Inequality - Growing apart (lesson 8)

Americas income inequality is growing again. Time to cut subsidies to the rich and
invest in the young.
A typical American households income has stopped falling for the first time in five
years, and the poverty rate has stopped rising.
Inequality can be a symptom of inefficiency. a highly skewed distribution can lower
growth, if it translates into less equality of opportunity for the next generation. This
seems to be happening. The gap in test scores between rich and poor children is 3040% wider than it was 25 years ago.
thinks the population will soon be divided into two groups: those who are good at
working with intelligent machines, and those who can be replaced by them. The
former will prosper; the latter will play a lot of video games. Investment in the young
should focus on early education. Pre-school is a crucial first step to improving the lot of
disadvantaged children.

Obama and the middle class - Better off with Barack? (lesson 8)
Private-sector employment is closing in on its pre-recession peak, but real household
incomes remain 5% lower than in 2005.
Some ideas that require no taxpayers money, such as raising the federal minimum
wage from $7.25 an hour to $9. Republicans argue that high minimum wages destroy
jobs.

Immigration - Of fences and good sense (lesson 8)

SOME of the first English words that Mario Rubio learned were I am looking for work.
His familys story helps illustrate why the immigration reform Senator Rubio backs
would increase the sum of human happiness, by freeing more people to pursue it.
Fortifying the border has two immediate effects: it makes it easier to catch illegal
migrants and it deters others from trying. The Senate bill, were it to become law,
would go a long way towards fixing Americas broken immigration system. It would
increase the number of visas for skilled workers, grant visas for entrepreneurs and
establish a guest-worker programme for manual labourers. They would eventually be
eligible to apply for citizenship.
Many of them insist on a bill that secures the border first. It would be far better, for
the immigrants themselves and for America, if they were allowed in legally.
More highly skilled immigrants would make America more innovative. More foreign
entrepreneurs would create jobs for the native-born.

Raising children - Apps for brats (lesson 8)

Eat up and Ill let you play on my iPad - vegetables are no fun. Some apps appear to
work. Several studies suggest that mobile or online games can fool children into eating
more fruit and vegetables. This is necessary: more than 12m children and adolescents
are obese in America, and obesity rates are triple what they were in 1980.
Many parents blame electronic gizmos for making their children so lazy. (Most kids
would indeed rather lie on the sofa shooting zombies than take out the rubbish.).
Parents create a list of chores; the app gives their children points for completing them.
It also helps parents pick age-appropriate tasks.

The US-Mexico border - Secure enough (lesson 8)

Spending billions more on fences and drones will do more harm than good. The bill
currently being debated in the Senate devotes $4.5 billion to border security, including
yet more drones, fences and guards with guns.
When Congress last tackled immigration reform, in 2007, there were 15,000 Border
Patrol agents; today there are 21,000. Spending yet more money could reduce
crossings further, although America is already inflicting economic self-harm by
spending so much to keep workers out.
Migrants pay taxes, too - The CBO predicts that the economy would be 5.4% bigger in
2033 because of the bill, and that average wages would be slightly higher.