In Chris MacDonald’s blog about how corporations and businesses should respond ethically in wake of a natural disaster, he raised on important point to balance the needs of customers during disasters for supplies with the safety and security of the staff working there. I also learned about the existence of anti-price gouging laws in wake of disaster which prevents businesses from profiteering too much from the lowered supplies, which better serves the community as a whole where human lives are safety are more important. In all, his blog shows all the dilemmas businesses face in wake of disasters such as Hurricane Sandy, and how to deal with them ethically and with society’s best interests at heart.

Businesses are open even in disasters as form of social obligation

While Groupon had been very big few years ago, it had been on the decline lately due to one of main business models which is no longer effective. As the company’s value shrank from 13 billion at its IPO to 1.8 billion currently after all the high level execs sold their shares, things would only go downhill from there. The business model of advertising for businesses in the form of coupons on a website simply does not sit well with merchants anymore, and that traditional e-commerce is slowly taking over instead. It shows how sometimes new ideas do not always succeed in the long-run, and that some ideas may be overhyped and are nothing but a trend.

Groupon is not doing so well

This article right here shows surprising signs on how someone might be an entrepreneur. While some of them were very expected, such as wanting to improve and easily bored, I was nevertheless very surprised that according to the article, an entrepreneur displays many anti-social aspects either in their younger life or all the time, such as being obsessive/compulsive, labeled a rebel, resisting authority, being bullied as well as hating the status quo. The bullying part seems very true as people like Steve Jobs, who was bullied during high school, became a global icon. While labeled a rebel and being obsessive/ compulsive makes it less clear to me. It may be that sometimes a person’s conflict with his/her surrounding pushes him/her to the limit, producing or inventing something that completely revolutionizes the world.

In Kelly Gu’s post, she talked about the issue of marijuana in Canada, and how the next Liberal leader will oppose its legalization despite popular opinion of Canadians. She supported its legalization due to the many benefits and advantages of it being legal, including health benefits and more tax revenue.

Legalized in Nov 7th

I agree with her as the legalization of marijuana can also be very profitable, create jobs and help the economy recover, after coming across this article. Besides stating that Washington and Colorado recently became the first states in the U.S to legalize recreational marijuana, the article also mentioned how legalization in all states of America (individual states make their own criminal laws, unlike Canada), could make marijuana from a $40 billion industry to a $100 billion industry. According to Market Watch, a company named MedBox which sells dispensers to legal outlets had its share price go up 3,000%, from $4 to $250. Legalization would bring economic benefits for all, or in other words, bring positive externality to the population. Also, if the two states in the US can legalize it, so can Canada.