Good Ol' American Innovation

America is deep in the heart of a recession at the moment, and times like these are when the creative American population begins to show why America is such a great country. There are various profitable business opportunities available in this country and this newest line of dry cleaners from Tide shows exactly that. Andrew Martin, a writer for the New York Times, explains in his article "Smelling an Opportunity" that:

 Where other dry cleaning entrepreneurs have tried to come up with clever business models for dry cleaning, P.& G.’s primary innovation is in the brand name itself: Tide Dry Cleaners, named after its best-selling laundry detergent.

These new dry cleaning locations offer fast service, the refreshing scent of Tide, and an environmentally friendly alternative.  In this new era of instant gratification and the now, places like this that you can get in and out quickly are becoming increasingly popular. The American population, and the world population at large, has become obsessed with obtaining goods and services as quickly as possible, and places that can provide fast goods and services are sure to become popular and profitable. This is the reason why these Tide dry cleaners are becoming popular and why Netflix, IM, Facebook, and other things have become popular and things like e-mail have lost their luster.

China's Future Projections Part 2

As well as issues with government, China also faces other issues with its future, such as inflation, debt, and asset bubbles. Even though a majority of Americans are afraid that China will overtake the U.S., if it hasn't already, China may not be the insurmountable world leader that many believe it to be due to its governmental issues which I covered in the previous post, and other economic issues.
Before I begin talking about how China is unstable economically, I would like to point out that the skepticism of China's future success does not come from a single source. My previous post was based on a video on PBS, and this post is based on an article by David Barboza, entitled "As China Rolls Ahead, Fear Follows," in the December 12, 2010 issue of the New York Times. The two separate sources that cover China's possible future instability signifies that people from more than one perspective are seeing China as less of a train headed for instant success and more as a train that will face some obstacles that might hinder it or even cause it to crash.

A growing number of economists now worry that China — the world’s fastest growing economy and a pillar of strength during the global financial crisis — could be stalled next year by soaring inflation, mounting government debt and asset bubbles.

While China's possible issues with their economy may be a good sign for the United States, it can also be bad news for the U.S. because our economy is dependent China's economy, so if their economy begins to fail, then ours will fall into an even deeper hole. Hopefully within the next week or so America finds some sort of solution and we can be out of debt to China and will no longer be in a recession. The End.

China's Future Projections Part 1

As many people know, China is a growing exponentially and is expected to continue to grow into a position as the world's leading country. China has an advantage over the U.S. because China's economy is expanding while that of the U.S. is in a recession and because the U.S. is in huge debt to China. Despite these facts and despite many peoples expectations of China rising up to become the great world power, there are a few, enormous obstacles that stand in the way of China growing to become the world power everyone expects it to be. In this post I will cover one of the biggest obstacles that China faces: an unstable and oppressive government.





China lacks the stable political foundation that is necessary for a country of its size and power to succeed. While China may be prospering right now, one misstep from the government could spark a revolution in China, or could further fuel a revolution that already has its roots. In addition, two years from now, there will be a shift in power in China that could lead to some significant changes for the country and for the world. China's overall future is shaky due to its unstable government, and there are more problems that the upcoming power faces.

Mental Health Break

This kid really likes basketball:

BART: Better After Reading This

You know those useless BART tickets that you have lying around with a few cents on them? Well, BART, in addition to being a less environmentally destructive mode of transportation, is also beneficial to our community and its inhabitants. In the article titled "Tiny Tickets: BART’s Best-Kept Secret?" in the Mission Local and also in the San Francisco Chronicle, J.J. Barrow explains that:

While most BART riders don’t know that their 10- or 30-cent tickets, forgotten in purses and drawers, can be turned into charity donations, a few nonprofits do.

If you're itching to help your community, but you can't find the time or the money to help, then turning in these old, unwanted BART tickets is the perfect option. BART began this project of donating the money on these leftover BART tickets to charities, in 2001. This program is called "Tiny Tickets," and it has lost some popularity as of late as charities have dropped out due to tough economic times, yet there are still around fifty charities that participate in this program now. In the seven years in between 2002 and 2009, charities have made around $260,000. Imagine how much more that sum would be if all people who rode BART knew about Tiny Tickets. Unfortunately, due to issues with money, charities and BART are no longer able to advertise this program so it is up to us to spread the word about Tiny Tickets in order to improve our community with this simple program.

The Call for Education Reform

The founder of Microsoft and possibly the world's most famous billionaire, plans to push for an overhaul of America's current education system, on November 19, 2010. Bill Gates is actively contributes to various non-profit organizations with support and donations, and encourages the youth of America to live better lives. According to the article entitled "Gates Urges School Budget Overhauls" by Sam Dillon of the New York Times, tomorrow, Gates is planning on making a speech directed to all the superintendents of the fifty states of the U.S. to transform the current educational budgets for public schools into a new system that would be spent better and would better benefit the youth of America. Gates wants to:

end teacher pay increases based on seniority and on master’s degrees, which he says are unrelated to teachers’ ability to raise student achievement. He also urges an end to efforts to reduce class sizes. Instead, he suggests rewarding the most effective teachers with higher pay for taking on larger classes or teaching in needy schools. 

While I believe that the better a teacher is and the more qualified he/she is for his/her job, the more he/she should get paid, I do agree with Gates that we do, in fact, need an overhaul of the current public education budget because, in the tremendous majority of public school districts in America, kids are not being educated the best they can be educated and many schools are not using their money in order to best suit the education of their students. Even though education falls mostly under the jurisdiction of state governments, President Obama should back Gates up and should also push superintendents to reform their budgets. I also agree with Gates in the respect that class sizes should be cut down because the lower the student to teacher ratio is, the better, because teachers are not as swamped with dealing with more students than they can handle, and the students will also feel more comfortable to approach the teachers, who will have more time to deal with the fewer students that they have.

Mental Health Break