Barter Explained, Poorly

Posted on February 11, 2019 by davidbdale

Paragraph 1. Bartering is trading services or goods with another person when there is no money involved. This type of exchange was relied upon by early civilizations. There are even cultures within modern society who still rely on this type of exchange. Bartering has been around for a very long time, however, it’s not necessarily something that an economy or society has relied solely on.

Paragraph 2. A barter system is an old method of exchange. This system has been used for centuries and long before money was invented. People exchanged services and goods for other services and goods in return. In ancient times, this system involved people in the same area, however today bartering is global. The value of bartering items can be negotiated with the other party. Bartering doesn’t involve money which is one of the advantages. You can buy items by exchanging an item you have but no longer want or need. Generally, trading in this manner is done through Online auctions and swap markets.

Paragraph 3. The history of bartering dates all the way back to 6000 BC. Introduced by Mesopotamia tribes, bartering was adopted by Phoenicians. Phoenicians bartered goods to those located in various other cities across oceans. Babylonian’s also developed an improved bartering system. Goods were exchanged for food, tea, weapons, and spices. When money was invented, bartering did not end, it become more organized. Due to lack of money, bartering became popular in the 1930s during the Great Depression. It was used to obtain food and various other services. It was done through groups or between people who acted similar to banks. If any items were sold, the owner would receive credit and the buyer’s account would be debited.

Paragraph 4. Just as with most things, there are disadvantages and advantages of bartering. A complication of bartering is determining how trustworthy the person you are trading with is. The other person does not have any proof or certification that they are legitimate, and there is no consumer protection or warranties involved. This means that services and goods you are exchanging may be exchanged for poor or defective items. It may be a good idea to limit exchanges to family and friends in the beginning because good bartering requires skill and experience. At times, it is easy to think the item you desire is worth more than it actually is and underestimate the value of your own item.

 

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The “Give Directly” Hypothesis

Posted on February 11, 2019 by davidbdale

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A man checks his phone to confirm that the charity GiveDirectly has transferred a cash grant to his account. (Nichole Sobecki for NPR)

In 2013 Daniel Handel, an economist with USAID—the U.S. government’s main agency for foreign assistance—had just moved to Rwanda when he heard about a charity that was testing a bold idea:

Instead of giving people in poor countries, say, livestock or job training to help improve their standard of living, why not just give them cash and let them decide how best to spend it?

Handel had been mulling this exact question. Aid programs were spending enormous sums per person to boost poor people’s income less than the cost of the program. At this rate, Handel thought, why not just hand over the money to people directly? This program called GiveDirectly was doing just that.

So Handel went to his bosses at USAID’s Rwanda office and proposed an experiment:

Take one of USAID’s typical programs and test it against cash aid. For the comparison, he selected a program to improve child and maternal health in Rwanda by teaching families about nutrition and hygiene.

A pool of families from nearly 250 villages was selected based on typical criteria and randomly assigned to one of four groups.

  • Those in the first were the “control” and received no help.
  • Those in the second group were visited by the nutrition and hygiene education teams.
  • Families in the third group were given small cash grants by GiveDirectly equivalent to the per-person cost of the nutrition and hygiene program, an average of $114.
  • In the final group, families got a much larger cash grant of around $500 – a figure chosen because this was the amount that GiveDirectly estimated was more likely to make an impact.

Following the experiment, the government released the results of the first study in the series.

The experiment found that the program met none of its main objectives. Teaching Rwandans about nutrition did not improve their nutrition or health. Neither did giving Rwandans the cash equivalent of the cost of the education program — about $114.

“Our hearts sank.”

The program’s focus on trying to change behaviors is one of the world’s major strategies for ending malnutrition. And, at least in this example, it had failed to achieve any of its primary goals.

A year on, the children who had been targeted by the nutrition and hygiene program were no more likely to eat a better or more diverse diet, and no less likely to be malnourished or anemic than children who had gotten no help at all. But providing a much larger cash grant of about $500 did make some difference.

Supporters of such “cash-benchmarking” exercises are heralding this particular one as a milestone. For years, anti-poverty advocates and researchers have complained that the U.S. government doesn’t do enough to make sure its aid programs actually work. “But when you talk about giving money to people straight up, with no conditions, people at USAID look at you kind of like you’re a crazy person. There’s ‘an inherent sense’ that they can’t be trusted to spend it wisely.” said Daniel Handel’s associate James Carbonell.

  • In this case, people who were given the cost-equivalent grants used much of the money to pay down their debts.
  • It remains unclear what, if any, material changes USAID is planning to its nutrition efforts based on the study’s findings.
  • At the time of this writing (FEB 2019), USAID remains reluctant to discuss the experiment and did not grant the authors of the NPR story permission to speak directly to Daniel Handel about the results.

Discussion

  1. Did the authors of the study Fail?
  2. Would proving that cash-equivalent grants were as beneficial as the education program have qualified as Success?
  3. Or did the authors succeed by proving that simply handing recipients money without any stipulation was the wrong way to achieve a particular goal?
  4. Could the authors conclude that poor people really DON’T know “what to do with the money”?

Credits

Heavily edited from an original story by NPR.
Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Link to the original:
https://whyy.org/npr_story_post/which-foreign-aid-programs-work-the-u-s-runs-a-test-but-wont-talk-about-it/

Further Reading

The Planet Money story: https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=214210692

From Nonprofit Chronicles: https://nonprofitchronicles.com/2018/09/11/why-is-the-us-giving-cash-to-poor-people-in-africa-no-strings-attached-for-good-reason/

Brief Exercise

  1. In the Reply field below, briefly answer any or all of the Discussion Questions, then discuss how you would respond to finding that your “My Hypothesis” proposal cannot be supported by the initial evidence.
    • (Assume in your Reply that you did not wait until the last week of the semester that the evidence did not support your Hypothesis. 🙂
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Summaries—biggarz

Posted on February 10, 2019 by biggarz7

“Apple’s Face Palm Bug”

It seems counterintuitive that a big company like Apple can have a bug that is bigger than what people think. To explain this bug which takes place on the group facetime feature in the IOS 12 update people can spy on your phone so to say without the user answering the call.

The main reason this was found was just by a regular 14 year old kid who accidentally discovered this. It raises some questions to think about if Apple does care about their users security. Yes, this is a good way for you and your friends to prank each other having your voice and face on their phone even if you don’t answer your phone. Apple claims to be working on a fix for the past month, but nothing has come out yet which raises more questions how hard is Apple actually working on this.

“Why Not Regulate Guns as Seriously as Toys?”

It seems counterintuitive that gun laws have not been changed after all these recent incidents and tragic ones too. However, I do stand to have a very strong opinion on this topic. We as a country need to regulate guns somehow, but take into account that these laws have been with America since the Bill of Rights.

Guns are one of the most controversial topics in our society today. However, the thoughts one has is usually dependent on their political views. It would be naive to try and remove all guns from society since there will always be guns based on the black market for guns. In addition the things that should change are stronger background checks and to try and address the illegal gun trade which may seem illogical.

“Net Neutrality”

It seems counterintuitive that this topic is still being talked about today. If one really thinks about it these companies are oligopolies. They are the only ones who control the internet and you can think they could set up the prices.

However, this idea is extremely important because it saves all of the internet users from having to pay more money for faster internet. Even though you pay for better internet the companies under net neutrality won’t be able to stop access from certain sites or internet connection. Also this can lead into a bit of the anti trust fund laws.

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Summary 1—July

Posted on February 8, 2019 by july02222

It seems counterintuitive that the average person can make such a big impact on the nation, or even the world , but the governments can not. As I’ve heard for years now, It all starts with a person who is passionate about change for the better. For example, Veronica Khosa has changed her government health policy in Brazil. How you ask? She created a clinic for AIDS patients, making it seem like home, so they were comfortable. Although that is just one thin going on in this gigantic planet, there are many more people just like her all over. Schramm, who is a citizen in the U.S, helped over thousands of teenagers get into college, although they’re living in a low income area. The major point to be made is that these are everyday people making huge impacts on thousands of lives, and their nation. When will the time come where the government is actually putting it’s people, and their nation, on the top of their priority list?

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Apple summary—July

Posted on February 8, 2019 by july02222

It seems counterintuitive that the company most known for their technology had a major flaw going on. The mother of 14 year old, Grant Thompson was notified by her son that he could eavesdrop on his friend via face time, without his friend being aware. After hearing , and seeing this major issue, she tried contacting Apple. It was not until a week later that they acted on this security flaw. How can a multi-nation company seem so unconcerned about a flaw they missed? The friend of Grant, on the other line, was not the only one one who should be concerned, but more than half the nation. Apple is one of the main companies trying to promote their safety features, to pull in more customers. With this issue going viral, they are at risk of losing potential buyers. https://rucomp2.com/2019/01/30/apples-face-palm-bug/

Apple’s “Face Palm” Bug
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Summaries-rowanstudent

Posted on February 5, 2019 by rowanstudent2

Apple’s “Face Palm” Bug

It seems counterintuitive that a multinational AND multi billion dollar company like Apple can mistakenly create such a security flaw in their products. On January 19 of this year, 14 -year-old Grant Thompson found out that he could eavesdrop on his friend through his phone before his friend even had the chance to pick up. His mother immediately reported this incident to Apple the following day. Due to Apple’s unforgiving error, iPhone users were now facing a major problem. How can a company who sells hundred of thousands of products a day make such a slip? It wasn’t until a week later Apple finally did something about it. It’s beyond belief that this company advertises themselves as one that gets rid of these kinds of bugs easily, yet it took a week to dismiss this one. Now people are raising concerns about Apple’s security and privacy policies.

Human Food Labels?

It seems counterintuitive that stores label their food products as “humane”, but ignore the fact that the farm animals used are put into poor conditions. When you go to the grocery store to find the foods you would say are the “healthiest” ones out there, you look for keywords on the label such as “organic” or “cage-free”. But do you ever wonder if those labels are only there to get you to buy the product? Do you know for a fact that those eggs come from hens that are allowed to roam around free of cages? Whole Foods as well as Safeway and Supervalu have started to falsely advertise their products as “humane”. There are certain legal actions that companies have to take in order to be able to say their animals are in humane conditions, but quite frankly they probably aren’t. Perdue has been filed a class-action lawsuit by the Humane Society for “alleged false advertising of factory farmed chicken products as ‘humane'”. It is our job as consumers to take it upon ourselves and do our own research to make sure we are truthfully buying what we really want. Next time you are at your local farmers market, make it a priority to speak to the farmer to check if those eggs you are buying are actually cage-free.

Clean Girls Get Sicker?

It seems counterintuitive that the cleanest girls get more sicknesses than those who are exposed to germs early in life. It is expected of boys to play outside, while girls stay inside to play, which explains their health differences later in life. The lack of germ and parasite exposure children face may cause autoimmune diseases in their adulthood. That is why women develop these diseases more than men do because of the insufficient amount of time they spend getting dirty. Sounds crazy right? Further research provided that being exposed to these germs does help with preventing the likelihood of obtaining such diseases, but getting that exposure at a very young age would aid even better. Although, hygiene and sanitation policies have been enhanced, it won’t hurt to get your toddler running around in some bacteria-present playground.

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My Hypothesis-Chavanillo

Posted on February 5, 2019 by chavanillo
  1. You never should be addicted to anything because it harms your health and body.
  2. You should never be addicted to your phone because it harms your brain and health.
  3. How smartphones addiction is affecting our physical and mental health
  4. What is the affect of smartphones being the reason because if it’s radiation causing memory loss, loss in hearing and sleep,an a increased in cancer.
  5. Having control of your smartphones instead of he smartphone controlling you will reduce the amount of harming your health.
  6. Having control of your smartphone would reduce the amount of health risk more then just not caring and improving your addiction because you will make yourself realize how dangerous smartphones could be if we depend on it.
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Apple Summary—nj908

Posted on February 5, 2019 by nj908

Apple’s malfunction within its facetime app proves to be counterintuitive in the fact that, Apple, a multi billion dollar company which 83.8 percent of mobile users depend on every day that their thousand dollar phones work yet this malfunction shows that their claims of being safe and top of the line products aren’t quite what they claim. This problem was discovered when a boy Facetimed his friends and when they didn’t pick up the call still connected and basically acted as a spy-like camera and surprised by the fact the call went through the boy went to his mother and responsibly the mother contacted apple to report the problem but apple never responded so the mother then took this problem to social media where it went viral. The mother posted it to the website, 9to5mac.com where there it went to social media which then prompted Apple to get to the issue at hand.

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Summaries—halizzle

Posted on February 5, 2019 by halizzlee

Apple Face Plant

It seems counterintuitive that a major company would have a huge security breach and not do anything about it. Apple recently faced a lot of backlash due to a bug that could allow you to see and hear someone you were facetiming before they answered the phone. For years, the consumers of apple’s product had been asking for group FaceTime, in 2018 Apple had finally released a software update that would allow a user to FaceTime more than one person. A young boy in Arizona discovered the glitch and told his mother about it who then reached out to Apple. She did not hear back from Apple, prompting her to begin reaching out to other people such as Apple’s security team and posting on popular social media platforms, Twitter and Facebook. What caught Apple’s attention was an article that went viral on an Apple fan site. A software update has been issued to fix the issue but it is still unknown why it took Apple so long to respond to the issue. This bug can contribute to the hundreds and thousands of dollars that “Bug Brokers” make. These brokers sell the bugs for even more money to governments and law enforcements around the world. This is done on the dark web.

Heroin for Addicts

It seems counterintuitive to give an addict the drug of their choice. Well, in Vancouver they are giving away kits with clean syringes, band-aids, and antiseptic pads to heroin addicts. Vancouver has been battling a heroin epidemic for a while now, even setting up an area where addicts can shoot up without being arrested and in a safe, clean environment with nurses present. This was supposed to work as treatment for addicts, a way to keep people off of the streets, and a way to keep people from stealing and prostitution but in the end just ended up giving an addicts a better place to get high. This just gives addicts an excuse to keep doing the drug and does no help what so ever. By setting up these places it makes it seem like it is okay to have a drug addiction, it is a way of killing people without actually doing it. It’s like saying “Hey, you’re addicted to drugs and to keep you from overdosing and dying on our streets we’ll give you a safer place to do it so that the tourist don’t see how big of a drug problem we really have.”

Meanest Show on Earth

It seems counterintuitive to go to work against your doctors orders. So how come animals don’t get the same treatment? Circuses have never had a good reputation with animal care. One specific case came to light and has opened many conversations about how well the animals in circus rings are taken care of. Anybody who has been to a circus knows that there is where you can see wild animals do tricks. Well, unfortunately for a three year old elephant, Kenny, in the Ringling brother’s circus was no different. Kenny was visibly sick and had not been eating for two days prior to his performance. Kenny was never checked by a vet or given the okay to preform but was put to work anyway. During the show Kenny had gotten sick, then again on the same day for his second performance he began to bleed. Only then did Kenny get the care he should have been receiving. The doctor prescribed antibiotics and advised them not to let him preform. The Ringling brothers once again put the baby elephant to work. Kenny was later found, lifeless in his cage in his own bed due to improper treatment of a salmonella infection.

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Summaries-nousernamefound1

Posted on February 5, 2019 by nousernamefound1

Safe Injection Sites

It seems counterintuitive but is possibly true that Vancouver doesn’t fear addiction of drugs like other countries. Is giving heroin addicts what they want, really a good solution? The city has tried everything, but nothing seems to work, so why not try something that we can’t be held accountable for.

With the city flooding with drugs, the town looks for a solution for addiction. Vancouver’s drug problem tops the drug cities like Detroit and Baltimore. In recent years, Vancouver tried to create resolution called Insite but the problems don’t seem to stop even after the safe zone was created. 26 people in the city refuse to go get clean. Many believe that just giving them the drugs will eventually make them stop. The harm that they can cause to themselves and society will reduce with this solution.Europe,Switzerland,Germany, and Netherlands all took a stab at this program used by Vancouver. 

Critics believe that this isn’t a good plan for both society and individual. Reported said that the city is killing addicts with kindness. It’s still will kill them but in a nicer way. Many rehab centers look to object this before it gets any worse. It’s hard to side against them with this situation. I believe nobody should have to rely on drugs to make themselves feel stable. This is disgusting the Vancouver is letting heroin addicts do whatever they want without consequences. What’s the point of having rehab centers, If we are going to just give them drugs whenever they want. This will bring alot of addicts to Vancover, just so they can have all the drugs they want.

Apple’s Face Palm

It seems counterintuitive but is possibly true that iPhone users fear about security more than the actual Apple company.  Apple which claims to have a high-level technical team seen nothing wrong with glitches? Or were they turning their heads on the protection of others privacy?

On January 19th, One 14-year-old kid discovered that he could spy on friends with his apple phone. His mother was so shocked that she sent the video of the hack to Apple. The company didn’t respond right away, so she took it into her own hands. On the website 9to5mac.com, the hack was shared and eventually went viral. The company then reacted to the facetime flaw, but still the process to fix it is still slow. Many believe that Apple should of know better. If somebody can figure out this bug, what other bugs are out there for Apple products?

If the problem was brought to their attention on January 19th, I can see not responding back on that day giving the technical support time to look into the claimant,  that should have not taken a week, and even after a week suggestion to the Thompson family to submit a formal bug report. This is scary because of the fact that I have an iPhone. Privacy should be the first thing a company should focus on when creating something new, but in this case, it wasn’t. 

Faulti-Vitamins

It seems counterintuitive that a lot of people still don’t believe multi-vitamins increase a healthy life. Top stores such as Target, started selling vitamins that looked like gummy bears to increase sells. Do Multivitamins really work? You wouldn’t be able to figure this out until you actually invest. The results don’t lie, a lot of people have seen results after investing in multivitamins.

The National Institutes of Health stated that nearly a third of Americans take multivitamins every day. With number ranging in the $700 million areas, annual sales have been growing by double digits year after year. Evidence doesn’t really show that vitamins make you healthier, but a lot of people still believe the case. Multivitamins can still be a risk for an individual. Multi with iron could increase the risk of heart disease. This means you should read the back of the bottle before purchasing. You should stay away from taking too many vitamins because you still can get the same benefits with eating food. Before taking make sure you study all of the supplements and who it should be recommended for, so you can get the right effects of Multivitamins.

Vitamins are a good source of supplements for people who don’t eat properly on a daily basis or get the proper activity intake. A person who doesn’t go outside much only eats vegetables on an occasion would need to take a daily vitamin for iron and vitamin D.  Depending on you lifestyle spending money on vitamins can be a great thing or just a financial hardship. I would incourage anybody to invest, because of the fact that it helps ward off chronic illness.

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