Teen's Cellphone Invention

This from Yahoo!

A California teen’s invention could potentially knock down cellphone-charging time to a superfast 20 seconds.

So far, the energy-storage device has powered only an LED light, but it has the potential to do much more.
The future certainly looks bright for 18-year-old Eesha Khare, who pocketed a $50,000 prize for the Young Scientist award from the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix, Ariz., for her tiny and possibly revolutionary device.
Khare sees the device as potentially powering car batteries, cellphones or any electronics that could use a rechargeable battery.

I have several thoughts, some of them not so smart.

1.  Batteries charge fast now.  Why would she need batteries to charge faster when she could concentrate her efforts on curing a social ill?
2.  the $50,000 cash was a huge incentive and added credibility to her resume.
3.  I think this shows how the economy naturally works toward efficiency.
4.  There should be a shift in Marginal Social Benefit curve to the right. 
5.  In emergency situations such as a tornado, people displaced by the storm will have greater ability to reach loved ones faster.
6.  Is this invention like the car that go farther on a gallon of gasoline?  In other words, will people demand more devices that use batteries thus increasing the need for faster battery chargers?
7.  This invention shows what I've said all along.  Each generation is smarter than the one before it.

Calvin and Hobbs on Free Market Economics

Isn't this the infant industry argument?  Competition fosters innovation and a "race to the bottom" in which prices equate at their marginal cost and profits are zero.  In a market where there's easy entrance such as this, one would expect no profits to be made in the long run.

Let Them Eat Cake

Income allows those advantages that those lacking income can't take advantage.  In this cartoon, investors with disposable income can invest and make returns that those who need every dime to live cannot.  Income builds income and disparity widens.

Economics involves choices.  For those who are unemployed, what choices were made that put them on the dole.  For example, did they work on weekends to build skills or did they spend $400 going to a baseball game?  At work did they find a way to make them more valuable to the company or did they find a way of doing as little as possible?  There are many valuable, hard working men and women who are unemployed and I'm not one to make hasty generalizations.  My comments simply include how income leads to disparity.

 

Some Brands That Produce in Bangladesh

The  Yahoo! Finance article is here.

REUTERS/Andrew Biraj

As the death toll in the Bangladesh factory collapse climbs past 1,000 , major retailers that do business in the country are facing calls for accountability.

Deadly factory accidents  are relatively common  in Bangladesh, where government safety standards are rarely enforced.

Foreign companies met earlier this month to discuss improving worker safety, despite having refused to fund safety improvements for factories  just months ago.

Bangladesh has said it will discuss raising the minimum wage from $38-a-month, currently the world's lowest.

The garment industry in Bangladesh accounts for about $20 billion in exports. Of those exports, about 59 percent go to the European Union, 26 percent go to the U.S. and 5 percent go to Canada.

I don't know much about the country off the coast of India, but I will bet that $38 a month is higher than any other wage that the workers could find and be legally employed.  Life has never been easy for most of the residents of this country.  In the 1970s I remember George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh.  By the way, I once offered a programmer from this country $500 to write an app for me that would take about a week.  This is about 12 times more than the weekly salary in a factory.  I am pro labor and I have been a MEA member for 33 years.  I would support legislation that raised the minimum wage rate in this country although I know it will cost jobs.  I want better working conditions that are safe.  But social forces being what they are, if it becomes more expensive to produce in this country, producers will move someplace else.  Many more will be hurt then.

My deepest sympathies are extended to the workers in this country.  I hope for relief for those whose family was injured.

Sir Ken Robinson on Education

There's been a lot of talk about flipping the classroom in education. This means that the students do the reading of the content for the next day, then come to class and do the "homework". This sounds good and I'm sure it works with some of the students, but I don't believe it would work on a large scale. One reason is that students discount the future so heavily that I don't believe that students will choose to read a textbook instead of going to work or an extracurricular activity. I think students would choose to enjoy the immediate benefits when the costs come later. I believe that Gary Becker believes that students will discount the future up to 50% which is pretty steep. This is one reason why I don't believe flipping the classroom will work. Public education is always being attached for various reasons such as failing to prepare students for the real world. I hate this statement because it shifts all of the burden from the learner to the teacher. When I go the the library, all I see is people using a computer to play a game of post on social media. I seldom see anyone engaged in serious study. Flipping the classroom will not work and neither will individualizing instruction. What has to change is the learner. Like the Japanese saying goes, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear."

Television Ad

Excellence in Education

Click here for the Muscatine Journal article. Three of the winners are mock trial participants.

HaywardEcon Blog---"I am not an Economist. I just play one in a public high school": How much does Prom cost and who pays? A nice graph...

HaywardEcon Blog---"I am not an Economist. I just play one in a public high school": How much does Prom cost and who pays? A nice graph...:     Here is a short summation of the findings from a VISA survey where this graphic came from (found HERE).   Spending on the a...