Natives are making a bigger and bigger impact in Canada

Recently, Winnipeg received its first Native mayor; Brian Bowman stepped into position as the mayor of Winnipeg, but became more than just a politician. He was seen as a milestone for all the Native people across Canada. There is always a lot of controversy over how Canada treats its Native people and people are always debating on whether there is discrimination or not. However, at least with the introduction of a Native politician, the Native population sees that there is hope for Native Canadians to be viewed equally and given the same opportunity. Native Canadians are starting to show up in the political scene and that is a major breakthrough for Natives across Canada; not only are Natives given the same jobs as others but they are also becoming supported by others as figures of leadership in Canada. I feel that this is a very important issue that deserves attention because while the treatment of Native Canadians may not be lacking, they will still feel discriminated against if they do not see their people in positions of power or influence. Canada needs to start promoting Native representatives for all types of important positions and jobs to diversify and show the Native Canadians that Canada is a country of equality.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/winnipegs-first-native-mayor-seen-as-bridge-builder/article21514131/

In his short but very powerful post, Seth uses sarcasm to mock current businesses and how making profit is the only thing on their mind; modern businesses don’t care about any morals or any old values. Instead, businesses cut corners, cheat, and try to do whatever it takes to spend less and make more. By trading in their “standards” as Seth says, modern businesses are getting “short-term attention” and “quick clicks”. Seth writes his whole post in sarcasm and views modern businesses with disgust, describing their new business strategies as ways for them to “crawl to the bottom”. Seth mockingly states that with so many businesses crowding at “the bottom”, it would be more beneficial to spend that effort trying to climb to the top. I chose this post from Seth’s blog because I strongly agree with his message; companies should not be so materialistic and focus on the quality of their service. It may not be as profitable to spend more time and money on customer satisfaction or keeping customers, but it is more expensive to try and gain new customers. If companies focused more on establishing a reputable business instead of trying ploys to create an explosively popular business that would make them rich overnight, then people would be so much happier. If modern businesses spent the time they use on cutting corners to trying to figure out improvements to their company, they would likely become more profitable.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2014/11/clawing-your-way-to-the-bottom.html

In his post, Milton Leung describes how the online franchise Amazon is considering a change to their business plan and begin opening up stores. Amazon, who has been successfully operating online, is considering the expansion because they believe they can profit more with actual stores and physical locations where customers can go and browse their products. Milton Leung agrees with the article and states that with Amazon’s current operating structure, it’s no surprise that they aren’t making much profit. However, I believe that Amazon should reconsider their approach if they want to increase their revenue. Their current plan of building physical store locations is the hopes of increasing traffic to their brand, but an alternative way to increase traffic to their brand could be promoting on different forms of social media i.e. video game forums and other places of high traffic that people visit. With physical locations, there runs the risk of not enough people going to the store or not enough people buying items from the store, and because Amazon is a brand that sells so many different items, the stores would only be able to hold a tiny fraction of the items that customers are looking for online. The majority of the customers of Amazon would stick to the convenience of searching for items online from a catalogue that has a greater variety of items than a Amazon store could ever have.

Amazon Needs Physical Presence

In his blog post, John Kim describes Ello as a new exclusive invite only social networking site that has just emerged on the market. With a promise to have no advertisements and to not sell and user information, Ello is going to depend on their “free-mium” structure for revenue. Users can use the basic functions for free or they can pay for an upgraded experience with more features and greater access to content. John Kim believes that Ello’s business plan is not effective and the “ad free” and “free-mium” aspects are hindering their growth. However, I would have to disagree because on the contrary, I feel that since the site is an invite only social networking site, people will feel that it is very exclusive and it is part of human nature to want to fit in and not be left out. No matter how important or insignificant the site is, the fact that some friends and peers have access to the site and you don’t, is very frustrating. As a result, people will try to get access to this site through their friends and also pay for the premium if their friends have premium. The site has great potential for becoming profitable because it takes advantage of human nature to fit an and keep with the trend.

FreEllo?

Trust is often necessary to succeed

Nicole Gray is a single mother who had her child when she was only 17. Every time she asks the government for financial aid she feels like, in her words, “a beggar”. There was an idea that was proposed that would potentially help Canadians like Nicole: a grant of $20,000 a year for everyone in Canada. Seemingly ridiculous and impractical, such a large amount of money would surely go to waste if given to every single person in Canada that needed money. In theory, it seems like a good idea to allocate the money that the government would eventually spend on those in poverty to the individuals directly, for many reasons; people would be able to spend that money to improve their lives in a more relevant and efficient way. However, that is only pure theory because I don’t believe that most of the people will use that money wisely. There are many way these people can waste the $20,000 such as on drugs and alcohol or other harmful substances. Most people in poverty haven’t had a large amount of disposable income and as a result, if they were suddenly given a large amount of money, they will not know what to do with the money. This policy seems like an idea that could benefit people in poverty but is unrealistic because of human nature and the characteristics of people in general.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/to-end-poverty-guarantee-everyone-in-canada-20000-a-year-but-are-you-willing-to-trust-the-poor/article560885/