Link: http://consumerist.com/384208/whats-the-deal-with-all-this-rice-and-flour-hoarding
Alright so this shows how basic supply and demand shapes into our everyday lives. People are hoarding rice and flour because the supply has been dwindling for quite some time now albeit slowly. The problem has grown to much higher levels though just because retailers can't sell as much as they want to yet the demand is GINORMUS. This is only gonna turn worse in the short run if the perfect competition graph holds true, but as we all know, LIFE is not a damn graph so it doesn't necessarily have to stick to it. Businesses will hoard up stuff to make profits off of individuals versus selling it all off at once just so that they have more a steady flow of cash versus having a "sine wave" type of sales chart.
So there you have it, supply and demand in yo' face. The only problem is that everything is gonna start getting expensive, and with summer approaching its not gonna help the old checkbook (or new if you just got a new checkbook, or is you use cash which is a whole nother elephant to ward off) out much. So what are you crazy nuts going to get out of this?
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Counterfeit Money = Good? What the hell?
Alright so I caught this guy trying to give me a fake $50 at the gas station. I threw it at him and told him to give me some real money and to take his sorry ass home or else I'm gonna call the cops and beat the shit out of him until they get here. He paid up and left so then I started to go on a thought tangent.
If someone circulates fake bills then doesn't that in an indirect way help the economy? It provides a few new goods to be produced so that people have stuff to check the bills with. Then there are the jobs created for companies who make such things. And the people at banks start paying more attention to the bills they take in so that the fake bills don't impact their drawers. People also have more jobs due to needing pupils to reinforce the idea that the bills are out there and to police people who create and try to distribute the bills. So in the end doesn't a fake 5 or 10 do some real good to people out there? Not that counterfeiting money is a good thing or that you can try to pull off a stunt telling the cop that you are just trying to help the economy, but it does seem to help right?
Let me know your opinions...
If someone circulates fake bills then doesn't that in an indirect way help the economy? It provides a few new goods to be produced so that people have stuff to check the bills with. Then there are the jobs created for companies who make such things. And the people at banks start paying more attention to the bills they take in so that the fake bills don't impact their drawers. People also have more jobs due to needing pupils to reinforce the idea that the bills are out there and to police people who create and try to distribute the bills. So in the end doesn't a fake 5 or 10 do some real good to people out there? Not that counterfeiting money is a good thing or that you can try to pull off a stunt telling the cop that you are just trying to help the economy, but it does seem to help right?
Let me know your opinions...
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Ahh Placebos...
Article: CLICK
It shows just how much money plays into our utility and understandings. The people were given sugar pills and told the price that each were compared to the pills given to other people. The people with more expensive pills said they were in less pain and faster than the ones with the cheaper ones. They were told they were a certain pain reliever, not that they were sugar tablets.
This goes to show that when someone goes to buy something expensive they want to justify it by means of other's utility and they want to maximize their's so they spend much more to get the same results like in my last article, but this is on a much better scale. It can be astonishing just how much price makes a difference in people's decisions and they do not ever give the alternative and cheaper idea a chance. Clothes for example are clothes, it doesn't make you any more clothed if you buy kmart or you buy hollister, they are still there to help cover you up. But utility is what makes the biggest difference, if you wear kmart clothes and don't care when walking next to someone wearing a shirt that costed $60 then your utility stems from wanting to be just covered. If you are the person wearing the $60 shirt, then your utility comes from knowing you spend more and you look more high class and that is enough for you.
So the people given the more expensive tablets achieved a higher relative utility than the ones who took the cheaper ones and that is what made the difference in how they responded to the medicine.
It shows just how much money plays into our utility and understandings. The people were given sugar pills and told the price that each were compared to the pills given to other people. The people with more expensive pills said they were in less pain and faster than the ones with the cheaper ones. They were told they were a certain pain reliever, not that they were sugar tablets.
This goes to show that when someone goes to buy something expensive they want to justify it by means of other's utility and they want to maximize their's so they spend much more to get the same results like in my last article, but this is on a much better scale. It can be astonishing just how much price makes a difference in people's decisions and they do not ever give the alternative and cheaper idea a chance. Clothes for example are clothes, it doesn't make you any more clothed if you buy kmart or you buy hollister, they are still there to help cover you up. But utility is what makes the biggest difference, if you wear kmart clothes and don't care when walking next to someone wearing a shirt that costed $60 then your utility stems from wanting to be just covered. If you are the person wearing the $60 shirt, then your utility comes from knowing you spend more and you look more high class and that is enough for you.
So the people given the more expensive tablets achieved a higher relative utility than the ones who took the cheaper ones and that is what made the difference in how they responded to the medicine.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
My economic perspective on the environment...
Alright I am going to easily get slaughtered and possibly neutered but here it goes...
So all this talk about making cars and everything more efficient is just killing me, we all know it has to happen drastically, but is it the right thing to do in case of the economy?
Now heres the big kicker, we are running efficiently correct? according to the PPC, when efficient we are on the curve, but lets say you all want to get more efficient NOW, to do that you have to step out of the curve. What happens when you get out of the curve? You get a special thing called INEFFICIENCY!!!! That is crazy, because due to our technology not going anywhere right now, that would require us to OVERUSE our resources so it would be totally irresponsible and inefficient to be getting more efficiency from our environment at this moment.
You could get there of course if we had some crazy technological advancement and everyone adapted to it, like electrical cars or smog-less factories, or for some cruel reason we could make cows not fart or something...I don't know, this thought came to me while at work so I just had to get it out there to talk to people who want radical change for the betterment of our environment, because its only gonna be hurtful to do anything right now.
So all this talk about making cars and everything more efficient is just killing me, we all know it has to happen drastically, but is it the right thing to do in case of the economy?
Now heres the big kicker, we are running efficiently correct? according to the PPC, when efficient we are on the curve, but lets say you all want to get more efficient NOW, to do that you have to step out of the curve. What happens when you get out of the curve? You get a special thing called INEFFICIENCY!!!! That is crazy, because due to our technology not going anywhere right now, that would require us to OVERUSE our resources so it would be totally irresponsible and inefficient to be getting more efficiency from our environment at this moment.
You could get there of course if we had some crazy technological advancement and everyone adapted to it, like electrical cars or smog-less factories, or for some cruel reason we could make cows not fart or something...I don't know, this thought came to me while at work so I just had to get it out there to talk to people who want radical change for the betterment of our environment, because its only gonna be hurtful to do anything right now.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Brands and Prices...
Alright heres the article on a website that I frequent:
CLICK ME!
It basically says that people are regularly ripped off by big name brands and retail outlets that sell them. In this case it is by the company "Monster" who makes, what they think are, elite-awesome-super-crazygood-ultimate cables for digital video and audio. The big ticker here is that these types of cables can be bought FAR cheaper, sometimes even less than $6 vs the $80 that their supposedly supreme cables go for. There are multiple tests performed by people all over, go ahead and search for "monoprice vs monster hdmi comparisons" on google and check to see what they say.
No the big economic significance comes in the form of people thinking that spending more means better quality, which is NEVER the deal with consumer products, anyone who believes so can fight me all over and I will stand by my statement. Also the people at the store are not always going to be in the right, don't even consider it a possibility. My family bought a car not long ago and I can assure you that I knew far more about it than the person selling it to us. The consumer is always the target for being ripped off, so you must watch that at all times.
No another deal is that people are very impatient and sometimes what I like to call "retarded" so they will go into a store and buy a cable for $110 instead of waiting a day and only having to pay $15-$20. Of course if you have the money go ahead and buy from Best Ripoff I mean Best Buy, but if your like me, you won't mind saving $90. Getting the product immediately might mean more utility for you or a better incentive; but to most out there, saving money is a far larger incentive.
Also notice that the website I linked has a chart of the wholesale and retail prices for each and every cable that can be bought by Radioshack. Give it a gander and wonder how badly you are being ripped off for those books, speakers, tvs, video games, EVERYTHING! Just food for thought.
Oh and if your in the market for cables of any sort, check out monoprice.com, by far the best value for the best cables.
CLICK ME!
It basically says that people are regularly ripped off by big name brands and retail outlets that sell them. In this case it is by the company "Monster" who makes, what they think are, elite-awesome-super-crazygood-ultimate cables for digital video and audio. The big ticker here is that these types of cables can be bought FAR cheaper, sometimes even less than $6 vs the $80 that their supposedly supreme cables go for. There are multiple tests performed by people all over, go ahead and search for "monoprice vs monster hdmi comparisons" on google and check to see what they say.
No the big economic significance comes in the form of people thinking that spending more means better quality, which is NEVER the deal with consumer products, anyone who believes so can fight me all over and I will stand by my statement. Also the people at the store are not always going to be in the right, don't even consider it a possibility. My family bought a car not long ago and I can assure you that I knew far more about it than the person selling it to us. The consumer is always the target for being ripped off, so you must watch that at all times.
No another deal is that people are very impatient and sometimes what I like to call "retarded" so they will go into a store and buy a cable for $110 instead of waiting a day and only having to pay $15-$20. Of course if you have the money go ahead and buy from Best Ripoff I mean Best Buy, but if your like me, you won't mind saving $90. Getting the product immediately might mean more utility for you or a better incentive; but to most out there, saving money is a far larger incentive.
Also notice that the website I linked has a chart of the wholesale and retail prices for each and every cable that can be bought by Radioshack. Give it a gander and wonder how badly you are being ripped off for those books, speakers, tvs, video games, EVERYTHING! Just food for thought.
Oh and if your in the market for cables of any sort, check out monoprice.com, by far the best value for the best cables.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
BOO YAH!
Alrighty then, I have officially started up my blog, and in doing so I must commemorate this to everyone who may at one time read it. Thanks very much...and I just want to point out that 4/5 is by far going to be THE hour to be in, just cause I have stated so...
I really want to start up a war in blogging so just bring it!!!!! Few of us probably have our own "for fun" blogs, so this should make it much more fun than it seems like it's going to be...
I really want to start up a war in blogging so just bring it!!!!! Few of us probably have our own "for fun" blogs, so this should make it much more fun than it seems like it's going to be...
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