Option A

Throughout my years in high school, the economy, overall, has been low. When I was a freshman, it seemed to be at its lowest. The recession that we were in, however, was beginning to look up. Four years later, the economy, in my opinion, has raised a little. We are not in a recession anymore, even though the United States is deep in debt. I believe that the debt will not be settled for a long time, and the fiscal cliff which we are bound to go over, might cause a small recession.
                    Personally, I have seen many affects that this low economic time has caused. Three of my neighbors have had to downsize their homes, in order to make easier payments. I feel as though not as many kids can go to a university college as in previous years. With tuition costs rising, and incomes dropping, it has become a struggle. Scholarships have been given a different meaning, since there are so many given out these days for so many different reasons. I hope that the economy can shape up in the near future in order to help us younger generation kids.

QUESTION: How else would a bad economy effect my generation?

WORKS CITED (blogger messed up format)

Works Cited

"American Experience." PBS. PBS, 1996. Web. 30 Nov. 2012.

"The Great Depression." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2012.

McIlvaine, Bill. "Harry Hopkins: President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Deputy President." History Net Where History Comes Alive World US History Online Harry Hopkins President Franklin D Roosevelts Deputy President Comments. American History, 12 June 2006. Web. 30 Nov. 2012.

Works Progress Administration

Tera Perala

12/5/12

Period 4b

Works Progress Administration

            The Roaring Twenties were a time of luxurious living and spending in the United States. However, it all came crashing down in 1929, which marked the beginning of the United State’s deepest economic downturn, also known as the Great Depression. It left million of Americans unemployed, homeless, and hopeless. However, president Roosevelt helped turn the economy around by creating the New Deal, which was a series of relief programs in the United States. One of these organizations was called the Works Progress Administration. The Works Progress Administration was created during the Great Depression to put men and women back to work.

            The Great Depression began in 1929. During the twenties, people spent in excess and believed that the stock market would continue to rise steadily for an infinite amount of time. They ignored warnings from economists, who believed that a constant rise in the stock market was impossible, and that one day it would crash. Their predictions were extremely accurate, because on October 29 1929, over sixteen million shares were traded, and the Dow Jones lost 30 points. This day has been remembered since as “Black Tuesday.” It completely wiped out investors and consumer spending dropped for years to follow. This caused large declines in industrial output, which led to high unemployment rates. In 1930, investors began to demand deposits in cash from banks, which forced the banks to liquidate loans. President Hoover’s Administration made an effort to help failing banks by using government loans. In return, banks would loan to businesses, which would hire back employees. By 1933 about fifteen million Americans were unemployed, and nearly half of the banks in the United States had failed. Living was almost impossible for some families, and they were forced to make great sacrifices. Many farms could no longer afford to harvest crops, resulting in the farms being shut down, and leaving more people without jobs.

            In 1933, President Hoover and the New Deal created an organization called the Works Progress Administration (WPA). It was headed by Harry Hopkins. Harry Hopkins was always dedicated to helping and relieving the struggling and less fortunate. He first worked in the Ghetto of New York at the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor (AICP).  Later in his career he was appointed the executive secretary of the Bureau of Child Welfare. He also worked with the American Red Cross, American Association of Social Workers (AASW), and the New York Tuberculosis Association. After the Great Depression hit, he worked with a relief organization called the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration (TERA). Then he became the head of the WPA.

            Roosevelt and Hopkins put their brilliant minds together and realized that all across America, the streets, bridges, sewage systems, parks and forests were eroding and crumbling to the ground. They decided to make the main focus of the WPA to rebuild the face of America by employing millions of jobless people and putting them to work on different projects to reconstruct. The organization also focused on putting artists and teachers back to work. Hopkins believed that they had every right to be relieved as other workers. Also, they worked to employ women as well as men. Although the WPA paid equal wages, the women were generally employed with lower wage jobs such as school lunch cooks, book binders and care for the elderly. Furthermore, workers were sent to places burdened by natural disasters to fight against floods, fires and hurricanes, and to eventually rebuild what was destroyed.

            Conservatives, who believed that the organization was inefficient and wasteful, often criticized the Works Progress Administration. They thought that it was a communist group, and that it gave people bad work habits. However, regardless of the cruel criticisms it received, the WPA impacted millions of Americans in an extremely positive and hopeful way. For instance, in 1933, unemployment was at 2.49 percent across the United States. The WPA employed eight and a half million of those citizens. They spent 10.5 billion dollars employing them. The administration also funded artists in the creation of 2,566 murals and 17,744 sculptures that are displayed in buildings all across the United States. The federal art support from the WPA also led to the creating of the Nation Endowment for the Humanities and the National Foundation for the Arts.

            Congress shut down the Works Progress Administration in 1943. Millions joined the service during World War II and millions of other people were hired by other companies, causing the need for mass-employment to drop drastically. Unfortunately, soon after the WPA was terminated, Hopkins passed away in 1946 due to terminal illnesses.

            The Great Depression was a time of turmoil and despair for men, women, and children all across the United States. It left millions of workers unemployed, homeless, and starving. However, in this time of hopelessness, President Roosevelt and the New Deal created an organization that saved millions of lives. The Works Progress Administration put Americans all across the nation back to work, not only to restore the eroding beauty of the country, but to also help improve and save other people’s lives. Although it was shut down in 1943, the WPA remains a symbol of hope and salvation during times of disturbance and anguish.

My Manifesto, Yo

To be completely honest, I'm not entirely educated on what the government spends most of their money on. I choose to not go out of my way to learn about it because I feel as though it would anger me. I base this decision off of my parents and now they act and react towards the government. They seem to always be angry with decisions and choices Obama or anyone else makes. However, I do have some ideas about how I would correct the few things I do know, and other ways I would make a good government. I think that the government should waste less money on things like welfare and social services and give more to services like police, fire fighting, hospitals, schools, etc. I would also want some of the money to go to the army. Even though a lot of people are against military funding, it is vital to have a large army and military big enough to properly protect our nation. These services are always in need of better equipment, more job positions, or buildings in order to keep running and making our community a better place. This money could be gathered from what would be given to the poor, and some from our other taxes.
         
               Furthermore, from what I do know about the government and taxing, Obama likes to tax the rich so that the poor don't have to do any work. I know that my parents get really angry because my dad makes enough money to be taxed extra. I would definitely change that, from the beginning. It is not fair for people who work extremely hard for their money to have to give more of it back to the government than lazy people who won't work hard. Even though I want to be a teacher when I'm older and won't make half as much as my dad, I still believe it is wrong to tax the rich more. People or families who have lost their jobs often times wait for a long time to get another job because they get welfare  AKA the rich's taxes. I think that everyone should be taxed the same amount, barely adjusted based on incomes, and some of that income should go for people who have been recently unemployed. However after a certain amount of time being unemployed, they should stop receiving government money, as an incentive to go find a job.
                 
              Overall, I feel as though my manifesto is extremely wrong and bias based loosely off of what little I know about the government's spending. I think that there is no perfect answer to how to run the government's spending. Obviously there are countless things that citizen's taxes pay for, but I believe that the rich should not be taxed a lot more just because they work hard. It is not fair at all, and people should be rewarded for working hard, not have to pay more. So with my new plan to tax everyone around the same, that would generate money to spend on social services. I also think that we should stop spending so much on  the poor and supporting their unemployment, and that should be incentive to get a job.



QUESTION: How does the government decide what to spend money on?

Minimim Wage

In my opinion, minimum wage should be raised by one dollar an hour. As stated in the article, it would mean around $2,000 more a year for full time minimum wage workers. There are all types of different jobs that require different skills, including physical and mental, but all are strenuous to some degree. Even though people can survive on minimum wage as it is now, it is no luxury. Most are living paycheck to paycheck, and counting every penny. However, if it was raised by $1.00, the extra amount would do nothing but help those struggling to get by every day. As it was also stated in the article, more money to spend would increase the demand on products such as clothing or food. If more people have the money to buy something, more people will buy it. This helps businesses and compaines make more profit. A one dollar raise on minimum wage would be helpful to many Americans.

Price Floors

When it comes to price floors in the United States, I support them. There are items that should have a minimum cost for many different reasons. For example, alcohol should have a price floor. Until recently, there was an alcoholic drink called a Four Loko that contained a high alcohol level as well as high caffeine level. For obvious reasons this drink was very unsafe and unhealthy. However, it was being sold for under three dollars for a large can. Therefore, young adults everywhere were settling for buying this awful drink solely because it was cheap and not hard on their wallets. Although it recently became illegal, it was a prime example of why there should be price floors on alcohol. If all alcohol cost at least a certain amount, it would stop people from buying harmful drinks just because they are cheap. There would be better alternatives at the same price. This effects the equillibrium because it would have to rise in order for the price and quantity supplied to remain above the price floor, or legal price.

Price Ceilings

In the United States, I feel that it is not vital to have price ceilings on products or goods. Americans all have different incomes and situations, so it is obviously it is harder for some people to afford necessities than others. However, most necessities such as clothing, shoes, food and medical attention can be provided to everyone at any cost. For homeless or struggling, those necissities can be found at food banks or shelters. Also, there are always millions of fundraisers and drives going on to make money to put towards food, clothes and medical supplies for the helpless. On the other hand, families or indiviudals who can easily afford necessities and more, should be able to  buy the nicer, luxurious items in life. With a price ceiling, products that cost a lot to make would not make profit, because they sell for less. This would cause the equllibrium to go down in order to remain in the price ceiling.

Supply wrap up

1) Supply schedule & Curve:
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1MmMyX4Vi4UieoM7e19TAUX_kcE_jSOlIlaVBNjBdpTE/edit

2) Inelastic/Elastic Supply Curves:
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1z36pB-enqY_29OgIACBdvcRVV_UgtEgc9pzR_JV9ZYg/edit

3)Supply Schedule w/ Increase & Decrease:
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1QnAokW1wMrBF1V_IyPpv5loZSCxRNUBt791LQJLkpc8/edit

Complements reflection (D finale)

During our last unit, we have learned about different aspects of demand. Law of Demand, Utility, Diminishing marginal utility, complelents, substitutes, elastic/inelastic demand; and change in demand. All of those aspects have  a larger impact on our every day lives. However, inelastic demand has a large impact on my personal life.

              Inelastic demand means that no matter how the price changes on an item, about the same amount of people will still buy that product. My sister has type 1 diabetes. She was diagnosed when she was 5 and is now 19. Growing up with her and her medical condition has been trying at times, but also very educational. She has to purchase many supplies such as insulin, meters, test strips, ketone strips, etc. almost every month. The cost of those items has obviously altered a lot in the past years due to the market, our insurance, etc. Even when the prices go higher on her supplies, my parents still have to purchase the same amount at the same time. 

         Even though it is hard at times to purchase the amount of diabetes supplies my sister needs every month, they are all inelastic and cannot be substituted for something that is cheaper.

QUESTION: What are some other inelastic products similar to medical supplies? 

inelastic/elastic

https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/17qPoH5xzC5ICr8rx1Plt7qmS9oVP7z2zEjF8HXi_DVE/edit

5 gum DEMAND CURVE (link)

https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/16FKMWEWDkUcEiNWi85waYJyR0UzOWW9fypWJlQsGws4/edit

Demand Headlines

1. Complementary:  "Strawberries stop growing all over world. Peanut butter and bread sales down. Picnics  lose fun factor."
2. Substitute:  "Vans go out of business, twice as many Chuck Taylors being sold."
3. Elastic: "Coke raises price of Coke Zero to $5 a liter. All sales stop."
4. Inelastic:  "Flu Shot prices raise to $100 per shot. Families save and scrape every penny."

Inelastic: I visited a local children's clinic after catching wind of the new flu shot prices. To my surprise, there were just as many families in line for the shot. Even at one hundred dollars per prick, parents know the importance of the life saving shot. Until recently, flu shots have been little to no cost. They were available at all doctor’s offices and almost all grocery stores. It was impossible to almost not get one. And to many people’s disbelief, there are still just as many locations and people willing to pay one hundred dollars to vaccinate themselves and their children. “It’s just a necessity for my children,” one mother said as she waited in line at the clinic. “Children spread germs around so easily at school that kids are almost inevidable to catching diseases, but the flu, at least, can be prevented.” Overall, regardless of the drastic price change in the price of the flu shot, it remains a major necessity to families all over America. Thus making the flu shot extremely inelastic and necessary.

market economy

        The United States uses a market economy. This type of economy has pros and cons. Compared to the other  market system economies, this one has the most pros. They include, little government control, the ability to create your own business, and small business can meet people's wants and needs. My dad has a construction business that specializes in concrete tilt ups. He started out as just a regular worker out of college when it had a different owner. However, after many years of hard work, my dad and his best friend have worked their way up to the owners. The business has blossomed in a huge way since my dad became owner. They have better marketing, organization, and business. However, due to the market economy, it has had some hard times. It has swells of a ton of business at once, to struggling to find business a few months . later. But the economy is starting to turn up, therefore more business/ income.
       The market economy system has allowed my dad's company to grow and prosper, without the government putting restrictions on it. I support the market economy. I think it would be hard to adapt to different market economies that have more restrictions, because ours is so understanding of people's needs.


QUESTION:
      What would it be like to live in a different market economy in a different country? Would it be harder, or easier to make it?

"Think about a time in your life where you had to choose between two or more options. Explain the opportunity cost involved in that decision."

             Opportunity cost, to me, means when you have to make a decision between two things. If you choose option A, then you lose what option B has to offer, but if you choose B, then you can't experience option A. Some opportunity cost decisions are easy and simple to make, like which candy bar you want to buy at the store. However, on the other hand, some can be difficult and life changing, such as college or career choices.

          The most recent large opportunity cost decision I had to make was when I got invited to go to France, Italy, Monaco and Spain for two weeks with my best friend last summer. It seemed like a no brainer at first, Europe would be awesome. But the opportunity to be a camp counselor at a summer camp that my sister has gone to for her whole life arose. It is for diabetes and I thought I would be a good fit since I grew up around diabetes and know a lot about it.

              I was extremely torn at first. I talked to my whole family about it, and they all told me the exact same thing. The opportunity to be a summer camp counselor comes around every summer, while a trip around Europe is once in a lifetime. Although I wouldn't gain experience working with children or get paid, I would get to experience sights and events that only some people are lucky enough to have in their lifetime.             Overall, the decision  I made to travel to Europe next summer was the best choice. The opportunity cost was that I wouldn't be getting paid or experience with children. However, those are minimal costs when I compare the experience that I am going to get in Europe next summer.

QUESTION:

This makes me wonder how hard it  was for my dad to decide what career path he wanted to take?

A factor in my life that is scarce is my college choices. My dad went to OSU and my sister goes there now, so naturally my whole family wants me to go there. However, as time goes on, my parents are starting to make me feel like my only option for school is Oregon State. This eliminates any other possibilities for study opportunities that other schools may offer. So I just have to learn to accept that I am going to Oregon State, and hope that it has the progams that I want to go into.