Your Last Week of Social 30 - I Know It's Hard to Hold Back the Tears

This is our last week of classes, and we've got four days to fill in a lot of last minute information about economics.

Some important dates to remember:

1. Tuesday afternoon from 1:30 - 4:00 (unless you are in Religion, you can come after Religion is over) - Review class 
2. Wednesday - I have basketball until 5, and a meeting at 7 - please let me know if you want a review session between 5-7.
3. Thursday - PART A of your diploma. You will be getting a free breakfast in the foods lab in the morning before it starts, be at the school by 8:30. You can leave after your diploma, but if you have classes in the afternoon, you still must go to them

Last week, we looked at all the downfalls of capitalism and what makes the system inefficient. From that we saw some of the changes that happened to alleviate the issues. For example, welfare capitalism was introduced to help prevent factory owners and employers from taking advantage of their workers and to pay them a decent wage, have safe working conditions, among other laws that were put in place to ensure all people received a Square Deal (Theodore Roosevelt). Then, we looked at how pure, un-restricted capitalism led to the Stock Market Crash in 1929. For 6 years, the government did very little to try to kick start the economy. Then, Franklin D. Roosevelt, based off of Keynes economic theory of Demand Side Economics, introduced more social programs and initiatives by the government to kick start the economy, which is what shifted the United States into a Welfare State.

This week, what we are going to look at is what are alternatives to the Welfare State and Capitalism (aka: Communism and Socialism), how the Welfare State struggled in the 1970s and the subsequent implementation of Reganomics in the United States and then a looked at two mixed economies - Canada and Sweden.

Monday:  

• Basics of Communism

• Implementations of Socialist Ideals:
• Robert Owen
• Karl Marx
• USSR
• War Communism
• New Economic Policy
• 5 Year Plans
• Perestroika
• The good and the bad of Communism

Tuesday : 

• The Failure of the Welfare State

• Ronald Reagan and Trickle Down Economics
• AKA Supply Side Economics
• AKA Reaganomics

Wednesday: 

• The Welfare State in Sweden vs. Canada's mixed economy

• How Taxation works in different countries and the theory behind them

Thursday: 

• DIPLOMA

Friday: 

• Discussion on aspects of the economy (ie: increasing minimum wage)
• Finish any other notes we haven't yet
• Practice interpreting sources

The Crash Course on Capitalism BEGINS!

As of this week, there are only 9 classes that we have left, as one of those classes will be taken for writing Part A next week - which is your writing assignments. We will be doing a crash course this week on capitalism - it's benefits and its pitfalls, which have caused us to develop new economic theories or modify capitalism to protect the majority of citizens. Remember when we learned about John Stuart Mill and a large part of his theory was the balance of rights - yes, you have the rights but within reason; that being that you are not infringing on the rights of others. Before Christmas, we were looking at the implementation of the capitalist theory in the Industrial Revolution, and many great things came about because of it. Look at this case study:

However, following along with Hobbes' view on humanity, when given complete economic freedom, some people used that freedom to better only themselves and did not think of the repercussions of pursuing self-interest would have on others, particularly their workers. In the early industrial era, it really became about the almighty dollar and the means of getting it were not often questioned. It wasn't until the early 1900s where the ideas of workers rights really started to be considered. Traditional capitalists saw this as an infringement on their rights to run a business as they wanted. This week will be dedicated to learning about the inefficiencies of capitalism and how they have been attempted to be corrected.

Homework: Watch Capitalism: A Love Story by Michael Moore - great documentary about capitalism!

Monday:
ISSUE #1 - MONOPOLIES (Not the board game)

• Notes on Monopolies
• Case Study 1: John D. Rockefeller
• Government Reaction
• Case Study 2: Eyeglass Industry
• Government Reaction

Tuesday: 

ISSUE #2 - TREATMENT OF WORKERS

• Workers and rights movements during the Industrial Revolution
• Chartists, Factory Acts, Luddites, etc
• Case Study: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
• Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive Movement
• Government Reaction: The Square Deal

Wednesday: 

ISSUE #3 - UNPREDICTABILITY OF THE MARKET

• Unregulated market growth - The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression

• How the Stock Market Crash helped to create a decade of poverty
• First Shift to the Economic Left: Keynesian Economics
• How this would solve the problems from the Great Depression

Thursday:

• The Quickest Rants Ever (ie: limited discussion): Ryan F and Dustin
• Implementation of Keynesian Economics after the Great Depression
• Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal

• The creation of the WELFARE STATE

Friday: 

ISSUE #4 - INCOME GAP

• How capitalism leads to the income gap
• Socialism and communism as a solution to this problem

• How communism works and solves the issues of Capitalism