"I don't think we're in econ anymore...."

What econ class?

We aren't doing econ anymore. Now it is Personal Finance. It is still basically the same in some ways though.
Same classroom, same people, still fun.

This week we opened bank accounts in Weserville and have been dealing with money and checks.
Of course we do not work at our actual jobs from Weserville and make different amounts of money.
Minimum wage now.....

I'm one of the lucky people who after paying the electricity bill got to pay $70 to get my car fixed!!!
And then we all got our Wifi bills...

Of course minimum wage wasn't helping so I owe 3 people money.

And about that bank account..... Balance: $0.08

THIS WEEK IN ECON

We learned more about different kinds of competition, monopolies, oligopolies, monopolistic competition, and perfect competitions. And of course playing Zapitalism..... I can't stop...... playing...... must....get....building......permit.....and repay....loans.....  Haha I'm not very good yet.

We also started this new game buying and selling virtual stocks. Even our parents were invited to play. We will all be in competition with each other trying to get the most money after 30 days.
It's going to be very interesting and fun. Choose your stocks wisely.

Sorry its late and its been a long week... I have no clue what else to write. Well gnight everybody. I'm done.


P.S. Anybody wanting to play a group game of Zapitalism just tell me/make a group and invite me.
P.P.S. GO SEE THE DRAMA SHOW INTO THE WOODS NEXT WEEK.

FLOOD AND DEBRIS!!! WATCH OUT!!

Weserville is flooded!!!! There is 10 feet of water everywhere! Damage has been done to almost every home and business in our small town. It even destroyed the main road that lets us get in and out of Weserville. Now you're stuck here... FOREVER O__O
Not that that is a bad thing, Weserville is awesome. It will still cause problems though.
We all know that many things washed away during the flood.... and since the road is broken.... how will the Walmart be built :)

We're still here- Always watching

Everybody waiting for the water to go down (except Koleman who bought a kayak). Most of the people are in their houses safe. Nobody has been reported killed, injured, or missing so everyone should be fine. There was a hedgehog hurt in a non-flood related incident (yeah I mean you Colin). Even after the flood recedes we will all have trouble getting around because of the debris left over from things being swept away in the water. Refrigerators are reported to be everywhere especially. Somehow more fridges that there are houses in Weserville though....

Everyone be safe, don't drown, and stay tuned to the Weserville news in case something else happens!

What did we do....?

What did we do this week in econ?
All I remember is math..... and graphs......
This was our brains trying to do math.

Probably demand too, we've been doing a lot of demand.
Was Mrs. Weser demanding us to do math?

Yes she was. We practiced using math to figure out the elasticity of demand. We graphed demand and used the price changes and quantity demanded changes to decide if the demand for the product was elastic or not.
There are 2 ways to do this.

Take 2 different points from a demand curve of different prices and where the quantity demanded is for that price.
Calculate the % change of the quantity demanded, and dividing that by the % change of the price. And (somehow) you get elasticity. The lower the number is below 1 is more and more inelastic. Higher than 1 is more and more elastic.

Another way is called the revenue test. You multiply the price by quantity demanded to figure out how much the product made at that price.
If there is a dramatic change in the total revenue then the product is more elastic. If it is about the same then it is inelastic.

The revenue test was much easier to comprehend even though it did not give an exact number for elasticity. It is better for businesses to quickly see if they should raise their prices or lower them slightly to earn more money altogether.

Curves, schedules, and shifts oh my!

This week in Econ class we learned about demand.
Demand is the willingness and ability for someone to pay for an item. If they can't pay for it or don't want it then the person does not have a demand for it. No matter how much they want it.

The amount of an item people are willing to buy at various prices can be shown on a demand schedule or a demand curve.
Both show the same information.

Demand schedules display the data in a chart.

 

Demand curves display the data in a graph

That is the only difference. Just how the info is shown.

The demand can shift though! Things outside of the price can affect how much people will buy of an item at any price.

There are 6 main things that can cause a shift in demand.

Income- People have more or less money to spend

Market size- Number of potential buyers change

Consumer tastes- Popularity increases demand

Consumer expectations- Possible future prices affect present buying

Substitute goods- Products are interchangeable

Complementary goods- Products are used together

For example: If people have less money to spend on products, then the demand curve will shift because they will be less willing to buy the same amount of a product at all of the prices.
Like this.

Confusing taxes

This week in Econ class we learned about how the government fits into a free market economy and about taxes.

Everybody loves taxes

Except for the people who pay them.

But the American tax system is very confusing.

A lot of people want to change it to make it easier, but it is hard to figure out which way would be the best.

The 4 main tax bases are sales tax (tax on stuff you buy), individual income tax (tax on the money you make), corporate income tax (tax on the amount a business makes), and property tax (tax on what your land is worth).
 
There are 3 different kinds of taxes on those things though: Progressive, Regressive, and Flat
Progressive taxes mean the poorer people pay a lower percent and the richer pay a higher percent.
Regressive taxes mean the poor pay a higher percent and the rich pay a lower percent. (why they even came up with that idea is stupid)
Flat taxes mean that everybody pays the same percent.


For the most part the US has a progressive tax. But there are so many loopholes for the rich to lower the percentage they have to pay they almost never pay the normal amount they'd owe.

Many people want to remove many loopholes and extremely simplify the way taxes work in our country. I think this would be good to do but we would need a system that benefits everyone.
We can't tax the poor too much and can't leave too many loopholes for the rich.

Always remember!

THE+I.R.S.=THEIRS

Sigh..... Walmart......

Weserville is facing a tough situation. The town council today agreed to let Walmart build a store in our little town. We have to pay for larger roads, new stoplights, and relocating the Dandy Mini-Mart. The Mini-Mart is going to go out of business anyway if the Walmart comes in.

The majority of the town was against having the Walmart. We could see the negative effects of the Walmart and knew it would be better for our town.
just saying...

Walmart Co. got away with only a 20% property tax instead of the standard 25%. They marched into the town hall meeting and demanded ridiculous conditions we would have to meet for them to come to town.
It is a very bad idea to let Walmart build in our little town. The neighboring town wanted to get one anyways. They could have dealt with most of the negative things and if we need to go the Walmart it would be easier to drive to the next town than driving 2 hours.

This almost guarantees that no small businesses will be able to open up in Weserville. GIIERU's plans of helping small businesses grow larger to help the economy of Weserville won't be able to happen either. Poverty will go up and so will unemployment. Even if it creates jobs it will cancel out the opportunity for many many more.

If only the mayor had made it a majority vote from the citizens...

                                                                           -A concerned citizen of Weserville

PINK FLAMINGOS

We won't stop