After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
- Explain the objectives of macroeconomic policy and identify the tools that government uses to manage the economy.
- Examine the broad effects of government regulation and deregulation.
- Determine how economic and social welfare policies are shaped by structural, political linkage, and governmental factors.
- Explain why Social Security has a remarkably high level of support in the United States at the same time that surveys show widespread disapproval of public assistance.
- Identify the most important public assistance and social insurance programs and explain why social insurance programs are known as entitlement programs.
- Summarize the distinction between social insurance and means-tested programs.
- Understand how national economic policy is produced by a political process that contains democratic and nondemocratic aspects.
- Identify key terms and concepts used in Chapter 17.
