Business Decisions

Just recently, Jersey Mike's was selling subs for 1 dollar each, and the outcome was not pretty. There were numerous amounts of people just yesterday willing to line up for what is basically a free sub sandwich. The amount of resources being used seem liked they were about to lose a large amount of money. Comparing Jersey Mike's to McDonald's, Jersey Mike's seems to use fresh ingredients compared to McDonald's where almost everything is frozen or pre-made. I know this is a marketing scheme but it seems the marketing wouldn't work at all, losing vast amounts of money in short time. Due to this Jersey Mike's would have to sacrifice quality for quantity, basically having frozen packaged food rather than the usual fresh food. This can make a difference being cheaper to obtain and having almost no repercussions in the customer's eyes. This could be a smart decision if it were true as word of mouth will get around of how great the sandwiches can be, which can result in more customers and more revenue. In the short run it is probably a bad idea, but in the long run it will be worth it.    

GDP

Gross Domestic Product is a gauge used to measure a country's economic status and it is calculated in expenditures and investments. Many people want GDP to also include many other things such as the black market, or non economic sources of well being an example being happiness. I don't believe that GDP should be drastically changed but should add an addition to the underground economy that goes on in the United States and various other countries. Illegal activities has a lot profit and value over it, but it is not formally accounted for even though it is a sort of income such as major seizures of illegal drugs from a gang or cartel. There are lots of illegal weapons being hopped along the borders from Canada and Mexico, and the weapons themselves have lots of value also. I personally think that GDP should be defined as any item that has value is sold or bought in the U.S. should be accounted for whether it be illegal or not.

Is Greed Good?

Greed is good to a certain extent, those that create jobs for a company created by smart owners, but bad for the rich CEOs that only want money. Greed can help stimulate the economy when those that have disposable income can spend their money on things that may need the help of another person. Prime examples being workers to help if making new additions to a home, or purchasing stock from a newly formed company. Stocks can help build up an entirely new company to the mix, which in turn creates jobs, and possibly gaining more revenue from the enhanced workforce. But the question still remains how much is too much? There are people in the world that only want to gain money that could be at the cost of others. A CEO of a major company may decide to liquidate a company entirely overnight which can cause people to lose their jobs without even noticing. In the eyes of stockholders as long as the stock continues to rise, there isn't any reason to care for the minimum wage worker because money is all they see.

Government Shutdown

The recent government shutdown seems to be the problem of the old Republicans vs Democratic party of deciding on Obamacare even though it is now technically a law. The Republicans are just delaying the inevitable of what will eventually happen, with some politicians afraid of the amount of money being poured into it when the United States is already in deep financial trouble. It seems that opportunity costs weighs heavily on this as the budget for the United States will be reduced in every aspects except healthcare. The fact remains that the U.S. cannot spend any more or else the financial problem will be bigger than ever. The Republicans in this position are only delaying what is soon to come and should just agree to what the Senate did. Congress should also take immediate action to this rather than sit around doing nothing, or perhaps even take a paycut such as those that are on definite leave working for the federal government. It seems that politicians are rather worried about furthering their own agenda rather than opinions of the people.

S.N.A.P.

I personally believe that cutting the funding of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program may be a step in the right direction. This may seem bad as in reducing help to those that need it but social welfare is large part of the federal budget. There are many cases of those that the abuse this system when there are many others that rely on it. This may seem heartless to those that need it, but the U.S. debt cannot be ignored. There has to be cuts in several programs to reduce the spending of the federal budget spending on more important matters. Those that truly deserve the food stamps should have access to it, unlike those that merely play the system to use the food stamps to obtain cash. This is a small step towards the right direction as the U.S. cannot ignore the problems any longer.

On Syria

Currently the situation in Syria is still a bit troublesome, with the U.S. and Russia taking their own sides in this conflict, with the U.S. supporting the rebels and Russia supporting the current government. Although I am in favor that the people should take over when a government is a dictatorship that cannot be tolerated, I cannot condone the C.I.A. sending weapons to the Syrian rebels. This current situation seems like another Iraq and Afghanistan with strong world powers using this as another proxy war. For example Russia invaded Afghanistan intending to take more land, but the C.I.A. sent millions of dollars in weaponry to the Mujahideen in order to stop that from ever happening. Russia lost the conflict and the Mujahideen won, but the outcome was far greater. The C.I.A. may have knowingly or unknowingly sent weapons to Osama Bin Laden funding one of the prime players in the terrorist group Al-Qaeda. The world and its people expect America to do something acting like the world police when it should have never have been in the first place. Although selfish, the United States should look out for itself as a country first than help others in need.

Minimum Wage

There have been a lot of news lately, about disgruntled fast food workers demanding raising the minimum wage to at least 15 dollars an hour. For many in the U.S. this is an extremely bad idea as it could destabilize the economy with the vast amounts of money of flowing through. The rise in pay increase would also be unfair to many others as simply working for a fast food restaurant should not earn 15 an hour. From my experience the work is not hard and there are many people that would love to get a job   I currently work for a McDonald's and the minimum wage is 8.25 an hour and although I would love to earn more it is just not realistic in the state the world is in right now.