Chapter 5

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/homebuyers/story.html?id=32b226ed-a8d2-41f1-b232-4f2d159851c5&k=46095

According to a recent global best cities survey conducted by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, Vancouver is ranked 3rd overall city among 215 cities in terms of quality of life. The survey bases this rank from 39 factors, including economic, environmental, personal safety, etc. Vancouver achieved a total score of 107.7, thus tying with Vienna for third place, and behind only to Zurich and Geneva. Other Canadian cities ranked fairly high, including Toronto who was ranked 15th, and Calgary who was ranked 1st in terms of health and sanitation. On the other hand, Baghdad was ranked last overall, and Baku, Azerbaijan was last in health and sanitation.

This article has lots to do with macroeconomics, which is broad study of the economy of a country. The high overall rank of Canadian cities tells us that the economy of Canada must be doing extremely well. In Vancouver specifically, this may be due to high volume of jobs available recently in the city and province. The 2010 Olympics has brought in a lot of work for people the recent year, including construction, tourism, and others. Vancouver is also a major contributor to GDP with all this construction going on. Just counting the subway line running down Cambie Street, or the Dedicated Fire Protection System in downtown, it is obvious Vancourites are major spenders of the country.

As a result of all this, the unemployment rate of the city has greatly gone down. However, unemployment might go up a bit during the winter season, because workers are generally less needed due to the unsuitable weather for construction of any kind. Even so, it is also the time when we get a lot of tourists into the city just to come ski or snowboard. Vancouver has never been more popular of a place to be to ski. Millions of people come around the world on vacation just to ski. Thus, all the jobs these tourists come in may offset the unemployment rate. Either way, in both cases, these jobs encourage seasonal unemployment.

Personally, I am surprised that Vancouver is ranked so high up. From my knowledge, Vancouver has one of the higher crime rates among major North American cities. Also, it is increasingly harder to purchase property every year. To live a truly comfortable life, one must earn a salary with six digits. In my opinion, the Winter Olympics in 2010 is mainly for the benefit of the rich. Most of us average people wouldn’t be able to go watch a hockey game for example without making huge sacrifices. Also, I find it funny how the stuff they’re building now are for the people moving into the city in the future, while they force people already here to move outside of the city to Surrey or Coquitlam because no one can afford a place to live inside the city.

Chapter 4

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=f7bcd93a-cf3d-4c59-9ec3-716e2e2607a1&k=85645

This article is about the new billboards that are going to be put up along the Highway of Tears to warn females the dangers of hitchhiking. These billboards are inspired by approximately 20 women who have disappeared on this highway. It will feature a young female hitchhiker with ghostly figures trying to warn her of the consequences. The government plans to install 10 or more of these billboards along 724km of road, from Prince Rupert to Price George, in hopes of promoting safety.

This is a perfect example of the Wagner’s law of increasing state activity, which states that government expenditures grow faster than the total output of goods and services. From the Highway of Tears’ point of view, you can see that the government must spend way more than just the costs of constructing the highway. Afterwards, they must spend even more money to provide services for the highway. Not counting the billboards for instance, the government has to organize patrol in order to keep the highway safer, either to enforce speed limits or other laws. From time to time, they have to fix worn out roads and replace them with new concrete. And this goes for all the other goods or services that the government provides for us.

No wonder why the government always tries to milk money off its citizens through taxation. The total amount of goods and services that the government manages and provides is unimaginable. I now see the importance of our progressive tax system, and why it is important that everyone has the ability to pay tax, because we are the only ones who have the ability to fund all these services, and with Canada’s limited population, this fact is even more important. In my opinion, if we had a flat tax system, the government would have less revenue, since a lot more people would not be able to pay the tax. As a result, the goods and services we get will be cut back. Imagine how much worse our education system can possibly get in the future. Few years back, they began to squish 30-35 of us into each classroom… You can tell when they have gone too far if kids start sitting on each other’s lap.

Chapter 3

http://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/news_releases_2005-2009/2007EDU0006-000026.htm

This article is about the new tutoring service the Provincial Government of BC is offering to students through the internet. This service, named LearnNow BC, is a new, innovative way, which the government is using to reach out to the BC students and improve their education. LearnNow BC at www.learnnowbc.gov.bc.ca.was first introduced in October 2006 as it offered tutoring services to all students taking Math 10 and Science 10. Now, it has expanded to other subjects including Social Studies 11. Students acquire help from a number of options, such as 1-on-1 chat rooms with tutors, “live” workshops with teachers, and or practice quizzes. LearnNow also provides online courses to students.

Observing this move in economic terms shows us some of the ways the government is trying to improve the quality of education. For a long number of decades, tutoring has always been a privatized service. It gives students more help than they needed on the subjects that they need help on. However, it is up to the parents to pay for this help. Not every family has the money to support their child this way due to the distribution of income. Thus, the government will pressure the “right” privatized side of tutors to improve their services and create some negative third party effects towards them. For example, they may have to reduce prices of their services since students can now get it for free if they wish, which means some of these companies might have to layoff employees to take the loss of business. Also, they might have to spend more money on marketing to convince students that their service is far more superior to the online service to justify the payment of this good. Either way, this is good news to the consumers with the increase in competition in the market.

By offering education this way, the government gives more opportunities to all students who wish to learn. The online courses offered by LearnNow is a perfect example why education should be handled by the government as it is in a lot of ways an unmet good, and why they are more efficient at providing this service than private companies. Only the government is able to provide a service that can be accessed by everyone equally. Even in rural areas, students are able to follow the same curriculum as students in the city. No child will be excluded due to financial reasons and no one will uphold an advantage of a better, costlier school.

All this has no effect on me whatsoever. I’m already in grade 12 and am graduating in less than 6 months. I could care less if the government offered even more services to students. They don’t even offer tutoring for grade 12 courses yet! However, I would have appreciated it if I was given this kind of benefit a few years back, as I could have gotten more help on my courses. Obviously, there are more students like me that need the extra help to keep up with their courses, so I give thumbs up to the government for finally reaching out to us students and putting more of those tax dollars to good use.

Above all, it shows how much power the government has on even the free market system. Either through regulations, taxes, or crown corporations, the government has what it takes to change the entire landscape of how a business should be run. Also, I truly feel that Canada is one of the better countries at handling tax dollars. At least we don’t spend billions of dollars in war like some other country…

Chapter 2

http://world.honda.com/news/2006/4060108FCX/

This is an article about the new fuel cell vehicle (FCV) that Honda is planning to produce in the near future. The FCX is a sedan that uses hydrogen as fuel, which closely resembles the Honda Civic. Compared to fossil fuels, hydrogen is completely pollution free and offers total comfort for our ozone. Basically, the fuel cell engine takes oxygen and hydrogen, and uses them to create electricity and water, so the only damage it would make in our habitat will be streaks of water on our roads. One key point is that due to the removal of the huge chunky combustion engines, fuel cell cars can be much smaller or much roomier inside. Lastly, Honda is planning to introduce the Home Energy Station, which is a home energy station that supplies fuel cell electricity to both vehicles and home.

Economically, I think this is great news, due to the fact that we're using up fossil fuels quite rapidly. Gasoline, in my opinion, is very much an inelastic product right now, as 99.9% of cars use it. However, the supply is going lower and lower each month, thus jacking up the prices very quick. If it was plotted into a supply and demand curve, you will see that prices will keep on rising as supply decrease and demand increase. This is why companies like Honda are pushing research on new technologies and alternatives. If more innovative ideas like fuel cell come up in the future, gas would change from an inelastic product to a more elastic product. This means, the demand and quantity exchange of gas would change dramatically in any change in price.

Another important point is that switching to fuel cell would solve a lot of energy problems. Because of the abundance of hydrogen and oxygen in our atmosphere, its supply is almost infinite. Not to mention how clean our air would become with the reduction of greenhouse gases. According to the article, the Home Energy Station would cut energy costs by as much as 50%. It means BC Hydro no longer have to disrupt the ecosystems of rivers with their hydroelectric power stations. It is a big step forward towards a cleaner environment.

On the other hand, the changing of technology could effect the economy of a lot of countries that depend on the export of fossil fuels, especially those in the middle east. This change would hurt both the market of fossil fuels, and the market of conventional automobiles. Eventually, if fuel cell prevails, the demand for nowadays cars and oil will go down, and their quantity exchange will join them. Furthermore, manufacturers will continue to shift the supply curve to the left and make room for FCVs until gasoline cars no longer exist. It will be like betamax all over again...

As I have said before in my other blog, technologies like these deserve our support as they would greatly decrease the effects of our pollution on the environment. Global warming is a growing threat towards society and it would be until something is done to reverse the damages. You know... like The Day After Tomorrow. Do you really want to migrate to Mexico?

Chapter 1

http://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/news_releases_2005-2009/2006AE0050-001241.htm

This article is about new funding on underwater research by Victoria and BC. According to the story, the province's Leading Edge Endowment Fund provided a total of $42.5 million to two undersea ocean-monitoring observatories, NEPTUNE and VENUS. Also, another $2.25 million is provided to the $4.5 million B.C. Leadership Chair in Marine Ecosystems and Global Change, which is now held by Kim Juniper, a marine ecologist. Overall the purpose of all this is to investigate the effects of climate and pollution on the oceans and our water supply.

This article can be observed from various different points of view in terms of economics. Firstly, as a resource, water is becoming more and more of a scarce resource. Water is suppose to be a renewable resource, but over time, humans have polluted a huge amount of the oceans. Some examples of pollution include sewage wastes and oil spills. Water has always been underestimated in terms of value, due to its abundance. However, in recent years, many have finally notice the value of water. They finally realize we may be losing what everyone needs to survive. If this keeps up, the price of water will go higher and higher, until we can somehow find a substitute for water. That's why countries like Canada are becoming more conscious about our water supply and justifies the importance of this research and the money put in.

As for costs, direct cost is obvious. $42.5 million + $2.25 million + $4.5 million = close to $50 million put out by the government and tax payers. On the other hand, they are many opportunity costs. For one, it could be invested on youth and into education, such as building schools and supporting tuition fees. By doing so, they can produce more tax payers and less people on the streets, which create a better economy in Canada, and generate more income for the country and the government. Another investment they could have used the money for would be the exploration of oil. This huge sum of cash could have been used to find more natural resources, which could be sold for tons of money. This is especially true for oil, due to the high demand of this non-renewable resource.

On the other hand, these opportunity costs might actually be overshadowed by potential costs that may arise if this research wasn't done. For instance, if we don't find out more about the effects of pollution on our water supply soon enough, it may cost a lot more to fix the problems that could arise later on in the future.

This in my opinion should be first priority and I feel the government has made the right choice for the use of this money. Although I feel the government could aid students a little more in money troubles, I think protecting our environment is a little more important. Threats such as global warming and global dimming could affect the existance of our race. And afterall... What can be more important for life than water?... besides oxygen?