6 Is it about Fairness?

 Fairness: impartial and just treatment free from discrimination. Not equal and Not just getting what you want. Everyone should have an "equal" opportunity. Sounds simple but a huge gray cloud hangs over this concept. Opportunity is there, not everyone has the same understanding of the effort required to achieve it. Throwing solutions out that should work in theory have proven to not always be the right answer; printing money, raising wages other programs. We scoff at athletes being paid millions to play a sport but ignore the effort that individual put in to achieve his position. Yet we pay to watch him play and complain about the cost to do so.

 Look at the Covid emergency assistance for example. With a combination of unemployment insurance and the assistance boost many made more money on the doll than they had working prior to the pandemic. I'll give you that at the time a lot was not open but there were jobs out there. I piked up a lot of painting jobs and made some good money during that time. People just wanted someone to show up and do the work, they would pay. In the case of the shut down I believe that economic growth and not bale out should have been the focus, the answer. Unfortunately, so many just fought the system questioning everything, pointing fingers, blaming or looking to blame. If there was criteria to moving forward and everyone worked together to do so maybe the experience would have been different.

 I believe there is a balance between the support one can expect from the government and those more wealthy. One has the responsibility to themselves, family, society as a whole to be part of the solution. Unfortunately, that concept seems lost on many. How for example can a country like Venezuela at one point one of the worlds top oil rich countries be circling the drain like it is. I am not talking about just spreading the wealth why was corruption accepted, why did greed rule where did all the money go?

 9.3 million people nearly a third of Venezuela's population lack enough safe and nutritious food for normal human growth and development according to a Wall Street Journal. The article goes on to site numerous other examples that have compounded the problem from natural disasters, the cost of fuel required to get products to market, political instability, corruption filtering millions of dollars from food programs designed to help the nation.

 Making money off others misfortune is one of the worst crimes in my opinion. Siphoning money or goods provide to help others in need is despicable. Selling water for exaggerated prices or plywood for $150 a sheet when people are preparing for the worst is just criminal. Supply and demand aside what about doing the right thing. That in itself will pay it forward, we have seen feel good stories like that on the news every Hurricane season. We also see the price gauging stories.

 We don't have it hard is this country. I am where I am because of the choices I make and have made. Working hard has brought me great success. Things may be different if I made different choices, maybe not so different, I don't know. When I first entered the work force as a teenager I made $4.25 and hour. washing dishes. I realized that was not good enough but did not wait around for the minimum wage to change I changed. We need to work on programs that facilitate that change. Help people understand their role in their communities, their  own success and support them. Set examples for success and use our resources to foster that. Greed and guilt win if they are allowed to.

 I know there are so many variables. I believe for the most part people intend to do the right thing, there are people that don't. Maybe teaching the principles of economics in a way that everyone grows up understanding the impact of their decisions is a start. Whats the trade-off? Not having any food for your country.

Do NOT let this happen

5 Safeway, Supply, Demand & Elasticity

 As I have said I am not a big shopper but I eat and my daughter and I do a lot of the meal planning and cooking so frequent trips to Safeway are not unheard of.

 It is the time of year for cook outs although I use the grill year around most of the country ratchets the Webber up a notch this time of year. Especially since last year was such a down year for gatherings. We plan on going big this season and Wednesday is the first one.

 The menu called for beef ribs. I grew up eating beef more than pork because my grandfather raised beef and you get what you get however now I don't prefer one over the other. I have to tell you that a BBQ beef rib on the Forth of July with sweet corn, baked beans and corn bread is the best ever. Corn is not in season so that was out, we decided to have green beans, sweet potato fries and baked beans.

 Plans changed at Safeway. Beef ribs were stupid expensive but pork baby back ribs were buy on get one so we went with the pig. The green beans did not look good at all so we went with brussel sprouts (I know not a cook out veggie ) but the recipe we have will change your mind. We did get sweet potatoes for the fries. Guests were expected to bring beer so I could over look that. A very well placed S'more display caught our eye on the way to the register so we went with those for dessert adding reese's peanut butter cups and Hershey bars to the cart. Then there was the lemonade 10 for $1, heck drinks for the kids and a mixer for the adults. Cart full!

 With as many times as I have shopped for groceries I never thought economics as I toured the aisles. It is literally associated with every decision. Obviously the excess supply of pork warranted the sale on the ribs. They didn't have to do much to change my mind going with the beef would have been a luxurie or stupid. The green beans looked bad I guess sprouts are a close substitute probably because of the recipe. The time of year sold us on the S'more any desert would have worked. Not sure about the lemonade but my wife went back to the store to get brown sugar for the baked beans and picked up the last seven bottles. Ready for Dinner. 

4 Standing in the Rain

 Have you ever stood in the rain on Bowery in Manhattan at two thirty in the morning trying to flag down a cab in NYC? Would you pay 80% more money to have an Uber pick you up and get you uptown sooner than later? 

 The New York Cities long lived livery system has transported its residents since the beginning. Since 1937 it has morphed into a billion dollar business. According to the NY Daily News some 13,600 taxi medallions (taxi licenses) exist  today worth as much as a million and a half dollars each. A gold mine for years for those who own them. Some owned individually, others by companies who own multiple medallions and lease them to drivers/operators, a private equity firms is the biggest medallion player. The market tied up with this control system by a limited few. It worked at least for those making the money thought it did. Until ride share swooped in.

 Enter Uber/Lyft taxi patronage has declined significantly since 2011 due to competition form this new ride share phenomenon. Get on the app request a ride and there it is, no more waving and whistling and standing in the rain. Business Insider reported that medallion prices plummeted nearly 77% for the first time in years you could purchase one for less than half a million dollars. Rider ship has continued to decline since 2014.

 You pay for the service though, no matter what cab you were able to flag down after standing in the rain on Bowery it was going to cost the same amount of money per 1/4 mile to get home. Call an Uber and pay as much as 80% more for the service depending on the time of day, year, weather, or holiday. Rider ship has fallen but taxi companies still hold the majority. Uber's seven billion a year is all about demand and people willing pay not to wait, for the connivance of getting home now.  

I believe my demand curve illustrates what you could pay with an Uber ride at two am compared to one pm. You pay for that kind of service, wait in the rain for a cab or take the long walk. What are you willing to give up.   

3 Here and Back Again

I had a conversation with an employee this spring about not getting paid enough to make it in Summit County. This individual pointed out that she could make more money at Wendy's and get a ski pass. 

I asked her "Why aren't you working at Wendy's?" 

She responded "I would never work at Wendy's, I have a degree." 

Well she has a tough choice to make if she feels the way she does. Where does she want to be? What does she want to be doing? How hard is she really willing to work to achieve or get what she wants. Here she has a job yet its not good enough. She is aware of an alternative that she is not willing to consider. Not the same I know yet it is a reflection of the time. The ski industry like many industries has struggled with job loss.

Plenty of the industry is hands on so tough to eliminate however, Human Resources comes to mind and is a hot topic for many. A number of industry leaders have eliminated an in person HR all together everything from the application, interview, on boarding is on line/virtual. Some hiring managers meet their new employee for the first time when they show up after a company orientation. Crazy when you think about what "HR" represents HUMAN...RESOURCES very little human involved. Often you get an email that your application was received and someone will be in contact only to get an email two weeks later telling you you are no longer being considered for the position. How the heck was it decide who would be the better fit for the position. INSANE if you ask me.

A number of sales and reservation jobs have been stream lined when at one time many call centers were filled with resort employees taking lodging, activity and dining reservations now most offices sit half empty, more so because of COVID but you can live in Southern Alabama and work for Vail resorts and never have set foot in Colorado if you have your own computer. Many getting paid the going rate of their communities, less money for the company. I think most folks consider job loss due to technology as going overseas but obviously that is not the case although stereotypical. 

I will throw something out there that is more in line with what people think, immigrants taking jobs. As a pre-teen and teenager I was paid a very meager wage, in intolerable heat to de-tassel corn in the corn fields of Iowa. My stint at the grain elevator, not much better. Today you can't pay a white kid from Iowa to do a job immigrant workers are willing to do, kinda like choosing to not work at Wendy's. Still willing to blame job loss though.

A couple additional examples are the steal and textile industries. These industries left this country for a myriad of reasons; produced for less, wages and benefits less, cost of extraction lower in the case of steal and cotton production in other countries then in turn purchased for less for use in this country. Pollution caused a big up roar, "clean water", "clean air" other countries do not have those concerns, yet.  You cant alway shave your cake and eat it too. The loss of these industries had encouraged trade with countries able to provide the resource. Some people still bitter about the loss think it will come back. Trump had some believing the steal industry would be back in this country. Ya? No.

It all falls back to the principles of economics crazy as you consider the why of job loss. If it cost less for a company to use an outside resource to do a job else-wear, increasing profits, reducing overhead, improving efficiency why wouldn't they? 

Job loss is a horrible thing, I have been through it. Life must continue what are you willing to do?

Simple...They Say

 In my opinion anything that involves mathematics is far from simple. Now this is not entirely true I have framed houses, built stairs and laid out roof systems certainly not simple even complicated but there is a tangible hands on component to these tasks that seem simpler to me, no assumptions. 

So I can't answer why? When it comes to the PPF I immediately freeze, and assume I just wont get it. So while looking at the graph on page 22 I tried something different. I considered chapter one and the 10 Principles of Economics and tried to figure it out.

1. the dark blue line (frontier) max resources available

2. A & B People face trade offs choose to make more or less of something you have to give up something to make more of something else

3. Any combination of one or the other that is within the frontier can be produced because of the available resources extend beyond those available resources "C" and it cant be done Unless there is a choice to grow the economy which can lead to a change in the frontier but something still has to give.

4. So in this economy the choice to produce more or fewer cars could have to do with demand and the opportunity cost fluctuates depending on what is being given up; giving up the production of 200 computers to make an additional 100 cars.

So that is a little more clear and it does help to "talk" it out but there is a lot there and then you go on to increase production to change frontiers. I am not sure I can tie this into the "Local" video or not I will try.

I love this video. The "local" conundrum is one that has always interested me. I know farmers that take produce, milk and beef into NYC. They fly under the flag of supporting NY Farmers but is it local? Certainly not local grown in Central Park local. For an orchard to take apples into NYC they have to harvest them, pack them, load them drive them into the city over the GW and down town costing loads of time and money. But is that time worth it if they can get more money per bushel in Brooklyn than at home. And its not "Local" they use migrant workers to harvest and a lot of that money is sent out of the country and the revenue for the apples leaves the city. I think what the consumer really needs to begin to understand  where our food comes from. Is the impact of big farming business what it does to the environment both from a mass transport point of view and how supporting a regional farmer could help diminish those impacts. Our food production is big business and there are many economic impacts associated with it. Not a lot of food grown in Colorado for instance a lot of it is shipped in.

Interestingly enough the "Buy Local" movement is full of positive and normative statements that stake claims on how feeding the word is and should be. Big business farms may claim that they are feeding the world. When in reality they may be polluting/ over planting the vary land for this purpose with extensive use of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers pushing smaller farmers off land because the can not compete.

Gabe Brown the author of Dirt to Soil would argue that regenerative method small farming is the wave of the future and that we can learn to heal our farm land produce better food and change the world. This is being done one small farm at a time, but takes time. BIG business farms don't think we have enough of  that so to combat the lack of time they are producing plants that can grow with less water for example. CRAZY Right!!

Ultimately how far will we take it? Do you want that apple grown 60 miles North West of the city that a migrant family picked yesterday and Dotty drove into town this morning? Or the apple from Washington state 3,000 miles away picked 16 days ago?  Or one taken from the food box akin to that in the movie Idiocracy.

I would assume that most of us would choose the healthier route but that takes time. Is there a more profitable route? What do we have to give up for those profits who looses from it? Let me try to draw a PPF and see if I can figure this out.

Signing Off

My Thoughts on the 10 Principles of Economics

    I recently took Macroeconomics and this first chapter in the "Microeconomics" text is identical, only the books cover has changed from Macro to Micro.  I had to flip back to the cover a couple times to see that I had received the right book, Obviously there are similarities and differences between macro and micro economics  but it is the "ten principles" that are specific to economics itself.  

 After reading the first chapter I thought to my self how something seemingly so straight forward in principle could be such a challenge. Economics is obviously a challenge or we all would be operating flawlessly but the human factor is really what drives it all and that is why it so hard to figure out. 

  Additionally, the principle that a countries standard of living depends on its ability to produce goods and services really struck me this time around. I don't know if I just missed that before but it was really evident this time around. I suspect it is no different that an individual able to work harder (produce more) and manage his/her resources better than another doing better financially and live at a better standard. So why aren't the principles introduced at a level in education that one leans how to operate within the system so they can learn how to navigate it better as they become a bigger part of it. Why do so many rely on the policy makers to figure it out for us?

 I would like to determine how if I can start looking at these principles more directly in mine and my families decision making changing how we interact with in the economy. I thought this my last read as well but was soon so overwhelmed with everything that I felt inadequate in my understanding of my roll as a cog in the economic machine. Although I do think about it more.