Journal Topic 14: My Future as an Economist

Throughout the course of economics, I have come to find it interesting and I have also decided to continue learning economics. I find economics interesting simply because it is more interesting than any other subject courses I have taken at this school. Science and math bores the hell out of me, the teachers also take part in my boredom for these classes. As for English, I just cannot picture myself becoming a writer, journalist, author, and so on. I seem to find economics to be extremely useful for my future as this is the major I have decided to take. The economic branch of macroeconomics seems much more appealing than microeconomics simply because I feel it’s easier to study a wider scope of economics rather than just a tiny part of an individual part of the economy. As I have stated before learning economics is much more beneficial to me and society. Learning how to write extravagant essays or stories will not help the economy or society. Science will indeed help develop a brighter environment, but when it comes to money they have little or no knowledge in handling it. I believe majoring in art is pretty lame, and definitely will not benefit the world and society whatsoever.

Journal Topic 13: Supply or Demand?

The demand side policy and the supply side policy are based off of the basics of supply and demand. The demand side policy aims to deal solely with the demand. Take for example, if the interest rates were to be decreased, then the demand in the economy will be increased as people have more money to spend on or invest with. In general, the demand side policy aims to change the aggregate demand in the existing economy. On the other hand, the supply side policy aims to change the aggregate supply in the economy. The policy is all about increasing the productivity in our workforce. This usually means lowering the barriers for people to produce goods and services, such as lowering taxes. This course of action will reduce regulations and allow greater flexibility in our productions. In my perspective, the demand side policy seems to me a much better type of policy over the supply side. Advantages of the demand side policy includes being able to stimulate the economy and increase aggregate demand as well as being able to control inflation with the opposite actions. Disadvantages may include budget deficits with increased debts and policy lags where there is reduced spending in a healthy economy and more spending during a weak one.

Journal Topic 12: Role of the Government

The much heated debate of how much or how little the government should interfere with the economy has been going on since the creation of America. Some say that the government shouldn’t do as much as possible to control the economy while some others say that the government should keep its hands off and let the economy run by it self. I believe that the government should have even more power in their control of the economy. For example in the Great Depression of the 1930s was the most devastating depression of the 20^th century and the cause of this was the government having no control over the economy and the stock market with the Hands Off Policy resulting in the unemployment rates rising significantly high, sharp decrease in the value of money, rises in prices of foods and services, as well as a high death rate. In modern society of the United States, the government tax collected should be spent to stimulate the country and its economy as the United States has a current debt of $16.8 trillion. Yes, the Federal Reserve Bank should also try to manipulate interest rates in order to achieve the same goal of stimulating the economy.

Topic 11: Unemployment

The unemployment rate has been ever-changing sometimes decreasing and sometimes drastically increasing. Nowadays, the unemployment rate is still on the rise. Unemployment is then the main contributing factor to the shrink in the economy. There are occupations in society that tend to be more resistant than others to the forces that cause unemployment and those that are less resistant as well. Some examples of jobs that are more resistant than others to the chance of unemployment include: jobs that involves technology or science. Technology is used everyday and so people with new inventions or scientific theories will never be unwanted. Some jobs that are less resistant may include: jobs that involve forms of labor as well as forms of management. There are millions of applicants for jobs that are based on labor, yet there are not enough open spaces for all these applicants. Therefore not everyone gets hired. Jobs that are based on management such as the manager of a business or even a CEO of it are also vulnerable to becoming vacant. For example whenever a big business were to suddenly have a huge drop in profits the CEO would most likely be replaced in an instant. I would like to major in economics and financing. I feel like this is the best job for me because math and science just isn’t my thing. I cannot yet determine whether or not my type of job is more or less resistant to unemployment. And yes, this does have some influence on why I choose what I major in.

Topic 10: How to Boost My "GDP"

Increasing one’s productivity would usually result in better grades and more free time. However this may not apply so to everyone. Some people may gain more knowledge through more studying, but still don’t know how to apply the concepts. Then there are people who can only increase productivity in a specific field of skill. The main factors that contribute to economic productivity include: the quality of the labor, technological innovations, energy costs, and financial markets. Only two from the list are mainly being applied to a human and how one is able to increase their productivity. The first one, quality of labor, this factor is how educated and healthy the workers are; the better educated and healthier the labor force is, the more productivity there will be. This is exactly how the productivity works for students as well, the more education one receives and the healthier mind and body of a student is, the overall productivity will be higher. The second one being energy costs. Energy costs is how much fuel and power are put into the labor force or technology to achieve higher productivity. The more energy a student puts into his/her work, the general thoughts would be that that student will become successful and productivity will end up higher. 

Topic 9: Financial Markets

The most attractive kind of financial assets to me are bonds and mutual funds. If I were to have the available money to invest with, I would invest it into bonds and mutual funds. Simply because bonds are the safest investment that will ever come around as it will never crash unlike the stock markets. The interest rates are average but it is always consistent and will never decline drastically. A person will always receive his or her money regardless of the economy. Moving on to mutual funds, although it may seem exactly the same as investing into stocks, it is not. Investing into stocks is doing it personally with no one else along with you. If you invest into stocks and you lose and you lose, only you lose and no one else will. The difference with investing in mutual funds is that the money invested goes to companies which also gather many other people’s money to be invested in stocks, bonds, short-term money-market instruments, other securities or assets, or some combination of these investments. Advantages of mutual funds include: having your investments handled by professionals and will be a lot safer than investing in socks by your self. Diversification is another benefit as this will really lower the risk of the investors because the company will spread the investments in a wide range of companies and industry sectors. 

Topic 8: Money

Money is a medium of exchange in the form of coins or issued banknotes that are able to buy the things needed in our lives. As of now the only source of income one can get is the money from birthday gifts or a few widely celebrated holidays such as Chinese New Year, the most popular week of giving out as well as receiving red envelopes of money from close friends and relatives. One can also receive money from monthly allowances, small part-time jobs, and the tiny interest rates banks give out for storing money in their bank. Money probably means everything to me excluding close family members or relatives. I believe by having money, one is able to buy oneself whatever the thing one needs. For example our everyday household furniture, kitchen utensils, transportations, foods, and so on are all able to be bought by money and are usually only done so. Having the amount for now is livable as a high school student doesn’t need millions of dollars to survive through life, students can even go on even with a lesser amount of money. I would be willing to do anything legal to receive money and nothing shady.

Topic 7: Change and the Future

There have been rare chances of change that I had to go through as I grew up. The only significant changes is changing from one school to another and going through adolescence. After finishing elementary, I moved onto junior high and this is the biggest change in my life so far (for my body. Then I move onto high school after completing junior high and high school may be the toughest years of learning one will ever go through as this stage of life will determine whether or not I will have a good future or a bad one. As I completed my first course of high school for ninth grade; I decided to move to Taiwan for schooling for a different experience at hands-on cultural education as well as my regular education during my stay at PAS. What I expect to be doing after high school is to be taking classes for courses that benefit the field I will major in for my future businesses. The kinds of occupation that would be available in the future all depends on how quickly the society changes. If the current society were to progress rather quickly there will be numerous new jobs open to the people, but if the society were to not progress as so then only a few new jobs would be available to us. For one to enter the world of work; one would need the skills above the average both in social and intellectual. 

Topic 6: Who's Running the Show?

The form of the business organization that PAS runs on is a sole proprietorship, but has formed a partnership with another group. I have no idea of the history behind the development of PAS, but I would say that Pamela has formed this school with her own money, and funds from other people who supports her ideas and causes as well as partaking an interest in an international education. The group Pamela has created a partnership with is the School Board of Education. The liability of PAS is limited. If the school were to fail; Pamela cannot be held responsible for every particular thing. Pamela does not and cannot lose her property to the failure of the school, because she has formed a partnership with the School Board of Education. Both are responsible for their actions. The life of PAS is unlimited. If the Pamela were to suddenly pass away, retire, or lose her position as the head of the school; the school would not be destroyed and the name Pacific American School would not be gone either. Instead, a new head of the school is hired and the school continues to function as long as the positions of the staff can be replaced. I chose a sole proprietorship because Pamela acts like she runs this school on her own. Advantages over other business organizations are having a limited liability and an unlimited life. There are no disadvantages. And if I were to start my own I would choose the same organization, because as stated before, limited liability, unlimited life.

Topic 5: A Different Phone?

The Nokia phone company came up with the idea and produced the mobile TV app from the results of the recent survey done by Nokia in Helsinki. The results of the survey were 41% of the total participants stating that they would be willing to pay for the mobile TV app service from Nokia. In addition the people thought that the monthly fee of 10 Euros ($12.50 USD) a month was a very reasonable price. Phone producers include many apps into their phones to make it seem like it is the finest thing to be purchased by consumers and to make it seem essential to their daily lives. Manufacturers are more likely to sell differentiated products in the new market because there are many competitors in the same section of the market; therefore products with different special features set each product apart from each other attracting different costumers in the new market.

To create the perfect phone for the general public; it should include the universal features of being able to make calls, easy-to-access contacts list, world-wide map, 4G internet connection, and a few phone apps for entertainment once in a while. With only a few features to a phone producers can create the perfect phone without much hassle. In fact, most of the apps and extra “special” features are only a waste and are useless to us. 

Topic 4: Ripple Effects and Elasticity

The up and down changes in the prices of oil will drastically affect the entire economy along with one's family as the oil's importance in the production of every good and service that is produced, a change in this will affect everyone in society. Such an impact on society would cause a lot of other products and services to decrease in use.

If the prices of oil were to drop relatively low, then the use of products and services that utilize oil would tremendously rise in numbers. However if the prices of oil were to skyrocket, such products and services that operates on oil would decrease extremely fast.

Cars, the vehicles that transports us everywhere we go, ranging from getting to school and driving around for vacation. In the case of the prices of oil rising, less and less would drive in cars and resort to bicycling or taking the bus. Thus, the demand for automobiles will significantly drop and hurting the producers of cars, a big part of the current economy.

Conversely, the prices of oil were to drop, oil would be purchased more than ever and cars used more often as well.

Another example would include factories. All factories operate on oil and energy to produce the everyday products we use. If the prices of oil were to frequently fluctuate, producers’ willingness would change and either produces less when the quantity demand is higher resulting in a shortage or produce more then the quantity demanded, resulting in a surplus.

Topic 3: Where Choices Lead

Coming to PAS was my very own decision by doing so; I gave up what I had in America in order to come to Taiwan for this education. Being placed in this class as well; it was completely forced onto me by the head of the school and not of my own choices. Money is only one of the opportunity costs of the decision of coming to this school. An intangible opportunity cost of what was forgone was the ability to take the actual class that I have wanted to instead of being placed in the class of economics.

My decision of attending this school has not been a bad experience at all compared to my original school back in the states, but the decisions from the head are exceptionally irrational in most cases. But take for example of being in economics; this was utterly decided by Pamela, therefore removing me from my original class I expected to attend to but was placed into economics. Although this idea did not please me at first, I have not come to hate economics but to come to accept it as a useful class for my future. This choice in moving me from a class that she thought was useless for me may actually benefit me. 

Topic 2: Scarcity at School

In PAS scarcity occurs extremely often and nearly everyday. Students, teachers, office staffs, and even the janitors at our school has to make a trade-off for something they desire. Students trade their time and freedom to come to school for their education. Teachers and office staffs also trade their time and freedom in order to maintain their wages given by PAS. As well as the janitors who spend their time to earn their wages.

I as well spend 7 hours of my time at school to get the education I need, and then another 6 ~ 8 hours finishing the given work and studying for future tests after school. The scarcity here is education, and in order to make this trade-off; I spend lots and lots of time as well as money to secure it.

The resources that I want more of are the lunches provided by the school, and what keeps me from getting a better quality of food is the office staff. They make the overall decisions for the school environment and needs to improve on their food. In order to get the higher quality lunches I enjoy; I took the extra time to order from outside restaurants instead of purchasing school lunches.

Topic 1: Big Questions

In PAS, the goods being produced are anything you use in this school, ranging from the chair you sit in and the desk you use to write on to even something as broad as the school infrastructure. The services provided in PAS, are the educational classes given by teachers and for the future of any individual to be able to attend college. The office also offers services; the staff members give you a wide variety of classes to choose from for your future occupations as well as guide you through these necessary steps. These goods and services are created for us, the students and all decisions are made by the head of the school, Pamela.

The choices Pamela has made are extremely important to us, yet it cannot totally satisfy our needs. Unlike other public schools, PAS is a privately owned school, therefore costs money for its purposes. The money being spent towards the school is supposed to be able to help us in everyday life during school hours, but it does not. Why? First of all, our “school” is not a real school; it is only one floor of a building after all. Second, the lunch being provided may just not taste as appetizing. Finally, the rules set by this school go beyond limit compared to all other privately owned schools. We can also conclude that our money is not being spent at its full potential even though we do have to pay high expenses in order to attend this school. 

Econ Hw

Section 1, p. 11, #5

-Q: Describe how the owners of a computer repair store might use the four factors of production to run their business.
-A: A computer repair store needs a store, someone to repair, money to start the business, and a way to advertise their occupations.
Section 2, p. 17, #3

-Q: Think of some of the options you have for spending time after school -- sports practice, hobby clubs, work or extra study, for example. Which option would you choose? What is the opportunity cost of your choice?

-A: I would choose sports practice, but the opportunity cost to this decision is not being able to finish my work as early as I would have done so. 
Section 3, p. 23, # 3

-Q: What economic data does a PPC bring together?

-A: The PPC is able to illustrate the impact of scarcity on an economy by showing the maximum number of goods or services that can be produced using limited resources. 
Section 4, p. 31, #7
-Q: How do you think politicians might use normative economics statements.
-A: Normative economic statements are all based on value judgments and everyone views it differently to whether or not such a course of action is the correct thing to do. For example politicians may use it purely for the benefits for themselves and not being able to see that it is harming the society.