Capitalist economics is an economic system based on the majority of the people, providing labor for the minority, at a cost that is a small percentage of the profit the laborer had generated. It is a system in which those with wealth (an amount of money to invest) can succeed while those without wealth are at a disadvantage. Capitalism, for those with wealth, works like this; Wealth is invested in a business which supplies your Capital (all of the materials needed to run and manufacture your product). This investment returns a finished product and becomes Profit (money gained after capital costs are accounted for). This profit is re-invested and becomes even more wealth. The reason for this re-investment, is because of the "profit motive", which is that the investment will yield a profit and increase your original wealth.
The "free market" is a main pillar of what capitalism is about. The free market is a market that allows anyone who wishes to compete for business in an industry to do so. This competition is based off of "market pricing". The market price, or "equilibrium price" is how the producer and the consumer dictate pricing, and who can compete for that market price. It is a competitive necessity of the producer, in order to compete to offer the lowest price they can without their capital costs coming within a penny of their profit. This competition to decrease capital costs in certain cases has global consequences. An example, is the cost of labor. Due to a competitive market, companies will pay the lowest amount that they possibly can get people to work for. It is for this reason that government is supposed to regulate certain costs and pricing such as the minimum wage that a company can pay for labor. Another case of government regulation is price control. Price control is used to prevent price fixing and price gouging. Price fixing, and gouging are when the prices are being regulated and set by the producer and not the consumer. When this happens, the consumer can be charged any price that is decided and that becomes the market price. A problem with the way that government regulates this is this can result in a shortage. A shortage is a scenario in capitalism, in which consumers have the money to pay the market price, but the product is not available
An important concept behind capitalism and the free market, is supply and demand. Supply is the total amount of a product available for purchase at any price. Demand is the amount of that product that will be bought at any price. Any price change for a product, will not change the supply itself, but the quantity that a company is willing to supply at that price, will. On the other side, a price increase or decrease will affect the demand for the product at that price. When a product has a limited supply (oil), as opposed to being unlimited (trees; wood) than the product is scarce.
Capitalism as a whole, the free market, supply and demand, and profit motive all seem to be for the most part; self correcting, and self regulating. This is the idea which in capitalism is called, the "Invisible hand". It is an idea based off of what economists such as Leonard E. Read (the author of "I, Pencil") observed about the market. They saw that without one real dominant force in the market, things were arranged where their were automatically low prices, competition (balanced the market), and low capital costs. In reality, the invisible hand is competition in the free market. What drives this competition is profit motive, and overall self interest. All occurring in a market that essentially anyone is free to enter. The free market in America, along with profit motive allows for "social mobility". Social Mobility is the chance to elevate your socio-economic status past that of your parents. The incentive for hard work is to better your parents, as is the motive for making profit through investment in the market. Social mobility provides a constant degree of self interest for a reason to invest in the market, which acts as the invisible hand ensuring stability and interest in the market.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
"I, Pencil"
Paraphrasing
I, Pencil by Leonard E. Read is a story of what goes into making a given product such as a pencil. Read, uses the pencil as the narrator of the story to explain what goes into its own creation. The Pencil cites all of the manpower and the resources that come from different industries across the globe, which culminates to create this deceptively simple product. The main idea that the Pencil focuses on is that the countless hours and amount of work that goes into creating this final product is not seen by the consumer, and is often overlooked entirely. This idea is stated as an “invisible hand”, which plays the role of everything that goes into the pencil that we the consumer do not consider. The capitalist mentality of the pencil is shown by its feelings that government needs to stay out of these processes in order for this process to occur, which is succinct with a main pillar of the “free market”.
Quotes
"Each of these millions sees that he can thus exchange his tiny know-how for the goods and services he needs or wants. I may or may not be among these items."
"For, if one is aware that these know-hows will naturally, yes, automatically, arrange themselves into creative and productive patterns in response to human necessity and demand—that is, in the absence of governmental or any other coercive masterminding—then one will possess an absolutely essential ingredient for freedom: a faith in free people. Freedom is impossible without this faith."
"Each one acknowledges that he himself doesn't know how to do all the things incident to mail delivery. He also recognizes that no other individual could do it. These assumptions are correct. No individual possesses enough know-how to perform a nation's mail delivery any more than any individual possesses enough know-how to make a pencil."
Analysis
This story shows how, the people involved in the creation of a pencil each have a hand in this, but are not doing what they do to achieve the goal of a final product; a pencil. Leonard E. Read’s story is about how everyone’s “little bit of know how” contributes to making a finalized material (wood slats, shaped graphite, lacquer) which is used to finalize and create a number of other products. This is done through the outlook of a capitalist who believes strongly in the free market. The introduction of government and a governmental presence was shown in the story to be something that Read saw as highly detrimental to the way in which goods are fabricated. I think that he masked this resentment of governmental involvement with the “opinion” of how this involvement hinders creativity. When you think about it, manufacturing a pencil and every one of the different processes that Leonard E. Read referenced, involved no creativity because it does not warrant creativity.
I, Pencil by Leonard E. Read is a story of what goes into making a given product such as a pencil. Read, uses the pencil as the narrator of the story to explain what goes into its own creation. The Pencil cites all of the manpower and the resources that come from different industries across the globe, which culminates to create this deceptively simple product. The main idea that the Pencil focuses on is that the countless hours and amount of work that goes into creating this final product is not seen by the consumer, and is often overlooked entirely. This idea is stated as an “invisible hand”, which plays the role of everything that goes into the pencil that we the consumer do not consider. The capitalist mentality of the pencil is shown by its feelings that government needs to stay out of these processes in order for this process to occur, which is succinct with a main pillar of the “free market”.
Quotes
"Each of these millions sees that he can thus exchange his tiny know-how for the goods and services he needs or wants. I may or may not be among these items."
"For, if one is aware that these know-hows will naturally, yes, automatically, arrange themselves into creative and productive patterns in response to human necessity and demand—that is, in the absence of governmental or any other coercive masterminding—then one will possess an absolutely essential ingredient for freedom: a faith in free people. Freedom is impossible without this faith."
"Each one acknowledges that he himself doesn't know how to do all the things incident to mail delivery. He also recognizes that no other individual could do it. These assumptions are correct. No individual possesses enough know-how to perform a nation's mail delivery any more than any individual possesses enough know-how to make a pencil."
Analysis
This story shows how, the people involved in the creation of a pencil each have a hand in this, but are not doing what they do to achieve the goal of a final product; a pencil. Leonard E. Read’s story is about how everyone’s “little bit of know how” contributes to making a finalized material (wood slats, shaped graphite, lacquer) which is used to finalize and create a number of other products. This is done through the outlook of a capitalist who believes strongly in the free market. The introduction of government and a governmental presence was shown in the story to be something that Read saw as highly detrimental to the way in which goods are fabricated. I think that he masked this resentment of governmental involvement with the “opinion” of how this involvement hinders creativity. When you think about it, manufacturing a pencil and every one of the different processes that Leonard E. Read referenced, involved no creativity because it does not warrant creativity.
Responses to other Video's
Esther
hwhat lol. I think that what stood out the most for me was how your focus was on family, while virtually everyone else's video put emphasis on friends or personal things. Good job, and you have a massive family, i have like 8 people lol.
Insight: The way that Esther looked at her life, and did her video was really telling into what matters to her most. I would look at myself and think that I value my friends and think more of them than my family, but Esther was very matter of fact and made her family the forefront of her video. I think this is what made her video and her life not typical for an American teenager.
Binta
Really good video, i liked how you put your sister on the spot and you got a very spur of the moment response. I think this was enough to really make the viewer look at the rest of your movie with that in mind. Good job.
Insight: Their are so many different ways in which our lives are shaped and defined, but in Binta's video, the interesting thing was that she had someone who helped to shape her life (her sister) explain what they thought her way of life was. For the most part, her sister said quite typical things about Binta's way of life (not bad, just typical). Interestingly we saw through her pictures and family that she did not lead a typical American life, but infact a diverse and worldly one, unlike most Americans. Myself included.
Chloe
Nice video Chloe, i the fact that you showed so many different parts of your life helped to show how your life was a culmination of parents, friends, and different groups of friends, school and...not school
Insight: Chloe's video in my opinion seemed to show that she had a relatively typical way of life; friends, boyfriend, and family. The interesting thing was that, if this was a typical AWOL, than really it is a balanced and healthy way of life. The AWOL, similar to Chloe's way of life is not heavily based on a value of family or friends or anything for that matter. It is about participating in many different things, land being involved with many different people. This is what makes the AWOL different from the rest of the world, where certain countries and cultures highly value family, or hard work, or friendsack, or love.
hwhat lol. I think that what stood out the most for me was how your focus was on family, while virtually everyone else's video put emphasis on friends or personal things. Good job, and you have a massive family, i have like 8 people lol.
Insight: The way that Esther looked at her life, and did her video was really telling into what matters to her most. I would look at myself and think that I value my friends and think more of them than my family, but Esther was very matter of fact and made her family the forefront of her video. I think this is what made her video and her life not typical for an American teenager.
Binta
Really good video, i liked how you put your sister on the spot and you got a very spur of the moment response. I think this was enough to really make the viewer look at the rest of your movie with that in mind. Good job.
Insight: Their are so many different ways in which our lives are shaped and defined, but in Binta's video, the interesting thing was that she had someone who helped to shape her life (her sister) explain what they thought her way of life was. For the most part, her sister said quite typical things about Binta's way of life (not bad, just typical). Interestingly we saw through her pictures and family that she did not lead a typical American life, but infact a diverse and worldly one, unlike most Americans. Myself included.
Chloe
Nice video Chloe, i the fact that you showed so many different parts of your life helped to show how your life was a culmination of parents, friends, and different groups of friends, school and...not school
Insight: Chloe's video in my opinion seemed to show that she had a relatively typical way of life; friends, boyfriend, and family. The interesting thing was that, if this was a typical AWOL, than really it is a balanced and healthy way of life. The AWOL, similar to Chloe's way of life is not heavily based on a value of family or friends or anything for that matter. It is about participating in many different things, land being involved with many different people. This is what makes the AWOL different from the rest of the world, where certain countries and cultures highly value family, or hard work, or friendsack, or love.
My American Way of Life
This video of myself is not representative of every aspect of my life, nor was it intended. This video instead is a look at a very important aspect of my life, my neighborhood; Greenwich Village. Having Lived here since i was 3 years old, I identify myself with it and a large amount of my life has been spent with friends walking around, hanging out in parks, doing random things. I dub it "The GV" at the beginning of my video as a kind of joke, giving what is now an upper class neighborhood, a dope name. This is not a look at my entire life, my family does play a major role in my life, however, in my every day life, my AWOL, my time spent a great deal more outside with my friends than with my family.
In my video, virtually every store, deli, restaurant has a story or event involving me and my friends that goes along with it. At one point we pass, a bakery called "Magnolia" which due to undeserved publicity from some show, has stupid tourists and yuppies clamoring for one of the worst, yet sought after cupcakes in NYC. For the sole purpose of shock value, me and my friends quickly think up a vulgar and amusing story as to how we did..things in the store, and to the ingredients.
I think that overall, my way of life is not good, or bad. It is certainly one focused on friends more than family, but not friends over family. I spend time with my friends in my neighborhood and as a result, I have a massive amount of memorable events that are great things to look back on and make for stories where you just couldn't make-this-shit-up. At the same time I don't feel like this is any different from most kids growing up in New York, and all over for that matter. Almost all kids for better or worse spend vastly more time with friends than family.
I would have liked to include more content about my family, but I thought that it would be more relevant to make my neighborhood the main focus as I was walking around with friends at the time I was thinking about how i wanted to make my video, and when i was considering what MY WAY OF LIFE was, not my life story so much.
The general idea of my life in my video is really not evident if you are not from that group of friends from GV. This is because although I am the only one in my video (except for at the end) this represents growing up in the village, and what we did, how we did it and why we did it. Walking past Magnolia, making fun of the expensive new stores such as Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs, and the people who shop at them.
All of the aspects of my way of life, fit together seamlessly. The nature of doing all of what we do when we are walking around tends to have bad outcomes sometimes, and when it does, our parents have to get involved (only happened once). But in the end that is what makes for those unbelievable stories.
In my opinion, I live a typical New York way of life, not a typical AWOL. This is because i know for a fact that my dad who grew up in the Bronx has stories that parallel mine, and so do a great deal of kids at SOF. Living in NYC has its benefits, and this is one of them. Urban environments like those in Chicago and Philli are comparable to NY, while living in Minnesota, or Vermont or any suburban area is just not capable of producing a person who lives a life like we do in New York.
What is interesting to me about my life, is how broad of a social spectrum I have seen. I saw my neighborhood go from a artists community, where every store was a small buisiness, and the people were real New Yorkers, to the opposite. As of about 3 or so years ago, the artists were replaced by day- traders, the small buisinesses replaced by Coach, Apple, Hugo Boss and about four Ralph Lauren stores. This was what me and my friends were part of, and privy to, we were the last of the real Greenwich Village kids, and we knew it.
Jakob Friedman - American Way Of Life. from Binta B. on Vimeo.
In my video, virtually every store, deli, restaurant has a story or event involving me and my friends that goes along with it. At one point we pass, a bakery called "Magnolia" which due to undeserved publicity from some show, has stupid tourists and yuppies clamoring for one of the worst, yet sought after cupcakes in NYC. For the sole purpose of shock value, me and my friends quickly think up a vulgar and amusing story as to how we did..things in the store, and to the ingredients.
I think that overall, my way of life is not good, or bad. It is certainly one focused on friends more than family, but not friends over family. I spend time with my friends in my neighborhood and as a result, I have a massive amount of memorable events that are great things to look back on and make for stories where you just couldn't make-this-shit-up. At the same time I don't feel like this is any different from most kids growing up in New York, and all over for that matter. Almost all kids for better or worse spend vastly more time with friends than family.
I would have liked to include more content about my family, but I thought that it would be more relevant to make my neighborhood the main focus as I was walking around with friends at the time I was thinking about how i wanted to make my video, and when i was considering what MY WAY OF LIFE was, not my life story so much.
The general idea of my life in my video is really not evident if you are not from that group of friends from GV. This is because although I am the only one in my video (except for at the end) this represents growing up in the village, and what we did, how we did it and why we did it. Walking past Magnolia, making fun of the expensive new stores such as Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs, and the people who shop at them.
All of the aspects of my way of life, fit together seamlessly. The nature of doing all of what we do when we are walking around tends to have bad outcomes sometimes, and when it does, our parents have to get involved (only happened once). But in the end that is what makes for those unbelievable stories.
In my opinion, I live a typical New York way of life, not a typical AWOL. This is because i know for a fact that my dad who grew up in the Bronx has stories that parallel mine, and so do a great deal of kids at SOF. Living in NYC has its benefits, and this is one of them. Urban environments like those in Chicago and Philli are comparable to NY, while living in Minnesota, or Vermont or any suburban area is just not capable of producing a person who lives a life like we do in New York.
What is interesting to me about my life, is how broad of a social spectrum I have seen. I saw my neighborhood go from a artists community, where every store was a small buisiness, and the people were real New Yorkers, to the opposite. As of about 3 or so years ago, the artists were replaced by day- traders, the small buisinesses replaced by Coach, Apple, Hugo Boss and about four Ralph Lauren stores. This was what me and my friends were part of, and privy to, we were the last of the real Greenwich Village kids, and we knew it.
Jakob Friedman - American Way Of Life. from Binta B. on Vimeo.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
The American Way of Life: The American Perspective
Jakob Friedman
10/7/08
History
The American way of life is something, which has been more of a cultural phenomenon than anything else since the creation of America. It has not however been defined and no real commonly accepted articulation of the AWOL has been made. In order to find out what it was, or if one even existed, I interviewed an array of people living in America. The views expressed by people who were interviewed on America, and the American way of life (AWOL), varied. For the most part, it seemed that Americans were indecisive about where America is right now. This made it so people were saying that, America is a failing nation, but also in other ways is still the country it used to be. An explanation for these responses is that America right now is in uncertain times and in turn the people are uncertain on what will be the end result of the economic, foreign policy, social, and political conflict.
My mom, who I interviewed on the AWOL chose to focus her answers on how the American family. “In the past,” she said “it used to be that the mother would stay home and do house work, while the father would go out and earn the money. Now the economy is simply not strong enough in America for that to be the standard.” My mom works 2 jobs and used her own life as proof of how the American standard (or AWOL) has changed. In terms of family life, and economics the American way of life has changed, the economics of the times have impacted the family life and changed how we live in America. My dad, whom I also interviewed, expressed the idea that the American way of life really is just a modern lifestyle shared by various peoples other than Americans. “Due to industrialization of the majority of the world, virtually every major culture that once was traditionally definable has become a commercialized nation and like America.” He did say that the American way of life is unique in one respect above all others. “America is at its core a country founded on ideals which culminate to create an ideal environment for creativity and entrepreneurship.” Creativity thrives when it is allowed to and tends to result in advances in the sciences and technology. America has indeed been the place for innovation of the majority of technology in the last century since the technical revolution, than again the Japanese, and other nations have also been innovators.
In class we interviewed a college graduate student named Tim, who grew up in long island, and is self-described as coming from a privileged background. Tim said that he believed money to be the biggest determining factor in how people live and what dictates how people get to live their “American way of life”. Tim did not define what he believed the AWOL to be, but what he said fell under the common idea that it is about having the freedom and ability to rise through a class system created to allow people to rise from what they do, and how hard they work to get their. When asked in class by Sandy, what he thought positive and negative aspects of the AWOL were, Tim said, “A positive aspect is that the system is set up for people to be able to change their socioeconomic class with hard work. The negative aspect is that people can change their position but it is so much harder to do so when coming from poverty.” What Tim said points out a very large part of America, it has great poverty as well as great wealth, but unlike other countries, we have a middle class which is unlike the upper class and much closer to the lower class because of how wealthy the few people who make up the real (not just well off, the CEO’s) upper class are. Kevin during class made an important distinction between the wealthy and the rich. “Shaq, is rich. He gets paid millions to play basketball, but the person who signs the check and pays him millions to play is wealthy”.
When I interviewed people in the street about the AWOL, I never was able to get a definitive answer. When talking to a 20- something year old, white, middle class woman, I asked her about what she thought largest problem in America was that could the AWOL, her response was that “the economy is the problem and is going to warrant changes from the American people”. I asked her to clarify that. “The economy is in bad shape right now and if we change how we live, who knows what might happen, the American people wont change how they live, and they shouldn’t.” When Mr. Fanning came into class to talk to us about the AWOL, he said, “The AWOL is having the freedom to fulfill ones dreams, to seek out and attain that goal.” To try and put the AWOL on a personal level, I asked him where he thought his job fit into the AWOL, and what he thought his role was in how it all played out. “My job as a principal, and overall as an educator is to provide the skills you all need to ensure a future where you can achieve the American dream and your goals in your own AWOL.” The definition of the AWOL was not something that he thought up himself or fully agreed with. He felt that the AWOL was an ideal that had been manufactured by the media, and not a real life ideal that is commonly seen or reached.
10/7/08
History
The American way of life is something, which has been more of a cultural phenomenon than anything else since the creation of America. It has not however been defined and no real commonly accepted articulation of the AWOL has been made. In order to find out what it was, or if one even existed, I interviewed an array of people living in America. The views expressed by people who were interviewed on America, and the American way of life (AWOL), varied. For the most part, it seemed that Americans were indecisive about where America is right now. This made it so people were saying that, America is a failing nation, but also in other ways is still the country it used to be. An explanation for these responses is that America right now is in uncertain times and in turn the people are uncertain on what will be the end result of the economic, foreign policy, social, and political conflict.
My mom, who I interviewed on the AWOL chose to focus her answers on how the American family. “In the past,” she said “it used to be that the mother would stay home and do house work, while the father would go out and earn the money. Now the economy is simply not strong enough in America for that to be the standard.” My mom works 2 jobs and used her own life as proof of how the American standard (or AWOL) has changed. In terms of family life, and economics the American way of life has changed, the economics of the times have impacted the family life and changed how we live in America. My dad, whom I also interviewed, expressed the idea that the American way of life really is just a modern lifestyle shared by various peoples other than Americans. “Due to industrialization of the majority of the world, virtually every major culture that once was traditionally definable has become a commercialized nation and like America.” He did say that the American way of life is unique in one respect above all others. “America is at its core a country founded on ideals which culminate to create an ideal environment for creativity and entrepreneurship.” Creativity thrives when it is allowed to and tends to result in advances in the sciences and technology. America has indeed been the place for innovation of the majority of technology in the last century since the technical revolution, than again the Japanese, and other nations have also been innovators.
In class we interviewed a college graduate student named Tim, who grew up in long island, and is self-described as coming from a privileged background. Tim said that he believed money to be the biggest determining factor in how people live and what dictates how people get to live their “American way of life”. Tim did not define what he believed the AWOL to be, but what he said fell under the common idea that it is about having the freedom and ability to rise through a class system created to allow people to rise from what they do, and how hard they work to get their. When asked in class by Sandy, what he thought positive and negative aspects of the AWOL were, Tim said, “A positive aspect is that the system is set up for people to be able to change their socioeconomic class with hard work. The negative aspect is that people can change their position but it is so much harder to do so when coming from poverty.” What Tim said points out a very large part of America, it has great poverty as well as great wealth, but unlike other countries, we have a middle class which is unlike the upper class and much closer to the lower class because of how wealthy the few people who make up the real (not just well off, the CEO’s) upper class are. Kevin during class made an important distinction between the wealthy and the rich. “Shaq, is rich. He gets paid millions to play basketball, but the person who signs the check and pays him millions to play is wealthy”.
When I interviewed people in the street about the AWOL, I never was able to get a definitive answer. When talking to a 20- something year old, white, middle class woman, I asked her about what she thought largest problem in America was that could the AWOL, her response was that “the economy is the problem and is going to warrant changes from the American people”. I asked her to clarify that. “The economy is in bad shape right now and if we change how we live, who knows what might happen, the American people wont change how they live, and they shouldn’t.” When Mr. Fanning came into class to talk to us about the AWOL, he said, “The AWOL is having the freedom to fulfill ones dreams, to seek out and attain that goal.” To try and put the AWOL on a personal level, I asked him where he thought his job fit into the AWOL, and what he thought his role was in how it all played out. “My job as a principal, and overall as an educator is to provide the skills you all need to ensure a future where you can achieve the American dream and your goals in your own AWOL.” The definition of the AWOL was not something that he thought up himself or fully agreed with. He felt that the AWOL was an ideal that had been manufactured by the media, and not a real life ideal that is commonly seen or reached.
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