The change in season gives many firms the chance to get creative and market their products and or services in new ways. In addition, firms are also able to market their products for free through social media.

Many people have views on what objects or events are associated with each season. One of which is the Pumpkin Spice Latte in autumn. Starbucks releases their Pumpkin Spice Latte every autumn and only sells it during that season. Since seasons are around only a few months in a year, the demand for the product is especially high when the season is present. This September Starbucks had 10 days in which they encouraged customers to take pictures of their lattes to send in to Starbucks’ social media sources for the chance to win a prize. This is a great way to market the drink and their brand. It gets the consumers involved it and gives the brand more attention. The Pumpkin Spice Latte has become an iconic product associated with the autumn season.

For companies with less to spend on marketing, social media sites, such as twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, tumblr, instagram, etc. are a perfect way to gain brand recognition, plus it doesn’t cost a dime. These websites are very popular with the younger generation, so it is perfect for companies whose target market are youths, teens, or young adults.

Source:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-marketing/advertising/how-savvy-brands-are-fallingforfall/article14658644/

In America, the inequality of income is growing. As stated in the article, it is affecting the educational opportunity of young people. The gap between test scores is growing among rich and poor children. The cause of this issue is said to be quick technological change and persisting globalization of the economy.

The way that the government in Canada handles this economic issue is through progressive taxation. This means that the higher your income, the larger the percentage in taxes you are required to pay (progressive taxation). In theory, this seems like a good way to reduce the severity of the issue, but some think it may not be the best way. As stated in the article, focusing on the youth is the way to go instead of using a fiscal policy to reduce the inequality of income. Since it is affecting citizens’ education at such a young age, they must focus on making it so that every youth has the same opportunities as each other, therefor, they will have the same abilities as each other to enter the working world to make somewhat similar incomes as each other.

Approaching the issue from that perspective would take a lot of time to see improvement. The quicker, and seemingly more sensible approach would be to implement progressive taxation and to provide more subsidies for the poorer as well as reduce subsidies for the rich. This way the inequality of income of Americans would be noticeably smaller.

Source:
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21586578-americas-income-inequality-growing-again-time-cut-subsidies-rich-and-invest

Essentially, Obamacare would require firms to provide affordable health insurance if they have at least 50 full time employees or be forced to pay a fine of $2000-3000 per employee. Also, each citizen would be required to have health insurance, and subsidies would be provided to the ones that cannot afford it.

One view someone might have would be that this could cause the firms become devious. They could try to find a way to employ less than 50 full time workers and have many part time employees to avoid providing affordable health insurance to employees. Many people who desire or need to work full time many have to find multiple jobs, since firms would be reducing hours for each employee to make them part time workers.

If America were to provide health care through taxes, this would not be an issue. It is known that the majority of Americans are capitalists, which means they would be against government taxation, but the citizens of American also want universal health care. With Obamacare, America runs the risk of increasing unemployment, but if taxpayers provided health care, they could have jobs, and universal healthcare.

Source:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2013/08/health-reform-and-employment