For Richer or.....

It seems that the wedding vows are being taken a little to literally. In ABC's article Can't Buy Love studies show that marriages are falling apart due to materialism between couples. Jason Carroll, a BYU professor of family life in Provo, Utah reported that "materialism was also linked to less effective communication, higher levels of negative conflict, lower relationship satisfaction, and less marriage stability" and Susan Heitler, a Denver-based clinical psychologist discovered that "people who are materialistic tend to be narcissistic and concerned with impressing people. They have a tendency to be anxious, depressed, have relatively poor relationship skills and have low self-esteem. These qualities in turn can cause marital problems." It's so sad to think that the materialism of society affects the happiness of couples. They as individuals might have different material wants and demands that would have an impact on their happiness as a couple. We learned about the income effect and how a change in income leads to a change in consumption. Shared incomes in a marriage are being jeopordized by the materialism and demands that one of the spouses has. Shopaholics do exist, I watched a 'True Life' on it, and the people who are addicted to shopping burn through their partners income like it was Monopoly money. The need to find happiness in goods is replacing happiness in marriage. Consumers seek to maximize happiness and everyone has a right to do that but the material world shouldn't be a third wheel in a relationship.

BlackBerry service restored after worst outage ever

On Monday, October 10, BlackBerry suffered, what they called, its largest-ever network disruption. The BlackBerry service's infrastructure suffered a hardware error and then the problem cascaded with a backup system not properly working, according to RIM's founder and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis. Research In Motion (RIM) is the company that produces the line of BlackBerry phones, tablets, etc. On Thursday, October 13, the BlackBerry service was restored but not without slight damage to the psyche of the company. While BlackBerry has had a whopping 40% growth in subscribers over the previous year, it's not a good moment to alienate them. With increasing competition from the growing popularity of Google's Android phones and the market-dominating iPhones from Apple, the room for mishaps in this arena is minimal. Competition is as fierce as it has ever been in the cellular phone market and this disruption gives consumers a seed of doubt that could end up harming BlackBerry.

The infrastructure being down could potentially change the consumer's perception of the product, which could bring a devestating change in demand for BlackBerry's. This "leftward" shift of demand creates an excess of supply, which would eventually force BlackBerry to lower their prices. The Substitution effect will take place as well with Andriods and iPhones stealing frustrated customers away from BlackBerry.

- Taylor E.

The price on batgirl, superman and Lady Gaga

BOO! Halloween is closer and closer as the month of October flies by high school students. So many costumes are in stores and there are so many ideas now that the media influences teens to dress up as the character or actual person related to the current event news like Lady Gaga. However, how much does it cost to be that person or buy a costume before, during and after Halloween? Has anyone ever compared the price of one costume to making your own costume to like your favorite idol? Or the fact that when Halloween comes around there are stores open only for that specific event? One thing that I have noticed is when October begins, the demand for costumes and accessories is low and the supply is adequate but they wait for the month to reach their day: Halloween. As the days gets closer and closer to Halloween though, costume prices increase as much as eighty dollars or more! Businesses know the Law of Supply and Demand and they know that when demand goes up, their supply goes down but they get big bucks if they name that right price. Not only do the costume prices increase but accessories, that are needed to complete a costume, and Halloween house decorations have prices that follow. Some costumes don't even have the full necessary items so you have to buy those other items to make you look like the character you want. After Hallloween though, the demand for costumes decreases and the supply of costumes decrease, too: That's when all costume, accesories and decorations go on clearance since they are no longer needed. Assuming that a person stays the same size, buying a costume after Halloween seems like a cheaper way to dress up for next Halloween. Is a home made costume better than a bought one? Hmmm, maybe. Could be that maybe Halloween is much more expensive than Thanksgiving? Possibly, but for now, waiting for Halloween to pass and buying a costume 3/4 of what it originally cost so I can wear for next year's Halloween sounds more frugal to me.

Technology today

In the society we live in today, technology plays a vital role in the day to day life of the common American citizen. Our businesses, relationships, friendships, and even family all rely on some sort of technical device that enables us to conveniently communicate with one another. Therefore producers feel obligated to not only constantly generate new innovations but also improve and upgrade the current technology already in use. Selling these products is no challenge for the producers, knowing that it’s in majority of the consumers self interest to have newer, better, and more advanced items. The products prices are being sky rocketed once first out on the shelves because it’s known that the consumers demand for the product is more important than the actual price. Once the upgraded version hits the shelves the original products price drastically decreases. The conflict in this situation is if these upgraded and advanced items as advanced as the firms say they are and are they really worth the prices. A perfect example of this would be the Macintosh Company. A pretty big handful of the people today own some sort of Mac merchandise in their home. Macintosh initially began with the first iPod classic as the popular thing to have, then upgraded radically from there. After a couple of years you were started to see advancements along with frequently price changes. You had a touch screen, no screen, extremely thin and small, more gigabytes and many other improvements. Now the new product is the iphone. This is where I feel the money rip off is at its climax. Most of everyone is familiar with development of the original iphone to what it is now. Front cameras, more gigabytes, new shapes, and other, what I would call, futile improvements. When the original iphone came out it was give or take 500.00 dollars. You can now buy that exact phone for 50.00 because the demand for it is nearly extinct. I feel the macintoish company has done an extraordinary job, from an economist point of view, providing what the buyers want in return receiving profit from raising the price knowing buyers won’t care.

Growth in the Entertainment Software Industry

According to the ESA (Entertainment Software Association), during the first few years the entertainment software industry made a decent amount of sales revenue. In 1996 it made $2.6 billion in sales revenue, but thirteen years later it rose to $10.5 billion in sales revenue demonstrating an increase in demand of entertainment software. As new consoles and newer games are introduced into the market, the demand increases for these goods, and so do sales for the products. The growth has also caused sales to increase in other locations. The Xbox 360 has caused consumers to purchase HDTVs. "Approximately $73 million in HDTV sales can be directly attributed to the XBox 360 game console." The increase in demand for entertainment software has also lead to an increase in jobs. Texas is ranked second nationally in computer and video game personnel in 2009, with 13,613 employees. The new jobs impacted Texas’s economy and provided and annual growth of about 13.7 percent from 2005 to 2009, thus improving the state economy. The software industry is rapidly growing and is bettering the economy in general. As new products are produced, demand for the products increases to a point where the demand for certain products become inelastic for people who are greatly interested in gaming. Certain genres or a game series can interest people greatly and cause them to not care about the price of the game when it comes out. An example for the inelastic demand could be seen when the new Halo game came out and people waited outside stores ready to purchase the game, when after a month or two the price dropped. The demand for the game series became inelastic for some players because they had greatly enjoyed the previous games. The industry is trying to attract consumers by constantly producing new games and consoles tailored to the public’s general interest. As the industry grows it will continue providing new jobs and will help fuel the economy.

A Worthwhile Investment?

Before the 2008 Bejing Olympics, China mainly focused on rowing- one of the sports that could earn them the most medals due to the sheer quantity of events. This sport however is rather difficult and costs money and effort to achieve perfection. China took initiative on training to win many gold medals on their own soil for the '08 games. China hired a new coach and gave him these specific standards: "one gold medal equals 1,000 silver medals" and the bar was set. The new focus on rowing easily shifted from the previous sports of soccer and basketball and a substitution was made. The Chinese knew that they would have a greater opportunity of winning more medals (specifically gold) if they spend more time and effort on their rowing team. Due to the command economy of China at the time; their government can dictate how they spend their money and the majority was for their rowing program. In comparison to America's mixed economy, our funding is not as exponential as China's because the state does not see it as importaint as alternatives. Since the gold medals are what all countries strive for, the competition for China will be stiff. One could say that gold medals are an inelastic good simply because no matter what the cost is to attain them, everyone still wants one. In 2008, China qualified for nine out of the fourteen events but only won one gold (for the first time ever in a rowing event) and one silver medal. China is still calculating the cost-benefit analysis of their efforts to improve their rowing team and theis reaction will be reflected in their standings in the 2012 Olympics. However, for the 2012 Olympics, China only qualified for eight out of the fourteen events, will they still be able to win any gold? China hopes that their financial investments in their rowing program will finally pay off for the 2012 Olympics in England. China no longer plans to dominate in the soccer fields and the basketball courts, but rather the bodies of water all over the world. Could China capitalize on their efforts to win gold medals, or will their competition's efforts (and results of the cost-benefit analysis) exceed China's expectations?

Are You A God?

In most all cases, a luxurious car, such as the Bugatti Grand Sport, is so pricey that even some of the wealthiest people hesitate when looking at the $2 million price tag. When a professional racecar driver, Butch Leitzinger was graced with the rare opportunity to drive around in one of these, he received some wild reactions. He said that when he was stopped at a traffic light, a girl in the car next to him asked, “Are you a god?”. With pure grain leather all around, a top speed of up to 267.85 mph, and the ability to go from 0 to 62 mph in 2.7 seconds, this special car is put on the top of the list for most expensive vehicles of 2011-2012 (thesupercars.org). So, if it’s so expensive, why even buy it? It is considered a luxury good, like Gucci and Jimmy Choo, with an expensive name that goes with it. For that reason, those who can afford it and are willing to pay the extra money, spend it for a reputation and ego. If they were to lower the price, perhaps more people would buy it, giving us an example of the law of demand. At the same time, it would take away from the glory of the car. Because of lack of sales, the company chooses to only sell one model at a time with a very limited supply. They know that, because of consumer sovereignty, many will not be sold, making perfect sense. Do you think Bugatti is doing it's best to maximize their profit?