Paying For Better Healthcare

Head over to Greg Mankiw's Blog (http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/) and check out the story titled "Should the rich get better health care?" Read the original article (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/world/europe/21britain.html) and then read Mankiw's commentary.

Post your thoughts about the article, as well as any implications this may have regarding Free Healthcare in the United States.

Are Super Bowl ads worth the money?

If you had $2.6 million lying around the house, what would you do with it? For many companies, 30 seconds of air time is well worth the investment. Are these companies foolish, or is there a reason for all of the hullabaloo?

Use the following websites to answer the question. In additional, answer the following questions in your response:

Super Bowl scores touchdown for the economy

Superbowl Ads

The_Sports_Economist

Are Super Bowl ads worth the money?

The Super Bowl Economy

1. How does the Superbowl affect the economy?
2. What happens to the caps & shirts printed for the team that loses the Super Bowl?

Should we worry about the National Debt?

Well what do you think? Should we worry about the National Debt or should we ignore it? According to http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/, each citizen's share of this debt is $30,202.07 as of December 17th, 2007 at 7:06 PM.

Sound off below.

Sell your citizenship?

UGA Economist Dwight Lee has an idea that he claims would help the immigration controversy in the United States, and the homeless/panhandling problem: allow US citizens to sell their citizenship to non-Americans. The American selling their citizenship would have to leave the country, and the buyer would be a US citizen.

What do you think of this idea? Do you think it would work at its stated purpose (with restrictions on selling citizenship to terrorists, etc.)?

(Taken from Walker Economics Blog)

Is inflation always a bad thing?

What conclusions can you draw about who is helped and who is hurt by inflation?

Explain your answers below.

Hearing On Toys, Children's Products, And The Chinese Sweatshops

http://consumerist.com/consumer/news-from-the-swamp/liveblogging-the-senate-commerce-committee-hearing-on-toys-childrens-products-and-the-chinese-sweatshops-in-which-theyre-made-314833.php

The Senate Housing Committee will look at the lives of the young Chinese Workers who make the toys that we buy. They get to play with toys for a living so what is the big deal? Discuss.

College Costs Rising...

College Costs Rising at Double the Inflation Rate

Think you have saved up enough for college? Think again. With the price of college increasing at a faster rate than inflation, many are being forced to take out loans to pay for college. At what point is the opportunity cost of attending college too much?

"Tuition and other costs, not including room and board, rose to $6,185 at public four-year colleges this year, up 6.6 percent from last year, while tuition at private colleges hit $23,712, an increase of 6.3 percent. At public two-year institutions, average tuition and fees rose 4.2 percent to $2,361.
Last year, tuition and fees at public institution rose by 5.7 percent; at private ones, by 6.3 percent and at public two-year institutions, by 3.8 percent.
“The average price of college is continuing to rise more rapidly than the consumer price index, more rapidly than prices in the economy,” Sandy Baum, a co-author of the report who is a senior policy analyst for the College Board and a professor at Skidmore College, told reporters at a news conference this morning. She added that the prices “are probably higher than most of us want them to be.”"