Misplaced Pages

#201798

129-419: Economist Jonathan Gruber has put forth a framework to assess the broad field of public finance. Gruber suggests public finance should be thought of in terms of four central questions: One of the more traditional subfields of economics, public finance emphasizes the function and role of government in the economy. A region's inhabitants established a formal or informal entity known as the government to carry out

258-551: A cash flow statement . Two other similarities between the GFSM 2001 and business financial accounting are the recommended use of accrual accounting as the basis of recording and the presentations of stocks of assets and liabilities at market value . It is an improvement on the prior methodology – Government Finance Statistics Manual 1986 – based on cash flows and without a balance sheet statement. The GFSM 2001 recommends standard tables including standard fiscal indicators that meet

387-426: A taxation system that creates the fewest efficiency losses caused by distortion of economic activity as possible. In practice, government budgeting or public budgeting is substantially more complicated and often results in inefficient practices. Government can pay for spending by borrowing (for example, with government bonds ), although borrowing is a method of distributing tax burdens through time rather than

516-593: A broad group of users including policy makers, researchers, and investors in sovereign debt. Government finance statistics should offer data for topics such as the fiscal architecture, the measurement of the efficiency and effectiveness of government expenditures, the economics of taxation, and the structure of public financing. The GFSM 2001 provides a blueprint for the compilation, recording, and presentation of revenues, expenditures, stocks of assets, and stocks of liabilities. The GFSM 2001 also defines some indicators of effectiveness in government's expenditures, for example

645-404: A disaggregated classification of financial and non-financial assets. These data help estimate the resources a government can potentially access to repay its debt. The statement of operations ("income statement") contains the revenue and expense accounts of the government. The revenue accounts are divided into subaccounts, including the different types of taxes, social contributions, dividends from

774-445: A field began becoming more well-known and independently recognized around this time, with John Ramsay McCulloch writing many pivotal works in the field. Collection of sufficient resources from the economy in an appropriate manner along with allocating and use of these resources efficiently and effectively constitute good financial management. Resource generation, resource allocation, and expenditure management (resource utilization) are

903-425: A fine of only one obolus (a sixth of a drachm). Slaves did have the right to possess a house and livestock, which could be transmitted to descendants, as could clothing and household furnishings. Their family was recognized by law: they could marry, divorce, write a testament and inherit just like free men. Debt, especially in the agricultural field, was a very common occurrence in ancient Greece. A large portion of

1032-460: A fixed tax-payment to their masters. Athens also had a law forbidding the striking of slaves: if a person struck what appeared to be a slave in Athens, that person might find himself hitting a fellow citizen because many citizens dressed no better. It astonished other Greeks that Athenians tolerated back-chat from slaves. Athenian slaves fought together with Athenian freemen at the battle of Marathon , and

1161-461: A government chooses to finance its activities can have important effects on the distribution of income and wealth ( income redistribution ) and on the efficiency of markets ( effect of taxes on market prices and efficiency ). The issue of how taxes affect income distribution is closely related to tax incidence , which examines the distribution of tax burdens after market adjustments are taken into account. Public finance research also analyzes effects of

1290-531: A government or a voluntary association, however, is subject to other inefficiencies, termed " government failure ." Under broad assumptions, government decisions about the efficient scope and level of activities can be efficiently separated from decisions about the design of taxation systems (Diamond-Mirrlees separation). In this view, public sector programs should be designed to maximize social benefits minus costs ( cost-benefit analysis), and then revenues needed to pay for those expenditures should be raised through

1419-437: A key architect of both the 2006 Massachusetts health care reform , sometimes referred to as "Romneycare", and the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act , sometimes referred to as the "ACA" and "Obamacare". He became the focus of media and political controversy in late 2014 when videos surfaced in which he made controversial statements about the legislative process, marketing strategies, and public perception surrounding

SECTION 10

#1733086169202

1548-504: A large consumer of slaves, led to development of the market and an aggravation of piracy. In the 1st century BC, however, the Romans largely eradicated piracy to protect the Mediterranean trade routes. Slave raids were a specific form of banditry that was a primary method of gathering slaves. In regions such as Thrace and the eastern Aegean, natives, or barbaroi, captured in slave raids were

1677-406: A master who excessively mistreated a slave could be prosecuted by any citizen (γραφὴ ὕβρεως / graphē hybreōs ); this was not enacted for the sake of the slave, but to avoid violent excess (ὕβρις / hubris ). Isocrates claimed that "not even the most worthless slave can be put to death without trial"; the master's power over his slave was not absolute. Draco 's law apparently punished with death

1806-511: A profit that would be greater to society than the individual. One of the most pivotal works on taxation, Adam Smith's Canons of Taxation gave further criteria for taxation, namely equality, certainty, convenience, and economy. Following Adam Smith, several economists expanded on his ideas, or transformed them as in the case of Thomas Robert Malthus , who believed that tax-financed public works would be most effective, so long as it created greater demand for labor and commodities. Public finance as

1935-690: A regional level, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (Dibidami ) compiles general government account data for its members, and Eurostat, following a methodology compatible with the GFSM 2001, compiles GFS for the members of the European Union. Social equality is the equivalent treatment of and opportunity for members of different groups within society regardless of individual distinctions of race, ethnicity, gender, age, social class, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, or other characteristics or circumstances. Social fairness includes

2064-431: A replacement for taxes. A deficit is the difference between government spending and revenues. The accumulation of deficits over time is the total public debt . Deficit finance allows governments to smooth tax burdens over time and gives governments an important fiscal policy tool. Deficits can also narrow the options of successor governments. There is also a difference between public and private finance, in public finance

2193-565: A series of videos emerged of Gruber speaking about the ACA at different events, from 2010 to 2013, in ways that proved to be controversial; the controversy became known in the press as "Grubergate". In the first, most widely publicized video, taken at a panel discussion about the ACA at the University of Pennsylvania in October 2013, Gruber said the bill was deliberately written "in a tortured way" to disguise

2322-520: A sign of wealth, nor is the population stated consistent with the known figures for bread production and import. The orator Hypereides , in his Against Areistogiton , recalls that the effort to enlist 15,000 male slaves of military age led to the defeat of the Southern Greeks at the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC) , which corresponds to the figures of Ctesicles . According to the literature, it appears that

2451-422: A state and you don't set up an exchange, that means your citizens don't get their tax credits ", while in the other he says, "if your governor doesn't set up an exchange, you're losing hundreds of millions of dollars of tax credits to be delivered to your citizens". When these recordings emerged, Gruber called these statements mistaken, describing them as "just a speak-o—you know, like a typo". In November 2014,

2580-727: A thesis titled Changes in the Structure of Employer-Provided Health Insurance . He has 3 children, Rachel, Jack, and Ava Gruber. Gruber began his career as an assistant professor of economics at MIT in 1992. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research . Gruber's research has focused on public finance and health economics. He has published over 150 research articles and has had his hand in editing six research volumes. He has written Public Finance and Public Policy , Health Care Reform and Jump-Starting America: How Breakthrough Science Can Revived Economic Growth and

2709-463: A trusty slave was Themistocles 's Persian slave Sicinnus (the counterpart of Ephialtes of Trachis ), who, despite his Persian origin, betrayed Xerxes and helped Athenians in the Battle of Salamis . Despite torture in trials, the Athenian slave was protected in an indirect way: if he was mistreated, the master could initiate litigation for damages and interest (δίκη βλάβης / dikē blabēs ). Conversely,

SECTION 20

#1733086169202

2838-466: A variety of tasks, including providing for social requirements like education and healthcare as well as protecting the populace's private property from outside threats. The proper role of government provides a starting point for the analysis of public finance . In theory, under certain circumstances, private markets will allocate goods and services among individuals efficiently (in the sense that no waste occurs and that individual tastes are matching with

2967-463: A workman at major works was paid one drachma per day. Demosthenes' father's cutlers were valued at 500 to 600 drachmas each. Price was also a function of the quantity of slaves available; in the 4th century BC they were abundant and it was thus a buyer's market. A tax on sale revenues was levied by the market cities. For instance, a large helot market was organized during the festivities at the temple of Apollo at Actium . The Acarnanian League, which

3096-453: Is money (or credit ) owed by any level of government ; either central or federal government , municipal government , or local government . Some local governments issue bonds based on their taxing authority, such as tax increment bonds or revenue bonds . As the government represents the people, government debt can be seen as an indirect debt of the taxpayers . Government debt can be categorized as internal debt , owed to lenders within

3225-414: Is a central, state or local institutional unit whose main activity is to provide social benefits. It fulfils the two following criteria: The GFSM 2001 framework is similar to the financial accounting of businesses. For example, it recommends that governments produce a full set of financial statements including the statement of government operations (akin to the income statement ), the balance sheet , and

3354-457: Is a financial charge or other levy imposed on an individual or a legal entity by a state or a functional equivalent of a state (for example, tribes , secessionist movements or revolutionary movements). Taxes could also be imposed by a subnational entity . Taxes consist of direct tax or indirect tax , and may be paid in money or as corvée labor. A tax may be defined as a "pecuniary burden laid upon individuals or property to support

3483-673: Is an American professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , where he has taught since 1992. He is also the director of the Health Care Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research , where he is a research associate. An associate editor of both the Journal of Public Economics and the Journal of Health Economics , Gruber has been heavily involved in crafting public health policy . He has been described as

3612-591: Is beset by significant methodological problems. Documentation is disjointed and very fragmented, focusing primarily on the city-state of Athens . No treatises are specifically devoted to the subject, and jurisprudence was interested in slavery only as much as it provided a source of revenue. Greek comedies and tragedies represented stereotypes , while iconography made no substantial differentiation between slaves and craftsmen . .The ancient Greeks had several words to indicate slaves, which leads to textual ambiguity when they are studied out of their proper context. In

3741-561: Is consistent with regionally accepted methodologies such as the European System of Accounts 1995 and consistent with the methodology of the System of National Accounts (SNA1993) and broadly in line with its most recent update, the SNA2008 . The size of governments, their institutional composition and complexity, their ability to carry out large and sophisticated operations, and their impact on

3870-454: Is defined as the separate institutional units that exercise some government functions below those units at central government level and above those units at local government level, excluding the administration of social security funds. "Local government" consists of all types of public administration whose responsibility covers only a local part of the economic territory, apart from local agencies of social security funds. "Social security fund"

3999-484: Is difficult to estimate the number of slaves in ancient Greece, given the lack of a precise census and variations in definitions during that era. It seems certain that Athens had the largest slave population, with as many as 80,000 in the 6th and 5th centuries BC, on average three or four slaves per household. In the 5th century BC, Thucydides remarked on the desertion of 20,890 slaves during the war of Decelea , mostly tradesmen. The lowest estimate, of 20,000 slaves, during

Public finance - Misplaced Pages Continue

4128-650: Is mainly sorry for getting caught on tape". On December 17, 2014, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin cancelled the Vermont health care reform plan, on which Gruber had served as a consultant. Although budgetary concerns were cited as the reason for the cancellation, some called Gruber's involvement with the plan a factor as well. According to VPR , Vermont state auditor Doug Hoffer is auditing Gruber's contracts for Vermont health care reform , which Gruber "helped Vermont design". The extent of Gruber's contributions to both Massachusetts and federal health care reform has been

4257-549: Is necessary in a welfare State to fulfill its obligations. Taxation is used as an instrument of attaining certain social objectives, i.e., as a means of redistribution of wealth and thereby reducing inequalities. Taxation in a modern government is thus needed not merely to raise the revenue required to meet its expenditure on administration and social services, but also to reduce the inequalities of income and wealth. Taxation might also be needed to draw away money that would otherwise go into consumption and cause inflation to rise. A tax

4386-611: Is the advance hand in hand, of freedom and slavery." All activities were open to slaves with the exception of politics. For the Greeks, politics was the only occupation worthy of a citizen, the rest being relegated wherever possible to non-citizens. It was status that was of importance, not occupation. The principal use of slavery was in agriculture , the foundation of the Greek economy. Some small landowners might own one slave, or even two. An abundant literature of manuals for landowners (such as

4515-458: Is the willingness of some people to tolerate and defend corruption when done by 'their side.'" One heavily scrutinized part of the ACA reads that subsidies should be given to healthcare recipients who are enrolled "through an Exchange established by the State". Some have read this to mean that subsidies can be given only in states that have chosen to create their own healthcare exchanges, and do not use

4644-416: Is unclear. The presence of douloi is confirmed by lyric poets such as Archilochus or Theognis of Megara . According to epigraphic evidence, the homicide law of Draco ( c.  620 BC) mentioned slaves. Draco, the first Athenian lawgiver, allowed a wide space for private violence against the slave. According to Plutarch, Solon ( c.  594–593 BC) forbade slaves from practising gymnastics and pederasty. By

4773-582: Is δοῦλος ( doulos ), used in opposition to "free man" (ἐλεύθερος, eleútheros ); an earlier form of the former appears in Mycenaean inscriptions as do-e-ro , "male slave" (or "servant", "bondman"; Linear B: 𐀈𐀁𐀫), or do-e-ra , "female slave" (or "maid-servant", "bondwoman"). The verb δουλεὐω (which survives in Modern Greek, meaning "work") can be used metaphorically for other forms of dominion, as of one city over another or parents over their children. Finally,

4902-520: The Economy of Xenophon or that of Pseudo-Aristotle ) confirms the presence of dozens of slaves on the larger estates; they could be common labourers or foremen. The extent to which slaves were used as a labour force in farming is disputed. It is certain that rural slavery was very common in Athens, and that ancient Greece did not have the immense slave populations found on the Roman latifundia . Slave labour

5031-561: The Auditor of North Carolina to assist in auditing a Medicaid program was terminated. In two subsequent videos, Gruber was shown talking about the decision (which he attributed to John Kerry ) to have the bill tax insurance companies instead of patients (the so-called "Cadillac tax"), which he called fundamentally the same thing economically but more palatable politically. In one video, he stated that "the American people are too stupid to understand

5160-613: The Obama administration 's health care reform policies, some commentators suggested a conflict of interest . Paul Krugman in The New York Times argued that, although Gruber didn't always disclose his HHS connections, the times when he didn't were no big deal. In response to Krugman's contention, Salon ' s Glenn Greenwald wrote, "What will make it impossible to effectively call out wrongdoing by future corrupt administrations (by which Krugman seems to mean: Republican administrations)

5289-642: The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Jason Furman , an economic adviser to the president, Ezekiel Emanuel , who was then a special adviser for health policy at OMB, Jeanne Lambrew , a top Obama administration health adviser who worked at HHS and the White House, and Lawrence Summers , then a top economic adviser in the administration. In July 2009, he was invited to meet personally with Obama. During his December 2014 congressional hearing, in both his written and oral testimony, Gruber downplayed his own influence on

Public finance - Misplaced Pages Continue

5418-786: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act , often referred to as the ACA or "Obamacare". The Act was signed into law in March 2010, and Gruber has been described as an "architect", "writer", and "consultant" of the legislation. He was widely interviewed and quoted during the legislation's roll-out. In 2010 and 2011, Gruber was involved in crafting and advocating for the Single-Payer and Unified Health System bill in Vermont , which passed in May 2011. The bill established Green Mountain Care, which aimed to be

5547-480: The cursus publicum . Each region had a set amount to pay which would be collected by aristocrats. Who paid taxes was determined by local officials. The Romans employed a regressive tax system wherein the lower income levels paid higher taxes and the wealthier enjoyed reduced taxation. During feudalism lacking communication led to issues with pre-existing tax systems. Taxation was organized based on what "men spend" in hopes of encouraging investment and savings. Since

5676-399: The redistribution of income and wealth , with both activities supported mainly by compulsory levies on other sectors. The GFSM 2001 disaggregates the general government into subsectors: central government, state government, and local government (See Figure 1). The concept of general government does not include public corporations . The general government plus the public corporations comprise

5805-512: The "Cadillac tax", this time also stating that the tax is designed so that, though it begins by affecting only 8% of insurance plans, it will "over the next 20 years" come to apply to nearly all employer-provided health plans. Journalist Jake Tapper noted that Gruber's description of the "Cadillac tax" directly contradicted a promise that Obama had made before the bill was passed. After the first of these videos came out, Gruber apologized and conceded he "spoke inappropriately". Some defenders of

5934-532: The 'architect' of the Massachusetts law and/or Obamacare". Slavery in ancient Greece Slavery was a widely accepted practice in ancient Greece , as it was in contemporaneous societies. The principal use of slaves was in agriculture, but they were also used in stone quarries or mines, as domestic servants, or even as a public utility, as with the demosioi of Athens. Modern historiographical practice distinguishes between chattel slavery (where

6063-476: The 4th century BC, the suspect was judged by the Palladion , a court which had jurisdiction over unintentional homicide ; the imposed penalty seems to have been more than a fine but less than death—maybe exile, as was the case in the murder of a Metic . However, slaves did belong to their master's household. A newly bought slave was welcomed with nuts and fruits, just like a newly-wed wife. Slaves took part in most of

6192-459: The 7th century where it's specified that fines resulting from judicial cases should be paid to the king. Later something known as food rent was introduced, wherein regions would pay a certain amount of their foodstuffs to the king periodically. This food rent was not too dissimilar from the taxes imposed on serfs in Russia in the middle ages wherein they were to pay most of their produce and goods to

6321-517: The ACA, such as Jonathan Cohn , called Gruber's statements about Americans "wrong and inappropriate" while maintaining that the trickery of which Gruber spoke was standard procedure in passing legislation in Washington, D.C., and thus not a cause for scandal. Opponents of the Act, on the other hand, were harsher in their criticism: National Review Online editor and conservative commentator Rich Lowry said

6450-721: The Affordable Care Act, and illustrated by Nathan Schreiber. Gruber's published works include: In 2006, Gruber received the American Society of Health Economists Inaugural Medal for the best health economist in the nation aged 40 and under. He was elected a member of the Institute of Medicine in 2005. In 2009 he was elected to the Executive Committee of the American Economic Association . In 2011 he

6579-525: The American Dream (with Simon Johnson). In 2006 he won the American Society of Health Economists Inaugural Medal for the best health economist in the nation aged 40 and under. From 2003 to 2006, Gruber was an essential architect in Massachusetts' health reform effort and became an inaugural member of the Health Connector Board whose job was to oversee these efforts. Later, Gruber was involved in

SECTION 50

#1733086169202

6708-461: The Gortyn code, where all punishment was monetary, fines were doubled for slaves committing a misdemeanour or felony. Conversely, an offence committed against a slave was much less expensive than an offence committed against a free person. As an example, the rape of a free woman by a slave was punishable by a fine of 200 staters (400 drachms ), while the rape of a non-virgin slave by another slave brought

6837-404: The Greek population was composed of peasants, of varying degrees of freedom, who survived on subsistence farming. Thus, lending and borrowing, and consequently incurring debts, was central to peasant life. Peasants could incur debt for a number of reasons. First, given the nature of their agricultural labor, they often borrowed tools, livestock, or sowing material, and these debts could roll over to

6966-661: The Health Connector Board, the main implementing body for that effort. Gruber was ousted from the Massachusetts Health Connector in February 2015. During the 2008 election he was a consultant to the Clinton , Edwards and Obama presidential campaigns. From 2009 to 2010, Gruber served as a technical consultant to the Obama Administration and worked with both the administration and U.S. Congress to help craft

7095-909: The House, who successfully shepherded the legislation through the House of Representatives , without a single GOP vote and despite some opposition from pro-life Democrats, stated in a press conference after the Gruber controversy, "So I don't know who he is. He didn't help write our bill", a comment PolitiFact described as "inaccurate". In the wake of the controversy, Jonathan Gruber was called to testify before members of United States Congress . He gave testimony on December 9, 2014, in which he apologized for his remarks, which he called "glib, thoughtless, and sometimes downright insulting". The Wall Street Journal , in an editorial, called Gruber's apology unpersuasive, saying that "his response to substantive questions suggested that he

7224-466: The Laurium mines or in the mills processing ore has been estimated at 30,000. Xenophon suggested that the city buy a large number of slaves, up to three state slaves per citizen, so that their leasing would assure the upkeep of all the citizens. Slaves were also used as craftsmen and tradespersons . As in agriculture, they were used for labour that was beyond the capability of the family. The slave population

7353-409: The Massachusetts and national health care plans, stating: "I did not draft Governor Romney's health care plan, and I was not the 'architect' of President Obama's health care plan." The newspaper The Hill called this a contradiction of various statements that Gruber had previously made, claiming that at "numerous speeches, lectures and TV interviews in the past four years, Gruber has been introduced as

7482-496: The battlefield. In the Odyssey , the slaves also seem to be mostly women. These slaves were servants and sometimes are concubines. There were some male slaves, especially in the Odyssey , a prime example being the swineherd Eumaeus . The slave was distinctive in being a member of the core part of the oikos ("family unit", "household"): Laertes eats and drinks with his servants; in

7611-408: The central ideas being that the government's central role should be to guarantee private property, and the maintenance of one single tax, namely the produit net , which encompassed the farmer's surplus. Adam Smith also advocated for the laissez-faire attitude, but also claimed that the government would need to take a more proactive role in protection, justice , and public works . He first proposed

7740-702: The civic and family cults; they were expressly invited to join the banquet of the Choes , the second day of the Anthesteria , and were allowed initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries . A slave could claim asylum in a temple or at an altar, just like a free man. The slaves shared the gods of their masters and could keep their own religious customs if any. Slaves could not own property, but their masters often let them save up to purchase their freedom, and records survive of slaves operating businesses by themselves, making only

7869-468: The compensation of employees as a percentage of expense. The GFSM 2001 includes a functional classification of expense as defined by the Classification of Functions of Government (COFOG) . This functional classification allows policy makers to analyze expenditures on categories such as health, education, social protection, and environmental protection. The financial statements can provide investors with

SECTION 60

#1733086169202

7998-475: The cost of producing, distributing and eventually retiring it from circulation. Seigniorage is an important source of revenue for some national banks , although it provides a very small proportion of revenue for advanced industrial countries. Public finance in centrally planned economies has differed in fundamental ways from that in market economies. Some state-owned enterprises generated profits that helped finance government activities.. In various mixed economies,

8127-699: The country, and external debt , owed to foreign lenders. Governments usually borrow by issuing securities such as government bonds and bills. Less creditworthy countries sometimes borrow directly from commercial banks or international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank. Most government budgets are calculated on a cash basis, meaning that revenues are recognized when collected and outlays are recognized when paid. Some consider all government liabilities, including future pension payments and payments for goods and services

8256-636: The creation of the Affordable Care Act and Patient Protection Act. He worked closely with the Obama administration and Congress as a technical consultant. During the 1997–98 academic year, Gruber was on leave as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the United States Department of the Treasury . From 2003 to 2006 he was one of the architects of Massachusetts health care reform , also known as "Romneycare." In 2006 he became an inaugural member of

8385-432: The creditor. Prior to its interdiction by Solon , Athenians practiced debt enslavement: a citizen incapable of paying his debts became "enslaved" to the creditor. Debt bondage primarily concerned peasants known as hektēmoroi who, unable to pay their rents, worked land owned by rich landowners. In theory, debt bondage slaves would be liberated when their original debts were repaid. Solon put an end to debt bondage with

8514-400: The debt. The government's financial statements contain the relevant information for this analysis. The government's balance sheet presents the level of the debt; that is the government's liabilities. The memorandum items of the balance sheet provide additional information on the debt including its maturity and whether it is owed to domestic or external residents. The balance sheet also presents

8643-524: The defeated would become slaves to the victorious unless a more objective outcome was reached; piracy (at sea); banditry (on land); and international trade. By the rules of war of the period, the victor possessed absolute rights over the vanquished, whether they were soldiers or not. Enslavement, while not systematic, was common practice. Thucydides recalls that 7,000 inhabitants of Hyccara in Sicily were taken prisoner by Nicias and sold for 120 talents in

8772-462: The difference" between the two approaches, while in the other he said that the switch worked due to "the lack of economic understanding of the American voter". In another video, taken in 2010, Gruber expressed doubts that the ACA would significantly reduce health care costs, although he noted that lowering costs played a major part in the way the legislation had been promoted. In another video, taken in 2011, Gruber again talks about manipulation behind

8901-442: The economy's productive abilities). If private markets were able to provide efficient outcomes and if the distribution of income were socially acceptable, then there would be little or no scope for government. In many cases, however, conditions for private market efficiency are violated. For example, if many people can enjoy the same good (the moment that good was produced and sold, it starts to give its utility to every one for free) at

9030-421: The end of the period, references become more common. Slavery becomes prevalent at the very moment when Solon establishes the basis for Athenian democracy. Classical scholar Moses Finley likewise remarks that Chios, which, according to Theopompus , was the first city to organize a slave trade, also enjoyed an early democratic process (in the 6th century BC). He concludes that "one aspect of Greek history, in short,

9159-517: The equal access of the various groups forming society to the financial resources and opportunities in all areas. This concept is ensuring that every individual, despite their socioeconomic condition, race, gender, and other qualities, get equal opportunities to benefit from public services that relate to health, education, and social welfare. The core tenets of promoting social equality through public finance include: Jonathan Gruber (economist) Jonathan Holmes Gruber (born September 30, 1965)

9288-747: The essential components of a public financial management system. The following subdivisions form the subject matter of public finance. Economists classify government expenditures into three main types. Government purchases of goods and services for current use are classed as government consumption . Government purchases of goods and services intended to create future benefits – such as infrastructure investment or research spending – are classed as government investment . Government expenditures that are not purchases of goods and services, and instead just represent transfers of money – such as social security payments – are called transfer payments . Government operations are those activities involved in

9417-405: The fact that it creates a system by which "healthy people pay in and sick people get money". He said this obfuscation was needed due to "the stupidity of the American voter" in ensuring the bill's passage. Gruber said the bill's inherent "lack of transparency is a huge political advantage" in selling it. The comments caused significant controversy. As a result, a contract he had with the office of

9546-414: The federal exchange, while the Obama administration says that the wording applies to all states. This dispute was part of a series of lawsuits referred to collectively as King v. Burwell . In July 2014, two separate recordings of Gruber, both from January 2012, surfaced in which he seemed to contradict the administration's position. In one, Gruber states, in response to an audience question, that "if you're

9675-427: The first real tax systems. Their system was tbased on two types of taxes: tributa and vectigalia . The former included the land tax and a poll tax , while the latter was made up of another poll tax, an inheritance tax , a sales tax , and a postage tax. Other taxes depended entirely on the city and were usually temporary. These taxes were used among other things to fund the military, establish trade routes, and fund

9804-506: The first-ever state-level single-payer health care system in the United States by the time it was to have kicked in fully in 2017. Green Mountain Care was cancelled in December 2014 by Governor Peter Shumlin saying its projected costs were becoming too high. Jonathan Gruber was later sued by the state of Vermont for falsely claiming hours worked by his research assistant which he invoiced

9933-463: The god are always mentioned by name and own their own land; their legal status is close to that of freemen. The nature and origin of their bond to the divinity is unclear. The names of common slaves show that some of them came from Kythera , Chios , Lemnos , or Halicarnassus and were probably enslaved as a result of piracy . The tablets indicate that unions between slaves and freemen were common and that slaves could work and own land. It appears that

10062-576: The government [ . . .] a payment exacted by legislative authority." A tax "is not a voluntary payment or donation, but an enforced contribution, exacted pursuant to legislative authority" and is "any contribution imposed by government [ . . .] whether under the name of toll, tribute, tallage, gabel, impost, duty, custom, excise, subsidy, aid, supply, or other name." Governments, like any other legal entity, can take out loans , issue bonds , and make financial investments . Government debt (also known as public debt or national debt)

10191-413: The government has contracted for but not yet paid, as government debt. This approach is called accrual accounting, meaning that obligations are recognized when they are acquired, or accrued, rather than when they are paid. This constitutes public debt. Seigniorage is the net revenue derived from the issuing of currency . It arises from the difference between the face value of a coin or banknote and

10320-538: The government was meant to take care of those who would otherwise turn to charity or crime by means of an allowance provided by a public tax, it is one of the first concepts of what could be considered a negative income tax . Additionally, in England at the time, the main taxes paid were land taxes , a tax that was collected in order to pay for mercenaries. The first mention of a tax in Anglo-Saxon England dates back to

10449-417: The idea of a public good , as he believed that a good could provide a value to society as whole that would exceed the value it would provide to only one individual. Adam Smith also maintained that a government should maintain a properly regulated money flow and banking system , patents as well as copyrights ,  and provide public education and transport . For him public projects always needed to yield

10578-444: The local lord. In 1550 serfs were instructed to pay another tax called za povoz, which was imposed on those who refused to deliver the harvest from their fields to their master. Later in the eighteenth and nineteenth century lords began having to pay a per capita tax for each of their peasants and were responsible for their well-being during times of famine. Toward this time, public finance and interest in how governments were to utilize

10707-461: The main functions of general government units are : The general government sector, in the European System of Accounts, has four sub-sectors: "Central government" consists of all administrative departments of the state and other central agencies whose responsibilities cover the whole economic territory of a country, except for the administration of social security funds. "State government"

10836-631: The major division in Mycenaean civilization was not between a free individual and a slave but rather if the individual was in the palace or not. There is no continuity between the Mycenaean era and the time of Homer , where social structures reflected those of the Greek Dark Ages . The terminology differs: the slave is no longer do-e-ro (doulos) but dmōs . In the Iliad , slaves are mainly women taken as booty of war, while men were either ransomed or killed on

10965-553: The majority of free Athenians owned at least one slave. Aristophanes , in Plutus , portrays poor peasants who have several slaves; Aristotle defines a house as containing freemen and slaves. Conversely, not owning even one slave was a clear sign of poverty. In the celebrated discourse of Lysias For the Invalid , a cripple pleading for a pension explains "my income is very small and now I'm required to do these things myself and do not even have

11094-531: The master could scatter the family members at any time. Slaves had fewer judicial rights than citizens and were represented by their masters in all judicial proceedings. A misdemeanor that would result in a fine for the free man would result in a flogging for the slave; the ratio seems to have been one lash for one drachma. With several minor exceptions, the testimony of a slave was not admissible except under torture. Slaves were tortured in trials because they often remained loyal to their masters. A famous example of

11223-450: The means to purchase a slave who can do these things for me." However, the huge individual slave holdings of the wealthiest Romans were unknown in ancient Greece. When Athenaeus cites the case of Mnason , a friend of Aristotle and owner of a thousand slaves, this appears to be exceptional. Thucydides estimates that the isle of Chios had proportionally the largest number of slaves. There were four primary sources of slaves: war, in which

11352-534: The money earned from taxes as well as how to provide for their state became increasingly common. The laissez-faire approach first became popular toward the middle of the 17th century, popularized especially by Charles Davenant . The laissez-faire attitude was especially common with Physiocrats in France (as opposed to the classical school in Britain). They maintained a " laissez-faire, laisser-passer" attitude, with one of

11481-410: The monuments memorialize them. It was formally decreed before the Battle of Salamis that the citizens should "save themselves, their women, children, and slaves". Slaves had special sexual restrictions and obligations. For example, a slave could not engage free boys in pederastic relationships ("A slave shall not be the lover of a free boy nor follow after him, or else he shall receive fifty blows of

11610-400: The murder of a slave; the underlying principle was: "was the crime such that, if it became more widespread, it would do serious harm to society?" The suit that could be brought against a slave's killer was not a suit for damages, as would be the case for the killing of cattle, but a δίκη φονική ( dikē phonikē ), demanding punishment for the religious pollution brought by the shedding of blood. In

11739-408: The necessary information to assess the capacity of a government to service and repay its debt, a key element determining sovereign risk, and risk premia. Like the risk of default of a private corporation, sovereign risk is a function of the level of debt, its ratio to liquid assets, revenues and expenditures, the expected growth and volatility of these revenues and expenditures, and the cost of servicing

11868-653: The neighbouring village of Catania . Likewise in 348 BC the population of Olynthus was reduced to slavery, as was that of Thebes in 335 BC by Alexander the Great and that of Mantineia by the Achaean League . The existence of Greek slaves was a constant source of discomfort for Greek citizens. The enslavement of cities was also a controversial practice. Some generals refused, such as the Spartans Agesilaus II and Callicratidas . Some cities passed accords to forbid

11997-451: The next day. As soon as debts surpassed day-to-day reciprocity, it became more and more difficult for peasants to pay off their loans. Thus, the laborer became indebted to the owner of the land they were working on, becoming indebted to the creditor. Soon after, the debtor might have had to give his property, and eventually his wife, children, and ultimately himself, over to the creditor, thus becoming entirely dependent and virtually enslaved to

12126-608: The other hand, it is attested in sources that the rape of slaves was prosecuted, at least occasionally. A fragment of the Gortyn code in Gortyn , Crete In Gortyn , in Crete, according to a code engraved in stone dating to the 3rd century BC, slaves ( doulos or oikeus ) found themselves in a state of great dependence. Their children belonged to the master. The master was responsible for all their offences, and, inversely, he received amends for crimes committed against his slaves by others. In

12255-476: The other sectors of the economy warrant a well-articulated system to measure government economic operations. The GFSM 2001 addresses the institutional complexity of government by defining various levels of government. The main focus of the GFSM 2001 is the general government sector defined as the group of entities capable of implementing public policy through the provision of primarily non market goods and services and

12384-673: The passage of the ACA. Gruber was born on September 30, 1965, the son of Martin Jay Gruber and Ellie Gruber. His father is Professor Emeritus of Finance at the New York University Stern School of Business , having taught there for more than 40 years. Jonathan Gruber was raised in the New York suburb of Ridgewood, New Jersey . He completed his BS in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1987 and his PhD in economics from Harvard University in 1992, with

12513-426: The poor. Public finance, although not explicitly named, is often the subject of much of political philosophy . These concepts can be seen in ancient greece as well, although it was split into two categories there: on one hand the government was to provide for a theater in every city and works of art in the country side. On the other hand, the government was to provide financing for war. Unemployment in ancient Greece

12642-449: The practice: in the middle of the 3rd century BC, Miletus agreed not to reduce any free Knossian to slavery, and vice versa. Conversely, the emancipation by ransom of a city that had been entirely reduced to slavery carried great prestige: Cassander , in 316 BC, restored Thebes. Before him, Philip II of Macedon enslaved and then emancipated Stageira . Piracy and banditry provided a significant and consistent supply of slaves, though

12771-498: The primary source of slaves, rather than prisoners of war. As described by Xenophon, and Menander in Aspis , after the slaves were captured in raids, their actual enslavement took place when they were resold through slave-dealers to Athenians and other slaveowners throughout Greece. After the slaves were captured, they were sold in slave markets. From the 6th century BC on, the vast majority of slaves were bought in these slave markets. There

12900-426: The public lash."), and they were forbidden from the palaestrae ("A slave shall not take exercise or anoint himself in the wrestling-schools."). Both laws are attributed to Solon . The sons of vanquished foes would be enslaved and often forced to work in male brothels, as in the case of Phaedo of Elis , who at the request of Socrates was bought and freed from such an enterprise by the philosopher's rich friends. On

13029-469: The public sector (See Figure 2). The general government sector of a nation includes all non-private sector institutions, organisations and activities. The general government sector, by convention, includes all the public corporations that are not able to cover at least 50% of their costs by sales, and, therefore, are considered non-market producers. In the European System of Accounts, the sector "general government" has been defined as containing: Therefore,

13158-508: The public sector, and royalties from natural resources. Finally, the interest expense account is one of the necessary inputs to estimate the cost of servicing the debt. GFS can be accessible through several sources. The International Monetary Fund publishes GFS in two publications: International Financial Statistics and the Government Finance Statistics Yearbook . The World Bank gathers information on external debt. On

13287-421: The revenue generated by state-owned enterprises is used for various state endeavors; typically the revenue generated by state and government agencies. Macroeconomic data to support public finance economics are generally referred to as fiscal or government finance statistics (GFS). The Government Finance Statistics Manual 2001 (GFSM 2001) is the internationally accepted methodology for compiling fiscal data. It

13416-447: The running of a state or a functional equivalent of a state (for example, tribes , secessionist movements or revolutionary movements) for the purpose of producing value for the citizens . Government operations have the power to make, and the authority to enforce rules and laws within a civil, corporate , religious , academic , or other organization or group. Government expenditures are financed primarily in three ways: How

13545-579: The same time (non-rival, non-excludable consumption), then private markets may supply too little of that good. National defense is one example of non-rival consumption, or of a public good . " Market failure " occurs when private markets do not allocate goods or services efficiently. The existence of market failure provides an efficiency-based rationale for collective or governmental provision of goods and services. Externalities , public goods , informational advantages, strong economies of scale , and network effects can cause market failures. Public provision via

13674-500: The significance of this source varied according to era and region. Pirates and brigands would demand ransom whenever the status of their catch warranted it. Whenever ransom was not paid or not warranted, captives would be sold to a trafficker. In certain areas, piracy was practically a national specialty, described by Thucydides as "the old-fashioned" way of life. Such was the case in Acarnania , Crete , and Aetolia . Outside of Greece, this

13803-511: The slave population, such as the corps of Scythian archers employed by Athens as a police force—originally 300, but eventually nearly a thousand. Secondly, the names given to slaves in the comedies often had a geographical link; thus Thratta , used by Aristophanes in The Wasps , The Acharnians , and Peace , simply meant a Thracian woman . Finally, the nationality of a slave was a significant criterion for major purchasers: Ancient practice

13932-515: The slave trade appear to have been Ephesus , Byzantium , and even faraway Tanais at the mouth of the Don via the Black Sea slave trade . Some "barbarian" slaves were victims of war or localised piracy, but others were sold by their parents. There is a lack of direct evidence of slave traffic, but corroborating evidence exists. Firstly, certain nationalities are consistently and significantly represented in

14061-493: The slave was regarded as a piece of property, as opposed to a member of human society) and land-bonded groups such as the penestae of Thessaly or the Spartan helots , who were more like medieval serfs (an enhancement to real estate). The chattel slave is an individual deprived of liberty and forced to submit to an owner, who may buy, sell, or lease them like any other chattel. The academic study of slavery in ancient Greece

14190-409: The source of income is indirect, e.g., various taxes (specific taxes, value added taxes), but in private finance sources of income is direct. Although public finance only began to be viewed as a body of knowledge no more than a century and a half ago, there is evidence of principles common to public finance as early as the bible with discussions of Sunday-trade, slavery regulations, and compassion for

14319-404: The source of significant controversy. In 2014, the Obama administration claimed that Gruber did not have a major role in creating the ACA. According to emails released by the U.S. House Oversight Committee to The Wall Street Journal , Gruber met and consulted with various Obama administration officials in charge of writing and developing the law, including Peter Orszag , who was director of

14448-488: The state for. He denies the claims and settled out of court forfeiting almost $ 100,000. Gruber has published more than 140 research articles (the majority of which were for NBER) and has edited six research volumes. He is a co-editor of the Journal of Public Economics , an associate editor of the Journal of Health Economics , and the author of Public Finance and Public Policy . In 2011, he wrote Health Care Reform: What It Is, Why It's Necessary, How It Works , delineating

14577-503: The term οἰκέτης ( oiketēs ) was used, as meaning "one who lives in house", referring to household servants. Other terms used to indicate slaves were less precise and required context: Slaves were present through the Mycenaean civilization , as documented in numerous tablets unearthed in Pylos 140. Two legal categories can be distinguished: "slaves (εοιο)" and "slaves of the god (θεοιο)", the god in this case probably being Poseidon . Slaves of

14706-409: The time of Demosthenes , corresponds to one slave per family. Between 317 BC and 307 BC, the tyrant Demetrius Phalereus ordered a general census of Attica, which arrived at the following figures: 21,000 citizens, 10,000 metics and 400,000 slaves. However, some researchers doubt the accuracy of the figure, asserting that thirteen slaves per free man appear unlikely in a state where a dozen slaves were

14835-430: The various types of taxes and types of borrowing as well as administrative concerns, such as tax enforcement. Taxation is the central part of modern public finance. Its significance arises not only from the fact that it is by far the most important of all revenues but also because of the gravity of the problems created by the present day tax burden. The main objective of taxation is raising revenue. A high level of taxation

14964-403: The videos showed "willful ignorance" on Gruber's part in thinking that the Act was successfully marketed to voters, stating that "the law has never cracked a 51% favorability rating" and that, in the first elections after the ACA passed , Republicans, who had opposed it, retook the House of Representatives and gained control of 11 additional state governorships. Nancy Pelosi , then-Speaker of

15093-416: The videos were emblematic of "the progressive mind, which values complexity over simplicity, favors indirect taxes and impositions on the American public so their costs can be hidden, and has a dim view of the average American", while commentator Charles Krauthammer called the first video "the ultimate vindication of the charge that Obamacare was sold on a pack of lies." Conservative S.E. Cupp wrote that

15222-472: The winter, he sleeps in their company. Eumaeus, the "divine" swineherd, bears the same Homeric epithet as the Greek heroes. Slavery remained, however, a disgrace: Eumaeus declares, "Zeus, of the far-borne voice, takes away the half of a man's virtue, when the day of slavery comes upon him". It is difficult to determine when slave trading began in the archaic period. In Works and Days (8th century BC), Hesiod owns numerous dmōes although their exact status

15351-436: The works of Homer , Hesiod and Theognis of Megara , the slave was called δμώς ( dmōs ). The term has a general meaning but refers particularly to war prisoners taken as booty (in other words, property). During the classical period , the Greeks frequently used ἀνδράποδον ( andrapodon ), (literally, "one with the feet of a man") as opposed to τετράποδον ( tetrapodon ), "quadruped" or livestock. The most common word for slaves

15480-458: The σεισάχθεια / seisachtheia , literally "the shaking off of burdens", or liberation of debts, which prevented all claim to the person by the debtor and forbade the sale of free Athenians, including by themselves. Scholars believe that Solon got the idea for the cancellation of debts from Mesopotamian law. Aristotle in his Constitution of the Athenians quotes one of Solon's poems: "And many

15609-564: Was also the case with Illyrians , Phoenicians , and Etruscans . During the Hellenistic period , Cilicians and the mountain peoples from the coasts of Anatolia could also be added to the list. Strabo explains the popularity of the practice among the Cilicians by its profitability; Delos , not far away, allowed for "moving myriad slaves daily". The growing influence of the Roman Republic ,

15738-407: Was avoid a concentration of too many slaves of the same ethnic origin in the same place, in order to limit the risk of revolt. It is also probable that, as with the Romans, certain nationalities were considered more productive as slaves than others. The price of slaves varied in accordance with their ability. Xenophon valued a Laurion miner at 180 drachmas (i.e. about 775 grams of silver ); while

15867-447: Was greatest in workshops: the shield factory of Lysias employed 120 slaves, and the father of Demosthenes owned 32 cutlers and 20 bedmakers. Ownership of domestic slaves was common, the domestic male slave's main role being to stand in for his master at his trade and to accompany him on trips. In time of war he was batman to the hoplite . The female slave carried out domestic tasks, in particular bread baking and textile making. It

15996-571: Was in charge of the logistics, received half of the tax proceeds, the other half going to the city of Anactorion, of which Actium was a part. Buyers enjoyed a guarantee against latent defects : The transaction could be invalidated if the purchased slave turned out to be crippled and the buyer had not been warned about it. The Greeks had many degrees of enslavement. There was a multitude of categories, ranging from free citizen to chattel slave, and including penestae or helots , disenfranchised citizens, freedmen, bastards, and metics . The common ground

16125-467: Was named “One of the Top 25 Most Innovative and Practical Thinkers of Our Time” by Slate Magazine. In both 2006 and 2012 he was rated as one of the top 100 most powerful people in health care in the United States by Modern Healthcare Magazine. In January 2010, after news emerged that Gruber was under a $ 297,000 contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services , while at the same time promoting

16254-499: Was prevalent in mines and quarries , which had large slave populations, often leased out by rich private citizens. The strategos Nicias leased a thousand slaves to the silver mines of Laurium in Attica ; Hipponicos, 600; and Philomidès, 300. Xenophon indicates that they received one obolus per slave per day, amounting to 60 drachmas per year. This was one of the most prized investments for Athenians. The number of slaves working in

16383-515: Was slave trade between kingdoms and states of the wider region. The fragmentary list of slaves confiscated from the property of the mutilators of the Hermai mentions 32 slaves whose origins have been ascertained: 13 came from Thrace , 7 from Caria , and the others came from Cappadocia , Scythia , Phrygia , Lydia , Syria , Ilyria , Macedon , and Peloponnese . Local professionals sold their own people to Greek slave merchants. The principal centres of

16512-413: Was the deprivation of civic rights. Moses Finley proposed a set of criteria for different degrees of enslavement: Athenian slaves were the property of their master (or of the state). Masters could dispose of their slaves as they saw fit by selling or renting them, or by granting them freedom. Slaves could have a spouse and children, but slave familial relationships were not recognized by the state, and

16641-418: Was virtually non-existent as Greek economic rule equated heavily to slavery . Greek economic development as per the governmental duties extended to growth, equity, and employment. The Romans later popularized systemic bodies of law. They guaranteed freedom of contract and property, as well as reasonable price and value. They also developed a well-maintained system of roads and colonies which led to one of

#201798