...in order to save up money to one day open a photography studio. She is currently considering going overseas for an elective cosmetic medical procedure. The assigned question is, “What should Christine do?” I have identified the following ethical questions. 1. Does Christina really need cosmetic surgery? There is always a risk involved whether in the United States or overseas. Does Christina really think it is necessary for her to get cosmetic surgery and spend all that money? After all she does want to save enough money to start an art studio. 2. Is it right that Americans have to pay more than double on health care when the quality of health care in other countries is just as good as it is here? 3. Is it right that that hard working Americans do not have the freedom to go overseas to get cheaper medical procedures? While Christina is involved in a very non ethical line of work and is able to beat the system. 4. Is it right that struggling foreigners overseas cannot afford routine medical attention while Christina is able to come over there with money made from stripping and can get surgery a that is not needed? 5. Is it right that Christina should have to pay the extra 70 to 80% percent on a surgery when she has the job flexibility to go overseas and pay less for the same amount of care if not better? I believe that issue five is the most central issue at hand. I think that if Christina wants to be able to get cosmetic medical surgery she should be able to...
Words: 1842 - Pages: 8
...Americans and Money Today Americans are generally becoming more irresponsible with their money. In some cases Americans are spending more money than they make in a year. This is partly due to not having a budget, bad spending habits, credit card debt and impulsive purchases. Some Americans are also not saving money for incidents or emergencies. For instance the primary vehicle breaks down. There is no savings, what will he or she do? Get a loan? Use the credit card? Or perhaps borrow money? By not having a savings this will cause the person to be in debt. Because of the ease of obtaining credit cards and convenience Americans have generally become more irresponsible with their money. It can be easy for Americans to get into a large amount of credit card debt. After acquiring one credit card with a low credit limit the card holder can make a small purchase, then make small monthly payments on the amount charged. After making the on time payments, the credit company will often raise the credit limit allowing a larger dollar amount to be charged. This is fine, as long as the credit card holder continues to make the monthly payments. As the monthly payments are made the credit card holder’s credit score is on the rise. This could raise the limit on the card so that a larger amount can be charged on the card. This will also give the credit card holder more chances to apply for new credit cards. Some Americans can end up with more than five different credit cards, allowing their...
Words: 1053 - Pages: 5
...Having a research strategy to saving money can be very useful in providing a first step in reaching the goal of financial security. It has been argued that the American society is materialistic and accustomed to instant gratification. Easy lines of credit and lack of proper money management have led many in deep financial straits. The recent high unemployment numbers and the deep recession have contributed greatly to this. However not everyone was affected. One major reason is because some were conscious about saving for a rainy day. In fact “Compared to a year ago, 50 percent more Americans are beefing up their savings account, according to a new survey by Money Management International, Houston” (Ginovsky J., 2009, p.12). Americans are realizing that savings must become a priority. I for one can honestly say that I am one of those Americans. I’m starting to feel the need to start saving more and spend less. My personal situation did changed significantly in the last year and is the driving force behind trying to save more. The fact that my son came into our lives is a wonderful experience that I would never trade for anything in the world. However the reality is that it does add a strain on the budget. Adding to this is the fact that my wife quit her job to stay home and raise our son. Also the decision to go back to school is another contributing factor that stretches the budget even more. On top of all of this within the last year I knew I would loose...
Words: 1099 - Pages: 5
...government should provide to its citizens. Single Payer Health Care systems are catered towards the well-being of its citizens that regard people’s health as their main priority. What is a single-payer health care system? Single-payer national health insurance, also known as “Medicare for all,” is a system in which a single public or quasi-public agency organizes health care financing, but the delivery of care remains largely in private hands. Under a single-payer system, all residents of a country would be covered for all medically necessary services, including doctor, hospital, preventive, long-term care, mental health, reproductive health care, dental, vision, prescription drug and medical supply costs. The program would have a single public system of administration, eliminating the present highly expensive multiple, fragmented, and duplicative system operated by different government agencies and private hospitals. The whole operation would be paid by a combination of present Medicare and Medicaid expenditures, existing state and local expenditures for health services, mandated employer contributions, and additional tax revenues equal to the amounts now spent by citizens out of pocket, savings obtained from replacing today’s inefficient, profit-oriented, multiple insurance payers with a single streamlined, nonprofit, public payer, and by modest new taxes based on ability to pay. Premiums would disappear as a result of which 95 percent of all households would save money....
Words: 2570 - Pages: 11
...health care spending does tend to help the economy slightly it is beginning to hinder our economy. "In all industrialized countries, with the exception of the United States, health care affordability is ensured through universal insurance based or tax- finances systems" (Squires, 2012, p. 1). Even though the United States spends more in health care than other countries it does not mean the United States has better quality of care than the other countries. Health care spending is depleting this country and the quality of care is not improving. The United States needs to change the way it spends money on health care before it is too late. Current National Health Care Expenditures In 1980 the health care expenditure was at $256 billion, in 2010 the expenditure went up more than 10 times to $2.6 trillion. The spending, however, has slowed in the last few years. The health care expenditure was growing rapidly from the late 1900s to the early 2000s but has slowed slightly. However, it is still expected that the health care spending will grow faster than the national income. The recession has also played a major role in the health care expenditure, more Americans are unemployed and have lower incomes and cannot afford the health care it has put more attention on health care spending. Employer-sponsored health care coverage has increased in the last few years, which has burdened the employers with health care costs....
Words: 1699 - Pages: 7
...how to meet the best energy needs in the United States. Several people argue about how the country should decrease the dependence on oil and how it's invested in several sources of energy. The United States seems to be using huge amounts of oil on a daily basis and can be very expensive. I believe in order to meet energy needs we have to find another kind of source such as wind or solar power. I believe that the major can be an alternative and renewable energy that people should have an invest ment in. Energy conversation might be a result for increasing environmental quality, financial capital, comfort and personal security. Organizations and individual people should choose save and reduce energy costs and promote economic security. I think that the commercial and industrial users should be able to increase energy use of performance. I beliave that if the United States would repeat the alternative sources it should help clean up the pollution. It would also save a lot of money in the near future. In order to have the availability in the United States they need to renew the sources of energy to get better grades that are cost effectiveness. People can start doing their work if the cost comes from harnessing, transporting and collecting the costs. If people would spend a lot of money on electricity it would because of the rising of the costs. I think that people should start dealing with the alternate sources because of the oil supply is decreasing on a regular basis...
Words: 417 - Pages: 2
...enacted two huge stimulus programs since the recent recession started in 2008. The first one was under President Bush for $152 billion and the second one was under President Obama totaled $863 billion. After more than three years since the recession emerged, still the unemployment is through the roof and the economic growth is sluggish. Why? In order to shed a light on this problem, first we have to know where the billions have gone and how they have been used. There are three kinds of Keynesian stimulus packages (1) the government gives money to people directly, in hopes that they would buy more stuffs and services. (2) The government directly buys goods and services (3) the government sends the check to state and local governments to spend it. In either one, the philosophy is that the increase in buying would result more activity and eventually will boost the economy. The 2008 stimulus was the first kind and the 2009 was almost a mix of all three. In 2008 the U.S Treasury started sending checks to households in the summer. It was supposed to put more money into the hands of people to buy additional goods and services and thereby stimulate production and jobs at the firms that produce those goods and services. It didn’t go anywhere. The consumer report in 2008 showed that consumption didn’t increase at all. Where has the money gone? Most of the money went to pay off some debt, some of it was saved and less than %25 was spent on goods and services. No surprise. Years ago, the...
Words: 1987 - Pages: 8
...Many colleges that have athletics care more about sports than kids learning. According to multiple studies, if children participate in any kind of activity then they tend to think on other things instead of education. Therefore, athletics should be eliminated so districts can save money, students can be successful in school, and kids can start doing their homework. Most schools lose profit because they invest all their money into athletics. It was found that schools with sports spend all of their money and nobody realizes the amount of money they pay for athletics (Ripley 10). More specifically, when teachers travel for games, districts have to hire substitutes and they also need to pay for buses, hotels, and meals (Ripley 10). These are important facts for districts to know;...
Words: 461 - Pages: 2
...In “The Singer Solution to World Poverty”, Peter Singer describes how the American consumer is in moral denial because of our failure to donate money that could save a child’s life from starvation, mal nutrition, or treatable diseases. In his article he highlights how we are not fully considering what in our lives is a luxury and what is a necessity. Another interesting concept Singer has is his actual solution to world poverty, which basically describes people donating any money not spent on necessities to charities. Although, I am in line with the fact that the U.S. consumer has been brainwashed into thinking they are purchasing necessities and have shown a lack of judgment for understanding when they are purchasing necessities versus when they are purchasing luxuries, I do not agree that is a reason to give away all of your extra income to charities around the world. This is an extremely unrealistic amount that does not align with how a large population of our society thinks about personal wealth. The words need and want are used interchangeably in American culture and this causes us to trick ourselves into believing we should be buying unnecessary items. For example, even when we are speaking about things we want, we often say we need them because it highlights how badly we want that item. Things that you want could give you a goal to work towards, but when you think about things that you need you are liable to feel bad about yourself or less than others if you do not have...
Words: 1446 - Pages: 6
...crime, pay the time.” Should we be paying for inmate’s jail time? Should they have free food, free education and a roof over their heads after committing a crime? This seems to be an ongoing topic in the United States and in Canada. Politician’s and law men think inmates shouldn’t have a free pass. The way certain people see it “Do the crime, pay the time”, and I agree. Why should we, honest, hard working tax payers spend our hard earned money for the on-going errors that inmates keep repeating? Does that make sense? In the United States alone there is approx 2.4 million people incarcerated. 2.4 million inmates! That’s almost 7% of Canada’s population. Prisons cost taxpayers more than $32 billion a year. An American study done in 2010, demonstrated that every year an inmate spends behind bars costs taxpayers anywhere from $30,000.00 to $168,000.00! So an individual sentenced to a five year sentence because of a $2,500.00 theft could costs the public more than $125,000. The cost of a life term averages $1.7 million per inmate! That’s a lot of money coming out of our pockets, your future children's pockets. Studies have shown that certain states are spending more money on prisons than education. Over the course of the last 25 years, the amount of money spent on prisons has increased by 570% while that spent on elementary and high school education was increased by only 33%. That’s a huge difference! Once again I ask, Does that seem right? So why should we pay for this? Here’s...
Words: 765 - Pages: 4
...Most Significant Issue A fairly recent Saturday Night Live skit released a sketch called, “Don’t Buy Stuff You Can’t Afford.” It was a spoof about a couple who didn’t quite understand saving your money instead of just buying on credit. “If you don’t have any money, you should not buy anything. Hmm…Sounds interesting.” The wife sarcastically remarks. “Sounds confusing!” The husband replies. As funny as it was, it still made a great point. American’s have a problem with buying things on credit but not having the money for it. My financial literacy class always taught me to have an achievable goal and save your money. Ever sense I was a little child, I have been taught to save, save, save, and plan for any expenses I may need. My parents also taught me the difference between a need and a want. They taught me to only buy things on credit if it is a necessity like a car, college, house, etc. I try to always keep their advice in the back of my head, but I’ve noticed a different path that buying on credit provides. Buying on credit is a type of borrowing but you may suffer a grave price if you cannot pay back your bill in full each month. The nation previous to 1929 became caught up buying luxury items on credit and borrowing money to invest in the stock market. It seemed harmless enough, the idea was that one could repay the loan when they sold their stocks and because of so much buying, people were making a lot of money. Stores were selling plenty of goods which in turn made the...
Words: 1348 - Pages: 6
...Pernille von Ubisch Dr. Nagy ECON 337 11/04/15 Assignment 3 The United States’s current account deficit is a result of United States expenditure exceeding income. With an increasing government budget deficit, an increasing trade deficit, in addition to little national saving, the United States is dependent on large inflows of money from other countries. In other words, by running a current account deficit, the United States need to run a surplus on the financial and capital account in order for their balance of payments to balance out. This current capital inflow is allowing the United States to invest more than they save, and consume more than they produce, yet, this deficit makes the United States a debtor nation. Economist argue that there are some concerns associated with having a current account deficit and being a debtor nation. As of now, foreign investors have big confidence in the U.S. economy, as the U.S. dollar is seen...
Words: 1017 - Pages: 5
...This topic might be one of the biggest topics in our time. Raising the minimum wage, certain people think it's a bad thing but other people think differently stating that minimum wage is good. It helps the government in saving money. Giving hard working workers the money they deserve. Raising the minimum wage helps the government. It means that people will get off food stamps. Saving the government's money, and also that they don't have to be buying people's food. Saves the government about $46 billion over 10 years spending it on Supplementary Nutrition Association Program. It just saves the government by a lot. Raising the minimum is good for families. Raising the minimum means the incomes of 28 million americans would raise, and it benefits...
Words: 291 - Pages: 2
...credit limit but are not adequately paying back the debt we are accumulating. I feel what is needed for our country is the same thing that any normal family would need to do in order to address overspending; address current overspending habits and begin to implement a better savings strategy. These may be the most effective steps to take in order to truly attack the raising debt problem that may plague this country for generations to come. Life in America is filled with wants, needs, desires, and the ability to have them all right now. All we have to do is ask and there will be someone willing to lend us the money to have what we want right now. The only problem is that we are expected to pay that back at some point. For the average American, we have a credit score to determine our debt worthiness. The better the score, the higher the...
Words: 1323 - Pages: 6
...spending is also a major factor that increases the national debt. We have to choose where the money should go to make sure we keep the debt down. Last year 53.71% of the discretionary spending went to the military and I feel that we need to reduce that and put the money towards education. I believe that the public would agree with my plan to go with the progressive tax and also my plan of decreasing spending on military to increase spending on education. The progressive tax policy takes a larger percentage of income from high-income earners compared to low-income individuals. This tax will help our economy by making sure that even low income earners will have income left behind to spend on goods and services. The consumption tax would lead to less demand for goods and services which would not help our economy. When consumers see that the product price is very high they would choose to save instead of spending their money. Flat tax is an unfair way to tax the public even though it proposes that everyone pay the same rate. This would hurt low income earners because...
Words: 556 - Pages: 3
