Government Deficits and Public Debt Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Government Deficits and Public Debt - Term Paper Example The reverse is a negative deficit where the outstanding government debt falls. This negative deficit is referred to as a surplus. The borrowing by a specific government issues securities to the parties holding the IOU which lays down the terms of the amount borrowed. The total amount of these IOUs equals the total of the debt that the specific government has not paid. This includes all the amounts outstanding which are inclusive of interest to be paid and the principal amount. The government debt is unlike other private accounting procedures where debt is a measurement of assets and liabilities of a government. The changes in capital are measured by capital budgeting which takes into account assets and liabilities. Several types of debts that are given out by several different governments can be divided into several ways. One way of classifying this debt is according to the specific type of government issuing the IOU. In the case of the United States, there are several divisions of government which includes Federal, state, and the local debt. This debt can, however, be classified by the period it would take to mature from the date of issue, for example, a five-year bond. The government deficit is expressed in real values rather than nominal values. This is because using nominal values would result in an overstatement of debt that is required to cover the government deficit. Moreover, the size of this government debt is measured by the debt ratio and also government debt is measured as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product. A deficit occurs in a situation where government purchases and transfers which form the government spending exceed income in form of tax receipts. To cover the deficit in su ch a case, the government must borrow. The finances of most industrial economies by the end of World War 1 were never as they are present.

Respect and the Attica Correctional Facility Research Paper

Respect and the Attica Correctional Facility - Research Paper Example After three days of negotiating the state police opened fire after tear gas was dropped on the rioting inmates. The death toll came to 29 inmates and 10 hostages which the state tried to claim came from ‘zip guns’ which are homemade guns that inmates sometimes make and that some had their throats cut. In the end, it was proven that all died of real gunshot wounds and that the inmates had not had any zip guns. The state police had killed them all. The corruption in the prison included not only brutal punishments by the guards on the prisoners, but racial discrimination and punishment that was based upon the color of skin a man wore (Danver, 2011). There were many consequences from the actions taken in this riot. After the riots one of the inmates, Frank Smith was made to lie naked on a table with a football balanced on his chest. He was told that should he let the ball fall he would be castrated. The guards also established other tortures including making naked men run a gauntlet of nightsticks or crawl through glass. Frank Smith and others who had been treated with these punishments filed suit against the prison in 1974. He received four million dollars in a civil suit against the facility with 23 other prisoners receiving a settlement of eight million dollars. Although the consequences of the riot caused prison reform to take place, the prison remains a hard line prison with tough restrictions on inmates who are considered to be some of the most dangerous (Danver, 2011). The question is if they are dangerous because of the conditions imposed and the new construction of social living that they are forced to conform under. The Attica Correctional Facility of today is only moderately... The term respect is one that is very important in the construction of social order in the Attica Correctional facility. The facility is known for housing some of the worst criminals in the United States, leaving the structure for abuse open from both inmates and guards where people have largely forgotten about those who enter into those walls. Respect, therefore, is won through violent and physical confrontation. This allows those in the culture within the walls to determine who has status and who will be the weaker section of the population. While male dominated codes and structures are at the core of the hierarchy, there are some unique concepts in a prison that already has a great deal of structure. Male dominance is at the center of this construction of social order and at the core of male dominance is the need for having respect, showing respect, and earning respect. Some prisoners earn respect just to keep them safe while others earn it to gain power among their peers. The one solidarity that is common among all the prisoners is against the guards. From the evidence of the 1971 riot and the restrictions that are enforced on the behavior of men in the prison system that this nuances and subtleties of life in Attica are often built upon the fragile amounts of freedom they are given. Without the development of structures of respect, they would be lost to the oppression that the guards and the system impose.