Community Service Reflection

Alexys Hebner

Martinez P1

Economics

Community Service Reflection Paper

My project was to volunteer for free, absolutely no payment, for a total of ten hours. I chose to spend this time volunteering at a non-profit animal rescue shelter participating in dog adoption events and working at the kitten shelter cleaning cat cages and syringe-feeding the kittens who hadn’t figured out how to eat on their own/refused to eat because they were sick. I also participated in a dog take in event where they bring in a dozen or so dogs from out of state, get them microchipped and checked by a vet, then put them in foster homes until they are ready to be adopted by a loving family.

The mission for the shelter was to provide animals of all kinds (cats. dogs, chickens, goats, bunnies, ETC) a loving family and good home.

My volunteering at the rescue shelter of taking care of the animals until they could be adopted helped their mission by keeping the animals healthy and safe, and by helping advertise the dogs to families looking for a furry friend to add to their household.

If every teen did even a small amount of community service, then the community would be a little more appreciative of the youth of today. However, if EVERYBODY did a little bit more community service, then society as a whole would be bettered because more people would be helped, and it would keep the youth off the streets. It would also create a more welcoming and accepting society in my opinion. Plus, volunteering teaches people valuable skills, such as compassion, dedication, and selflessness.

If volunteer organizations did not exist, then there would be more paying jobs for people, however, people wouldn’t be able to learn the previously mentioned valuable skills.

I found out about this event from my mother, who told me that that was where we adopted our first kitten. She suggested I ask if I could volunteer there, and they eagerly accepted me for the first dog adoption event. Then, I couldn’t make it to the second adoption event (which would have finished off my hours), so they offered for me to come work at the kitten shelter instead. I agreed, and the very first day of working at the kitten care center, I fell in love with one of the kittens. At no discount or anything, my parents and I adopted the kitten from the shelter, and I continued to volunteer there, even exceeding the hours needed. 

I do plan on continuing to volunteer at the rescue shelter, and have been eagerly accepted to continue. From here on if I do continue to volunteer at the shelter, then I will be able to earn a t-shirt promoting that I volunteer for the shelter. Though not necessary, it would definitely help with the adoption events to separate me from everybody else walking around at the event and promote me as one of the volunteers instead of just another passerby.

I really enjoyed working with the puppies and kittens, and I made a few new friends by volunteering at the kitten shelter on Thursdays and participating in dog adoption events on the weekends. There are also students from NEHS (or something from the school) volunteering there as well, and there is at least one family from the school who is a foster family for the kittens and puppies.

Week 15 HW

We talked about the national debt and how our taxes are distributed through proportional taxes (constant percent), progressive tax (larger percent as income increases) and regressive tax (larger percent as income decreases). Then, we looked into how GDP, CPI and Unemployment affect the economy (recession if not meeting GDP or Unemployment goals, inflation if not meeting CPI goals, stable economy if meeting those goals, or stagflation if there is a recession and inflation). We fix a recession through the expansionary fiscal policy (increase spending, decrease taxes) or through the easy money monetary policy (lower interest rate, lower RRR [taxes on banks], and the fed buys back all the CMOS or bonds lent out). We fix inflation through the contractionary fiscal policy (lower spending, increase taxes), or through the tight money monetary policy (higher interest rate, higher RRR, and Fed sells CMOS to banks, which ties up their money). We fix stagflation through either the tight money monetary policy AND expansionary fiscal policy, or through the easy money monetary policy AND contractionary fiscal policy.

The hardest part is remembering which policy goes with what problem.

1) I actually prefer this over the daily worksheet. If only math homework could be that simple...
2) I really enjoyed the class, more so than almost any other class I've taken (except creative writing. They're on about the same level). I really remembered the examples we did in class like the Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (which showed the marginal cost) or the wine selling, so if there was any way to incorporate more things like that of those, that would be awesome. :3

Week 13 HW

Throughout the week, we learned of the big indicators of the economy. GDP (Gross Domestic Product. It means how much stuff we make, but only takes into account final goods, or goods that have theoretically reached their final buyer. It's not always a good indicator as things like the black market, though still considered products that reach their final buyers, don't fit the bill. We always want to be above 0%) is always accompanied by CPI (Consumer Price Index. It is the government looking at the average cost of prices throughout the country every month during the year. The goal of this is 0-3%  increase). Neither of those measure a key factor, though. We learned about unemployment (One must meet the following factors to be able to be considered a part of unemployment: Must be unable to find work, must be looking for work, must be physically able to work, must be willing to accept a wage consistent with your training and ability. There are four main types -- frictional, structural, seasonal, and cyclical. To be doing good, we want to reach full employment, which means unemplayment must be below 6%) on Finance Friday.

If our GDP is 4%, and our CPI is 2%, then our economy is doing great.
If our GDP is -1% and our CPI is 4%, then our economy is not doing very well.
When CPI is negative, that is called deflation.

(Based off what I've heard from other classes, this is what I understand about a huge national debt...) A huge national debt is a bad thing because that means that we are spending more money than we have. Sometimes, like in our case, a country (China) could buy us out of debt, but then, in a sense, we are owned by that country, and we owe our debt to that country.

Week 11 HW

The first day back, we talked about Über, and how it affects taxis as we did that wrong last week. Then we talked about the golden rule of economics (marginal costs) and marginal costs (marginal revenue brings in the most money). We talked about what to do if losing money at the marginal cost, as well. Then we talked about monopolies through the board game and how monopolies can be both good and bad, as well as the stages leading up to a mobopoly. A true monopoly can control the prices to the point where it is no longer affordable to the majority. On finance Friday, we talked about insurance, the different types and why we need them all. 

Based on the book factory, some advice I would give is to hire not enough workers, then keep adding one more workers as time goes on until you hit the "sweet spot" of workers, where every worker is doing something useful for the company. 

The hardest thing to grasp would be the which of the determinants is the actual correct determinate of the shift in the market, as there is normally two good determinate that could be argued. The easiest thing was which determinate goes with which curve. TENORG (tech, expectations, #of producers, recourse costs, other goods by comp) goes with supply, and TRIBE (tastes, related goods, income, #buyers, expectations)  goes with demand. 

Week 10 HW

Throughout the week, we learned about price floors (such as minimum wage, where the government sets a specific price and prices cannot go below that, though to be effective it must be placed above equilibrium, which creates surpluses) and price ceilings (such as Rent Control, placed below equilibrium in order to keep prices from rising to a point where they're affordable to most people, which creates shortages). We also expanded on the idea of how prices are created in any market, specifically the free market. On Friday, we worked on our Rockonomics project.

When adding UBER into the equation, the demand for taxis will decrease because the prices of UBER are lower, and the supply of taxis will stay the same, thereby lowering the equilibrium. This will affect taxi companies by forcing them to lower prices in order to compete with Uber, which results in less taxis going around.

Another FF topic I would like to cover what it costs to have children -- both opportunity costs and literal costs.

Week 9 HW

On Monday, we practiced with the determinants of supply and learned about the elasticity of supply. The price elasticity of supply is how much a change in price will affect the supply of a good. Elastic goods are relatively easy to make, and inelastic goods are more difficult to make. Time affects elasticity -- all goods are elastic in the long run. On Tuesday, we learned about how supply and demand affect how people name their children. The smaller supply of people with a certain name increases the demand for the name, as well as how the name of a very successful person (such as Thomas Eddison) suddenly comes into high demand after the person becomes successful. On Wednesday, we learned about our final major project of the year -- Rockonomics. The project is basically taking a song and rewriting the lyrics to teach a lesson learned from Economics, then recording somebody singing the song we wrote, and applying that song to a video. On Friday, we participated in an activity where half the class was selling wine and half the class was buying wine, and the activity explained how neither the consumers or producers can really control prices, but the free market can.

I plan on working alone, and I have several songs which I'm debating on doing, one of which being Welcome To The Show. The one question I have is if two units are closely related (EX: Scarcity and Incentives, or Cost and Benifits and Scarcity), can we include both of those units together and show how those two units are related?

My strategy for winning Monopoly was to get all of the section I landed on (EX: all the railroads, or all the dark blue ones), then move on to collecting all the other sections one at a time. That way, it would ensure that other people would land on something I owned at some point.

Week 8 HW

Over the course of the past week, we learned about the determinants of demand (Tastes and preferences, Related goods, Income of consumers, Buyers, Expectations of future availability/prices). We learned about the price elasticity of demand and how that affects the demand curve -- inelastic goods (goods we buy no matter what, like a phone) and elastic goods (goods where the amount we buy greatly depends on the price, like an airhead). We learned about supply (the willingness and ability to produce a specific good at all possible prices) through an example of flip flops and the law of supply (as prices increase, quantity supplied increases. As prices decrease, quantity supplied decreases). We learned about the determinants of supply (Tech, Expectations, Number of producers, Other goods by company, Recourse costs, Gov intervention). Finally, on Friday, we learned about resumes, how to fill one out, and how to make it look and sound better than all other resumes out there.

In today's world, I would argue that computers are an inelastic good only because if the price of a computer drops from $600 to $350, people are still only likely to buy one.

I think we should not increase minimum wage to $15 per hour only because that means that jobs are less likely to hire people, meaning less jobs available, which increases the unemployment rate.

Week 7 HW

Over the last week in Economics, we as a class learned about demand (the willingness and ability to purchase a specific good at all possible prices) through an activity involving how willing the class was to buy chicken nuggets at certain prices. We also learned about the law of demand, which states that as prices increase, the quantity demanded decreases, and vice versa. Then, we went on to create the demand curve, which shows the quantity demanded at every possible price. We talked about the determinants of demand and how they affect both demand and the demand curve. On Finance Friday, we leaned about stocks, how they work, why they work, and why companies invest in stocks.

One example of goods that are complementary are potatoes (A) and salt/butter (B. We'll use butter for this example). One example of goods that are substitutes are Fruity Pebbles (C) and Dyno Bites (D). If the price of Potatoes increases, the demand for both potatoes and butter would decrease. If the price of Fruity Pebbles increased, the demand of Dyno Bites would also increase.

If I had one child of my own, I'd name that child either Charlotte, Scarlet, or Gwendolyn for a girl, and either Tyler, Sean/Shaun/Shawn, or Elliot for a boy. Those are some of my favorite names. I love the longer classic type of names for girls and shorter names for guys. Also, I'm a bit of a writer, so I tend to look up names quite frequently, and those are ones I often resort to.

Week 5 HW

Over the last couple of weeks, we learned about the four different economic systems (traditional, where everything is ruled by tradition. The free market, where the people control everything. A command system, where the government controls everything. And a mixed government, where both the people and the government control everything) and how they play into the world. For example, America has a mixed economic system, North Korea has a command system, the Amish run a traditional system, and Hong Kong has the closest thing to a free market system. We also learned about the invisible hand, which is the idea that society uses competition and self interest (selfishness) to make things better. We learned the difference between Communism (government chooses how you live life) and Socialism (The community chooses how to live your life). On block day, we learned about incentives (something that influences a person's behavior through either punishment or reward) and how how an incentive affects people's lives. On the same day, we experienced incentive first hand through a quiz where if you got everything right, you failed, and how that same incentive had been used throughout our years in schooling and life. One Finance Friday, we learned about how to properly read a paycheck, how to file taxes, and how important our first job is.

1) To fly to either Europe or Israel, but to only carry one bag.
2) To fly to Brazil to have your bags not checked.
3) To carry only two bags anywhere.

Everything was rather easy to grasp. The most enjoyable thing to learn was the law of diminishing marginal value.

Week 4 HW

Over the course of the week, we learned about how voluntary exchange (the understanding that people will only trade if they feel that they will benefit from the trade) makes everybody wealthy, not necessarily rich. We also learned about the factors of production, which are Land (anything that comes from the Earth), Labor (the worker's/ people) and Capital (Physical capital: anything of inherent value. Human capital: the skills any person has). We learned the seven economic goals (Economic Equity, Economic Freedom, Economic Security, Economic Efficiency, Economic Growth, Full Employment, and Price Stability) and the two types of economic systems: Free Market (Freedom and efficiency) and Command (Equity and security) and that we can't have both types. America has a free Market. We learned about the Candy Bar idea (Get a credit card, buy a candy bar every day/every month, and pay it off immediately) and why we should all have credit cards, how they work, and why they work.

Land: You need the food to make the burrito (tortilla...)
Labor: You need workers to make the burrito.
Physical Capitol: Tin foil to wrap around the burrito to keep it warm/together.
Human Capitol: You need somebody who is good at cooking to prepare the food for the burrito.

My preferred methods of making somebody like me is to compliment them, or to ask them something personal (such as favorite color).

Week 3 HW

Over the past week in Economics, we learned quite a few things. For example, on the first day we learned what opportunity cost was (where you give up the second best option after making a choice) and how it related to Trade off (where you make a decision based off of many options, and it's related because opportunity cost -- what you give up -- is the result of a trade off -- what you choose). We also learned why we should go to college and how the decision of going to college or not will affect us in the future. For example, if we worked a job making $7/hr (about the average of what you can make if you don't go to college) and worked even up to 40 hours a week, you'd still only be bringing in about 70,000 every 5 years. If you went to college, tuition could be from $90,000 and up, and you add on the opportunity cost of not making $70,000 over the course of 5 years, that makes $160,000 for 5 years. But, if you go to college, then you could be making far more than that $90,000 a year. We also learned about PPC (the production possibility curve, or the maximum amount of two products you can make at the same time) and Marginal Analysis (through Reeces), which is basically that the more you have of something, the less you're going to want it, and nothing is immune to it. The golden rule is to always keep doing something until the cost outweighs the benefit. On finance Friday, we all learned that we're not ready to live on our own, and that budgeting is more complicated than we first assumed. Plus, we learned about how much our parents do to take care of us.

Every choice has an opportunity cost. One that I've made in high school thus far that has yielded the highest opportunity cost was choosing what I want to do with my life, AKA go to college to be a journalist. The thing I'll have to give up is getting a full time job to pay for everything. If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't change a thing.

One skill I would love to learn is how to not let other people influence my opinions/decisions. My desire to do things right and make other people happy is stopping me. Still, I don't just say what people want to hear just because I know it's what they want to hear.

Week 2 HW

On Monday, we learned, about scarcity (which has two meanings. 1: A situation where we want more than what we have. 2: When a resource has more than one VALUABLE use). We also learned that Economics isn't about money but the study of choices made by humans. On Tuesday, we learned about gangs and why people (especially the youth) are so interested in joining gangs despite knowing how dangerous it could be. We learned things such as how gangs make so much money (delving a tiny bit into the history of drugs and how drugs such as crack, cocaine, and heroin affect gangs), and how gang members/leaders get kids involved in gangs through making offers to the children (offer one thing in exchange for something to the member, and as the kid wants more, the gang member makes increasing desires. For example, offering a PS3 in exchange for washing the member's car every day for a month, and so on until the kid practically becomes a part of the gang). On Wednesday, we learned about the black rhinos and how people's choices and how poachers are affecting their decreasing population, and how economists and people around the world are coming up with ideas to try to save these rhinos. During Finance Friday, we learned about how we can all become millionaires if we use our money wisely, and we learned the difference between being rich and being wealthy (which is that if you're rich, it only takes a couple severe incidents and you could go broke, but being wealthy makes it very hard to go broke).

The impact scarcity has on the Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks is that it has more than one valuable use (making money for Starbucks, satisfying the people...), and there is also a limited time to get it. So people will be eager to get it.

I think that water is more valuable because water not only has multiple uses (bathing, hydrating, relaxing, exercise...) but is also a limited resource.