Ch. 6 Is it Time to Legalize Marijuana?

http://economics.about.com/od/incometaxestaxcuts/a/legalize_pot.htm

This very intriguing article was interesting to read. It is all about legalizing marijuana and the things that we need to do in order to legalize it. In the USA, Milton Friedman's economy book "Free to Choose" sparked a movement of over 500 economists to sign for benefits of legalizing marijuana. Most people nowadays wouldn’t sign this, but this letter addressing the benefits was signed by many notable professors from MIT, to University of Chicago. This project isn’t all that horrible because it could save lives. However, it would kill others, and make for more problems. This letter says how all the funding will be looked at and it closes on a serious note to urge the US president to openly debate this issue with its citizens and change the prohibition to provide for the greater part of America.

This article is related to chapter 6 because we learned about the effects of markets, multipliers, and GDP. This article talks about all of this with their proposal to legalize marijuana. I believe that if Canada legalizes marijuana a lot of things will happen and I think we will take this differently compared to America. In Canada the GDP would increase substantially, because we produce the most illegal drugs around. The main barrier before this idea is the moral perspective of Canada and the effects and pressure that our neighbors south (USA) have towards us.

I personally liked reading this article and I thought it was an article that most newspapers wouldn’t publish. I rarely get a chance to read articles that bring up very interesting new ideas like this one. Even though this article brought up some good points, overall, I still believe people who produce things like cigarettes and alcohol should really think about what they're doing to people.

Ch.5 Weak output, strong hiring puzzle Stats Can

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/printedition/story.html?id=e07c2af1-3a01-4513-977f-d2c0290c5270&p=1

This article is all about employment and how there is a task force to find how the economic output can be so weak while hiring is so strong. This is a puzzling question and I couldn’t find a goo answer to it myself. Phillip Cross, director of current analysis at Stats Can, said the task force held its first meeting on Tuesday and hopes to report in a month or so. This task force could lead to many answers that people have which is a great thing for people like me and you. However, governor of the Bank of Canada, David Dodge, suggested that this may be because the gross domestic product (GDP) might not be accurately reflecting economic growth in Canada, seeing as growth is difficult to measure as prices fluctuate. It is easy to see large employment growth in sectors like health care, and natural resources, but it is difficult to measure output. Output takes time to become significant which also, makes it hard to measure. There are many problems that occur when we try measuring which slows down this process. This all led to Phillip Cross being puzzled and he said, “The task force is going to look at the GDP’s “measurement of output, employment and productivity across the economy.”

This article is related to this chapter because chapter 5 deals with macroeconomics. Macroeconomics is what GDP basically falls into because it is about individual statistics in Canada. In this article they also talked about employment and how the economy is run because of it. They talked about some issues which involved employment. This article asked the question of how the economic output can be so weak while the hiring is so strong. This confused a lot of people but it related to employment and the employment rate. On employment, they discussed the sectors where employment has been increasing, and the effect it had on GDP. For example, the article pointed out that the employment was “up 10.9% year-over year in December” in the natural resources sector, “while productivity in . . . new oil and gas wells” has declined, affecting GDP negatively. All in all it was relevant in many ways and it gave me a visual image of employment rates.

This article was very intriguing to me because I wanted to find out why weak economical output could occur with strong hiring. I believe that this is a confusing question for many political party leaders. I believe a low GDP rate isn’t good for a current business and those people who want to own one because this results in fewer new job positions. I like the fact that the employment is high because this results in more job opportunities for me and other high school or post secondary students. However, this trend may take a complete turn and in the future when I and many other people are looking for careers, won’t be able to find the right one because of the unemployment rate. In conclusion, there are still many questions to be answered like will the task force be able to find out the reason for low growth rate of Canada's GDP and be able to correct it?

Ch.5 Weak output, strong hiring puzzle Stats Can

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/printedition/story.html?id=e07c2af1-3a01-4513-977f-d2c0290c5270&p=1

This article is all about employment and how there is a task force to find how the economic output can be so weak while hiring is so strong. This is a puzzling question and I couldn’t find a goo answer to it myself. Phillip Cross, director of current analysis at Stats Can, said the task force held its first meeting on Tuesday and hopes to report in a month or so. This task force could lead to many answers that people have which is a great thing for people like me and you. However, governor of the Bank of Canada, David Dodge, suggested that this may be because the gross domestic product (GDP) might not be accurately reflecting economic growth in Canada, seeing as growth is difficult to measure as prices fluctuate. It is easy to see large employment growth in sectors like health care, and natural resources, but it is difficult to measure output. Output takes time to become significant which also, makes it hard to measure. There are many problems that occur when we try measuring which slows down this process. This all led to Phillip Cross being puzzled and he said, “The task force is going to look at the GDP’s “measurement of output, employment and productivity across the economy.”

This article is related to this chapter because chapter 5 deals with macroeconomics. Macroeconomics is what GDP basically falls into because it is about individual statistics in Canada. In this article they also talked about employment and how the economy is run because of it. They talked about some issues which involved employment. This article asked the question of how the economic output can be so weak while the hiring is so strong. This confused a lot of people but it related to employment and the employment rate. On employment, they discussed the sectors where employment has been increasing, and the effect it had on GDP. For example, the article pointed out that the employment was “up 10.9% year-over year in December” in the natural resources sector, “while productivity in . . . new oil and gas wells” has declined, affecting GDP negatively. All in all it was relevant in many ways and it gave me a visual image of employment rates.

This article was very intriguing to me because I wanted to find out why weak economical output could occur with strong hiring. I believe that this is a confusing question for many political party leaders. I believe a low GDP rate isn’t good for a current business and those people who want to own one because this results in fewer new job positions. I like the fact that the employment is high because this results in more job opportunities for me and other high school or post secondary students. However, this trend may take a complete turn and in the future when I and many other people are looking for careers, won’t be able to find the right one because of the unemployment rate. In conclusion, there are still many questions to be answered like will the task force be able to find out the reason for low growth rate of Canada's GDP and be able to correct it?

Ch. 4 Conservatives Promising to Pay National Debt

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/business/061123/b112357A.html

This article came from the CBC website and it had a lot of interesting information about the national debt. It also, talked about government taxes and how we could use this debt to our benefit. The plan is to pay off the net debt in 15 years and the savings from the interest would be used as tax cuts. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, said, “He would cut total federal debt to 25%of GDP by 2021.” This is an eye catching number which people like. However, the plan was criticized by Liberals and NDP because they say the net debt is calculated differently and is a lot smaller then the federal debt. The Conservatives also, said the government surplus will increase and the money will be used to make Canada's debt smaller. They said that the tax cut will make people work harder which will benefit Canada’s economy as a whole. This will mean that Canada will have better businesses, more people competing for jobs, and more rich people. With better businesses in place, this will mean that there are more skilled workers staying a living in Canada. On the other hand, the NDP had a problem with the Conservatives plan because they say they are neglecting the daily lives of Canadians by focusing on the national debt. Flaherty from the Conservatives said that they could rebuild national infrastructures like highways, bridges, and border crossings. Also, he promised that there will be more money going towards colleges and universities.
The net debt is calculated by taking Canada's debt and subtracting Canada's assets from it, the net total will be the net debt. Conservatives are planning to reduce the net debt, which will lower the interest payments, and as a result lower taxes. Net debt occurs when the government borrows money from people in and outside of the country. I believe this is the governments fault because they are borrowing money from us and because of this they should pay off the debts with their own money. I believe it is wrong to do this because most people don’t even know about the consequences when they loan the government money. We do not know who the tax cuts will benefit. It could be the rich or the poor. Lowering tax percentages in a progressive tax system for low income families will not cost the government a lot of money, which means many businesses and high-income families may receive the benefits of the tax cuts. I believe this plan will keep proceeding until the economy starts slumping which will increase the net debt or it will increase tax revenues. This concept connects to the chapter because it talks about taxes and how some people benefit from it while others don’t.
This article is very intriguing to me because I would like to know if I will be getting these tax cuts when I start working. People who are in the work forest now may rather have lower taxes to benefit them, but I would prefer higher taxes as long as the government reduces the debt, which in my opinion will benefit us in the future. I predict that because of factors such as the American and other economies in the world slumping, this will eventually result in slower reductions of the national debt.

Ch. 3 Public vs. Private Health care

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/healthcare/public_vs_private.html

This article came from the CBC website and it had a lot of interesting information about healthcare. The article was all about public and private health care and which is better. It was well explained with all of the statistical facts. It was also relevant to the chapter because this dealt with the third-party effects and we talked about this a lot throughout the chapter. This article tells us that the money going towards healthcare has increased three times over the past 30 years. It said just over $98.8 billion was spent by governments delivering public health care and about $43.2 billion was spent on private health care.
The article talks about both public and private health care and for public it says that it’s governed by the Canada Health Act. Public health care gives no direct charges which make it affordable, and all this money comes from the taxes that we pay. It says that healthcare is pretty consistent across the country. Ottawa has found that the best way to do that is by attaching conditions to the cash it transfers to the provinces to cover health care. This includes healthcare being portable, universal, accessible, and free from extra charges (for insured services). Portable means that you won’t lose your coverage when you go to different provinces and territories. Universal means that everyone is entitled to the insured health services provided by the provincial or territorial health care insurance plan. Accessible means that insured persons have reasonable access to insured hospitals dentals services etc.
Private health care means that you will have to pay for it with your own money. This means if you need a ride in an ambulance, you should expect to get a bill. This could either be very expensive for some people or very cheap for others. It depends which side you’re on. This also means that we will be paying less tax because the money from tax goes towards healthcare and since there is private healthcare, taxes will be decreased.
This article relates to chapter 3 because in this chapter we talk about third-party effects and public and private healthcare influences this. In public healthcare a third person or party is affected either positively or negatively. The third parties that are affected positively include the government, elderly or people that tend to get sick a lot, and sometimes poor people. Government benefits because they get to tax people, and elderly or sick people benefit because they don’t have to pay for their visits to either the doctor or hospital. This is true especially if people go to the doctor a lot because then the taxes are less, compared to how much you really should pay. Sometimes poor people benefit because then they don’t have to pay directly when getting a surgery. Tax payers don’t benefit because they pay taxes for other people who get hurt or sick and they have nothing to do with it. This is relevant because transactions between buyers and sellers may also have positive third-party effects.
In private healthcare tax payers benefit greatly because they pay less tax and the third-party effects are positive. However, for the government, elderly or people that tend to get sick a lot, and sometimes poor people are negatively affected. The government is negatively affected because it doesn’t get to tax people according to healthcare and as a result doesn’t receive as much money from the tax payer. Elderly or people that get sick lots have to pay for their visits to the doctor or hospital. For poor people it may be too expensive to pay for private health care and this may mean more deaths and that also is a third-party effect. All in all, it relates to the article because of third-party effects.
My personal reflection to this article is that it clearly tells us facts about public and private health care. This is especially important for students to know, because we will be paying taxes in the future and we will need to choose whether we pick a public or private health care system. However, to choose this we will need to know all the facts about public and private health care. This article is good at explaining that, and I learned a great deal about the health care system by reading this article. For the future I will need to know the third-party effects as well and by reading this article I learned most of the positive and negative effects consequently of public and private health care. In the future, I will be using everything I learned to become a great citizen, and let my thoughts be heard about the third-party effects when choosing a health care system. All in all, this was a fantastic article written by CBC news and I enjoyed learning from it.

Ch.1: Understanding Opportunity Cost When Investing In Property

http://ezinearticles.com/?Understanding-Opportunity-Cost-When-Investing-In-Property&id=21534

This article is basically telling us that when you are investing in property, there are economic factors in play. The most important factor is opportunity costs and that is what the article explains. This article states that most people get involved in property investing because they understand the opportunity to make money and be successful. But with these opportunities you also may loose a lot of stuff. This article tells us that if people are not fully aware of the opportunity costs then it may hurt them if they invest in property.
This article also tells us the meaning of opportunity costs which is the value of the best possible alternative that is given up in the decision to use a resource. For example, “If a city decides to build a hospital on vacant land that it owns, the opportunity cost is some other thing that might have been done with the land and construction funds instead. In building the hospital, the city has forgone the opportunity to build a sporting center on that land, or a parking lot, or the ability to sell the land to reduce the city's debt, and so on.”
The article relates to the chapter because this chapter focuses on opportunity costs and how important it is in making decisions. We use opportunity costs a lot in everyday life and for property investment it is the same idea. When investing into houses you must think of the situation that you are in and what decision you will make. Also, opportunity costs state what you are giving up in order to obtain that goal and direct costs state how much it will cost in doing this. The total is adding opportunity and direct costs to see if it is worth doing. In this case, the situation would be is it worth investing into houses? Also, this article tells us that if something is bought low, it should be sold high in order to be a successful seller.
My personal reflection on this article is that it is useful in understanding how opportunity costs relate to investing in property. Also, it clearly states the main points and has great examples that relate to the topic sentence which all relate to the chapter.

Ch.2: Gas Prices Fact or Fiction: A Primer on Supply and Demand

http://www.mises.org/story/1936

This article is very well written and has many smart economic thoughts. The question throughout this article is why gas prices are so high are and what is making them go even higher? This intriguing question might have been wondered about by many people. Tom Lehman is the person who wrote the article and he said, “The only reasonable answer to this question involves supply and demand.” Supply and demand are very important things that we learn in everyday economics. This is what the article basically explains and clearly tells us.

First, just incase you didn’t know, demand is a desire that buyers have towards various goods and services that they are willing and able to purchase. Supply on the other hand is the quantity of goods and services that sellers are willing and able to supply, to the market. Some important things that Tom Lehman points out in this article is that there is a loose connection between the world price of crude oil and the price of gasoline, and the rising price of crude oil in recent years can partially explain the rise in gasoline prices. This is very significant towards finding why gas prices are high because it tells us that crude oil is apart of it. Also, through the graphs from the article I figured out that the patterns of crude oil and gasoline increase and decline at similar paces.

This article tells us that markets don’t work fine under normal circumstances and fail under crisis situations. Government doesn’t regulate prices and impose price controls during a crisis (such as after a hurricane) to stabilize markets. Instead, the national disaster emergency association takes control of these issues. Lehman says, “We experienced this when hurricane Rita hit and the government couldn’t find any solutions to all the problems and one of them was oil.” This resulted in many gas stations in the Gulf to raise their prices because of demand and that left people horrified.

This article also tells us that when the demand of oil goes up like during hurricane Rita the supply goes down. This causes oil prices to raise and people getting mad. Lehman says, “There certainly are rational reasons why the price at the pump jumps immediately when some change occurs in the global oil and gas markets, and the laws of supply and demand do a good job of explaining this connection.”

Lehman said during this article that fuel conservation calls for less driving by a jawboning president are unnecessary and unwelcome. This is true because we get angry at these people and the government.

This article relates to the chapter because we talk a lot about how supply and demand effect things like oil prices. This article is all about oil prices and how supply and demand changes it. All these topics and ideas are very relevant to the chapter which is named the operation of a market.

I personally think that oil prices actually do involve crude oil and that helps us conclude the prices of oil at a certain time. For example, crude oil must cost a lot because gas prices are really high right now. This article is very good in explaining how supply and demand works and it shows precise examples of each. All in all, it was a great article written by Tom Lehman and I enjoyed reading and learning from it.