Ch 2: Supply and Demand

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/traveltips/10/12/holiday.air.travel/index.html

Summary

A recent article I read in the CNN gives advice about air travel from Rick Seaney, CEO of a consumer airline ticket research website. Farecompare.com says that holiday fares are up to 15% cheaper than last year because of low fuel prices during the recession.Although the fares have been increasing again, they are still considerably good deals. In addition, Seaney advises consumers to keep an eye on fares because they can fluctuate up to three times a day! The CEO also recommends to avoid flying on the busiest days because many airlines have made a $10 increase on all fares during those days. Lastly, check the baggage weight limitations for your airline to avoid paying the overweight luggage fee.

Connections

The obvious connection between this article and our text would be supply and demand. The article provides many examples of the factors and connection of supply and demand. Firstly, it mentions the recession and the effect on oil and fares. The recession would mean a change in general level of income, a factor affecting demand. A lower level of income results in a lower quantity demanded for anything. To combat the loss of demand, businesses must lower prices to attract more customers. Price is another factor affecting demand. Price and quantity demanded has an inverse relationship. When the price decreases, the quantity demanded increases. Also, the article also mentions that high-season and holidays will always cost more. This is true because the demand for air travel becomes more inelastic during high-season. Businesses can charge more and it will not have much effect on the demand side.

Reflection

The article gives many good travel and money-saving tips. Everyone wants more money in their pocket and would like to avoid spending any unnecessary bucks. By keeping an eye out for price fluctuations and having a flexible holiday plan, consumers may be able to save a good sum of money. The article showed how by staying an extra day, a person saved more than $100. In addition, I found the most helpful tip was about the luggage weight limitations. Passengers have to be very careful not to exceed the weight limitations because there will be more unnecessary dollars spent. Ultimately, a vacation is for the sole purpose of relaxing and having fun.

Ch. 1 - Scarce Resource and Opportunity Cost

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2009/200908/20090829/article_412146.htm#explore

Summary
The article reports on the expansion of greenland in Shanghai despite limited space. The densely populated Shanghai, with a population nearing 19million, increased the amount of greenland by 400 times since 1949. Sixty years ago, there was only 86 hectares of greenland in Shanghai, but last year, 34,256 hectares of greenland was measured, covering 38 percent of the city. Shanghai plans to add another 1,190 hectares of greenland and to renovate 54 old parks this year. Overpopulation and limited land, a major problem in Shanghai, hinders the further development of greenland. Although population density is a setback, the government encourages growth of green coverage throughout the city. Roof gardening, balcony greening, and bridge greening are possible ways to increase green coverage, bringing many environmental benefits.

Connections
I believe the connection of this article to our text is scarcity. Land is a non-renewable resource and has a definite “amount”; therefore it is a scarce resource. Making choices about how to utilize the land is very important, especially in a place with high population density. In the article, the Shanghai government used 38% of the city to build greenland and parks, a very significant figure in such a population dense area. There is a direct cost and opportunity cost involved in building greenland. The direct cost is the expense for building greenland and renovating parks. The opportunity cost is sacrificing the land that could be used to ease the problem of high population density.

Reflections
I believe that Shanghai had made a great choice in promoting environmentalism. Humans have been polluting the Earth since the Industrial Revolution, so protecting the environment is the natural thing to do. The government could make money by selling the land to land developers, and many apartments could be built on the 34,000 hectares of land to alleviate the high population density. Instead, Shanghai increased the amount of green coverage throughout the city despite limited land resource. The Shanghai government is sacrificing a lot to become greener. I believe environmentalism is very important because humans can only survive because Earth offers us so many resources. We must maintain the mutual relationship between humans and Earth.