Assured tenancy

An assured tenancy is a legal category of residential tenancy to an individual (or individuals jointly) in English land law. Statute affords a tenant under an assured tenancy a degree of security of tenure. A tenant under an assured tenancy may not be evicted without a reasonable ground in the Housing Act 1988 and, where periodic changes in rent are potentially subject to a challenge before a rent assessment committee.
Assured tenancies were introduced by the Housing Act 1988 that applies to tenancies entered from its commencement date or those assured tenancies it converted from the Housing Act 1980. The Act replaced most of the greater rent protection under the Rent Act 1977 and in rarer cases, other Rent Acts. However, since 28 February 1997, all new residential tenancies with three exceptions are deemed to be assured shorthold tenancies. These exceptions are those excluded by notice before or after the tenancy, those specifying it is not a shorthold, and lettings to existing assured tenants.
The assured tenancy replaced the secure tenancy, with greater tenant protections, introduced by the Housing Act 1980.
Non-assured (or assured shorthold) tenancies.
An exception to this are assured tenancies which are converted from being regulated by the Housing Act 1980 (except if granted by approved bodies under ss56-68 of the Housing Act 1980 before 15 January 1989, and before that date the tenant made an application to the court under section 24 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (for the grant of a new tenancy), and on 15 January 1989 the 1980 Act tenancy is continuing by virtue of that section or of any provision of Part IV of the said Act of 1954.)
The term seemingly denoting "home", dwelling house, has been held to apply widely by the Courts, to exclude only businesses and highly indistinct factual arrangements of accommodation within a house or a flat (where the home is shared in an esoteric manner and no particular tenant or set of joint tenants can be said to be entitled exclusively the whole of any one part and anti-exclusion case law does not operate); flats and single rooms are included within the definition of a separate dwelling house as are converted barns, windmills etc.
Because domestic rates were abolished a distinction exists between tenancies granted before 1 April 1990 and those from that date. Before this a "dwelling house" (see above) tenancy with a rateable value of £750 (£1,500 in Greater London) (payable per year) cannot be an assured tenancy. From this date if the rent is more than £100,000 per year (£8,333.33 per month) it cannot be an assured tenancy.
Similar for those tenancies before that date, if rent is less than two-thirds of the rateable value, or if after that date it does not exceed £250 per year (£1,000 per year in Greater London) it cannot be an assured tenancy.
These detailed areas include a tenancy under which agricultural land, exceeding two acres, is let together with the dwelling-house.
To be exact this excludes tenancies to which part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 applies. Tenancies eligible to be protected business tenancies (contracted out business tenancies) or partly let for business use are ineligible to be assured tenancies.
This does not apply to tenancies involving landlords other than the specified universities and colleges.
A letting for this purpose cannot be assured.
This applies where the landlord lives in another part of the same building in which the let accommodation is situated.
Although these are excluded, lettings by local authorities and housing association may have other protections, such as secure tenancies under the Housing Act 1985.
It is possible for a person to have more than one "home" in which case it is a legal question of fact as to whether a home is the principal home. Although this provision stipulates "occupation" this need not be continuous, if a mere temporary absence this will still be capable of being an assured tenancy.
Whether a tenancy is assured can vary depending on circumstances after the tenancy commencement. It may be that the tenant has not by eviction ceased to live in a tenancy in which case they are no longer occupying the dwelling as their principal home. Here the tenant thus loses security of tenure.
Security of tenure.
Tenancies that are "Assured" are indefinite tenancies and do not have a term that is fixed. "Assured shorthold tenancies" unlike "assured" tenancies are for a fixed date term. Assured tenancies are rarely used by private residential landlords, however, they are commonly used by councils and housing associations.
If the tenancy is periodic, it will only come to an end either by an order of the court or by surrender by the tenant.
If the tenancy is a fixed-term tenancy, it may be ended either by the effluxion of time automatically expiring, with no need to serve any notice, at the end of the fixed term or, if the tenancy agreement gives the landlord a power to end the tenancy, by the landlord exercising that power. If a fixed-term assured tenancy comes to an end in one of these ways but occupation continues, known as "holding over", a periodic assured tenancy will from that event be created, known as a statutory periodic tenancy. Security of tenure remains.
In order to regain possession, the landlord may do so only on one of a number of statutory grounds, which are set out in Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988. To obtain an order for possession, the landlord must serve a "section 8 notice" on the tenant, setting out the ground or grounds that are relied on and then, after a period of time that varies depending on the grounds chosen, apply to the court for possession.
Unlawful eviction of a tenant is a criminal offence (under s1 of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977) unless the landlord reasonably believed the tenant was no longer in the premises, is sharing living accommodation with the tenant or is letting the property for holiday purposes.
Increases of rent.
Rent without specific provision under an assured, periodic tenancy cannot be increased within 52 weeks of commencement, and unless a statutory (implied) periodic tenancy, this may only be increased upon the service of a "section 13 notice" in the appropriate form for England or for Wales, however as with general contract law a historic lease amendment or new lease neglecting such a notice before such an increase accepted by the tenant will be deemed to have supervened, preventing the tenant from relying on an earlier contract in not serving a section 13 notice.
Naturally where fixed term and not periodic, and where a rent review clause exists in the periodic tenancy, contractual arrangements also avoid the need for the section 13 notice. The section 13 notice gives the right to the tenant to challenge the rent set under section 14 before a rent assessment committee where it is unreasonable that the market would charge such a rent, disregarding improvements performed by the tenant to the property where they were not obliged to carry these out.
Comparison with assured shorthold tenancies.
From 28 February 1997 most tenancies are deemed to be assured shorthold tenancies (ASTs) under which the landlord has an absolute right to possession where having served a notice on the tenant, before this date they had to be accompanied by a prescribed warning, fixed term, and for at least six months.
The only aspect of a shorthold which allows the tenant some control over the tenancy is the right of the tenant to refer the rent initially payable to a rent assessment committee, however it can reduce the rent only if it is "significantly higher" than the rents under other comparable assured shortholds. In this unusual scenario, the landlord can serve a notice before or after the tenancy has begun stating it is not to be a shorthold, where no rent assessment application has been made. In other regards, except security of tenure, as a subset of assured tenancies these follow the definition requirements of an assured tenancies.


Clean Water Protection Act

The Clean Water Protection Act () was a bill introduced in the 111th United States Congress via the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. It proposed to redefine "fill material" to not include mining "waste" under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act.
It was introduced by Frank Pallone and Chris Shays in the 110th Congress, and almost identical bills had been introduced in previous years. As of July 2009, H.R.1310 had 154 co-sponsors. Environmental groups such as Appalachian Voices, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and Sierra Club supported the legislation because of their stance against mountaintop removal mining. It would also have affected situations similar to the Kensington Mine operation near Juneau, Alaska where a mine was permitted to discharge mining waste into a small lake as "fill."


Newyorkitis

Newyorkitis is a 1901 book by surgeon John H. Girdner describing "a condition of mind, body, and soul" that he had observed among patients living in the New York City borough of Manhattan.
Background.
John H. Girdner (March 8, 1856October 27, 1933) was a prominent New York surgeon and an associate of the noted surgeon Frank Hamilton, with whom he attended President James Garfield after Garfield was shot in 1881. Girdner was the inventor of a "telephonic bullet probe" that came into use before the first x-rays, and was a pioneer in skin grafting. He taught at medical schools and was the author of numerous satirical and philosophical articles for magazines.
The "affliction".
Girdner ascribed a variety of physical symptoms to living in Manhattan, including nearsightedness caused by the presence of buildings in all directions, ears irritated by constant noise, and a "rapidity and nervousness and lack of deliberation in all muscular movements."
"Newyorkitis" symptoms also included "haste, rudeness, restlessness, arrogance, contemptuousness, excitability, anxiety, pursuit of novelty and of grandeur, pretensions of omniscience, and therefore prescience, which of course undermines any pleasure taken in novelty."
"Newyorkitis" was described as "satirical" in obituaries at the time of Girdner's death, and in reviews at the time of publication. The "Brooklyn Eagle"'s review said that "most people have declared that a vein of sarcasm, or satire, runs through the book", and another review described it as an "amusing satire." The "Kansas City Press" observed in 1901: "We suppose that the author intends his book as a serious criticism of New York conditions, however it is impossible that any one with a sense of humor should be able to read the book without an appreciation of its satire, whether intentional or not."
"The New York Times" reported in 2001 that a family history described "Newyorkitis" as "a tongue-in-cheek book... satirizing the provincialism of life in New York City."
A 2020 "Lapham's Quarterly" article, however, observed that the press "saw evidence of Girdner’s syndrome everywhere." A "New York Tribune" article on "Newyorkitis" reported in 1905 that “there were three thousand cases of men falling dead or dying suddenly, an increase of five hundred over any previous year.” In 1908, the "Tribune" reported that treatment for the condition was being offered at a New York YMCA. It was described as "straight psychology applied directly to the abnormal conditions of urban business and social life."
Earlier, in 1881, New York neurologist George M. Beard wrote that civilization, when combined with
"steam power, the periodical press, the telegraph, the sciences and the mental activity of women", brought nervousness and nervous disease to urban dwellers.


Hanna Gabriels

Hanna Gabriels Valle (born 14 January 1983), known as Hanna Gabriels, is a Costa Rican professional boxer. She has held world championships in three weight classes, having held the WBA female light middleweight title since 2016; the WBA female light heavyweight and WBC female heavyweight titles since April 2021; the WBO welterweight title in 2009; and the WBO light middleweight title twice between 2010 and 2018. As of September 2020, she is ranked as the world's third best active light middleweight by "The Ring" and BoxRec.
Gabriels is the daughter of Yolanda Valle Moreno and Lesslie Gabriels Binns, a promising boxer who qualified for the Olympic Games in Moscow 1980, but was unable to attend. She has one brother, Windell, who played football in the Costa Rican Primera División.
Professional career.
Gabriels made her professional debut on 17 November 2007, against Nicaraguan Aoska Xochilet Herrera at the Gimnasio Nacional, San José, Costa Rica, winning by third-round technical knockout (TKO).
On 19 December 2009, Gabriels fought for the vacant WBO welterweight title against Argentine Gabriela Zapata at the Dennis Martínez National Stadium, Managua, Nicaragua, winning by TKO in the fourth round. The event and was part of an evening of posthumous tribute to three-weight Nicaraguan world champion Alexis Arguello, "El Flaco Explosivo", considered one of the greatest boxers of all time.
On 14 January 2010, just over a month after capturing the WBO welterweight title, Gabriels relinquished the belt after suffering several blackouts - said to be caused by having to cut-weight in order to make the welterweight limit.
On 29 May 2010, Gabriels moved up in weight to face Dominican Gardy Álvarez for the vacant WBO junior middleweight title at the Coliseo Rubén Rodríguez, Bayamón, Puerto Rico, winning by first-round TKO in a fight that lasted only 11 seconds.
On 11 January 2011, Gabriels successfully defended her title against American Melisenda Pérez, winning by TKO in the tenth-round. Her cousin Andrés Calderón was present for the fight and was noted as part of her motivation to win in a following interview.
On 31 March 2011, Gabriels once again fought Melisenda Pérez, this time winning with a seventh-round TKO. With 14,000 in attendance, the event was part of the inauguration acts of the National Stadium of Costa Rica.
On 28 February 2013, Gabriels suffered her first career loss via second-round TKO to Oxandia Castillo of the Dominican Republic, losing her unbeaten streak and WBO junior middleweight title.
On 20 December 2014, after nearly two years out of the ring, Gabriels once again fought for the vacant WBO junior middleweight title against Mexican Paty Ramirez, regaining her title with a second-round TKO.
On 18 June 2016, Gabriels fought Katia Alvariño of Uruguay, winning by TKO in the third round, capturing the vacant WBA super welterweight title and becoming a unified world champion.
Gabriels defended the unified light middleweight championship twice in 2017; On 27 May, she won a unanimous decision over Canadian Natasha Spence, and on 13 October, avenged her first career loss against Oxandia Castillo by unanimous decision.
On 22 June 2018, Gabriels moved up in weight for the third time to challenge two-time Olympic gold medalist Claressa Shields for the vacant WBA and inaugural IBF middleweight titles at the Masonic Temple, Detroit. After becoming the first fighter to knock Shields down, Gabriels lost a 10 round unanimous decision (91-98, 92-97, 92-97).
Activism.
In July 2019, Gabriels acknowledged in an interview that she suffered sexual abuse at age five as part of an effort to raise awareness about the issue. Gabriel is an activist for gender equity and against violence. That same year Gabriels was appointed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as a special collaborator to help campaigns for refugees and against xenophobia.


IMO 4906800


Federal Revenue Sharing Act

The Federal Revenue Sharing Act, also called the Expenditures from Receipts Act, was a bill passed in 1913 by the US Congress. It allowed the federal government to split national forest and park revenues 50–50 between itself and the states for National Forest Road and Trail repair.


Aubrey Sheiham

Aubrey Sheiham (12 September 1936 – 24 November 2015) was born in Graaff-Reinet, South Africa and became a British academic, a dental epidemiologist and emeritus professor of Dental Public Health, School of Life and Medical Sciences at University College London. He graduated from the University of Witwatersrand in 1957.
He was the spouse of the British philosopher Helena Cronin. Sheiham died of mesothelioma.
The Audrey Sheiham Evidence-Based Health Care in Africa Leadership Award has been granted annually by the Cochrane Collaboration since 2001 to a researcher from a low to middle income country. The funding for the award comes from an endowment by Sheiham and Cronin.


National Crime Agency Long Service and Good Conduct Medal

The National Crime Agency Long Service and Good Conduct Medal is a service medal for National Crime Agency (NCA) officers of the United Kingdom. Instituted in March 2017, the medal is presented for twenty aggregate years of service.
Appearance.
The medal is circular, 36 mm in diameter and is rhodium plated cupronickel. The obverse, designed by Ian Rank-Broadley, bears an effigy of Queen Elizabeth II with the wording" ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA FID DEF". The reverse has a portcullis representing primacy and compassion, flanked by a griffin representing bravery and truth, and a leopard representing valiance. The image is surrounded by the words 'NATIONAL CRIME AGENCY' and 'FOR EXEMPLARY SERVICE'. The suspender is of a straight non-swivelling type, the 32 mm wide ribbon being blue, with three narrow stripes of white, yellow and white at each edge. No bars for further service are authorised for this medal. Naming on the rim is in impressed capital letters.
Criteria.
The medal is awarded for twenty aggregate years of service and good conduct in the National Crime Agency, including previous service in HM Revenue and Customs and the NCA's precursor agencies, the Serious Organised Crime Agency, National Criminal Intelligence Service and National Crime Squad.<br>A total of 484 medals were awarded up to July 2017.


Emergency Wetlands Resources Act

The Emergency Wetlands Resources Act of 1986 became a United States federal law (P.L.) 99-645 (100 Stat. 3582) on November 10, 1986. Prior to the Act the purchase of wetlands by the Federal Government had been prohibited. The Act allocated funds from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) for the purchase of wetlands by the Secretary of Interior, who is head of the United States Department of the Interior. The Act also instituted a National Wetlands Priority Conservation Plan which was to be established and set up by the Secretary. Included in this plan was a requirement for all States to include wetlands as part of their Comprehensive Outdoors Recreation plan. The plan also transferred the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund amounts which were to be equal to the import duties on arms and ammunition. The main purpose of the Act was to ensure a follow through on international obligations and fulfillment of these obligations on the various past and future migratory bird treaties. It also promoted the conservation of wetlands so the benefits they provide could be maintained.
An extension of the Wetlands Loan Act of 1961 which had been established and approved on October 4, 1961 was also provided by the Act. Under this extension wetlands loan advances would be forgiven and it extend the appropriation through September 30, 1988. A requirement was outlined in the Act which instructed the Secretary to report to the United States Congress on all losses of wetlands. The Secretary was to also investigate these losses and outline his findings in these reports to provide information as to whether or not federal programs and/or policies contributed to any of the wetland losses. Other responsibilities tasked to the Secretary were to complete the mapping of all the wetlands in the contiguous United States and those in the non-contiguous portions of the U.S. by September 30, 1990. This was to be done in conjunction with inventorying all of the National Wetlands which were to be completed eight years later on September 30, 1998 with continuation at ten-year intervals thereafter. Updates were to be provided to previous reports to help update and improve the “Status and Trends of Wetlands and Deep-water Habitat in the Coterminous United States, 1950’s to 1970’s” from September 1982.
Included within the Act were several provisions to establish entrance fees to all National Wildlife Refuges and to also establish the Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana. Funds collected from these entrance fees were to be split, with 70% going to the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund and 30% to the maintenance and operation of the refuges. The cost of Federal Duck Stamps were also increased from $7.50 to $15.00, this was to be phased in through 1991. The sale of Federal Duck Stamps to raise money for the conservation of migratory birds was established in 1929 by the Migratory Bird Conservation Act.
Later amendments to the Act allowed the establishment of Demonstration Fee programs. These fee programs established entrance and recreational use fees that allowed refuges and area agencies that participated in the programs to retain 80% of all fees collected. This of course superseded the 70/30 fee allocation that was first set up by the Emergency Wetlands Resources Act of 1986. The amendments were added to the Act through the Interior Appropriation Act Sec. 315 FY 1996 (P.L. 104-4; 110 Stat. 1321), as amended by P.L. 104-28 (110 Stat. 3009), P.L. 105-18, (111 Stat. 158) and P.L. 105-83 (111 Stat. 1543).
The Act of 1986 Chapter 59.
Subchapter I – General Provisions.
Subchapter I of the Act known as 16 U.S.C § 3901 - 3902 outlines the findings, purposes, and definitions of the Act. Congress found that wetlands played a pivotal role in not only the economics of the Nation but also the health, safety, recreations, and well-being of the citizens as well. Wetlands also provided major contributions to our food supply, water supply/quality, flood control, fish, wildlife, and plant resources.
Federal protection of wetlands for migratory birds was also a major finding, in order to uphold the Nations commitment to the migratory bird treaties with other nations like Canada, Mexico, Japan, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.), and several other countries in the Western Hemisphere protection was needed to ensure migratory bird populations stayed at a sustainable level as wetlands are the major sources for breeding, wintering, and migration.
With obligations to other countries and a clearer understanding of how important wetlands are to the well-being of society and to the overall health of the ecosystem the major purpose of the Act was the promotion and conservation of the Nations wetlands. This would ensure that no further damage would be done and the benefits that wetlands provide would be maintained. This would be done with the assistance of Federal and State programs.
Subchapter II – Revenues for Refuge Operations and the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund.
Subchapter II of the Act 16 U.S.C § 3911 – 3912 outlined the sale of admission permits at refuges and the transfers to the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund. The Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965 for the most part provided the funds for the purchase of wetlands, but in order to sustain the operation and maintenance cost of refuges supplementary revenues were needed. Section 3911 of Subchapter II granted the Secretary of the Interior the power to charge admission fees at National Wildlife Refuges as well as the sales of Golden Eagle and Golden Age Passports. Amounts collected from the sale of admission permits and fees collected at refuges were to be divided at a 70/30 split. The Secretary had 30% available for financing the cost of collection, maintenance and operation of the refuges, and the upkeep of all the refuges in the National Wildlife System while 70% was to be deposited into the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund which was established under section 718d of the title.
Section 3912 of Subchapter II stated that amounts equal to the total amount of all import duties collected on arms and ammunition which had been specified in chapter 93 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States would be paid quarterly to the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund which was established under section 718d beginning the next fiscal year after November 10, 1986.
Subchapter III – State and Federal Wetlands Acquisition.
Subchapter III 16 U.S.C § 3921 – 3923 established the National Wetlands Priority Conservation Plan, Federal Acquisition, and Restriction on Use of Eminent Domain in Acquisitions. The establishment of the National Wetlands Priority Conservation Plan section 3921 was to be carried out by the Secretary. The plan was to outline the types of wetlands and the interests in wetlands on a region-by-regions basis that were to be considered for purchase by both Federal and State. Continual revisions and reviews of the plan were also to be carried out by the Secretary with the consultation of Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Agriculture, and the chief executive officer of each State. Several factors were to be considered with the establishment of the plan. The Secretary was to consider the remaining types of wetlands that existed at the time of European settlement, the rate at which current and future losses of the respective types of wetlands, and the types of wetlands that made contributions to all wildlife which includes threatened and endangered species, migratory birds, resident species, sport and commercial fisheries, quantity and quality of surface water and ground water, flood control, outdoor recreation, and other appropriate areas of concern which the Secretary deems appropriate.
Section 3922 dealt with the Federal acquisition of wetlands. The Secretary was only authorized to purchase wetlands that were not under the authority of the Migratory Bird Conservation Act of 1929 (16 U.S.C 715-715s). Purchases made by the Secretary had to be consistent with the terms laid out in section 3921.
Section 3923 prohibited the use of Eminent Domain as a way of acquiring wetlands. It stated that acquisition of wetlands which were built for ranching, farming, or for the purpose of conservation of either could not be acquired through the powers of the Condemnation Act of 1888 or Eminent Domain.
Subchapter IV – Wetlands Inventory and Trend Analysis.
Subchapter IV 16 U.S.C § 3931 – 3932 dealt with the National Wetlands Inventory Project and Reports to Congress. Section 3931 instructed the Secretary along with the Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to continue the Inventory Project of the National Wetlands. By September 30, 1988 the maps were to be completed for the entire coastal zone of the United States, floodplains of all major rivers, and the Prairie Pothole regions; ten years later on September 30, 1998 maps of the rest of the contiguous United States were to be completed and presented. All other noncontiguous portions of the United States were to be completed two years later by the same date. A deadline of September 30, 1990 was set for the beginning of reports to be presented to update and improve the information outlined in the report entitled “Status and Trends of Wetlands and Deepwater Habitat in the Coterminous United States, 1950’s to 1970’s” dated September 1982. These reports were to be presented every 10 years to ensure all information was kept up-to-date. All wetlands maps were to be digitized and a digital wetlands database was to be set up to provide digital access to all maps on wetlands contained in the United States.
Section 3932 provided a guideline for the reports to Congress and the contents of these reports. The Secretary of Agriculture along with the Secretary of the Interior were instructed to coordinate with each other in the preparation and submission of reports to all invested committees. The content of these reports were to provide a detailed analysis of the cause of wetland destruction, degradation, protection, and enhancement. Also to be provided in the reports were an analysis of all Federal expenditures which resulted in wetlands destruction, degradation, protection or enhancement.


Heiner Bielefeldt

Heiner Bielefeldt (April 12, 1958) is a German philosopher, historian and Catholic theologian. He is Professor of Human Rights and Human Rights Policy at the University of Erlangen. In 2010, he was appointed United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief.
Life.
Bielefeldt studied philosophy and Catholic Theology at University of Bonn und University of Tübingen, which he completed in 1981 and 1982 respectively. Afterwards, he took a third undergraduate degree in history from University of Tübingen in 1988. In 1989 he received his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Tübingen with a thesis on social contract theories.
He then worked until 1995 at the Faculty of Law at the University of Heidelberg. As a recipient of an Alexander-von-Humboldt Fellowship, he spent 1993/94 at the Faculty of Law and the Department of Philosophy of the University of Toronto. In February 2000, he took his post-doctoral habilitation degree in philosophy from the University of Bremen.
From 2003 to 2009, Bielefeldt served as Director of the German Institute for Human Rights, which monitors the human rights situation inside Germany.
In 2009, Bielefeldt was appointed professor in the newly created Chair of Human Rights and Human Rights Policy at the University of Erlangen. Bielefeldt teaches in the areas of political science, philosophy, law and history.
Between June 18, 2010 and October 31, 2010, Bielefeldt was the appointed United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.


South Florida Water Management District v. Miccosukee Tribe

South Florida Water Management District v. Miccosukee Tribe, 541 U.S. 95 (2004), was a U.S. Supreme Court case involving the application of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) of the Clean Water Act. The Supreme Court remanded the case for further determination to resolve the question over the validity of the distinction between the two bodies of water at issue (a canal and an undeveloped wetland) and the Government's broader "unitary waters" argument that all water bodies that are
"navigable waters" under the Clean Water Act should be considered "unitarily" for purposes of NPDES permitting.
Background.
The Miccosukee Tribe challenged the South Florida Water Management District on an issue related to the operation of a new pump station (referred as "S-9") that transferred water from a concrete canal (referred as "C-11") to a large undeveloped wetland area near (referred as "WCA-3"). The S-9 pump station, C-11 canal and two levees are components of the Central and South Florida Control Project, a project aimed to address drainage and flood control issues in reclaimed portions of the Everglades. Water conveyed through the C-11 canal collected rainwater from a combination of agricultural, urban, and residential land uses. During rain events, stormwater collected in the C-11 canal contains contaminants such as phosphorus and fertilizers from these developed areas. The WCA-3 area is a remnant of the original South Florida Everglades and the District impounds water in this area to conserve fresh water that might otherwise flow directly to the ocean and to preserve wetland habitat. When the water level in C-11 rises above a set level, S-9 begins operating and pumps water out of the canal and empties the water into WCA-3. The phosphorus in the water alters the balance of WCA-3's ecosystem (which is naturally low in phosphorus) and stimulates the growth of algae and plants that are not naturally found in the Everglades ecosystem.
The Miccosukee Tribe filed suit under the CWA, which prohibits "the discharge of any pollutant by any person" unless done in compliance with the Act. Under the Act's NPDES, dischargers must obtain permits limiting the type and quantity of pollutants they can release into the Nation's waters. The Act defines " 'discharge of a pollutant' " as "any addition of any pollutant to navigable waters from any point source," and defines " 'point source' " as "any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance" "from which pollutants are or may be discharged." The Tribe claimed that S–9 requires an NPDES permit because it moves phosphorus-laden water from C–11 into WCA–3, but the District contended that S–9's operation does not constitute the "discharge of [a] pollutant" under the Act. The District Court granted the Tribe summary judgment, and the Eleventh Circuit affirmed.
Supreme Court.
For the purposes of determining whether there has been "any addition of any pollutant to navigable waters from any point source," the Government argued that all water bodies that fall within the Act's definition of "navigable water" should be viewed unitarily for purposes of NPDES permitting requirements. Since the Act requires NPDES permits only when a pollutant is added to navigable waters, the Government contended that such permits are not required when water from one navigable body is discharged, unaltered, into another navigable water. Nonetheless, because neither the District nor the Government raised the "unitary waters" approach before the Eleventh Circuit or in their briefs respecting certiori, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to resolve the argument here and the unitary waters argument was remanded to the lower court. In addition, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that summary judgment is appropriate only where there is no genuine issue of material fact but some factual issues remain unresolved in this case. Although the District Court correctly characterized the flow through S–9 as non-natural, it appears that if S–9 were shut down, the water in the C–11 canal might flow east instead of west, the water in the canal could flood and would be part of a larger water body. The District Court did not address this issue when it granted summary judgment; therefore, further development of the record was found necessary to resolve the question over the validity of the distinction between C-11 and WCA-3 waters and the Government's broader "unitary waters" argument was left open to the District on remand.


Poverty threshold

The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline, is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by finding the total cost of all the essential resources that an average human adult consumes in one year. The largest of these expenses is typically the rent required for accommodation, so historically, economists have paid particular attention to the real estate market and housing prices as a strong poverty line affect. Individual factors are often used to account for various circumstances, such as whether one is a parent, elderly, a child, married, etc. The poverty threshold may be adjusted annually. In practice, like the definition of poverty, the official or common understanding of the poverty line is significantly higher in developed countries than in developing countries.
In October 2015, the World Bank updated the International Poverty Line (IPL), a global absolute minimum, to $1.90 per day. By this measure, the percentage of the global population living in absolute poverty fell from over 80% in 1800 to 10% by 2015, according to United Nations estimates, which found roughly 734 million people remained in absolute poverty.
History.
The poverty threshold was first developed by Mollie Orshansky between 1963-1964. She attributed the poverty threshold as a measure of income inadequacy by taking the cost of food plan per family of three or four and multiplying it by a factor of three.In 1969 the inter agency poverty level review committee adjusted the threshold for only price changes.
Charles Booth, a pioneering investigator of poverty in London at the turn of the 20th century, popularised the idea of a "poverty line", a concept originally conceived by the London School Board. Booth set the line at 10 (50p) to 20 shillings (£1) per week, which he considered to be the minimum amount necessary for a family of four or five people to subsist on. Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree (1871–1954), a British sociological researcher, social reformer and industrialist, surveyed rich families in York, and drew a poverty line in terms of a minimum weekly sum of money "necessary to enable families … to secure the necessaries of a healthy life", which included fuel and light, rent, food, clothing, and household and personal items. Based on data from leading nutritionists of the period, he calculated the cheapest price for the minimum calorific intake and nutritional balance necessary, before people get ill or lose weight. He considered this amount to set his poverty line and concluded that 27.84% of the total population of York lived below this poverty line. This result corresponded with that from Charles Booth's study of poverty in London and so challenged the view, commonly held at the time, that abject poverty was a problem particular to London and was not widespread in the rest of Britain. Rowntree distinguished between primary poverty, those lacking in income and secondary poverty, those who had enough income, but spent it elsewhere (1901:295–96).
Absolute poverty and the International Poverty Line.
The term "absolute poverty" is also sometimes used as a synonym for extreme poverty. Absolute poverty is the absence of enough resources to secure basic life necessities.
To assist in measuring this, the World Bank has a daily per capita international poverty line (IPL), a global absolute minimum, of $1.90 a day as of October 2015.
The new IPL replaces the $1.25 per day figure, which used 2005 data. In 2008, the World Bank came out with a figure (revised largely due to inflation) of $1.25 a day at 2005 purchasing-power parity (PPP). The new figure of $1.90 is based on ICP purchasing power parity (PPP) calculations and represents the international equivalent of what $1.90 could buy in the US in 2011. Most scholars agree that it better reflects today's reality, particularly new price levels in developing countries. The common IPL has in the past been roughly $1 a day.
These figures are artificially low according to Peter Edward of Newcastle University. He believes the real number as of 2015 was $7.40 per day.
Using a single monetary poverty threshold is problematic when applied worldwide, due to the difficulty of comparing prices between countries. Prices of the same goods vary dramatically from country to country; while this is typically corrected for by using purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates, the basket of goods used to determine such rates is usually unrepresentative of the poor, most of whose expenditure is on basic foodstuffs rather than the relatively luxurious items (washing machines, air travel, healthcare) often included in PPP baskets. The economist Robert C. Allen has attempted to solve this by using standardized baskets of goods typical of those bought by the poor across countries and historical time, for example including a fixed calorific quantity of the cheapest local grain (such as corn, rice, or oats).
Basic needs.
The basic needs approach is one of the major approaches to the measurement of absolute poverty in developing countries. It attempts to define the absolute minimum resources necessary for long-term physical well-being, usually in terms of consumption goods. The poverty line is then defined as the amount of income required to satisfy those needs. The 'basic needs' approach was introduced by the International Labour Organization's World Employment Conference in 1976. "Perhaps the high point of the WEP was the World Employment Conference of 1976, which proposed the satisfaction of basic human needs as the overriding objective of national and international development policy. The basic needs approach to development was endorsed by governments and workers' and employers' organizations from all over the world. It influenced the programmes and policies of major multilateral and bilateral development agencies, and was the precursor to the human development approach."
A traditional list of immediate "basic needs" is food (including water), shelter, and clothing. Many modern lists emphasize the minimum level of consumption of 'basic needs' of not just food, water, and shelter, but also sanitation, education, and health care. Different agencies use different lists.
According to a UN declaration that resulted from the World Summit on Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995, absolute poverty is "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education, and information. It depends not only on income, but also on access to services."
David Gordon's paper, "Indicators of Poverty and Hunger", for the United Nations, further defines absolute poverty as the absence of any two of the following eight basic needs:
In 1978, Ghai investigated the literature that criticized the basic needs approach. Critics argued that the basic needs approach lacked scientific rigour; it was consumption-oriented and antigrowth. Some considered it to be "a recipe for perpetuating economic backwardness" and for giving the impression "that poverty elimination is all too easy". Amartya Sen focused on 'capabilities' rather than consumption.
In the development discourse, the basic needs model focuses on the measurement of what is believed to be an eradicable level of poverty.
Relative poverty.
Relative poverty means low income relative to others in a country: for example, below 60% of the median income of people in that country.
Relative poverty measurements unlike absolute poverty measurements take the social economic environment of the people observed into consideration. It is based on the assumption that whether a person is considered poor depends on her/his income share relative to the income shares of other people who are living in the same economy. The threshold for relative poverty is considered to be at 50% of a country’s median equivalised disposable income after social transfers. Thus, it can vary greatly from country to country even after adjusting for purchasing power standards (PPS).
A person can be poor in a relative terms but not in absolute terms as the person might be able to meet her/his basic needs, but is not able however to enjoy the same standards of living that other people in the same economy are enjoying. Relative poverty is thus a form of social exclusion that can for example affect peoples access to decent housing, education or job opportunities.
The relative poverty measure is used by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Canadian poverty researchers. In the European Union, the "relative poverty measure is the most prominent and most–quoted of the EU social inclusion indicators."
"Relative poverty reflects better the cost of social inclusion and equality of opportunity in a specific time and space."
"Once economic development has progressed beyond a certain minimum level, the rub of the poverty problem – from the point of view of both the poor individual and of the societies in which they live – is not so much the effects of poverty in any absolute form but the effects of the contrast, daily perceived, between the lives of the poor and the lives of those around them. For practical purposes, the problem of poverty in the industrialized nations today is a problem of relative poverty (page 9)."
However, some have argued that as relative poverty is merely a measure of inequality, using the term 'poverty' for it is misleading. For example, if everyone in a country's income doubled, it would not reduce the amount of 'relative poverty' at all.
History of the concept of relative poverty.
In 1776, Adam Smith argued that poverty is the inability to afford "not only the commodities which are indispensably necessary for the support of life, but whatever the custom of the country renders it indecent for creditable people, even of the lowest order, to be without."
In 1958, John Kenneth Galbraith argued, "People are poverty stricken when their income, even if adequate for survival, falls markedly behind that of their community."
In 1964, in a joint committee economic President's report in the United States, Republicans endorsed the concept of relative poverty: "No objective definition of poverty exists. ... The definition varies from place to place and time to time. In America as our standard of living rises, so does our idea of what is substandard."
In 1965, Rose Friedman argued for the use of relative poverty claiming that the definition of poverty changes with general living standards. Those labelled as poor in 1995, would have had "a higher standard of living than many labelled not poor" in 1965.
In 1967, American economist Victor Fuchs proposed that "we define as poor any family whose income is less than one-half the median family income." This was the first introduction of the relative poverty rate as typically computed today
In 1979, British sociologist, Peter Townsend published his famous definition: "individuals... can be said to be in poverty when they lack the resources to obtain the types of diet, participate in the activities and have the living conditions and amenities which are customary, or are at least widely encouraged or approved, in the societies to which they belong (page 31)."
Brian Nolan and Christopher T. Whelan of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in Ireland explained that "poverty has to be seen in terms of the standard of living of the society in question."
Relative poverty measures are used as official poverty rates by the European Union, UNICEF and the OEDC. The main poverty line used in the OECD and the European Union is based on "economic distance", a level of income set at 60% of the median household income.
Relative poverty compared with other standards.
A measure of "relative poverty" defines "poverty" as being below some relative poverty threshold. For example, the statement that "those individuals who are employed and whose household equivalised disposable income is below 60% of national median equivalised income are poor" uses a relative measure to define poverty.
The term "relative poverty" can also be used in a different sense to mean "moderate poverty" – for example, a standard of living or level of income that is high enough to satisfy basic needs (like water, food, clothing, housing, and basic health care), but still significantly lower than that of the majority of the population under consideration.
Living Income Concept.
Living Income refers to the income needed to afford a decent standard of living in the place you live. The distinguishing feature between a living income and the poverty line is the concept of decency, wherein people thrive, not only survive. Based on years of stakeholder dialogue and expert consultations, the Living Income Community of Practice, an open learning community, established the formal definition of living income drawing on the work of Richard and Martha Anker, who co-authored “Living Wages Around the World: Manual for Measurement.” They define a living income as:
"The net annual income required for a household in a particular place to afford a decent standard of living for all members of that household. Elements of a decent standard of living include food, water, housing, education, healthcare, transport, clothing, and other essential needs including provision for unexpected events."
Like the Poverty Line calculation, using a single global monetary calculation for Living Income is problematic when applied worldwide. Additionally, the Living Income should be adjusted quarterly due to inflation and other significant changes such as currency adjustments. The actual income or proxy income can be used when measuring the gap between initial income and the living income benchmarks. The World Bank notes that poverty and standard of living can be measured by social perception as well, and found that in 2015, roughly one third of the world’s population was considered poor in relation to their particular society.
The Living Income Community of Practice was founded by The Sustainable Food Lab, GIZ and ISEAL Alliance to measure the gap between what people around the world earn versus what they need to have a decent standard of living, and find ways to bridge this gap.
A variation on the LICOP’s Living Income is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Living Wage Calculator, which compares the local minimum wage to the amount of money needed to cover expenses beyond what is needed to merely survive across the United States. The cost of living varies greatly if there are children or other dependents in the household.
Why poverty threshold matters.
An outdated or flawed poverty measure is an obstacle for policymakers, researchers and academics trying to find solutions to the problem of poverty. This has implications for people. The federal poverty line is used by dozens of federal, state, and local agencies, as well as several private organizations and charities, to decide who needs assistance. The assistance can take many forms, but it is often difficult to put in place any type of aid without measurements which provide data. In a rapidly evolving economic climate, poverty assessment often aids developed countries in determining the efficacy of their programs and guiding their development strategy. In addition, by measuring poverty one receives knowledge of which poverty reduction strategies work and which do not, helping to evaluate different projects, policies and institutions. To a large extend, measuring the poor and having strategies to do so keep the poor on the agenda, making the problem of political and moral concern.
Threshold limitations.
It is hard to have exact number for poverty, as much data is collected through interviews, meaning income that is reported to the interviewer must be taken at face value. As a result, data could not rightly represent the situations true nature, nor fully represent the income earned illegally. In addition, if the data were correct and accurate, it would still not mean serving as an adequate measure of the living standards, the well-being or economic position of a given family or household. Research done by Haughton & Khandker find that there is no ideal measure of well-being, arguing that all measures of poverty are imperfect. That is not to say that measuring poverty should be avoided; rather, all indicators of poverty should be approached with caution, and questions about how they are formulated should be raised.
As a result, depending on the indicator of economic status used, an estimate of who is disadvantaged, which groups have the highest poverty rates, and the nation's progress against poverty varies significantly. Hence, this can mean that defining poverty is not just a matter of measuring things accurately, but it also necessitates fundamental social judgments, many of which have moral implications.
National poverty lines.
National estimates are based on population-weighted subgroup estimates from household surveys. Definitions of the poverty line do vary considerably among nations. For example, rich nations generally employ more generous standards of poverty than poor nations. Even among rich nations, the standards differ greatly. Thus, the numbers are not comparable among countries. Even when nations do use the same method, some issues may remain.
United Kingdom.
In the UK, "more than five million people – over a fifth (23 percent) of all employees – were paid less than £6.67 an hour in April 2006." This value is based on a low pay rate of 60 percent of full-time median earnings, equivalent to a little over £12,000 a year for a 35-hour working week. In April 2006, a 35-hour week would have earned someone £9,191 a year – before tax or National Insurance".
India.
India's official poverty level is split according to rural versus urban thresholds. For urban dwellers, the poverty line is defined as living on less than 538.60 rupees (approximately US$12) per month, whereas for rural dwellers, it is defined as living on less than 356.35 rupees per month (approximately US$7.50). In 2019, the Indian government stated that 6.7% of its population is below its official poverty limit. As India is one of the fastest-growing economies in 2018, poverty is on the decline in the country, with close to 44 Indians escaping extreme poverty every minute, as per the World Poverty Clock. India lifted 271 million people out of poverty in a 10-year time period from 2005/06 to 2015/16.
Singapore.
Singapore has experienced strong economic growth over the last ten years and has consistently ranked among the world's top countries in terms of GDP per capita.
Inequality has however increased dramatically over the same time span, yet there is no official poverty line in the country. Given Singapore's high level of growth and prosperity, many believe that poverty does not exist in the country, or that domestic poverty is not comparable to global absolute poverty. Such a view persists for a selection of reasons, and since there is no official poverty line, there is no strong acknowledgement that it exists.
Yet, Singapore is not considering establish an official poverty line, being said it would fail to represent the magnitude and scope of problems faced by the poor. As a result, social benefits and aids aimed at the poor would be a missed opportunity for those living right above such a line.
United States.
In the United States, the poverty thresholds are updated every year by Census Bureau. The threshold in the United States are updated and used for statistical purposes. In 2020, in the United States, the poverty threshold for a single person under 65 was an annual income of US$12,760; the threshold for a family group of four, including two children, was US$26,200. According to the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey 2018 One-year Estimates, 13.1% of Americans lived below the poverty line.
Women and children.
Women and children find themselves impacted by poverty more often when a part of single mother families. The poverty rate of women has increasingly exceeded that of men's. While the overall poverty rate is 12.3%, women poverty rate is 13.8% which is above the average and men are below the overall rate at 11.1%. Women and children (as single mother families) find themselves as a part of low class communities because they are 21.6% more likely to fall into poverty. However, extreme poverty, such as homelessness, disproportionately affects males to a high degree.
Racial minorities.
A minority group is defined as "a category of people who experience relative disadvantage as compared to members of a dominant social group." Minorities are traditionally separated into the following groups: African Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Hispanics. According to the current U.S. Poverty statistics, Black Americans – 21%, Foreign born non-citizens – 19%, Hispanic Americans – 18%, and Adults with a disability – 25%. This does not include all minority groups, but these groups alone account for 85% of people under the poverty line in the United States. Whites have a poverty rate of 8.7%; the poverty rate is more than double for Black and Hispanic Americans.
Impacts on education.
Living below the poverty threshold can have a major impact on a child’s education. The psychological stresses induced by poverty may affect a student’s ability to perform well academically. In addition, the risk of poor health is more prevalent for those living in poverty. Health issues commonly affect the extent to which one can continue and fully take advantage of his or her education. Poor students in the United States are more likely to dropout of school at some point in their education. Research has also found that children living in poverty perform poorly academically and have lower graduation rates. Impoverished children also experience more disciplinary issues in school than others.
Schools in impoverished communities usually do not receive much funding, which can also set their students apart from those living in more affluent neighborhoods. There is much dispute over whether upward mobility that brings a child out of poverty may or may not have a significant positive impact on his or her education; inadequate academic habits that form as early as preschool typically are unknown to improve despite changes in socioeconomic status.
Impacts on healthcare.
The nation’s poverty threshold is issued by the Census Bureau. According to the Office of Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation the threshold is statistically relevant and can be a solid predictor of people in poverty. The reasoning for using Federal Poverty Level, FPL, is due to its action for distributive purposes under the direction of Health and Human Services. So FPL is a tool derived from the threshold but can be used to show eligibility for certain federal programs. Federal poverty levels have direct effects on individual’s healthcare. In the past years and into the present government, the use of the poverty threshold has consequences for such programs like Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.  The benefits which different families are eligible for are contingent on FPL. The FPL, in turn, is calculated based on federal numbers from the previous year.
The benefits and qualifications for federal programs are dependent on number of people on a plan and the income of the total group. For 2019, the U.S Department of health & Human Services enumerate what the line is for different families. For a single person, the line is $12,490 and up to $43,430 for a family of 8, in the lower 48 states. Another issue is reduced-cost coverage. These reductions are based on income relative to FPL, and work in connection with public health services such as Medicaid. The divisions of FPL percentages are nominally, above 400%, below 138% and below 100% of the FPL. After the advent of the American Care Act, Medicaid was expanded on states bases. For example, enrolling in the ACA kept the benefits of Medicaid when the  income was up to 138% of the FPL.
Poverty mobility and healthcare.
Health Affairs along with analysis by Georgetown found that public assistance does counteract poverty threats between 2010 and 2015. In regards to Medicaid, child poverty is decreased by 5.3%, and Hispanic and Black poverty by 6.1% and 4.9% respectively. The reduction of family poverty also has the highest decrease with Medicaid over other public assistance programs. Expanding state Medicaid decreased the amount individuals paid by an average of $42, while it increased the costs to $326 for people not in expanded states. The same study analyzed showed 2.6 million people were kept out of poverty by the effects of Medicaid. From a 2013–2015 study, expansion states showed a smaller gap in health insurance between households making below $25,000 and above $75,000. Expansion also significantly reduced the gap of having a primary care physician between impoverished and higher income individuals. In terms of education level and employment, health insurance differences were also reduced. Non-expansion also showed poor residents went from a 22% chance of being uninsured to 66% from 2013 to 2015.
Poverty dynamics.
Living above or below the poverty threshold is not necessarily a position in which an individual remains static. As many as one in three impoverished people were not poor at birth; rather, they descended into poverty over the course of their life. Additionally, a study which analyzed data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) found that nearly 40% of 20-year-olds received food stamps at some point before they turned 65. This indicates that many Americans will dip below the poverty line sometime during adulthood, but will not necessarily remain there for the rest of their life. Furthermore, 44% of individuals who are given transfer benefits (other than Social Security) in one year do not receive them the next. Over 90% of Americans who receive transfers from the government stop receiving them within 10 years, indicating that the population living below the poverty threshold is in flux and does not remain constant.
Cutoff issues.
Most experts and the public agree that the official poverty line in the United States is substantially lower than the actual cost of basic needs. In particular, a 2017 Urban Institute study found that 61% of non-elderly adults earning between 100–200% of the poverty line reported at least one material hardship, not significantly different from those below the poverty line. The cause of the discrepancy is believed to be an outdated model of spending patterns based on actual spending in the year 1955; the number and proportion of material needs has risen substantially since then.
Variability.
The U.S. Census Bureau calculates the poverty line the same throughout the U.S. regardless of the cost-of-living in a state or urban area. For instance, the cost-of-living in California, the most populous state, was 42% greater than the U.S. average in 2010, while the cost-of-living in Texas, the second-most populous state, was 10% less than the U.S. average. In 2017, California had the highest poverty rate in the country when housing costs are factored in, a measure calculated by the Census Bureau known as "the supplemental poverty measure".
Government transfers to alleviate poverty.
In addition to wage and salary income, investment income and government transfers such as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps) and housing subsidies are included in a household's income. Studies measuring the differences between income before and after taxes and government transfers, have found that without social support programs, poverty would be roughly 30% to 40% higher than the official poverty line indicates.


Gerald Chamales

Gerald "Jerry" Chamales is the founder of Rhinotek Computer Products, a printer cartridge manufacturer and retailer. Chamales is known for his founding of the firm and for his work with recovering alcoholics and addicts. As well as his efforts in wild animal conservation. In 2001 he was awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for business service.
Early life.
Chamales spent his early life in a foster home, before moving back in with his single mother. His father was Tom T. Chamales, author of two books including the 1957 "Never So Few", which was made into a film starring Frank Sinatra and Steve McQueen. His father, however, died at the age of 35 when Gerald was a child.
Business career.
In 1980 with $7000 Gerald Chamales founded what is now known as Rhinotek Computer Products in his Venice, California studio apartment. The firm nearly ran out of money in the first year. The business was run out of his apartment for the first five years, over which time Chamales paid himself only $200 per month. At that point he moved the business into an office, and within two years he was making enough profit to hire fifteen new employees.
By 1998 the company, then known as Omni Computer Products, had 250 employees and $25.5 million in sales. Four years later in 2002 the company had in excess of $45 million in sales. That year Chamales was interviewed by reporters about the intentions of pending Lexmark lawsuits against small printer cartridge competitors, and stated that while there is nothing wrong with making a profit, "there is something wrong if you can sell something for $300 that costs you $30 to make and you are trying to drive out someone who's willing to sell it for $100." The evolution of his management style has been featured by the "Wall Street Journal", stating that Chamales has "learned to tap into employees' passions and strengths, and get the best out of them."
Chamales sold Rhinotek to a private equity firm in 2006, which later filed an assignment for the benefit of its creditors under the California Code of Civil Procedure in 2008.
He afterwards founded Equity Value Group, a company specializing in investments and philanthropic causes. In 2010 he received his film credit, serving as a producer for the feature-length documentary film "Something's Gonna Live", which traced the history and stories of six early era Hollywood production pioneers.
Philanthropy.
Help to alcoholics and addicts.
When Chamales started Rhinotek, he had very recently become sober after a period of homelessness and hospitalization due to drug and alcohol abuse. Chamales has spent his life since committed to helping other alcoholics and addicts with their recovery. For example, today about 20% of his company's employees are recovering alcoholics or addicts, a number that has reached as high as one third. Chamales ensures that part of his recruitment process includes recruiting at halfway houses, parole programs, homeless shelters, and drug and alcohol treatment programs. In addition to a job, the company provides former addicts with everything from training to short term loans. The company recorded that employees recruited in this manner, a process Chamales begun in 1986, had a higher job retention rate than those hired through more traditional routes. California Justice Stephen Marcus has stated that he has been surprised by the results of the program, saying "Hard as it is to believe, these people are good workers". Employees who have relapses are provided with counselling and further care if necessary.
The "Wall Street Journal" reported in 1998 that, "After six months, Mr. Chamales says, Omni usually knows if the hire is good. While turnover in the first six months is 50%, after that it drops to 27%. It isn't a free ride for Omni. New hires get a mentor right away, for coaching on skills like getting along with people and problem-solving. The company also has some $250,000 in personal loans outstanding to employees -- often for legal fees and drug fines." Chamales' work in this field has been spoken or written about on CNBC, ABC, NBC Nightly News and the O'Reilly Factor, Time Magazine, Success Magazine, Business Week, Fortune Magazine, and the "Wall Street Journal".
Rhinoceros conservation.
As of 1998, Omni was donating $25,000 per year to rhinoceros conservation in Kenya. In 2001 Chamales teamed with the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Northern Kenya to help save the nearly extinct black rhino, hence the name Rhinotek. An estimated three-hundred-fifty of the Fortune 500 companies use Rhinotek products, and a portion of each sale goes directly to the Conservancy. The Lewa Conservancy also uses the proceeds from sales by Rhinotek Computer Products to help the conservation of lions, giraffes, and other African animals. Chamales changed the name of his company to Rhinotek Computer Products, linking his revenue to the firm's conservation efforts.
Other charitable work.
An advocate for the homeless, Jerry served for ten years as a board-member of the Midnight Mission in Los Angeles, a facility that provides food, shelter, clothing and other services to homeless men and women. He was honored with the Golden Heart Award for his work in 2009. He and his wife Kathleen Chamales also support The Clare Foundation, where Kathleen is on the Honorary Board of Directors, and Friendly House an organization that provides sober living for recovering women.
Awards.
Jerry was nominated for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for business service in 1998 and won the award in 2001, and Rhinotek was named to Industry Week Magazine's list of the Top 25 U.S. Manufacturers.
Controversies.
In 1994, Chamales acquired a house near to that of O.J. Simpson. Because of the notoriety of the events that occurred shortly thereafter surrounding Simpson, Chamales attempted to claim a casualty loss under for the estimated loss of market value on his residence. This was denied by the Internal Revenue Service, and its ruling was upheld in 2000 by the United States Tax Court. However, an accuracy-related penalty under was revoked, as the filing had been done in good faith.
In 2005 Chamales' company Rhinotek was sued by HP over the packaging Rhinotek was using at the time. Though HP and Rhinotek ink is different, Rhinotek products are compatible with HP printers. HP's complaint stated that it believed that Rhinotek should make it more explicit on its packaging that Rhinotek uses parts recycled from used cartridges to produce its products. The lawsuits occurred at approximately the same time as state legislation in the US, including in North Carolina, Wisconsin, and New Hampshire, for government agencies to purchase remanufactured printer cartridges rather than new cartridges for reasons of cost and environmental concerns. In 2002 Chamales responded to such moves by printer manufacturers as trying "to prevent erosion of their marketshare".
In 2005, Chamales sold a Toronto-based recycling company in which he had invested to Okidata. In the following year, he launched a lawsuit against Okidata in the matter. Originally filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, it was transferred to the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey in 2007.


National Housing Act (Canada)

The National Housing Act (NHA)(the "Act") was passed by the Parliament of Canada in 1938 and was intended to promote the construction of new houses, the repair and modernization of existing houses, and the improvement of housing and living conditions. It replaced and expanded the scope of the "Dominion Housing Act" of 1935.
The purpose of the NHA set out in section 3 "in relation to financing for housing, is to promote housing affordability and choice, to facilitate access to, and competition and efficiency in the provision of, housing finance, to protect the availability of adequate funding for housing at low cost, and generally to contribute to the well-being of the housing sector in the national economy."
In 1945, the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation (later renamed Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation) was created to administer the NHA.
Replacement "National Housing Acts" were passed in 1944 and 1954. Major amendments to these acts occurred in 1948, 1949, 1956, 1964, 1969, 1973, 1985, 1999 and 2007.
The 1948 amendments introduced limited-dividend housing. In 1949, the "Act" was again amended to include funding for public, rent-geared-to-income housing, however, this was seen as a "tokenist" gesture and very few social housing units were built. The NHA of 1954 was largely the same as the two previous NHAs in its objective to "maintain the private mortgage market," however did it replace the joint-loan program with a mortgage-loan one.
The 1964 amendments made provinces, municipalities or their agencies the sole owners of public housing, as previously public housing was jointly owned with CMHC.
The 1973 amendments shifted the federal approach to low-income housing from "social," segregated public housing to "comprehensive" housing policy and included provisions for non-profit and co-operative housing.
The "Dominion Housing Act" and the "National Housing Acts" of 1938 and 1944 were drafted by Deputy Minister of Finance William Clifford Clark.
"Dominion Housing Act 1935".
The "Dominion Housing Act 1935", Canada's first national housing policy, was included as part of "Canada's New Deal" put forward by Prime Minister R. B. Bennett. Bennett was facing an election with low support following his government's response to the Great Depression and taking inspiration from President Roosevelt's New Deal, Bennett proposed regulatory and social safety net legislation. Despite demands for affordable housing from social reformers, the DHA ended up setting the tone for all future housing legislation with the provision of loans for the wealthiest Canadians and promotion of homeownership and mortgage lending infrastructure. A total of 3,263 mortgage loans were administered through the "Dominion Housing Act" from 1935 to 1938.
The DHA consisted of two parts:
1) a proposal for the continued study of the housing problem by the (also proposed) Economic Council of Canada;
2) a plan for the federal state to combine with lenders in the provision of joint mortgage loans to buyers and builders of new homes.


Tunnel Hill Reclamation Landfill


Propetamphos

Propetamphos is an insecticide (cockroaches, flies, ants, ticks, moths, fleas and mosquitoes) from the group of organophosphates, based on thiophosphoric acid ester.
The molecule with formula is C10H20NO4PS has a molecular weight of 281.311 g/mol.


Car Audio Sports Organizations

The Car Audio Sports Organization is MECA (Mobile Electronics Competition Association, Inc.) started in 1999. Web sites are:
www.mecacaraudio.com and www.mecaevents.com
HBO VICE News feature from 2017 Finals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5TrgEOrZ1Q&t=54s
SQL (Sound Quality League) focuses on high performance musical systems: Sound Quality (SQ and SQ2), custom installs, and RTA Freq-Out contests. Vehicles are classified by audio system complexity of design. There are seven classes overall in this category. They are Stock, Street, Modified Street, Modified, Modex, Extreme, and Master. Each class has certain restrictions, with the most being in Stock, and the least in Master. MECA utilizes a standard test tracks, which feature various songs to test different aspects of sound quality, for all of its judging at competitions. The TermLab Magnum is the official 4X points contest RTA Freq-Out meter. For 4X points Sound Quality contests, 3 Judges evaluate the audio system separately, and the scores are averaged to determine the winners in 7 classes. There are 4 Install classes. They are Stock, Street, Modified, and Extreme. Certain criteria must be met to receive the best score possible, and these are outlined in the rule book. RTA Freq-Out has no class separation.
MECA added Dueling Demos to the contest list in 2013, and there are 3 classes: Street+, Modified, and Extreme.
MECA released the "Tantric Tuning" CD in 2017 with licensing from Chesky Records. The CD is available in the Shop at the MECA web site.
SPL (Sound Pressure League) focuses on audio systems that are created to reproduce loud bass, notes and music, with Sound Pressure and Park & Pound contests. State and World Champions and USA National Points Champions are credentialed each year. Vehicles are grouped according to the "Pressure Class" method which separates the vehicles by complexity of audio system design, combined with the potential of the audio system to make "bass". The "Pressure Class Formula" adds woofer cone surface area with sub amp(s) power. Woofer cone surface area is measured in square inches. For example, a round 12" woofer is 113 sq. inches and a square 12" woofer is 144 sq. inches. Power is determined by the TermLab Magnum meter. The TermLab meter is the official MECA decibel contest meter. There are 18 SP (Sound Pressure) classes and 5 Park & Pound classes. Sound Pressure is measured inside the vehicle. Park & Pound is measured outside the vehicle, 6' from the passenger side, with heavy-duty bass music tracks, for example: BassMekanik 808 CD released 2009.
"Show & Shine" car/truck/motorcycle contests. Judging based on cleanliness, attention to details, and modifications (done properly and part of an integrated theme).
MECA Kids events for youngsters and their parents, include Sound Pressure, Park & Pound, Dueling Demos, and Show & Shine for powerwheels type toys.
The Rule Book is free on-line at www.mecacaraudio.com/2019SQLRuleBook.pdf and for SPL www.mecacaraudio.com/2019SPLRuleBook.pdf. Social media sites include www.facebook.com/mecacaraudio, and www.twitter.com/MECA_Car_Audio
114 USA events in 2009.
130+ USA events in 2013 with 500+ members,
http://www.12voltnews.com
http://www.ecsmagazine.com
http://www.me-mag.com
http://www.pasmag.com


Los Angeles County Lifeguards

Los Angeles County Lifeguards is a division of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. The lifeguard operations safeguard of beach and of coastline, from San Pedro in the south, to Malibu in the north. The Los Angeles County Lifeguard Service served as the model for the hit television series "Baywatch" which was created by recurrent lifeguard Gregory J. Bonann.
Lifeguards also provide marine firefighting, paramedic, and fire boat services to Catalina Island, with operations out of Avalon and the Isthmus. Other daily fire boat services operate out of Los Angeles Harbor (Baywatch Cabrillo), King Harbor (Baywatch Redondo), Marina Del Rey (Baywatch Del Rey and Baywatch Santa Monica) and Malibu Pier (Baywatch Malibu).
The Los Angeles County Fire Department Lifeguard Division is the largest professional lifeguard service in the world. Entering the year 2018, the Los Angeles County Lifeguard Service employs 177 year-round lifeguards (chiefs, captains and ocean lifeguard specialists) and over 650 seasonal lifeguards (recurrents). Operating out of four Sectional Headquarters, located in Hermosa, Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey and Zuma beach. Each of these headquarters staffs a 24-hour response unit, and are part of the 911 system.
In addition to providing marine firefighting, LA County Lifeguards have specialized training for fire boat operations.
Prior to July 1, 1994, Los Angeles County Lifeguards were part of the Department of Beaches and Harbors.
Lifeguard uniforms.
The following categories of lifeguard clothing in sufficient quantities to fully annually outfit 760 male lifeguards and 136 female lifeguards, which numbers can change each agreement year based upon the workforce composition then in employment, as ordered by the county including the following:
Badges and patches.
Most lifeguards are wearing a departmental badge that consists of a shield surmounted by a bear, and are silver-colored metal. The words "County of Los Angeles" appear on a ribbon at the atop of the badge just under the bear, followed by ribbons with the words "Fire Department" appear just above the seal of the county. The title of the position of the person is inscribed on a ribbon placed just below the county's seal and the serial number of the badge appears at the bottom of the badge below the title of the position. The words "Ocean Lifeguard Specialist", "Ocean Lifeguard", "Captain" and "Chief" may also appear on the face of badges issued to employees or retired employees authorized by the Fire Department and board of supervisors to carry such badges.
Shoulder patches.
Los Angeles County lifeguards wear a patch on their left sleeve that reads "County of Los Angeles Fire Dept. Lifeguard". Lifeguards that are licensed as paramedics wear a similar patch that identifies them as such.
Lifeguard vehicles.
All Toyota Tacoma trucks are currently assigned a sectional beach in Los Angeles County since deploying its new vehicle since 2015.


IMO 4906654


Saad Alfarargi

Saad Alfarargi is United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to development.
He started his task on 1 May 2017.
Education.
Bachelor in Commerce, University Cairo, 1956.
Master of Science in Political Science, University Cairo, 1956.
degree in International Relations, London School of Economics.
Responsibilities.
In Egypt.
Assistant to Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt;
Chief of the Presidential Bureau for Economic Affairs, Presidency, Cairo
Director General for International Economic Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cairo;
Chief of Cabinet of the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Special Political Adviser, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cairo;
At the United Nations.
UN Assistant Secretary General (ASG) Assistant Administrator of the UNDP and Regional Director for Arab States, New York
Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Egypt to the UN in Geneva Specialized Agencies and other International Organizations in Switzerland;
Special rapporteur for the United Nations Special Session on Disarmament Expert for the United Nations Disarmament Centre
Articles by Saad Alfarargi.
Saad Alfarargi has published articles on different subjects including business and security. peace and security, economic development, disarmament and world trade, international order.


Faye Ringel

Faye J. Ringel is an American professor emeritus of Humanities at the United States Coast Guard Academy and an author.
Life.
Ringel received a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature from Brandeis University and a Ph.D. from Brown University in Comparative Literature with "Patterns of the Hero and the Quest" in 1979. She is also a performer and teacher of traditional music (Hot Chestnuts: Old Songs, Endearing Charms).
Ringel was promoted to Professor Emeritus at the United States Coast Guard Academy after 20 years of service in 2010.
Private life.
She married Paul Hazel, a novelist, in 1990 but later was divorced.


Tetradifon

Tetradifon is an insecticide.


Connecticut Environmental Policy Act

The Connecticut Environmental Policy Act (CEPA) establishes environmental policy for the U.S. state of Connecticut. It requires an Environmental Impact Evaluation (EIE) for any state action which could potentially impact the natural environment. The lead agency is responsible for preparing the EIE, which is reviewed and approved by the Office of Policy and Management once it is completed.
State law.
Section 22a, Chapter 439 of the Connecticut General Statutes details the state's environmental policy and the EIE requirements of state agencies under CEPA. The objectives of CEPA are described in Section 1(b) of the act:
[I]t is the continuing responsibility of the state government to use all practicable means, consistent with other essential considerations of state policy, to improve and coordinate state plans, functions, programs, and resources to the end that the state may: (1) Fulfill the responsibility of each generation as trustee of the environment for succeeding generations; (2) assure for all residents of the state safe, healthful, productive, and esthetically and culturally pleasing surroundings; (3) attain the widest range of beneficial uses of the environment without degradation, risk to health or safety, or other undesirable and unintended consequences; (4) preserve important historic, cultural, and natural aspects of our Connecticut heritage, and maintain, wherever possible, an environment which supports diversity and variety of individual choice; (5) achieve an ecological balance between population and resource use which will permit high standards of living and a wide sharing of life's amenities; (6) enhance the quality of renewable resources and approach the maximum attainable recycling of depletable resources; and (7) practice conservation in the use of energy, maximize the use of energy efficient systems and minimize the environmental impact of energy production and use.
Connecticut Environmental Impact Evaluation.
CEPA states that, with a few exceptions, the sponsoring state agency must prepare an EIE before undertaking any action that may have significant impacts on the environment. Like the federal environmental impact statement, the EIE must include a range of alternatives along with the 'No Action' option. The EIE must consider the following impacts for each alternative:
Once the lead agency has completed an EIE, it is made available for public review and comment for 45 days (this period may be extended to 60 days for large or complex actions). Upon the expiration of the review and comment period the lead agency issues a Record of Decision and the EIE is submitted to the State Office of Policy and Management (OPM) for final review of the evaluation's adequacy. If the EIE is found to be inadequate, the OPM will require an EIE supplement from the lead agency, or reject it entirely if the EIE is seriously flawed.
Under CEPA, individuals, citizens' groups, municipal governments, or businesses can petition the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) to hold public hearings on an EIE after it has been released for review and comment. If the DEEP receives a petition containing 25 signatures or from an organization containing 25 members or more, the agency is required by law to hold a public hearing and consider comments submitted during the hearing. While the Office of Policy and Management approves an EIE, the Connecticut State Constitution delegates much of the state's authority to its 169 town governments. This arrangement gives the towns significant veto power over a state project since each affected town must issue its own permits for the portion of a state project within its jurisdiction, even after the state DEEP and OPM have both approved the project.
The majority of Connecticut's towns have ordinances that extend CEPA regulations to activities headed by an agency within the municipal government. Many towns require individuals and businesses to obtain a number of permits before starting a major project. The process of obtaining these permits requires at least some kind of environmental impact analysis and public hearings in most places. For most Connecticut towns the approval authority for issuing local permits rests with the Planning and Zoning Board, although additional approval by the local wetlands or conservation commission is necessary in some towns for a project to proceed.
Exceptions.
A federally mandated environmental impact statement (EIS) may be submitted in lieu of an EIE for a federal/state action, as long as the EIS contents meets all of the requirements for an equivalent EIE.


Welfare economics

Welfare economics is a branch of economics that uses microeconomic techniques to evaluate well-being (welfare) at the aggregate (economy-wide) level.
Attempting to apply the principles of welfare economics gives rise to the field of public economics, the study of how government might intervene to improve social welfare. Welfare economics also provides the theoretical foundations for particular instruments of public economics, including cost–benefit analysis, while the combination of welfare economics and insights from behavioral economics has led to the creation of a new subfield, behavioral welfare economics.
The field of welfare economics is associated with two fundamental theorems. The first states that given certain assumptions, competitive markets produce (Pareto) efficient outcomes; it captures the logic of Adam Smith's invisible hand. The second states that given further restrictions, any Pareto efficient outcome can be supported as a competitive market equilibrium. Thus a social planner could use a social welfare function to pick the most equitable efficient outcome, then use lump sum transfers followed by competitive trade to bring it about. Because of welfare economics' close ties to social choice theory, Arrow's impossibility theorem is sometimes listed as a third fundamental theorem.
A typical methodology begins with the derivation (or assumption) of a social welfare function, which can then be used to rank economically feasible allocations of resources in terms of the social welfare they entail. Such functions typically include measures of economic efficiency and equity, though more recent attempts to quantify social welfare have included a broader range of measures including economic freedom (as in the capability approach).
Approaches.
Cardinal utility.
The early "Neoclassical approach" was developed by Edgeworth, Sidgwick, Marshall, and Pigou. It assumes the following:
With these assumptions, it is possible to construct a social welfare function simply by summing all the individual utility functions. Note that such a measure would still be concerned with the distribution of income (distributive efficiency) but not the distribution of final utilities. In normative terms, such authors were writing in the Benthamite tradition.
Ordinal utility.
The "New Welfare Economics" approach is based on the work of Pareto, Hicks, and Kaldor. It explicitly recognizes the differences between the efficiency aspect of the discipline and the distribution aspect and treats them differently. Questions of efficiency are assessed with criteria such as Pareto efficiency and the Kaldor–Hicks compensation tests, while questions of income distribution are covered in social welfare function specification. Further, efficiency dispenses with cardinal measures of utility, replacing it with ordinal utility, which merely ranks commodity bundles (with an indifference-curve map, for example).
Criteria.
Efficiency.
Situations are considered to have distributive efficiency when goods are distributed to the people who can gain the most utility from them.
Pareto efficiency is a useful efficiency goal that is standard in economics. A situation is Pareto-efficient only if no individual can be made better off without making someone else worse off. An example of an inefficient situation would be if Smith owns an apple but would prefer to consume an orange while Jones owns an orange but would be prefer to consume an apple. Both could be made better off by trading.
A pareto-efficient state of affairs can only come about if four criteria are met:
There are a number of conditions that lead to inefficiency. They include:
Note that if one of these conditions leads to inefficiency, another condition might help by counteracting it. For example, if a pollution externality leads to overproduction of tires, a tax on tires might restore the efficient level of production. A condition inefficient in the "first-best" might be desirable in the second-best.
To determine whether an activity is moving the economy towards Pareto efficiency, two compensation tests have been developed. Policy changes usually help some people while hurting others, so these tests ask what would happen if the winners were to compensate the losers. Using the "Kaldor criterion", the change is desirable if the maximum amount the winners would be willing to pay is greater than the minimum the losers would accept. Under the "Hicks criterion", the change is desirable if the maximum the losers would be willing to offer the winners to prevent the change is less than the minimum the winners would accept as a bribe to give up the change. The Hicks compensation test is from the losers' point of view; the Kaldor compensation test is from the winners'. If both conditions are satisfied, the proposed change will move the economy toward Pareto optimality. This idea is known as Kaldor–Hicks efficiency. If the two conditions disagree, that yields the Scitovsky paradox.
Equity.
There are many combinations of consumer utility, production mixes, and factor input combinations consistent with efficiency. In fact, there are an infinity of consumption and production equilibria that yield Pareto optimal results. There are as many optima as there are points on the aggregate production–possibility frontier. Hence, Pareto efficiency is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for social welfare. Each Pareto optimum corresponds to a different income distribution in the economy. Some may involve great inequalities of income. So how do we decide which Pareto optimum is most desirable? This decision is made, either tacitly or overtly, when we specify the social welfare function. This function embodies value judgements about interpersonal utility. The social welfare function shows the relative importance of the individuals that comprise society.
A utilitarian welfare function (also called a Benthamite welfare function) sums the utility of each individual in order to obtain society's overall welfare. All people are treated the same, regardless of their initial level of utility. One extra unit of utility for a starving person is not seen to be of any greater value than an extra unit of utility for a millionaire. At the other extreme is the Max-Min, or Rawlsian utility function. According to the Max-Min criterion, welfare is maximized when the utility of those society members that have the least is the greatest. No economic activity will increase social welfare unless it improves the position of the society member that is the worst off. Most economists specify social welfare functions that are intermediate between these two extremes.
The social welfare function is typically translated into social indifference curves so that they can be used in the same graphic space as the other functions that they interact with. A utilitarian social indifference curve is linear and downward sloping to the right. The Max-Min social indifference curve takes the shape of two straight lines joined so as they form a 90-degree angle. A social indifference curve drawn from an intermediate social welfare function is a curve that slopes downward to the right.
The intermediate form of social indifference curve can be interpreted as showing that as inequality increases, a larger improvement in the utility of relatively rich individuals is needed to compensate for the loss in utility of relatively poor individuals.
A crude social welfare function can be constructed by measuring the subjective dollar value of goods and services distributed to participants in the economy ("see also" consumer surplus).
Fundamental theorems.
The field of welfare economics is associated with two fundamental theorems. The first states that given certain assumptions, competitive markets (price equilibria with transfers, e.g. Walrasian equilibria) produce Pareto efficient outcomes. The assumptions required are generally characterised as "very weak". More specifically, the existence of competitive equilibrium implies both price-taking behaviour and complete markets, but the only additional assumption is the local non-satiation of agents' preferences – that consumers would like, at the margin, to have slightly more of any given good. The first fundamental theorem is said to capture the logic of Adam Smith's invisible hand, though in general there is no reason to suppose that the "best" Pareto efficient point (of which there are a set) will be selected by the market without intervention, only that some such point will be.
The second fundamental theorem states that given further restrictions, any Pareto efficient outcome can be supported as a competitive market equilibrium. These restrictions are stronger than for the first fundamental theorem, with convexity of preferences and production functions a sufficient but not necessary condition. A direct consequence of the second theorem is that a benevolent social planner could use a system of lump sum transfers to ensure that the "best" Pareto efficient allocation was supported as a competitive equilibrium for some set of prices. More generally, it suggests that redistribution should, if possible, be achieved without affecting prices (which should continue to reflect relative scarcity), thus ensuring that the final (post-trade) result is efficient. Put into practice, such a policy might resemble predistribution.
Because of welfare economics' close ties to social choice theory, Arrow's impossibility theorem is sometimes listed as a third fundamental theorem.
Social welfare maximization.
Utility functions can be derived from the points on a contract curve. Numerous utility functions can be derived, one for each point on the production possibility frontier (PQ in the diagram above). A social utility frontier (also called a grand utility frontier) can be obtained from the outer envelope of all these utility functions. Each point on a social utility frontier represents an efficient allocation of an economy's resources; that is, it is a Pareto optimum in factor allocation, in production, in consumption, and in the interaction of production and consumption (supply and demand). In the diagram below, the curve MN is a social utility frontier. Point D corresponds with point C from the earlier diagram. Point D is on the social utility frontier because the marginal rate of substitution at point C is equal to the marginal rate of transformation at point A. Point E corresponds with point B in the previous diagram, and lies inside the social utility frontier (indicating inefficiency) because the MRS at point C is not equal to the MRT at point A.
Although all the points on the grand social utility frontier are Pareto efficient, only one point identifies where social welfare is maximized. Such point is called "the point of bliss". This point is Z where the social utility frontier MN is tangent to the highest possible social indifference curve labelled SI.
Criticisms.
Some, such as economists in the tradition of the Austrian School, doubt whether a cardinal utility function, or cardinal social welfare function, is of any value. The reason given is that it is difficult to aggregate the utilities of various people that have differing marginal utility of money, such as the wealthy and the poor.
Also, the economists of the Austrian School question the relevance of Pareto optimal allocation considering situations where the framework of means and ends is not perfectly known, since neoclassical theory always assumes that the ends-means framework is perfectly defined.
The value of ordinal utility functions has been questioned. Economists have proposed other means of measuring well-being as an alternative to price indices like willingness to pay using revealed or stated preference method. This includes
subjective well-being functions based on individuals' ratings of their happiness or life satisfaction rather than on their preferences.
Price-based measures are seen as promoting consumerism and productivism by many. It is possible to do welfare economics without the use of prices; however, this is not always done. Value assumptions explicit in the social welfare function used and implicit in the efficiency criterion chosen tend to make welfare economics a normative and perhaps subjective field. This can make it controversial. However, perhaps most significant of all are concerns about the limits of a utilitarian approach to welfare economics. According to this line of argument, utility is not the only thing that matters and so a comprehensive approach to welfare economics should include other factors.
The capability approach is a theoretical framework that entails two core normative claims: first, the claim that the freedom to achieve well-being is of primary moral importance, and second, that freedom to achieve well-being is to be understood in terms of people's capabilities, that is, their real opportunities to do and be what they have reason to value.