Topic 12: Pizza for Pesos?

The pizza store is accepting pesos because it is related to utility. The utility for the buyer to buy pizza increase if they can pay pesos instead of U.S. dollar, this is because that most of the buyers who pay pesos are Mexican which they don’t have U.S. dollar. This is meaning that if the pizza store doesn’t allow them to pay with pesos, many buyers will not buy it because they don’t have U.S. dollar and is not convenient. This is also related to consumer preference, the Mexican will be more willing to pay for pizza with pesos instead of U.S. dollar because that’s their money. They will think that is not convenient to change their money to U.S. dollar. The exchange rate can cause Pizza Patron to either lose money or gain money base on the exchange rate between U.S. dollar and pesos. If pesos money is good at a certain time, Pizza Patron will earn a little bit more than usual because they can exchange more U.S. dollar with pesos compare to usual. The budget line will be affect and shift the curve either right or left depend on the exchange rate. I think accepting pesos is a good choice because first, it can increase the utility for Mexican to buy pizza from them and the income might be greater if the exchange rate is good.

Topic 11: Brand Names and Utility‏

Most people are very dependent on the brand names. Even though that the products is not that goods, people will still buy it just because of their brand name. This related to the idea of utility. The wants people want for the brand name can be the utility of it. People want brand name is because is either that they think is cool and want to show off in front of other people or think that is a symbol of wealth and richness. Brand names will greatly increase the chance of people buying the product which also increase the satisfaction and the utility of people for the brand name. This is related to consumer preference because that the products might not be good as their quality. However, some people will still buy it for the brand name instead of the quality. These are all personal preference bases on if people like the brand names or care the brand names or not. There are a great difference between non brand names products and products with brand names for some people. For example if there are two products that are exactly the same but one with brand name and one without. People will choose the one with brand name more if the name is famous and people like it. Brand names will definitely bring more utility to people. For example many people like the brand name LV, which there are many bags that are alike with the LV bags. However, people will most likely buy the one with LV on it than the non grand one.

Topic 10: Consumer Preference and Utility

The main targets for Skechers are people who are in the age between 12 and 24. Skechers assess consumer utility by many ways. One of the examples is that they will post their information about shoes in the magazine covers and have advertisement on television. You can see that magazine and television are source that young people between the ages of 12 to 24 will watch and look at. The strategy they use is that they will try to make their products best they can and put advertisement to let the young people see it. Then they will ask the young people to give feedback and they will try to fix and make their shoes better base on the young people’s feedback. The innovation Skechers might have that can compete with others is that they might be specific about what type of shoes they are making. For example, if they are good at making tennis shoes, they might have a shop beside the tennis field. I don’t think that the strategy they use will influence my utility because I am a person that will not care about who is making the products. I just buy one that I feel most comfortable. I have high utility on computers because right now we are doing most of the works on computer. This means that buying a good computer is important for us and also because that I play games and edit video which might need better computer and I will be willing to pay more than other products. I don’t get why do people buy like famous brand beg that will cost around 40 thousands NT or maybe more. It’s just not worth the money to buy a such expensive beg that just have the same function as normal begs.

Topic 9: The Myth of Outsourcing's Effect‏

The comparative advantage of globalization is that a country is most likely to find either labors or products that are cheaper from other countries. Outsourcing are the labors, goods or any products that are from other countries. The comparative advantage of globalization is strongly related to outsourcing because the main advantage of globalization is that people can get what they want for a cheaper price. This is all because outsourcing, every county have their own products and what they are good at. Open economy is an economy in which there are economic activities between domestic community and outside. Production and efficiency is related to outsourcing because the price of producing something might be cheaper if it’s import from other countries. When the price of production decrease, the production will become more efficient. Without outsourcing, the cost of producing something will increase. This is because the production will be more expensive base on the labor and the tools that they use to produce product will be more expensive. Outsourcing relate to the concept of opportunity costs because when outsourcing occurs, people start to work for other countries and people from other countries come to our country to find jobs. Therefore, the unemployed rate increase and cost the increase of opportunity costs. The marginal product of labor with outsourcing will be greater than the marginal product of labor without outsourcing because the price for labor with outsourcing will be cheaper.

Topic 8: Debate on Globalization

Globalization is helping the world’s economic grow and created many opportunities of job for the people. Also another definition for globalization is the interaction or trading between people from different countries. There are many benefits for globalization for example; it created more jobs for people, improve the technology, lower the certain products’ price, more consumer choices. The cost of globalization is that people in a country might relay on other countries’ products and cause the country to have zero productions. Also that another cost is that people in a certain country might lose their own country’s identity. Western people all think that people in China and India work for little amount of money. However the wage for Chinese and Indian are way above the minimum wage in their countries. Globalization affects my life very much. Almost everything I used in my life come from other countries. Also because of globalization, we are able to search information about other countries. If there is no globalization, then I can only use the products that come from Taiwan. Food, computer and everything will be gone because it’s all made in other countries. Globalization affects s Taiwan a lot too. If there are no globalizations, Taiwan will be a crappy place because most of the products are come from other countries. People in Taiwan will get affect a lot because they can’t do anything. People can only work for jobs that are for Taiwan products and buy Taiwan product only.

Topic 7: Government Farm Subsidies

The video talks about that the government’s subsidies go to farmer who earn less than one-quarter million per year. The produces’ point of view is that they do not support farm subsidies. This is because that the main people who are getting the money or benefits from it are the rich farmers. The poor farmers which the subsidies are supposed to help do not get the subsidies. Many people decide to leave the situation basically because they can’t survive in that situation anymore; the government is not helping them. I agree with what the producers said because the main suppose for the government’s subsidies is to help the poor people which in this case it only help the rich people. This is helping the situation, so I do not support farm subsidies. I think one subsidy might help the poor formers is that the government increase the minimum prices for agricultural produce. There are other industries that need subsidy such as medicine and Junk food. I think education need to receive subsidy because therefore, schools can have better quality because they have more money. Also everyone is paying the tax, so it encourages everyone to get education because if they do not get education, they might think that they are wasting money. People who do not have school-aged children will have to paid for tax to support schools as well, because education is like one of the most important requirement for the whole world.

Topic 6: Opportunity Cost of a College Education

        Marginal analysis is when people are comparing marginal benefits and marginal costs. It’s used in a good decision because it’s a good decision when the marginal benefit is greater than the marginal costs. The marginal benefits of learn one more years of higher education is that people can get paid higher in future job. The marginal cost of learning one more year of higher education is the time and the money you can get during the time you study.

        It’s not accurate that college graduate earn $1 million more than those non-graduated. This is because according to statistic, non-graduated learn higher or about the same as the college graduate student.

        Students decide to leave college after one year of education because that the marginal benefits of learning one more year of college education is only the few growth of their money in the future job or non growth in money for the future. However the marginal costs of learning one more year is that they need to pay the money for the college and the time and money they can get if they don’t take one more year of college.

        The information in the video is somewhat related to what my parents told me. Both talk about the benefits of going to college. I change my thought of going to college after watching this video. Before, I think that going to college will greatly increase the income of your future job, but after watching this video. I realize that there’s not much change about going to college.