How beneficial are electric cars?

sites.google

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 “How beneficial are electric cars?” 

The article published in Ergon Energy Network titled “Benefits of Electric Vehicles” demonstrates this economic principle by showing that electric cars are cheaper to run, better for the environment, and are cheaper to maintain.

First, electric cars are much cheaper in the long run. There have been many studies that show that electric charging costs are about a third of the price per kilometer as the price for gas. I believe this will not only save money for the masses in the long run but it will have an effect on the economy, as many people wouldn’t be buying gas.

Second, electric cars are much safer for the environment. There are no pollutants that come from the car itself, however, there are pollutants that come with the electricity needed to run the car and the production of the car. According to "Clean Technica", electric vehicles that travel more than 250 miles per charge can have manufacturing emissions as much as 68% higher than the emissions produced by a normal car during production. Also, like I discussed in my last blog post, there are many problems with pollution when it comes to mining the necessary minerals for an electric car. I believe that either way there will be some kind of pollution, but it just depends on the type of pollution that is being produced that will determine which is better for the environment.

Third, electric cars are cheaper to maintain. Electric cars don’t have engines, so therefore there is less service needed and there are very few parts that can break. The only thing that you need to take care of are the tires, brakes, and suspension. I believe this will not only be cheaper for the common man/woman, but will also allow the owner to have spending money for other things, therefore boosting the economy.

The Piece That Ties It All Together

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 motherboards, memory and storage?”

The article published in Newegg  titled “How to Choose A Motherboard” demonstrates this economic principle by showing the 2 brands of motherboards you have to choose from, and options regarding memory and storage.

First, your motherboard will be the heart of your machine and carries all the information and connections needed to make all the parts work together perfectly. And of course, you need to choose between the two companies again, Intel and AMD! When it comes to motherboards, there’s a lot of things to know so I’m going to break it down. First things first is size. If you’re looking to build a computer fit for gaming or advanced software, a full sized tower would be better than if you were building a computer for the simple life of browsing. The larger the motherboard, the more components it can support. Generally speaking, Intel tends to perform higher in gaming and single-thread programs while AMD does better in multi-thread programs and software.

Second, compatibilities. Most motherboards are made differently to be compatible with certain conditions or brands. One thing to think about is expansion ports. According to Mark Coppock, “PCIe is the most important port and the one you’ll use to connect most components today. There are four sizes of PCIe slots, and the latest standard in common use is PCIe 3.0. These four sizes dictate both the throughput of the connection and its size – you’ll want to make sure that you have enough expansion slots and that they’re of the right sizes to support all of your present and future needs.” When you buy a motherboard, you are investing into the future. If you find you want to make changes to your computer, your motherboard you will find, dictates many decisions after.

Third, GPU and CPU supports. Your motherboard’s compatibility with those 2 parts are the most important. Some Intel Core CPUs come with integrated GPUs that hold the means to display output to a monitor, while AMD has its own version of the same thing called the accelerated processing unit (APU). This combines a CPU with a GPU on the same package. These are pretty low-powered GPUs that are good for the usual tasks like browsing and whatnot,, but only support less graphically demanding games. According to Mark Pollock, “Today, most GPUs connect via PCIe slots, and most use PCIe x16 slots. In addition, most contemporary GPUs require PCIe 3.0 or later.” He also stated, “In choosing your motherboard, therefore, you’ll want to make sure that it provides the right kind of PCIe slots. That means checking the GPU specifications carefully and comparing them to the motherboard’s specifications. If you want to connect two or more GPUs, called “Scalable Link Interface” or SLI by NVIDIA and Crossfire by AMD, then you’ll need two available PCIe slots and a compatible motherboard.”

In my next blog post I will research the question: What are your choices when it comes to memory and storage?

The Best Processors For You

arstechnica.com

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

My research question to help me study the economic principle is “What is the opportunity cost of different brands and types of processors?”

The article published in Digital Trends titled “The Best Processors for Gaming” demonstrates this economic principle by showing the importance of the processor , differences in medium scale gaming processors, and differences in low budget scale gaming processors.

I want to point out the importance of the processor in a build. The processor is the piece that makes all the other parts work together to create a crystal clear, and sustainable environment. Now I will talk about choices.

First, when it comes to getting a processor, there’s most likely only going to be two choices: Intel and AMD. If you’re someone on a bit of a budget but need some bang, there are great choices under $200 for this piece such as the Intel’s Core i5-8400 for $200 or AMD’s Zen+ Ryzen 5 2600 for $150. Both are well made with the same amount of cores sitting at 6 and max speeds at around 4.0GHz. but what else is opportunity cost? With the Intel processor, you’re looking at a smaller amount of cache and threads, which will in turn make it a bit more difficult to run lots of processes at once however, integrated graphics are included (opposed to the AMD card) which can boost performance significantly. On the other side, the AMD card includes a couple nice things including: a large amount of cache and threads. Generally speaking, 1 core has enough strength to run 2 threads at once, which makes the AMD a fast suit for running 12 threads on 6 cores. Another nice plus to have (opposed to Intel) is that AMD’s chipsets and power sockets are going to change anytime until at least 2020, giving you leeway when choosing to upgrade or graphics and motherboard or not.

Second, I want to talk about mid-budget gaming. If you’re trying to build a computer that will meet and/or exceed all of your gaming needs, you need a processor that’s a few hundred dollars. Luckily, both Intel and AMD have outstandingly high performing cards in the price range! Another 2 closely related cards here are Intel’s Core i7-8700K and AMD’s Ryzen 7 2700X. Both are very powerful, but in this scenario, Intel pulls ahead of AMD in the gaming section. According to Jon Martindale, “The higher clock speeds and better single-threaded performance on Intel hardware give it an edge in most titles, while the Ryzen CPU pulls ahead in some productivity tests and especially in multi-threaded software.” Opposed to AMD’s Ryzen model, it would perform much better if you worked and played on the same computer. With a larger thread count, it can offer better performance on animating programs and performing extra tasks overall.

Third, I want to talk about high end gaming. “If you’re a gamer who wants ultimate power, or someone who works and plays hard on the same machine, these are the chips for you.” Processors in this category can be upwards of $500 and offer the best performance possible for all situations. The two I’m going to look at here are the Intel Core i9 9900K at around $500 and the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920X also around $500. When we get to this point, we start to see a landslide vote for Intel. The i9 9900K outperforms almost every card to date at this point in regular performance and multi-thread tests. Though the Threadripper may may outperform the Intel processor in certain tasks, Intel takes the lead for high end gaming and tasks.

In my next blog post I will research the question: What are your choices when it comes to motherboards, memory and storage?

Why Social Media Influencer Marketing is more effective

Source: Ordinary Moves

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWYoLE7a0VY 

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bpkr91p2xY&list=PLDs0tNoNYTz1P3dO8m5Wdv0WE2lPTQSJm 

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 “Why is social media influencer marketing more effective?” The article “Influencer Marketing: Why is it Effective” by Joe Ruley published in Strata Blue titled demonstrates this economic principle by showing how psychology, the TARES test and releventness contributes to a marketing campaign. 

First, social media influencers have changed the marketing game allowing companies to make huge profits when they don’t have to pay much for a large audience to hear about their products. Joe Ruley explained “A joint study conducted by Nielsen and TapInfluence shows that the ROI generated by influencer marketing is 11 times higher than traditional strategies”. I think this statistic shows how effective social media influencer marketing is because of the drastic increase. Also, social media sponsorships are more effective because of the psychology behind their following. Ruley also claims “Naturally, the opinions of members of the same group are worth more to people than those of a different group”. The followers of the social media influencers are dedicated watchers because they identify with them because their ages are similar.

 Second, according to Joe Ruley, “TARES stands for Truthfulness (of the message), Authenticity (of the persuader), Respect (for the persuade), Equity (of the persuasive appeal), and Social Responsibility (for the common good)” All of these factors are the main reason why social media advertising works so well. Influencers have credibility, trust and are perceived to be attractive to their followers. Since social media influencers are “real people” and not celebrities their followers have a huge amount of trust for them and their opinions. Ruley also states, “Credibility, attractiveness, and relatability are among the key indicators of an influencer’s ability to influence. And they can be explained by psychological concepts like social proof, attractiveness bias, and social identity theory”. Many influencers are attractive and most of their followers idolize them or look up to them. This means that their followers will purchase, if not consider purchasing a brand or product the influencer mentions.


 Third, social media is the present and the future and people want to feel like they are “trendy” and relevant. Joe Ruley reported, “Last year saw a whopping 12.9 million brand sponsored influencer posts. And that number is estimated to double in 2018, creating an estimated market size of nearly $1.7 billion”. This demonstrated how marketing using social media influencers is becoming a trend itself among companies. For example, the company honey is a company that allows consumers to get discounts online for free. I did not have to do any research for this project to know what honey is because I personally remembered hearing about it in Shane Dawson and Emma Chamberlain YouTube videos. Companies like honey are getting tens of millions of views when they use social media influencers like Shane and Emma. Honey knew that Shane’s series about Jake Paul was going to be very popular so they reached out to Shane to and sponsored that video which got 22,728,769 views. Honey probably paid Shane a lot in order to get their name in his video but they didn’t spend $500,000 like they would have if the put an ad on TV. Social media influencer marketing is effective and gets results that any other ad wouldn’t.

Why Rising Drugs Hurt Americans (Even Those Who Don't Use Them)

Source: USA Today

The economic principle I’m exploring is “What are the current regulations regarding medicinal prices?”

My research question to help me study the economic principle is:
“How have these upward trends affected both patients and average Americans?”

A Jonathan Fielding article published in US News titled “The High Cost of Rising Drug Prices” demonstrates this economic principle by showing how the FDA is powerless to control prices, how consumers of these drugs are in danger because of the staggering prices, and how taxpayers are hurt by these prices too.

First, Fielding explains some of the root causes of these prices. He mentions that although the FDA is tasked with whether or not a product can go to market, their control is limited. He writes that “The FDA is tasked with approving medicines based on safety and efficacy, but cannot consider cost or value in its approval process.” This outlines the issue at hand, and why prices have been able to skyrocket. The demand will always be high for most medicines, so no matter what price they set the drug at, there will be a portion of society that needs it so badly that they will pay much above its worth for the drug. And with no limitations set by the FDA (or no value determined by them), companies have free reign to jack-up the prices exponentially, as they have in recent years with insulin and the EpiPen.

This leads into the effects on consumers. With these rising prices, there must be an affect on consumers, since they wouldn’t necessarily have a rising income to match the price hike. Fielding writes about this effect, saying how “costs of some commonly prescribed drugs have become unaffordable for many patients.” There have always been Americans who are impoverished enough to care more about getting food on the table for their family rather than paying for something to help their own issues. These price hikes are drastically increasing the number of people who could find themselves in this situation.

This leads into the final point that Fielding made. He shows how taxpayers are hurt by the increasing prices too. Fielding cites one specific drug, , and shows the amount of money Medicare used to pay for the prescription. He writes “Acthar cost a staggering $1.3 billion in Medicare payouts between 2011 and 2015.” As these prices rise, the government is going to need more money to pay for the same amount of drugs. The way to raise this money: taxes. Americans who don’t even use these drugs are being hurt by the price hikes.

In my next blog post I will research the question: Why lowering prescription prices could hurt the US?

Why Drugs dealers live with their Mothers

https://www.rehabs.com/a-complete-history-of-crack-cocaine/

Matt Rodgers
Blog post #4
Why Drugs dealers live with their Mothers

• In this thrilling chapter of Freakonomics we tackles the question of why most drug dealers live with their mothers even though dealing drugs is saw as an extremely profitable job. 

•  In this chapter Levitt breaks down annual income of drug dealers and hourly wages of drug dealers. What he found was that the bottom level of drug dealers labeled as foot soldiers make less than minimum wage($3.50 per hour). Why deal drugs at all then. Because life's a tournament. 

•  Levitt uses a truly great analogy. Life is a tournament. Foot soldiers are willing to risk the ¼ chances of getting killed for below minimum wage because at the top of their tournament bracket is fame and fortune. These soldiers have to start at the bottom of the bracket and fight their way to the top. These drug dealers live with their mothers because if they make it to the top of their bracket they will be able to buy whatever they want or whatever their mother needs. If these foot soldiers decided to take a job at Mcdonalds their tournament bracket just got significantly smaller. The top just got less shiny and their willingness to endure hard hours and poor pay has decreased significantly. 

•  Drug dealers deal drugs because in poverty stricken communities its the best tournament for them to enter. They start at the bottom with ¼ chance of getting killed being paid 3.50 an hour but at the top their riches of everyone's wildest imagination. The same tournament analogy can be applied to people wanting to be actors or Dr’s. They start at the very bottom with tons of challenges before them but at the top is glory and fortune and that’s enough to drive actors to pick up 3 jobs to pay for acting school and Dr’s to spend the majority of their life in school. 

Future Question Where have all the criminals gone?

Can Earth afford for car companies to go electric?

Youtube.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 “Can Earth afford for car companies to go electric?”

The article published in Car and Driver titled “Mineral Rites” demonstrates this economic principle by showing that the minerals needed for electric cars are abundant but difficult to produce, many times when mining these minerals human rights are violated, and 90% of production goes through China. 

First, minerals needed for electric cars are abundant in the earth but difficult to produce. One specific mineral, neodymium, is essential for the modern permanent-magnet motor. This is the motor that is currently being used in cars like the Tesla Model 3 and Nissan Leaf. Necessary minerals must be extracted from other minerals via extremely labor-intensive processes. I believe this will cause problems like we see in India’s cargo ship business. These problems could range from health problems to unfair working conditions or to pollution.

Second, 90% of the production for those minerals runs through China. China has imposed strong regulations on companies to make sure they are making product in a safe way. However, many companies don't listen. There are countless companies who take advantage of the system and avoid the law. With this many companies running through China, I believe they will have too much power over the market. China could easily impose large taxes on minerals coming in and out of the country and therefore make our precious cars that more expensive.

Third, many minerals are found in countries in Africa, for example, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Countries like the Congo have mining businesses that are crippled by human rights violations. One report estimated that 40,000 children are working in mines in the Congo and that they are currently being exposed to toxic materials that may cause health problems.

In my next blog post I will research the question: How beneficial are electric cars?