Lower Income Brackets Research Articles

Alcohol taxes: do the poor pay more than the rich?

Concern has often been expressed that alcohol taxes bear more heavily on the poor than on the rich, especially if these taxes are based on quantity rather than price. However, surprisingly little is known about how the tax burden is distributed across different income groups. Utilizing survey data from 3010 respondents in New Zealand, this study calculates exactly how much alcohol tax was paid by respondents in different income groups and in different types of households. These results were applied to household expenditure survey data to estimate the incidence of alcohol taxes across different households. The results suggest that, although in dollar terms the wealthiest households paid about four times as much alcohol tax as the poorest households, when expressed as a percentage of income, alcohol taxes are distributed proportionally across the lower income brackets but decline towards the upper end of the income scale. These taxes accounted for less than 1% of household income for all income groups. Households with children generally paid less alcohol tax than households without children. It is concluded that alcohol taxes in New Zealand do not seriously conflict with the broader equity objectives of government policy.

Beating the waiting lists.

Britain's biggest health insurer has launched a cut-rate scheme to help the elderly the, young, and those in the middle to lower income brackets beat NHS waiting lists for over 100 of the most commonly needed operations.

Income-Specific Inflation Rates in Pakistan

In this paper an attempt has been made to find the inflation rates which were faced by households belonging to different income brackets and living in different areas. The results of this study do not show any consistent pattern of inflation being higher or lower for the rich or the poor households. During 1971-72 and between 1978-79 and 1980-81, households in the lower income brackets were found to be facing lower inflation rates. These were the years when food prices rose at lower rates than those of the prices of non-food items. These differences, however, disappeared in 1981-82 when food prices rose sharply, resulting in a higher inflation rate for the poor than for the rich. The numerical magnitudes of the differences were, however, not very high.

Evaluation of strategy for testing thyroid function applied to hypothyroidism.

A strategy for testing thyroid function with discretionary assay of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) following initial measurement of total plasma thyroxine (tT4) was retrospectively evaluated in relation to the diagnosis of primary hypothyroidism. Over a two year period 14 641 tT4 assays were done and 6887 TSH assays, of which 29% were initiated in the laboratory. The percentage of raised TSH values (over 5 mU/1) was similar to those for clinician and pathologist initiated requests (23.2% and 23.6%). Some TSH requests (1620) were cancelled; when 212 of these were subsequently analysed the TSH value was raised in 5.7% The incidence of raised TSH values in 188 patients with a tT4 below 100 nmol/1 (7.8 micrograms/100 ml), in whom TSH was not requested, was 5.3% Most of these raised TSH results could be readily explained by information available to the requesting clinician but not given on the request form.

Nevada Then and Now: Forging an Economy

Nevada Then and Now: Forging an Economy Earl W. Kersten' Fr more than two decades the per capita income in Nevada has been among the highest in the United States and, during this same period, the population growth rate has exceeded that of all other states by a wide margin (Table 1). The population seems certain to pass the one million mark during the 1980s. Granting that the economy and state tax support have been heavily based upon an unorthodox, but very successful, industry—legalized gambling—and that the population levels were remarkably low earlier in the century, the rapid growth and the level of prosperity remain impressive, especially in view of the very limited resource base. The income levels tend to be concentrated in the lower middle and middle income brackets ($20,000 to $40,000 per year per family). Family incomes below the poverty level consistently have formed a very low percentage of the total. Such a condition challenges us to provide an explanation as to how this success has been achieved during this century and as to what the future may hold. Obviously, gambling or gaming (a name selected by those closely associated with the industry to distinguish it from the illegal practices) has been extremely important since its full legalization in 1931, but many other things before and after 1931 have helped to mold the economy of the Silver State. To begin, things looked black late in the last century. People from afar were calling for the depopulating state to be returned to * Presidential address delivered at the annual banquet of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, Pence Union Building, Eastern Washington University, Cheney, Washington, September 13, 1984. Dr. Kersten is a professor of geography at the University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada 89557. 8 ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPHERS territorial status. Certainly, this vast area, peopled by just a few tens of thousands of people, and noted mainly for its decaying mining towns, could no longer function as a state. Table 1. Population of Nevada (1860-1983) YearPopulation ?86?6,857 187042,491 188062,266 189047,355 190042,335 191081,875 192077,407 193091,058 1940110,247 1950160,083 1960285,278 1970488,738 1980800,493 1983 estimate917,870 Sources: Census 1860-1980; 1983 estimate from Bureau of Business and Economic Research, University of Nevada, Reno. Boom Days The state had not started out that way. True, it had been of only brief interest to early trappers, and of even less to the immigrants and Forty-Niners passing through on the way to California. They were mainly impressed by how little Nevada had to offer. Water was scarce and the land was very mountainous. Nor was there abundant timber and game. Early resident Mark Twain noted that a bird flying through would have to carry its own provisions! But in 1859, the post-Gold Rush search for new mineral deposits uncovered the Comstock Lode and thousands rushed there. Soon other mines were found in other sections of the state setting off many new rushes (Fig. 1). Within five years, booming Nevada entered the Union. Its gold and silver bullion helped stabilize currency during the Civil War, and the state's support helped Lincoln in the 1864 election. With about 30,000 residents in the Comstock and vicinity, busy, lively, and surprisingly cosmopolitan Virginia City reigned YEARBOOK · VOLUME 47 · 1985 EARLV MINING CENTERS LOVElOC SgH COkTEZ £ Vi·* • IONE 8um™— UKORAABEUEVItLE BPtIDCEPORT X #· CANDEl BULLIONVIUE SILVER PEAK 0 f MONTEZUM ST. !OSEP Figure 1. Early mining centers in Nevada. 10ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPHERS over one of the largest population concentrations west of the Mississippi Valley. Reno, founded by the Central Pacific Railroad, grew to be the key support town for the Comstock Mines. But the mines played out over much of the state, free silver coinage was stopped by the federal government, and by the 1880s Nevada had sunk into a deep depression. Much of the population departed, though some ranchers, farmers, prospectors, people in little railroad towns, and a few others hung on. From a sparse 62,000 in 1880, the state's population had fallen to 42,000 by 1900 (Table 1). Economic Development Theory Economic...

The Economic and Academic Status of Women Physicians

THE PROBLEMS that women physicians encounter with professional socialization, peer acceptance, and a career structure that does not accommodate interruptions exact an enormous toll on financial and academic success. Practicing women physicians' incomes have consistently lagged behind men: surveys of 1978 median annual incomes for office-based physicians show that men earn about $65,000 and women earn somewhere from 60% to 69% of that amount. 1,2 Discrepancies arise, however, when averaging incomes for male and female physicians, since the latter aggregate in lower-paying medical specialties. In a 1978 office-based physician population, 53% of practicing women physicians were either psychiatrists, pediatricians, or general-family practitioners. While women cluster in these lower income brackets of medicine, they are poorly represented in the higher income ranks of surgery and its specialties: 24% of male practitioners are surgeons compared with 4% of female surgeons. 1 Thus, the average woman physician not only works in a poorer

Soziale Sicherheit und Staatsfinanzen

SUMMARY: SOCIAL SECURITY AND GOVERNMENT FINANCEA recapitulation, a piecing-together of the knowledge fragmented by the specialization necessary today, is more vital than ever.Developments in the field of social policy are dramatic and have multiple repercussions on almost every sphere of community life, which naturally includes the general and special sectors of the economy and finance.Government finance performs specific functions which closely affect the social policy sphere; more important even than its re-direction of market economy processes, it must bring into better effect an equitable apportioning — before or after taxes — of the economic yield and state relief services to the various income or other sociologically relevant groups. Social insurance falls within these functions of the state economy, as on the one hand it lowers wages by absorbing contributions and on the other constitutes or raises wages by concession of benefits within these two spheres of influence of the financial policy sector.The flows of finance generated by social insurance through the public budgets become stronger from year to year. This has no mean influence on the redistribution of goods and services within the economy in both destination and extent and in no way facilitates fiscal handling; in consequence, the shift of the social yield is becoming increasingly economic in character. Receipts and outlay for social security have gathered such tremendous momentum that they determine to a great extent the course of the whole economy.Re-distribution as it pertains to social security differs from other measures of social policy which aim at wage re-apportionment (e.g. progressive income taxation, tax privileges for families, old and economically weak persons, family allocations, etc.) in that it is not, essentially, a shift from higher to lower income brackets, but seeks to meet specific income requirements, such as illness, invalidity, old age, unemployment, partial or total incapacity to work through working accidents, etc.To achieve an end result as permanent and comprehensive as possible, the individual component measures must be synchronized. Thus the re-apportioning of benefits must be co-ordinated so as to ensure decent (minimum) wages; contributions and fiscal policies must be consequently adapted.Therefore, each measure must be assessed in the light of those that are parallel to it, overlap it, or even run contrary to it. The relevant amounts must then be co-ordinated to achieve a judicious overall end effect.

Epidemiology of Diabetes in South Africa

Publisher Summary The chapter discusses the epidemiology of diabetes in South Africa. The small community of Tamil Indians share with the larger Pima Indian group the distinction of being the most diabetic known in the world, although ethnically they are entirely different. The reasons for this excessive prevalence differ in the two groups of Indians; both, however, belong in a low-income bracket and are considerably inbred. Indians further differ from Whites in the rarity of insulin-dependent diabetes and in the frequency of young insulin independent diabetes. Indians also seem to be prone to early and severe vascular diseases—both coronary and microangiopathic. White South Africans have an incidence of myocardial infarction, which is among the highest in the world, and have a very large mean per capita consumption of sugar. They are also considerably obese. The ethnic differences involving prevalence, variety, and complications of diabetes are explained by environmental factors. Fundamental racial, presumably genetic, differences appear to be ineluctable.

Food cost, farm policy and nutrition

Summary Nutrition is a prime determinant not only of physical well being but also of macro-economic growth and the sociological health of society. In the past, nutritional status has mainly been correlated with individual preference and expenditure patterns. But in view of the significant impact of public policy on food availability and food prices, nutrition educators need to focus more directly on the role of the public sector. Beginning with the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, U.S. farm policy has mandated reduced production and marketing of foodstuffs—to the nutritional detriment of millions of Americans, particularly those in the lower-income brackets who must pay up to 50% or more of their income to obtain an adequate diet. Even with the new policy of full production, there are still some substantial questions which can only be dealt with by an explicit national food/nutrition policy.

Revenue Adequacy of Land Value Taxation

Property taxes are the primary source of local government revenues in the United States. High absolute levels of urban property tax rates discourage investment in urban real property relative to other forms of capital, discourage restoration and rebuilding in central cities, and other things being equal, provide an incentive to locate investment in suburban areas where tax rates are generally lower. The property tax tends to discourage consumption in housing relative to consumption in other goods, particularly in low-income brackets.? This departure from neutrality has become more important as effective tax rates have increased over the years. Site value taxes are lump sum charges and thus are neutral with respect to intensity of land use; this neutrality is shared by the land component in the present property tax. However, the property tax also falls on improvements, thus discouraging development and tending to encourage less intensive land usage. Therefore, exempting improvements2 from the present property tax and increasing the tax rate would increase the holding costs of land and would tend to foster more in-

Financing Fertility-Related Health Services in the United States, 1972- 1978: A Preliminary Projection

2 debates over national policy are currently underway: 1) a major review of the national policies has been demanded by virtually all segments of the American people; and 2) an evaluation has been undertaken of policies which influence the growth of U.S. population, of the kinds of changes in population growth, and distribution which would be socially and economically desirable, and of the means available and acceptable to bring about the desired changes. Crucial to these policy discussions are the nature and scope of health services. This article d escribes preliminary research to estimate the costs to U.S. society of f ertility-related health services. Fertility control through voluntary sterilization, contraception, pregnancy termination, and medical treatment of infertility make up 1 group of services; maternity care forms a 2nd group; and pediatric care is a 3rd essential service. It is clear from this study that many fertility-related health services are not covered by private health plans and that additional expenditure is needed to upgrade hospital services and improve health care. The study also raises questions about deficits in service to people who are not re ached by the medical care system at all and those who receive care of low quality. Women, especially those in the low-income bracket, need more aid. The range of costs shown here suggests that comprehensive financing of fertility-related health services is well within the nation's fiscal capabilities.

The Struggle against Violations of Labor Law - One of the Most Important Tasks of the Courts

In the last several years, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Soviet Government have carried out a number of exceedingly important measures to expand substantially the labor rights of workers and office employees. The working day has been reduced, the wages of the lower income brackets in both manual and white collar employment have been increased, and there has been an extension of pregnancy and postnatal leave. In addition, a number of legal measures have been adopted to expand socialist democracy and to reinforce the role and significance of the trade unions as schools of management, schools of communism.

AN ANALYSIS OF THE KENTUCKY INCOME TAX*

THE 1936 KENTUCKY GENERAL ASSEMBLY adopted an income tax as a major source of tax revenue. Selected areas of inquiry include compliance, underreporting, discriminations stemming from the deduction for federal income taxes and from the definition of adjusted gross income, exempt corporations, allocation of corporation income, taxation of affiliated corporations, possible current collection program, and revenue analysis. The study sheds some light on the extent and nature of non-compliance and underreporting. A comparison of 1950 taxable income reported by resident taxpayers with estimated taxable income suggests that non-compliance and underreporting are fairly well controlled and are probably most significant in the lower income brackets and in certain counties in the Cincinnati area. An analysis of audit reports suggests the need for several legislative changes. The state law permits a deduction for federal income taxes which results in disorders of prime importance. The effect of the deduction is so pronounced that changes in federal rates tend to have an inverse relationship on state revenue. The definition of adjusted gross income also results in discriminations among certain taxpayers. Some issues concern only corporations. The statutory exemption of certain corporations is ambiguous and causes some question as to the scope of the tax. The allocation of corporation income derived from two or more states urgently needs remedial action. Particularly the property and sales factors should be redefined. The technique of determining taxable income of affiliated corporations might be improved if ascertained by the three-factor formula. Through the adoption of a current collection program, Kentucky may achieve desirable fiscal and administrative effects. The study considers aspects important to such a program, including the scope, amount of payments, returns and schedule of payments, refunds, revenue estimates, initial taxpayer burden, and attitude toward its adoption.

Income tax discrimination against the professions.

Under Section 165( a ) and related sections of the 1942 Federal Internal Revenue Code, funds used by companies for the purpose of providing employees with pensions or shares in profit-sharing trusts are deductible from gross receipts as business expenses and thus are not a taxable part of the employer's or company's income, if the particular plan is approved by the Bureau. These funds do not become a taxable part of the recipient's income until they are actually received, either when the recipient retires or when he cashes in on his profit-sharing account—at which time he will presumably be in a lower income bracket. Since the provisions of Section 165( a ) and related sections are restricted to employees, professional men who can qualify as employees—for example, company lawyers and company physicians—can receive the benefits of these pensions and profit-sharing trusts, while those who conduct their professions as single proprietorships or partnerships may not

Fine Arts in the Core Curriculum

Fine Arts in the Core Curriculum

The Nazis Reform the Reich

Revolutions shift power not only from one economic class to another, but also from one governmental level to another. Not only is there a new deal between industrialists and laborers, between financiers and merchants, between those in the higher and those in the lower income brackets, but the centers of strength also shift from one region to another and from one governmental authority to another; and there is a new balance of power between the province and the nation, between the city and the state.