Vocabulary

Capitalism-(n) an economic and political system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.

Communism-(n) 1.a theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state. 2. (often initial capital letter) a system of social organization in which all economic and social activity is controlled by a totalitarian state dominated by a single and self-perpetuating political party. It is a revolutionary socialist movement to create a classless society in which rich people distribute their wealth so that

Free Enterprise- (n) 1. An economic and political doctrine holding that a capitalist economy can regulate itself in a freely competitive market through the relationship of supply and demand with a minimum of governmental intervention and regulation. 2. the practice of free enterprise in an economy, or the right to practice it. Private business operating for business. The goverment can't tell you how to run your business, except for safety and minimum wage.

Free Market- (n) An economic system in which prices and wages are deterermined by unrestricted competition between privately owned businesses, without government regulation or fear of monopolies.

People's Republic of Capitalism part 3

Today in Human Geography class, we began watching part 3 of “The People’s Republic of Capitalism.” “Why we skipped part two?” You ask. That would be because Mr. Schick did not deem part 2 important enough for us to watch. In any case part 3 still deals with the economy the only difference is that it focuses on China’s economy on wheels, in other words cars and auto-insurance. One of the main points that the video made was that one of the most dangerous places to be, especially in China, is on or around a major road or highway. The reasoning behind this is that a vast majority of Chinese drivers have never driven before or are fresh out of Driver’s Ed. As a result of this, accidents are not a rare phenomenon; in fact over 400 accidents occur DAILY!!!! That’s why they brought American insurance companies to China. The biggest difference in accident cases in China vs. in America is that insurance companies pay off every penny of damage to the other driver’s car with no deductible!   

Robotics Tour

Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to Friday’s Human Geography class. This wasn’t because of a fatal disease or a luxury cruise liner, I was absent from class due to the STEM academy field trip. Yes, that’s right I was missing class to go see robots. Upon arrival at Johns Hopkins we found our way to the robotics laboratory where we met up with our first tour guide. For the first part of our tour we were told about what goes on in the hydro-lab and the work they have done with underwater robots, which could be cleverly renamed fish-bots (I just made this up this name on the spot). After hearing about these aquatic machines, we continued on our way back to where we met tour guide #1 and switched to tour guide #2. This tour guide took us into a different laboratory and informed us about a robot call the Da Vinci robot (why it got that name I have no idea considering that Da Vinci most definitely did NOT have the materials to make this kind of advanced robot). Then after that we got play with it!!! YAY!!! Now, if you were there you may be thinking why in his right mind would he let us toy around with a $2,000,000 robot that we have never used in our life? The answer is: I have no idea. Well in any case, the robot operated by sitting in a chair with a machine in front of you. Then, you look into the binoculars after inserting your thumb and fore-finger into loops. Then you pinch your fingers together. Finally you move your hands around as the robot hands follow your motions. Once everyone got a turn we went back to the bus ate our lunch then returned to school and went to mod ten (once mod ten began).

People's Republic of Capitalism continued

We yet again continued to watch “The People’s Republic of Capitalism” in Human Geography today. How often do you shop at Wal-Mart? Do you enjoy shopping there because it allows you to save money? Now, have you ever wondered why Wal-Mart can sell their items and still be successful? It’s for the same reason that more than 90% of products we buy are made in China. There are plenty people over in China who are more than willing to work tedious monotonous jobs for only a buck or two a day so that even if you add in the cost to ship the products over to America from China it is still way cheaper to make everything in China. In fact, once you add it all up, it comes to be about $10,000,000 cheaper! Still, there are people out in this nation who think everyone should buy only products made in America. To that I say “Good Luck! Let me know if you can do this and still be living a decent life with everything you need.”      

The People's Republic of Capitalism

Today in Human Geography class we continued watching and discussing the video of China’s economy called “The People’s Republic of Capitalism” in today’s portion we saw how much money we get paid compared to a lot of people in china in the construction business. To be exact, the minimum wage in America is $7.50 per hour which amounts to about $15,000 a year. On the other hand in China, women, working hours on end moving heavy bricks in a dangerous environment make about $1-2 per DAY. Men doing the same type of job get paid a little better at $3-4 per day. You may be thinking that this is not fair. Well, it is, but fair does not necessarily mean moral. It is fair because, in marketing, if you work in China making Apple computers for little money (which it’s like that right now) Apple products are already pricy. Try increasing the cost of the work force (giving employees a higher salary) then the price of the computer goes up accordingly. Conveniently for sellers, there are mobs of people who are desperate for jobs like this. This way the cost of computers does not get so high that it causes a lack of customers.      

Economic Geography

At long last, we are FINALLY done with our political geography unit!!!! We also were given our tests back and went over the answers for those who heard a “ding, ding” when given their quizzes back (I was one of the people who got the double ding, the first if you want to be really specific). Unfortunately, we had the lowest average grade on the test. However, we are not completely out of the water yet for the world leaders. This would be because we are yet to know how we did on our 200 point research paper, so if you think that your grade is fine right now and are worrying about your paper, BEWARE!!!!! In the mean time we will be moving on to economic geography, in other words, MONEY!!!!! We kicked off this new unit by starting to watch a video called “The People’s Republic of Capitalism.” Which is basically about China’s economy.

independence discussion

Today, in Mr. Schick’s Human Geography class today, we discussed the BLOG assignment that we were given last night about nations’ independence and there beginnings as well as where in the world they are. Mr. Schick also planted a seed in us so that we can make a world where we are one of the world’s richest nations because we are a lead oil producer and we don’t even need any of it because we have other means of producing energy such as wind, water and the sun. Right now, we are nowhere near that goal because we are the number one oil consumer in the world so instead of working on getting our nation to be dependent upon an alternate source of energy instead of oil. Also, we have Saudi Arabia to worry about as well since they are currently the world’s leading oil producing nation, and they didn’t even know they had oil a couple decades ago when they were a really poor nation who thought that they didn’t have anything.