Social Issues: The Ethics and Economics of Taxes and Public Programs

Social Issues is a text for courses on social issues and policies. Given recent cuts in government budgets, issues such as taxation, welfare, health care, social security, and environmental protection are drawing increasing attention to the basic problems of how to divide resources equitably among all members of society. By combining perspectives from ethics, politics and economics, Social Issues delineates a `social ethics' which can be combined with basic economic theory to analyse and address these public policy problems.