Ecological Footprint Results

If everyone on the planet had a similar planet as I do, it would require 6.22 planets.  If I had to reduce my planet footprint to only 1 planet then I'd have to change my lifestyle greatly.  Some things that I'd have to do is reduce the amount of transportation I do.  My transportation makes up most of the pollution that I contribute.  However, replacing public transportation would be costly and not efficient.  Too many people rely on public transportation and its something that cant be removed.  The only situation that I think would be possible is replacing the current trains with hybrid train but even at that, it would be way too costly and the metrocard fare would increase tremendously to keep account of the hybrid train.  

Unhappy Meal

Its no secret that a lot of Americans are on food stamps and rely on them to get by day to day because they don't have enough money to purchase their own meals however, food stamps do cause a sense of laziness among people.  People start relying on the food stamps to purchase each of their meals and don't try to work for their meals.  People soon become too dependent on the government to purchase their own meals for them.  The lazy people start to formulate an idea in their head; "Why work when we can just get food stamps?" and they follow through with their ideas.  The government cant differentiate between those that truly needs it because they cannot provide for themselves and those that are not willing to put an effort to working.

What I believe the government needs to do is set stricter qualifications on applications for food stamps.  If the government can do that then they can differentiate between those who really do need the food stamps and those who are just taking advantage of the government assistance programs.  This will help the government save the money they put into the assistance programs by eliminating the lazy people who can work, but wont work for their food, while being able to continue helping those who truly need it.  This will help future generations of families who cannot provide for themselves put food on the table.  

Krugman on the Economy

America has been in a recession for the last 6 years.  When President Obama was elected in 2008 he promised to improve our economy however, not much has changed. Paul Krugman is an economist who believes that government should play a larger role in changing the economy.  Krugman believes that the government should help end the recession by creating jobs for people.  He believes this will work because many people in America are too dependent on the government.  People are dependent on the government through assistance programs such as EBT, unemployment checks, etc.  Krugman's policy is that if the government creates more jobs for everyone then less people will have to rely on the government's assistance programs.  Less reliance on the assistance programs causes more spending which equates to a stronger economy.


This will be all good and dandy except for the fact that it doesn't work this way.  This is way too simple of an approach and is highly flawed.  The government cant just create jobs for the heck of creating them.  They have to have a purpose to a vast majority of society, not just the employees.  If the government creates jobs for the heck of creating them that serves no real purpose, it becomes similar to other government assistance programs.  The money being spent to pay the employees come from the employer which will be the government so we are back at the same situation of the government spending its money and getting nowhere.  The job has to be self-sustained and if the government is going to constantly pumping its funds so the employees get paid then the recession will carry on.  The government is, quite simply, incapable of creating such jobs.

What Is Economics?

The summary of this lesson is that society uses economic systems to establish what we can do with our limited resources and our unlimited wants/needs. It is impossible to have all of your wants or needs so you have to balance out and prioritize what you need.