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CTExample11.docxWritten Section #1: Please number your responses to facilitate grading; this section is worth 30 points (10 points each). Responses should be AT LEAST 250 words in length.
1) Compare the budget of the state of Texas and the budget of the state of Massachusetts. How are the states similar in how they spend money and how are the states different? How would you expect life to be different in Massachusetts compared to Texas based on how the governments spend their money? Base your arguments on the multiple sources provided and not your own “guess.” (CT 1 and CT2) None of the articles in the links provided above showcase any clearly defined budgetary information for either Texas or Massachusetts. The only information provided is loosely defined pseudo-data, such as “First up is education, the foundation of America’s meritocratic values and the key to whatever success the country will find in a globalized, knowledge-based economy. Massachusetts is renowned for its higher-education institutions. Less well known, though, is that the home of the original Tea Party also has the best schools in the country.” (VANHOENACKER, 2012) This is in contrast to the article written by Greg Abbot, where the only mention of education is “CEOs who relocate to Texas cite the differences as night and day when it comes to the improved quality of life and good schools, along with the job-ready workforce.” (Abbott, 2017) This gives the impression that the amount spent on education in Masachusetts would be greater than that spent in Texas, but the pie graphs provided for this critical thinking assignment show a percentage statistic that indicates otherwise. Additionally, yet another article from CBS Boston contradicts the expected results of the data in the pie graphs provided by saying, “The site wrote that health care and education were weighted most heavily–two things that helped Massachusetts reach the top, as they ranked the state first in education and second in health care.” (Stevens, 2017)
Given all of the information provided, one would naturally be led to believe that Texas would have a stronger education system, but each of the articles linked above showcases otherwise. This same concept extends beyond the education budget and into the other spending categories; without additional, clearly defined information it is nigh impossible to produce a realistic comparison of how life in each state would be different based upon how they spend their money.
2) Life in Texas and Massachusetts can be very different, but that does not one inherently better than the other. Which one is better might depend on your definition of a “quality” life. What factors do you believe lead to high quality of life? How you rate different life factors can be your opinion, but the factors you use should be based on the sources . How do you think living in TX influences your perspective on what makes for a “quality” life? How do you think TX government spending influences your quality of life in general? (CT 3 and CT 4) I uphold a few major paragons in life, and in no particular order they are as follows:
· Education
· Respect
· Care (for one another)
These paragons tend to lead more towards a moderate-to-liberal line of thinking, which is not generally a belief system upheld within Texas. Massachusetts consistently ranks highly regarding education, even when gauged on a worldwide scale. Per Mark Vanhoenacker’s article on the Slate.com website, “…on two of the index’s most important measures of results—a lifetime educational Chance for Success index, and a K-12 Achievement index that bundles metrics such as test results, year-on-year improvement, and the gap between poor and wealthier kids (perhaps the truest test of our fabled meritocracy)—the Bay State again leads the nation. And most of the world. According to a 2011 Harvard study, while reading proficiency in Mississippi is comparable to Russia or Bulgaria, Massachusetts performs more like Singapore, Japan, or South Korea.” (VANHOENACKER, 2012) This lines Massachusetts up quite nicely alongside my initial, and foremost, paragon of Education.
It is almost impossible to quantify or support the second paragon of Respect. It is a quality that is generally a product of one’s environment and upbringing rather than a quality that can be measured on a pie chart. That said – my personal experience travelling different places within the United States shows that, generally speaking, the people within Dallas, Texas are some of the most respectful that I have had the opportunity with which to interact.
The final paragon of “Care for one another” is also difficult to gauge, as “care” is also difficult to define. This tends to lean more towards one’s political beliefs and background, and is often a product of one’s own perspective rather than another quantifiable measure. Some people show their care for humankind by backing the causes they believe in, such as the right for anyone to marry who they please, or the right to bear arms to protect their family. This is one that, unfortunately, I can’t accurately elaborate upon or support with a reference because of how unclear the definition is outside of my own head.
Overall – Texas has been a fine place to live. I do not generally agree with the regressive politics of the state, but the employment opportunities have allowed my family to thrive in ways that other states would not be able to accurately offer. I believe that if the education system within Texas was strengthened substantially, then I would be content to live here for the years to come.
3) Looking back at spending by the states of Texas and Massachusetts, what would happen if each state changed its spending priorities? In other words, how would you expect changes in spending would harm or enhance the quality of life for Texans? How about for people in Massachusetts? Be sure to mention specific spending changes and base your argument on how you would define quality of life. (CT 5) We can identify, infer, and develop conjecture on what the long- and short-term changes may be when spending is changed based upon the data provided both by the articles and by the pie graphs related to this assignment. Additionally, we have to understand that any upward shift in spending in one category either causes an equal downward shift in another category or an increase in taxes – the money has to come from somewhere, right? Texans don’t like taxes. Even the governor Greg Abbot says so in his article, “Restrained government, lower taxes, smarter regulations, right-to-work laws and litigation reform — these are the pro-growth economic policies that help free enterprise flourish and that attract major employers to Texas every day.” (Abbott, 2017) This tells us that suggesting any increase to taxes in Texas would effectively amount to political suicide, and as such is not an option for budget changes. We can infer that a shift of X% from one category implies a shift of X% in another category. Texas is generally a conservative state, so that rules out lowering spending in the following categories: Pensions, General Government, Protection, Defense; Interest also cannot change for hopefully apparent reasons. That means that spending more on Education would need to come from Heath Care, Other Spending, Transportation, or Welfare. If we were to increase Education and reduce Transportation, then we would risk creating better schools while reducing the likelihood that children and adults would be able to get to those schools. This has gotten a bit long-winded, so we’ll sum this up by saying that any spending increase towards one budget category would have a negative impact on another category alongside all items under the umbrella of that category. I personally believe that a paradigm shift within the belief system in Texas would allow for a startling drop in Health Care spending while increasing the quality of the health care system, and allow for a shift in the budget to help bolster the state’s education system, and would substantially increase the quality of life for the average citizen in the long term. Massachusetts, on the other hand, already has a high tax rate on their state income tax. Mark Vanhoenacker’s article even refers to the state as “Taxachusetts” (VANHOENACKER, 2012) near the beginning of the narrative. Additional taxes also appear to be a bad idea in Massachusetts as a result, though they are more likely to be accepted than in Texas. Based upon the information on hand, and the size and population of each state, Massachusetts would have a more immediate, volatile reaction than Texas as the shift in spending would take a fraction of the time to propagate within the state and impact the population. As a result, changes would have a strengthened short-term impact in Massachusetts, and quality-of-life shifts would be more immediately noticeable. As far as WHAT that would be – the articles and graphs do not provide a direct insight into that impact.
Written Section #2: Please number your responses to facilitate grading; your responses should be AT LEAST 150 words in length. These are worth 10 points total.
1. Describe what the graphs look like visually. I mean REALLY describe the visual aspects of the graphs as if you were explaining them to a child (shapes, colors, etc.). Pretend that the reader is not able to see the graphs and provide a lot of detail. (3 points) (VL1) There are two graphs; one represents the state spending for Massachusetts and the other represents the state spending for Texas. Each graph is a circle, similar to looking at a pie on a countertop, and these are broken down into smaller slices of those pies. Each of these slices is a different color and size, and they represent a part, or percent, of the whole pie. A larger slice of pie represents a larger amount of spending towards a specific budget category, such as Education or Health Care. All of these parameters combine together to offer a visual comparison of each state’s respective spending amounts based upon parts of a whole. The graphs do not, however, offer any clear dollar amounts – simply the size of each slice of the overall pie.
What does the information in these graphs mean for the government of Texas versus the government of Massachusetts? How would the residents of each of the states be affected by the information presented in the graphs? (4 points) (VL3) It would be easy to compare these items and determine that one state spends more money when compared to the other for a given category. One could state (pun intended) that Massachusetts spends more money on Interest when compared to Texas, but we would do well to remember that these are a representation of the overall spending by percentage. This could be a misleading thought process, and it is possible that while the percentage may be higher, the actual number of dollars is not represented and could therefore be fewer or greater in either state in any given category.
It does, however, give a vague a representation of how the states spend their money in general, which typically showcases the ideals of the citizens within that state. Again, this could easily be misleading, because it shows that Texas spends most of their money on healthcare, and yet it is not known for upholding a strong healthcare system. Similarly for education – it shows that Texas spends 25% of their budget on this value while Massachusetts only spends 15%, but it is far more likely that any given individual will know about MIT when compared to A&M.
