Reflection

This Thursday in Econ we voted on what insurance is the most important to us.  Groups of four presented information on Auto, Health, Life, Homeowners, and Disability insurance.  Based on the voting of of the class it seems like we think Health Insurance is the most important.  I agree with the majority opinion that it is important.  Throughout your life you could end up spending so much more money without healthcare.  Doctor's visits are important.

This is a current event based on what we've been up to in class

This is the first year I recall "Black Friday" Sales starting days before Thanksgiving.  Its kind of interesting that people go from being thankful for what they do have on Thanksgiving Day to tearing each other apart the next day to get the good deals.  I read an article that was made to inform the shoppers of the negative effects of the credit card and why they need to be used wisely.  A statistic shows that the average debt of Americans in credit card debt in the year 2013 is over $7,000.  These debts are what cause the credit card companies to do so well.  The thought of getting a object now and having to worry about the cost later really appeals to consumers.  People who pay the minimum payment will result in paying over double the original price.  Financial guru Jean Chatsky advises, “Minimum payments are a credit-card company’s way of getting you to carry a single debt almost forever. If you, like the average American family, have $8,000 in card debt at a typical rate of 13.97 percent, and you pay only the minimum 2.2 percent of the balance required each month, it will take you 30 years to retire that debt and cost about $10,000 in interest.”  (Qtd. "Credit Card Debt...").  This segment of personal finance helped me to realize why my parents have told not to get a credit card because it isn't necessary.  
Young, Sherry. "Sherry Young: Credit Card Debt Can Diminish the Joy of the Season."DeseretNews.com. N.p., 05 Dec. 2013. Web. 05 Dec. 2013. <http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865591816/Credit-card-debt-can-diminish-the-joy-of-the-season.html?scrlybrkr=d50413d5>.

Another Reflective Blog :D

So this week we moved out of the economics half of the year into the personal finance part.  This means that we will start to learn more about decisions that us specifically could end up making in the future.  The most interesting thing we covered this week was watching a video about a man who traded a red paper clip and eventually ended up owning a house.  This was a story that one of my friends from another school was describing to me on a long car ride one day so I was pretty excited to hear about it in class today.  We are actually attempting to do what "Kyle" did and trade a paper clip and work up to larger items.  I'm going to make this game more fun and realistic by not trading with anyone else from the class who already knows about the game.  Right now I have a mechanical pencil after two trades.... wish me luck!

Current Event November

One of the biggest storms in history of the world is moving towards the Philippines.  This storm known as Super Typhoon Haiyan will have WINDS OVER 190 MPH! Thousands of people have been relocated to safer places and find shelter on higher grounds.  A storm that hit the Philippines in 2012 that was not nearly as large killed 1900 people.  This storm is surely going to have a major long term effect on the Philippine economy... I think it would be best to keep the Philippines in our prayers that the damages will be minimal.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/07/world/asia/philippines-typhoon-haiyan/?scrlybrkr=4e3ddbb3

WALMART IS BAD

The focus of our class has been if Walmart is right for Weserville or not.  I don't think it is right for Weserville.  It will drastically change our small town for the worst.  I cannot say much because much of the information of my group is being kept confidential for the big debate tomorrow.  Our group will win the argument! We have some very strong points.

So it seems like the two main political parties the Republicans and the Democrats both have very different ideas on what they want to do.  The Republicans want to pass a six week debt ceiling increase, but this bill would not end our government shutdown.  The Republicans would really prefer to discuss a long term commitment but Democrat Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, says that they won't budge and the it's "not going to happen".  After Reid said that the White House made an official statement saying  "the president and the Senate Democrats will continue to pursue reasonable discussions about our budget challenges after these manufactured crises end."  This statement is basically implying the pointing of blame on the Republicans Party. These people in the House and Senate need to man up and become Bipartisan if they want to get anything accomplished.  

I got this information from: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/10/boehner-pitches-short-term-debt-ceiling-hike-ahead-white-house-meeting/

Current Event First Week of October

I read an article about the government shutdown that is all politicians are talking about now.  After reading this article it seems that president Obama is trying to use the chaos of our country to his advantage in order to get his way.  The white house said that Obama would be happy to talk about the health care system and possible changes after the government reopens.  He also continues to encourage Congress to put a budget through and end the shutdown.  Obama and the Democratic party are going to need to be open to the idea of changes being made to the health care system in order for a budget to be passed anytime this year.
http://www.wjla.com/articles/2013/10/government-shutdown-2013-after-fruitless-meeting-shutdown-heads-into-third-day-94816.html?scrlybrkr=47c1ea27

This week in economics class we did lots of researching in and out of class in order to develop opinions on The Affordable Heath Care Act that is that main focus of world news today.  I feel that this should not have been passed.  This act is a seven foot stack of regulations that make doctors jobs much more difficult than they have to be.  I am led to ask what human being has actually read this?  Probably no one, not even President Obama.  This Health Care act is unfair because some people who do not even use ObamaCare will be paying for others who use it for regular visits to the doctor.  Another problem with ObamaCare is that it destroys jobs because private insurance companies will be unable to compete with a product that the United States government is giving out for "free".

This week in Economics class we began a stock market game.  I decided to invest in FedEx Toyota, Rock Star Gaming, and Apple electronics.  Right now I am slowly on the rise again.  I was once in 7th place and now I am in 13th place.  I’m not sure what exactly happened but if I did not sell Google my rank would probably be a lot worse than it is now.  This assignment has helped me to realize how quickly and how often the value of a stock changes.  This field does seem interesting and very exciting because these transactions affect millions of people throughout the world.

3rd blog post

This week in Econ we picked a partner and acted as Karal Marx and Adam Smith acting as if they were having a conversation.  This included quotes from the two men and improvised lines based on things they would have said based on their views.  Then after we did this we had a potluck meal.  Then on Friday the day of our test we watched a video that supported the free enterprise system.  This video made a lot of great points.  It gave one example of communism comparing it to a class room in which all the students in a class room will distribute the points they earn equally.  In this scenario all of the students even the F students of the class room disagreed to this system.  So if this system doesn't even appeal to a small group such as a group of high school students then how is this effective for a nation?

This week in Economics Class Reflective Blog 9/5/13

This week in Economics class started with us taking a test.  I was triumphant in this with a 93% on my first test, not bad.  Anyway back to the topic; we mainly have been focusing on the different types of ways to run an economy and how they affect the countries that use these methods.  We learned about a man who lived in the 1800's named Karl Marx who was the famous writer of the books Das Kapital and the Communist Manifesto.  Marx inspired the governments of many countries mainly located in Eurasia to become communist.  Today we watched several videos about what daily life is/was like in the Former Soviet Union, Iran, North Korea and Cuba.  There are some major flaws in these countries' governments.  These governments all limit speech to the point that citizens were unable to even truthfully respond to the American reporter's questions.  In the Soviet Union the government decided what you be when you grow up from the time you eight years old.  This is unfair because it doesn't allow equal opportunity for citizens.  There is a problem with the concept of a government providing for all people.  Lets say there are two people who both have the same high paying job.  One person is a hard working individual who is a veteran and very skilled at what they do.  The other person is a slob who doesn't care and shows up to work late everyday and was lazy.  Should these two people both have the same high paying job just because the government feels they are obligated to?  Or would a capitalist based society that promotes an equal chance of success for all citizens and a higher competition for jobs run better?

This week in econ class we practiced the decision making process about weserville, a renamed small town in Pennsylvania.  The class voted on a ballot to elect officials.  After electing our officials we thrown into a real life situation.  The town of weserville was being given $10 million by the government and how we spend it is up to us.  There were a good number ideas proposed most were relatively similar.  The choice that seemed to be the most popular was building a mall with a clinic and a gas station as part of it.  We still have to finalize specific details of the project earlier this week.  I did´nt originally agree with the idea of building an enormous mall with a bunch of businesses with inside of it.  After thinking it over I do like the idea and i think it would create a lot of jobs and potentially bring more people into our area.