Motivation is the Key to College Success

Source: Office Vibe

The economic principle I’m exploring is because of scarcity, people choose. All choices have an opportunity cost. My research question to help me study the economic principle is “Which factors lead to greater college success?"

The article published in “Root cause for college student success?” demonstrates this economic principle by arguing/showing that there are many choices in college but some will provide more benefit than others.

First, it is important to know that the success of college students and their career satisfaction is tied to high school career exploration. This is due to the fact that most students are taught to explore while in college and are told to broaden their perspectives in order to diversify their options for the future. While this may be the correct route for some students, other students have proved to be highly successful by exploring their interests and by choosing a career while in high school. This usually results in no changing majors and an on-time graduation. Students seem to be more focused if they have a clear vision for their future. It makes sense that the students with demonstrated talents and interests will more easily create a path for achieving career goals.

Second, according to the Higher Learning Commission, “motivation is the leading cause behind students’ failure or success in completing schoolwork.” Motivation influences student’s attitudes, study habits, academic readiness, and so on.” Motivation has definitely allowed lack of motivation has proven to lead more students to failure. If you have no idea where you are going, it will likely be extremely difficult to get there.

Third, passion has proved to lead students to success, while lack of passion has proven to lead more students to failure. According to executive leadership development coach Carl Nielsonursuing, “pursuing a bachelor’s degree requires passion, determination, the drive to overcome “hurdles,” and a willingness to do “whatever it takes” to achieve their goal.” Later on he states that students who don’t understand how specific courses Many students determine if a course is on the critical path to their ultimate goal before they even step foot in the classroom, these same people are likely the ones that believe education means little due to the lack of connection between what they study and their lives. With the rising student debt and average time to complete an undergraduate degree, it is important to determine effective ways to utilize college in order to maximize success and efficiency. It appears that many people and professionals believe that motivation lies at the root of college success. Students who passionately engage in academics are way more likely to flourish because they are motivated, interested, prepared, willing to put in the work, and probably set goals beforehand.

In my next blog post, I will research the question: “Which jobs are more beneficial to college students?”

How mobile games incentivize their advertising.

The economic principle I’m exploring is “incentivization”

My research question to help me study the economic principle is: How do game developers incentivize advertisements?

A method developers use incentives in their game is in the way they use advertisements. As of 2017, around 75.5% of IOS and Andriod mobile games have in-app advertisements, in a mobile games industry that made $5.5 billion in 2016. A large portion of these games that use advertising also incentivizes that advertising.

Many games will give players the option to watch video-ads for in-game currency that often you would otherwise need to spend money to get, though the amount of currency you receive is usually low and there are often caps to how much you can get daily. By incentivizing the users to actively engage with the advertisements, it makes sure that the money spent to create those advertisements won’t be entirely wasted because the player doesn't see it, a constant worry for advertisers who put up banners in games. Further, the rewarded currency can allow quicker progression through games entirely designed to get you drawn in and addicted, then create a wall where, without said currency, further progression can take absurd amounts of time. This form of “freemium” game means the user will continuously watch more adds so they can more quickly progress without spending money.

Another way games try to create incentivize advertisements is by creating “offer-walls”. These are lists of entirely different apps that the app will reward the user for downloading. While seemingly harmless as the user could delete the app right after and still receive the reward, it creates false and misleading statistics for the advertised games which can be used by the developers to lure investors in.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-marketers-offer-incentives-for-watching-ads-1451991600 https://www.psychguides.com/interact/the-psychology-of-freemium/ https://www.appsflyer.com/blog/rewarded-advertising-2017-good-bad-ugly/ https://www.wepc.com/news/video-game-statistics/#gaming-video-content-market

Big Steaming Services Don't Pay Artists

The economic principle I’m exploring is Institutions are the “rules of the game” that influence choices.


My research question to help me study the economic principle is What are the economics of Pandora, Spotify, and other streaming services for newer vs more established artists?

The article published in Digital Music News and The Verge titled “What Streaming Music Services Pay” and “Spotify's Year in Music shows just how little we pay artists for their music” demonstrates this economic principle by arguing/showing despite having more paid subscriptions or popularity, some streaming music services won’t pay artist much at all.

Digital Music News

As we discussed in my last blog post, YouTube is maybe not the best for paying artist, but a great way to start in the music industry. This made me curious and decided to look at other streaming services to see how they compare. What I found was remarkable! “Spotify and YouTube, arguably the largest streaming music services, had the worst payouts.”


I would have never thought Spotify, just like YouTube, didn’t pay their artist that much. “Last year,{2017} the service paid out $0.0038 per play. Not much has changed this year{2018}. With a reported 51.51% market share in the US, Spotify pays $0.00397 per stream.” And what surprised me more is that Napster and Groove Music (aka Xbox Music) have the highest payout to artists, but lowest streaming numbers. “Though it ranked the highest on this list, it had the lowest streaming music market share of 0.65%.“ How are companies that have the highest number of revenue have the lowest payout to artists and vice-versa?


So I went around looking for answers to this question and found that Spotify uses a complex formula to determine the royalties artists earn from streams. Major labels likely receive a sizable sum from Spotify, but not all of that money is going to artists. As said in article titled “Spotify's Year in Music shows just how little we pay artists for their music” published by The Verge “Not all artists get the same cut of Spotify revenue either: depending on their contracts with the label, some musicians might only recoup 15 to 20 percent of the streaming revenue they brought in. Other factors also come into play too, like the country in which a song was streamed and the currency value in that country. “Still, Spotify admits the average "per stream" payout to rights holders lands somewhere between $0.006 and $0.0084.”


“Here’s what that means for me. My top artist of the year was Built to Spill, whose songs (mostly from There's Nothing Wrong with Love) I streamed 267 times over the course of 2015. Using the upper limit of Spotify’s estimated payout, that would be 267 x .0084, which means I paid Built to Spill somewhere around $2.24 for an entire year of music. And that $2.24 is distributed among the music's "rights holders," which includes labels and publishers.” said Lizzie Plaugic, a Spotify user and author of this article. That means that the artists get almost nothing compared to the other big artist like Drake which racks in $15 million on Spotify with his 1.8 billion streams.


This is like getting the rich more richer and the poor more poorer. I don’t think that is fair. As discussed in the YouTube blog post, this makes smaller artist have to go out and make other business plus do live concerts to try to make a living profit.


Napster and Groove Music don’t have to pay as many other bills because they are not so big and can pay the artist more than the other companies. Plus, they don’t have that complex formula as Spotify does making they the highest payout companies out there. On the downside, they don’t get that many steams and something loses money which can make companies go out of business like Groove Music is in 2019. “With few users lining up behind the service, the company just couldn’t compete against established market leaders.”


“Much has already been said about how little Spotify pays artists and how unsustainable the current streaming model is for artists. Unless this model changes or labels take a smaller cut of the profits, the numbers will remain minuscule for smaller artists.”

The Changing Market for Fanfiction

amazon.com

Institutions are the “rules of the game” that influence choices.
     How is the market for fanfiction changing?
           The articles I used are Comicverse.com(Is there a market for fanfiction) by Amanda Michalak and Wired.com(Publishers are warming to fanfiction) by Rachel Edidin. They both talk about the shift that publishers have taken, from disregarding fanfiction as strange and unprofessional, to seeing the potential in the writers and the profits. 

           Publishers have taken a notice of fanfiction and the amount of potential writers and ideas that come from it. Edidin says that “Literary publishing's uneasy relationship with fan fiction has been complicated by the realization that fandom is a huge potential market—one stocked with both prolific authors and enthusiastic readers.” With this new door of opportunity, we get books like “50 shades of grey” by E.L. James and “After” by Anna Todd. The only problem… copyright. With publishers publishing fanfiction the problem resides in renaming everyone, taking out parts of the story because it’s too much like the original or talks too much about its plot. The effort, and the social stigma that I mentioned before, may be too much of a con for some publishers. But others, like “Big Bang successfully raised over $50,000 on Kickstarter in November to fund its first wave of books.” (Edidin) This could be an indicator that the flood gates are opening and the only wall separating writers from fanfiction writers is coming down.

          “Fanfiction is mostly published pseudonymously, and the stigma surrounding it often causes writers to keep their professional and fan identities carefully compartmentalized.”(Edidin) With the slow moving waves to getting rid of that stigma, writers from everywhere will be taken more seriously and more books will be published. Instead of fanfiction being free online, writers will actually get a chance to put their name out there. Readers will get a chance to see themselves on the mainstream, not just under scrutiny and unrecognized. Fanfiction will get its roots in the ground and become another from of professional writing that people can enjoy and support those writers. Fandoms give writers a chance at being appreciated for their work.

         Amazon has also made way for fanfiction to be out there without the problem of copyright. It has created a way for fandoms to write fanfiction for money and not sacrifice any details. How? Amazon and certain authors are working together by giving fans permission to write about their characters and settings. This gives way to whole new level of fanfiction writing. No one is punished for making it, but actually encouraged to.

 “With websites that allow readers to view their works for free, there is no dispute over copyright because the authors are not making a profit from somebody else’s characters, worlds, or lives. Kindle Worlds is the only resource for fanfiction authors to publish their works in “print” form without sacrificing certain details of their work.” (Michalak) 

With this the creation of fanfiction will be less stigmatized. Writers will get their name out there, and readers will get their alternate endings and interactions and expansions of the universes they love.

Tech advancements for the Deaf?

www.americahears.com

The economic principle I’m exploring is “People Gain When They Trade Voluntarily”

 My research question to help me study the economic principle is “In what ways have the Deaf adapted over the years?”

 The article published in The Limping Chicken titled “Five recent technological advances that are changing deaf people’s lives” demonstrates this economic principle by showing several different technological advancements in the Deaf culture like, the Convo light app and, Google Glass.

 First, the Convo light app is an app that flickers your houslights when you get an alert on your mobile phone. This is obviously helpful if you can’t hear the ringer go off. I has also been used as a doorbell and an alarm clock for the Deaf and hard of hearing.

 Second, several new pieces of wearable tech like the Google glass have been beneficial to Deaf people. The Google Glass was designed to display things on the inside of the lense which would have allowed Deaf people to read some of the information being filtered in. Recently, Apple has started transcribing voicemails. It’s a little bit unreliable but it’s better than nothing.

 Third, there are newer and better hearing aids becoming cheaper on the market. This is helpful because in the past, hearing aids and other hearing devices have been crazy expensive so they were not widely available. With more people having less restricted access to these devices, communication is becoming much easier.

 In my next blog post I will research the question: Why is there a difference of opinion on CI in the Deaf community?

How game publishers make money off of "premium" editions and pre-orders.

Principle: People generally respond to incentives in predictable ways.

Question: How do companies make money off of “Advanced” editions and pre-orders.

Through the 2000’s, Pre-orders were commonplace for any major game release, especially console exclusives. A pre-order is when a consumer purchases a game before it is released, essentially making a claim on a copy before anyone without pre-orders does. Pre-orders were originally created to solve a problem for gamers, who wanted to get a game as soon as possible without having to risk their local store running out of copies before they got through the often hours-long lines. While this ensured gamers a copy of their most anticipated games, because they spent their money before the game was finished, no reviews are available to educate the consumer whether or not the game is worth the usual $60 price point. Trying to further incentivize gamers into separating from their money early, developers often create “pre-order bonuses”. These give items, content, or other exclusives to gamers who bought the game early. Publishers love pre-orders as they help ensure they make a profit without having to risk more investment money to ensure game quality. It also makes it hard for publishers to justify delaying a game to fix the game as people might demand their money back. Because of this, some publishers have become notorious for releasing buggy, glitched, unfinished games that could take months to fix with post-release patches, while having massive pre-order bonuses. This problem has been exacerbated by the now dominant online market, which negates the original benefit of the pre-order.

Game publishers also create “advanced” or “premium” editions of games, where they would charge an increased price for exclusive items and content that were only available with the purchase of that edition. While the bonuses gamers could receive were usually either progression boosts, extra items, or exclusive items, some games would cut sections out of the original game to put into either a pre-order bonus, advanced edition, or a DLC (downloadable content) which are usually developed after the game is released to keep gamers interested and playing.

While the creation of “premium editions” are still rampant in the gaming markets, EA being a particularly notorious example, the number of people who buy pre-orders has decreased because of the increasing popularity of online digital download platforms like Steam. While you can still pre-order a digital copy of a game, there is much less incentive to since the original benefit of the pre-order no longer applies, and gamers are getting increasingly frustrated with the shady practices of publishers who release broken games for the sake of profit.

https://www.svg.com/125676/reasons-you-should-never-preorder-a-game/ https://www.wepc.com/news/video-game-statistics/#gaming-video-content-market
https://gamerant.com/video-game-preorders-stats/

The Open Dialogue System

The economic principle I’m exploring is “Institutions are ‘the rules of the game’ that influence choices”

Source: discovermainstream.com

My research question to help me study the economic principle is “What are other countries’ systems for mental illness?”

The article published in ABC News Australia titled “Open Dialogue: Finland's alternative approach to mental illness” analyzes other countries’ methods for treatment of mental illness, specifically Finland and Australia.

Finland has created a new system they call the Open Dialogue system. The Open Dialogue system was created when a Finnish child was diagnosed with psychosis, and his mother sought to find a treatment without immediately going to medication or hospitalization. Open Dialogue therapy is a form of group therapy with health professionals and the patient’s family and friends that works with the patient to help them find solutions in their life. The system seeks to do what other forms of treatment does not, which is more personally analyzing those with mental health issues rather than grouping them into a category of depression, anxiety, or the like and treating all patients in each category similarly. Open Dialogue isn’t against traditional medication or hospitals, but it serves as a layer of defense that allows mental illness to be recognized and understood before medicating the patient. This system is widely used in all of Finland and is being adopted in Australia, specifically for patients of psychosis and schizophrenia, but it’s beginning to be used for all mental illnesses.

 The Open Dialogue system is a solution to many of the problems that the American system already has. As mentioned in the last post, the US lacks an early intervention system for mental illness, which Open Dialogue is. The system makes it easier to identify mental illness before it results in a severe incident. Unlike some other treatment options, Open Dialogue recognizes the importance of bettering the health of the patient, or it at least shows that it does more than other treatment options. I think America should begin to implement the Open Dialogue system because it seems to be a solution that many people could benefit from. There are a lot of people that hesitate medicating mental illness, so Open Dialogue could assess the severity of the illness and make people more at ease with medication, or find a treatment option without it.

Where did all the criminals go?

http://travel.cnn.com/explorations/none/asias-10-dumbest-criminals-last-10-years-750651/ 

Matt Rodgers
Blog post #5
Where did all the criminals go?

•  This chapter in Freakonomics speaks on what economic factors lead to decreases in crime.

•  The chapter begins with an odd story about a European tyrant who banned abortions in hopes of strengthening his country. Ironically the new boost in childbirth is what lead to his death. Those babies this tyrant was responsible for birthing are the very people who killed him. It then switches over to the US to talk about how in the 90s where crime was at its peak. 

•  The main reason for decreases in crime during the 1990s was due to the sharp increased rate of imprisonment. The book goes on to talk about how expensive it is to keep all these minorities imprisoned. Stating figures such as, ¨It costs $25,000 a year to keep someone incarcerated,¨ Not only is keeping these people stressful on the taxpayers but prison is also typically viewed as a way to keep down minorities.

•  The book also talks about how the death penalty is not the reason why crime dropped. While executions in the 90s quadrupled its rate from past years, it is not safe to say that it deters crime. The chance of death on death row is 2% the foot soldiers from last chapter face a much higher risk of death (7%) selling drugs on the street for $3.50 an hour. 

•  The death penalty is not enough incentive for criminals to stop committing crimes but lengthy prison sentences and increased conviction rates are enough incentives to get criminals to stop committing crimes.

How to Define the Deaf?

www.coursera.org

The economic principle I’m exploring is “People Gain When They Trade Voluntarily”

 My research question to help me study the economic principle is “What is the Deaf community/Deaf culture?”

 The article published in Deaf Hear titled “What is Deaf Culture?” demonstrates this economic principle by showing what a culture is, what the main focal points of deaf culture are, and what deaf communities are.

 First, the article defines a culture as, “Culture may be defined as patterns, traits, products, attitudes, and intellectual / artistic activity associated with a population”. So this can be a common style of dressing, or a different language. There are thousands of different cultures all across the globe from easy topics like deaf culture, or there are more serious cultures like rape culture.

 Second, The article explains what characteristics in the deaf community make it a culture. Some of them are, the use of sign language, Deaf Art, Deaf Theatre, Deaf Humour, Deaf Folklore, Deaf Organisations and, Deaf History. Each of these small defining points in the deaf communities around the world, make it into a larger culture.

 Third, a Deaf community is similar to Deaf culture, but on a smaller scale. There are many Deaf communities in the Chicago-land area and the closest being a small community of Hinsdale South High School students and teachers. Some of my best friends have been made through connections I have in the Deaf community at south.

 In my next blog post I will research the question: What are different ways Deaf people have adapted over the years?

Others Have Made Changes to How They Teach...So Why Shouldn't We?

Source:betterschoolsbetterfutures.com

The economic principle I will be exploring is: Institutions are the “rules of the game” that influence choices. My research question to help me study this principle is: What can schools do things differently to make school better? In an article called “The Case Against Grades” by Alfie Kohn, Kohn answers my research question since he talks about how schools can be better and talks about what some teachers have done to make school better. 

 First, Kohn talks about what’s wrong with school and that it discourages creativity and gives kids incentives to cheat. He shares that he talked to some middle school and high school teachers that degraded their classes. He spoke with Jeff Robbins, who has taught eighth grade science in New Jersey for 15 years and said that “life was so much easier with grades” because they take so much less time than meaningful assessment. It is apparent that kids have a lot of stress and so do they teachers, so to make it better why not take away harsh grading and assess kids with one on one time.

 Second, in order to promote more creativity kids should be able to do more work about what they are interested in rather than always doing planned assignments. If kids were given this opportunity then grades would improve and kids would be happier. In order for kids to enjoy their classes more they should be able to sit down with their counselors and tell them what they are interested in so they can see if they want to pursue their interests in the future. I know that when I do something I'm interested in I end up doing well on it. 

 Third, It’s time for a change in the school system. Everyone's needs should be met in school and the stress levels should be reduced. Other people like Jeff have made changes and have seen very positive results so why shouldn’t we?

Who really controls the skincare business?

SOURCE: LongRoom 

 The economic principle I’m exploring is people generally respond to incentives in predictable ways.

  My research question to help me study the economic principle is, Who really controls the skincare business?

In the article by Business Insider titled “These 7 companies control almost every single beauty product you buy” they believe that there are 7 main companies that control the beauty products that consumers buy: Estée Lauder Companies, L'Oréal, Unilever, Procter and Gamble, Shiseido, Johnson and Johnson, and Coty. Within these companies there are many sub companies. It is crazy to consider that these 7 companies have complete control over a whole industry. If a small company wants to get there name out there, they have to live up to these companies standards.

As an example, well look at Seed Beauty. This is a small start up company that first came about not that long ago. According to Fast Company, in an article titled “11 Beauty Startups To Watch In 2017” Seed Beauty “grew out of a family-owned manufacturing lab that created products for major brands, which explains why Colourpop can conceive of and launch new products in just days.” This is rare for a company to be able to start from a place that has already made big name products that know they work. With this ability to quickly release products, they can make a name for themselves. While no one knows this company from just its name, Seed Beauty actually started Kylie Cosmetics which is the youngest Kardashian kid. Many people know her from the fame of her family and her products continue to grow like crazy. The thing is that no one recognizes the name Seed Beauty so they have to live up to the standards of the other businesses to keep up.

How Can we Fix our Healthcare System?

Source: Health Catalyst

The economic principle I’m exploring is: “Institutions are the "rules of the game" that influence choices"

My research question to help me study the economic principle is: “What should the government change to make healthcare in America better?”

The article “A Practical, Non-Partisan Solution to America’s Healthcare Crisis” published by A Medium Corporation demonstrates this principle by offering up several different solutions on how we can reduce the costs of healthcare in America and fix the system overall. 

First, one solution could be to create fair prices for prescription drugs. The article goes on to state that “EpiPen, for example, costs more than $600 in the United States compared to $290 in Canada for the exact same allergy treatment. A popular drug for high cholesterol, Crestor, costs $730 in the U.S. but $160 across the northern border. Abilify, a drug to treat depression, is more than $2,636 for a 90-day supply in the U.S. but only $436 in Canada.” All of these different examples show how flawed our pricing is on essential drugs that many people desperately need. One thing that America can do to decrease the price of drugs is to use their purchasing power to negotiate lower drug prices. Canada is already doing this, and it is working with “13% of each healthcare dollar going to pharmaceuticals”, compared to America’s 22%.

Secondly, another way to help improve our healthcare is to increase our citizens negotiation power. The article states that “In Germany an appendectomy costs $3100, but here in America it costs more than $13,000.” The reason that Germany’s procedure is so much cheaper is because “they use the collective bargaining power of their citizens to keep fees in check”. In America, we have our insurance companies “negotiate” fees with our medical provider, which essentially forfeits any negotiation power that US citizens have. If we were able to have this kind of power, then we could negotiate fair prices and overall healthcare would be cheaper as a whole.

Thirdly, we could extend the Medical fee schedule and make it a National fee schedule. Doing this would take advantage of America’s single-payer system and allow the free market to keep fair competition in check. Doing this would instantly lower the cost of medical care, and reduce health insurance rates. It would also make costs for medical procedures more transparent, instead of the current system in which you don’t really know how much it costs until you get the bill. Lastly, making the medical fee schedule a National fee schedule would make it easier for insurance companies to enter the market and increase healthy competition between companies, and with good competition comes lower rates for everybody.

Fanfiction: What is it and Why Does it Exist

Wkihow.com

Institutions are the “rules of the game” that influence choices. 
     What is fanfiction and what are the stigmas surrounding it?
           
            Fanfiction is one of the biggest things that comes from fandoms. Stories that reimagine the original, artwork in the artist’s own art style; these things come in abondance with any type of fandom. The article I used is theconversation.com(What is fanfiction) by Rukmini Pande. Fandoms have a social stigma of being strange and for the queer, but fanfiction is an entirely different words. Its demographic being mostly women and the queer community, and the bad writing or content that it has all contribute to a negative social view. 

            While I’ve never written fanfiction, I do read it. When I look for it I have to spend a lot of time sorting through the badly written ones, the ones in different languages, the scarcity of what I’m looking for. But it’s worth it when you find the best one. A lot of what I read is just alternate universes, alternate endings to things, basically just using the pre-established characters or settings so that they can get on with their own plot and idea. They make stories about hardships that the author wants to write about. They create more diversity, of personality and/or identity. Rewriting a scene from the book or movie or the comic or the TV show. They want something more out of it when it’s gone, they want more out of it while it’s here. But your favorite book only has one ending, only the the scenes it wrote about. Fanfiction is there to let the story come to life in a different way, show different scenes, different characters and aspects about the world your favorite story resides in.

“Fanworks, including fanfiction and fanart, are created by fans who are invested in the source material. They seek to expand the narrative universe and share their personal creations with other fans for free.”

            Some producers encourage fanfiction, they want their fans to take inspiration from their ideas, but others don't. They don’t want their ideas to be taken an rewritten, re-imagined. Some people don’t like fan fiction because it’s gross. Slash Fiction is when the story is about the romantic and sexual relationship between 2 characters. They don’t like these stories when it pairs people, (men, women, nonbinary, genderfluid) together that aren’t actually in a relationship. They don’t like it because it’s terribly written, bad grammar, bad storytelling, total rewrite of who the characters are. These things are expecting from developing writers, though. As for slash, it’s a preference, and some people might find it uncomfortable, others might find it creative, and some might enjoy it too much. But slash is to dramas is to porn. It happens, and some find one of these types of sexaulizing/romanticizing story uncomfortable. 

“The power of fanfiction stems from the fact that it actively invites writers to break down boundaries considered “natural” in a broader cultural context – primarily around sex, sexuality, and gender.” 

           Fanfiction has always been an outlet. It can be found for free on sites like fanfiction.net, Archiveofourown.com, wattpad (which has 40 million users), and more. From stories using the setting of a book to the characters, to the idea, there’s one thing it has in common. Who writes it. “fanfiction provides a fluid space for (mainly) queer women writers and readers to engage with the various pop cultural narratives that influence their lives.” says Pande. They use fanfiction as an outlet for their writing and their need to see themselves in stories. Readers read so they can enjoy their favorite story after it’s ended, to see the characters interact with different situations, to see their own emotions in their favorite characters, to see their favorite world come to life, expand. Fanfiction is out there for those people who want more, who want something different. It’s out there for those who just want to read, who just want to write. The social stigma against the queer and feminine creates their need for fanfiction even more. They want to see themselves in these stories, but the stigmas keep that from them. Fanfiction exists because of the strong emotions they feel. 

Next up: how is the market for fanfiction changing?

How to Educate the Hearing about the Deaf

alborsalnet.com

My research question to help me study the economic principle is “What is the best way to educate hearing people about deaf people and sign language?” 

 The article published in The ASL App, titled “FAQ on Deaf Culture” demonstrates this economic principle by showing the best ways to find classes to learn ASL , simple guidelines for the Deaf community, and ways to include yourself in the Deaf community.

 First, the article shows different ways to learn sign. One way is to take a sign class taught by a teacher, or by reading books about how to sign, and finally, by using apps. The ASL app is helpful for learning signs and facts about Deaf culture. I think that this can be helpful but that it can be difficult to truly understand how to sign without practicing with other people.

 Second, the article explains how to find ASL classes and what they do. When I took a sign class, it helped me to learn the proper way to do signs, and a lot about the inner ear, and Deaf culture. In the article, they explain the difference between baby sign and actual ASL by saying, “ASL is a complete language with its own complex grammatical system. "Baby signs" is actually a very simplified, cute version of ASL - it's basically borrowed from ASL for parents to communicate with their babies better as they are young and not yet forming the ability to speak.“. This shows that there are many differences in sign and that it can be helpful to learn from a teacher, things that you wouldn’t have learned online. 

Third, and in my opinion, the most important part of the article, are the few ways that they explain “deaf etiquette”. They make sure to say what to do to get a deaf person's attention, not to crouch between two people signing, and what it means to be in the Deaf community. Deaf with the capitalized D represents people that are members of the Deaf Community, a linguistically unique community that used American Sign Language as their primary/prefered mode of communication. Deaf with the lower case d (deaf) refers to people with any degree of hearing loss. Identity is something that is decided by the individual”.

 In my next blog post I will research the question: What is the Deaf community/ Deaf culture?

Can Regulating Prescription Prices Hurt Americans' Health?

Source: Wall Street Journal

The economic principle I’m exploring is “What are the current regulations regarding medicinal prices?”
My research question is: “Why lowering prescription prices could hurt the US?”

An article published in DrugCostFacts.org titled “Shouldn't the U.S. Government do more to regulate high drug prices?” demonstrates this economic principle by showing how the free market system of the US has led to growth in the prescription industry, how history has shown the free market has incentivized innovation, and how innovation is stifled when profits are capped.

The article first goes into the numbers of “drug production” in the world. The graphic from the Milken Institute displays that 57% of the entire world’s new drugs are being created and produced in the US. To explain this whopping number, the article writes that “what makes the United States stand out is its commitment to a competitive, free market system for drugs that doesn’t impose artificial limitations on successful innovations.” By not controlling the boundaries for net gain on companies, the US offers an incentive to create and innovate, because the companies could win huge from their inventions. Even if what the companies gain is less than what the cap is in other areas, the mere idea of possibilities for these companies is enough to drive them to create.

To bolster its point, the article cites many examples as to why “throughout history, advances in science and drug development in the United States have increased when Congress passed legislation that supports, promotes, and incentivizes the innovation being conducted in the lab.” They cite many acts from Congress over the years as being beneficial to the growth of American medicine. To name a few, “the Orphan Drug Act, the Hatch/Waxman Act, the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, the Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act, the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act, the creation of the Small Business Innovation Research program, and the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, among others.” The vast array of examples this article uses shows us why the US controls 57% of the medicinal market. Even though the US is not the only free market state in the world, the scale to which the US has incentivized this market for companies has shown profitable for both companies and everyday Americans who need the medicine being created.

Finally, the article argues against the claims I have explored in previous posts: the US should more firmly regulate the US drug market. They write “The reality is that short-sighted laws, regulations and insurance policies can scare away the private investment that is needed to fund biopharmaceutical research and to deliver new cures to patients in need.” Regulations that can stifle the profit of companies, can affect the core of the company. Most companies have to spend to make, so researching companies often rely on private investors or philanthropists rather than subsidies for the bulk of the money going into research. If investors see the loss of profit from these regulations, they may back out from the start, blocking the companies from making any progress. This article argues that these new drugs will cease to exist if we force investors hands with pricey regulations.

In my next blog post I will summarize the research I have done to this point

How do companies use the markets voice to influence innovation

Source: Customer Feedback

       The market is very important to companies especially because it drives innovation. Innovation is very important for companies to stay ahead and competitive in all segments of the market. So how do companies allow get this feedback from their customers, they allow them to share their thoughts, engage the right group of people, and get the consumer involved early.
     
          A great example of this is Apple, the company at first did not really reach out to customers but after the IPhone 5C tanked they started really asking the consumer what they thought they could do better and their sales have been growing ever since this started. Other companies like Southwest airlines use customer feedback to maximize the passenger experience from doing things like giving free checked bags and easy options to reschedule if you miss a flight, because of these changes there earning and stock price have been growing exponentially according to a yahoo finance article.  According to an Inc.com article companies can maximize their profits by appealing to what their costumes like about the product or service they provide.  An example the article gave was Southwest took a customer survey to see what the most memorable part of the flight was 1.5% of the people surveyed said that the pre-flight safety talk was the most memorable part of the flight.  the article cited that if Southwest could increase that number to 3% they could increase there profits by 140 million a year.

     I think that this is the most important thing a company can do is use customer feedback.  In the case of Southwest a very low percent of people found the safety talk to be memorable if they can improve the satisfaction of the pre-flight talk to 3% their profits increase greatly.  Customer feedback is a very important tool that gets underused way too much and that should change. 

What Drives the Cost of Healthcare so High?

Source: 123RF

The economic principle I’m exploring is: “Institutions are the "rules of the game" that influence choices"

My research question to help me study the economic principle is: "What are the top drivers for cost in the American Healthcare system?

The article “9 Drivers of High Healthcare Costs in America” published by Beckers Hospital demonstrates this principle by breaking down many of the different reasons that Healthcare costs in America keep on rising without end.

First, a lot of the reasons for high cost has to do with the patients themselves. Lots of the cost stems from unhealthy behaviors leading to chronic illnesses like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. These types of preventable diseases “cause about 70 percent of all deaths in the United States, and they are the most expensive to treat”. Americans also tend to choose the most expensive procedures and technologies when it may not be necessary. The article states that “MRI’s in the United States occur twice as often compared with the average country in OECD data”. This shows that Americans tend to use more expensive procedures more, driving up the cost of everything else. Data from Perelman School of Medicine also found that “Americans average $9,403 per person in annual health care spending. By comparison, Germans and Dutch, average $5,182 and $5,202 respectively.” All of this data really goes to show how much Americans overspend on healthcare.

Secondly, many medical technologies are just expensive to maintain in general. The article states that “Data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have consistently showed the average unit costs for U.S. physicians, hospitals, facilities and drugs are the highest in the world”. The U.S. is so expansive in its medical care procedures that it just naturally takes up a lot of money. The difference between the US and many European countries that they are always compared to is that the US has nearly 330 million people, whereas most other countries have somewhere between 30-80 million. This puts more strain on the health budget for the U.S. than any other country in the world. 

Thirdly, administrative costs in the US are jacked up way too high. The article states that “The morass of health insurers and billing processes cost the U.S. healthcare system billions in wasted costs every year.” Data from the Perelman School of Medicine found that administrative expense differences were massive compared to other countries “accounting for $752 per-capita of Americans' annual healthcare spending, versus just $208 in the Netherlands, and $232 in Germany.” This is nearly a 3-5 times bigger increase than the other countries, which is ridiculous. If the US can find a way to reduce the administrative costs then our system would save billions of dollars overall.

In my next blog post I will research the question: What should the government change to make healthcare in America better?

Fashion economics

The economic principle I’m exploring is “When in scarcity of something, how do people choose what to buy?”
 My research question to help me study the economic principle is “How does being closed minded affect sales?”
The article published in Elle titled “Trans Model Geena Rocero to VS: I Can Sell “Fantasy” Just Fine, Thank You Very Much” demonstrates this economic principle by showing How Transphobia affects sales, How what you say on a big platform reaches many people, and how inclusivity is the now now. First, Just within the week of 11-12-18, Chief Marketing Officer Ed Razek made incredibly Transphobic comments, and when this got out to the public, the backlash was huge. Many people, not just the Trans community, felt incredibly offended over his remarks of how Transgender women could never model their lines because “they just can’t sell Fantasy”. A well known Trans model by the name Geena Rocero fired back on her instagram posts about how it has always been hard to be a model in such a competitive industry, but she, a trans woman, has made it to the top. It isn’t impossible, and it’s not that they don’t have “the look”, Rocero remarking that “[She] can sell a 10 million dollar hair flip” just fine, it is that these big companies simply refuse to watch their mouths and see what customers really want.
Second, After these words left Razak's mouth, of course it spread like wildfire. And it makes them look incredibly bad. They don’t realise that the new customer is now the new generation, one which is for the most part very inclusive and pushing for realistic representation. They need to realise that because they are a big company, they hold a lot of influence, each word they put out is amplified and heard by hundreds. As the article puts it, “The show is televised globally, so it's one of the biggest platforms you can think of when it comes to a model's exposure”. For those who know better, they will fight back and prove Victoria’s Secret wrong, but for those younger who are in the LGBT community, this is a shot fired directly at them. It harms mental stability. Already there is not nearly enough representation in big companies, but to have your group directly attacked, it’s something that stays with you for a long time and hinders self esteem.
Third, the biggest thing companies like Victoria’s Secret need to learn, it’s that being inclusive is the key. While they have slowly started including more women of colour, it is not nearly enough. Including only one group really erases a giant section of consumers, “It's a complete erasure of a big demographic—not just for a trans person, but plus-size models, and the average American size is 16”.

Predicting future tech innovations

Medium

It is easy to see that smartphones have come a long way in terms of innovation from the first phones with touch screen in the late 2000's to the iPhone X that can now recognize your face. It is obvious that innovation is a main focus in this industry and as more features are released it seems companies aren't running out of ideas but are actually innovating faster. Since there is essentially an endless amount of possible ideas and companies only have a limited amount of money for research and development, what features are likely to be seen in the future? According to the article "Future Technology of Mobile Phones: What We Saw at Mobile World Congress 2018" the some of the biggest innovations we will see are improved smart recognition, durability and fold-ability, and augmented reality.

Smart phone companies have been in a constant search for ways to make their products more secure, Apple made a huge step in with its "touch id" released in 2013 with the iPhone 5s. Since then other smart phones have followed suit with fingerprint scanners. Apple has recently released "face id" with its iPhone X which is facial recognition used to unlock. While both face id and fingerprint scanning are huge innovations they have both proved they can quite easily be hacked or bypassed, in the future smartphones could evolve to recognize their users in multiple ways. A future smartphone may recognize its users by face further than by appearance, but also by contour of the face--to prevent hacking with a picture. Phones may also be able to recognize you based on patterns, such as how you type or tone of your voice--no longer will your friends be able to ask Siri to send prank messages on your phone.

Another innovation that may be seen in the future is increased durability of phones and even fold-ability. In a few years smart phones will be very hard to break, research and development is going into a new type of glass that is harder to break and could be "self-healing". Along with this there is also research being done on flexible screen materials so you could fold your phone up in your pocket.

Possibly hardest for most people to visualize in every smart phone is augmented reality. Augmented reality is the addition of virtual reality into reality, for example the game "Pokemon Go" projects virtual characters over your camera to appear in the real world. Apple recently released a measuring tool that uses augmented reality, point you camera at an object and a virtual measuring tape will appear next to it showing you almost exact dimensions. As this technology advances we could see countless possibilities for it in our smart phones like object recognition or more tools. For example you could hold your camera up and see information, reviews, and ratings on restaurants and businesses around you. These predictions are based on what new technologies companies are investing in, however new discoveries and developments can happen quickly, therefore it is impossible to say for sure.

US Healthcare vs. other Healthcare Systems: How are they different?

Source: Jerusalem Post

The economic principle I’m exploring is: “Institutions are the "rules of the game" that influence choices"

My research question to help me study the economic principle is: "How does the United States differ from other countries in healthcare policy and structure?”

 The Article “Comparisons of Healthcare Systems in the United States, Germany, and Canada” published by the National Center for Biotechnology demonstrates this principle by breaking down all of the different healthcare structures in each country and highlighting the key differences between them. 

 First, the largest difference between most healthcare systems and the United States is that The United States operates on private market healthcare systems, and does not have a single nationwide system of health insurance. Most other countries have some form of universal health care, in which there is only one system that everybody falls under, but the US is not this way. In the US, health insurance is either purchased in the private marketplace or provided by the government to certain groups. Statistics show that “About 84% of the population is covered by either public (26%) or private (70%) health insurance.” And about “61% of health insurance coverage is employment related” due to savings. This is much different from Germany for example, who provides free healthcare for all under one system. Healthcare in America is also not mandatory, so more than 42 million Americans are living without healthcare insurance.

 Secondly, another difference between them is cost of healthcare. The article had a table showing the three different countries, and healthcare spending by each country. The table showed that the United States has the “largest GDP per capita and the largest healthcare spending per capita”. The article also goes on to state how the US Medical care spending is the highest in the world, both person to person spending and as a percentage of GDP. This could be detrimental for the US in the future, as these costs begin to rise more and more until it gets to a point where it is just too high and the whole system needs a reboot.

 Thirdly, I will discuss some of the overall struggles that each system of healthcare faces due to their own structures, and some of the trade-offs. The US has the highest expenditures on healthcare, but also with the private healthcare system the wait times are often shorter. The article also goes on to state how generally most Americans feel unhappy with our current healthcare system, and believe that changes need to be put in place for large reformations of the system. However with all of the up and down sides of it all, the article states that “data from different countries may not be directly comparable for several reasons and therefore, should be accepted with some skepticism”. While all of this data shows clear differences and some of it points to one healthcare system being better than another, there are so many other minor factors that it is really hard to tell what should be done and that is what makes healthcare such a big issue.

In my next blog post I will research the question: What are the top drivers for cost in the American Healthcare system?

How Fast Will Your Computer Be?

pcworld.com

The economic principle I’m exploring is “Because of scarcity, people choose. All choices have an opportunity cost.”

My research question to help me study the economic principle is “What are your choices when it comes to memory and storage?”

The article published in Tech Guided titled “How to Choose RAM: 4 Things to Consider” demonstrates this economic principle by showing the opportunity cost of RAM and storage.

First, of course, what are you building? Different builds require different amounts of memory. If you’re building a simple house computer, nothing too special, you’re looking at around 6GB of memory. With 6GB, your computer can perform any basic function or task while being able to run low-end internet games. If you’re building a computer for gaming, you need 8GB of RAM minimum. My current gaming computer houses 8GB and it can run any game I want to play at a high frame rate, however, it cannot run most recent titles at max graphics while speeding 60+FPS. When it comes to high end gaming and design software, you’re probably going to need about 16GB minimum, but don’t be alarmed! RAM isn’t very expensive and you can accomplish this easily with just under $140.

Second, I want to talk about compatibility. Not all RAM is compatible with every system. First, DDR Generation. This is significant because if the generation of your RAM doesn’t match your motherboard, you won’t have a fitting stick. For example, according to Brent Hale, “DDR3 memory in a motherboard that has DDR4 DIMM slots and you can’t put DDR4 memory in a motherboard that has DDR3 DIMM slots.” Another thing to look out for is CPU Heatsinks. CPU coolers can be bulky, hanging over DIMM slots. These can prevent RAM kits with taller heat spreaders to be installed. The last thing you need to know is that there’s 2 different types of RAM form factor: DIMM and SO-DIMM. This basically means Desktop vs. Laptop. It’d be a silly mistake to buy memory for your laptop when you meant to buy some for your desktop.

Third, I want to talk about is your storage unit. This is where you’ll keep all your precious files and this is also the part that is mostly responsible for the boot time of your computer, it’s apps, games and files. The main choice to be made here is between HDD and SSD. HDD is the classic storage card, costing around $50-$60 for 1 Terabyte. The pros of an HDD is simple: they’re affordable, they have lots of space, and they get the job done. You don’t necessarily need an SSD, however, they do offer some unique traits. First, they usually hold less storage. Bad right? No. SSD’s are known for their ability to boot up your computer and load up all of its beautiful files at incredible speeds. This is exactly what you want if you’re going for anything more than a simple house computer. And if you’re on a budget but need to make an upgrade, this is the first thing I’d have to recommend to you. SSD’s are usually around $100, which isn’t much more than $50, giving you lots of bang for your buck.