For this blog I decided to do something a little different than the norm, and instead of writing about an economic issue with the world today, I am going to write about my favorite topics in Econ 101. I enjoyed Econ 101 in many ways, but a couple of topics really stood out. They included how government impacts the economy, charitability, and the feudal system. The reason why I am choosing how the government impacts the economy is because I never thought much of a correlation existed between the two, and this class taught me otherwise. I chose charitability because it opened my eyes to the truth that donating a massive amount of goods to a country can have a negative impact because it can disrupt local businesses. The last one I chose was the feudal system. While learning about it recently, I realized it has some correlation with chess which I happen to enjoy.
In Econ 101 I learned about how the government has serious ties to the economy. The first way this happens is by investing government funds into or taking away government funds away from the economy, thus causing deflation or inflation. The second way the government has a foothold in the economy is by pouring money into local businesses or corporations to keep them afloat. While this looks good, it can be bad because it closes the market off to smaller businesses trying to get to the top. The third way the government can control the economy that I found particularly interesting is they can control not just rent, but also prices. They can do this by increasing or decreasing the price ceiling which controls the maximum price of a product. The price floor controls the minimum price of a product. The price celling and price floor have a specific impact on apartments. The way governments control prices are through taxes. While I sort of knew about this, the thing I thought was interesting is the government can tax imported goods by however much they want, and they can minimize the amount of products that people overseas sell. After learning more about the correlation between government and economy, I understand more about how important government is to America, but they need to be careful how much they invest in the economy.
I never realized charitability can be a negative thing. As I stated earlier, there is a proper way to be charitable. This is by giving enough money to people so they can lift themselves up from poverty, create a business or encourage others to do so. The important thing which people lose sight of is to not give too much, but also not too little. One must find that balance to be successful. Also, one must make sure the money handed out is paid back, but only to an extent. If the people lift themselves up and start making money for themselves, they should be asked to repay the money without interest to give them a sense of responsibility. While I enjoy hearing and participating in charitable work, I think how most people are charitable is wrong. The way we should be doing it is by investing in the businesses of poor nations, not the countries themselves.
The last topic I found particularly interesting is how, in my opinion, chess resembles the feudal system. The first example of this is how the pawns on a chess board symbolically resemble peasants in the medieval times. The reason for this is both are expendable, and both are sort of the bottom tier of people or pieces. The next example is the king and queen on both the feudal system and chess have immense power over their subjects. In chess, the king and queen together make up the strongest pieces. In the feudal system, the king and queen ruled over their kingdoms. The bishop relates to the religious nobles in the feudal system. Another example is the knights which resemble the knights in the feudal system, or vassals as they were called back then. The last example is the rook which does not have a medieval counterpart but does in my opinion represent the castles at the time. While I learned a lot this semester, these three topics specifically caught my eye.