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Robert Nutzman
Math 1030/Chin Yeh
2, August 2016
Final Project
Quantitative reasoning is, what I believe, math for real world situations. There are
limited situations where you would use the material in math 1010 or math 1050 within your
everyday life unless you were an engineer or another profession that required advanced
mathematics.
I hope once I graduate to enter the field of government. I have never subscribed to the
idea of getting a degree simply to make large amounts of money. For myself having a degree
presents me with the opportunity to help more people in a more substantial way. This is why for
my final project I will discuss how quantitative reasoning will be used in finding ways to balance
a government budget.
I have chosen this topic, because I believe that a balanced budget is in the top tier of
responsibilities that a government has to its people. Without a balanced budget a government
will become unsustainable and fail to perform its other responsibilities.
Within this paper I will discuss topics we have discussed during the summer semester of
2016 in Math 1030. My main points of emphasis will be: Understanding the four step budget,
Income taxes, and understanding gross domestic product (GDP). I predict that by the end of this
paper I will be able to speak to a higher degree of knowledge about the aspects of keeping a
balanced budget.

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Controlling finances seems like an easy concept in theory. You have an amount of money
you make and staying within that amount seems like a no brainer. However, we have seen this
go terribly astray with people and even our local and federal governments. While the United
States has been in a fluctuating state of debt since 1836 it has seen individual years of surpluses
and deficits. The usually vary from year to year, but for the most part the United States has had
some variation of public debt. On the years that the U.S. has had a surplus they have generally
followed some simple rules which can be found with Using & Understanding Mathematics: A
Quantitative Reasoning Approach (Sixth Edition). This book states that controlling your finances
relies on four simple rules: knowing your bank account, knowing what you spend, dont make
impulse buys, and make and keep a budget.
Knowing you bank balance seems like an easy concept, but with any sort of government
budget it can become convoluted and complex quickly. As a government official it is imperative
that you constantly monitor how much your city or country has within its accounts. Knowing
this allows the officials to decide whether they have room to improve infrastructure, add in more
public programs or even be able to pay its bills. Therefore, it correlates directly with point two;
knowing what you spend. Knowing what you spend allows you to more accurately track where
your monetary accounts are at. If you have a agencies within your government spending openly
with a blank check it will be harder to keep to your budget. This has been seen during our last
two presidents who were attempting to fund Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring
Freedom. There were many impulse buys during this time which made it difficult to keep to the
budgets that had been created. I hope by understanding the basics of a budget that it will instill
within me the importance of being constantly vigilant about who and what money is being spent
on.

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The second point of emphasis is income taxes. This is where a government is likely to
make almost all of its money from. There are the obvious state and federal income taxes, but
often there are taxes on a county or city level that are not often discussed. I believe that it is
important to have the best understanding of how this works even though, at least at a federal
level, no one fully understands how it works.
To be a successful politician or government employee in the eyes of the public you are
often measured on whether you raised or lowered income taxes. Understanding how we tax and
who we tax can lead to a successful term or a disastrous one. Realizing that there are income tax
breaks or incentives for corporations to move to your country or state can mean the difference
between creating 10,000 jobs, boosting local revenues or balancing a budget. So while it does
seem unfair to the middle class American that they are so heavily taxed it could mean the
difference of them having a job at all or not. This is why understanding a complex income tax
system is crucial to being in government, and even if you do not officials should surround
themselves with people who do.
The last and probably most complex point would be gross domestic product (GDP).
While I will make no claims of being an expert of even a novice within this field I hope that
through research I will have a slightly better understanding on how this effects both the deficit
and debt from year to year.
Gross domestic product in a nut shell is an indicator of how well or poorly an economy is
doing. It represents the total value of all goods and services over a year (in most cases). This
would be particularly useful if someone wishes to get into government because they need to
know if what theyre doing is working or if it is not. Because of the complicated nature of the
GDP it can be difficult to do on your own. As a member of government I believe it would be

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interesting for me to be a part of this discussion; especially if I had some valuable input.
However similar with income taxes it is important to choose people you can trust to give you
straight forward information on the subject. Because this is such a major contributor to the
success of any city, state, or country it is imperative that this is something that is understood
when entering a public office.
In conclusion I believe that Quantitative Reasoning has given me a better idea of how
math is applied in more real world scenarios. Because I wish to pursue a career in government it
is important for me to understand balancing a budget, income taxes, and the basics of gross
domestic product. With the tools I have learned this semester I hope to be able to speak more
confidently in the future about all of the topics.