the “people -power” …

 

After reviewing Joanna’s blog on the current issue, Occupy Wall Street movement, I truly believe her point of view that this movement is an “absurd and foolish” protest. Although this movement is raising awareness of the huge distance between wealthy and poor, but the protest is seemingly emphasized on their personal situation rather than the public as a whole.

 

Joanna raised a really good point where these protestors are “a certain type of individuals” because in many situations, they have participated in previous protests merely for their “interest”. They do have their strong perspective on such hierarchy in society; however, can government accept this change?

 

Globally, the occupy wall street has ‘attacked’ many countries, but their strategy seems useless, and this week, governments are kicking them out of the crown land, forcing them to allocate their movement elsewhere.

 

In my opinion, this movement is a waste of time, money and energy. How much can they really get out of this? A less corrupted world? This fact is unchangeable, the world is ALREADY corrupted because of greed, this is a human nature. Even if government intervenes, it can’t put a law against people who wants to maximize their profit or utility.

 

True or not?

“Every firm is a profit-maximizer” 

After the class on social entrepreneurs, I searched up more about the enterprise on Kiva. In one of their blogs, it talks about how they are honoured by Oprah that it is one of the top things to do in 2010. Well, Kiva loans simple money to potential entrepreneurs who does not have enough money themselves to start a business. This gives everyone an opportunity to  gain an income to survive. Learning that many social entrepreneurs uses the innovative, opportunistic qualities of an entrepreneur to make social change by applying business principles to impact the society all while making profit. They benefit the lives of individuals by achieving social change, yet still  make profits.

Then, I thought about the causes of the current financial crisis, which in summary can be attributed to the inexorable pursuit of profits from banks and investment firms. The profits from these firms did not create wealth, which opposes Friedman’s argument, “only social responsibility of a business is to pursue profits” to the constraint of legal and ethical conduct. However, in many cases, earning profits often encourages ethical and legal standards of business to be broken.

In my past blog, Coke, similar to many companies nowadays is currently undergoing a change in its marketing scheme. Coke is following the trend by taking on more social responsibilities in helping WWF. With many years simply to make profit from consumers, many companies are considering about the world. They are still making profit, but at the same time benefiting the world as well. These changes in ideologies also show the emerging social entrepreneurs, their willingness of firms to circumnavigate the law and ethical practices.

HoW?!

Although the Euro crisis is miles away, but the impact is just less than a meter away. The correlation between each country in the financial world is closely related, merely because banks and countries borrow from each other.

“How would the crisis in Europe affect us?” As our class speaker asked.

Just as the crisis right now, “with the European Central Bank still refusing to act as a lender of last resort, contagion in Europe’s bond market threatens to engulf the eurozone’s largest economies.” Euro just slid to its lowest in five weeks against the dollar, effecting the world economy. The world stock market just dropped again after the worsening of European debt threatening the US. Stocks are suddenly selling off quickly, but less buyers are buying in, fearing the Euro affecting US’ top banks. Fear emerges from each corner of the world, traders are slowing down their trades, causing the market to slow down. Not just in the stock market, but locally in retails, food industry consumers are also slowing their money output. Their income is lowered, their purchasing power is lowered, companies receive less income, all cause a decrease in stock exchange. This then fears the banks in Europe since the money is trading in too slow to recover itself. Then, its crisis continues and this turns into a loop.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-16/euro-touches-5-week-low-as-debt-crisis-dims-economic-outlook.html

Iphone is worth more than the phone itself!

Are technologies going to be even more efficient in the future?

We don’t need to find changes to match the amount on that till!

 

Just today, Canadians can now purchase Starbucks with just a scan on the iphone rather than constantly finding

changes or updating that My Starbucks Card. Starbucks announced the new

app for Apple Iphones today, where customers can easily handle purchases by preloading an account with credit card. My Starbucks Reward cards and all the other old functions are still available with the scan.

Money is not measured by the changes and bills in your wallet, but the untouchable money on the phone! This new culture is emerging into this new world. Sooner or later, wallets will not be required, but purchases will be done just with a phone!