The Success of the Jeep Wrangler

With roots dating back to World War II, the Jeep Wrangler has become one of the most iconic cars in American culture. Starting off as a small two-seater vehicle, the Wrangler has grown into a sought after big SUV, earning the title of #1 Most Wanted Car in 2017, according to CarMax. The Jeep is one of America’s favorite cars, so how did it reach this popularity?

A large part of this is the Wrangler’s heritage. Still resembling the original Willys Jeep, used by American troops in World War II, the Wrangler taps into the patriotic sentiments of car buyers. For instance, one Wrangler owner can be quoted as saying, “The brand means a lot to me. My grandfather was in WWII, so I feel the connection to the brand through that.” 

The Wranglers only close competition, Hummer, is no longer in production, meaning the Wrangler reigns supreme with an excellent approach angle and ground clearance, necessary to drive the SUV over rocks. This is another part of the Wrangler’s identity, a rugged and tough machine, which can be driven practically anywhere.

However, what is likely the biggest appeal of the Wrangler is its customization capabilities. The doors and ceiling of a Wrangler can pop off like legos, giving owners the opportunity to make their Jeep the very own. The aftermarket customization industry for Wranglers alone is big and estimated to hold a decently sized share of the 41.6 billion dollar off-road industry. 

In total, the Jeep Wrangler’s success can be attributed to both its circumstances and the way it is marketed to consumers.

Sources:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidvinjamuri/2018/02/21/jeeps-big-gamble-staying-the-course-with-the-new-wrangler-jl/#7b12664d34f0

https://www.cars.com/articles/ultimate-jeep-head-to-head-wrangler-rubicon-versus-grand-cherokee-trailhawk-1420692461207/

How Warmer Winters Will Impact The Ski Industry

Ski areas in coastal mountain ranges, such as the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountains, whose winter temperatures hover around freezing, are in danger of being significantly hurt by rising temperatures. California has already warmed up by 2 degrees Fahrenheit since 1950 and is on track to rise by over 9 degrees if current rates remain constant. Since 1970, the snow line in the Sierra Nevada has risen as high as 1,500 feet and is only set to speed up. 

For most ski resorts, a 100-day season is required to stay profitable, and a large portion of this is attributed to the Chrismas and Spring Breaks, which happen to be at both ends of the season. This means that as the season shortens, the most profitable weeks for ski resorts will go away, leaving many resorts struggling financially. On average, the ski industry sees around 7.5 million skiers a year, generating 1.6 billion dollars in revenue. In low snow years, these figures decrease by 1.3 million, and 100 million, respectively. 

In order to combat the seemingly inevitable drop in snow levels, many resorts are beefing up their man-made snow production capabilities. For instance, Squaw Valley, a resort in Lake Tahoe recently invested nine million dollars into snow production. According to Daniel Scott, a Climatologist at the University of Waterloo in Canada, if current emission rates remain constant, around 103 ski resorts will have to shut down by the 2040s. 

While climate change will surely impact ski resorts, it is not too late to take action, as any small changes one makes may be the difference in being able to enjoy a power day with his or her grandchildren.

Sources: 

https://www.sfchronicle.com/travel/article/How-ski-resorts-in-California-are-preparing-for-13785547.php#photo-16492313

https://www.hcn.org/articles/recreation-ski-resorts-prepare-for-warmer-northwest-winters

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/20/climate-change-is-taking-a-toll-on-the-20-billion-ski-industry.html

Cost of the Death Penalty

      Through our human history, there has always been a punishment of the most heinous crimes. This punishment is the death penalty. In the United States, the death penalty is a legal way to punish someone by death for a capital crime. Now the death penalty is controversial in terms of ethics, but it is certainly not good economically. The death penalty is an extremely expensive process. In California, the cost of death row is "$114 million a year beyond the cost of imprisoning convicts for life".
   California has only executed 13 people since 1976. This means that California on average pays 250 million dollars per execution. That is outrageously expensive given that these are criminals. Why should the taxpayers have to spend their hard-earned money on paying to kill a criminal?

   Other people just wonder why it costs so much money to be on death row. It costs so much money because to convict someone and sentence them to death they need to be on death row for 15 to 20 years. This is the length of the extremely long appeals process. The process must be this long because under the law it is hard to sentence someone to death. There needs to be a second trial with new witnesses and additional costs. Along with more witnesses, they have to find more jurors and it is an especially long process because death row cases must be done more carefully.

   Overall it would be beneficial economically to get rid of the death penalty so that taxpayers do not have to pay extra money to a criminal. When money is not spent on the death penalty the government can spend the money on schools or infrastructure. That would be more beneficial than killing a guilty man.


“High Cost of Death Row.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 28 Sept. 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/09/28/opinion/28mon3.html.

Forgiving Student loans could boost the Economy

   As we are nearing the 2020 Presidential Election, candidates are discussing ways to better the United States. One of the more recent ideas were from Democratic candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. If either of them were to become president they would want to get rid of the student loans that were taken out by students for college. Elizabeth Warren wants to get rid of "$50,000" of student loans per student and Bernie Sanders wants to forgive all student loans. Although this concept sounds outrageous there might be some benefits to the plan.

   Lawrence Yun from the National Association of Realtor's chief economists even thinks that it would be beneficial to the housing market. Over "1.5 trillion dollars" are locked up in student loans and if some of that burden was gone people would buy homes at a younger age and would be able to spend the money and stimulate the economy. He also said that student loads delay home "ownership by 5 to 7 years". This relief would allow people to go out and buy homes and boost the economy.

   Even after all of the benefits, the plan might still create more debt. But many politicians suggest that they shift the weight of the burden more on the upper class who can afford to pay more taxes. This way the people can get educated and can stimulate the economy without worrying about paying for their college.

   Overall as the next election approaches it is important to consider the new ways that the United States could adjust our economy to better the entire United States. With more consideration and thinking there might be a way for more citizens to become better educated while staying under budget.

Arnold, Chris. “Economists Say Forgiving Student Debt Would Boost Economy.” NPR, NPR, 25 Nov. 2019, www.npr.org/2019/11/25/782070151/forgiving-student-debt-would-boost-economy.

How to Make Money on Instagram?

Recently, when I log in Instagram, I notice that ADs are coming to the top of my pages more frequent than before. Sometimes, I hear people talk about how popular Instagram posters are making money from their posts. I wonder how they make money on Instagram and start some research in this topic.

There are 5 business models to make money on Instagram.

1. Make money from sponsored posts
Cooperate sponsorship, a form of marketing in which a corporation pays for all of some of the costs associated with a project or program. Marketers would give money to influential posters to help advertise their products. By knowing what your audience like, posters can make cautious of their posting concepts and prefer cooperate with companies that sell products similar to their interests.

2. Sell other people's products
Affiliates can make money through continuously promoting the products and linking a promo code in their posts, making sure that viewers would be encouraged to purchase the products.

3. Sell poster photos and virtual products
 Artists can make money from selling their photos to big brand companies.

4.Sell own physical products
 You can be a seller and sell your products directly.

5.Sell drop shipped products
Drop-shipping is a business model in which one can run a store without having any inventory. If consumers decide to purchase your products, then you can make products based on their needs.


References:
https://www.oberlo.com/blog/make-money-instagram

Stanford Alumni Generate $3 trillion in Economic Impact Each Year

Why Stanford University is becoming more and more popular over the years? When my family first moved to California, we wondered what makes Stanford the most wanted to go school for many students. I've heard of several tech companies were established in Stanford campus, but is still questioning about the impacts of Stanford.

According to the recent study by Stanford University, "companies formed by Stanford entrepreneurs generate world revenues of $ 2.7 trillion annually and have created 5.4 million jobs since the 1930s" (Beckett).

It's really amazing that one university can support so many jobs and creates huge revenue for the market. In class, we discussed several revenue models that companies used to generate benefits. Stanford is an expensive university but also is known for the most generous university to provide students resources and low-income students free tuitions. It's not only a school for education but also a school that knows the most profitable revenue model.

Stanford's revenue model->
Stanford encourages students entrepreneurs and creates profits from all kinds of business.

Stanford understand that it's important to not rely on one kind of business, but on multiple businesses. Multidisciplinary learning or multidisciplinary business can help to boost individual and companies' growth. As we learned in class that amazon, google, facebook are creating multidisciplinary markets to increase their revenue model. Stanford is applying the same rule!






References:
https://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/october/innovation-economic-impact-102412.html

The Effect of torrenting games

(finally I get to show off Persona 5 ;) )

We have all been there. Downloading music for free from websites such as YouTube, going onto some websites to read comics for free without purchasing them, or torrenting games for free from websites. Yes, all of these are technically illegal and some might say that they are hurting the game developers and all the people who worked hard to produce the game as well as fans that actually paid the full price to play the game which is true; it is not fair to them or is it moral for people to rip them off.

So it might sound surprising to you when I say that companies actually benefit from people pirating their work as it creates a bigger fandom base or people consuming their products. In the report taken back in 2014 by the EU commissions found out that "illegal downloads of video games do not affect sales" and figured out how these illegal actions were really affecting the market.

This by no means meant to be a message to say, "Go and pirate all the games you have been wanting to play!" No, that is not my intention at all. It is quite interesting to see how there researchers saw a positive trend to the market though as they successfully converted "illegal users to paying users". Some tactics companies uses are extra bonuses on their purchase of the game through legal means such as character design books, merch, and special features in games to list a few.

The gist of the whole situation is that, "there isn't enough data to show that there is a financial loss for companies when European copyright law is violated" in contrast to how illegal consumption of games lead to increased legal consumption; where there is positive growth.

As mentioned earlier, people that fall in love with the game and want more of it tends to lean toward supporting the companies that produces it and actually start to pay respects to it by legally purchasing them from then on. Most people have the fear of trying out new games for they are afraid of ending up not liking it, and wasting a lot of money for it but these illegal practices allow players to try out new games without a lot of consequences... if they are careful enough that is.

Source: No evidence that piracy affects video game sales – EU Commission
The actual study