Hey Guys!
First off, sorry I have been out of contact but it appears most of you all have been MIA as well! Remember, this summer blog was an assignment and it is worth points, doing all of your blogging the day before schools starts is not really what I had in mind. Pretty disappointing.
Okay...so where have I been? Because to me, it relates to Economics (actually, everything relates to Economics). I have been in Bakersfield, CA with my family for the past week and a half and I have not been able to really use the internet because my parents have dial-up and it takes forever to do anything online. My mom says she has all the time in the world (she is retired) so she does not mind waiting...I on the other hand have 2 weeks in the states, shopping to do, friends to see, movies to catch up on and I do not have time to wait around for the dial-up connection. Plus, because my hometown is not a tourist town, there are no internet cafes etc. Absolutely nowhere to get a fast connection....thus, no blog for the past few weeks. But now I am in SF and on a wireless connection and thus the blog returns because I can do it quickly and not waste time. So that is my sad story....do you see how it might related to economics? Any ideas?
Just speculate!
Also, remember to fill out your blog log to turn in on Wednesday (it is posted at www.lincoln.edu.ar/stephens/ go to the IB Econ page and you will see the document. I will blog one more time before then, probably on Sunday.
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My summer relates with economics from lots of traveling. In the states, we went from DC to NYC and Boston. NYC is outrageously expensive compared to DC. However, we were surprised at how relatively cheap cabs were-- because everyone uses mass transit and traffic is usally horrible.
In Greece and Paris, the exchange rate did not favor us. As for the internet, I didn't see a single internet cafe in Paris! I'm sure hotels had internet, but Parisians prefer socializing at a cafe compared to online, which is great. Culture clash. (of course, Boston is going wireless with help from MIT!)
Right now I am in Miami, where I can't help but notice how badly the real estate industry is doing. Most of downtown is under construction for new condos. Its appalling--- the demand is trivial compared with the supply. Many developers haven't even started the condo construction they promised a few years ago.
Those are just a few thoughts on how econ. has influenced my summer...I hope everyone else is having a great last week of vacation!
Well, to answer your question about how you not wanting to waste time on dialup related to economics i decided to find a definition of economics so i found a quote from an essay by Lionel Robbins, "the science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses."
So i would say your story relates to economics because your time was scarce and you had better uses for it then waiting on dial up. So economics would be looking at how you decided that time was a commodity rare enough that you decided to not waste it on a slow internet connection.
Was I anywhere close? =)
Well..lets seeeee...well in korea i noticed that the prices are generally higher than it was last time i came here..(a year ago)..but theres lotssss of internet cafes EVERYWHEREEE (koreans...are obsessed with internt hahah) so the price of internet cafes isnt very high..and the seafood's prices are high in the city city (even tho the seafood isnt that good) while the prices are much lower in the seaport cities..and the quality of the seafood is much better. i guess that has to do with the scarcity of seafood in the different regions..regardless of the quality!
emm and traffic..like tyler said about NYC, everyone uses mass transit in korea (subways and buses mainly) but the cabs arent very cheap...they are actualy VERY expensive..and korea has a time limit for subways and buses (they stop working at midnight) so u have to try relle hard to get home bfore midnight..cause the only alternative u have left are cabs but not only are they super expensive, the taxi drivers will refuse to drive u (even if u offer to pay more) if its not convenient for them! :S
well one last random thing about how economics has affected my vacation..well idk how many pple know about the hostages in afghanistan...well the taliban has taken 23 koreans who traveled to afghanistan (yes...i guess they werent that clever in doing that..:S) and has already killed two and is threatening to kill more..and they are demanding a crazy sum of money from the korean govt..and theres a lot of controversy in korea because of that. some are saying that it was stupid of them to go there in the first place and that we are not going to pay that much for their stupidity (because the money that would be paid would be originating from the citizen's taxes) and that if that happens we should get our taxes back or sumthin like that...(impossible). there are many pple who would not want to see gov spending spent for the hostages..well idk, we are still observing the situation because there are other things that the taliban are asking for (like the release of their fellow taliban captives from the afghan govt) but personally i really cant think of a way out for the hostages :(:(...ughhhh :(
welllll...
like 4 more days and we are OFFICIALLY seniorsss!!!! :O...no more denying ittt! ayyyyy haha
ooo and also a lot of regions in korea are still undergoing modernization (i guess you could call it that)..the town where i used to live is having a new mall built, and therefore the price of real estate aroudn the region has risen a lot, and is predicted to rise even more. and the same thing is happening all over korea actually..which is very worrisome :S.
Well i don't really have any idea on what to write right now,but what i could think of now is the increment of price in McDonalds, which i suppose has something to do with economics. I was devastated when i found out that the price of their ice-creams has increased..Booo~ McDonalds here are already waaaay so expensive compared to the ones in Malaysia, and they still have to increase the price.=S I heard from my Spanish teacher that this country faces 20% of inflation each year=S Everything is getting more costly. My mum told me that everytime she goes to China Town in Belgrano, the prices of things increase.
I guess that's all the economics i learnt this holiday (besides all the 'liquidacion' they are having right now. Wheee~ Zara rocks=P)
Speculating on economics one case which relates to my travels is my stay in a rural town called Pearl Lagoon in Nicaragua. (approx pop of 5k) When I say rural I mean weak infrastructure like dirt roads, no sanitation system, poor school, a very small energy plant which works half the time, forget about an internet cafe. Even though it is a beautiful place it is a real 3rd world scene. The major income for this region is from fishery and lumber... everyday sailors go out to fish in the morning to get their lunch and if they catch some extra they will sell it. I was there during lobster season which meant I got to see the men go out with their boats to the keys where they stay for two weeks as they fill their little boats with lobster. When they come back they sell it for around 200 cords(more or less 10 dollars) per kilo. I ended up eating some plates of lobster which could easily cost $60 for almost nothing... this small village like many others aren't able to capitalize on this highly demanded product other than by selling it to merchants who are the ones that really make the profit by reselling it where there is a demand. This is the same sad story for the lumber industry in this village and this has left a very rich region poor.. the worst part is the clock is ticking for these villages and everyday there is less and less lumber to cut and fish to catch. It hurts me to speculate on the future of these villages. Hopefully if some good leaders arise they could change this around but it is hard to do in a place where 50% of the population cant read (because the government cant pay for decent schools, because the governors are very corrupted) and the list of problems goes on and on with no solution. I just wish a little bit more money from those outrageously priced lobster reached those hard working fishermen but the villages current economy does not permit it.
Guess thats all.
Wohoo! School 2morow !!! cant wait to get back to waking up at six.
I just got back from Germany, and already I noticed how high the prices are here...I was amazed, especially considering that Germany was pretty cheap, at leats for basic things. Even though, when compared to euros, the prices here are still ok, I'm amazed at how much everythign ahs gone up. I was also in Paris recently, and that's where I really came to appreciate the prices in Germany, since everything was amazingly overpriced in Paris. For one cappucchino I think I payed around 5 to 6 euros, which in Berlin I can get for 2.
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