Causes of Secondary Market

 

As we learned in Economic class, secondary market is often known as the black market, or simply a market where the goods are resold. In class, Dr.O mentioned the reason of developing a secondary market is that people cannot get the goods they want in the primary way, therefore a secondary path of getting these goods are developed. From my opinion, the causing of a secondary market can be divided into more detailed reason.  

It initially reminds me that on November, 2017, a series of shoes made by both Nike and Off-White were released. Before these shoes were released on their official site, the advertisement of them are flying all over the world with specific date of releasing for each of them. Then on the day of releasing the products, a great number of consumers were waiting in front of the store, or sitting in front of their computer getting ready to purchase their shoes as fast as possible, because they know it’s going to sold out in a very short period of time and which it did happen. I believe the majority of these buyers were not purchasing the shoes for themselves but rather to resold the good, since a secondary market of these shoes were soon developed. A pair of $200-dollar shoes were resold online for more than six hundred dollars, or even exceed one thousand bucks. According to one of these secondary market called StockX, even though it’s been several month, the price of these shoes maintains high, a pair of New Off-White X Nike Zoom Fly could cost $630 dollars. In this case, the quantity demand of the product is much larger than the quantity of supply which causes that not all of the buyers could get the goods they desire, and it lead to a secondary market selling the product in a much higher price.

Secondary, I think a difference of price of the same product could lead to a secondary market as well. For example, I checked on Apple online stores that in the store of United States, a 256GB iPhone X costs $1149 without taxing, while in the store of China, it cost 9688 RMB in same condition in which converted to dollar is above $1600. The difference in price is reasonable because the company of Apple locates in America, and when the product of Apple entering another nation cost additionally, such as shipping payment, import tax. Therefore, when there exists difference in price, a secondary market appears, there are people who live in America goes to stores and buy iphones then sell it to customers in China. To achieve their interest, not only selling iphones but all of the products that are cheaper abroad, whether in America or Europe, people figure out a way to take the products back to China in a lower price.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

To sum up, the two other reason of developing a secondary market would be the disequilibrium between demand and supply, when the quantity demand is larger than quantity of supply, and as well as, it occur when people seeking for lower price of a foreigner product.

 

https://stockx.com/nike-zoom-fly-off-white                          https://www.apple.com/cn/shop/buy-iphone/iphone-x/5.8-%E8%8B%B1%E5%AF%B8%E6%98%BE%E7%A4%BA%E5%B1%8F-256gb-%E6%B7%B1%E7%A9%BA%E7%81%B0%E8%89%B2#00,11,21 https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-iphone/iphone-x/5.8-inch-display-256gb-space-gray-unlocked#00,20,31,41,60

Russian-Funded Ads Behind the Election

Both Facebook and Google have found the evidence of Russia-funded ad spread in the internet. As Facebook announced, lots of accounts that are related Russia spent totally of 100,000 on campaign ads. Google says it founds evidence as well, that Russian operatives spends thousands of dollars on politically divisive advertisements. According to Will Oremus, it’s a big deal. However, from my view, I agree with that it’s significant because it violates the election law and affect the election, but it does not violates the constitution which guarantees the freedom of speech. Since the content of these ads are unrevealed, but it’s described as “amplification of “divisive messages” on issues such as immigration, race and gay rights”. From my perspective, people who wants to persuade others would use amplification as a tool. It is a common strategy to enhance candidate’s support from people. If Russia is not behind these ads, and these ads are posted by American companies, I don’t think these amplifications would cause lots of attention after the election. The States has two parties which lead to different ideas and opinions on different issue. It is the foundation of this country, so what is the problem that people have opposite perspectives on a certain issue.

The trouble from these ads, I personally think is mostly from “fake or discredited content from phony social media accounts posing as US or European citizens”. In the beginning of the school year, we learned the idea of filter bubble. Here, I think these fake news appears another sort of bubble on the internet. People have to learn the ability to distinguish right and wrong, since the information posted online are always mixed with true and false messages. People should not judge the truth of an information base on personal preference. Meanwhile, we need companies to set up regulations on the credibility  of information online.

Image source: http://wvik.org/post/davenport-library-host-rise-fake-news#stream/0

Gun Control

Gun control is always a big topic over the world, guns are illegal in some of the countries, and some of countries guarantees their people have the right to possess guns. However, which one of the two would bring a safer environment to their people. From my perspective, I feel safer in a country where people do not have guns. To begin with, people would not bring guns when they goes to a party or just have a walk in the park, they do not bring guns with them every seconds which makes the gun meaningless. In the other hand, if people walking around with guns, it creates a tensive neighborhood, which for me seems nobody is trustworthy.

Christopher Ingraham/Washington Post

Moreover, a person with gun could do much more damage than a strong men without weapons. If a violent gunman starts to shooting at others, people would not able to stop him if they do not have gun with them, even after police arrives, it would be a concern that suppressing the gunman would cause more damage. While it is easier to stop an unarmed person with people around working together. From my own experience, safety of a university becomes a very important factor while choosing college since so many shooting cases happened in campus, such as the case happened in Georgia Tech. Even during traveling, friend would tell me not to go outside alone in the night in some of the blocks. An article written by Jonathan Masters in The Atlantic, Gun Control Around the World: A Primer, “The United States also has the highest homicide-by-firearm rate among the world’s most developed nations”. The Data in the article are shown below.

Firearms per 100 People (2007)   Council on Foreign Relations (Data: Small Arms Survey)

Firearm Homicides per 100,000 People (2013)     Jonathan Masters and Julia Ro (Data: gunpolicy.org, University of Sydney)

On October 1st, the biggest mass shooting in the United States’ history takes place in Las Vegas which causes at least 59 people dead, and 527 injured. According to The New York Times, multiple weapons were found in gunman’s hotel room. Gun control has been a controversial topic, since it was written in the constitution that citizens have the right to bear arms, to ensure the government do not have to much power over people. However, by Los Angeles Times, it collects deadliest U.S mass shootings from 1984 to 2017. The data shown that mass shooting happens every year since 1984, and 6 cases happened in the year of 2012 causes over fifty deaths. Furthermore, according to  German Lopez, “There have been more than 1,500 mass shootings since Sandy Hook”, and “On average, there is more than one mass shooting for each day in America”. Some would argue that car accidents happens everyday, more frequently than mass shooting. However, I believe that car accident should be avoid by government leading people, while people should be protect from mass shooting. They weigh differently. If the gunman comes from another country or belongs to some organization, it becomes a signal of war, the consequence from shooting would be much terrible, and it brings fear and unsafe atmosphere to people in the states.

Image Source： https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/12/02/the-san-bernardino-mass-shooting-is-the-second-today-and-the-355th-this-year/?utm_term=.51eb0b991f8

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/01/worldwide-gun-control-policy/423711/

Residency, Another Cause of Filter Bubble

From Ted’s talk on filter bubble we watched last week in government class, the idea of filter bubble becomes more clear for me. Based on Ted’s talk, he believes that internet creates a filter bubble around people, because internet limits people’s research results based on links people usually click on. Therefore, people are blocked in the filter bubble where they only receives one side of opinion. In my perspective, the creation of filter bubble are also effected by people’s own thoughts or preference in which influenced by their origins, such as religions, political backgrounds, personal experiences and their surroundings. Moreover, it could influenced by people’s resident country.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_High_Altitude_Area_Defense

According to CN News, on September 12th, US has complete the deployment of 6 Launcher truck for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) in South Korea. The reason of deploying this missile defense system is concern of North Korea threat. However, this issue has been above half a year since it starts to emerge. It begins on March when U.S and South Korea had an agreement to deploy THADD, and the government bought land from a Korean company Lotte Mart. The news about THADD soon become on the top of all newspapers and spreading all over the social media in China. According to some of these news, the purpose of deployment is not only about threat from North Korean but also for detecting missile base in China and Russia since the range of its radar is over 1000km and it includes the area of most of China and part of Russia. The other news shows the reaction of people in China that people refuse to go to Lotte Mart and buy Lotte goods which causes all Lotte Mart in China shutting down in few days, and the protests going on in South Korea. In the other hands, news in United States hardly mention about the issue. I did my history homework current event on THADD, but none of American classmates include my teacher in class knows about it. Currently, the news site in China mostly report on consequences happening in South Korea due to THADD, while CNBC published “’THAAD’ anti-missile system can’t protect South Korea from missile attacks by itself”.

From the event of THADD, it shows a filter bubble created by surroundings. People lives in western countries such as countries in Europe and North America may pay more attentions on affairs within nations, rather than news from the other side of Pacific Ocean which is thousands miles away. Therefore, people in US does not receive such informations from their surroundings.   Moreover, the political side of countries could also be a cause of blocking different informations. Since US is the sponsor of the deployment of THADD, most news in the States would support this action and defending speculation of other purposes, while news in China are mostly against THADD.