Designed for the general public and possibly suitable also for high school economics students, this pamphlet presents a brief overview of United States currency. Separate sections discuss the role of currency today, how the dollar has evolved, how the dollar got its name, laws concerning legal tender, types of currency in circulation, the meaning…

Between 1986 and 2004, textbook prices rose 186 percent in the United States, or slightly more than six percent per year. Meanwhile, other prices rose only about three percent per year. This paper examines the economic reasons why textbook prices have escalated so briskly and what reasonable alternatives are available that might slow down these…

Children's spirituality has become a significant for-profit enterprise in North American consumer culture. This article explores the marketing of children's spirituality as an aspect of the larger construction of children as consumers in the context of late globalized capitalism. Playing off of parental anxieties over the need to avail their…

Business educators should be the vanguard of the movement to promote and improve economic literacy according to the author. Some stated concerns and possible solutions to the literacy problem are presented. (HD)

The individual and social uses of recent technological applications, such as information delivery and interactive home systems, are discussed. Also explored are problems related to the harnessing of these advances to individual information needs, and policy issues generated by the new technologies. Thirteen references are cited. (Author/SW)

This bulletin presents detailed income and expenditure data for 1984 from the interview component of the ongoing Consumer Expenditure Survey. Data in this bulletin are for the urban population. Text tables include the following: (1) annual expenditures of urban consumer units, and percent change in consumer expenditures, Interview Survey and…

This chronology and policy analysis of U.S. telecommunications-related decisions from 1980 to 1988 begins with a narrative detailing the year-by-year issues and actions of the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Congress related to telecommunications. An overview of telecommunications policy is then provided, which briefly reviews: (1)…

Some changes in the 1976 well-being of the family will require Americans to change their values as well as their consumption levels. Factors affecting consumption levels are the population as a whole, employment levels, industrial and business activities, income, personal expenditures, and consumer attitudes. (TA)

According to Gottfried, the growing and increasingly crass commercialization of American higher education is an amply documented phenomenon, and one that receives continuing empirical and anecdotal verification. It is, furthermore, a problem that draws notice from across the political spectrum, from social democrat Russell Jacobi to…

Problems of people in debt are briefly discussed; recommendations are made for future home economics programs in family financial and debt management that would help to remedy the lack of knowledge and skills of the American consumer in these areas. (TA)

Because of free enterprise projects developed by high school students, the students are more aware of the American economic system. They learned to work together to achieve goals and to solve problems by decision making. They also became better consumers and citizens. (CT)

Delineates the cases for and against the privatization of government information and describes the various forms privatization has taken in the United States and other countries. Major studies and positions are evaluated, current U.S. policy is critiqued, and recommendations for further action and discussion are offered. (31 references)…

Describes the United States as a growth-oriented, high-technology, high-consumption society where a growing sense of environmental responsibility and activism has usually taken an adversary relationship, often necessarily, towards such progress. Examines the historic roots that environmental protection and a consumer society have in common.…

Suburban middle class American situation comedies of the 1950s and 1960s idealized the postwar family ensemble with its unproblematic achievement of quality family life. The homemaker as portrayed in these sitcoms was positioned at the center of the postwar consumer economy by the consumer product industry, which built its economy on defining the…

This report estimates costs of feeding and clothing Australian children at a basic survival level. Detailed information is provided on the types of costs incurred by families at different income levels and with children of different ages. After a brief introduction characterizing the study and summarizing findings, discussion focuses on the…