not? In particular, what have publicly-traded companies done with their profits in the past few decades, and why does this matter in terms of our living standards? Where do you stand on the debate about the purpose of a company?
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The prices of insulin in the U.S. reveal signs of being arbitrarily higher than they should. Why has insulin become so expensive? What problems would Charles Lindblom identify in the insulin industry? What are insulin patients doing in response to high insulin prices? How could governments or the market fix this issue?
What do social scientists mean by “deep poverty”? What are some ways of measuring deep poverty and what are some recent trends in deep poverty in the U.S.? What groups are affected by deep poverty the most? What are some of the survival strategies employed by people in deep poverty? What are your thoughts on the deep poverty situation in America?
An expert panel from the National Academies has estimated that child poverty in 2015 was 13% using the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), and that child poverty rate for the same year was 20% according to the Official Poverty Measure (OPM). What explains the differences in these measurements and what do you think about these differences? Also, the expert panel has proposed expansions of the safety net that can cut the 13% child poverty rate in half. Some of these expansions were implemented in the American Rescue Plan, yet there is still a case against a permanent expansion. What are some of the arguments regarding the expansion of the safety net? Where do you stand on this matter?
(Hint: the materials that we read in class cover these topics – you won’t need to review the report by the expert panel)
One of the economic results of the Covid-19 pandemic has been a labor shortage. How do we know that there is a shortage of workers? What sectors in the economy are undergoing this shortage? What are some of the possible causes of the shortage? What do you think about David Autors’ arguments about the consequences of higher wages?
Why is it important to consider the wealth gap between black and white Americans in economic terms and in historical perspective? What are some of the causes of the wealth gap, and why is land so important to the wealth gap? What could be done to overcome the racial wealth gap? Make sure to draw upon arguments and facts from our course materials to answer these questions, along with your opinion on these matters.
