Corporations - Despotic Governments, Yesterday and Today

Corporations

Corporations have been taking illegal actions for years in order to continue having a cash flow. Some corporations such as IBM and Coca-Cola have even been found to be helping some of the worst dictators of the world such as Adolf Hitler to commit crimes such as the Holocaust. IBM was found to have been the corporation keeping track of all the people which were sent to the concentration camps by printing prisoner cards for the Nazis. Coca-Cola created a new brand of soda called Fanta orange to keep a cash flow coming into the Coca-Cola company.

By gaining control of the water in parts of the world, the people of the countries must pay to receive a natural resource.

Some corporations claim that the government no longer has control over them because they have moved to become international. Becoming international means that the United States government no longer has full control of them because there are other branches of the same corporation located in other parts of the world. 

Corporations have been acting like despots from times like the Holocaust to currently where they chose to privatize the natural resources of the world like water where one corporation owns all the water in a neighborhood including the rain which falls from the sky. In the past corporations have paid to rebuild Germany after World War I in order to have revenue continually flowing from that country. Many corporations do not take on their "social responsibility" and try to help the society at large but instead 

they do whatever is possible to gain money because to a corporation, money makes the world go round. 

The Greed of corporations

Using a Budget to Plan

$  $  $  $  BUDGET  $  $  $  $

  

Planning and creating a budget is one of the best ways to be in control of your personal finances. There are 8 important steps in creating a successful budget to balance your income and your expenses. The number one rule when it comes to a budget however is YOUR EXPENSES MUST NEVER EXCEED YOUR INCOME !

When it comes to creating a budget, the main things you focus on are your fixed expenses and your flexible expenses. Fixed expenses are necessities which are easy to determine like rent and loan payments. Flexible expenses are those expenses which are wants but are not necessarily needed to survive or whose amount available to be spent on is not always the same such as entertainment. Saving is also an important part of budgeting because having an emergency fund available can come in handy just in case anything occurs. 

Prom..

Prom is one of the most expensive issues in a student's life, apart from college. A great time to put a budget together would be during the prom season. You would know the amount of money that you would have available to spend and you know the expenses you need but how to spend it wisely is the issue. An example of a fixed expense when it comes to prom would be the dress and the limo/car. An example of a flexible expense would be the shoes and the after party. The most important things should be taken care of first and the left over should go towards things that can be substituted for something of lesser value. A budget for prom helps because it would help you, and your parents wallet, avoid going over your available funds.

After Graduation from College..

After graduation from college, so many expense start coming out of nowhere. There are expenses for prom loan payments, life insurance payments, rent because most likely your parents won't enjoy you continually living with them, grocery shopping and many many more. However, your income may be minimal because you have an entry level job. When I created my budget, I had to consider the many opportunity cost because of the low income. In order to have enough money to save and pay for rent and food, I had to choose public transportation instead of a car because cars are more expensive. The apartment that I chose was in a nice neighborhood but was not too big so I had more money. However, because I chose a nice apartment, I barely had money to spend on entertainment and clothing.

 Seeing the amount of money that was needed to make me have a nice apartment but not have a enough to enjoy my entertainment money, made me decide I should start saving as much as I could now. The money that I saved now can be used for some flexible expenses when I graduate from college and the money that I will begin earning can be used to save  for emergency funding. Budgeting from now can really help my future financial planning habits.

Ads in School

Certain school districts have discovered that there is a deficit in the funding available for transportation for students. As a new solution, the school districts have been allowing companies to place ads on school buses to gain money to close their budget gap. However the  idea of placing ads on school buses has caused a lot of controversy among parents and law makers. The people that are for placing ads on school buses believe that even though, it is an ad on the side of a school bus, it is nothing more than an ad on the side of a school bus. They believe that the money that they gain from allowing companies to advertise on the side of the buses will help decrease the debt caused by providing transportation for students. The small fraction that is earned is significant because it helps with the issues of the budget. 

The people who are against placing the ads on the school buses believe that by allowing companies to place ads on the school buses, they will soon want to advertise everywhere. The parents who are against the ads believe that the type of advertisements placed on the buses will make the children more vulnerable to the types of companies they do not want their children seeing. The parents believe that certain ads are inappropriate for their children. However, I feel that wherever the parents will bring their children, there will be advertisements which show the same ads that they are trying to prevent their children from seeing. They do not want the children being exposed to fast food or companies which will have the children thinking about anything inappropriate.

In my opinion, I believe that the school districts should allow certain companies to advertise on the school buses. The parents who are opposed to this believe that school buses like the one above will be driving around the neighborhood bringing their students to school. That is completely ridiculous because I am sure that the people who are in charge of selling the advertisements to the companies know how to properly censor the ads that will be placed on school buses. There won't be any "Planned Parenthood" or "Trojan condom" ads placed on a school bus. I also believe that the companies which the school districts allow to advertise should also try not to "take an arm when a hand is offered". If you are allowed to advertise on a school bus do not request an ad in the gym, on the sports field, on teachers and an announcement during sporting events. The parents on the other hand should know that if there child(ren) were brought up correctly, they can see a million ads a day but will not be affected by it. The parents biggest concern is the fast food ads, and if the parents taught their children the definition of no, there should not be a problem. 

Creating Opportunity for Each Other

 Creating Opportunity for Each Other

The way that white people help other white people makes it even harder for black people to get jobs. Black people already had to face racial discrimination and now the fact that favoritism is a new problem, it makes it even harder for black people to get a job. Black people should work harder to get good grades and should network to be able to get help from people other than black people. What the black Americans must begin doing is they need to get good grades and create friendships with people other than the people in their same race. Having friends of other races means that as a person, you would have more opportunities available to be able to get a better job. It would make it easier and more equally distributed for people of minorities to get help from other races. Instead of whites only helping whites, if a white person had a friend who was black they would be able to get that person a job.

The features that are in a strong community are that mostly everyone in the community share the same values yet there is diversity among the people to make the community like a melting pot. There should be a way in which all the people can communicate with one another and that everyone should feel safe and able to get along. The main feature is shared values however because many people can live together in the same place and not be in the same community. 

The community must be diverse and everyone must feel protected or defended by one another and nobody rips other people in the neighborhood  and don't talk behind each others backs. 

Latino immigrants have built strong communities

 because they made business which help the other Latin immigrants in the community. 

They found a way to incorporate the people in the neighborhood's background to make them feel welcomed. To keep this communities growing, the people of the community need to keep working together and helping each other to make people feel welcomed and unlike strangers in their own neighborhood.

The lesson that can be applied to create more opportunities of employment for everyone. Black people need to learn that only staying with friends who are of the same race as you will not help get you far. Having diverse friends will help a person have connections everywhere and will have them quicker get a job. Whites helps whites and blacks help blacks however the whites who help each other become more successful because they have connections in higher places. However, the Latinos of the neighborhoods with many immigrants started helping the immigrants by creating businesses which was similar to their backgrounds. This created many jobs and increased tourism for the neighborhood. This is a lesson because the people catered to everyone and not only one type of person and that actually made the neighborhood better. If people make neighborhoods who are more diverse, the neighborhood will become more diverse and will be successful.

Raising Health Care for Vets

~~~~~ Health Care for Vets ~~~~~

                               

     I believe that the cost of health care for military veterans should not be increased by a big percentage or the increase should be well though of. These people risks their life to fight for a country only to return and be jobless and sometimes unable to work due to their disabilities. However, the country is in debt and considering the feelings of each person in the country will not help the nation decrease its deficit. I believe that the veterans who have been paying the $230 a year should not be affected by this reform. The veterans who are now beginning to apply to receive the veterans health care should face the increase. The families who have became accustomed to paying $230 should not have to adjust their budgets to pay the increase. The people who have never paid the fee should be the ones who face the increase. I also believe that if the government does increase the health care cost for veterans, they should create stipulations which protect some of the veterans. The veterans who are to old to work or who are disabled and unable to get a job should be protected from facing the price increase. If the veterans should face an increase I feel that their should be different amounts in which it is increased based on age and whether or not the veteran is disabled or physiologically ill. The veterans who lost the most by fighting for our country should not have to continue to suffer. The ones who are able to continue with their everyday lives should pay the increase and help to lower the country's deficit. 

Supply and Demand

What is the Supply and Demand Theory ?

Supply and demand is perhaps one of the most fundamental concepts of economics. Supply and demand is the backbone of a market economy. Demand refers to how much of a product or service is wanted by buyers. The amount demanded is the amount of a product people are willing to buy at a certain price. There is a relationship between price and demand and that is called the demand relationship. Supply represents how much the market can offer or is willing to produce. The quantity supplied is the amount of a certain good producers are willing to make when receiving a certain price for the product. The relationship between price and how much of a good or service is available to the market is known as the supply relationship. Therefore the thing that is affected by supply and demand is the price. 
In a market economy, demand and supply say how resources will be used in the most efficient way.


How Are Prices Determined ?

Price is based on the interaction of supply and demand. When buyers and sellers can agree on a price the selling occurs  and the price is called the "equilibrium price"

When supply and demand are in balance it is called "equilibrium". If less products are produced, to ration the shortage, consumers would have to pay a higher price in order to get the product they want. Producers ask for a higher price in order to produce more products. Companies raise prices to try to keep supply and demand in balance and to potentially achieve equilibrium.   

If there is a surplus of a product, the producers would have to lower their prices in order to clear excess supplies. Buyers would be tempted by the lower prices to increase their purchases. The prices will continue to fall until supply and demand are again in equilibrium.

A market price is not a fair price to everyone. It does not guarantee  satisfaction of neither the buyer and seller. Prices that are too low will result in attracting competition. Likewise sellers are also considered to be profit maximize-rs. Too high a price will  attract additional producer competition. Therefore, there will exist different price levels where individual buyers and sellers are satisfied and the total will create an equilibrium price.When either demand or supply changes, the equilibrium price will change. 


Supply and Demand

The above chart shows the relationship between supply and demand. The red line shows that as the supply increases, the price decreases. The company has an excess of products and will continue to lower their prices in order to persuade the consumers to purchase the product. The blue line shows how as the supply decreases, the price increases along with it. If more people want the product the company will raise the prices in order to try to make a profit on the product.

The constant raising and lowering of prices is all an attempt of the producer to achieve equilibrium. 

Market for I-Phone

Based on the above chart you could see that the equilibrium price of of the phones between demand one and demand two no longer existed as the demand increased and the price decreased. The more the i-phone was in the demand the lower the prices remained. When the i-phone was not in demand the prices went back up to $500. Something that can explain the shift in pricing could be that a competing company released a phone which is similar with a comparable price. As the demand changes there is no longer and equilibrium price. 

Enrichment- Women at Arms

   Women in Combat 

     This article talks about the negative impacts that women are facing due to the fact that they were in the military and fought wars. Many female combat veterans are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. This disease causes the women to isolate themselves to avoid embarrassment  Majority of the time the women who are suffering, begin to avoid their spouses and their children. The women seek to be alone because they feel that they are people of high rankings in the military so they cannot be seen as someone who is "mentally unstable". The number of women who are suffering psychologically has been increasing continually. Women are prevented from fighting on the ground or on the front lines yet the amount of women who are suffering is almost equal in proportion with the amount of men. 

     Women are affected more than men because when a man returns home from war as a veteran, he can drink at the bar with his war buddies, yet a woman is left to suffer by herself. 
     Some people believe that women are handling and dealing with the stress of combat as well as male soldiers are. 

Walking Lightly on the Planet

     

     Today is the first day of several days that I will began walking lightly on the planet. I now understand the impact that many of my everyday habits have on the planet. Before I became aware of the things I was doing, everyone would need at least 4 planets to keep up with my lifestyle. However, when I became aware of my effects, I changed.The world cannot keep up with everyone living like they want to and not knowing the negative effects it is having on the planet. This is a journal on my path to a better lifestyle, because actions speak louder than words when it comes to reducing your ecological footprint. 
     Day One: I now try to eat more vegetables in my diet and eat less meat like beef and pork. For breakfast I had a butter croissant and a yogurt with granola. I will try to eat one big meal a day, which would be dinner, and several snacks throughout the day. When I'm going home, like when I'm coming to school, I will take the stairs instead of the elevator. Changing certain behaviors that I am used to will be hard however, I know its what's best. We cannot just get another planet earth so everyone needs to come together and start on the path to protecting the one we currently have. 
     Day Two: Today was my second day trying to alter my lifestyle to decrease my carbon footprint. I ate only one big meal yesterday and will continue to do this today. I ate fresh fruits as a snack instead of fast food like a burger. I took the train to school like I normally would and I did not go anywhere with my mother's car. I tried to minimize the amount of time I spent in the shower and I tried to reduce the amount of electrical devices I had plugged in. 
     Day Three: Day three of my way to change seems to be going by easier than day one. Today I continued to eat one big meal and small snacks. i had Greek yogurt and fresh fruits from a farmer's market as a snack. For dinner, I had steamed fish, broccoli and cauliflower and white rice. I am trying to stay away from pork and beef because meats like that contribute to my ecological footprint because it takes so much to make those meats ready to be eaten. I charged my phone only when it needed to be and unplugged the charger when it was not in use.  I continued to minimize the amount of time i spend in the shower and try to encourage the rest of my family to do the same. I recycled all the plastic bottles, cans and newspapers that I found in my house and will continue to for the rest of the week. 

My Ecological Footprint

           = 4.50  Earths

     My current ecological footprint is 4.5 earths. This is my current footprint because I have many people living in my home. My house is not made of recyclable products and I don't buy products that are biodegradable. This means that if everyone in the world did everything like me, we would need 4.50 earths in order to keep up with the lifestyle. 

              = 1.19 Earths              

     In order to get my ecological footprint down to 1.19, I would need to change my lifestyle. I would eat one big meal daily and several small snacks in between. I would mainly ride public transportation and I would shop at farmers markets and grow my own vegetables. I would 

own furniture that was pre-used and I would save water and electricity whenever it was possible for me. I would also own a hybrid or electric car yet not drive it too much. This would change my regular lifestyle because I am used to always driving around and would have to stick to taking public transportation.      

                  

This image means that Americans contribute the most towards the ecological damage that is occurring. If everyone in the world lived like a typical American, we would need 9.5 earths.

     In order to reduce my ecological footprint by one planet I would have to make a few simple changes in my lifestyle. I would have to start recycling all the product which I use. I would try to eat one large meal a day instead of eating three large meals. I could also try getting a low flow toilet. My ecological footprint would also change if I became a vegetarian. It is important to reduce my ecological footprint because we only have one planet not 4.5 so I have to make an effort to help preserve the earth. 

                                              

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=JWYApV0xAil72M&tbnid=u1HMFmx0KOky2M:&ved=0CAQQjB0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fconservationbytes.com%2F2010%2F07%2F01%2Fcartoon-biodiversity-loss-viii%2F&ei=gR5HUc7eG-rx0wH6poDICQ&bvm=bv.43828540,d.dmg&psig=AFQjCNGoLKbYx1ygxW4hRIjv7chkx3zklg&ust=1363701758046269

     People in the world needs to understand that global warming is not an issue that's just going to fix itself. All the different lifestyles people are living needs to be controlled in order to help the environment. The temperature going up is not the only consequence we can face as humanity because of global warming. Countries can become flooded, animals can die and people will become displaced. The government needs to find ways to prevent the big corporations and individual people from continually ruining the world. We only have one globe and we have no way of getting another so we need to start making efforts to preserve the planet we currently have and have to prevent ourselves from causing any more damage. 

                                         

     Ways in which to reduce your ecological footprint is by using public transportation instead of driving when it is an available alternative. People can try to buy fresh vegetables and fruits and only buy the amount of groceries that they will use in a week in order to prevent a lot of food being wasted. If a car is necessary, a person can buy a small one and not drive it for too many miles. People can make their homes energy efficient and buy energy efficient products that preserve energy. People can also keep their thermostat at room temperature in the winter instead of keeping it high. People can also reduce their footprint by recycling as much of their waste as possible. 

http://www.myfootprint.org/en/take_action/reduce_your_footprint/

Cost of Gender Inequality

http://stream.goodwin.drexel.edu/womenincoaching/2012/01/03/gender-equality/

     Gender inequality in the United States is one of the major problems affecting the economy. The National Partnership for Women and Families has found that women in the United States women earn $10,784 less than their male counterparts each year. According to their calculations, if women earned equal pay for equal work, they could purchase 1.7 years worth of groceries in Washington state, an additional 2,746 gallons of gas in Colorado, and 3.7 extra years of health insurance premiums in Connecticut. Men earn more money in this traditional form of economy based on sexism. This is the modern day form of sexicism that seems to go by un-noticed Women are not being payed at the same rates as men are and that's causing households with women as the head to suffer more and cause women to be more likely on government funding like SNAP and welfare than men.

    People show that gender is an important variable and that gender relations can affect economic development and growth. Gender relations such as job segregation within the paid labor market, labor that is paid or unpaid, the distribution of income and resources within the household and credit in financial markets. The effect of gender based economic opportunities is that women and men on average are in different classes. Women more likely to be poor, malnourished, less educated, and overworked in relation to men. This is based on a number of different things such as the difference in wages between the genders and employment rates, hours of paid and unpaid work, rates of unemployment, educational attainment, life expectancy rates and the ratio of females to males in the population.
     Women in the workplace always make less money than a man even though they have more experience than the man.  Studies show that gender  inequality has grown significantly since the early 1970's. People argue that the majority of the wage gap is due to women's choices and preferences. Women are more likely to consider factors other than salary when looking for employment. On average, women are less willing to travel or relocate, take more hours off and work fewer hours, and choose college majors that lead to lower paying jobs. Women are also more likely to work for governments or non-profits, that pay less than the private sector. According to this perspective certain ethnic minorities and women receive fewer promotions and opportunities for occupation and economic advancement than others. In the case of women this concept is referred to as the glass ceiling keeping women from climbing the occupational ladder.
     I feel that saying that because women are picky is what is preventing them from getting the same amount of pay as men is another sexist way of talking. Whether or not women are picky should not affect them getting equal pay. Gender inequality I believe is affecting the economy because if women were getting paid the same as men, they would be able to spend as much as men on things that aren't considered a necessity to survive. Women getting less pay than men mean that they would not be able to spend a percentage of their paycheck on something that would boost the economy. Women should get paid the same amount and maybe then, the economy may start to get better slowly. 

Krugman and Jobs

     Krugman's solution to the economic problems is to have the government create new jobs. Krugman is addressing the fact that the government should be creating jobs because jobs are important to Krugman because he believes that giving people jobs is the way in which people survive. Krugman proposes that the government creates jobs to have us back at full employment. His recommendations reflect a public economic solution because he sees how the government policies are affecting job creation.
Paul Krugman proposed that we use the same solution that President Roosevelt did to get the United States out of the depression. However, the opposing argument is that Roosevelt did not really bring us out of the Depression. It was the war, in which so much money was spent, you couldn't help but put people to work. Krugman wants the government to take the same actions that were took during the Great Depression in order to end the "depression" which we are currently facing. Unemployment has skyrocketed  regardless of what Krugman and other Keynesians believe, there is absolutely no way to conclude that money spent by government has had a positive economic impact at least as it pertains to job creation. http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/09/05/krugmans-delusion-past-year-good-test-theory-cutting-spending-creates#ixzz2Kt6GQAWD 
Paul Krugman also suggested that the government create a trillion dollar coin in order to pay off their debt. The opposing idea to this other suggestion of Krugman is, If governments or  really can create wealth simply by creating money, why does poverty exist anywhere on earth? If Federal money creation really works, and does not create inflation, why haven’t Americans gotten richer as the money supply has grown? Krugman wanted Obama to read his book before his inauguration and to pass a legislation that will make the government create jobs to have the nation at 5% unemployment which is what he considers to be full employment. http://www.goldismoney2.com/showthread.php?42657-Ron-Paul-blasts-Paul-Krugman-and-the-Trillion-coin

My opinion on Krugman's solution is it seems believable but how does he propose that the government create jobs? He is saying that the government should create more jobs but he isn't giving a direct solution as to where he proposes that he put these unemployed people to work. To put millions of people to work like the United States did in the 30's would mean that there would need to be a need for jobs like in the case of a war where people are needed to produce weapons and other supplies.
The argument which I agree with is Krugman's. I believe that if the government does create more jobs, more people wont be dependant on the government aid such as Food Stamps (SNAP), WIC or public housing. More people would be able to support themselves and their family using the money they are earning and not the money that the government provides to them to barely get by. When people have jobs, the government would be able to tax their income and start gaining more money to help bring down the debt.

     The relevance between the two images based on Krugman's interview is that he believes that food stamps are the new form of a soup kitchen. Food Stamps are now just being handed out to anyone who needs help in the same way that food is handed out at a soup kitchen. But the fact of the matter is  that the people who have food stamps are still as desperate, they're getting by day to day with the aid of a trickle of government aid, just like the people who were on, standing in line at the soup kitchens in the 30's, but they're not visible. People are still suffering the same way according to Krugman you just don't see them lining up on the corners for food or selling apples for money.

What is Economics?

Economics is the study of how society gets the most out of limited resources. Economics helps us deal with the problem of scarcity. Economies try to answer 3 questions 1. WHAT will be made? 2. HOW will things be made? and 3. WHO gets what made?