Monday, November 26, 2012

    Adam Smith was a famous economist, who was most well known for his book The Wealth of Nations. If people increased their standards of living and prosperity, enough goods and services should be produced for everyone. He believed in a "free market system," which is based upon supply and demand, in which people use their own money to show producers what to make more of and what to make less of. Competition is the key to success in a free market, as it leads to a higher amount of goods being produced with better quality, which then creates cheaper prices. A real life example of supply and demand is the new Wii U. When it originally came out, there was a huge demand for it, so prices went up. The prices online were much higher than prices in store, especially since people on eBay and Amazon could bid for it. Now, a few days later, the prices have gone down because the demand for it has gone down. The original Wii price has dropped drastically because 1, it is several years old, so the prices had gone down since opening day, and 2, the new system is in much higher demand, so the original system's price went down. The greatest threat to a free market is government interference. This is basically the government fixing wages and prices, controlling distribution and production, or even subsidizing production. According to Smith, the role of the government is simply to watch and make sure the market is legal and fair. Adam Smith's principles can be summarized as Freedom to buy, Freedom to sell, Freedom to try, and Freedom to fail.

    Capitalism is an economic model that calls for individual households and privately owned businesses to control the economy, the opposite of central planning, in which the government controls the economy. Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations says that the government should let individuals act as "free agents" pursuing their own self-interests. Perfect competition (or pure competition) is when  privately owned companies decide what to produce and how much, loosely based on supply and demand. Supply is  the amount of goods or services being produced at any one time, and demand is the amount of goods or services that is actually used. When the demand for something, such as gold, is higher than the amount being supplied, the prices will go up. But when the supply is higher than the demand, such as snuggies, the prices fall so that more people will buy it. Most economies are generally unstable. In order to help support it, we need to ease the changes of the business cycle, in which economic output rises and falls. If the output is falling/fallen for more than six months, a country is considered to be in a recession. In a time of recession, unemployment rises, poverty will increase, and especially hurt those without jobs. Periods of growth will bring an increase in prices, called inflation. Inflation is not a good thing, as people whose income can't keep up with the rise in prices, will be unable to but necessities. Economics is the study of how people use their scarce resources to meet their competing desires. They include money, time, and property. If people cannot get as much of a resource as they would like, if it were free, it is considered scarce. Scarcity forces you to maker choices such as but new sunglasses or shoes, buy food or a computer. Scarcity is also when people may have to compete for a good or service that they want or need.  A good is anything that people value, such as food, water, shoes, services are getting a haircut,  the fire department, help buying a house etc. An economy determines how competitive it is to get something you need. The economy is a broad mix of producers, consumers,employees, employers, governments, businesses, and other organizations that are all involved in the production and exchange of goods and services. In a market economy, people compete by setting or offering prices. In a non-market economy, competition may include waiting in line or lobbying government officials. People show how much of a certain product they want, and how willing they are to get them. Economists watch the general choices people make, the cause and effect, and to understand everything that makes an economy an economy.

    The Green Jobs Debate has been an issue for a few years now. Green jobs will cut down on the use of other natural resources. This could potentially create thousands more jobs to help stimulate the economy, however people in other forms of energy, such as coal miners, would lose their jobs. Opponents of green jobs say that people that work with fossil fuels are going to lose their jobs, while true, there is not many jobs with fossil fuels.Over the last two decades, coal output in the US has grown by a third, while the number of jobs in the coal industry has fallen by half. In a single wind turbine, there is more than 8,000 parts, unfortunately most of these parts are being outsourced to China. However, there is more than 1,600 companies in the U.S. that could supply these parts. Energy economist Roger Bezdek has calculated that green jobs make up for about 5% of the workforce in the U.S. in 2006. Many other countries are turning to green jobs to help their economies too. If Congress approves this stimulus package, the U.S. will join China, Japan, South Korea, and several other European Union member countries. For every single megawatt produced by wind energy, 4.85 jobs are created. More than 400,000 people work in the green jobs industry, and millions are expected in the next few years. A green jobs stimulus package is one of the best possible ways to heal the economy.

    What would you do if you had to make the choice as to whether or not we increase spending on green jobs? The choice is easy to make in my opinion, I would say yes. This "simple" choice would increase the amount of jobs being made, help stimulate the economy, take jobs out of foreign countries, and lower the amount of CO² emissions in the atmosphere. Installing solar panels is new jobs that are impossible to outsource to China. If we build the panels in America, then 100% of the of the labor and money made will go back into the economy. If we switch to green jobs, the demand for solar will go through the roof because using fossil fuels will become very expensive. In a free market system, there could possibly be a chance for no government interference and prices including labor will go down; competition would go up and more and more companies would open. The choice to go with or with out a green job is simple because it would create new jobs and help heal the economy.