Illinibucks

If the school gave each student a certain amount of prepaid Illinibucks for the purpose of going ahead of the line for a specific situation I think it could be applied to many things. One thing that comes to mind is purchasing books before everyone else since sometimes the bookstore runs out of the book you need. Another thing that it could be applied to is registering for classes before other people, although as the prompt states some people are already given priority. It could also be used for events the school holds so you can purchase tickets before other people. Additionally, one could use the Illinibucks for advisor appointments since sometimes the advisors in your major's department are busy. 

I personally would not spend Illinibucks if I had to prepay for them. I really cannot think of a situation where I would really need to get ahead of the line. To me it seems like a waste of money to do that. If they were free that would be a different story. I would definitely use them wisely though.

If the price was to be too high I don't think people would buy them since not many people really need to get "ahead of the line." I would still expect some consumers for Illinibucks but not many since they  would probably have a low demand for it. However, If the price was really low I think many people would buy them since they are a bit useful but not so useful to where they would be purchased if they were extremely expensive. I think a lot of people buying them would cause a lot of people to be mad since they would be moved back a little more from the top of the line. All in all I think Illinibucks seems like an idea that shouldn't be more than just that. It seems like a waste of money if you have to prepay for it, but I'm sure some people would buy them.

Sacrificing Ethics for an Opportunity

One time when I was back in my hometown I was walking my dogs down a street near my house with a close friend of mine and as we turned the corner I saw a wallet lying on the ground outside a house. I turned to my friend and told him something along the lines of "Yo there's a wallet right there what should we do?" Three possibilities crossed my head immediately after saying that. First, we could pretend that we never saw the wallet and continue walking my dogs. This choice would clear us of any action or any wrong doing, and we would put the faith of that wallet into someone else's hands, literally. However, I felt like that would be irresponsible of us as citizens of my hometown. The next option is knocking on the door of the house and ask them for their name making sure that it matches the ID, assuming that was their wallet and it didn't belong to someone walking just like us. This option is clearly the best and most responsible of the three, but it could go wrong if it didn't belong to that person and we still gave it to them. Lastly, we could pick the unethical but most opportunistic of the three; take the wallet and walk away. This choice would benefit us and ruin someone else's day, perhaps even their week. Should we sacrifice someone else's belongings and happiness to make us a tad bit richer? Should someone take that opportunity for their own benefit and perhaps teach the wallet's owner a lesson?

After thinking of these three options, my friend turns to me and asks what we are going to do. I'm naturally a good person and don't like hurting other people, so I chose the second option and picked up the wallet. I proceeded to check the name on the ID and knocked on the door. At this point, I thought of the possibility of no one being home and now I'm stuck with a wallet in my hand. If the person doesn't open the door, do I put the wallet back on the ground or what? The person opened the door and I told them that I found a wallet on their driveway, and if they could please tell me their name or the name of the person who could have dropped it so I could verify that it matches the ID. Luckily, it was that persons ID and everything went great. I did the right think, not the opportunistic thing, and he got his wallet back with all the money and cards still inside.

However, I could have easily done the unethical thing and just taken the wallet. When does one decide when something becomes unethical? When does someone sacrifice ethics for opportunities? I personally think that it comes down to the nature of the person and their circumstances. Had I been a broke person on the verge of homelessness, I might have thought about the third option a little longer. But I'm not in those circumstances, I'd say I'm pretty well off at the moment, so I didn't do the unethical thing for a little extra money. In addition, if I was naturally a person who doesn't see these things as unethical and wrong, I probably would have stolen the wallet. As I previously mentioned, I like to think of myself as a good person, someone who doesn't like to hurt others for my own benefit. The essence of my character played an important role in me picking the second option and returning the wallet to the person that it belonged to.

I think these two characteristics are the main culprits of unethical behavior. In my opinion, these two things are what cause people to jump on an opportunity even if it hurts others; as long as they benefit they won't care. However, many people over look the circumstances part of the equation. They see a wrongdoing and they immediately categorize that person as evil, when perhaps it's just the circumstances they have at the moment. We have to try to understand why people are opportunistic even when it causes them to do unethical things.

Experiences With Organizations: The Structure of a Small Business

Ever since I was a senior in high school I have worked at a charcoal chicken restaurant that I will call Big Rooster for privacy purposes. Since I'm in school, I only really work during our thanksgiving, winter, spring, and summer breaks, but prior to that I would work almost every day as a senior. There I gained my first real experience working for a small business. Since then, I have also worked for bigger businesses like known clothing stores etc. However, the purpose of this blog post is to focus on the structure of small businesses since that is where most of my experience comes from.

The first thing I want to discuss is the lack of job description for those who weren't cooks or dishwashers. Unlike big businesses, small businesses tend to have a more flexible "job description," meaning that I never really had one title. I had to clean tables, take orders, and sometimes deliver. Normally in a bigger business you basically do just one job. You either stock something, cashier, or you help out customers. Very rarely do you do all three in the same shift. However, every day I clocked in at Big Rooster I always expected to do a little of everything. If my boss told me to go up front and help take orders, I would do it. If I was tasked with delivering food, I would do it. If people were leaving and I was told to clean the table and get rid of the plates, I would do it. I never really knew what my job was, but I enjoyed the change of pace. This could also have to do with the type of industry Big Rooster was in, that is, the food industry. But that is a topic for a different blog post.

Another thing that I noticed when working at Big Rooster was the lack of hierarchy. Normally in a big business, there's the employees, a supervisor or assistant manager, a store manager, a boss, and then there's the corporate ladder. Big Rooster was far from this pyramid. In fact, everyone was an employee and there was only one boss. Since at the time there was only one Big Rooster (now there are two) this type of structure made sense, and it still does. Why bother hiring a manager when the boss showed up to work every single day? This also made it so that the customers felt like they had a personal relationship with the restaurant since at any moment they could talk to our boss for whatever reason.

Lastly, I also noticed that the customers were far more amicable than those at a big business. I think it also has to do with the structure of a small business. At a big business, the customers have expectations of how the place should work every single day, to the point where they feel entitled. However, at a smaller business the customers understood that mistakes happen and they wouldn't throw a huge fit since they realized that the boss has put everything he has into that one place. If the place went under, the boss would pay the ultimate consequence. So usually the customers were a lot more tolerant of mistakes and they were by far a lot friendlier than big business customers. Again, I think this has to do with the structure of a small business and its ability to connect more easily with the customer. If mistakes did happen, all they had to do was talk to our boss instead of having to go through multiple departments and people like they would at a bigger business.

All in all, I think the structure of a smaller organization is more efficient than that of a bigger business. In addition, I think the structure is more beneficial for the customer, and easier on the employees.

Kenneth Arrow

Kenneth Arrow is a Jewish New Yorker, Nobel Memorial Prize winner and a famous economist. He won the award along with John Hick at 51, the youngest age yet for a Nobel Memorial Prize winner. He is known for his contributions to social choice theory, specifically his Arrow's impossibility theorem. He is also known for his contributions to the general equilibrium analysis. He has also worked in other fields in economics such as the economics of information and endogenous growth theory. At the respectable age of 95, he is still somewhat involved with the social science since he is a trustee of Economists for Peace and Security. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of Incentives for Global Health which is actually the non profit organization behind the Health Impact Fund.