Tuesday, October 20, 2009

WH II: 21 October 2009

Prayer

Current events:


Icons, symbols, and the selling of a presidential campaign have become staples of the American political landscape. For instance, Joe McGinniss changed the way we view political campaigns with his book “The Selling of the President 1968.” Branding is not always effective, one recent poss indicates that although both Democratic and Republican numbers have shifted; the crucial shift is in the rise of independent voters. In late January, a USA Today/Gallup poll recorded 25% as unaffiliated or independent. Now in mid-October, the average data compiled from dozens of surveys over more than a year shows Independent ID at 35% percent, the most significant shift noted of the three. Today, we can consider presidential messages to consider what has changed—and what hasn’t changed over time.

In the tumultuous summer of 1968, McGinniss learned something nobody wanted the American public to know: The two Presidential candidates, Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey, had hired advertising agencies to package them like products and sell them to the American people.

In the age of television, wrote Nixon’s image adviser, Raymond Price, in an internal memo, “the response is to the image, not to the man…It’s not what’s there that counts, it’s what’s projected.” The selection of a President, he added, “has to be an act of faith…This faith isn’t achieved by reason; it’s achieved by charisma, by a feeling of trust that can’t be argued or reasoned.”

During the French Revolution, iconography and feelings of hatred were expressed against the French monarchy. The Bastille was the hated icon of the French monarchy therefore not surprisingly French Revolutionary painting depicted the attack on the Bastille (Cf. the illustration below: "The Destruction of the Old Regime"). Likewise, the tri-color French flag imitates the example of the exceptional Americans who had used the same red, white, and blue colors in their fight against the British.

Today's lesson plan and HW is available on the blog: http://gmicksmithsocialstudies.blogspot.com/

Email: gmsmith@shanahan.org

The Shanawiki page (http://shanawiki.wikispaces.com/) has updated class information.

The online version of a portion of the Textbook is available.

LibraryThing has bibliographic resources.

I moved the "Blog Archive" to the top right on the blog page so it should be easier to find the daily lesson, HW, and other class material.

Sr. has advised students to check online teaching materials (as we have been doing since the first day of school).


Chapter 11 (newer edition Ch. 18): The French Revolution and Napoleon, 1789–1815

Ch. 11 Section 1 The French Revolution Begins

Parisians storm the Bastille on July 14, 1789.



The Destruction of the Old Regime

Declaration of the Rights of Man



In late August, as a first step toward writing a constitution, the Assembly issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. The document was modeled in part on the American Declaration of Independence, written 13 years earlier. All men, the French declaration announced, were “born and remain free and equal in rights.” They enjoyed natural rights to “liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.” Like the writings of Locke and the philosophes, the constitution insisted that governments exist to protect the natural rights of citizens.

The National Assembly issued this document in 1789 after having overthrown the established government in the early stages of the French Revolution. The document was modeled in part on the English Bill of Rights and on the American Declaration of Independence. The basic principles of the French declaration were those that inspired the revolution, such as the freedom and equality of all male citizens before the law. The Articles below identify additional principles.



Therefore the National Assembly recognizes and proclaims, in the presence and under the auspices of the Supreme Being, the following rights of man and of the citizen:

1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.

2. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression. . . .

4. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else. . . .

5. Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to society. . . .

6. Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right to participate personally, or through his representative, in its formation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or punishes. All citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law, are equally eligible to all dignities and to all public positions and occupations, according to their abilities, and without distinction except that of their virtues and talents.

7. No person shall be accused, arrested, or imprisoned except in the cases and according to the forms prescribed by law. . . .

11. The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom. . . .

13. A common contribution is essential for the maintenance of the public [military] forces and for the cost of administration. This should be equitably distributed among all the citizens in proportion to their means.

The King Concedes (Cf. http://www.librarything.com/work/4250524/book/34672675).

On October 5, about six thousand women marched 13 miles in the pouring rain from Paris to Versailles. “Bread!” they shouted. They demanded to see the king.

Much of the crowd’s anger was directed at the Austrian-born queen, One of the most interesting characters of the period is "Marie Antoinette," sometimes referred to as the Teen Queen, not to be confused with later teen queens. Marie Antoinette (daughter of Maria Theresa and brother of Joseph II). The queen lived a life of great pleasure and extravagance, and this led to further public unrest. Although compassionate to the poor, her small acts went largely unnoticed because her lifestyle overshadowed them. She was against reforms and bored with the French court. She often retreated to the Petit Trianon, a small chateau on the palace grounds at Versailles where she lived her own life of amusement.

The women refused to leave Versailles until the king met their most important demand—to return to Paris. Not too happily, the king agreed. The next morning, the crowd, with the king and his family in tow, set out for the city. At the head of the procession rode women perched on the barrels of seized cannons. They told bewildered spectators that they were bringing Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and their son back to Paris. “Now we won’t have to go so far when we want to see our king,” they sang. Crowds along the way cheered the king, who now wore the tricolor. In Paris, the royal family moved into the Tuileries (twee luh reez) palace. For the next three years, Louis was a virtual prisoner.

Church Reforms

The National Assembly soon followed the king to Paris. Its largely bourgeois members worked to draft a constitution and to solve the continuing financial crisis. To pay off the huge government debt—much of it owed to the bourgeoisie—the Assembly voted to take over and sell Church lands.

In an even more radical move, the National Assembly put the French Catholic Church under state control. Under the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, issued in 1790, bishops and priests became elected, salaried officials. The Civil Constitution ended papal authority over the French Church and dissolved convents and monasteries.

Reaction was swift and angry. Many bishops and priests refused to accept the Civil Constitution. The pope condemned it. Large numbers of French peasants, who were conservative concerning religion, also rejected the changes. When the government punished clergy who refused to support the Civil Constitution, a huge gulf opened between revolutionaries in Paris and the peasantry in the provinces.

A New Constitution and New Fears

The National Assembly completed its main task by producing a constitution. The Constitution of 1791 set up a limited monarchy in place of the absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries. A new Legislative Assembly had the power to make laws, collect taxes, and decide on issues of war and peace. Lawmakers would be elected by tax-paying male citizens over age 25.

To make government more efficient, the constitution replaced the old provinces with 83 departments of roughly equal size. It abolished the old provincial courts, and it reformed laws.

To moderate reformers, the Constitution of 1791 seemed to complete the revolution. Reflecting Enlightenment goals, it ensured equality before the law for all male citizens and ended Church interference in government. At the same time, it put power in the hands of men with the means and leisure to serve in government.


War with Austria

The radicals soon held the upper hand in the Legislative Assembly. In April 1792, the war of words between French revolutionaries and European monarchs moved onto the battlefield. Eager to spread the revolution and destroy tyranny abroad, the Legislative Assembly declared war first on Austria and then on Prussia, Britain, and other states. The great powers expected to win an easy victory against France, a land divided by revolution. In fact, however, the fighting that began in 1792 lasted on and off until 1815.

Rise of the Paris Commune

Paris, too, was in turmoil. As the capital and chief city of France, it was the revolutionary center. A variety of factions, or dissenting groups of people, competed to gain power. Moderates looked to the Marquis de Lafayette, the aristocratic “hero of two worlds” who fought alongside George Washington in the American Revolution. Lafayette headed the National Guard, a largely middle-class militia organized in response to the arrival of royal troops in Paris. The Guard was the first group to don the tricolor—a red, white, and blue badge that was eventually adopted as the national flag of France.

A more radical group, the Paris Commune, replaced the royalist government of the city. It could mobilize whole neighborhoods for protests or violent action to further the revolution. Newspapers and political clubs—many even more radical than the Commune—blossomed everywhere. Some demanded an end to the monarchy and spread scandalous stories about the royal family and members of the court.



Preview

Section 2 Radical Revolution and Reaction

The Sans-Culottes
by Albert Soboul




HW: email me at gmsmith@shanahan.org.

1. What actions did delegates of the Third Estate take when the Estates-General met in 1789?

2. Why did the Third Estate object to each estate's having one vote in the Estates-General?

3. What was the significance of the Constitution of 1791?

AP Economics: 21 October 2009

Prayer:
Current events:



Congressman Rogers from Michigan explains HR 3200 which is not the same measure passed out of the Senate Finance Committee (the Baucus Bill) recently, but his remarks are nonetheless relevant conceptually and philosophically.

As to S. 1796, it was filed today, although the text has not been released to the public, and it amounts to 1,502 pages.

Charles Krauthammer, a Fox News contributor, remarked on the Baucus bill on 10.8.09:


On the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) scoring of the Baucus health-care bill:

Look, the CBO scoring, the numbers that came in, the blessing it gave — is because of smoke and mirrors in the bill. For the people of Wichita, somebody has to wade into the weeds. I did it at great health risk.

Two items here. One of them is the $120 billion assumed of income from what are called “fees” of the big players in health care — the health insurers, the drug companies, the guys who do diagnostics and who produce the medical equipment.

The fee is a tax, and the tax, $120 billion, is going to end up out of your pocket and mine, because every penny of it will be in higher insurance, higher costs for drugs, for stents — any kind of medical devices — and for diagnostics. Everybody will pay.

But it’s hidden. It is a cowardly way to do a tax. You do it on the industry and it is passed on.

Secondly, there are individual mandates. People are going to be shelling out a huge amount every year on insurance, and those who don’t are going to have to pay a fine, also a tax, but under another name.

There are huge costs in here, which are all hidden, and that’s why it looks OK.

And secondly, there is a $400 billion assumption of cuts in Medicare. That is not going to happen. It is an illusion. It is a fantasy. And that’s why the numbers end up OK.

So if you really look behind all of these numbers, [the Baucus bill] is a disaster.

The Heritage Foundation has also offered a sobering assessment of the financing of the Bill.


Today's lesson plan and HW is available on the blog: http://gmicksmithsocialstudies.blogspot.com/

Email: gmsmith@shanahan.org

The Shanawiki page (http://shanawiki.wikispaces.com/) has updated class information.

LibraryThing has bibliographic resources.

I moved the "Blog Archive" to the top right on the blog page so it should be easier to find the daily lesson, HW, and other class material.

Chapter Three, Demand and Supply

Discussion from Friday: Questions for discussion on Shanawiki: Demand: Hybrid Cars
Question: Sales of hybrid cars are on the rise. The Toyota Prius, while priced above comparable gasoline-only cars, is selling well. Other manufacturers are adding hybrids to their lines as well. What has been the cause of the rising sales of hybrids? Is this an increase in demand or an increase in quantity demanded?


Supply: iPods, iTunes, and MP3 players
Question: What has been the impact of the iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players in general
on high-end stereo equipment sales? Has the same impact been at work with CD
music sales since downloading of individual songs was introduced by Apple?


Equilibrium: China and India
Question: As China and India (both with huge populations and rapidly growing
economies) continue to develop, what do you think will happen to their demand for
energy and specifically oil? What will suppliers of oil do in the face of this demand? Will this have an impact on world energy (oil) prices? What sort of policies or events could alter your forecast about the future price of oil?

Extended Examples in the Chapter

Putting Demand and Supply to Work

Both of the following examples use supply and demand analysis as a framework for
predicting how market participants will act, and what the resulting price and output might be.

Excess Grape Supply and Two-Buck Chuck

The great California wine of the 1990s put California wine on the map. Demand,
prices, and exports grew rapidly. Over planting of new grape vines was a result.
Driving along Interstate 5 or Highway 101 north of Los Angeles, grape vineyards
extend for miles as far as the eye can see, and most were planted in the mid to late 1990s. The 2001 recession reduced the demand for California wine, and a rising dollar made imported wine relatively cheaper. The result was a sharp drop in demand for California wine and a huge surplus of grapes. Bronco Wine Company President Fred Franzia made an exclusive deal with Trader Joe’s (an unusual supermarket that features exotic food and wine products), bought the excess grapes at distressed prices, and with his modern plant produced inexpensive wine under the Charles Shaw label. Selling for $1.99 a bottle, Two-Buck Chuck as it is known is available in Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, and Sauvignon Blanc. Consumers have flocked to Trader Joe’s and literally haul cases of wine out by the carload. Today, Two-Buck Chuck sells well over a million cases a month. This is not rot-gut: the 2002 Shiraz beat out 2,300 other wines to win a double gold medal at the 2004 28th Annual International Eastern Wine Competition.

Two-Buck Chuck was such a hit that other supermarkets were forced to offer their
own discount wines. This good, low-priced wine has had the effect of opening up
markets. As an illustration can be demonstrated, people who previously avoided wine because of the cost have begun drinking more (demand curves do slope down and to the right).

As The Economist has noted, the entire industry may benefit because “Wine
drinkers who start off drinking plonk often graduate to upmarket varieties.”

For more information about this wine and conditions in the wine industry, visit the following Web sites:

From CBS News, a story titled “ ‘Two Buck Chuck’ Wine Cult” points out that it is
the surplus of grapes that makes the wine so inexpensive. On the web at: http://
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/02/eveningnews/main556620.shtml
KTVU.com (from the Bay Area of California) has a story titled “‘Two Buck Chuck’
Changing Wine Habits” which makes the point that “quality does not necessarily follow price.” http://www.ktvu.com/consumer/1954524/detail.html

Trek Bikes and Lance

When Lance Armstrong won his seventh Tour de France cycling championship in
July, 2005, he rode a bicycle made by Trek of the United States.2 So on the demand
side, we can expect demand for the victor’s brand of bicycles to go up. This in fact happened, in both the United States and Europe. On the supply side, U.S. bicycle manufacturers such as Trek and Cannondale were willing to increase output as shown in Figure 15 (note that the supply curve didn’t change, only quantity supplied).

This process worked well in the U.S. but proved tougher in Europe, not so
much in the actual production of the bicycles but in getting stores to stock them. Up to a few years ago, racing bicycles were almost exclusively made by European companies.

___
1 “California Drinking,” The Economist, June 7th, 2003, p. 56.
2 See Ian Austen, “U.S. Bike Makers Seek Dominance in Europe,” The New York Times,
December 30, 2003, p. W1.

The Market for Bicycles

Using our supply and demand analysis, we see that demand increased. Since no
determinant of supply changed, we know that just output will increase, and prices
for Trek bicycles will rise. Our supply and demand analysis gives us a useful framework for predicting how market participants will act, and what the resulting price and output might be.

For More Information

In an article titled “Trek Bicycle Coup: Tour de Force” in Baseline (on the web at
http://www.baselinemag.com/article2/0,1397,1618016,00.asp), the author details the
technology used in making the bikes, as well as providing data on prices and quantities.

The phrase “limitless tolerance on price” is a good introduction to the topic
of elasticity (to be covered in an upcoming chapter).

Examples Used in the End-of-Chapter Questions

Question 10 discusses the market for virtual goods. Based on Rob Walker, “The
Buying Game: A real market, overseen by a real corporation selling things that don’t really exist,” (The New York Times Magazine, October 16, 2005, p. 28), the question asks students to consider the markets for goods used in on-line games such as EverQuest II. This example encourages students to see that markets “really” exist even in “virtual” worlds.

For a further demonstration, visit the homepage of Second Life (at http://secondlife.com/) and see how much in U.S. dollars has been spent…in just 24 hours!

Question 11 is based on a Wall Street Journal story by Peter Sanders and Stephanie
Kang, (“Wipeout for Key Player in Surfboard Industry,” The Wall Street Journal,
December 8, 2005, p.B1) that discusses the closing of Clark Foam. The key point of
the example is that the firm was a manufacturer of a critical input needed to make
surfboards. It provides a good illustration about how a change in price and availability of a resource carries over into product markets.

For another story and some good visuals, see the page on the web at http://www.
transworldsnowboarding.com/twbiz/features/article/0,21214,1138359,00.htm.

Question 12 examines the effect of increased demand in the market for polysilicon,
used in making solar panels. It is based on the story by John Carey, “What’s Raining on Solar’s Parade” (Business Week, February 6, 2006, p. 78). The key point for discussion here is the impact of uncertainty, which is another way to talk about the role of expectations on demand and supply.

For more about the dynamics of the polysilicon market, see the story from IndustrialControl Designline on the web at http://www.industrialcontroldesignline.com/
showArticle.jhtml?printableArticle=true&articleId=163701891.

Question 13 provides a good example of how synthetic substitute products can be
developed when “natural” products become scarce. Based on the story by James
Altucher, “Supply, demand and edible orchids” (The Financial Times, September
20, 2005, p.12), it presents students with a data set, requires them to graph and analyze the data, and then illustrate the effects of changes in demand and supply.
Particular attention is given to the idea that even as supply is changing, demand may also be changing (in this case, due to the development of a synthetic).

Did you know that vanilla is the most labor-intensive agricultural product in the
world? You can find out just about everything there is to know about vanilla on the web at http://www.vanilla.com/html/facts-faq.html.

For Further Analysis

The Supply and Demand Effects of the Increased Use of Ethanol

Handout 3-1 is an in-class group exercise with your small group.

Students are asked to draw graphs illustrating shifts in demand and supply
and changes in quantity demanded and supplied. Asking students to document
research about specifics in this topic (for example, changes in planted acreage).

Learning objectives: application of concepts of changes in quantity demanded
and quantity supplied versus changes in demand and supply; demonstration of mastery of graphing techniques; and reinforcement of critical thinking skills.

Web-based Exercise

What’s Been Driving Gasoline Prices?

This example can be used as an in-class group exercise.

Asking students to perform (and document) additional research allows you
to use it as a case study or group project as well. For example, students can be
asked to document gasoline sales to see if, as predicted, an increase in demand
results in both a higher price and a greater quantity sold.

Learning objectives: application of concepts of changes in quantity demanded
and quantity supplied versus changes in demand and supply; demonstration of mastery of graphing techniques; and reinforcement of critical thinking skills.

The Supply and Demand Effects of the Increased Use of Ethanol

Draw a supply and demand graph showing the market for corn in equilibrium. Label the demand curve as “DOld” and the supply curve as “S”. Then illustrate the effect of an increased demand for corn due to its being used to produce ethanol. Explain the changes in price and equilibrium quantity using the vocabulary of “changes in quantity demanded,” and “changes in quantity supplied,” as well as “change in demand” and “change in supply.”

Use a supply and demand graph to illustrate and explain the impact of a higher price of corn on any one of a wide variety of food products; be sure to include the effect on the cost of high-fructose corn syrup.

Send HW in email to gmsmith@shanahan.org for this exercise.

If you already did the HW you have no HW for tonight (this is the same as listed for yesterday's HW).

Define the following terms:
1. Change in demand
2. Change in quantity demanded
3. Supply
4. Law of Supply
5. Supply curve
6. Determinants of supply
7. Change in supply
8. Change in quantity supplied
9. Surplus
10. Shortage