Friday, December 27, 2019

Profile of Serial Killer Richard Angelo

Richard Angelo was 26 years old when he went to work at Good Samaritan Hospital on Long Island in New York. He had a background of doing good things for people as a former Eagle Scout and volunteer fireman. He also had an out-of-control desire to be recognized as a hero. Background and Early Life Born on August 29, 1962, in West Islip, New York, Richard Angelo was the only child of  Joseph and Alice Angelo. The Angelos worked in  the educational sector - Joseph was a high school guidance counselor and Alice taught home economics. Richards childhood years were unremarkable. Neighbors described him as a nice boy with nice parents. After graduating in 1980 from St. John the Baptist Catholic High School, Angelo attended the State University of Stony Brook for two years. He was then accepted into a two-year nursing program at the State University at Farmingdale. Described as a quiet student who kept to himself, Angelo excelled in his studies and made the deans honor list each semester. He graduated in good standing in 1985. First Hospital Job Angelos first job as a registered nurse was in the burn unit at the Nassau County Medical Center in East Meadow. He stayed there a year, then took a position at Brunswick Hospital in Amityville, Long Island. He left that position to move to Florida with his parents, but returned to Long Island alone, three months later, and began working at Good Samaritan Hospital. Playing Hero Richard Angelo quickly established himself as a highly competent and well-trained nurse. His calm demeanor was well fitted for the high stress of working the graveyard shift in an intensive care unit. He gained the trust of the doctors and other hospital personnel, but that wasnt enough for him. Unable to achieve the level of praise he desired in life, Angelo came up with a plan where he would inject drugs into patients at the hospital, bringing them to a near-death state. He would then show his heroic capabilities by helping to save his victims, impressing the doctors, co-workers and the patients with his expertise. For many, Angelos plan fell deathly short, and several patients died before he was able to intervene and save them from his deadly injections. Working from 11 pm to 7 am put Angelo into the perfect position to continue to work on his feeling of inadequacy, so much so that during his relatively short time at the Good Samaritan, there were 37 Code-Blue emergencies during his shift. Only 12 of the 37 patients lived to talk about their near death experience. Something to Feel Better Angelo, apparently not swayed by his inability to keep his victims alive, continued injecting patients with a combination of the paralyzing drugs, Pavulon and Anectine, sometimes telling the patient that he was giving them something which would make them feel better. Soon after administering the deadly cocktail, the patients would begin to feel numb and their breathing would become constricted as did their ability to communicate to nurses and doctors. Few could survive the deadly attack. Then on October 11, 1987, Angelo came under suspicion after one of his victims, Gerolamo Kucich, managed to use the call button for assistance after receiving an injection from Angelo. One of the nurses responding to his call for help took a urine sample and had it analyzed. The test proved positive for containing the drugs, Pavulon and Anectine, neither of which had been prescribed to Kucich. The following day Angelos locker and home were searched and police found vials of both drugs and Angelo was arrested. The bodies of several of the suspected victims were exhumed and tested for the deadly drugs. The test proved positive for the drugs on ten of the dead patients. Taped Confession Angelo eventually confessed to authorities, telling them during a taped interview, I wanted to create a situation where I would cause the patient to have some respiratory distress or some problem, and through my intervention or suggested intervention or whatever, come out looking like I knew what I was doing. I had no confidence in myself. I felt very inadequate. He was charged with multiple counts of second-degree murder. Multiple Personalities? His lawyers fought to prove that Angelo suffered from dissociative identity disorder, which meant he was able to disassociate himself completely from the crimes he committed and was unable to realize the risk of what he had done to the patients. In other words, he had multiple personalities which he could move in and out of, unaware of the actions of the other personality. The lawyers fought to prove this theory by introducing polygraph exams which Angelo had passed during questioning about the murdered patients, however, the judge did not allow the polygraph evidence into the court. Sentenced to 61 Years Angelo was convicted of two counts of depraved indifference murder (second-degree murder), one count of second-degree manslaughter, one count of criminally negligent homicide and six counts of assault with respect to five of the patients and was sentenced to 61 years to life.

Thursday, December 19, 2019

Health Care Delivery System - 901 Words

In the past, managed care in the United States took the form of voluntary programs. Such programs date from about 1850, when managed care was provided chiefly by cooperative mutual benefit and fraternal beneficiary associations. Limited coverage by commercial companies was also introduced during that period, and subsequently many plans were established by industries and labor unions. Advocacy of government managed care in the United States began in the early 1900s. Theodore Roosevelt made national managed care one of the major planks of the Progressive party during the 1912 presidential campaign, and in 1915 a model bill for managed care was presented, but defeated, in numerous state legislatures. After 1920 opposition to†¦show more content†¦Unlike insurers, HMOs provide care directly to patients; HMOs were viewed as low-cost alternatives to hospitals and private doctors. In 1997 approximately 651 HMOs provided care to 66.8 million people. In the 1980s and 90s political lea ders again advanced a variety of national managed care proposals. There has been to date really limited empirical assessment of the impacts of these laws. One plan backed by leading Democrats was known as pay or play because it would have forced employers to provide managed care or pay into a national fund that would cover uninsured workers. A second, advanced by President G. H. W. Bush in 1992, would have provided tax breaks, vouchers, and other incentives to employers to extend managed care benefits. A third proposal, based on the Canadian model and nationalized health care, was opposed by most doctors and the insurance industry. In 1993, President Clinton, who had been elected on a promise of health-care reform, proposed a national managed care program that would have ultimately provided coverage for most citizens, but opposition by insurance, medical, small-business, and other groups killed it. 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Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Government Interventions on Monopoly Power

Question: Discuss about the Government Interventions on Monopoly Power. Answer: Introduction The reason for choosing this topic is to discuss the various tools and methods adopted by the government to address the economic situation created as a result of market failure from monopoly power. It will provide various ideas of economic concepts which are integral for knowing aspects of market failure, monopoly power etc. Various methods can be adopted by the government to control the market failure caused as a result of monopoly power (Cairns and Calfucura, 2012). This may include implementation of taxes on certain commodities, enforcement of laws and regulations, creating buffer stocks, providing subsidies to certain producers etc. The entire essay is divided into three main sections. The first part acts as introductory information where the topic is being discussed. The second section is the main body which will discuss various aspects of market failure and its types. Different approaches of the government will discuss critically and their advantages and disadvantages will be a nalysed (Rios et al., 2013). Five intervention strategies are being identified namely indirect taxes, use of price caps, and use of subsidies. The other strategies are use of legal intervention and use of information. The final section refers to the concluding statements wherein the important points will be analysed in brief. When referring to pure monopoly it shows a single seller. The cases of pure monopoly are very less. However the aspect of monopoly power is more ambivalent and can be present even in case where there is presence of more than a single supplier. This is possible in the case of markets where only two firms have market power i.e. duopoly and where few firms hold market power i.e. oligopoly. Monopolies are created in case of different situations. It can be when a particular firm has total and exclusive control resources which are scarce (Twomey and Neuhoff, 2010). An example can be cited from UK. The sole business of telephone cables is owned by British Telecom and they are effective in most of the houses and businesses in UK. Monopoly is created when the government provides monopoly status to a single firm like the Post Office. Monopoly is again created when firms are owners of patents and copyrights allowing them exclusive rights to sell the product and protecting the product as intellectual property. For example Windows is a brand name of Microsoft. The contents of the software of this company are protected from users who are unauthorised. Monopoly power is also created when two companies merge to occupy a dominant position in the market. Monopoly power is maintained in many ways. If the company is able to reduce the cost of production and increase the scale of business and volume they will have advantage over new entrants to the market (Ariss, 2010). Often few companies reduce their prices to such an extent that it puts pressure on competing rivals. This is known as predatory pricing. Moreover heavy expenditure on advertising by existing firms hinders new firms from entering the market. This is because new firms lack the capital base for such expenses (Swinnen and Vandeplas, 2010). Again maintaining cont racts between suppliers and retailers gives impetus to monopoly power. It is important to understand how monopoly power leads to market failure. The problem with monopoly is that high profits are made resulting in poor effectiveness of allocation. Those firms having monopoly power try to derive a price from the consumers or buyers which is more than the cost of raw materials which are used for manufacturing the product (Dodgson et al., 2011). Due to the higher prices, the buying capacity of the consumers decline. This leads to needs and wants of the consumers not getting satisfied. This dissatisfaction is a result of the products not being consumed properly. Increase in prices reduces the consumer surplus and impacts the welfare of the consumers. Thus there is a negative impact on the households that have low incomes. Market failure is when the markets are not competitive enough and causes dissatisfaction for the society. Market failure can be either complete or partial. A market fails completely when there is absolute absence of product supply (Gilmore et al., 2010). The market failure is partial when there is functioning of the market but suffers due to wrong quantity of production and wrong pricing. There are various factors leading to market failures. Due to environmental pollution the society has to bear the costs rather than the companies. These are known as negative externalities (Pitelis and Teece, 2010). Again if there the government provides health care and education, the society is benefited over the producers. This is known as the positive externalities. Again market fails when goods having social value are under produced while goods lacking social value are increasingly produced and consumed. Often the private sectors in a free economy charge high prices in order to derive profits on pure and quasi public goods. This leads to dissatisfaction and needs not being met. Market dominance leads lack of supply and increased prices damaging welfare of the consumers (Stiglitz, 2010). Another reason of market failure is factor immobility which leads to unemployment and harm to efficiency in production. Often inequality in distribution of income and social exclusion lead to market failure. Potential advantages of monopoly power It is true that market domination and monopoly power has a negative impact over consumers and results in lack of supply and market failure. However there are certain possible benefits of monopoly power. Monopoly power leads to economies of scale. Consumers will benefit in the long run since the average costs will be constant and eventually the prices will get lowered. Thus it is always beneficiary that public services are run by a single organisation so that there is a fixed pricing (Acemoglu and Robinson, 2013). However monopoly power always does not lead to economies of scale. Hence there is no certainty that the average prices will be lowered in the future leading to reduced prices. Monopoly power can also help in research and development. The supernormal profits can be utilised for investment in novel products and innovations which will eventually help the consumers in the future. This can be related with the oil and gas industry. Again domestic monopoly might face competition fr om the international markets which will force them to reduce costs leading to efficiency and economies of scale (Rubalcaba et al., 2010). There are various methods by which government can put checks and measures on monopoly power and improve upon the situation of market failure. Some of them will be discussed below- Use of indirect taxes- Indirect taxes refers to the tax which the government imposes on the producers to increase the cost of supply. This can be showed with the help of diagrams. The vertical distances between two supply curves refer to the amount of tax. Hence due to the presence of taxes the supply becomes less at every price level (Sakovics and Steiner, 2012). As a result of the lowering supply the market price increases leading to the demand fall. Thus a new equilibrium output is established. There are different kinds of indirect taxes. There may be a specified tax wherein it is directed that a certain amount of tax will be charged on a single unit of the product sold (Pirard, 2012). For example, the government may charge 6 as tax for one kg of sugar that is being sold. Another kind of indirect tax is ad valorem tax which refers to a percentage of tax charged on the unit price of a product. Suppose the price of one cigarette is 2, the government may charge 10% as ad valorem tax on the price. The main form of ad valorem tax which is charged in UK is in the form of value added tax i.e. VAT. Currently value added tax contributes to a revenue of over 100 billion pounds to UK treasury and public funds every year (Salanie, 2011). The taxes levied on fuel provide more than 25 billion pounds of revenue every year. UK government generates almost 10 billion pounds form levying tax on tobacco products every year. Duties paid for flight passengers generates up to 3 billion pounds for the government every year. Thus from the diagram it can be inferred that ad valorem taxes may cause significant shifts in the supply curve. This is due to tax being a percentage of the unit cost of supplying a product. In UK the standard rate of value added tax is 20%. Thus a product that will usually cost 50 pounds will cost 60 pounds after the value added tax is levied (Aaron and Boskin, 2011). However the problem of indirect taxes is that the producers increase their prices by adding the tax rates and the ultimate bearer of the burden are the consumers. Government subsidies- Subsidy refers to any kind of support by the government usually financial in nature. These are usually offered to a class of producers and at some times to the consumers. For every unit of product receiving subsidy the market supply curve shifts outwards. This results in the equilibrium price becoming low. Hence the total expenditure on subsidy can be calculated as the subsidy provided for a single unit multiplied by production level. Thus subsidies can be used by the government for various reasons. The reasons can be social, political or economic (Ehrenberg and Smith, 2016). Subsidies help loss making industries in times of recession by protecting jobs. With the help of subsidies health care facilities and treatments become affordable and accessible. Subsidies encourage investment in small industries and this leads to increased output. The government provides subsidies to poor families in the form expenses for child care and food subsidies. With the help of subsidies the companies can lower the expenses for training and hiring employees (Brown et al., 2011). Price caps- Maximum prices or price caps are used by the government to hinder the market prices from increasing at a certain level. Price caps or maximum prices are in several forms. The government can set a ceiling for house rents. This is for the protection of poor tenants from being manipulated and ill treated (Walras, 2013). The government also applies maximum prices on energy resources to reduce fuel bills. Water companies are also given direction to maintain a certain price on its supply. Money lenders also have to adhere to limits in terms of charging interest rates. Hence price caps ensure that there is healthy competition in the market. It is done for the welfare of the consumers. It also induces the businesses to reduce the costs to gain profits. However caps on prices reduce profits and discourages investors (Blair and Kaserman, 2014). The firms raise their prices leading to pressure on the ultimate consumer. Governments role in information sharing- Market failure often occurs if people consume products which have negative externalities i.e. increase social costs over private costs. Thus the government carries out campaigns informing people and they set minimum age for consumption. Laws and regulation- The government controls monopoly with the help of anti monopoly laws like competition laws (Gual and Mas, 2011). These legislations try to remove unhealthy competition, prevent unfair discrimination of prices and they fix the prices to be competitive. Conclusion From the above discussion various economic concepts can be understood. The concept of monopoly power has been discussed with the help of diagrams. It is a misnomer that there are only demerits of monopoly power. Monopoly if used constructively by the companies can benefit the service users in the long run. Market failure can be attributed to various reasons. They can be tackled with the help of different government methods of intervention. References Aaron, H., Boskin, M. (Eds.). (2011).The economics of taxation(Vol. 13). Brookings Institution Press. Acemoglu, D., Robinson, J. A. (2013). Economics versus politics: Pitfalls of policy advice.The Journal of Economic Perspectives,27(2), 173-192. Ariss, R. T. (2010). On the implications of market power in banking: Evidence from developing countries.Journal of banking Finance,34(4), 765-775. Blair, R. D., Kaserman, D. L. (2014).Law and economics of vertical integration and control. Academic Press. Brown, A. J., Merkl, C., Snower, D. J. (2011). Comparing the effectiveness of employment subsidies.Labour Economics,18(2), 168-179. Cairns, R. D., Calfucura, E. (2012). OPEC: Market failure or power failure?.Energy Policy,50, 570-580. Dodgson, M., Hughes, A., Foster, J., Metcalfe, S. (2011). Systems thinking, market failure, and the development of innovation policy: The case of Australia.Research Policy,40(9), 1145-1156. Ehrenberg, R. G., Smith, R. S. (2016).Modern labor economics: Theory and public policy. Routledge. Gilmore, A. B., Branston, J. R., Sweanor, D. (2010). The case for OFSMOKE: how tobacco price regulation is needed to promote the health of markets, government revenue and the public.Tobacco Control,19(5), 423-430. Gual, J., Mas, N. (2011). Industry characteristics and anti-competitive behavior: evidence from the European Commissions decisions.Review of Industrial Organization,39(3), 207-230. Pirard, R. (2012). Market-based instruments for biodiversity and ecosystem services: A lexicon.Environmental Science Policy,19, 59-68. Pitelis, C. N., Teece, D. J. (2010). Cross-border market co-creation, dynamic capabilities and the entrepreneurial theory of the multinational enterprise.Industrial and Corporate Change,19(4), 1247-1270. Rios, M. C., McConnell, C. R., Brue, S. L. (2013).Economics: Principles, problems, and policies. McGraw-Hill. Rubalcaba, L., Gallego, J., Hertog, P. D. (2010). The case of market and system failures in services innovation.The Service Industries Journal,30(4), 549-566. Sakovics, J., Steiner, J. (2012). Who matters in coordination problems?.The American Economic Review,102(7), 3439-3461. Salanie, B. (2011).The economics of taxation. MIT press. Stiglitz, J. E. (2010). Government failure vs. market failure: Principles of regulation.Government and markets: Toward a new theory of regulation, 13-51. Swinnen, J. F., Vandeplas, A. (2010). Market power and rents in global supply chains.Agricultural Economics,41(s1), 109-120. Twomey, P., Neuhoff, K. (2010). Wind power and market power in competitive markets.Energy Policy,38(7), 3198-3210. Walras, L. (2013).Elements of pure economics. Routledge.

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

The Theory Behind Reaganomics Essays - , Term Papers

The Theory Behind Reaganomics The theory behind Reaganomics was sound, but when applied in real life its consequences are still present more than ten years after the fact. The tax cuts applied early in Reagan's first term cemented the ideology for what the next eight years of his reign would uphold. The Economic Recovery Tax Act would cut taxes roughly twenty five percent over a three-year period. The ideology of Reagan's administration quickly received supporters of what he was doing. Entailed in these tax cuts were reductions in welfare programs which was also a popular idea amongst Reaganites. But what is puzzling is that David Stockman held a large portion of the truth of these tax cuts from Reagan and the public. What would occur with the ERTA was a substantial deficit. This deficit was not the intent of Reagan. Reagan's intent was that the tax cuts would allow the public to have more money. This additional money which would have otherwise been spent on taxes was supposed to be put back in the economy by the people. The ability of people to now spend more on homes, cars and other goods would boost the prosperity of the economy. But Stockman had a theory of his own. He saw that this deficit would force Congress to make cuts of its own on social programs. Stockman with held this information from the public and from Reagan so that when Congress would reallocate funding, it would avoid giving it to social programs. Stockman's theory does not make sense with the political views of the time. If Reagan and the public were in favor of cutbacks on the welfare system, why would Stockman with hold this information from a population who was in favor of the result? Stockman was an intelligent man who for some time worked in the House of Representatives and had connections to many people in Washington. He served as the budget director for the Reagan Administration. As budget director, his intentions were to acquire a balanced budget by the next term. Although Stockman's intentions for a balanced budget were good, what he did betrayed Reagan and the public. He never had the authority to with hold such pertinent information. If his intents were to maintain a balanced budget, why would he devise a plan for such high tax cuts which would create the most unbalance budget our economy has seen. It seems as if this overly intelligent scholar was attempting to achieve a task that was way out of his power to do so. Later on Stockman revealed his secret to journalist William Greider. By him doing so after the fact, and owning up to his wrongdoing is in no way redeeming. It reminds me of when Robert S. MacNamara claimed that in retrospect he was wrong in sending all of those troops to fight in Vietnam. Although the results of Stockman's actions did not cause the death of thousands of young men and women, he in a sense did the same thing by claiming he was wrong after the fact. The deficit caused by the Reagan Era is still present and is a concern to our economy. However, the eighties was a time when the majority of America lived the high life, and when the poor suffered the consequences. But in politics there will always be a group that will feel the burden of some one else's pleasure. Now, the welfare state is adequately funded, and those who lost the government aid that they relied on during Reaganomics are once again receiving what they need. Political Science