Why does the problem of the big tradeoff arise when the government engages in the process of redistributing income using taxes and transfers?
What will be an ideal response?
There are two reasons why the big tradeoff problem arises. First, in the process of transferring income from the people who have to those who do not have, an administrative cost is incurred by society. The result is that $1 taxed is not $1 transferred. Hence the effort to make incomes more equal decreases the average income. Second, taxing people's income is a disincentive to work, while taxing people's savings is a disincentive to accumulate capital. As a result, people work less and save less, both of which decrease the amount of goods and services produced and decrease people's income. Hence once again the effort to make incomes more equal decreases the average income.
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Samantha decides to withdraw $10,000 from her savings account and invest it all in the stock market. Her total economic costs
A) equal $10,000. B) are independent of the interest she enjoyed in her savings account. C) are affected by the interest she enjoyed in her savings account. D) are determined solely by the commission she is charged for the purchase of stock.
When a commercial bank borrows from the Fed,
A) the reserves of the bank fall. B) the bank can make more loans. C) it must be because the bank is not meeting its reserve requirements. D) the money supply falls.