Friday, 5 December 2014
Tuesday, 18 November 2014
Wednesday, 12 November 2014
Economics : The Social Science behind “Everything in moderation”
Dear All
Apologies for the length of these posts - just follow links for local news! My unique pun of a friedmanite tourniquet, which no-one gets, makes a brief appearance at the bottom of the page
From another Blog - written by a world famous SOCIOLOGIST & POLITICS Student
Jason Beerjeraz, in Manchester, where Liam Glennon went to study Development Economics and Fr Tim set up a foodbank:
This is a fact (indirectly) shared with me by a previous member of staff at St Ignatius College, Fr Tim Byron, who helps runs the local food bank. What does poverty have to do with transport? Well, quite a lot actually! If nearly 50% of families are struggling to raise their children above the poverty line, struggling to afford necessities thus relying on schemes like food banks. How on earth are people expected to afford daily travel costs? I hear cries of ‘get a job’ or ‘what about welfare benefits?’ Adults looking for employment, on Job Seekers Allowance, are having to make choices between heating their homes and eating. Without sufficient transport infrastructure they face minimal geographical mobility. Without sufficient funds they cannot afford the high fares during those crucial weeks of job interviews and tests. Without employment opportunities in the local area, where are they to find employment? Only 36% of those on JSA have access to a car.
The science behind “Everything in moderation” | maketheworldworkbetter:
Looks a lot like a supply curve to us economists
'via Blog this'
Apologies for the length of these posts - just follow links for local news! My unique pun of a friedmanite tourniquet, which no-one gets, makes a brief appearance at the bottom of the page
From another Blog - written by a world famous SOCIOLOGIST & POLITICS Student
Jason Beerjeraz, in Manchester, where Liam Glennon went to study Development Economics and Fr Tim set up a foodbank:
"I
want to take a look at an issue some refer to as the ‘poverty cycle’, arguably
faced by 13 million people in the UK alone. A cycle which once started is
extremely difficult to escape. And with it I will focus on one of the many
possible elements, transport.
In
London we have our oyster cards with subsidised fares, we have train and bus
routes running from early morning to early morning! We have the good old London
underground and according to Boris Johnson we’ll have the Crossrail 2 by 2030.
Fares can be less than £1 on some routes, result!
So,
what exactly is the problem? Well, I needn’t look any further than my
university window here in Manchester. Unemployment has risen greatly, in areas
that already faced high levels of unemployment. Beneath the cheering that
Manchester is London’s hot rival and the UK’s second city, you start to see a
bleaker picture.
Roughly 50%
of the children living a 10 minute
walk away from me are living in poverty.
This is a fact (indirectly) shared with me by a previous member of staff at St Ignatius College, Fr Tim Byron, who helps runs the local food bank. What does poverty have to do with transport? Well, quite a lot actually! If nearly 50% of families are struggling to raise their children above the poverty line, struggling to afford necessities thus relying on schemes like food banks. How on earth are people expected to afford daily travel costs? I hear cries of ‘get a job’ or ‘what about welfare benefits?’ Adults looking for employment, on Job Seekers Allowance, are having to make choices between heating their homes and eating. Without sufficient transport infrastructure they face minimal geographical mobility. Without sufficient funds they cannot afford the high fares during those crucial weeks of job interviews and tests. Without employment opportunities in the local area, where are they to find employment? Only 36% of those on JSA have access to a car.
They need public transport to be cheap, regular and to be well
linked. Without it, job search activity can become hopeless. The job searching
itself becomes their job, which still leaves them on the poverty line. It is
crucial for public transport to be accessible and affordable. Without these
conditions people are left in an endless search for opportunities that are
beyond their grasp. There is a skilled and willing workforce out there looking
for employment, but inadequate transport along with many other factors leave
them in an endless cycle of poverty. So much for Manchester’s privatised bus system; the profit motive
is doing a great job at raising efficiency and economic welfare.
Why not
privatise the NHS while we’re at it, oh wait…
It is important to remember that inequality is
not a ‘foreign’ issue, it is closer to home than you may think. If I can
present a feasible case in the UK, just imagine what the case could look like
when you make comparisons to many other cities across the world. To those of
you easily persuaded by my opening praise of London transport, look no further than
my meeting of a dad of two, when running a work club in Edmonton Green Library;
he had just got a job, but could not afford to travel there for his first week
of work and pay his rent and no longer qualified for JSA.
This
piece is based on statistical facts and
does only represent one interpretation. However, you have to question, in a
world where the richest 1% of the
population own 65 times that of 3.5 billion people in the world, where
do we begin with the fight against inequality?"
News Articles:
1) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19569942
2) http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/jobseekers-finances-and-prospects-crippled-by-transport-poverty-and-high-fuel-costs-8130080.html
3) http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2202040/Millions-people-risk-transport-poverty-cost-owning-car-rises.html
1) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19569942
2) http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/jobseekers-finances-and-prospects-crippled-by-transport-poverty-and-high-fuel-costs-8130080.html
3) http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2202040/Millions-people-risk-transport-poverty-cost-owning-car-rises.html
Useful Links:
The science behind “Everything in moderation” | maketheworldworkbetter:
'via Blog this'
Tuesday, 11 November 2014
U6 EC : Price Discrimination Examples
Smart Economists understand how gaining monopoly power means trying to gain some competitive advantage in any market anywhere, so that one can charge more than the other. Here are two examples - the market for local Masai blankets and the market for travel:
Some have difficulty understanding how to apply this concept.
From another blog :
A British tourist visited a local market in Tanzania. He visited a shop next to another that was selling the exact same identical product - a Masai blanket - it even had the same packaging. However he was selling it for 2,000 TSh more.
The British tourist asked him how he expected to sell the item. He explained, “Yes, they are the same product, but we are different businesses”. The British tourist bought the blanket from the other shop.
There are of course even more ambitious projects, such as the Transport for London, Virgin Trains and Boeing.
This from the BBC : inside the Virgin Spaceship
Some have difficulty understanding how to apply this concept.
From another blog :
A British tourist visited a local market in Tanzania. He visited a shop next to another that was selling the exact same identical product - a Masai blanket - it even had the same packaging. However he was selling it for 2,000 TSh more.
The British tourist asked him how he expected to sell the item. He explained, “Yes, they are the same product, but we are different businesses”. The British tourist bought the blanket from the other shop.
There are of course even more ambitious projects, such as the Transport for London, Virgin Trains and Boeing.
This from the BBC : inside the Virgin Spaceship
U6 EC unit 4 Development Economics Conflict as a Poverty Trap
From Google Galleries
Development Economists have identified many different poverty traps, such as having lots of gold, lots of cheap labour, having poor trading partners.
Conflict, be it a civil war or bigger, is also a reason why some countries develop slower than others.
Paul Collier has published work around the title "The Bottom Billion" Search on youtube and there is a pdf of the entire book on the internet.
Today is the day we remember those who fell during our own wars. Here is an article from the Economist in pdf format
Sunday, 9 November 2014
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