94 Comments
Jenna Welsh
5/5/2015 08:20:19 am
Quote: “He’s a lousy businessman because he doesn’t seem to realize that profit keeps a business alive. Without it, you’re bankrupt, and you can’t help your customers or your employees.”
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Lucas LeViex
5/5/2015 12:44:33 pm
I agree completely about the Wonderful Life reference. It seems like this book is a lot of Sam explaining an economic principle three different ways; and the way that makes sense depends on the person.
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Chloe Rice
5/5/2015 01:37:28 pm
Yeah I agree
Kaeli Leoni
5/5/2015 11:58:31 am
Quote: "But monsters don't often succeed in business. The sweeter competitor offering good service and low prices is a better bet. There's an invisible heart at the core of the marketplace, serving the customer and doing it joyously."
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Mikayla
5/5/2015 01:04:11 pm
Sam argues that caring about money and profit will make a company treat its customers well, otherwise it will be outsold by another company willing to offer consumers more value for a lower price.
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Chloe rice
5/5/2015 01:38:04 pm
Good point
Christian Klosterman
5/5/2015 02:06:23 pm
I agree with Mikayla, profit and being successful will give the company incentive to treat its customers well, otherwise they will fall lower in the "food chain"
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Jenna Welsh
5/5/2015 03:07:21 pm
This section made me think a lot, too! To answer your question, there are a lot of unethical companies that are successful today, so, yes I do think people would continue to buy quality products from irresponsible corporations.
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Kevin Stiemke
5/6/2015 02:52:42 pm
I agree.
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Kayla Feather
5/5/2015 12:16:54 pm
Quote: "In popular culture, business is always portrayed as monstrous because that's what sells. People like feeling victimized so they can hate their oppressor." (Page 76)
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Mikayla
5/5/2015 01:02:39 pm
Maybe so we don't have to take responsibility for anything.
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Shea Saulino
5/5/2015 02:41:28 pm
I 100% agree- we push the blame until we find someone who's blame is irrelevant, at least to us.
Eli Murguia
5/10/2015 09:58:19 am
I totally agree with you about how we make mountains out of mole hills when it comes to media coverage. I think that the reason why we find it easier to play the victim and give up is simply because it is easy. It's easy to see something that you disagree with and get angry about it. It's easy to point out the faults in other people or companies since it's easy to argue about what you believe in contrast to other people and their beliefs ESPECIALLY when you don't know all of the details as to why people or companies like Chik-fil-A feel the way that they do. It's just easy to complain and play the victim since to play the victim all you need to know and understand is what is oppressing you, not why they say what they do or the whole reasoning behind what they believe.
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Emily Dingman
5/5/2015 12:40:12 pm
Q: "Thats why Bill Gate, Microsoft's founder, sleeps so poorly." Pg. 72
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Alexis Habib
5/5/2015 01:35:43 pm
While I am in no more favor of the notion of currency as you, people like to see their time and effort in a job materialize into something that anyone will barter for. If for example you were paid in chickens from you job, not every vendor would want to trade their goods, food, repairs, etc., for chickens.
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Eddie
5/5/2015 01:58:30 pm
Nah but money is just value, anything value can be used to get something equal or greater to that value. It probably started with I'll give you this if you give me this and so on.
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Jackson Sjogren
5/5/2015 01:58:52 pm
It's really crazy when you think about what money is, it's just paper and the only reason it has any value is because of the value we put into it as a nation. I don't really understand how money was able to come to the value it is today but it must have taken a lot of convincing in the beginning.
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Matt Rose
5/5/2015 02:20:03 pm
Money can lead to power and thats a goal everyone wants, to be powerful in society. Since this world runs on money it would make a lot of sense on why people need it so bad.
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Nicole Matteson
5/5/2015 04:25:08 pm
I was actually asked today what i thought it would take to have a home in the United States, and I replied with a stable income which i thought would be a reasonable answer. The questioner told me how animals find homes so easily without any form of income, they soully just make their home from natural resources. Humans can do that too, we just think that there is a "right" way to do something so we don't make houses out of hay any more. We don't have to depend on money so much if we start thinking for ourselves and not how society directs us like cow herds.
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Chandler Gaines
5/6/2015 01:29:22 am
Its funny how we base our lives off of time and money, two fictional ideas that we now live by that depresses every single person. Nobody tries to challenge the system and everyone is depressed by it.
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Mikayla Kricfalusi
5/5/2015 01:01:45 pm
Quote: "Don't bother picking it up. If it were really there, someone would have picked it up already."
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Alexis Habib
5/5/2015 01:32:07 pm
This is exactly the notion that I have been stewing over for the past couple of weeks in the Bio-mimicry project, and it is nice to see it all laid out so perfectly in words.
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jackson sjogren
5/5/2015 01:20:57 pm
Q: "you can no more stop the market place from filling every obscure niche of consumer desire than you can stop the rain forrest from blossoming in every direction."
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Kaeli Leoni
5/5/2015 01:29:46 pm
I think there are so many different types of products because people don't realize what they don't have until someone makes it apparent that they need it. Like for different types of milk for example, there are a whole bunch of different types. If there was only one kind, no one would think they were missing out on anything.
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Christian Klosterman
5/5/2015 02:10:36 pm
People always want the brand new item, even if it does the same job as all the others. I know I feel that way, even though I know for a fact that the new product is the exact same as any other.
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Hesham Hamed
5/31/2015 09:28:21 am
Because people tend to feel satisfied and happy when they have more things in their possession. If you look at some rich people they have millions yet they live simple lives with simple things that are out of necessity and little to no regard for material things, and there is the other rich guy who buys everything he can to feel like he as achieved something but he will never be happy no matter how many things he buys.
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Alexis Habib
5/5/2015 01:29:08 pm
"Trivial or sublime, you can no more stop the marketplace from filling every obscure niche of consumer desire than you can stop the rain forest from blossoming in every direction. Does a rain forest really need more than ten kinds of flowers? Does every square inch need to be alive with life? Can't some of it be left alone?"
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Sarah Lockhart
5/5/2015 02:20:06 pm
I like how elegantly you explained that quote! I agree, it would entirely stifle creativity and I personally believe that is a huge part of the human experience. Not to mention most dystopian movies feature lack of choice and uniformity (like the Giver).
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Shea Saulino
5/5/2015 02:40:02 pm
I think your question is interesting. I have a follow up question- are you saying the bland, utilitarian government is the non-capitalistic or is the capitalistic version of society?
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Chloe Rice
5/5/2015 01:37:03 pm
Q: “Welcome to the wonderful world of economics. Everything precious in life has a cost."
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Hunter
5/5/2015 01:55:49 pm
This quote struck me after reading it because I wonder how you can determine the cost of something that was never meant to have a price put on it like a life.
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Eddie
5/5/2015 01:56:01 pm
Not sure if your question is if love has a cost, but if it is, yes it does. What you put in you get out but in some cases that isn't always true, your input maybe high but your output is low.
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Lucas LeVieux
5/5/2015 01:41:28 pm
"...to make sure your bagel is fresh, a stranger does it voluntarily. Not out of love for you, but out of self-interest."
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Hunter
5/5/2015 01:54:36 pm
I really like this quote too, it made me think of the different perceptions of selfishness and voluntary doing a job. I wonder why or how people view these things too.
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Jenna Welsh
5/5/2015 03:11:01 pm
This section made me ponder every impression I had about selflessness, and, consequently, self-interest. I think that many economists would agree with Sam on that argument: that self-interest doesn't necessarily mean that only good things for you come out of that action. But I think they would disagree that the system benefits all: how many truly selfless people live in mansions?
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Hunter Birk
5/5/2015 01:51:00 pm
Quote: "It seems obvious that if you don't have enough money, money is the solution. But I think that Maimonides is saying that the solution is whatever makes the person independent"
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Tristan Elghoroury
5/5/2015 01:59:48 pm
Yea that is a really good question! Well I think that the issue can be solved by theory that Sam has about a self-regulating market due to everyone regulating each other while pursuing self-interest!
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Piper
5/5/2015 02:00:02 pm
To answer your question, I think its what ever a person puts most value in, weather its money or something thats not tangible. So I think it would depend on the individual person, and deciding what they value.
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Jackson Sjogren
5/5/2015 02:01:58 pm
I don't really understand the question. I feel like if you do the whats best for someone it's usually also whats right for someone but maybe I misunderstood the question.
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Eddie
5/5/2015 01:53:41 pm
"Because profits help the customer" Pg 66
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Matt Rose
5/5/2015 02:16:10 pm
Well its always the goal of the seller to raise the price of a cheap item and sell it to some clueless sucker. It happens a lot and most stores and companies raise their prices to gain money from their product.
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Piper Tompkins
5/5/2015 01:55:15 pm
Q: “There’s an old joke about two economists walking down the street. One says to the other, ‘Look! A $20 bill.’ The other one says, ‘Don’t bother picking it up. If it were really there, someone would have picked it up already.’"
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Tristan Elghoroury
5/5/2015 02:01:42 pm
I think this book favors Sam's views and is trying to convince the reader, by having Sam convince Laura, believe Sam's point of view.
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Chenoa Levy
5/5/2015 10:45:10 pm
I think that it would probably offer different view points because it would not be written in the same perspective but I'm not sure if Laura would win. However she seems to take a general stance on most issues so maybe if it were written by someone else they would agree with her arguments more.
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Tristan Elghoroury
5/5/2015 01:58:00 pm
" If you knew that there was someone out there dropping dollars every day, you'd spend time trying to figure out where and how to get there."
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Sarah Lockhart
5/5/2015 02:21:40 pm
Your question raises a good point; Sam seems to be very interested in economics but is not very personally invested.
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Morgan King
5/21/2015 04:44:14 am
I think that your question is fair, I don't think that the book will show that because Sam has a degree in economics. He has seen how the corruption works its way on people, and he seems to want to teach others how to have a good balance.
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Christian Klosterman
5/5/2015 01:59:55 pm
"Do you think we need more than one type of hot beverage with and without caffeine? You weren't even content to order coffee. You're having a skim latte. Imagine coping with a world of tea and only tea."
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Kaeli Leoni
5/5/2015 02:04:10 pm
I think that if there was only one product available there wouldn't be much of a difference since we wouldn't even know what we are missing.
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Piper
5/5/2015 02:05:29 pm
I think life would be totally different because then there would be this whole factor of monopolies that could come in to play, because when products have a competitor they have to make sure that the customer wants there own product opposed to there competitor. Prices for simple things would become astronomical because there would be only one provider of the product.
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Noah Parr
5/5/2015 02:11:46 pm
Q: “Welcome to the wonderful world of economics. Everything precious in life has a cost."
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Matt Rose
5/5/2015 02:11:52 pm
"You only care about profits"
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Alexis Miranda
5/5/2015 03:28:49 pm
Yes matt, I was one of those people who got fired from the company. But I get a hint that it was for the great or good for your company. I thought it was only fair for your company to keep the originals that way things can run smoothly without the disturbance of the newbies.
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5/31/2015 09:32:25 am
Success can be achieved while being fair but it is harder in most cases. If you watched the movie Wolf Of Wall Street he started out small but he started cheating the system and stealing from people but in the end it caught up to him and he failed.
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Sarah Lockhart
5/5/2015 02:17:48 pm
"Isn't it amazing that all over the city, tomorrow, there will be plenty of bagels? You and your fellow bagel lovers don't have to make reservations. You just show up and there they are. Isn't it wondrous?"
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Nicole Matteson
5/5/2015 04:27:42 pm
I was wondering about the second story too!! The author makes Laura seem really slow and stubborn, so it may take her a while!
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Eamonn M.
5/5/2015 02:25:42 pm
Quote:
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TJ Accardi
5/5/2015 04:01:50 pm
I think that they can be successful because of the self-regulating system he explained where the consumers won't shop at places that aren't satisfactory to them.
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Eli Murguia
5/10/2015 10:07:12 am
I think that while we would really want it to, I'm not sure that it could really work that way. I understand what TJ is saying about how consumers won't shop at places that aren't satisfactory to them but at the same time profit is the only way that a business can survive. Without all the profit that a company or business can get, it becomes harder and harder to keep the company afloat.
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Shea Saulino
5/5/2015 02:38:02 pm
Quote: I was having trouble finding a quote I could really connect with and reflect on, and as I was going through some of these posts I saw this one, which I loved- “There’s an old joke about two economists walking down the street. One says to the other, ‘Look! A $20 bill.’ The other one says, ‘Don’t bother picking it up. If it were really there, someone would have picked it up already.’ "
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Camila Antonorsi
5/5/2015 03:10:13 pm
"But whats the best way to keep the greed from hurting the consumer?"
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TJ Accardi
5/5/2015 04:04:26 pm
I think that the consumer would be protected by the number of consumers because they won't buy something that isn't good enough, so a business driven by greed won't get any business because of its flaws.
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Ryan Cormack
5/5/2015 03:12:14 pm
Q: "But to make sure your bagel is fresh, a stranger does is voluntarily. Not out of love for you. But out of self-interest.To make sure the business survives by keeping the consumer contented."
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Alexis Miranda
5/5/2015 03:22:52 pm
I believe HealthNet is just a company that focuses on money and progression. As for the bakery, they do it for their customers because they know that they are appreciative by their customers. Which encourages them to give their customers good quality bagles.
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Alexis Miranda
5/5/2015 03:13:47 pm
"You know, drinking straws. A paper straw works fine. But even for a product as trivial as a straw, gets improved. You can have paper or plastic. You can have it in color or with stripes. You can pay a little bit more and get it with a bend built in. You can have it with a little spoon on the end."
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Kevin Stiemke
5/6/2015 03:01:43 pm
I agree customers to get attracted to cheaper products.
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Q: "You can have a perfect system with imperfect outcomes."
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Abby Elliott
5/6/2015 12:32:25 am
Good acting can get the customers' attention, but customers want sales people that are genunie and helpful.
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TJ Accardi
5/5/2015 04:00:10 pm
"Work harder. Take a second job on the side. Don't complain. Do something about it. It's easy to blame the system, but it's in your hands."
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Dylan L
5/5/2015 11:22:21 pm
I noticed the same view about Laura, Riley. She does seem very, very stubborn during conversation, but like a nice, easy to be with person when not. She actually ticks me off quite a lot, and I don't really know why. She just kind of makes arbitrary decisions and stands by them religiously, which annoys me.
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Nicole Matteson
5/5/2015 04:22:02 pm
"People like being victimized so they can hate their oppressor"
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Chenoa Levy
5/5/2015 10:39:31 pm
I think it's important to have a balance of both, If we were to as you said focus on the negative things the beauty in world would slowly be drained, however completely ignoring the negative is just putting a cover over the bad, and nothing would ever get solved.
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Mrs. Clark
5/9/2015 02:21:39 am
Preach it Nicole!
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Chenoa Levy
5/5/2015 10:34:22 pm
"When people say they are underpaid, they usually mean they wished they earned more."
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Dylan L
5/5/2015 11:19:31 pm
Wow, Chenoa. You articulated a feeling I've noticed for a while really well! People are selfish, and they think tokens of appreciation should be handed to them on a silver platter for every little thing that they do.
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Dylan L
5/5/2015 11:18:03 pm
"Sam was surely too reactionary to become a close friend"
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Abby Elliott
5/6/2015 12:30:31 am
As we mature hopefully we learn to get to know people before judging them. First reactions can be wrong.
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Isaac Fernandez
5/6/2015 01:30:30 am
its in human nature do that, everyone does it!
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Abby Elliott
5/6/2015 12:28:37 am
Quote: "Very funny. You just admitted that you prefer teaching high school to making more money."
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Isaac Fernandez
5/6/2015 01:29:48 am
Because they are valued by what they are doing! Even when it may seem little it is priced right by others!
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Srdja
5/6/2015 12:40:32 am
"People are constantly trying to find ways to make your life better" pg69
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Kevin Stiemke
5/6/2015 03:00:24 pm
Finding ways to make life easier can be bad in some ways but it can also be good in some ways. It can be bad in some ways because technology can possibly lower social connection.
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Allison Hopkins
5/6/2015 01:22:01 am
Quote: "We try to remember that medicine is for the patient. We try never to forget that medicine is for the people. It is not for the profits. The profits follow, and if we have remembered that, they have never failed to appear. The better we have remembered that, the larger they have been."
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Chandler Gaines
5/6/2015 01:26:45 am
quote: ""good morning Sir"" as she hands him a cup of coffee and a sheath of papers"
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Chandler Gaines
5/6/2015 01:28:12 am
Question: When will the job ever be done? What will be the conclusion of this "era" of hard work and not a ton of pay off?
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Isaac Fernandez
5/6/2015 01:28:52 am
Quote: People feel underpaid, when all it is is people don't appreciate what they get.
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Morgan King
5/21/2015 04:40:30 am
Its an interesting concept, my interpretation is that people are not aware of what they have because they are shielded from the people that are "less." It always takes just one experience to start appreciating something. One example that I know is Mrs. Clark's dad, he fell and had a bad experience, but he was one of the lucky few that managed to get back on his feet and start appreciating what he had.
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Mikey Saunders
5/6/2015 01:30:07 am
Q: "Thats why Bill Gate, Microsoft's founder, sleeps so poorly." Pg. 72
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Justin Reyes
5/6/2015 01:40:35 am
Quote: “there a worse forms of slavery" he said. Laura asked "why is everything getting so expensive? Competition doesn't seem to be working."
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Kevin Stiemke
5/6/2015 02:48:44 pm
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Eli Murguia
5/10/2015 08:31:30 am
“I’m willing to tolerate that degree of imperfection because when you tamper with a complex system, you often make things worse. That’s why so much regulation often hurts the people we’re trying to help. It’s like saying I think the rain forest doesn't make enough yellow flowers. You can artificially induce the rain forest to make more yellow flowers. But they may be scrawnier or less healthy. And you will have other unseen effects that you may not like. Because you have more yellow flowers, you may end up with less red ones that some lizard or frog or butterfly depends on.” (Roberts 79)
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Morgan King
5/21/2015 05:27:50 am
Quote: "Hey I like stewing in resentment." she said smiling "Most people do. I just think a world without stewing is a sweeter place."
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Hesham hamed
5/31/2015 09:15:46 am
Q: "But greed isn't the key to success. Who do you think will do a better job serving the customer? A greedy selfish pig that pretends to care about others,or a genuinely nice person that treats customers well with sincerity?"
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