Market Systems, yo!

I don't really have any particular personal connections to a market economy - no one in my family has started a business, or lost a job and had to move (that I'm aware of). I haven't had a job in any market economy business, either, although I hope to change that. I do hold the opinion that it is a good system of market, though, for many reasons also found in the book. Despite having its ups and downs, it overall seems like it is effective and efficient.
Market economies are good because, quite often, they help the buyers get lower prices from competing companies, or specific goods that they want. Since the companies rely on the buyers for income, they are more driven to produce the things that we want, as opposed to control systems. Being controlled by the government, the control system has no competition, and thus is less concerned for the happiness of the consumer. Market systems are very concerned with the happiness of the consumer and trying to provide what they want in order to attract the buyers attention away from other competitors business.
An example that I can think of is from a few ads I saw over the weekend. The Christmas shopping season is starting up (Already? Dear lord.) and I saw an ad sheet for Toys R Us and Target, each advertising Avengers merchandise. Among the deals, they had the same exact large action figures displayed; at Toys R Us, they were sold for $17.99, but at Target, they were only $17. Not much of a difference, but I thought it amusing that there was that difference. Not only that, but the actual Avengers DVD coming out tomorrow seemed like a better deal at Target. The Blue-Ray 2 disc at Toys R Us was $22.99, but at Target, the 2 disc Blue-Ray (plus 90 minutes of bonus footage, I'm not certain if the Toys R Us one had that) was only $19.99. If I were shopping for these things (Which I am. Avengers will be mine.) I would definitely choose to go to Target over Toys R Us.

Before businesses reveal sale prices for the Christmas season, are they able to find out what price other businesses are selling the same thing for (such as the action figures)?

Opportunity Cost, Yo.

“Think about a time in your life where you had to choose between two or more options. Explain the opportunity cost involved in that decision.”

I'm just going to start off saying that I am actually the worst at making any kinds of decisions, whether it be something big or small. I always need someone else's opinion; half the time I won't even go with what they chose, but at least I still had another opinion. College is, of course, a pretty big deal. It's the next big part of my life. However, I think I actually have a pretty good idea of what I want to do.

The decision hasn't been made yet, obviously. I haven't even started applying to colleges. My main two choices are University of Oregon and Oregon State - so far, I'm leaning towards University of Oregon. Although I don't know what I want to major in, I've been considering pursuing marine biology, and for that the logical choice would be University of Oregon. If I were to chose Oregon State, some of my opportunity costs would be the marine biology program, as well as being separate from many of the friends I know who are planning to go to UO. 

Choosing OSU leads the same way - there will always be people I know who are going to go to a different school than me. There isn't really any specific courses I want to take that are offered only by OSU, so in my opinion, there is less opportunity cost for not going there. Deciding on a school is always difficult, and involves having to give up some things in order to have others. I wonder what the opportunity costs were for my parents when they were trying to decide on what school they wanted to go to?

Scarcity, yo.

(http://christainnewyork.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/time-management.jpg)

Time is fleeting; something that everyone feels they have a scarcity of. I spend a considerably large amount of time on the computer, and while I enjoy it immensely and have made so many amazing friends, I always have the feeling that I could have spent that time doing something that felt more productive. Going outside, reading a book, starting one of the crafts I've never actually started doing - there are so many things that I could do with the hours spent in front of a screen. I wouldn't give it up, of course; I enjoy it and I wouldn't leave some of my best friends. However, I could probably spend less time doing that, and use a bit more to do other things I want to do. And time really does seem to fly; after all, we're seniors already. That's a bit scary.