Illegal Immigration: How About Walk n a Tightrope?

If there were people who still believed in American dream, now would be the time to think again. The U.S government starts to chase illegal immigrants and people who hire them. Federal immigration officials carrying out raids in 17 states, including at locations in Southern California, have arrested almost 200 illegal immigrants working for a janitorial company and filed criminal charges against the firm's top three officials. It means more than crime charged for firm’s top three executives and 200 illegal immigrants arrested. There are about 10 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. 10 million people willingly submit to high risk, high expenses and even their lives in order to come to America only because they believe that they would have better chances and better life in America. However, America started to kill even the little hopes they have.

Simply America is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. For most illegal immigrants, the U.S has higher living condition and higher minimum wage compared to the countries that they come from. Even though they are all aware that it is illegal, many people are willing to take that risk because they are more valuable in the U.S, which means that more profit are guaranteed when they do the same job here. Therefore, most of 10 million people are willing to do the hardest work at minimum wage or less than minimum wage in America. Americans don’t have to do hard work at minimum wage.

The reason that America is able to have stable minimum wage for long time is due to the contribution of illegal immigrants. Economical contribution that illegal immigrants make to America is essential. What if these 10 million people stopped working, the moment they stopped, minimum wage would go up because unskilled workers are needed, but Americans would avoid hard and dirty work at minimum wage, and it would affect all the price of products and services produced in the U.S. Higher wage, which is higher cost for companies, would damage a lot of businesses. Many companies would have to exit the market (closed). Demand for education would decrease because high wage is guaranteed for the uneducated (unskilled), so it would affect schools, tuition and even educated people, and it would decrease the productivity of whole country. Internationally, the U.S would lose price competitiveness, and it would affect domestic economy as well.

There are things that we hate, but we simply cannot live without like bad experiences and memories. We even try to develop a pill to forget what we remember. If we could only remember things that we wish to remember, it would not be our whole life because bad memories are a part of our life. Whether we want or not, illegal immigrants are already a part of our society that we cannot live without.

Congestion Pricing: Regulation Works for Us, What About Cost?

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has tightened the standards for certain toxic emissions from mobile sources. Basically, the EPA expects that gasoline in all areas of the country will have lower benzene levels than we do now, and this regulation will apply to all American states, even Alaska and the Northwest that have currently the highest benzene levels. The new regulation, EPA developed, promises better environment in the future. Expected cost, EPA estimated, is about $400 million annually by 2030 in order to prepare and run more strict emission tests in all states in the U.S, and America could save $6 billion in annual health care spending.

Even though we have great benefit in the future, we still have to face expense for ourselves today because there is also a hidden cost that we are responsible for. By 2010, all the automakers have to go through the regulation. More strict emission tests will press the all the automobile manufactures, and the pressure will turn into real cost to all automakers, so that the expected price of the automobile will go up. Increased price of the car will affect the other cost such as insurance and maintenance. Assumed future benefit, $6 billion, from the health care spending is not the actual money that we could have on our hands. The saved money will be spent by gorvernment for our own good, but the cost we are looking for is the cost that we actually have to pay directly or indirectly today.

Congestion pricing is the one type of fees for things heavily used. When we cross the Golden Gate Bridge, the money that we pay is this kind of fees. City of San Francisco uses the money for citizens, but the main reason that the city collects the money is not for raising the budget. The city believes that congestion pricing encourages people to car-pool, or use public transportation, so the gas spent and air pollution would be decreased in the city, and the city able to have better traffic condition. However, what we do is to spend another dollar for government.

We have huge financial benefit compared to expected cost that we have to spend, and we can expect better environment and healthcare. Therefore, the cost that we are facing is necessary and reasonable. This new regulation sounds great to all of us, but we cannot just be happy about it because there is price to pay that we don't see like congestion price.

Searching Cost: Is Starbucks Our Best Choice?

Starbucks, known as the finest coffee provider, became a global coffee retailer. Since the first store opened in 1971 in Seattle, it has grown worldwide to about 12,500 branches with $8 billion revenue, and Starbucks furthermore has plans to have 40,000 branches. The number that Starbucks plans is even greater than the number of branches that McDonalds, the biggest global company with 31,000 braches, has. The Starbucks is not only the finest coffee provider but also the largest coffee provider.

There is no doubt that Starbucks, best coffee retailer, is emerging as a culture guru. The most important reason behind is location of the store. Simply, Starbucks is everywhere, so most people see at least one Starbucks shop in daily routine. Low searching cost, which is the basic cost until purchasing is made including time taken, is huge comparative advantage for the stores that have low price items like coffee. The time that consumers spend (searching cost) is more valuable than the coffee price. Likewise, when comparing the coffee price of usual coffee provider such as Starbucks and minimum wage in America, the price of coffee would not really affect consumers' decision-making process. Therefore, it is reasonable for people to go to Starbuck unless McDonalds or Subway, the largest franchisees, has better or same quality coffee.

However, recent consumer reports compared coffee - black with no flavors, milk or sugar - from McDonald's, Burger King, Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks, say McDonald has better coffee than Starbucks, and even actual price of coffee and searching cost (number of branches) is less than Starbucks. Therefore, people actually might be able to spend less money and buy better products, but demand for Starbucks is still higher than any other competitors, and no one can easily expect that demand for Starbucks would decrease.

Basically, when it comes to purchasing decision, people only spend money if their benefit is greater than or equal to cost expected, and it can be applied everything, even item like coffee, which is everyday item and cheap. Since we realize that McDonald has less cost than Starbucks, the customers that go to Starbucks must have more benefit than choosing other coffee providers. According to the Wall Street Journal, average Starbucks coffee drink contains 320 milligrams of caffeine which is the highest level in the marketplace. Maybe, Starbucks is the best taste coffee, maybe people need more caffeine, or people are just rich enough to spend whatever makes them look better.