Future Questions

Brandon:

I'll use this post to keep track of potential future questions.

1. What's up with productivity growth?
2. Is it automation, globalization, or immigration that is killing manufacturing jobs?
3. What is the heath of manufacturing in the US? What is the comparison between manufacturing and manufacturing jobs over time?
4. What do we do with all the folks who can't get blue collar jobs?
5. When does the US debt become a problem? 
6. What will happen if we have to correct US debt sharply (say interest rates rise sharply), through taxes, cuts or both? 
7. Why is health care so expensive? What are the main drivers of health cost? What are the structural components of the health care system?
8. Why do hospital emergency rooms have little or no competition for non-intensive care?
9. Is end of life care a disproportionate driver of health care cost? If so, what policy would help to 'bend the curve'?
10. How is it that western democracies (other than us) can afford universal health care?
11. How do black, gray, and white markets work? What happens when they are next to each other? The example I have in mind is the pot market in the US. In some places its kind of legal (but not really) and other places not. The Wash DC market is particularly interesting as you can own it but not sell it (a strange 'gifting' thing has sprung up). 
12. Is Marriage a good choice (economically)? 
13. Is there an optimum tax? So if the tax level is too low the government will not get enough revenue. If the tax is too high it will evaded and the government will not get enough revenue. This sounds like a maximization problem. Is there a solution? 
14. To what extent does popular music reflect despair in a society? Is it possible to quantify this?  Mapping Country Music's Politics,  real country music and language in working class culture
    Drugs In Music- Analyzing Drug References In Musical Genres, stuff Santos
15. What is the economic effect of immigration? Is there demographic issue that intersects with this? See: Brooks On Immigration
16. Has the 'war on drugs' had an economic effect?
17. The US is one of the highest rate incarceration countries. Can we tell if this has effects?
18. What happened to Unions in the US?