Topic 12: Pizza for Pesos?‏

For this journal entry, watch the video "Pizza for Pesos" (watching this video has been assigned as ahomework assignment, so be sure to click on the "submit" button after you watch it so that you can get credit). After watching the video, comment on it in your journal. In your writing, consider the following questions:

• How does the story in the video relate to the idea of utility?
• How does it relate to the concept of consumer preference?
• What affect do you think a change in the exchange rate between Mexican Pesos and U.S. Dollars would have on Pizza Patrón's business? How would it affect the budget lines of its customers? (currently the exchange rate is 12.97 pesos to the dollar).
• What do you think about the arguments against accepting pesos? How are these arguments related to our previous discussions regarding international trade?

Don't forget to write at least 200 words (how could you write less about such an interesting topic?).

Sincerely,

  Pizza Patron is not accepting Mexican Pesos as there are 5% who desires to pay in Pesos. However this resulted in a wide debate about if this is a symbol of accepting immigration from Mexico. Utility is the benefit you get from receiving a certain amount of products, the utility of customers with the amount of Pesos in America is very little, as they cannot use Peso's in America, but after this rule has been implemented, the utility of Pesos has gone up as customers can now use Pesos to exchange for pizza. Everyone has their different preferences as we can illustrate on the preference curves, however by allowing customers to pay in Pesos, it has increased the possibility  of customers changing to Pizza Patron as they are more friendly of the currency of Pesos or just Mexicans in general. I believe that the impact is very great, as Pizza Patron allows immigrants to freely trade their left over money for some pizzas and exchange for change in US dollars. I believe that the exchange rate could cause Pizza Patron to earn more money or lose money depending on the economic situations and the currency rate of the money at the time. At certain times, if the Pesos are good enough, then they should be able to earn a little bit more money if the currency rate is set above their standard rate of exchange in the store and vice versa when it comes to lower exchange rate. I think it is good that Pizza Patron is allowing Pesos to run freely through their store, as this can help the people to exchange their currency without having to go to a bank where foreign money is taken to be exchanged. However, many people thinks that this is supporting the fact that these illegal immigrants coming into our nation, and this is relating to international trade as people don't want to outsource as much and are more patriotic towards their nation. 

  

Topic 11: Brand Names and Utility‏

   People always chase after the brand name, everyone always with or without conciously chase after the well know international brand. In the video, Aldi's sells many cheap no name products that tastes and has the completely same quality as the international ones, and they are saving up to 50% less than what they can buy at places like Wal-Mart. When buying a branded product, the demand curve shifts to the right as more demanders for it due to the popularity of the brand, no name products will be always on the left side of the popular brands due to its lack of advertisement and popularity among the people. To be honest, I believe that branded stuff does bring more utility, because it is just in our mind subconsciously to think that the well known brand is better tasting or better in quality because it is more well known. I believe that in my cases it would be things like Oreo cookies. Oreo cookies are very well known throughout the world and has many other brands that provides chocolate flavored crackers with cream in the middle, however I believe that many people still finds Oreos more attractive in terms of size, quality and taste. Many people will probably think Oreos are the pioneers of the chocolate cookies, where they could actually not be, they could have just been simply better at marketing strategies to bring these sandwich cookies to a global scale.  Over all, I believe that branded things will still be more attractive to buyers due to its popularity and people's overall trust within the brand itself. 

Topic 10: Consumer Preference and Utility - Skechers‏

   Skechers target their consumers to being 12-24, they have various ways in seeking to the young crowd such as going to night clubs, magazine covers, television commercials or things like public relations can also help. They would conduct research methods by looking for ideas submitted by the younger crowd. Skechers also uses things like MTV to help promote their shoes, they have a very strong branding strategy as they know clearly where and how to show their products to the targeted consumers. They have a young workforce in which they would seek for feedbacks on how the product is doing on the market. As for competition, they have competed with their strong lines of apparel as well as innovative designs of shoes such as skate shoes mountain shoes and boots.  Skechers help themselves by locating their office in mountains and deserts in which the places are most in need of their shoes. Their shoes are likely to be worn when out hiking or doing outdoor activities and it works very well as people need to wear durable hiking shoes or comfortable shoes when they walk in deserts or mountainous areas. To be honest I am not a very big fan of skechers, just the design of the shoes gross me out or possibly because the bully I had when I was little always wore skechers, but in my opinon, there are other strong, durable, long lasting and nice looking hiking shoes out there for cheaper prices. There are brands such as Vans that I really like as shoes. To me their design never gets old, as their design haven't really changed for a very long time, I just like their colorways, their texture of the shoes and the feeling of the hard soles. To me, Nike would be a brand that everyone likes but I just have absolutely no affection for. I think Nike stuff are great for sportswear, but as a person who does not do sports as often as others, I generally do not enjoy the looks and feelings of the clothing and shoes. 

Journal Topic 9: The Myth of Outsourcing's Effect‏

  Globalization is a crucial part in companies and firms going outsourcing. Outsourcing happens as companies expand outward for cheaper labor causing the more middle class people to lose their jobs. However that is not all bad as when it comes back to them, they will actually receive a better job than the one they started out with due to other companies outsourcing. Production and efficiency relates to outsourcing as the production is cheaper in foreign countries like China and therefore can be alot more efficient by finding more workers in a single plant for the equal wage as the wages of the people in the United States. Without outsourcing, the cost of producing something will gradually increase, as the labor stays in the country, but the product is now two three times more expensive to make due to the more expensive labor, with the outsourcing is the complete opposite, which drops the price of the good due to the cheap labor forces and less production cost as when it comes to labor. Out sourcing could be potentially related to the opportunity cost as with the outsourcing technique, it is achieving its best with production as well as efficiency, however as outsourcing becomes not available, you have to find the next best alternative which is to find labor in the country itself with higher costs of production as labor forces becomes more expensive 

Topic 8: Debate on Globalization

 Globalization is inevitable as the world is growing in economy and creating millions of job opportunities. Globalization is defined as people interact with people in other parts of the world as buyers or sellers. Some people lose and some people gain, as we will start comparing the cost and benefits of globalization. Globalization has spawned millions of job opportunities in developing countries and has successfully helped pull the economy of developing countries by alot as the trading grows rapidly. People start getting jobs, standards of living begins to grow, and people start to be more educated, more globalized and so on. However, the costs of globalization is also very great, such as the cultural aspect of the country may be diminished as people begin to grow internationally and begin to adapt to foreign cultures. Also many people in the Asian countries begins to suspect foreign companies as the potential political manipulators of the country, as well as the government may not have as much power over monitoring the foreign companies. People both gain and lose from globalization, however people int he developed world argue that it is good for the majority of the people. In China and India, as these two countries are growing and undergoing globalization, the amount of cheap labor is required from these countries as they have a mass amount of population and can help sustain the large demand of labor from the foreign companies. In recent years, the standard of living became doubled in the developing countries, and is going to do so for the next few years, people are getting better jobs, higher wages and more social benefits from the country as the population grows and thrives. For Taiwan, I have been impacted greatly due to globalization, as I go to an American school, buy American chocolate and snacks, eat American food and much more. My clothes are made in China or Vietnam, while the knife my mom uses could be made in Japan. My dad's golf clubs are made in Germany as the box of chocolate on my desk was made in Switzerland. This is how much globalization has impacted us and I believe that globalization has done a great job, helping people with more choices and with more choices, can come more companies which derives to more job opportunities

Topic 7: Government Farm Subsidies‏

 In the video, it was talking about how the government attempts to push for more farm subsities when it is clearly no help at all. I believe that the government subsidies are given to farmers when farmers are more than average the American income, and it doesn't go to the farmers with smaller farms, which need the subsidies more, they are given to huge farmer businesses in which doesn't need them as much. These subsidies also contain certain holes in the bill, in which people can claim these subsidies without being farmers, through their properties. The subsidies for farmers is absolutely unnecessary as it does not benefit as many people as they think it would. The people in the film believe that governments should stay away from cooperation in general, if these things are meddled with by others, it will not function as properly as it suppose to. I agree with them completely,I believe that there is the invisible hand that drives the market in an economy, and through these taxes and subsidies in attempt to help the market better, it actually counters the effect, making the market against its nature, which makes it not helping at all. However, I believe that the only subsidies anyone should receive would be governmental educational benefits. I believe that education and market is completely different, as schools may need help in certain developmental areas and maybe the projects are simply too big for them to handle. The schools are profitable organizations, but its for a good cause, therefore I believe that colleges and universities deserves these governmental benefits. As for normal tax payers, I believe that everyone, even if they dont have school children going to school , they should still pay the school taxes in order to support them as a citizen of the country. It cannot just be for people who have children in the school, it has to be for everyone, as everyone has the chance to receive the benefit, however they just don't have any children therefore chooses not to use this benefit.

Journal Topic 6: Opportunity Cost of a College Education

  Marginal analysis of something would be analyzing the Marginal Benefit and the Marginal Cost and seeing which one yields the best outcome for you. Marginal benefit is the value of one more additional unit of certain things while the marginal cost is something you are giving up while you take the action. When you analyze these two things, you can reach for the best type of choice that is the most suitable for you in decision making. The marginal cost of going to one more year of college would be not being able to work full time, travel, or study abroad in the time, and things like losing money for college tuitions would also be a cost. The marginal benefit to many people would be higher salary after graduating every single year as they complete college. I believe the statement that college graduates earn $1 million dollars more than highschool graduates is not accurate. I believe that there are people who are on top of the spectrum who skews the entire population statistics to the other side. There are billionaires who does this, so therefore I believe that this statement is not very accurate. However, I do believe that college graduates in general on average does make a slightly higher pay check than normal highschool drop outs. Some students analyze their marginal cost, and realize that because they are paying so much money to the college, that they are going to backrupt the household with their higher education system. They wont be making money any time soon, and they will have to be spending their parent's money for this education. The marginal benefit would be slightly higher pay after graduating, but after four years of working, it could mark up to the same level as the college graduate's pay check. Everyone's been telling me that going for the higher education is the way to go as we will be making more money, I do believe that, my views haven't changed significantly after the video, I do know that there are costs into going to college, but the benefits after graduating is just far greater than the cost of attending college. I believe that it is just a cultural belief that is harder for me to think about not succeeding even after earning a college degree