cost of living

Examples of cost of living in the following topics:

• The 27th Amendment

  • The Twenty-seventh Amendment, adopted in 1992, prohibits any law that increases or decreases the salary of members of the Congress from taking effect until the start of the next set of terms of office for Representatives.
  • Congressional cost of living adjustments (COLAs) have been upheld against legal challenges based on this amendment.
  • Anderson, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the Twenty-seventh Amendment does not affect annual COLAs.
  • No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.
  • Certification of the Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution Pg 1 of 3.

• Subsidies and Contracting

  • Some subsidies are to encourage the sale of exports; some are for food to keep down the cost of living; and other subsidies encourage the expansion of farm production.
  • Subsidies may distort markets and can impose large economic costs.
  • Ways to classify subsidies include the reason behind them, the recipients of the subsidy, and the source of the funds.
  • One of the primary ways to classify subsidies is the means of distributing the subsidy.
  • The recipient of the subsidy may need to be distinguished from the beneficiary of the subsidy, and this analysis will depend on elasticity of supply and demand as well as other factors.

• Regulating Campaign Finance

  • Over half the states allow some level of corporate and union contributions.
  • The average winner of a seat in the House of Representatives spent $1.4 million on his or her campaign.
  • The average winner of a Senate seat spent $9.8 million.
  • In 1996 Republican Steve Forbes opted out of the program.
  • The grants for the major parties' conventions and general election nominees are adjusted each Presidential election year to account for increases in the cost of living.

• The Nonworking Poor

  • Since the start of the War on Poverty in the 1960s, scholars and policymakers on both ends of the political spectrum have paid an increasing amount of attention to tackling poverty.
  • Working poor people who do not have friends or relatives with whom they can live often find themselves unable to rent an apartment of their own.
  • As a result, many working poor people end up in living situations that are actually more costly than a month-to-month rental.
  • Oftentimes, childcare costs can exceed a low-wage earners' income, making work, especially in a job with no potential for advancement, an economically illogical activity.
  • However, some single parents are able to rely on their social networks to provide free or below-market-cost childcare.

• Latinos

  • Latino communities make up one of the fastest growing groups in the US.
  • Others examine the question of the rationality of voting: does voting serve the self-interest of any given individual, and what are the interests or issues that might change someone's voting patterns?
  • A behavioral approach focuses more on the actions of individuals and groups, taking voting as one part of a larger bundle of political activities.
  • As such, people may live for many years in the US without being able to vote.
  • One important institutional change aimed at lowering the cost for Latino voter participation is the Language Minority Provision of the Voting Rights Act, first introduced in 1975, and then amended in 1992 and 2006.

• The Budgeting Process

  • The military budget of the United States during FY 2011 was approximately $740 billion in expenses for the Department of Defense (DoD), $141 billion for veteran expenses, and $48 billion in expenses for the Department of Homeland Security, for a total of $929 billion.
  • FY 2011 spending of $3.60 trillion.
  • Social Security and Medicare are sometimes called "entitlements," because people meeting relevant eligibility requirements are legally entitled to benefits, although most pay taxes into these programs throughout their working lives.
  • Much of the costs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have not been funded through regular appropriations bills, but through emergency supplemental appropriations bills.
  • Describe the key components of the budget process and the current fiscal position of the United States

• Health Care Policy

  • PPACA is aimed primarily at decreasing the number of uninsured Americans and reducing the overall costs of health care.
  • Whether prevention saves or costs money depends on the intervention.
  • Childhood vaccinations, or contraceptives save much more than they cost.
  • Some interventions may be cost-effective by providing health benefits, while others are not cost-effective.
  • It has been reported that the number of physicians accepting Medicaid has decreased in recent years due to relatively high administrative costs and low reimbursements.

• Federal Mandates

  • An enforceable duty refers to any type of legislation, statute, or regulation that requires or proscribes an action of state or local governments, excluding actions imposed as conditions of receiving federal aid.
  • Lastly, a reduction in federal funding for an existing mandate refers to a reduction or elimination of federal funding authorized to cover the costs of an existing mandate.
  • During the Reagan Administration , Executive Order 12291 and the State and Local Cost Estimate Act of 1981 were passed, implementing a careful examination of the true costs of federal unfunded mandates.
  • During the Reagan Administration, Executive Order 12291 and the State and Local Cost Estimate Act of 1981 were passed.
  • They implemented a careful examination of the true costs of federal unfunded mandates.

• Universal Coverage

  • It is organized to provide a specified package of benefits to all members of a society with the end goal of providing financial risk protection, improved access to health services, and improved health outcomes.
  • Three critical dimensions can determine universal healthcare: who is covered, what services are covered, and how much of the cost is covered.
  • Proponents of healthcare reforms that call for the expansion of government involvement in order to achieve universal healthcare argue that the need to provide profits to investors in a predominantly free-market health system, and the additional administrative spending, tends to drive up costs and lead to more expensive healthcare.
  • According to economist and former US Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, only a "big, national, public option" can force insurance companies to cooperate, share information, and reduce costs.
  • The term "single-payer healthcare" is used in the United States to describe a funding mechanism meeting the costs of medical care from a single fund.

• Introduction to Human Association

  • he concepts of decision and action introduced in Chapter 1 relate to all decisions.
  • They can equally well be used to analyze the decisions of a Robinson Crusoe, living and acting on an obscure island in total isolation from other people, and to analyze decisions made by individuals living in a social environment, that is, in the presence of other individuals.
  • The presence or absence of other people is certainly an important part of the circumstances C within which all decisions must be made.
  • Associations as we will be defining them here arise when the satisfaction of one person is changed by the action of another person.
  • Let us approach the concepts of human association cautiously and systematically.