The following questions have you search online for information that is reflective of the United States as a whole. Be sure to explain your answer and briefly cite your source.

4. When can pregnancy and childbirth generally allow you to receive disability insurance?

5. How long does it take for Social Security benefits to start for a disability? What are the criteria for qualifying for these benefits?

6. What is a “rider” when it comes to disability insurance?

7. How long can you typically get disability payments from private income insurance? Explain.

In the United States at least, we hear of outbreaks of disease almost daily and we eagerly await news of som new antibacterial medication that will elimate disease. As a result people are somewhat "germ-phobic" already. Taking this course often makes people a little more concerned .   We hear of new ways to " fight germs" constantly, but suppose tomorrow there were no microbes to contend with. All microorganisms mysteriously disappeared. Based on your readings of these first few chapters, what do you suppose life would be like on earth in five, ten, twenty years? One mistake most people make is to talk about the inability to make any more antibiotics. This would in fact be irrelevant if there were no micro-organisms to make us sick. Please discuss other important aspects such as food production, air and water quality, animal and plant survival, human survival etc...

Write a short essay about the current state of the economy in the United States. You can find the latest official unemployment and inflation figures on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website. You can use other relevant sources as well. You must cite at least one source of information. This assignment must be submitted as an MSWord attachment.

Include in your analysis the answers to the following questions:

What is the current unemployment rate?

What is the current rate of inflation?

Are we in an inflationary gap, recessionary gap, or right where we need to be? (Assume a 5^1/2% natural rate of unemployment)

What fiscal policy options would be appropriate for solving the current problem (if any)?

Explain which policy option(s) you would favor.

Foreign Source Income. If you are a citizen of the United States, and you receive income from outside the U.S.—foreign source income—how must you report this income? Using the Internal Revenue Service website determine current reporting practices for tax purposes. Then select a foreign country and see if you can find out how they will tax your income earned in that country and any income you earned in the U.S. What are your thoughts about going to work in that country?

Be as detail as possible

Throughout most of the 1800s, the United States was a fairly isolationist nation especially in regards to not intervening in European affairs. Contrast the arguments made by leading isolationists and interventionists (expansionists) in the U.S. from the 1890s to the 1960s. Which side made the best argument overall and why? Should the U.S. have intervened in the conflicts it did (i.e. Spanish-American War, PhilippineAmerican War, World War I, World War II, and Vietnam) or not?

Healthcare in the United States continues to grow at an unsustainable rate. Since 1971 there have been more than 30 reform pieces of legislation passed in an effort of cost containment. Describe the intent of the following programs 1) Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act (1988), Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982, Social Security Amendments of 1972 and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) of 1996. In your opinion has the legislation performed as designed? Provide rationale for your opinion.

In 2014, the 11th United States Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Chiquita Brands, a Cincinnati–based multinational marketer and distributor of food products—widely known for its Chiquita banana brand—which had been accused by 4000 Colombians of supporting paramilitary soldiers who had killed or tortured their relatives. The court ruled on technical grounds that the Colombians could not sue the company under the laws they had cited. “The Alien Tort Statute does not apply extraterritorially,” wrote Judge David Sentelle, and “the Torture Victim Protection Act only applies to actual people, not to corporations.”

The Colombians had sought $7.86 billion in damages, on the basis that Chiquita was responsible for the deaths of 393 victims at the hands of a paramilitary group called the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia that Chiquita had funded through their payments. The lawsuits pointed specifically to a 1997 massacre in which 49 people were tortured, dismembered, and decapitated and another incident in 2000 in which 36 more people were killed.

The lawsuit was ironic, because Chiquita had originally made the payments to the paramilitary group to protect its Colombian employees from harm—not to put people at risk. However, once the payments had been made, Chiquita had no control over what the outlaw group did with the funds—which it had apparently used to terrorize other people in the community. “The principle upon which this lawsuit is brought,” said the Colombians’ attorney Jonathan Reiter, “is that when you put money into the hands of terrorists, when you put guns into the hands of terrorists, then you are legally responsible for the atrocities, the murders and the tortures that those terrorists commit.”

Chiquita’s problems began in the early 2000s, when the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia attempted to extort substantial payments from the company to help fund the group’s operations. The paramilitary group made it clear that if the company did not make the payments Chiquita’s employees would be at risk. The company’s managers took these threats seriously, because they were aware that in 1995 the paramilitary group had been responsible for bombing Chiquita’s operations and murdering 17 banana workers, who had been gunned down on a muddy soccer field.

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Chiquita’s mission emphasized a strong sense of ethical performance and social responsibility. It stated that it wanted “to help the world’s consumers broaden mindsets about nutrition and bring healthy, nutritious, and convenient foods that taste great and improve people’s lives.” Therefore, it was not surprising that Chiquita’s management also wanted to protect its employees and ensure their safety while working for the company. In a handwritten note, a Chiquita executive said that such payments were the “cost of doing business in Colombia.” The company agreed to make the payments demanded by the paramilitary group, but hid the payments through a series of questionable accounting actions. From 1997 through 2004 Chiquita paid monthly “protection payments” totaling more than $1.7 million.

After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack in the United States, the U.S. Government declared the Colombian paramilitary group to be a terrorist organization. In February 2003, a Chiquita employee informed a senior Chiquita officer that the company’s protection payments were illegal under the new U.S. terrorism laws. Chiquita officials met with their attorneys in Washington, DC, and were advised to stop the payments to the terrorist group. Yet the company continued to make the protection payments, amounting to an additional $825,000.

In the minds of the Chiquita’s executives, stopping the payments would risk the lives of their employees. Chiquita’s executives also considered but rejected the option of withdrawing operations from Colombia. But in a surprising move in April 2003, Chiquita decided to disclose to the Department of Justice that the company was still making payments to the Colombian paramilitary group. The company told the government that the payments were made under the threat of violence against them and their employees.

The Justice Department informed Chiquita that these payments were illegal, yet the company continued to make the payments. In 2007 Chiquita Brands International pleaded guilty to one count of the criminal charge of engaging in transactions with a designated global terrorist group and agreed to pay a $25 million fine.

In explaining its actions, a company spokesperson stated that “Chiquita and its employees were victims and that the actions taken by the company were always motivated to protect the lives of our employees and their families.” He added, “Our company had been forced to make protection payments to safeguard our workforce. It is absolutely untrue for anyone to suggest that these payments were made for any other purpose.”

Sources: “Chiquita Brands International Pleads Guilty to Making Payments to a Designated Terrorist Organization and Agrees to Pay $25 Million Fine,” U.S. Department of Justice Press Release, March 19, 2007, www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2007/March/07_nsd_161.html; “Colombian Families’ Suit Says Chiquita Liable for Torture, Murder,” CNN.com, February 14, 2007, www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/11/14/chiquita.lawsuit; “Chiquita Sued Over Colombian Paramilitary Payments,” The Sacramento Bee, May 30, 2011, www.sacbeee.com; and “US Appeals Court Says Colombians Cannot Sue Chiquita,” BBC News, July 24, 2014, www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-28469357.

Discussion Questions

1. Do you agree with the 11th U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that cleared Chiquita of any liability for the victims killed by the paramilitary group that Chiquita funded? Construct an ethical argument that supports your view.

2. Using each of the four methods of ethical reasoning (see Figure 5.6), was it ethical or not for Chiquita to pay the terrorist organization when payments were demanded in the early 2000s?

3. Should the U.S. ban against supporting terrorist groups, imposed after the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, be applied in this situation? Why or why not?

4. Is there anything that Chiquita could have done to protect its employees adequately without paying the terrorists?

5. Should Chiquita be assessed a penalty that puts the firm out of business for their actions?

Teeth and military service. In 1898, the United States and Spain fought a war over the U.S. intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. At that time, the U.S. military was concerned about the nutrition of its recruits. Many did not have a sufficient number of teeth to chew the food provided to soldiers. As a result, it was likely that they would be undernourished and unable to fulfill their duties as soldiers. The requirements at that time specified that a recruit must have "at least four sound double teeth, one above and one below on each side of the mouth, and so opposed" so that they could chew food. Of the 58,952 recruits who were under the age of 20, 68 were rejected for this reason. For the 43,786 recruits who were 40 or over, 3801 were rejected.

a) Find the proportion of rejects for each age group.

b) Find a 99% confidence interval for the difference in the proportions.

c) Use a significance test to compare the proportions. Write a short paragraph describing your results and conclusions.

d) Are the guidelines for the use of the large-sample approach satisfied for your work in parts (b) and (c)? Explain your answers.

3. A random sample of wolf dens in the southwestern United States is taken. The number of pups found are:

5 8 7 5 3 4 3 9 5 8 5 6 5 6 4 7

a. Find a 90% confidence interval for the population mean number of wolf pups per den. Include the sample statistics, degrees of freedom, LaTeX: t_{\frac{\alpha}{2}}t α 2 , standard error and a sentence.
b. What sample size is needed for the margin of error to be 0.3?   

4. In the United States, what are the principles, concepts, rules, guidelines, methods, and procedures that govern financial reporting collectively referred to as?

5. Do all US companies have to use the rules referred to in Question #4 above? when preparing their financial statements? Why or why not?

6. Who has the legal authority to establish the rules referred to in Question #4 above? Has this organization made any of these rules? Why or why not?

7. Briefly describe the three primary US groups from the private sector that have been responsible for determining the rules referred to in question #4 above (include the years of operations for each group)