wage discrimination

The current law prohibits the discrimination on gender or race in workplaces but it does not regulate the difference of payment based on education or experience. This is because what the biggest factors on job performance is not gender or race but educational background or job-related experience. Also, it is often considered that employers can determine the salary based on the capability of an individuals on a certain jobs and the easiest way to recognize the capability is to check individual’s education and experience. That’s why it can be possible that there is a discrimination in pay concerning education or experience.

The relationship between minimum wage and teenager's employment

When the minimum wage is raised, it can be expected that teenagers (rather than members of any other age group) who are most likely to lose their jobs (or get turned down for employment).

In general, teenagers are not skilled and have less experience of the work, which requires the employers to put more time and effort to training them. If the minimum wage is raised, the employers would reduce the spending. The first thing they would consider is to reduce the spending on hiring staff member. They will be more likely to hire skilled employees who can deal with more job tasks rather than unskilled workers who need to be trained. From this reason, I believe that increasing minimum wage would not allow teenagers to keep their job.

Current price on Internet use

The current price might be based on the traffic agreements that the thousands of networks all over the world that comprise the Internet are all joined in countless arrangements. It is fair concerning the fact that we pay the Internet data fee regardless of the amount of data we spend. It is because the current price would meet the contradicted sides between consumers and Internet service provider. e.g. consumers would like to pay less Internet data fee while the providers would like earn more money. If the fee is estimated as different depending on the used amount of Internet, some conflicts would be expected. People would try to decrease the amount of Internet data they use, which would bring out the low profit for the Internet service provider. Also, it can be expected that consumers would get suppressed in using the Internet data.

When government repay its debts,,,

Supposed situations

1. The government spends more this year than it collects in taxes, borrowing the difference.
2. The government will repay its debts.

In the future...?

When the government will repay its debts, the tax rate will be increased. Increasing tax will be a burden on people, which means people are willing to increase their saving by spending less. It is because the tax change causes the changes in the relative prices. i.e. the costs of goods, expressed in terms of other goods or in terms of a basic bundle of goods.

Legal system and wealth

Country A and B : they have identical physical endowments of a key natural resource.
Country A : Any profits made from extracting that resources are subject to confiscation by the           government.
Country B : There is no such risk.

** How does the risk of expropriation affect the economic endowment of the two nations?
** In which nation are people richer?

The country B would be richer than the country A because there is no risk of confiscation by the government in the country B, which is based on the rule of law. When the legal system causes the risk of expropriation, it would discourage people to make long-term fixed investment, contributing to the negative effects on the economic growth and the standard of living for the citizens. This situation may be common in the countries ruled by civil law. On the other hand, under the common law system, people are willing to invest their money for long-term assets or business when their property is protected, which would be expected that the economic activity and growth is promoted.

Why is it hard for normal consumers to force the FDA to do what is best for them of prescription drugs?

FDA (Employees of the Food and Drug Administration) makes decisions whether the new medicines or prescription drugs can be available for the public or not in the United States. It is impossible for physicians in America to prescribe the medicine or drug when FDA does not allow it.

All drugs take time to make sure its benefit for patients and prevent the life-threatening. There are two conditions that the new drug would not be introduced: unsafety and ineffectiveness. Type 1 error - the thalidomide possibility and the type 2 error - the introduction of drug is delayed (drug lag). From this point, the type 1 error is visible but type 2 error is hard for those who do not have professional knowledge to identify.  

In order to realize and prevent Type 2 error, it would be required for consumers to have professional knowledge in medical fields, especially medicine. Without the ability to examine the benefit and side effects, it would be hard for consumers to force FDA, insisting to break down the drug lag. From these reasons, consumers cannot simply force FDA to do what the best for consumers of drugs is.

The property right and economic effect

When the landowners are rewarded by fracking, they would be willing to explore and product the natural gas from their land. This is because the mineral such as oil and gas from their land is extremely lucrative. As for the nations that would not give landowners benefit for the oil and gas such as Europe, people do not allow the exploration by insisting “Not In My Back Yard” (NIMBY). Specifically, when the national governments decide to share the benefits from fracking with the landowners, they would change their attitude, allowing drilling their land. However, given that fracking can make a fatal effect on environment, it would be required for government and landowners to consider the environmental aspect.