Lisa Wong

A blog in the Economist called “The 99 Percent” explains and argues the main issues that caused the Occupy protest. At the Occupy protests, many banners and signs read “We Are the 99 Percent”, which is a vague but contains a purposeful message. The message protesters are trying to convey is that there is a massive gap in incomes between 99% of the American population to the top 1% of the population. This huge income inequality is displayed on the “U.S. Real Average after Tax-Income” chart provided by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). In addition, the author of this blog post claims that the current system in America is prejudice because of two reasons. The first reason is that the system works more in favor for the rich and the second is that the rest of the population constantly has to pick up the bill when the people at the top, such as CEOs of major corporations, upset the economy.

Income inequality between the 1% and the 99%

I disagree with the author’s idea about the system being prejudice because people at the top damage the economy, which is not possible because the CEO has no direct impact on the economy. However, I found the huge inequality of incomes between 1% and 99% very surprising.

Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, known as BHGRE, is a three-year-old New Jersey-based realtor that is moving into Canada with a brand that is focussed on integrating home searches with social media platforms. Over the last decade or so, real estate companies have been fixed on selling houses in a conventional manner, which has caused the industry to become stagnant. However, BHGRE offeres something new to the industry by using social media to sell houses. BHGRE realizes that home buyers have started to turn to social media to involve their friends in the search for their new homes because clients are not only looking for a house, but also for a lifestyle and community to live in. An example of how home searches are integrated into social media is the iPhone app that allows consumers to take pictures of residences and to tag and upload these photos to their social media feeds to receive comments from their friends and family.

BHGRE's Logo

Although there is a risk in establishing their company internationally, this decision of moving into Canada can expand their creative and innovative vision to become the future of the real estate industry.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/tweet-me-that-house/article2189742/

In today’s working world, women are known to be poor negotiators compared to men. For instance, male and female MBA graduates with the same education and experience will not earn the same amount after graduating. In fact, male MBA graduates on average will earn $4,600 more than female graduates in their first job because men are able to negotiate for a better salary. When women do not push for a higher salary in the early years of their careers, the loss will compound over time and by the age of 60, women can lose more than $500,000 because they did not negotiate a first salary well. However, women are not entirely to blame for their passive negotiating skills. It was discovered that men were more interested in working with a women who accepted their compensation without a word and women who tried to negotiate for a better salary were perceived as overly demanding. This fear of being judged as an overly demanding woman leads women to under-price themselves even though their job involves more work and their expertise would benefit their employer by assisting the company generate more revenue.

Successful women can negotiate well

For women to avoid the stereotype of being poor negotiators, they must be assertive when negotiating and must not worry about how they are judged by others because in the long run, women have a lot to lose by not being demanding.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/career-advice/leah-eichler/at-the-risk-of-sounding-pushy-you-should-pay-me-more/article2195052/