Communist, Socialist, and Capitalist School

Communism and capitalism seem to be two extremes of economic systems while socialism is somewhat of a compromise.  In communism, the school would reflect the economy in that the government would make all decisions for its students.  All schools would need to be public and your course of action as far as your career would also be chosen by the government.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, capitalism would only have private schools leaving the cost of education to those who could afford it.  Only some people would be able afford to send their kids to schools, so, in a way, your career options are being chosen for you in a capitalistic economy as well.  Smaller factors such as classes and amount of education would also be up to the student and his/her family.  Socialism is a balance in that, although many things would be provided by the government such as education, their still is not as much choice as in a capitalist school system.  Many classes would be chosen for you, but some might not be.  Amount of education would be a choice after a certain point, yet the government may make it mandatory for a certain amount of years.

Explanations

Stocks are pieces of a company that someone would buy intending to make a profit of some kind.  The stock value fluctuates based on the value of the corporation they are part of. If the company looses money, so does the stock and vice versa.  There are several different types of stocks as well as different ways stocks are traded and invested in.  A trade involves buying a stock with the intent to resale it sooner rather than later.  The opposite of a trade is an investment which would mean holding a stock for a longer period of time rather than a short period of time.  If a stock is bought as an investment, dividends are something mny investors look for in that particular stock.  A dividend is when a corporation offers it's stockholders a certain percentage of their income back per stock that that shareholder owns.  So if the dividend-yield were 2% the company would give a shareholder with 2 stocks, 2% of what was made on that stock during a particular time.When a stock is bought as a trade, the investor will often buy the stock on the assumption that there will soon be a catalyst that will shoot the price up which would allow the owner to sell at a higher price.

Company Book

The book our company chose was Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.  The book was written in the 1930s when the U.S. was  still in the Great Depression.The book attracted people during this time because of the way it looked at becoming wealthy.  Hill looked at this process from the standpoint of a sound mindset.  Basically if your thoughts and attitude are right, you can accomplish anything you want to do.  Hill talks about things that are quite revolutionary in that people never really seem to phrase them the way he does.  For instance faith.  Hill talks about faith, not as in having faith in a higher power or in the government, but rather in your own capabilities.  He shows how true faith in yourself is the ultimate form of determination.  He gives the example of Edwin C. Barnes who one day walked up to the home of Thomas Edison and informed him that he would be his assistant.  Barnes was determined to become Edison's assistant and had told himself he would, installing it in his unconscious mind so that he truly believed he would.  Although Barnes started out at the bottom of the totem pole, he soon was, indeed, Edison's assistant.  Although this is obviously extreme, it shows very well how one can literally achieve whatever he believes he can do.  The book covers what seems as a very narrow subject, yet it applies to so much.  It is simple and yet complicated at the same time. By having the right mindset, one can accomplish anything that he/she believes he/she can achieve.

Raising Minimum Wage

Raising the minimum wage has been proposed to the government and many people believe that it will          boost the economy and give people the money that is needed nationwide.  According to Bill Dunkelberg, chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Businesses, every dollar must come out of someone's pocket and raising the minimum wage is not a logical way to add increased spending to the economy.  Dunkelberg continues by saying "It's not the job of businesses to turn themselves into social service providers and pay in excess of value to the firm," and  "We do have something called the earned income tax credit, where we provide supplemental income to people who are working but need more money."  

It seems obvious that, because of the day in age in which we live, raising minimum wage further would do nothing but put more businesses in a situation in which they could no longer afford to employ people.  By simply increasing the minimum wage, all the government is doing is telling businesses to give their employees money that they don't have or that they may have otherwise used in other ways.  By doing this, the people that stay employed will undoubtably get payed more, but it also seems very likely that unemployment could skyrocket.  The reasoning for this is seen in our economy and business world today.  When a company can no longer afford to employ someone, they must have to unemploy them, leaving the person without a job and no income whatsoever.  The problem with this assumption is that there is little data to back it up other than the current economy. In the current economy, we see something that, in my opinion, is enough to negate a higher minimum wage.  The fact that when a company or small business cannot afford to hire someone, they don't.  When the government increases minimum wage, they are asking business owners to take more out of their income, more money that can go back into the business, more money that could be given to more people, must now be given to fewer people.  Paul Krugman, an economist and fan of raising minimum wage even admits " Economics 101 tells us to be very cautious about attempts to legislate market outcomes. Every textbook — mine included — lays out the unintended consequences that flow from policies like rent controls or agricultural price supports. And even most liberal economists economists would, I suspect, agree that setting a minimum wage of, say, $20 an hour would create a lot of problems."  

So, although there may be little evidence that raising minimum wage would indeed affect unemployment and inflation,  basic economics shows that it very likely will.  


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2013/12/05/obamas-claim-that-there-is-no-solid-evidence-that-boosting-the-minimum-wage-harms-jobs/  

http://www.npr.org/2012/07/08/156458470/raising-minimum-wage-a-help-or-harm

http://inflationdata.com/articles/2013/03/03/raise-minimum-wage-trigger-inflation/

Lemonade Stand

Almost nothing has happened in November.  I did not make my goal of following the extremely detailed directions because I could never finish fast enough.  Hopefully, when I finish, I will be able to somehow collaborate with Amazon to make this really big process easier and more user friendly.  I have had to overcome the obstacle of Facebook not working on my iPad and that is what has been slowing me down so much.  By the end of December, I plan to have completed the process and on my way to helping make it easier.

Salary

I am working for SAS. I am getting paid $150,000 gross pay.  There is a flat tax taken federally that is 20%.  After  the federal tax is taken out, my net pay is $120000.  There is only one tax and that tax covers everything.

This month for my 20% project, my goal was to be able to contact the right part of Amazon so that I could then go through the process of convincing them that their customer protection is flawed.  I have made this goal and my goal for November is now to be able to find a way to finish the service and critique it, as they told me I should, and hopefully be able to help make changes to make it easier for shoppers on their site to be safe in their transactions.

My Two Favorite Stocks

Right one my two favorite stocks are Apple, AAPL, and Wells Fargo, WFC.  The reason these stocks are my favorite is basically consistency.  Both fluctuate very little, in long term, and , although they may be potentially slow, they do increase in price if you allow time.  My Apple stock is a trade and I will sell it, hopefully soon, based on how their new product is reviewed.  My Wells Fargo stock is an investment of it's very positive history and eventual increase.  It doesn't offer a dividend and, in my case, I didn't see this as a problem because I won't own the stock long enough to collect it.

BlackJack

The minute I saw that Capty was passing out poker chips and cards, I was psyched.  I love poker and blackjack.  I wasn't really sure how it was supposed to apply to what we are working on right now but I didn't care.  As we played though, I really got a feel for what was going on and the whole goal for the game was and how it applied to the stock market.  The emotional part of the game was very similar to buying and selling stocks.  It seemed that those who allowed their emotions to govern them were the ones who kept losing.  Those who were in tune with the whole process were those who were looking at facts and statistics and using that to make decisions instead of simple emotion.  The stock market is the exact same way. Whenever I make a rash decision based on emotions rather than on facts and statistics, I very rarely see the outcome be in my favor.  On the contrary, when I look at facts and statistics, and make decisions based on those, often, I am much more satisfied with the end result.

Trades and Investments are different in many ways.  Both have their ups and downs.  For instance a trade is usually not going to be affected by dividends because many stocks that are traded aren't held long enough for dividends to affect them.  Obviously this is somewhat of a disadvantage.  The positive thing about trades is that it is often easier to make money faster than an investment because you don't hold the stock for as long as an investment.  The perks of an investment is you hold the stock for long enough that you are going to get a dividend if your stock offers one.  On top of that, investments are bought with the future in mind.  They aren't intended to bed bought and sold soon after. When someone buys an investment, they are intending to ride it out until a certain time when they will sell it for, potentially, a much higher price.  This also allows for the stock to potentially split which could cause the price of the stocks to skyrocket depending on the initial worth.  Although trading may earn you more money upfront, investing is meant to earn you significantly more money, most of the time, just in the long run.

As I walked into the room the first things that I noticed were that the lights were off, there were sounds of people screaming and yelling, and the temperature was much higher than that of the hall.  I then saw that candy was thrown all over the floor so, as everyone else did, I automatically started picking up as much as I could and making my own stockpile.  When we stopped and prices were written on the board for the different types of candy, I realized that each one of these pieces of candy represented a different stock in a company.  Then it became clear to me that we were enacting what it may be like to be an active member inside the stock exchange.  I noticed that, even though it may have not been near as hectic as the real stock exchange, ours was still very confusing and I felt as though I had to constantly be on high alert of everything that was going on.  I was constantly forced to make decisions that could make or break my overall worth and also be aware of decisions that others were making in case I happened to get in on a secret piece of information.  After our enactment was over, I realized that many can simply not compete with those that start off with more.  On top of this, I also noticed that those who made the right decisions and mostly were conservative, came out on top.  At the beginning I didn't understand the true importance of stockpiling as much candy as possible which I took to exemplify buying stocks while their value is low, in hopes that the prices will increase.  For those who seized the opportunity, the end results seemed to be better.  This goes to show that those who are aware of their surroundings are more likely to seize opportunities as they come to them than those who aren't as aware.

Ok so my 20% project has been my work on buyer security on Amazon.  I have only had one class period to work on it so it isn't very far along.  I have emailed Amazon and have gotten not response.  This is as far as I have gotten.  My next step will be to post my comment on Amazon's Facebook account in hope that people seeing my post will prompt Amazon to work with me in further developing their security measures to decrease scams.

Ok so first I am hoping to start out at a four year college and, depending on my major, I may go on to get a larger degree and end up with a doctorate if that's what I decide to do.  I have several options that I am looking at as far as colleges go along with what to major in.  I have seriously considered majoring in international relations and so we will just say that is what I am going to aim for.  Since international relations has to do with the government, and often military, I will be applying to West Point Military Academy located in West Point, NY.  If I do choose, and get accepted to, West Point, my tuition as well as my housing and food will be payed for while I am attending there.  I may have some minimal expenses such as clothes and insurance on my car but other than that I should be pretty well set. Most likely I will hold some sort of part time job while going to school to pay for my few expenses. I would obviously have to live in West Point, most likely on campus, in order for my housing to be payed for.  For my new car, I would want something that is reliable and not too luxurious.  I would definitely choose a 2014 Volkswagen Jetta which, as according to the VW website, starts at $16,720.00 which I think is an affordable price for a car with such good gas mileage as well as incredibly good reputation.  While researching for this project, I learned that I am going to have to work hard to stay out of debt on top of keeping good grades.