Data Response Reflections

The Data Response that we were assessed on this week was the very first in our IB economics careers. The lack of experience was blatantly exposed as many of us failed to produce an adequate or appropriate evaluation. I made several mistakes, many of which could be remedied through simple practice and experience.

Although I felt that for the very first evaluation of the year I wrote a fair response to the article that was provided, I excluded several crucial components which could have significantly escalated the quality and effectiveness of my evaluation.

First of all, the response did not explicitly state the type of good “real ale” could be categorized by. Although elasticity and the shape/behavior of the demand curve of real ale was discussed, the response did not include a conclusive breakdown on whether real ale  is a normal, inferior, or ostentatious good. This categorization will surely solidify the points and discussions of the evaluation, and show more credentials on the arguments that were brought up in the response.

Also I neglected to consider the current economic situation in the response, and therefore completely ignored/went around the reason of the shift in demand for real ale. I drew an assumption that the shift in demand was caused by an indeterminant change in the consumer preferences. The current economic crisis is an obvious factor and cause of problems and quandaries to businesses and markets all around the world, not restricted to pubs and beer. This simple connection between the global economic problem and this (relatively) local economic problem would have significantly contributed to the sense of purpose in the response. This article regarding the problems of English pubs illustrate the problems of businesses everywhere around the world. A simple reference to this connection would have made my response seem more intelligent/purposeful.

Although many weaknesses and shortcoming were spotted after the return of my data response assessment, I will strive to correct and improve upon my skills in evaluating and analyzing data response assignments. Many of these shortcomings include both the inaptitude in our knowledge in the subject of economics, as well as inexperience in our practice in these types of assessments. And so hopefully, practice and experience reaps a better composed response/evaluation (and therefore a better score) in the future for both myself and the rest of the IB economics class.

Oil Prices drop

Oil fell below $66 a barrel on Monday, extending last week’s 8.4 percent drop, as investors focused on high inventories and sluggish

demand, shrugging off tension between Iran and the West. Gains in the US dollar also put pressure on oil, which had risen earlier in the session on the back of Iran’s test firing of missiles. Stock markets fell in Asia and eased in Europe.

The article can be found here.

This article shows that because of the high prices of oil, the quantity demanded for oil has dropped. After the drop of oil prices, however, an increase of quantity demanded will be expected, until it reaches the new equilibrium.

Japan Recruits Foreign Nurses

Japan is facing a shortage of nurses to take care of all its elderly folks and therefore is recruiting foreign nurses from countries such as Phillipines to cover up the hole in their work force. To me, this is a perfectly logical solution to Japan’s economic problem. Although many Japanese people may complain about these foreign nurses taking away jobs from the locals, we already know that Japan is facing a shortage in nurses. There wouldn’t even be this problem if there were enough Japanese nurses. The Japanese government would just have to control the number of foreign nurses that are imported into Japan as to make sure that there would still be enough jobs for local Japanese nurses. And although Fillipinos may complain about their working condition and position being lower than Japanese nurses’, it is still significantly better than the jobs that they would’ve had if they were still working in the Phillipines.

However, I did find something very disturbing in the article. The Japanese government is developing “robot nurses” that would take care of the sick and the elderly. Even if these robots could work as well as human nurses, they would still be much inferior. Human contact is a very important part of care of the sick and elderly. I cannot imagine being in the position of a sick person being treated by an emotionless, artificial robot.

The Economic Revolution

1. How are scarcity and survival interwoven?

Humans have been fighting for survival for thousands of years, and their main obstacle has always been – and always will be scarcity of food and shelter. Since the beginning of time, the survival of human beings have rested solely upon how we use and allocate scarce resources, and how we have cooperated among ourselves to achieve this. At their earliest stages, human beings have been hunters and gatherers; however, scarcity has forced us to find other ways to support the human population. In time, humans have discovered farming. The development of farming has heavily contributed to the survival of us human beings.

2.What are advantages and disadvantages of the two ways societies have been organized in the past?

In the past, societies have been organized through hereditary duties and authoritarian rule. In countries like India, children were bound to their parents’ social class and therefore inherited their jobs and roles within the society. In other countries, people were controlled by authoritarian rulers who made sure that people followed through with their assigned duty. The advantages in these situations are that people are hidebound to their duties, and therefore the economy would remain constant throughout the ages. However, the disadvantage lies within the inefficiency of such societies. Many young, brilliant minds were perhaps wasted when children were forced to inherit the job of street sweeper from their parents. Also, the happiness of a society where the only incentive for working is the threat of whippings is questionable. Although these primitive methods may have kept the economy of a society alive, they may have sucked out many other aspects of a society. People rarely found freedom back then.

3.

In the past when there were only traditional and command economies, there was no need for people to study the allocation and management of scarce resources in a society. The economy was simple: either you do your job, or you get impaled. People are given their “worth” of food and shelter, and all power lies within tradition or the authoritarian ruler. Before the market economy, things were so `simple` and `set in stone` that there was no need for people to study how the society works.

4. The economic revolution suggested that there would be no set authority or tradition to control the society. The common perception would be that, as unpredictable as human beings can be, the society will fall into chaos and pandemonium. It was completely paradoxical and illogical that having people act freely in their own favor would actually act in the benefit of the entire society. Even for people who saw the potential of such an economy, there was fear that the entire society would fall apart. People were afraid of the consequences that will await when an entire society of individuals were let loose to act upon whatever desire pulled at them. The economic revolution must’ve indeed been disturbing.

5. Why did I choose to take the Economics class?

Of all classes that are offered to us in our high school, Economics seems to be the most practical in terms of usefulness in the outside world. We encounter economic problems and situations all the time, and it seemed fit that I learn about these situations that I face everyday. I may also be considering a future career regarding Economics, and I wanted to make sure that I know what Economics is really about. And even if I choose not to partake in the study of this social science in the future, it would still be beneficial to me when I make economic choices in the future. Also we studied Economics for a few weeks last year in history class, and I found it very interesting. There were many incentives for me to take this class, but above all I wanted to learn about the choices we make in our every day lives.

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