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History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 12

Public Finance and Global Economic Connections

How do governments raise and spend money, and how do nations trade? Using fictional tax tables and countries, learners calculate taxes under progressive, proportional and regressive systems, distinguish marginal from average rates, separate deficits from debt, and examine the main categories of federal spending. They then calculate comparative advantage, analyze who gains and loses from a tariff, convert currencies and interpret trade balances, presenting the trade-offs that lead people to different policy views.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 145 minutes
  • Public finance and trade check: 9 questions
  • Ways to answer: fill in the blanks, choose an answer, match pairs, type a number, sort into groups and true or false
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What learners will discover

  • Classify taxes as progressive, proportional or regressive and calculate tax owed, marginal and average rates from a fictional table.
  • Distinguish deficits from debt and describe the main categories of federal revenue and spending.
  • Calculate opportunity costs to identify comparative advantage and explain gains from trade.
  • Analyze the effects of tariffs, exchange rates and trade balances, presenting trade-offs on several sides.

Lessons

  1. Who pays, and how much? 5 steps3 practiceabout 36 min
  2. Spending, deficits and debt 4 steps3 practiceabout 34 min
  3. Comparative advantage 5 steps3 practiceabout 37 min
  4. Tariffs, exchange rates and trade balances 5 steps4 practiceabout 38 min
  5. Public finance and trade check 9 questions at the end

Keep exploring

More 12th grade social studies

Guide for grown-ups