- How to read opposing arguments concerning California ballot propositions & critically evaluate their validity
- How both houses of Congress work day-to-day
- How the House of Representatives and the Senate have different powers and duties
- How the Executive branch functions
- How different Presidents exhibit different management styles & different degrees of success
- How the Supreme Court decides on issues and te effect of Supreme Court decisions on everyday life
- How the political process, party politics, and the election cycle affect the checks & balances of the three branches
- How the American voter affects the direction of government
- How credit cards work
- How to monitor spending & income
- How to comparison shop for saving & spending
- How to adjust spending/borrowing to maintain savings
- How ownership compares to renting
- How to fill out tax forms and backwards plan in order to maximize savings from income
- Where to find helpful resources
- How to recognize everyday items as being connected to companies and corporations
- How to monitor the success and failure of corporations from an investment standpoint
- How to use the internet and other resources to screen and filter possible investment choices
- How Stocks represent company value and how Mutual Funds operate
- How large corporations, like any large institution, have the potential for great good or great evil
- The history & development of the two major political parties in America, and how those parties reflect larger ideologies
- There are a wide variety of interest groups based on issues, sets of issues, and ideologies that work to provide a louder voice for citizens for their government to hear
- There are a wide variety of media and media viewpoints competing for every citizen/voter’s attention
- The growing amount of information in our society requires strong filtering skills & skills in critically analyzing a wide variety of arguments
- The origins of economic philosophy in the ideas of Adam Smith
- How institutionalists such as Veblen and Galbraith view public policy imperatives
- How the theories of John Maynard Keynes affected American economic and political policy since the 1930s
- How Marxism illustrates a model of human behavior and a view of history different from that of Smith
- How to identify the underlying philosophies behind different sides of debates in the economic and public policy sphere
- How much of American political and economic policy revolves around the debate over levels of regulation versus a free market
- How public policy choices reflect policymakers’ views on human nature and what makes a better society