This is the introduction to the Think Tank Opioid Epidemic. The United States is in the grips of a health care crisis. Beginning in the 1990s pharmaceutical companies increased the number of prescription painkillers on the market, including new lines of pain killers that were advertised as being non-habit forming, not addictive.

Doctors began to prescribe more painkillers for injury treatment but also for a new and growing medical practice of pain management. It turned out that a number of the painkillers prescribed including Oxycontin were addictive for many people. The result was that many have become addicted to prescription painkillers, some because

they abused prescriptions but many who simply followed doctors' orders in taking what turned out to be a highly addictive substance. There have been lawsuits brought against some of the pharmaceutical companies that make these addictive painkillers. But does that solve all the problems?

Were the right people sued? In other words, who's really responsible for the crisis and how can people get themoney needed to deal with the fallout now? Begin by identifying the parties involved. Start with the private transaction, which is not the lawsuit against the pharmaceutical company.

It's the business transaction at the base of everything. Identify the private benefits and costs. Then think about the public parties, everyone impacted by the opioid crisis, and identify the public benefits and costs. The final step is devising a legal solution that will fix the alignment between private

and public. The first part of your Think Tank project will involve the earlier steps where you identify. The second part will involve the last step, devising a legal solution, and explaining it with an economic model. Keep these things in mind as you begin reading the articles.

Think Tank Project Part 1

Who are the private parties/actors? Think about who is involved in the initial business transaction. This is probably different from the activity that is the focus of the legal issue.

What are the benefits for each private actor/party? What are the costs to each?

Who are the public parties/actors? Think about who is harmed and who benefits by the initial transaction that is not a party to that initial transaction.

What are the benefits for each public actor/party? What are the costs to each?

What is the market inefficiency? Refer to the book and explain the market inefficiency of your issue in those terms.

Compare the private transaction to the public. Overall, do you think there is a social benefit or a social cost to what's happening? You can change your answer in the final draft. Your goal now is to track your thought process.

What do you think the best solution will be? You can change your answer in the final draft. Your goal now is to track your thought process.

Which of the following is true of sole proprietorships in the United States?

Taxes collected on the basis of the benefits-received principle:

Which of the following is true of sole proprietorships in the United States?

Which of the following is true of a recession?​

Is there too little regulation and protection for business in the United States or is there too much regulation slowing down the efficiency and reducing the profitability of business in this country. Be sure to support your reflections with several examples from the text, or any other source.

The United States is one of the nations in the world with the highest number of Economists. They are even some Economic Nobel laureates in the country. Why do you think the country goes through recessions from time to time when we have many Economists? Why did they not prevent the recession of 2007 – 2012 in the first place? Make sure to include some references in your answers.

answers to the questions in about 2 paragraphs Please

The estate tax in the United States is a progressive tax on the estate of a deceased person before their property (real estate, stocks and bonds, business interests, etc.) is transferred to their heirs. In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt proposed a federal estate tax, saying, "The man of great wealth owes a particular obligation to the State because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government." The estate tax was passed in the Emergency Revenue Act of 1916 in preparation for WWI. The first estate tax was imposed on the value of an estate over $50,000 (roughly $850,000 in today’s dollars) at a graduated rate of one to five percent.

The debate surrounding the estate tax has existed in many forms since Teddy Roosevelt's proposal. It has become especially heated in recent years with the rise of an anti-estate tax movement. This movement really began in 1993 when a group of wealthy families, under the lead of the Mars family, began a Washington lobbying campaign against what they would soon term the "death tax" because of its political advantages. While the debate is often framed only as a class-war debate (with the wealthy being seen as the potential benefactors of a ban and the poor the losers), it also encompasses other questions that are unrelated to class and wealth. The effect on the US fiscal budget is one consideration that is particularly heavily debated with some estimating the costs in the hundreds of billions of dollars and other estimating much lower costs. This question is particularly sensitive in the context of another debate on the extent of any fiscal problems in the US which would also effect thinking on the ability of the US to absorb tax revenue losses of any kind. Another question surrounds the extent of economic impacts. One particularly extensively debated topic among scholars and politicians alike is how estate taxes affect wealthy savings rates and corresponding levels of consumption and economic generation.

Is the estate tax unfair to the wealthy? Why or why not?

Could you argue that the assessing the estate tax constitutes “double taxation”?

Do you believe that having or not having the estate tax really matters economically in the big picture?

Do you think that removing the estate tax would reduce what individuals pass on to charity?

Would getting rid of the estate tax be an irresponsible thing to do?

How does the estate tax in the United States compare to that of other countries?

Divorce rates in the United States are a concern to such an extent that the existence of the family as a institution, is being threatened. What are the consequences of divorce on the family? What parents can do to help children with divorce?

in the decades before and after the turn of the century, the labor movement,the populist movement and the progressive movement all aimed to create sweeping reforms in the United Sates. Did these movements generally share common critiques of the US society or did they reflect fundamentally different views of the social problem facing the United States?

On its municipal website, the city of Tulsa states that the rate it charges per 5 CCF of residential water is $21.62. How do the residential water rates of other U.S. public utilities compare to Tulsa's rate? The data shown below ($) contains the rate per 5 CCF of residential water for 42 randomly selected U.S. cities.

(a) Formulate hypotheses that can be used to determine whether the population mean rate per 5 CCF of residential water charged by U.S. public utilities differs from the $21.62 rate charged by Tulsa. (Enter != for ≠ as needed.)

H₀:

H_a:

(b) What is the test statistic for your hypothesis test in part (a)? (Round your answer to three decimal places.)

What is the p-value for your hypothesis test in part (a)? (Round your answer to four decimal places.)

(c) At α = 0.05, can your null hypothesis be rejected? What is your conclusion?

Do not reject H₀. The mean rate per 5 CCF of residential water throughout the United States does not differ significantly from the rate per 5 CCF of residential water in Tulsa.

Reject H₀. The mean rate per 5 CCF of residential water throughout the United States differs significantly from the rate per 5 CCF of residential water in Tulsa.    

Do not reject H₀. The mean rate per 5 CCF of residential water throughout the United States differs significantly from the rate per 5 CCF of residential water in Tulsa.

Reject H₀. The mean rate per 5 CCF of residential water throughout the United States does not differ significantly from the rate per 5 CCF of residential water in Tulsa.

(d) Repeat the preceding hypothesis test using the critical value approach.

State the null and alternative hypotheses.

H₀:

H_a:

Find the value of the test statistic. (Round your answer to three decimal places.)

State the critical values for the rejection rule. Use α = 0.05. (Round your answers to three decimal places. If the test is one-tailed, enter NONE for the unused tail.)

test statistic≤

test statistic≥

State your conclusion.

Do not reject H₀. The mean rate per 5 CCF of residential water throughout the United States does not differ significantly from the rate per 5 CCF of residential water in Tulsa.

Reject H₀. The mean rate per 5 CCF of residential water throughout the United States differs significantly from the rate per 5 CCF of residential water in Tulsa.    

Do not reject H₀. The mean rate per 5 CCF of residential water throughout the United States differs significantly from the rate per 5 CCF of residential water in Tulsa.

Reject H₀. The mean rate per 5 CCF of residential water throughout the United States does not differ significantly from the rate per 5 CCF of residential water in Tulsa.

On its municipal website, the city of Tulsa states that the rate it charges per 5 CCF of residential water is $21.62. How do the residential water rates of other U.S. public utilities compare to Tulsa's rate? The data shown below ($) contains the rate per 5 CCF of residential water for 42 randomly selected U.S. cities.

(a) Formulate hypotheses that can be used to determine whether the population mean rate per 5 CCF of residential water charged by U.S. public utilities differs from the $21.62 rate charged by Tulsa. (Enter != for ≠ as needed.)

H₀:

H_a:

(b) What is the test statistic for your hypothesis test in part (a)? (Round your answer to three decimal places.)

What is the p-value for your hypothesis test in part (a)? (Round your answer to four decimal places.)

(c) At α = 0.05, can your null hypothesis be rejected? What is your conclusion?

- Do not reject H₀. The mean rate per 5 CCF of residential water throughout the United States does not differ significantly from the rate per 5 CCF of residential water in Tulsa.

- Do not reject H₀. The mean rate per 5 CCF of residential water throughout the United States differs significantly from the rate per 5 CCF of residential water in Tulsa.   

- Reject H₀. The mean rate per 5 CCF of residential water throughout the United States differs significantly from the rate per 5 CCF of residential water in Tulsa.

- Reject H₀. The mean rate per 5 CCF of residential water throughout the United States does not differ significantly from the rate per 5 CCF of residential water in Tulsa.

(d) Repeat the preceding hypothesis test using the critical value approach.

State the null and alternative hypotheses. (Enter != for ≠ as needed.)

H₀:

H_a:

Find the value of the test statistic. (Round your answer to three decimal places.)

State the critical values for the rejection rule. Use α = 0.05. (Round your answers to three decimal places. If the test is one-tailed, enter NONE for the unused tail.)

test statistic ≤

test statistic ≥

State your conclusion.

- Do not reject H₀. The mean rate per 5 CCF of residential water throughout the United States does not differ significantly from the rate per 5 CCF of residential water in Tulsa.

- Do not reject H₀. The mean rate per 5 CCF of residential water throughout the United States differs significantly from the rate per 5 CCF of residential water in Tulsa.    

- Reject H₀. The mean rate per 5 CCF of residential water throughout the United States differs significantly from the rate per 5 CCF of residential water in Tulsa.

- Reject H₀. The mean rate per 5 CCF of residential water throughout the United States does not differ significantly from the rate per 5 CCF of residential water in Tulsa.

In an article in the Journal of Advertising, Weinberger and Spotts compare the use of humor in television ads in the United States and in the United Kingdom. Suppose that independent random samples of television ads are taken in the two countries. A random sample of 450 television ads in the United Kingdom reveals that 137 of them use humor, while a random sample of 520 television ads in the United States reveals that 175 of them use humor.

(a) Calculate the point estimate of the difference between the proportion of U.K. ads using humor and the proportion of U.S. ads using humor.

(b) What kind of confidence interval is appropriate for this problem?

(c) Calculate a 96 percent confidence interval for the difference between the proportion of U.K. ads using humor and the proportion of U.S. ads using humor.

(d) Interpret the interval.

(e) Can we be 96 percent confident that there is a difference between the proportion of U.K. ads using humor and the proportion of U.S. ads using humor? Explain