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.

It’s common knowledge that the United States is using economic sanctions as means of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. However this article describes how the US is hurting innocent civilians more than the regime. As food prices grow out of control, riots were prompted and instability spreads throughout the country.

I believe that sanctions does more harm than good, as these sanctions may only fuel anti-American sentiments, backfiring its original purpose. Furthermore, many hopes and dreams were crushed due to the sanctions, such as the supermarket clerk Akbar Mohebi, who had to cancel his son’s studying abroad due to the sanctions. I also agree with the article that it is quite unfair to the nation’s 75 million people that they have to carry the burden of the regime’s decision to develop nuclear weapons. 

In response to Tanner Kirkpatrick’s post about Nestle’s  exploitation of children as plantation workers, I have found an interesting article  debating the effectiveness of the Fair Trade Certification, aimed at helping disadvantaged farmers .

The article describes both sides of the debate, some stating that the Fair Trade Certification gave rise to productive inefficiency, as it establishes price floors for the crops grown by the disadvantaged farmers, against the forces of the free market. Others say that that it helps remedy the prevalent problem of child exploitation in  farming industry. It’s also important to note that Fair Trade only helps farmers in developing countries, as they are more in desperate need of income than their developed world counterparts, even though they may share the same problem.

In all, I believe that Fair Trade Certification goods are a step in the right direction, especially their decision to work with big companies like Starbucks, making the movement more mainstream. The opponent’s argument of productive inefficiency can easily be countered. For example, according to the article, under the minimum-price guarantee system, Indian rice farmers became more secure financially and invested their profits in a new tractor and land leveler, becoming 30% more efficient.

Hong Kong has the most expensive property prices in the world

As developers in Hong Kong compete with Mainland Chinese developers for resources such as labourers and materials, construction costs increase 10% annually, with the current price HK$3,000 ($387) to HK$4,000 per square foot. This will already make the world’s most expensive city to buy homes even more costly, surpassing its last peak during the 1997 property crash.

This means good news for land developers and bad news for everyone else, as property becomes a mere commodity to be traded and speculated instead of being occupied by families. This can easily create social problems such as homelessness and urban sprawl, as well as a prospect of another property price crash like the one in 1997, as well as Japan’s infamous property bubble in the 90s, which can shatter the economy and lead to a financial crisis. The government should curb this by limiting the number of land developments per year, restrict the access of credit, as well as putting price ceiling on the prices of property.

A kindergarden teacher who usually makes an lowly $30,000 yearly salary made an astonishing $1 million dollars this year. How? You may ask. It turns out the 43-year old named Deana Jump made her money selling her own lesson plans online, through a new site named TeachersPayTeachers.com, which launched in 2006.  The site was launched as a response to a lack of quality lesson plans for instructor, who were usually given outdated textbooks and thus have to make their own lesson plans. The site gave teachers a monetary incentive to share their plans, especially during this kind of economy, where a teacher’s salary often could not make ends meet.   Deana Jump’s kindergarden classroom

Jump is the biggest seller for the site, not only due to the quality of her materials but also due to her aggressive marketing through her blog http://mrsjumpsclass.blogspot.ca/, which has more than 17,000 followers who all get notified whenever Jump releases a new product. This gave Jump a very loyal customer base and contributed to her sales. In all, entrepreneurship and out-of-the-box thinking led to her success.

Exploring Ethics of Direct Selling Companies:

I used to work for this company named Vector Marketing (technically I still do), a direct sales company that hires college students to sell high quality kitchen cutlery with the brand Cutco to people in their homes.  However, the job is quite misleading as it promises $17/dollar on Craig’s List (ad no longer there)  when that was not the way it works at all. Sales reps get paid for each appointment, not hour, no appointment, no paycheck. Due to the misleading nature of this job, the fact that managers tend to act as salesmen to his own employees (a clear lack of transparency) , and some other questionable policies. Some students became very upset, sparking controversy over the years, even leading to an organization’s formation.  It really brings into the question about the ethics of these Direct Sales Companies,  such as Amway or Tupperware, many of which are accused of being pyramid schemes. In any job or position, honesty and integrity as well as transparency should be obligated by any employer.