Readers Question: What should the government do to improve the American standard of living? How could the President + Congress, make the biggest difference to improving American standards of living in the long run? These are a few policies which I feel would improve US living standards. 1. Reduce Unemployment. The rise in US unemployment …
Readers Question: what axioms underlie the theory of consumer behaviour? How reasonable are they? I have the axioms: completeness, transitivity, continuity, non-satiation and convexity. but we have never been taught about how reasonable they are and I can’t find any info anywhere! please help It is an interesting question. I am not really qualified to …
Readers Question: Why are Diamonds very expensive and water very cheap, when diamonds are useless, but water is essential for life? The first question is – how many diamonds do you buy during your lifetime? How often do you consume water? The average person will buy maybe 2 or 3 – possibly six diamonds in …
Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are two of the richest men in the world. Does the concept of scarcity apply to them? Wealth of Bill Gates In 2011, the wealth of Bill Gates is estimated at $56 billion. This comes from a variety of sources, but his 6% share in Microsoft provides the bulk of …
In 2009, Alistair Darling introduced a 50% tax rate on bank bonuses of more than £25,000. The bonuses would be paid by the banks rather than employees. I spent a lot of last year, saying how much tax revenues had fallen. The credit crunch and recession caused many traditional sources of revenue to dry up. …
The River Cam in Cambridge. Recently, we looked at why water can be more expensive than beer, even though water doesn’t attract excise duty Water is the most important commodity in the world, it is indispensable for life, yet, it is also one of the cheapest. In many circumstances we can say water is a …
Readers Question: How much money should 18 year old have? I have been thinking about this for a while and was hoping you might be able to shed some light on the subject. Please help. Thank you in advance. There are frequent readers comments about the minimum wage for 16-18 year old Most seem to …
Why do people gamble on the lottery but insure their car? When you gamble, in the long run, you lose money. Let us say, the payouts are 50% of the amount you pay in. Therefore, gambling in the long term makes no rational economic sense. Over time, the odds will even out and you will …