Term
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Definition
-Freedom
-Prosperity
-Efficiency
-Democracy
-Fairness |
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Term
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Definition
-Enforced
-Different Forms
-Not Natural
-Interact with Power
-Inconsistent
-They Change |
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Term
| Basic Elements of Capitalism |
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Definition
-Market for Exchange
-Market for Labor
-Private ownership and control of investments |
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Term
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Definition
-Technology
-Economy
-Economic Inequality
-Political Institutions
-Role of Military
-Gender Relations
-Social Cleavages
-Immigration
-Culture
-Violence |
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Term
| Arguments in Defense of Capitalism |
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Definition
-Pragmatic: Efficiency, Cooperation
-Moral: Freedom
-Risk Taking and Innovation |
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Term
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| A situation in which no one can be made better off without someone becoming worse off. |
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Term
| Faulty Consumer Information |
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Definition
-Capitalist firms have incentive to distort information
-We have laws to counteract this |
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Term
| Why markets are inefficient/reduce freedom |
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Definition
-Faulty Consumer Information
-Concentrated Economic Power
-Negative Externalities
-Short Time Horizons
-Under Provision of Public Goods
-Negative/Positive Freedom
-Public Good
-Free Rider Problem vs. Negative Externalities
-Prisoner's Dilemma
-Capitalism Erodes Community
-Capitalism Commercializes People's Lives
-Skills of "Exit" and "Voice" |
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Term
| Concentrated Economic Power |
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Definition
-Power is the ability to impose your will on others
It is impossible to ban large corporations. |
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Term
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Definition
-A negative side effect of an action
-Affects those not directly involved in the action |
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Term
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Definition
-Focusing on the short term benefits and not the long term effects
-Related to intergenerational negative externalities |
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Term
| Under-provision of public goods |
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Definition
Public Good: A good that benefits even those who do not pay for it
Capitalist firms have incentives to only produce goods that benefit them |
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Term
| Negative/Positive Freedom |
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Definition
-Positive: The freedom to do something
-Negative: The freedom from coercion |
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Term
| Free Rider Problem vs. Negative Externalities |
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Definition
-Free Rider: Those who rely on everyone else's cooperation for their own benefit
-Problem: Everyone has incentive to be free riders
-The Problem produces many negative externalities, such as pollution by large companies |
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Term
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Definition
| Payoff matrices that come from this can be used in most free-riding examples |
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Term
| Individual vs. Institutional Action on Environment |
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Definition
| Institutions can cut their bottom line by displacing costs on others, by polluting. They make communities pay for the adverse effects. Individual actions: recycling example, NIMBY, Intergenerational negative externalities |
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Term
| Positive externalities of public transportation |
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Definition
-Less congestion
-Fewer parking ramps, etc.
-Less pollution--better health
-Increased National security
-Less use of fossil fuels
-Creates jobs |
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Term
| Solutions for improving public transportation |
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Definition
-Infrastructure (bike paths, rapid transit)
-Realistic gas prices
-No free parking
-Take cost benefits of positive externalities into consideration for price of public transit
-Increase residential density in cities |
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Term
| Consumerism, Hyper-consumerism |
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Definition
-The belief that well-being is dependent on personal consumption
-Exaggerated gross consumerism (the US today) |
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Term
| What's wrong with consumerism? |
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Definition
-People are essentially forced into it by systematic biases
-Negative externalities: goods using up non-renewable resources
-It does not make people happy: "Keeping up with the Jones"
-Earn and spend cycle |
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Term
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Definition
-Profit maximizing strategies
-Advertising and consumption biases
-Credit Cards
-Market failures in leisure (too much work, not enough play)
-Positional goods (depends on what others have)
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Term
| Distinctive features of Health Care |
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Definition
-Value of good
-Ethics of distribution
-Information costs for customers
-Preventative medicine: Treatment vs. Prevention
-Competition leads to over-investment
-Supply Generates Demand |
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Term
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Definition
| -People would overuse a universal system, because they are not paying for it directly |
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Term
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Definition
-Size generates leverage for purchases
-Because people don't switch systems there is lower administrative costs
-Lifetime link creates incentive for preventative medicine |
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Term
| Core Conditions of Canadian Health |
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Definition
-Universal
-Comprehensive, covers everything
-Accessible to all
-Doctors cannot get money from private insurance and the government |
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Term
| Obstacles for alternatives in US |
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Definition
-Organized Doctors: AMA (don't want set prices)
-Big Insurance would be out of business
-Pharmaceutical companies couldn't charge high prices for patented drugs
-Individual ideology: to each his own |
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