Too much of a good thing can be, no, is bad

Now you may ask, what the heck am I talking about? Hey it applies to everything. Too much eating can get you a stomachache; an overdose of medicine may be harmful to your health, and so on, and so on…

Anyway, I was helping my dad make this last night:

And here’s a close up on one part of it:

Looks complicated right? Well it is. It’s a hobby of his to make this kind of stuff. And if you’re asking, no it’s not complete yet (there’s still one part left unfinished. See the first pic). Now how is this made? You start with a piece of paper stuck on top of Styrofoam, and a huge pile of colored pins. In the paper is a grid with guidelines on it so that you will know what pins to put in each cell. This means that mistakes are quite hard to correct.

Usually, my dad does around 40x40 area worth of cells per day, and would finish in around 2 weeks or so (yes there are that many cells in the whole thing). Now, last night, I helped out right? Of course we were able to get more done. I think with my help we got 50x50 done (yes that averages to 25x25 per person). Of course, We didn’t do 25x25 each, it’s more of my dad did his usual 40x40 and I just did 10x10, since I’m a newbie at this stuff. So what’s the point in this? It’s that when someone helps you do something, you do get more done, but as you add more people, the additional work done increases at a decreasing rate, and it will get to the point that having more people would be detrimental to productivity.

That can probably be an explanation of why companies can’t accommodate more workers. And yet there are a lot of people with no jobs. Just think about those who were laid off or those who don’t even have work in the first place. Who would take them in? What do they do to get by? Don’t ask me. Instead, watch this (Note: It's just 1/3 of the whole episode, and it's PG-13).

Today it’s all about the numbers. You have to maximize profits by spending as little as you can, while earning as much as you can. Yeah, that also applies to hiring people. If more people aren’t needed, they won’t bother hiring. It’s sad, but true. Just for kicks, here’s another video.

That's society for you.

- JR Lim

Basketblog

For the NBA fans out there like myself the second season kicked off this summer. Tis' the season for expiring contracts to get juicy deals for the next couple of years or make or break a players career. Its interesting to note that I noticed a lot of economics going on in the world of professional sports. The opportunity costs the players incur if they don't step up would cost them megabuck deals if they are seeking for longer contracts.

One good season can net someone 10 million dollars ala Erick Dampier. Just because he put up a double-double for one season you pay him chunks loads of money for the next millenium And he is 7 feet tall which is a huge plus in playing basketball. The old adage goes that you can't teach height. And besides there is a limited supply of big men who could bang bodies inside, rebound and score that is why these type of players could demand such a high price if the returns are only in the short term. They'll pay a high variable cost that would hamper the team's financial flexibility in the long-run. They'll end-up passing on a better and skilled player but is much shorter so its up to the teams to decide if the opportunity costs outweigh the advantages. One good season is only a slight effect in the short run compared to the long-run costs.

Another trend that is happening is the influx of extremely talented point guards entering the NBA. This creates a market for the incoming prospects of point guards instead of drafting big over small teams will look twice on future young prospects. The breakout season of Chris Paul, Deron Williams, and Tony Parker has created a whole new perspective of point guard play. They play bigger than their size. The Atlanta Hawks must be shooting themselves in the head right now by passing up on both Chris Paul AND Deron Williams. The recipients of this upscale market are the NBA Draft prospects DJ Augustin, Russel Westbrook and potential number one pick Derrick Rose. Rose has a little bit of Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul in him which makes him a very strong contender for the number one pick over big man Michael Beasley.
Due to the ever rising stock of strong point guards such as Paul and Williams the demand for talented point guard prospects has risen. Those two players are in for a huge payday once their rookie contracts are through. It's time to watch the NBA Playoffs where amazing happens.

-Joshua V. Berida

1 times 1 equals 2, 1 plus 1 equals 3

The invisible hand waits for the morning hour to wake up another consumer slash victim to start the week off right. The hand creeps slowly past the bedroom doors and seizes my cell phone with its hand made of molecules by its cold tin body. It presses the alarm as Adam Smith looks on from the sides. I wake up I look at the time and it says 8:00 AM its time to buy something whatever it is. It’s funny how just a handful of people can control the needs and wants of the majority. The invisible hand had done its bidding of weaving an interrelated web of companies to feed off the consumers.

I turn the TV on and see another oil price hike occurs around the world. I thought for a moment and concocted a little story to describe how oil companies maybe thinking. I pictured Kermit the frog, Big Bird, Ronald McDonald, and the green thing in the garbage can from Sesame Street all wearing suits. They were debating about the increasing oil prices and how it would affect the prices of everything else like a domino pizza falling on top of each other. “The prices of oil are rising all over the world its demand has become high and we have very little supply,” said Ronald McDonald. “Maybe that is why oil prices are increasing all over the world,” said the green thing in the garbage can. “On top of that the increasing industrialization of China and India would further increase oil consumption,” said the molecule man standing in the middle of Big Bird and Kermit the Frog. “Maybe the new market would be for alternative fuels such as bio ethanol and bio fuels this would seem like a profitable market for the way things are turning out, that industry would scare the living daylights out of the oil oligopolies wants it takes off they would be forced to lower their own prices to make money,” said Kermit the Frog. “Or even better we could put black paint and mix it with water and pass it on as oil we could make serious money out of it if people buy into it,” said Adam Smith. “How’d you get in here?” asked Big Bird. “Well this is just a figment of an imagination so I can materialize myself as much as I want to.” “Since oil companies are oligopolies they are price makers and the consumers would take what ever we give them because of the nature of our product which is oil,” said Ronald McDonald. Adam Smith started jumping up and down and doing back flips after everyone started to understand what he has been teaching since big white wigs were still pretty popular. The molecule man disappears leaving his invisible hand behind.

The invisible hand wakes me out of my imaginary stupor and guides towards the slick commercial of KG, Dwight Howard, Agent Zero, The Big Fundamental, and Mr. Clutch featuring Adidas. Maybe I should buy myself some basketball shoes even if I don’t need them and they are really expensive. What are the opportunity costs of buying these shoes? Ronald (naks close na kami ni McDo) said if before you were eating two cheeseburgers at your current allowance, to be able to buy those shoes you’d have to sacrifice and just settle with one burger McDo instead of two cheeseburgers. Too bad I have to give up a lot to buy those fresh kicks by Agent Zero. I got dressed and went outside and saw the molecule man mixing water with black paint.

*note to readers the invisible hand hooked up with Thing from the Addams Family in Vegas without a pre-nup, they are now divorced with two kids

-Joshua Berida

Someday... I'll have you.. Louis.. Haha

Every girl has to have at least one designer handbag. Well.. I might have to wait till I become a millionaire. Or maybe not. Everywhere I go, it seems that LV’s, CD’s and Coach’s bags are in the hands of women from all ages. I admit that I got one for myself, but then, I just let my mom use it coz I want a real Vuitton bag. Hahaha. It might take a while for me to afford one with my very own money.

When we went to the states before, my aunt told me to buy fake bags in Greenhills to sell them abroad. And so I did. ..And I got a lot of profit from that small business. Today, bringing fake bags to the US is banned. Too bad. But still, sellers in Greenhills shouldn’t be threatened since it is still obvious that a lot of people here in the country patronize these products.

It seems that totally stopping the production of fake bags won’t really be necessary. I don’t even think that it would be possible since these bags are sortof like DVD’s and VCD’s sold in stalls.. No one could stop them.. even Edu Manzano couldn’t. Hahaha. This won’t give much of an effect to Vuitton, Dior, Hermes, Coach etc. It is because the people who could afford the real thing are the ones who are at the high level of society, and not the ones you would see haggling for a lower price in tiangges. Well, there may be a few exceptions to this. I once watched an interview of Gina de Venecia in a tv show, she said there that she wears both fake and real bags, and people don’t notice. I’m not an expert in checking whether the bags are real or fake but there are extremely obvious fakers like misspelling the name of a brand or having a wrong logo. But then, come to think of it, there are a lot of good quality- fake accessories. There are different classes—class A, AA etc.(I’m not really sure which one’s the best one in tiangge standards.)

As I see it, there’s no point in stopping these fake bag producers. I don’t think the real firms would loose, nor would the fake producers. The real firm gets a sortof free advertising while the fake producers get to benefit from the consumers who could not afford these luxury items. Plus, people who can afford the real ones get to be happy that they own a real purse and at the same time, the ones who could not afford them would still be happy having the close-to-the-real-ones. As for the ones who could not afford the real thing and aren’t happy with fake ones… just buy a lot of non-designer bags. Haha. Or just wait till you can afford a real one… Someday. Hahaha

-M. Venzon

Shopping for Presents

Today I went to various malls to find and buy a birthday present for my bro. Seeing as he is quite a fan of anime and Japanese merchandise, I decided to go to stores to buy him a figure / model kit (I know it’s gonna put a dent on my credit limit). Now, when I entered the store I was quite surprised to see rows upon rows of Gashapon machines.

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, a Gashapon (ガシャポン) is a Japanese capsule toy that you get from a dispenser. Gashapon machines are similar to the coin-operated vending machines that sell gumballs. However, these machines require special tokens that you have to buy from the store in order to get a toy from them. These toys are made from high-grade PVC plastic, and contain a lot of molding detail and are carefully painted. As such, these toys cost around 100-150 pesos apiece. Furthermore, what’s interesting about these is that these toys are released in sets, and are what you’d call blind purchases, which means that you don’t know what you’ll get.

Surprisingly, it seems that gashapon are quite popular in this country, even if the demand for figures is quite low. You’d have to find the right hobby shops if you want to purchase things like that. Well, even if gashapon are quite expensive and most of the machines don’t really offer interesting figures, there are a few awesome ones, like the Lucky Star and Hayate no Gotoku machines (for those who don’t know, these are some of the anime that my bro likes) that I found (and no, I’m not telling where I found these. It cost me a lot of time and money to find these)

Now, I only had 300 Pesos in cash to spend for these, so of course I had to make quite a painful decision. As much as I wanted to complete these sets myself (and give the extras to my bro) I knew that I’d only be able to get 3 figures (yes, each one costs 100).

This is where the (very subjective) concept of utility comes into play. Basically, one’s perception of the value of an item, which leads to happiness is measured by what you call “utility.”

Personally, I think that the Lucky Star gashapon are more valuable than the Hayate no Gotoku ones, so I decided to get 2 from the Lucky Star machine, and 1 from the Hayate one. The result: 1 Hayate figure, and 2 Kagami figures (I’ll give 1 of these to my bro).

Sorry for the crappy pictures and editing. Time constraints and all that stuff...

Too bad I probably won’t be completing any of these sets, since there were just a few left in both machines. Oh well, I’ll have to find a place that sells the complete sets of these figures... At least I got a good (and cheap) gift.

I really wonder why these stores even bother bringing in the gashapon machines that offer junk items. Seriously, the good ones are almost always empty or near empty when I actually manage to find them, while the junk ones are almost always full. I mean, there is clearly not enough to satisfy the demand of those who want the good ones. You’d be surprised how far a hardcore fan would go to get stuff like this.

Great, now I can see economics even in stuff like Gashapon. Way to go Adam Smith.

- JR Lim

Eating Air for Dinner and Drinking Molecules for Dessert

It was a typical day, nothing really special is happening. As we were driving past school I’ve noticed that SM is putting up a building right in front of Miriam College. I thought for a nanosecond and forgot what I was thinking about. Anyway, the car took a U-Turn into C.P. Garcia. The traffic was not so bad considering it was already past 2 P.M. I closed my eyes and thought about that cute girl I just texted. She puts on a different dress each time I see her, always something new more is preferred to less Adam Smith whispered into my ears. I felt the invisible hand tapping me on the shoulder, I woke up startled to see Adam Smith looking at me with his funny white hair and lugubrious eyes wait…It wasn’t… It was the driver telling me I had dozed off. We were already in Philcoa and I’ve noticed that Ayala Land is putting up another construction project. This has been going on for a few months already but the construction was going really fast because they had all the resources they need. Ayala has owned a lot of land and loads of money before Crisostomo Ibarra got back from Spain as Simoun.

It’s as funny as a log performing circus tricks *sarcastic haha* how time freezes and nothing really changes. Anyway the project was a tie-up with the University of the Philippines concerning a science and technology park here in the Philippines. This made me sit back and think…while the Toyota car is driving in Quezon City Circle, the clothes I’m wearing bought from an SM mall, the bags of groceries bought from SM hypermarket waiting to be dropped of at home (hint of something about economics coming *wink, wink *nudge, nudge)…wait I forgot again maybe Adam Smith will remind me later. Once I dropped the groceries at home, I had to run a few errands for my mom and she asked me to pay the bills in a nearby SM mall. I took the statement of account for the phone and electric bills carefully so that no surrounding molecules would be harmed. You wouldn’t want to hurt one would you? I rode the car and off I was to SM.

Driving down the streets of North Edsa I saw another Ayala mall this time its Trinoma and yet another SM residential project right in front of SM North Edsa and SM The Block. All these malls all in one place how consumer driven is the market in the Philippines anyway? Again maybe it’s the old more is preferred less adage. Consume, consume, consume. Come to think of there is an SM mall everywhere in the country and an Ayala Mall or Ayala Land right next to it. Adam Smith is telling me “duopoly yan” wow! nagtatagalog na si Adam Smith. It’s either a SM mall/residences or an Ayala mall/residences, you buy clothes there, you eat there, there’s a chance that you’re actually sleeping there too. I paid the bills and went home thinking about the next time we’ll probably shop and eat at SM The Block or Trinoma maybe as soon as Sunday its Mother’s Day another day to spend more not less.

*note to readers no molecules were harmed during this enterprise and yes the air outside the metro is still polluted.

-Joshua Berida

Ugly is the New Cool

I saw this phrase in a magazine article about Crocs footwear.

My reply: Yeah right. Kelan pa naging maganda ang pangit?

Since the first time I saw those multicolored jelly clogs with humongous holes, I never thought that anyone would honestly believe that these shoes are really cool. First of all, the colors which they are offering are like screaming shades of crayons – something won't even look good with your plain black or white outfit. Second they’re so bulky! Walking in them would make you feel like Ronald McDonald or Boyoyong. Third, they smell like plastic! And the list goes on… Hahaha

But seriously, I still can’t believe that a pair costs like a mobile phone already (without a colored screen or built-in camera of course). And the thing is, though they cost so much, a lot of people are still buying them. Maybe it’s because of the “status symbol”.. Maybe it’s because of the therapeutic effect.. I’m not really sure. Whatever the reason may be, the trend is really evident because nowadays, a lot of stores are carrying this line of footwear (like Chocolate Clothing Company and Shoe Salon) and Crocs stores are starting multiply.

It’s funny that despite the news about the foot injuries of people (kids especially) because of their jelly clogs being stuck in the sharp edge of the escalators, parents still buy the product for their kids and themselves as well. Because of all the hype, I got curious as to what these “cool” footwear (though I am not interested in getting one for myself). It was a good thing that my aunt and her whole family has one, I was able to borrow a pair. I tried them on and with all honesty, I felt like a fashion victim in a snap. You can’t blame me for they really are unappealing. Fine, they are almost weightless, but then you’d feel like you’re wearing a piece of Styrofoam. I just don’t get it.

Well, what I think doesn’t matter when there are still a lot of people wearing them and are considering of getting a pair for themselves. Come to think of it, it still is the same with the Havaianas fad. Both brands are able to price their goods at an amount which is quite high, considering that their good isn’t supposed to be luxurious. But then, I can’t blame these brands for having such prices. They are just taking advantage of the situation. Since people are willing to buy these products at a high price, why would they still put their prices down?

Ugly is the new cool. It really doesn’t matter what I think when at the end of the day, I would see my aunt, my uncle, my cousins, my friends, my friend’s friends, my friend’s sister and some stranger wearing those screaming crayon colored jelly clogs.

Claps for Adam Smith. Haha

-M.Venzon