Society
Exploring "Why" questions about Society
481 articles
Why are bitcoins worth money?
Bitcoin, like anything else, is worth money because we agree that it's worth money. Any value that anything has is only because someone else agrees that that something is worth trading for. The same i
Why is the capital gains tax a flat 15% in the US, and not dependent on income like income tax?
Economists believe capital investments are important for economic growth, and therefore you wouldn't like capital gains tax to be too distortionary. If people don't invest, then that may be bad for th
Why are movie ticket sales numbers done in dollars, while virtually everything else is done in number of units sold?
Because it's in relation to the budget of the film. Number of tickets sold is meaningless, 200 million dollars gross versus 50 million budget is a big deal. Other products don't have their budget publ
Why are there so many fragmentations in Christianity within the United States? Are they all going to heaven? How is it related to the sectarian differences in Islam?
Protestant Christianity is a really broad category. There are hundreds of different Protestant churches with slightly different beliefs and customs. Most of those churches you are thinking of probably
Why is such an emphasis placed on only a couple states during the U.S. presidential elections?
The "swing states". Most states are typically majority conservative or liberal. It's a waste of resources to go campaigning there.
Why is it wrong for a country to save a lot of money?
Basically German domestic consumption is really, really low because they save so much. Consumption is what drives economic activity and the Eurozone in particular has suffered from a dearth of consume
Why do companies pay dividends to stockholders?
You pay dividends to make your shares attracive to own. Many people buy shares hoping they will increase in value others want an income from owning the shares in addition.
why are there so many reports of incidents involving incompetent police officers, what does it take to become one?
we only hear about the bad ones. in reality there are FAR more good cops than bad
Why do company’s sponsor the PGA when it seems like pro golf doesn’t make much money?
Golfers and golf fans are rich, relatively speaking. The value of the eyeball of a golf watcher is more valuable than the eyeball of a nascar watcher or an NFL watcher. Advertising cost is about the v
Why do people blame Republicans’ success in Congressional races on district gerrymandering? Can’t Democrats redistrict just the same?
They can and do. Illinois' 4th and Florida's 5th are prime examples of the dems gerrymandering. Unfortunately the only way our government tries to fix gerrymandering is with more gerrymandering.