Economics

Who has better cars? Audi or BMW? Porsche or Cadillac? Are you only buying because of the brand name and not paying attention to the actual product? There can be so much competition depending on the car. For BMW, I would say their biggest competitors are Audi, Mercedes, and Cadillac. Therefore, the market type for BMW would be an oligopoly. If a consumer isn’t satisfied with a car from BMW, they can get a substitute from their competitor. Of course, the car is going to be different, but slightly the same. There aren’t many manufacturers focusing on luxury cars. In fact, Cadillac is going to discontinue some of their cars. They are going to release something that fits more with today’s needs.           After doing some more research on how much manufacturers spend on making a car, I found some graphs.       For the first graph, from what I read, I do believe this is based on making cars in the US. The materials i...

Would you prefer paying $63 or $35 for a pair of shoes? The obvious answer would be $35. Working in retail, I have witnessed how prices affect the consumer. Before working with shoes, I used to work at a clothing store. Customers would often say how they would wait until we had a sale to purchase some items. The same goes to working with shoes. Even if a small discount of 10% is applied, the consumer makes the purchase. For relative elasticity of demand, I believe this makes shoes have a slightly higher elasticity. A small change in price causes a change in demand. For relative elasticity of supply for shoes, it has a lower elasticity. Producers keep on selling despite if consumers buy at a lower price. Because there will always be other consumers who will pay no matter the price.   Because there is so much competition in the automobile world, I would say that relative elasticity of supply and demand for cars can be slightly elastic. There are so many cars to choose from. Produ...

     Is it worth it buying a luxury car? Knowing that everything you buy for it is going to be triple the price? Gas, tires, windshields, insurance, even the car wash has to be premium.      There are many reasons that can influence a shift in the supply and demand curve of a car. Of course, the price point is a major reason why someone would want to purchase a car. No one in their right mind would want to go broke over a large purchase. A person's necessities and environment is a huge factor as well. People from California stay away from trucks. Californians get stuck in traffic for most of their day and trucks waste a lot of gas. People in Idaho though, get snow and we need a truck that will keep us safe and won't be sliding everywhere. Having a preference can also keep someone from buying a car. For example, my dad won't look at a car if it doesn't have wooden interior. For myself, I was looking for a car that was an AWD and would just get me from po...

Having an old car is almost as expensive as having a child. I’ve never had a child, but I’m going to assume they are expensive. Every small noise my car would make was a sign of trouble. For one month, I had to get my car fixed twice. Almost $2,000 later, it still didn’t work. Was I ripped off? Maybe. Did I own a piece of junk? Definitely. Finally, I decided to buy a new car; well, at least the car would be new to me. First, I needed to figure out how much I could pay monthly. I looked at my expenses to see where I could cut down on spending. Of course my savings for college, rent, and utilities couldn't be cut down. As much as it hurt, I realized I had to stop buying shoes. See, that would be no problem if I didn’t work with shoes. I need to believe in what I sell. It was also very unrealistic for me to just stop buying the things I love most. With this in mind, I had to compromise with myself. Per month, I would have a $600 budget, a car payment would be about $300 and a pai...

France - Following President Emmanuel Macron election, there were high hopes in France that their economy would rise and prosper. According to the French government, unemployment has gone down. The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) has contradicted them. INSEE stated that unemployment rose to 9.2% in the first quarter. Youth unemployment rate decreased from 21.60 to 21.50. Chief Investment Officer, Lorne Baring, has said that Europe has been affected all over, not just in France.                 If the unemployment rate keeps increasing, then it is going to keep damaging France’s economy. Not being able to work also hurts the population. Either, people won’t be able to maintain their standard of living, or the standard of living could decrease. People will find ways to sustain their basic needs. For the youth that are unemployed, they can’t pay for college. If they don’t have highe...

Kenya- MasterCard and Unilever have teamed up to create Jaza Duka ("fill up your stores") in Kenya. Their new partnership will help micro entrepreneurs grow their businesses with micro-lending. MasterCard and Unilever analyse the store by how much inventory it has bought over time with Unilever. This allows for a micro credit and if it gets approved by the KCB Bank Kenya, the store is qualified for an interest free credit line. The entrepreneurs will also get tips on how to run their business smoothly. Such as marketing tools and techniques, finances, supply and demand planning.  Personally, I believe this is a great start for micro entrepreneurs. It's already hard enough to start and maintain a business. 80% of new businesses fail within the first 18 months. Having store owners in Kenya can help out its economy. Something I didn't understand fully, is what happens if the store owner doesn't pay back the credit they owe? What would the penalties look like for t...

China-  The Human Rights Watch surveyed over 36,000 jobs’ ads in China. They discovered that almost one in five jobs’ ads were referred as ‘men only’ or ‘men preferred’. For a specific company, the job ad uses the appearance of female employees to bring in men applicants. The other companies that were researched also had in common hiring beautiful women for the same reason. Some comments made by the men hired were that ‘they joined that company because of the pretty ladies interviewing them’ and that they were ‘happy going to work everyday because of the beautiful women’. The Human Rights Watch have stated that the gender gap is increasing with this type of discrimination. There are laws that ban gender discrimination in China whether it’s for hiring or in advertising (Toh, Mullen, 2018).             I believe that not only is this sexually exploiting women, they are also being discriminated against. The ads are stating that they need men, s...

        California- A bill has been proposed in California that will help minimize plastic waste going into the ocean. The bill suggests that the servers or waiters are not to give the customers straws unless one is asked for. 'Straws-upon-request' is a small gesture dine-in restaurants would use. By doing this, the customer might engage in a conversation with the waiter, therefore, leading the waiter to explain the effects of plastic in the environment. The bill was introduced by Ian Calderon. He has stated that the plastic waste gets eaten by the wildlife, who then get eaten by humans. The plastic waste is not only hurting the environment, but our health as well. Other restaurants have taken an alternative route to recycling by promoting 'Ocean Friendly Restaurants' (Madigan, 2018). Plastic waste is a huge negative externality. The environment is at risk because it takes a while for the plastic to degrade. It can harm the animals because they do eat the plas...