Yesterday I took a picture of a sign on a coin machine at Walmart, which advertised: "Turn Your Change into Cash". I didn't expect to use the photo, but realized today it's proof that I'm a penny pincher living in the past, because I still count coins as cash, even when facing over $16 trillion in debt. Now, after a fast-food lunch break (grape juice, piece of bread, and a mini Hershey’s bar stolen from the trick-or-treat bucket), it motivates me to post my idea from July 19: [In the USA and other countries, is it a] “Monetary or Fiscal Problem?”
Over twenty years ago I became a volunteer teacher for Junior Achievement in elementary, junior high, and high school for four years. The basic concepts we learned are basically the same today, including fiscal and monetary policy, which we hear/see often in the news media.
“Junior Achievement is the world’s largest organization dedicated to educating students about workforce readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy through experiential, hands-on programs. [As opposed to bad-mouthing success,] Junior Achievement programs help prepare young people for the real world by showing them how to generate wealth and effectively manage it, how to create jobs which make their communities more robust, and how to apply entrepreneurial thinking to the workplace. Students put these lessons into action and learn the value of contributing to their communities. JA’s unique approach allows volunteers from the community to deliver our curriculum while sharing their experiences with students.” -- www.ja.org/about/
[One of many JA classroom-based programs I taught:]
“JA Economics® examines the fundamental concepts of micro-, macro-, and international economics.
Concepts: Advantage, Demand, Economics system, Exchange rates, Fiscal policy, Government, Gross domestic product, Income distribution, Inflation, Investment, Labor, Markets, Opportunity cost, Productivity, Scarcity, Supply, Trade.
Skills: Applying information, Classifying, Critical thinking, Decision making, Giving reports, Graphing, Interpreting data, Math computation, Reading, Research, Taking notes, Writing.” -- www.ja.org/docload/programs/scopeandsequence/2012...
(I didn’t find "monetary policy" on the JA site, but I’m sure it was and is taught.) Thanks to Wikipedia, we can take fast gulps of the two words:
“In economics and political science, fiscal policy is the use of government revenue collection (taxation) and expenditure (spending) to influence the economy. The two main instruments of fiscal policy are government taxation and expenditure. ... “ -- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiscal_policy
“Monetary policy is the process by which the monetary authority of a country controls the supply of money, often targeting a rate of interest for the purpose of promoting economic growth and stability. The official goals usually include relatively stable prices and low unemployment. ...” -- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monetary_policy
(Not too fast to better understand what’s going on, I hope. By the way, this one about two words reminds me of my first post two years ago (Oct. 20), titled “Words”.)
