A Plan To Save the Postal Service

The US Postal Service has presented a five year economic plan to congress asking for their help to get through their financial struggles. The Postal Service would like congress to pass legislation concerning the price of postal stamps raising the price to 50 cents. The Postal Service lost revenue in the past three months, during the holidays, which should have been their profitable time of year. Many people did not ship mail first-class which led to a loss of $3.3 billion in revenue. Congress has been working on plans to save the Postal Service from suffering even more losses, but all plans have faced controversy and have not been passed as legislation. The US Postal Service’s plan would help save them $20 billion over the course of the next five years, but they need congress to assist in helping them save $10 billion. The stamps which now cost 45 cents would be raised to 50 cents allowing for $1 billion to be saved per year according the statistics of the Postal Service. However, the plan also calls for some drawbacks. Many post offices would be closed, deliveries would be changed to five day weeks instead of six, and first-class mail would be delivered a day later than usual. The Postal Service would also like to do away with the federal law that requires that it to prefund retiree health care. However, it would create a new health care plan for the employees. The plan also would create a dramatic loss of jobs for the many people who work for the US Postal Service. This plan, while it may greatly benefit the Postal Service by recovering their losses, it also calls for reductions that could also be less beneficial to the economy.

Chicken Economy

In today’s economy, chicken farmers and meat producers are struggling to profit in this industry. This is due to the high rise in cost of chicken feed as well as a decline in the demand for chicken products. However, the amount of chicken being produces has not changed that much in comparison to the amount of chicken produced last year. This has created a surplus of chicken because there are fewer buyers than years past. In effect, this causes the price of chicken to go down. People however, are still not buying the chicken, so what could be done with all the extra chicken? The government decided to purchase $40 million worth of chicken products that could be used to feed needy Americans. This in turn, benefits the industry se, because the surplus of chicken will decrease allowing struggling producers to raise their prices and cover the costs of their production. This government intervention has greatly helped the industry stabilize during these difficult economic times. Hopefully, the demand for chicken products will increase over the next year rather than continue its decline. As of right now, the expectations for 2012 are not looking too great.

The Entertainment Industry

Often, I wonder what kind of effect the entertainment industry has on our economy. The film entertainment industry is growing very rapidly and actually fuels our economy because it creates jobs. In addition to that it promotes nations and services and encourages people to buy products. Movies also can have an impact on society’s behavior. Movies send out positive and negative messages that spark ideas and interests into people. How could any society thrive without ideas and interests? In addition to the motivation it gives people, this industry also keeps people spending money. However, at the same time as people choose to spend less money on entertainment, the industry must make certain budget cuts producing less quality entertainment. Even though people have been spending less money on movies, games, etc, many still view this type of entertainment less costly then a vacation, or a trip to a theme park. Thus, the industry is still bringing in money and helping the economy grow. Also, with technology developing more quickly many people are helping the home entertainment industry. When more people buy TVs then more people will have access to advertising from other industries. The entertainment industry has a great effect on our economy as a whole.

The Traditional Sytem

Recently, I have learned about the four economic systems, one of which is the traditional system. The traditional system uses a system of passed down techniques in or order to accomplish their own economic growth. However, this particular system often leads to a stagnant economy. On the other hand, a traditional economy is the original economy from any part of the world. In other words, no country began with a developed economic system. That being said, most countries today with this traditional system have underdeveloped economies. Upon learning about this economic system I became curious if their still remained any purely traditional economic systems. Any traditional system today would most likely focus on agricultural. However, even the small underdeveloped countries are transforming their economies to keep up with the modern changes of society. Although this is true, the idea of a traditional economic system is not extinct. Many indigenous countries such as, Papa New Guinea, Brazil, and other African and Asian countries still practice traditional concepts. Traditional values remain prevalent in these countries, with the understanding that in order to survive they must use some of their production as a mean of commercial use.
But why would these countries still practice these ideas if they are proven less efficient than other economic systems? A traditional economic system has some valuable benefits that can only be achieve by the social nature this type of economy creates. Traditional systems require a group effort among the people. Thus, this system unifies them and nurtures their beliefs and cultures. Unfortunately, in order to survive, the main principle of the traditional system, each person has a set job to perform to keep society running. With less governmental control there is more freedom of thought, so why do the people continue performing the same jobs the same way without question. In my opinion, it’s because they value their cultural practices more than they do an advanced economy and they lack the resources need to make an economy thrive. Though they aren’t the wealthiest of nations, a society with this system can enjoy certain independence without feeling a financial strain.

Financing a Higher Education in a Struggling Economy

Prospective and current college students face the dilemma of how to pay for their education because of the decline in the economy. Many college students in fact believe the US economy is doing poorly or is “on the wrong track.” A major concern of many of these students is finding a job after they graduate. These students as well as future students want to see the job situation in the US improve so that they can feel secure. Without such improvement, students will have to accept low paying jobs with no benefits. In addition to their own financial burdens, these students can no longer turn to their parents as much as they use to because their parents are struggling to find work too. However, this does not necessarily mean that students want the government to give them more money, but rather have a deficit reduction in order to help the economy. Some students on the other hand, feel that by the time they graduate there will be available jobs, but they still believe the economy will continue to face big issues even after some are resolved. Basically even though students feel they have future job security they still feel their economy will continue to struggle. Thus, many college students feel the extra money they put into their education will pay off in the long run. As a future college student I am facing this same dilemma as I choose which college to attend considering the economic struggles. Would it be more advantageous to attend a college that cost more but offers a better education than a more affordable school?

The Effects of Recession on Dentistry

Aspiring to be a dentist, it is important for me to be aware of the effects that our economy has had on the dental industry. The recent recession our country is going through has made a pretty big impact on many dental clinics. Due to these economic changes the business of dentistry has slowed down quite a bit. As our economy slowed down dentists were pushed into running business more professionally. Those dentists who have changed their practices to manage business efficiently have flourished with the economic changes. Others have let the negative effects of recession take a toll on their business. Because fewer new patients are available to the dentists and their current patients leaving the dentists are losing business. Practices losing patients however, are losing them because they are inaccessible to many people. Dentistry can only prolong if the clinics use better marketing strategies to attract new patients and persuade old patients to return. In addition to the lack of patients, many patients are also rejecting treatments, therefore, dentists are losing profit from the few patients they do have. Thus, dentists are losing revenue and are unable to purchase better equipment. People on the other hand always want to improve their smiles. If dentists could convince their patients to accept more treatments they could easily increase their production rates. Unfortunately, dentistry is also declining in production due to the lower reimbursement plans offered by insurance carriers. In order for a dentist to recover from this in our economy they would have to increase noninsurance costumers. Although marketing is necessary for dentists to continue their practices, internal marketing is the best solution. Many dentists are spending way too much of their profits on advertising which is actually damaging their business instead of helping it. Another effect of the recession in our country on dentists is the increasing amount of debt they hold after graduating dental school. This has led to a rising number of regional and national owned dental companies. In this situation more dentists are employees of a practice rather than owning their own. The benefits of company owned practices lie in their ability to be more flexible with their patients. They tend to accept all types of insurance and extend their hours of operation for the patients. This convenience has led to an increase in the number of patients that choose companies over private practices because they do not have to give up as much of their valuable time and money. Private practices will have to offer the best level of customer service in order to compete with these dental companies. The loss in numbers of patients for dentists has occurred primarily because during this time of recession people do not have the extra money saved for a trip to the dentist. In order for dentists to keep their businesses running they have to offer flexible financial plans for their patients. With this loss of profit many dentists will retire much later in life creating other issues within our nation.