Below are the codes to add yourself to the appropriate class.
10A: arrlio
10B: ho7d3op
10C: we52pit
Below are the codes to add yourself to the appropriate class.
10A: arrlio
10B: ho7d3op
10C: we52pit
Great story about what goes wrong when governments get involved in markets
In 1976, Jimmy Carter made a campaign promise: I’m giving dairy farmers a break. And after he won, he set out to raise the price of milk. But the government couldn’t just buy milk. They had to buy something storable that used a lot of milk. So the government started buying up as much cheese as people wanted to sell at the new price.
The government wound up spending a lot of cheddar on a lot of cheddar. Billions of dollars. Eventually, they bought so much cheese, they had to rent caves to store it all. And when they started giving it away, they unintentionally created a cultural phenomenon: “Government cheese”
“Welcome to Educating About Immigration! This interactive site caters to teachers, students, and others interested in unbiased information and lessons on U.S. immigration.”
“The Iraq War may only be the beginning of an ambitious American strategy to confront dangerous regimes and expand democracy in the world.”
http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-19-3-c-the-bush-doctrine
Just wanted to share some thoughts about the recent controversy with United Airlines forcibly removing a passenger. There has been a lot written about the subject but I wanted to get past all the outrage and look at the underlying issues here. It provides an interesting case to study.
http://www.vox.com/culture/2017/4/11/15246632/united-airlines-drag-man-off-plane
http://www.vox.com/new-money/2017/4/12/15247172/why-airlines-are-terrible
http://reason.com/blog/2017/04/12/the-united-airlines-incident-does-not-re
Generally speaking, companies do change when they get a lot of bad press or something bad happens. Take the case of Chipotle for example where an e. coli outbreak at their restaurants seriously hurt their sales and forced the food chain to change up many of its practices. But airlines are a special case. Whereas you can easily substitute one fast food place for another and in NY, even find another place to get Mexican style food, airlines are not so easily replaced.
When I think about my own actions, if I were to book a flight tomorrow and United’s prices were cheapest, I would most likely book on United. I believe most people would behave similarly because price matters greatly to airline consumers. It’s the reason why Spirit Airlines is routinely rated the worst airline but still always full: it’s almost always the cheapest flight you can find.
Why is the airline industry special? In a word: competition. Or more precisely, a lack of competition.
Two summers ago, I flew from New York to Thailand for under $800. A flight to California at the same time would have cost around the same amount. How is that possible when Thailand is almost four times farther than California? Distance is the most important determining factor for the variable cost between flights.
There are many airlines, particularly international airlines that fly routes from New York to Bangkok whereas those same companies, like Emirates, Etihad, British Airways, and China Eastern Airlines for example, are not allowed to fly from New York to San Francisco. The lack of competition allows the US companies that do fly from NY to San Francisco to charge more than they otherwise could (there are other factors to consider when comparing SF and Bangkok including taxes and airport costs, etc. but those factors do not account for all the price difference). In a truly competitive environment, industries that are really profitable draw new players into the field hoping to take some of that profit for themselves. The end results are lower prices and better quality. Technology companies (cell phones, computers) generally fit this pattern. Airlines generally don’t.
6. Interestingly, US airlines have been unhappy with having to compete with those international airlines because they believe those airlines get unfair help from foreign governments. Coincidentally (or not), several airlines that are based in the Middle East that have successfully established international routes and have high customer satisfaction ratings have gotten hit with “special” regulations when they fly to the US. Passengers are not allowed to have electronic devices while in the cabin. That regulation may make those airlines less popular and push even more business toward US airlines
Here are a few more articles about the United Airlines situation. They tackle different aspects of the issue but are worth reading nonetheless.
We’ll get to market competition, monopolies and oligopolies later in the semester (how much time do we have left?) but the airline industry offers an interesting case. People on different political sides of the economic issue don’t agree on what the root problem or solution is. People who are conservative or libertarian leaning say that government regulations and protections of the industry lead to less competition and therefore higher prices and worse service. Liberals say that because there are fewer regulations than there were before, big airlines have merged so that there are fewer airlines, less competition and higher prices.
Both agree that less competition is the culprit but what caused it? This goes to the heart of many disagreements about economics.
All streams:
10b
10 a and 10c
The first few questions ask you to review the content but then there is a 20 question quiz about your political beliefs.Complete that and save and print your results at the end. Bring them to class.
2. If you didn’t finish reading and annotating the packet from class today, please finish that. In addition, finish creating a t chart comparing “liberals” and “conservatives” based on the readings. Use your own words and be complete.
I will likely collect your work.
Make sure you finish reading the packet you received in class today. Make sure you thoroughly annotate. Simply underlining or highlighting is not sufficient. Please make sure you write out in the margins your thoughts and questions. Engage in thinking about how your personal views and beliefs relate to the concepts raised in the readings.
Attached are the two post debate homework assignments. One is due Friday 1/6, the other is due 1/9.
Slides from class today to help you think about the question.
10b Quiz Thursday
10a and 10c Quiz Friday
I will give you the name of each case that groups presented and ask you to provide the background, outcome and relevant part of the Constitution.
If there is more than one relevant amendment, I will only expect you to give me the most important one.
Example that would receive full credit:
I will give you the name of the case and the year and you have to provide the rest.
Case: Vernonia School District v. Acton (1995)
Background: A school district wanted to randomly drug test its student athletes.
Outcome: The Supreme Court decided that the school was allowed to drug test students and that the tests didn’t violate students’ right to privacy.
Relevant Part of the Constitution: 4th amendment.