We all know that college is expensive. The average bachelors degree in the United States costs over $127,000. This, in addition to living costs, means that 70% of students end up taking out student loans to cover the cost. Also, spending four years in school means four years not having a steady income. College is the seen as the default path after high school, and while it you will make more money with a bachelors degree than just a high school diploma, is college actually the best option considered the cost?
Going to a four-year school isn't the only way to make money. Going trade school, which is a school that teaches a specific skill, like how to be mechanic or an electrician, can be pretty lucrative while not having the same costs as regular university. The average trade school degree cost $33,000, almost $100,000 less than a bachelors degree. The time is takes to get a trade school degree is also significantly less.
Technical jobs have a median salary of $35,500, while people with degree make on average $46,000. If you take into account student loans, tuition, college housing, and getting into the job market faster, trade school may be more financially wise in the long run. Also, because it's not really possible to replace your plumber with robot or someone oversees, the job security is much higher. Technical work is in high demand; not everyone will need to hire a computer programmer, but almost everyone will need a mechanic sometime in their life.
While trade school is often overlooked, its definitely not for everyone. While you can make a decent salary in a technical job, someone with a regular degree will, on average, make more money. Also, trade work is more dangerous. Climbing roof or handling live wires is a risk that not everyone is willing to take.
Blue-collar work isn't something that many people dream of, but it can be a smart decision for some. There are pros and cons for college and trade school, but some people just aren't cut out for college and vice versa. While it may not be right for everyone, trade school should be presented as an alternative option.
Work Citied:
https://www.thesimpledollar.com/why-you-should-consider-trade-school-instead-of-college/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryancraig/2018/06/14/blue-collar-trade-jobs-are-dangerous-but-not-for-the-reason-you-think/#75704444c639
https://lifehacker.com/trade-school-might-be-a-better-choice-than-college-her-1484086007
Thursday, November 29, 2018
How gyms stay in business
Anyone who has tried to buy their own gym equipment knows how expensive it is upfront and the maintenance is also quite costly, so looking at large gyms that have dozens of these machines it is hard to imagine how they stay in business. The success of gyms mostly has to do with the large market they serve and how little the consumers actually use the product they buy. In fact, only eighteen percent of gym membership holders use the gym regularly.
The other eighty-two percent of gym membership holders mostly subscribe as a result of New Year's Resolutions and the appeal of the idea of going to the gym. This means that they will sign up for plans and then the gym will use an automatic billing system to continue collecting money from the members without them remembering to unsubscribe.
Gyms know about this habit of people to sign up and forget about memberships so they will often allow many more people to sign up for memberships than the gym has capacity for. For example, most Planet Fitness gyms can only hold about three hundred people at a time but they each have around six thousand five hundred members. These extra members are pure profit for the company because they don't contribute to the wear and tear of the equipment and they don't use the other amenities like showers that the gym provides. So, despite the high upfront costs of owning a gym, the human behavior of most gym customers is what allows them to stay in business and turn such a large profit.
Sources
https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/05/23/exorcise-your-ghosts-of-spending-past.aspx
The other eighty-two percent of gym membership holders mostly subscribe as a result of New Year's Resolutions and the appeal of the idea of going to the gym. This means that they will sign up for plans and then the gym will use an automatic billing system to continue collecting money from the members without them remembering to unsubscribe.
Gyms know about this habit of people to sign up and forget about memberships so they will often allow many more people to sign up for memberships than the gym has capacity for. For example, most Planet Fitness gyms can only hold about three hundred people at a time but they each have around six thousand five hundred members. These extra members are pure profit for the company because they don't contribute to the wear and tear of the equipment and they don't use the other amenities like showers that the gym provides. So, despite the high upfront costs of owning a gym, the human behavior of most gym customers is what allows them to stay in business and turn such a large profit.
Sources
https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/05/23/exorcise-your-ghosts-of-spending-past.aspx
Economics of Procrastination
Procrastination is something that we all do in one form or another. Personally, I am currently procrastinating on my blog assignment, college apps, and an English essay. While procrastination may seem to be counterproductive on the surface, its benefits can be uncovered through analysis from the perspective of economics.
Many people derive utility from the act of procrastinating, even if they do not realize it. The decision to procrastinate comes down to opportunity cost. For example, the opportunity cost of spending time on homework now is the time that could be spent watching Netflix or playing games. Obviously the work must be done at some point in the future, however the instant gratification of wasting time now often outweighs the stress induced by putting work off.
People often justify procrastination through statements such as "I'll be more focused later" or "I just need a quick break." It may seem that these are just weak attempts at rationalizing time-wasting activities, however they are not without some truth. Deadlines have been shown to greatly improve productivity, and procrastination may actually reduce total time wasted. If one spends 3 hours at maximum focus working up to the deadline on an essay after procrastinating on it, they will have wasted less time than if they spent 5 hours working interspersed with distractions.
https://slate.com/human-interest/2008/05/how-economists-think-about-procrastination.html
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/12/30/procrastination.economics/
Many people derive utility from the act of procrastinating, even if they do not realize it. The decision to procrastinate comes down to opportunity cost. For example, the opportunity cost of spending time on homework now is the time that could be spent watching Netflix or playing games. Obviously the work must be done at some point in the future, however the instant gratification of wasting time now often outweighs the stress induced by putting work off.
People often justify procrastination through statements such as "I'll be more focused later" or "I just need a quick break." It may seem that these are just weak attempts at rationalizing time-wasting activities, however they are not without some truth. Deadlines have been shown to greatly improve productivity, and procrastination may actually reduce total time wasted. If one spends 3 hours at maximum focus working up to the deadline on an essay after procrastinating on it, they will have wasted less time than if they spent 5 hours working interspersed with distractions.
https://slate.com/human-interest/2008/05/how-economists-think-about-procrastination.html
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/12/30/procrastination.economics/
Economic Benefits of Trade School
The typical educational path for people in the United States is to go from high school to a traditional four-year college or to a community college and then a transfer to a traditional four-year college. This path may not be the best economic choice for every student, depending on the type of career they wish to pursue trade school may be the best option.
Trade school is a quick way for people to enter the workforce with most courses taking between six week and two years. These quick courses can provide students with the opportunity to make above minimum wage to help pay for college or start earning a good salary sooner than those who chose to take the traditional college path. In fact, these courses offer people a pathway into many fields including, stem, household maintenance, and other office jobs. For example, Phlebotomy (people who draw blood) can make between twenty-five to thirty dollars an hour and the course to get certified is only six weeks long. Eventually, people who have graduated from vocational school can earn close to one hundred thousand dollars, which is similar to what people who have graduated from a four-year college earn because they can occupy the same jobs.
Additionally, there is a high demand for people who have graduated from vocational school. This means that there are currently more scholarships for people going to these schools, reducing the amount of debt that people graduate from school with. Compared to a four-year college trade school can total thirty-three thousand dollars to complete whereas traditional college can cost upwards of two hundred thousand dollars for tuition alone, meaning that they will graduate with much more debt. This helps to eliminate the income inequality generated by these different types of schools because instead of paying thousands of dollars to the bank per month they can use all of their salaries for their own personal gain. This high demand for vocational workers also means that there are lower unemployment rates for graduates from trade school, providing job security to people in these positions. So, while trade school is not appropriate for every student it may be the best option for those looking for an alternative education path.
Sources
https://careerschoolnow.org/careers/trade-school-vs-traditional-college
Trade school is a quick way for people to enter the workforce with most courses taking between six week and two years. These quick courses can provide students with the opportunity to make above minimum wage to help pay for college or start earning a good salary sooner than those who chose to take the traditional college path. In fact, these courses offer people a pathway into many fields including, stem, household maintenance, and other office jobs. For example, Phlebotomy (people who draw blood) can make between twenty-five to thirty dollars an hour and the course to get certified is only six weeks long. Eventually, people who have graduated from vocational school can earn close to one hundred thousand dollars, which is similar to what people who have graduated from a four-year college earn because they can occupy the same jobs.
Additionally, there is a high demand for people who have graduated from vocational school. This means that there are currently more scholarships for people going to these schools, reducing the amount of debt that people graduate from school with. Compared to a four-year college trade school can total thirty-three thousand dollars to complete whereas traditional college can cost upwards of two hundred thousand dollars for tuition alone, meaning that they will graduate with much more debt. This helps to eliminate the income inequality generated by these different types of schools because instead of paying thousands of dollars to the bank per month they can use all of their salaries for their own personal gain. This high demand for vocational workers also means that there are lower unemployment rates for graduates from trade school, providing job security to people in these positions. So, while trade school is not appropriate for every student it may be the best option for those looking for an alternative education path.
Sources
https://careerschoolnow.org/careers/trade-school-vs-traditional-college
Opportunity Cost of Homeschooling
Homeschooling is a trend thats growing in the United States. Many parents are choosing to teach their child at home instead of sending them to regular school. It's considered an improvement by some. Children get one-on-one lessons instead of being lost among a classroom of thirty students. Also, when adding up all the cost of sending your child to school, even public school, homeschooling can seem cheaper. However, many people don't realize there is a significant opportunity cost of homeschooling.
The most impactful is the loss of income. At least one parent has to say home everyday to teaching their kids, and it's a big commitment. Any parent that decides to homeschool their child will probably need to quit their job, meaning they will be giving up however much money they make. Making less money may also result in having to adopt a more economic lifestyle, which can be stressful. Whatever cost you associate with happiness may also go up.
The cost of sacrificing time to teach your children yourself instead of sending them to public school can also extend to personal opportunity cost. Having no time to yourself can be a mental burden, and whatever you have to do or buy to make that up is also an opportunity cost.
This makes homeschooling sound pretty bad, but if you think it about there could be similar opportunity costs to sending kids to regular school. The important thing is what you'll have to sacrifice in terms of an income. Though I doubt anyone reading this will be thinking about homeschooling vs regular schooling anytime soon, is homeschooling worth it in terms of opportunity cost?
Work Citied:
http://www.homeeddirectory.com/articles/1_feb10
https://www.wahm.com/articles/the-cost-burdens-of-homeschooling.html
https://millennialmoneyman.com/cost-of-homeschooling/
The most impactful is the loss of income. At least one parent has to say home everyday to teaching their kids, and it's a big commitment. Any parent that decides to homeschool their child will probably need to quit their job, meaning they will be giving up however much money they make. Making less money may also result in having to adopt a more economic lifestyle, which can be stressful. Whatever cost you associate with happiness may also go up.
The cost of sacrificing time to teach your children yourself instead of sending them to public school can also extend to personal opportunity cost. Having no time to yourself can be a mental burden, and whatever you have to do or buy to make that up is also an opportunity cost.
This makes homeschooling sound pretty bad, but if you think it about there could be similar opportunity costs to sending kids to regular school. The important thing is what you'll have to sacrifice in terms of an income. Though I doubt anyone reading this will be thinking about homeschooling vs regular schooling anytime soon, is homeschooling worth it in terms of opportunity cost?
Work Citied:
http://www.homeeddirectory.com/articles/1_feb10
https://www.wahm.com/articles/the-cost-burdens-of-homeschooling.html
https://millennialmoneyman.com/cost-of-homeschooling/
Review of Spillover Cost and Benefits
In Chapter 30 we are introduced to the topic of spillovers. Spillovers, which can also be called externalities, are defined as either the cost or benefit accruing to a third party that is external to a market transaction. An example would be if you decided to play loud music in the middle of the night, the negative externality may be that your neighbor can no longer fall back asleep. There are also such things as spillover costs and benefits. Spillover costs are when there is an overproduction of a product and an over allocation of resources to this product (wasted resources on producing too much of a good). Spillover benefits are the exact opposite of this, there is an underproduction and an underallocation of resources. One key difference in the graphs between a spillover benefit and a spillover cost curve is the equilibrium output. In a cost curve the equilibrium output is greater than the optimal output, while in a benefit curve the equilibrium is less than the optimal output. I’ve attached below the graphs for both a spillover cost and a spillover benefit curve:
Spillover Benefit:
Spillover Cost:
Cultural Singularity: Losing Innovation in Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley. We’re known by the world for being a tech hub that is constantly stimulated by ideas, creativity, and innovation. We’re known for “thinking different”, thanks to Steve Jobs. In our coffee driven culture that ensues productivity, this is civilization that we promote. We’re not laid back, we constantly work—propelled and sustained by our caffeine. A few byproducts, or negative externalities, of course include mental health symptoms and anxiety, as well as tech workers causing displacement through gentrification.
We’re especially known for all of this, because we’re struggling to find a balance between consumption and production. And the ones to blame are the looming monopoly and oligopoly tech giants. They are part of the problem of why we are finding it so difficult to separate from our lives: from personal assistants of Siri to storing our memories through photos, documents, and other files to becoming stuck down an internet rabbit hole through the endless scrolling of social media and limitless clicking of recommendations on youtube. They are effectively made by tech giants to be dominating and addictive.
As we learned about the Disney and Universal in the “In media universe, the force is strongest with Disney, Universal” Article, parallel exclusion is when two companies dominate an industry and collude to keep barriers of entries high in order to exclude future businesses to compete, making it difficult to jump into the market and deter start ups. This targeting of their competitors discourages innovation. From tablets to smartphones, Samsung, Google, and Apple manages to maintain the oligopolistic market with their high production costs, economies of scale, and ownership of raw materials.
It is individuality and diverse thinking that led to the rise of Silicon Valley, let’s reclaim our iconic culture back.
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