week2 economics
Dickson34
reply.docxMalvina Maska
Week 2 Discussion
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What has happened to the income share of the richest fifth of the U.S. population over the past 40 years?
A result that happened to the income share of the richest fifth is that they became more rich than they were. According to the book average income in 2006 richest fifth of the U.S households is $149,963. About 15 times as much income as the poorest fifth. From 1970- 2014 more unequal distribution.
What groups in the U.S. population are most likely to live in poverty?
The group may vary because that depends since the federal government has set up calculations that depend on the family size and gets adjusted every year depending on the changes in the level of prices.
When gauging the amount of inequality, why do transitory and life cycle variations in income cause difficulties?
While trying to distribute benefits in order to reduce poverty there are some difficulties dealing while dealing with improving society such as Welfare people take advantage of the options that are available so they can adjust with the requirements to apply for welfare such as they get encouraged to break up or encouraged to have babies in order to be qualified to gets those benefits by the government. Or instead of curing their illness that prevented them from working they exaggerate so they can keep benefit from those programs.
How would a utilitarian, a liberal, and a libertarian each determine how much income inequality is permissible?
In utilitarian cases the government tried to have more utility for the poor that way to rich people that way to avoid an inefficient use of resources.
Liberals insist on having policies available in order to protect people against the risk of lawsuit or other events.
Libertarians want to enforce more restricted laws that protect individuals and provide equal opportunities.
What are the pros and cons of in-kind (rather than cash) transfers to the poor?
The pros on in-kind process is that they provide them with a supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program SNAP so they can provide them to buy food on the store and Medicate Government tent to help poor people from surviving but do not encourage them to work.
Describe how antipoverty programs can discourage the poor from working. How might you reduce this disincentive? What are the disadvantages of your proposed policy?
The disadvantage of providing them benefits is that people get discouraged and aimed not to work. Some of them they are not 100% dissabled they still have some skills and availability to do certain things that will help the society, before providing full benefits to poor people they should test their percentage of abilities. Or at least reduce benefits when their income start to raise or provide benefits for limited period of time the verify who really needs it.
Yanjun Chen
Yanjun Chen
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1. What has happened to the income share of the richest fifth of the U.S. population over the past 40 years?
Over the past four decades, the proportion of the national income share of the wealthiest Americans, who account for one-fifth of the total population of the United States, has increased from 10% to 20%, which has doubled.
1. What groups in the U.S. population are most likely to live in poverty?
Accoring to Sauter (2018), we know poverty is an economic illness that affects all population groups, but the impact on each population group is different. In the United States, the following population groups are most likely to live in poverty: black and Hispanic people, children, and families headed by women without husbands.
(1) Poverty is related to race. Blacks and Hispanics are about three times more likely to live in poverty than whites.
(2) Poverty is related to age. Children are more likely to be members of poor families than ordinary people, while elderly people are less likely to be poor than ordinary people.
(3) Poverty is related to family structure. Families headed by women without husbands are more than five times more likely to live in poverty than ordinary families.
1. When gauging the amount of inequality, why do transitory and life cycle variations in income cause difficulties?
The distribution of current and long-term income is more important than the distribution of annual income. Permanent income is harder to measure because it does not include temporary changes in income; However, it is more evenly distributed than lifecycle income
1. How would a utilitarian, a liberal, and a libertarian each determine how much income inequality is permissible?
Utilitarian argues that if government income redistribution policies fail to balance the benefits of greater equality with the costs of distorting incentives, then income inequality is as high as is permissible. Liberals argue that income inequality is as high as it can go if government policies to redistribute income make things worse for the least fortunate. Liberal supremacists believe that any level of income inequality is permissible so long as the process of determining income distribution is fair.
1. What are the pros and cons of in-kind (rather than cash) transfers to the poor?
Advantage: I think the advantage of in-kind transfers to the poor is that they can get what they need the most, and if you give them cash, they're probably not going to take the cash to buy what they need or what they need the most, they're going to take the cash to buy alcohol or drugs or whatever.
Disadvantage: First, in-kind transfers to the poor is inefficient and do not replace more valuable goods. Because cash is the general equivalent, it can be exchanged for whatever kind is needed (generally speaking) or used for other purposes such as investment, etc., which is far better than the real equivalent. I think the poor know what they need better. If the poor can get cash, they can use it to invest in the stock market and get more money. If cash is replaced by in-kind transfers, they get the equivalent of food, so they can only feed themselves.
1. Describe how antipoverty programs can discourage the poor from working. How might you reduce this disincentive? What are the disadvantages of your proposed policy?
The anti-poverty program has led to the reluctance of some people in poverty to get out of poverty. They do not think of making progress and do not take the initiative to get in touch with others. They only enjoy the poverty treatment. I think the best solution is to gradually reduce subsidies to poor families as their incomes rise.While my Suggestions are useful, the policies I propose have disadvantages, because they increase the cost of anti-poverty programs.
Reference:
Sauter, M. B. (2018, October 10). Faces of poverty: What racial, social groups are more likely to experience it? Retrieved May 26, 2020, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/economy/2018/10/10/faces-poverty-social-racial-factors/37977173/
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