Friday, September 19, 2014

Jackson Austin
Mr. Southwick
3rd hour
Apple
The Apple company was started by Steve Jobs in his parents garage with his best friends. He was not an average person, and had a vision that has changed how to world works. Apple now has a huge absolute advantage over the technology world. The striving company leads the market in smartphones, laptops/home computers, tablets and many more. Apple has to make trade offs in order to get all of their products out there for consumers in the correct time. Did you know the iPad was a project started before the iPhone? Tim Cook says the apple team decided to stop the iPad project in order to finalize the iPhone and get that on the market and let that sell then wait to release the iPad a couple years later when the iPhone isn’t as hot in order to keep Apple on top in the technology world. The iPad was an opportunity cost in order for Apple to efficiently produce their new smartphone, the iPhone. You could say Apple stopped production of the iPad because self optimization was a factor. The Apple team could've seen that the world wanted a new smartphone not an alien device that no one has even thought of yet (the iPad). So they probably envisioned that their stocks would grow more if they release the iPhone before the iPad. Apple has changed todays world for the better or for the worse (you can choose either side really). In this day and age kids say that they absolutely “need” their phone or they're gonna go crazy some say take it too dramatically and say they'll “die” if they don’t have their phone in their hand. The definition of the word “need” has changed greatly. As needs and wants change so do the production of goods in a market economy.
Another “good” that is very big in the world today is gasoline. Gasoline is very expensive these days. There is a number of reasons why the price is so high, for example; the resource is demanded greatly in the world. Another reason is that gasoline is scarce so that means its more “rare” thus causing the price to rise. Humans (especially Americans) use gasoline for more than we think. Gas gets the job done better than any other alternative fuel option. That’s what economists call the “invisible hand”. The resource is meeting our needs and wants naturally. Therefore it is almost a must in todays world.
As you can see a lot goes into producing a product. Business owners must always be on their “A game” in order to survive in a market economy. Trade offs must be always made and goals must be set in order to achieve wealthiness. From the iPhone in our hand to the gasoline heating our house on this cold fall night, entrepreneurs think of everything before the product goes on the market.

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Intro to Economics

1. I do not fully understand economics at all, but that's ok I plan on having a complete comprehension when I am finished with this course. As far as I know, economics seems pretty simple. The system itself is run by the community's supply and demand on recourses. It is the constant drive of needs vs. wants. The concerns that are dealt with with the economy are basically three things; production, distribution, and consumption (this goes back to the whole supply and demand thing).

2. I took this class because I usually do very well in history/social studies classes, its always been my strong point (even though I didn't do apush last year) but I felt like it was time to challenge myself more in the class I do really well in. I asked my US History teacher (Ignani) last year if this seems like a class for me and he told me I would do just fine in this class, so I signed up for it. The second reason I took this class is because I would also like to take an ap class that would look pretty good for college.

3.
   a. Macbook: I use this for a lot of stuff such as playing music or watching youtube clips or editing a video; it knocks out all of the basic stuff I do from day to day on one machine
   b. Jets Pizza: I actually work there so I like the company just because they gave me a job and I get a weekly income from them but I've always loved pizza, so I consume their food like almost everyday (I know that's probably really unhealthy but its ok because the food is amazing)
   c. Not really sure: I have really been getting into graphic design and video editing for quite some time so maybe I'l go for something along those lines?