Class on 9/27/11

Marx discussion: At first I'm thinking, what does this man's philosophy have to do with our economy today? Communist society should replace capitalism? Well, I think he's right. To me, capitalism means the wealthy, ruling class knows where the PROFIT is and how to get it. So the rich get richer and the poor get poorer because they don't stand a chance in reinvesting profits. That's why I believe we should live in a communist society today, where the people that are actually working hold the power. Marx said capitalism is unstable, well look at the national headlines about Greece, the financial disaster, the euro! I hope they can emerge from all of this without U.S. bailing someone else out.

As for Canada and U.S. regulating the border... I get it, 9/11. But what did Canada ever do to us? What did they do to any other country? It makes sense to tighten the borders into U.S. when it comes to tourism and travel, but I think changing products and regulations to impact globalization of companies goes a little far with our friendly neighbor. We can trust them and their location is the most convenient for globalization to keep costs low, so we should stay true to NAFTA and loosen our trade regulations with Canada to jump start our country's improvement!

Class on September 22

Thursday's class brought up an intense discussion about TLO and whether government should place restrictions on personal searches of persons in the United States. I think that it should be restricted to law enforcement, but could be extended to companies and business owners/managers. For this reason, you could be searched for and all of your information would come up at once. It would be so simple! I trust that if put in the right hands, people would not take advantage of the system.

Also, I think that the site should limit personal information, for instance, not showing your cell phone calls, text messages, e-mails, etc.

Our other discussion on Yahoo and AOL made me realize that they truly are the walking dead of the internet. I used to have AOL dial-up and now with new technologies like cable and DSL, everyone switched to a different provider. And I'll admit, I only use Google! AOL and Yahoo have to spend a lot of money to keep pace but they simply lack the profits to grow bigger than their competition. I think they should just give up or unite and implement a new business strategy.

9/22/11

Ryan led discussion today about the workers in Hungary. At first, I thought it was an awful idea to have citizens do hard labor to work for their benefits. When Ryan said, "They are getting paid less than minimum wage." I was like wow, that's a horrible thing to do. But when looking at the big picture, these people have nothing else to do so if the state is giving them free money they should at least work for it. Some people in class said that this idea would never work in America's unemployment program. I raised the point that if you gave Americans an ultimatum of no work, no benefits, that most of them would choose to work for their money.

We also discussed the post office issue about switching to electronic mail. Personally, I don't think it would ever work. Everything is moving to technology lately, but when it's your MAIL, I think it shouldn't be changed from how it has been. There is a problem in our country with identity-theft protection, probably because everything is accessible online and by hackers. If we switched to online e-mail it would be a huge mistake. Maybe a generation or two down the line we can ease in to it, but I think it's completely impossible today.

9/19/11

Class last Thursday, Sept. 15th, was a little more in depth than the previous class.

Bank of America is suffering due to faulty housing mortgages and experienced an $8.8 billion quarterly loss. They plan to sell assets and shares, and cut about 30,000 jobs in NC. They are so guilty of dealing out faulty mortgages to people and not checking credit, income, or having a feasible down payment plan. In the end, people couldn't afford their houses and went into foreclosure and the bank is suffering because they have millions of dollars in faulty mortgages on their hands. How will they cover the cost without the U.S. bailing them out again? I don't think the government will bail them out a second time, absolutely not after made the same mistake. Bank of America is definitely "too big to fail" but at the same time, if they do fail, the whole country will feel the impact. I think they're in serious danger and need help and other banks will start to pull ahead because people simply won't trust BofA anymore.

We also discussed how Congress is planning to pay our nation’s debt by the end of the fiscal year (which I learned is Oct. 1- Sept 30!). They put together a committee to figure out how to come up with $1.5 trillion, but what were they doing all summer? I think it’s ridiculous that they have one of the most important jobs in America and seem so careless about it. All of their projects are delayed or expiring soon. Their two solutions are either to cut spending or raise taxes, but either side can agree on anything at this point. My solution would be to cut spending on small programs or welfare, but that’s just my opinion.

9/15/11

The first class I had was Thursday, Sept. 8th because I recently just added the course. I actually like it! We sat in a circle for discussion and I've never actually had a class like this one. The first question asked was "Why is the stock market down?" and I actually had no idea. I'm not very bright in economic terms and concepts yet. My first instinct was Hurricane Irene, but that actually wasn't a huge factor in our economy at all. Another guess was the recession, but I've only heard that our nation was in trouble without actually knowing what it meant. A recession is two quarters of negative to 0 gain. At least that's what I remember!

Another interesting topic discussed, that actually came about out of nowhere, was the possibility of our government having secrets and actually staging events. A lot of students agreed that the Kennedy assassination was a hoax, but I never really looked into it before. National Treasure is a great movie that points out secrets in our nation that tell stories from centuries before, love it. One thing I do believe is that our first moon landing was set up. This is because I watched a whole television show on it when I was younger and never got it out of my head. Who knows?

I have read a bunch of articles in Business Week so far and I like learning about our nation and its businesses, so I'm excited to discuss it further with my class. It makes me feel more business savvy.

Introduction

Hi everyone!

My name is Brittany, but 99% of the people in my life call me Trini. I was raised in a one-light town where cow crossing signs and tractors slowing down traffic are nothing out of the ordinary. Even if the nearest gas station is 12 miles away, and I have to stand on my recliner to get service, I could honestly say I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I'm currently a senior at Misericordia University persuing my degree in Business Administration. From there, I plan to attend grad school for my MBA. I'm a collegiate cheerleader and it's my life. We cheer at basketball games, get involved with the community and university, attend UCA camp, local competitions and UCA National Competition every year in Orlando, FL. My squad is my family :)

I love country music, fishing, shopping, spaghetti, and I work at a restaurant to make moneyy$$$. All in all, I love lifeee! Thanks for reading!