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Participation: Each week students are required to make one substantive post and one response to another student on the class blog (professorcrain.org) under DeAnza, Poli 1 & the specific week. Each student must post by Wednesday of that week and reply to their classmates by Friday of each week.
These posts should highlight one of the three prompts below: 1) summary of lecture with critical thinking questions (150 words) 2) media (newspaper articles or relevant videos) and a 150 word description of its relevancy to the reading and/or lecture (cover two major ideas) 3) 2-3-minute video logs on your perspectives in the knowledge gained from lecture /reading material Lecture Resources Monday - Class canceled Article to read that would have been lectured on JP Morgan May Escape Criminal Charges for $13 Billion Tuesday http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/cheney/view/#more http://www.change.org/petitions/de-anza-college-decrease-campus-bookstore-base-price-of-books Wednesday Affirmative Action is constitutional (example of a social policy that has been under judicial review in many states and federally) Links:
FDRs New Deal and Federal Stimulus packages Links:
Thursday Watch : The Story of Stuff YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM Click on add comments to leave your posts and reply to others.
101 Comments
Angela Paolella
11/5/2013 08:58:07 am
So today in class we discussed the presidency and the bully pulpit, which according to Bing is, "a position of prominent authority that gives the holder a wide audience". The bully pulpit, as the professor stated, is not nearly as effective as we think. Often times presidents will generate backlash simply from publicizing their particular issue, which was the Affordable Care Act for Obama and the privatization of Social Security for Bush. The professor argued that the opposing party will often go along with a presidents issue as long as it stays quiet. During class it was brought up that this idea was totally contradicted the "End of America" so I found it rather interesting to hear both sides of the story. So my questions for you are: Does the bully pulpit do presidents more harm than good? Or do presidents abuse their power in order to fulfill personal agendas?
Flora Tang
11/5/2013 01:30:27 pm
While sitting in the class led by Professor Gordon while our beautiful Professor Crain was in Michigan, our original class discussed a petition that their class was holding. Their petition was trying to have the De Anza Administrators to use their power to have the De Anza Bookstore lower their prices so that it would be more affordable. One of their main points against the Bookstore was that the bookstore across the street had textbooks that cost 20% less than the ones in the De Anza Bookstore. However, I believe that, if students think that the books on campus are too expensive, then why not just go across the street or go on Amazon to buy the book. I did not completely understand that argument and was very unconvinced. However, someone brought up the idea of having each student pay a little bit of money towards the De Anza bookstore, like for the EcoPass, and so the books will be cheaper. But my question is: Do you think this is fair to students like international students or financial aid students who don’t have enough money or are already spending way too much money on college tuition?
Jessica Rios
11/6/2013 10:09:50 am
I believe it is fair because they would just be paying a small fee and getting the book they required for a lower price. It benefits them because in all they would be paying less.
Jonathan Garcia
11/8/2013 11:31:51 am
I like the idea of evreyone paying just a little to help everyone out, just like the eco pass.This was a great example to help the other class out. This utilizes our ability to lower costs without really effecting what the school has to spend things on. De anza already has enough to budget.
Sarah Jane Estrada
11/8/2013 01:12:04 pm
I think its fair for people to pay just a little bit of money extra to help fund the bookstore. At the university I attended, we pay a student activity fee each semester and a technology fee. The student activity fee covers tons of really fun events that the school puts on. Its awesome and we just show up and have a good time. This can be applied to almost anything at de anza. In all honesty, the fees that we pay for de anza are pretty reasonable. Especially the parking permit fees. The fees at other schools range from 50-150 dollars just to park for a semester (most often its a year). I understand that everyone is tight on money, but a little here and there contributes a lot in the end because de anza is a huge commuter school and there are so many students enrolled. Anybody on financial aid benefits from programs like this (ECO pass included). Think about it, a lot of us students on financial aid tend to ride the bus, sorry to be stereotypical, but it is kinda true. Basically, its up to us to decide how we want our school to be. Forking over a few more bucks couldn't hurt at all.
Tedrick Rumohr
11/6/2013 01:02:05 am
Today in class, profesor Jim Nguyen had us participate in a federal budget challenge. With my choices, I finished with a 2.6 trillion dollar deficit. Some notable changes I had to the budget was to spend money to repeal the affordable care act. I chose to repeal the affordable care act because a lot of my peers have had lots of issues with the affordable care act. Obamacare has definitely made things harder for my peers instead of making them easier. I also cut a lot of money from the military or defense spending. It was really difficult to do so because I have no idea how important the military is at the moment. It's hard to think about the political consequences as well. I have no idea how the collective is going to react to my budget cuts or spending. However, I did want to spend more on fixing the education system. Hopefully a lot of people that want to spend more on education can help me to be re-elected. The whole process of these budget cuts was very difficult. The question of who I want to benefit is present in each decision that I make. Do I want to fund people that will help me get re-elected, or do I want to fund the collective. My question to you guys is:
David McCarthy
11/6/2013 02:38:22 pm
Focusing on your first question, it is difficult for anybody sitting in a legislative seat to lean only one way; even if it was you or myself, maintaining a re-election is important to continue benefiting whoever you're fighting for.
ariana ortega
11/6/2013 01:59:18 am
Yesterday we were discussing how a petition can affect our book store in professor Gordon's poli class. the class came up with the idea to submit a petition to the De Anza book store asking that they lower the prices of textbooks. My idea of this petition is that they should be petitioning not towards the bookstore, but towards the publishers of the textbooks. The professor mentioned that the students would rather have a bookstore on the college campus that is more reliable in terms of pricing rather then going across the street to purchase their textbooks for a lower price. I believe that if this petition convince the book store to lower it's text book prices, that it will cause a competition between the book store across the street and the college book store. this competition can cause each store to lower their prices to the point where they do not break even and may cause them both to shutdown. on the other hand the competition will be helpful to us consumers, because we will be able to buy our books cheap for a short time. this is related to political science, because this idea can apply to how big company's lower their prices against other company to the point were the first company can buy out the second company and allowing a monopoly to happen.
Sam Kuhlmann
11/8/2013 02:54:05 am
I don't think much will happen in terms of the book store prices. Maybe they will drop a little bit but not enough for us to see a difference. The book store needs to make a profit and if they lower their prices they won't make any money. So I doubt the book store will ever lower their prices and students should find other sources to buy books. I personally buy mine online or through the off campus book store.
Bianca
11/6/2013 04:06:32 am
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/parents-teen-killed-calif-deputy-sue-20781692
Anna Baucus
11/6/2013 03:21:12 pm
Hey, by no stretch of the imagination do I think it's easy to be a Law Enforcement Officer... but I also think we need to maintain a level of severe criticism of people we give such power to.
Gabriela Martinez
11/8/2013 02:16:41 pm
Hello,
Kevin Lopez
11/10/2013 02:12:10 am
This is a really hard topic to reach an agreement on due to the fact that a police officer's reaction is to avoid getting shot or let the suspect shoot at all. Yes I do agree that so many shots were not necessary to take down a young kid with a toy gun but you have to look at it on both sides of the case. I am currently taking Criminal Justice classes and I’ve learned that, while we expect a cop to be a precise shot, they are actually not very good at shooting. Hollywood portrays cops shooting guns out of suspect's hands and all that but in reality, while you are chasing and shooting, you are moving around fast and everywhere. Half of the shots aren’t even close to the target. So yes, I do believe this could have been avoided in a way that didn't involve to many shots. But in the uniform, as a cop, my reaction would have been the same.
Elizabeth Hill
11/6/2013 05:22:30 am
On democracynow.org there is a headline about natural gas fracking laws in Colorado and Ohio. “The technique of fracking has resulted in a huge boost to U.S. gas reserves. It allows more gas to flow from some conventional wells, but more importantly, it allows use of gas in formations where the rock is not permeable enough to allow economic gas production.” Fracking imposes numerous environmental issues and affects the people living around the land that is being drilled. “Three out of four Colorado cities voted to ban the gas drilling process of hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking. A similar ban failed in two out of the three cities where it was on the ballot in Ohio.” The negative affects that fracking has on the environment includes the increase of chemicals that are mixed with the sand, dirt, and water around the land which causes health issues as well as the depletion of the land. I don’t believe that fracking should be an option to obtain natural gas due to the amount of negative factors that would be contributed to the environment and people involved.
Megan Marchese
11/6/2013 05:51:17 am
Today in class we did a Federal Budget Challenge. We learned what it was like to be a congressman. I do not have an Iphone so I had to look on as someone else was doing it. From what I saw some of the things that needed to be budgeted looked. While some were hard. We had to think if that decisions we made to cut something with effect us in a good or bad way. Some the congressmen's decisions are based on whoever funds them. They are more likely going to make choose things that will favor their company. Our government is borrowing money to pay off the debt they are in. That is why when you are budgeting you need to bring in more money then you spend. Also we took a social policy poll. One of the question had to deal with the actually role of the government i terms of social policy. Most people felt that the government is there to provide protection since it has resources to minimize risks inherent in life. I'm not really sure what i think the role of the government is. The second question is who is responsible for poverty. Poverty is caused by structural factors over which individuals have little or no control : background, educational opportunities, the status of job, market, etc. I do agree with this people can not help if say the market crashes and they do not have to place to live. With the way the economy is now it is hard for most people to keep their houses.
Sheyla
11/6/2013 03:39:08 pm
The government could do more for the people in poverty I would say but we also have to help ourselves out. I understand that some people go through a lot of hard times and might lose their homes or jobs but who doesn't go through hard times right? Especially those who are low income. Unfortunately we all have crisis. And I do believe that the government plays a huge role in our society, we are the government.
Aditya Davar
11/6/2013 06:36:05 am
In class today we stepped into an elected official’s shoes. We find out what it takes to be a congressman. This is particularly interesting because we can pretend to run the system our way. The goal is to see if we can create a system without a large deficit. I cut spending from places that i thought was less important such as discretionary funs to education and health-care. What caught my interest is the budget for military versus the budget for everything else. Allocated money for social security, health care and education is not nearly as high. I figured out that moving money from one area to another is not efficient. The best way to increase revenue for the USA is to create tax. I believe it will benefit middle class economic status by increasing the taxes from multi trillion dollar profits made by the corporate world. I agree that there should be an increase in taxes those that make 250k or higher in annual profit. These tax increase is only a few percentage higher than the current, yet when looking at a larger scale, funds it creates would make an impact to increase revenue. I believe this is the best way to increase economic growth in our country. The large majority of citizens in the US will not make 250k per year, their fund will increase because many needs will already be subsidized and free. I also enjoy the fact that large corporations that can create more GPD than a medium size country and as a government official i don’t feel too guilty to tax them much higher. Military, economy and the public wellness is a delicate tripod. One side can not be ignored or the tripod will fall, unfortunately public interest is lacking funding at our current system.
Hakwoo Kim
11/6/2013 02:54:58 pm
Very interesting! Before answering your questions, I just wonder if there has been any kind of policy suggested that is somewhat similar to your idea on taxing people who make more than 250k per year. I believe, although it was turned down, Buffet Rule was kind of similar one, wasn't it?
Thanaa Makdsi
11/9/2013 03:32:06 am
i do think that we are over spending on military and we are cutting more and more on the health care and the education, where we really need to focus on spending more for them and allocation our nation`s money wisely. second i do think that its a little unfair to tax the wealthy people more. i mean they worked hard to be there, and its their right to enjoy living wealthy as a result of good decisions. i think that we should enforce laws on all the large companies to set a health care coverage for their employees and to make sure that their retirements are secure. as a government this what we can do. as people we should demand these things from our government.
Jennalynn Luz-Fernando
11/6/2013 06:42:03 am
Today in class, we had a substitute by the name of Professor Gordon, whom we discussed the Federal Budget with. We took the Federal Budget Challenge and experienced the difficulty of making such decisions for our government system. We weren't able to finish the challenge, but the few questions we had answered were stressful enough in their quality.On one hand, our decisions could greatly reduce or increase the federal budget debt. But doing so may either take or give away jobs to the people. We had a better understanding of the pressures that politics present for the government and it's Congressman. We then discussed the source of poverty in the US. It boiled down to two sources. One is that the carelessness of government actions and their countless projects and acts o more harm than good and cause poverty for the country. The other source is that citizens are responsible for their own poverty by their careless spending and self-indulgence on material items. In my opinion, I believe it is a complex combination of both, with a substantial amount of blame being on the government's part. Our society is run by capitalism and survival of the fittest ad the government seems to support this, being extremely associated with many corporations and surrounded by their own privileges. But unfortunately, the public seems to fall into the mind scheme, for capitalism gets us what we want to have, which for some, is a rare thing, while for others, it's a daily occurrence. Either way, we can't seem to get enough of this routine, which is why we inadvertently support it or don't care enough to go against it. So I guess these are my critical questions:
Catherine Lin
11/6/2013 07:12:53 am
http://youtu.be/MNoOqAcVT_o
Sam Kuhlmann
11/6/2013 09:19:47 am
I watched the video that was assigned to the class called, “The Story of Stuff.” Some of the more interesting points came in the beginning of the short documentary. In the documentary the narrator states that the corporations are now bigger than the government. “Out of the 100 largest economies on earth 51 are corporations.” Also, the government is taking care of the corporations and is paying less attention to the good of the people. Also we are running out of resources because we are using way more than we actually need. “In the past three decades alone one third of the natural resource space has been consumed.” She went on to state that in the United States we have less than four percent of the original forest left. This is a scary thought on multiple levels because trees and plants produce oxygen for us. Once we run out of those resources we will no longer be able to survive on the planet.
Jennalynn Luz-Fernando
11/7/2013 12:54:57 am
Hello Sam. I believe that the government will only step in when Earth is on the brink of being extremely wasted and ruined before they do anything. I am also thinking that by then the Earth will be past saving. Hopefully by then we have found an alternaive ad safe way of living, but I doubt it. We are a capitalist society and human beings are prone to procrastination on important issues. I have a feeling that this combination of bad habits have hurt us and will contnue to hurt us in the department of preservation of our planet. I would be very happy if we were able to find more ways to save the Earth and prevent pollution, but I am not very optimistic.
ariana ortrega
11/7/2013 02:09:45 am
hey Sam,
Cindy Tran
11/7/2013 12:26:02 pm
Actually I do believe that our government will realize the harm that has been done to the planet and will change. Especially when there are people out there who are willing to promote change and will fight for it. Even today, where new researches and findings have been exposed will help produce a much healthier environment. Our government will see the detriments eventually and will have to act against it.
Jessica Rios
11/6/2013 10:06:54 am
Yesterday in class we talked about how students were creating a petition to have the De Anza book store lower there prices. Many people had great suggestion on how to improve there method. The one that caught my attention was for us to pay a small fee like we do for the Eco pass and that way the bookstore would not be losing money if they lower the prices. In my opinion I believe that's a great idea. So my question to everyone is do you believe this a better way to get the book store to lower their prices? Why or why not
Ho Wai "Howard" Mok
11/8/2013 09:07:39 am
I would think the same way. However, there is the problem causing by technology. Online shopping is getting way more cheaper than physical retail store. I mean, yes, sometimes shipping can cause double of the cost of the products, but face it, there is always the newest version of the textbook. Sometimes, instructor would just require one of the textbook without caring about the edition of it, in that case, students can get much better deal by buying the previous version of it online. Especially, if you are a student of whatever college or university, you get a free membership from amazon for a year, which you get free shipping, which more likely to be cheaper than buying it in the bookstore. So, I would say that it's just for convenience. Convenient always costs more.
Chantel Luu
11/8/2013 02:00:07 pm
Out of all the possible solutions suggested to get the De Anza book store to lower its prices, I thought that the small added fee for books upon registration for classes (much like the EcoPass and other health fees) was the best option. I think that something that could also be done is that the bookstore could offer to match the prices of any other retailer that offers a particular book for lower. This would give the school more of an edge over the Premier bookstore across the street or any online retailer due to convenience. A student would not have to wait for a book to have to be delivered to them or to have to walk more for it because the school would have the best or matching price for a book.
Flora Tang
11/9/2013 04:33:24 am
I believe that this is an effective way for the De Anza bookstore to lower their prices. However, one big problem that popped up is of international students, who are already paying a lot for their tuition. Gordon's class mentioned that they wanted an affordable bookstore on campus, but if the store across the street is selling for less, why not go there instead? If students go across the street to buy their books, the only ones that are being hurt are the college bookstores. But then again, that is also a problem, so this idea is highly debatable.
Tyler Bond
11/15/2013 11:16:50 am
I would definitely join that petition because yes amazon is super cheap but it takes forever to send you the books sometimes and if the prices were a lot cheaper in the bookstore then I would and a lot of students would go straight there. Prices in the bookstore are sometimes like 100 dollars more then amazon which is crazy
Dong June Kim
11/15/2013 05:18:56 pm
yes i would join the petition. everyone said online shopping is way cheaper than physical retail store but they take at least 1 week to send the material we bought. Also we have to pay for the shipping fee too. I definitely join the petition for convenience. if they lower the price for books we can simply go to bookstore and buy it instead of buying it online and wait for days.
Sarahjane Estrada
11/6/2013 10:39:12 am
Today in class we talked about social and economic policies. The guest professor had us go online to a website and decide whether to cut or spend money on certain domestic and foreign issues. Chas and I worked together and we were able to end with a 2.8 deficit. It was interesting to see what the choices came down to. Our first choice we made was to pump funding into education initiatives and infrastructure, which I strongly believe need improvement. We then moved on to other topics like health care and tax cuts. The thing that really got to be was that we were spending so much money on defense and military. When we chose to cut back on defense spending, it opened up a lot of room for us to fund education and infrastructure. Personally, I think that this is what should happen in America right now. I think we should be focusing more on domestic policy, because if we are strong domestically, we will be seen as a force in the foreign markets. We need to focus on our economy and educating the people within our economy--it only benefits us. The problem is that we are so focused on whats going on internationally, that the issues here at home get overlooked.
Caio Feyh
11/6/2013 10:40:48 am
This week so far in class we dicussed how De Anza students are trying to petition for lower prices at the bookstore. In all I think this is good, we are fighting for something we think must change. In my opinion, tuition especially for international students like myself is extremely high. I would love if the books were more affordable to everyone. Generally everyone seems to complain about book prices, which causes some students to not even buy the book, therefore not giving them the right materials to study and pass.
Robert Chavira
11/6/2013 02:40:46 pm
i completely agree. i myself have struggled paying for everything and have tried to skip out on buying a book, and as a result have had to drop the class, some with a W.
Tedrick Rumohr
11/7/2013 02:13:24 am
It will definitely affect passing some classes. For example, I don't need a textbook for my communication class, but I definitely need the textbooks for my history class. Overall, book prices will play a role in passing a class for sure.
Han Kyung Kim
11/8/2013 06:46:34 am
I would think so too 'cause in my case, I'm currently taking a class on Macroecon using Military GI Bill Which means the government pays me all the book materials costing about $200...however if I ever fail the class I have to compensate them in full return. ( This is only way to encouraging veteran to pass a class) So I would say "yes" high prices play a role in passing a class!
Jazmin Ordaz
11/8/2013 08:21:28 am
I agree with you too because from my experience when the books are more expensive and I haven't bought them and because of that I didn't do as well in the class as I could have if I had bought the book.
Lisa Rabago
11/6/2013 11:12:28 am
For my blog post I read the article on JP Morgan. JP Morgan is one of the banks who, during the real estate boom, convinced people to take out loans to buy homes which they really could not afford. They then bundled the loans and sold them to other investors. Now thousands of people have lost their homes. Negligence is a nice way of putting it, another is fraud. The company is currently trying to work out a deal with the government so that instead of being criminally charged they will have to pay $13 billion dollars in damages. If they succeed, this is unfair to people who commit crimes but don’t have the kind of money and influence that JP Morgan has. Mike Koehler’s remark that letting JP Morgan take a bailout sends the message that “justice can be bought,” reminded me of when we learned about how, thanks to Citizens United, large corporations can contribute unlimited amounts to political campaigns and therefore have a larger influence on legislation than regular citizens. The JP Morgan issue is another example of how the disparity between the rich and poor affects how we do not have equality in the political system.
Ingrid
11/6/2013 03:20:40 pm
I think that JP Morgan should face criminal charges because first of all IT IS a fraud. Second the poor people that have lost their homes because of this issue will have to go through very hard times and recuperate some how I am not able to imagine. And third of all, what happens to the criminals that have committed fraud? Should we let them pay it off too. NO! I think it is unfair for those who lost their homes and I would say justice would serve better in this case.
Steven Le
11/6/2013 11:50:08 am
Today in lecture with Professor Jim Nguyen, we had done an activity that involved a website dealing with budgets. On the website we were to play the role of Congress and monitor what we spend money on and what we cut back on. After doing so, as a class we discussed how we felt playing the role of Congress and I agreed with my group member that it would not be a job for us. The options we were given were straightforward without much option, it was either budget cut or budget spend. Most of the options we had read were options we didn’t agree on, but still playing the role of Congress meant that you still had to make a choice; you couldn’t just leave the option. Another thing we noticed is that with the choice of one option, other things would change in the spending. That was basically our discussion; it was just a taste of how Congress budget spending works.
Catherine Lin
11/7/2013 07:28:09 am
Hi Steven,
Brian Phen
11/6/2013 11:59:57 am
This week in class we had professor nguyen come to our class today and he had us do a federal budget challenge. This challenge had us make cuts and raises to certain projects or other things like the military future programs. When I did this, I felt that it's actually pretty tough to think of what kind of cuts and raises need to be done. Since we were only given a certain amount of money, all the decisions you make could increase the debt or make it smaller. I would also like to talk about the high prices at the bookstore. A lot of students don't really qualify for financial aid and don't have money to pay for books. Some students even have jobs with paychecks that go towards family so paying for books is hard. The bookstore should also reduce the prices because a lot of students we have are foreign and the cost of living here and tuition is probably a real hassle for them.
Terrence Chantengco
11/6/2013 12:07:52 pm
Today in class we had a substitute with Professor Nguyen and we had an activity on the internet which was a simulation of being a congressman where we had to deal with the federal budget. In my experience of doing this activity was that it was extremely difficult to balance out the deficit because if you cut one bill, or budget, another conflict occurs. It was very difficult to make these choices because if we reduce taxes, or cut them, it would mean people would have to pay more for their housing, bills, and other necessary needs. I was heavily interested in the military budget. We spend almost more than 30% on military. So I decided to cut the military budget, but the conflict is that it would leave us defenseless against other countries if something were to happen in the world. The discussion we had was very interesting and that balancing a federal budget isn't as easy as it looks.
Han Kyung Kim
11/6/2013 12:15:02 pm
today I've read an article about JP Morgan is about to pay a gigantic fine and it could still face criminal charges. they say multiple outlets are reporting JP Morgan will pay a $13 billion civil penalty for allegedly failing to warn investors about risks in mortgage backed securities trades. it would be the largest civil penalty ever levied, represeniting more than half of the bank's 2012 profits. but it may still not be enough to shield it from the justice Department's Sacramento based prosecutors. the New York Times' reported yesterday the Eastern district of California division wants to countinue to pursue criminal charges!
Brenda mejia
11/6/2013 12:50:46 pm
Yesterday in class we had Susan Gordon as our substitute. We discussed the petition her and her class are doing on lowering the prices at the De Anza bookstore. I think her purpose is good and would be very useful for many students here if the book prices do get lowered. But as some of the students in our class pointed out, I do think she should be considerate of the fact that the school does need that money in order to pay bills. Also, I agree with the suggestion one student made which was to have each student pitch in around $5 in basic fees in order to help lower the prices and for them to be able to pay their bills. I think their class is headed in the right direction but should revise their petition before having so many people sign it because I don't think it'll really pass unless it is detailed on what the solution could be, not just straight up asking the bookstore to lower prices. My question is, what other solutions could their be so both the students and the bookstore benefit from lowering prices?
Brenda Rios-Dorado
11/6/2013 12:56:34 pm
Today in class we had a sub instructor James N. He made class very interesting by having us use our phones in class. He had us pretend to be congress and go online to a website on our phones or laptop that would virtually allow us to control the country's budget. Surprisingly it is very hard to do. For example, some things are very easy to spend money on and there are some things that are very easy to get rid of and stop spending money on. The decisions are all based on what your interests are and what communities or issues you care about because anyone who tried this challenge would have a whole different plan. For me it was really hard to cut things. I looked into the pros and cons given, but even then it was still hard to do so. But I think I just made the country's deficit go up and I think the purpose was to make it go down. This was a really hard challenge. What I found really interesting was there was a category that suggested getting rid of the one dollar bill and replacing it with one dollar coins however, the con would be for businesses having to replace machines to accept dollar coins but it would lower costs of the country's deficit for producing the one dollar bill. Critical Question: what do you think of getting rid of the dollar? And how would it affect others?
andrew manzanero
11/6/2013 03:52:06 pm
nobody likes change, well, most people. itll be a hassel to carry a bunch of change with you. thats why some people like the paper dollar bill. Me personally, i think if it saves money, then we should do it because we arent looking so good right now with the debt we have built up...and still clibing
Brenda Rios-Dorado
11/8/2013 12:19:06 pm
You again >:D haha jk :P. Yeah I guess your right nobody likes change but that's just because people are afraid however they are unaware of the possibilities of change and the potential of benefits that can occur with change. Changing the dollar bill to a coin would save money. It's just that business would suffer for a bit but that wouldn't last long. I definitely believe that if it's not broken don't fix it but if a change that can benefit us then sure.
Vincent Narvaez
11/6/2013 01:14:58 pm
Yesterday during our substitute lecture with Susan Gordon she was discussing her petition to create a dialogue with the De Anza bookstore and her students who created the petition. While I do not agree with how our class began to berate her about her petition, there were definitely a lot of solid points being made that could help that class obtain their goal. I personally think the best way to work around both competition with the bookstore across the street and financial aid being a part of why the books are so expensive is to pay the bookstore employees with proceeds from the college opposed to the book store, that way the book prices won’t affect the employee’s salary, though some may need to be laid off. I do find that an eco pass was a very good idea brought up yesterday for all of us to pay a nominal fee to support the school, however a lot of students made it sound like there is not very much to be done about this issue but I think there is no problem with trying, especially if it benefits everyone at De Anza. My questions for this week are: Do you think this petition is warranted, do you think this petition will work? Should we be worrying about the book prices when there is a book store across the street?
Sheldon Pauley
11/6/2013 01:26:38 pm
today's use of the federal budget challenge was both fun and informative in teaching about the deficit.After all the spending cuts my deficit was reduced by 4.7 trillion coming out to 2.3 trillion. as awesome as it was to decrease the deficit there seems to always be a downside in politics and governmental decisions. Meaning that you cant ever make every single person happy with big decisions that are going on.Some of the things i cut were war spending,defense and security and social security which are all very controversial topics to my understanding.My opinion is that our government cant fully help our people unless we get out of dept, and we are just digging a deeper grave the more we spend borrowed cash. In order to solve this i feel that there will need to be a period of recovery where much spending is cut and everyone will have to sacrifice a little in order to restore the wealth of our nation.
Minh Van
11/6/2013 02:01:04 pm
I'm pretty sure politicians do what are best to keep their jobs safe. Sure they always agree with what the public want on media, but behind closed curtains they still do what's best for them. They are rich and want to remained rich, so their intention is nowhere near helping us middle class folks from getting out of the hell hole. For instances, Mr. Obama promised many things to us in his campaign of Yes We Can, like the closing of Guantanamo Bay, so we will elect him to become president. Obviously, he didn't do that, even after his second term.
Allie
11/8/2013 11:28:54 am
I think that our officials do want they want to get them re-elected. They say we are helping the people look at what we are doing and it all just seems like smoke and mirrors. Obamacare is a joke, people are saying that it more expensive to buy obamacare than from an insurance company. Also I have heard that some cases it is cheaper to pay the fine for not having health insurance than to buy this "AFFORDIBLE HEALTHCARE" lie.
Gabriela Martinez
11/6/2013 01:42:28 pm
After not having class for 2 days, today we had the opportunity to take union a very important for on our government. For lecture ms Jim Nguyen, had two activities planned. One was taking the time if a congressman and managing our budget. The budget challenge was interesting, and at the same time, it brought up many difficult decisions. You could either cut out spend money in student policies. We may think education and care should be at the top, however, there are many things to take into consideration. Also, the question if raising taxes is also a way to balance the budget, but do you think ordinary people would be about to support or economy much longer? How much longer can we do this? Is it fair that the wealthy do not get taxed equally?.. congressman have hard decisions, but there are ways to balance things or.
Sheyla Camones
11/6/2013 01:43:25 pm
Today during class we had a last survey about what we think if the government should help the people who don't have so many advantages like the others.Some people are below the poverty level and still manage to get out of poverty. Even though they don' t have the same advantages as others who have more resources. The government can do so much for one but its up to us to decide if we take advange of it. I have had a couple of teachers who where below the poverty line who have taken advantage of what the government have had to offer and have succeed in life. They always remind there classes that to take all the opportunities we are given to succeed in class. To also not let our lack of resources hold us back.
Brenda mejia
11/8/2013 01:38:38 pm
Hi! I think the lack of support does effect how kids think about the future. For example, me, I grew up in poverty and to be honest I didn't think I was going to go to college. I assumed I would end up dropping out and that it would just take all the little money my family has. Many of the kids I grew up with ended up not doing so well. My 15 year old friend got pregnant and dropped out of school. I think they drop out of school because they see the comparison between the lack of support and resources we have and that of those privileged with more. I used to envy people that had more money because I thought life was way easier for them. But now that I'm older I agree that even though someone might not have as much money, they should use their resources to their advantage. That's what I did and I like where I am today, it's not as bad as if I would have stayed with that mindset that I had no real future. Kids just need to see that they can change their future even with the lack of resources, they don't have to lead the path they think is what is expected of them like of dropping out of school.
Hakwoo Kim
11/6/2013 01:45:34 pm
Today, in class, we mainly talked about the federal budget after having some greetings talk we professor Nguyen. Using the site federalbudgetchallenge.org, we got to experience what congress members go through, the decision making on the federal budget issues, and by doing so, I could learn some complexity of some issues. Basically, what is one the site is a list of choices to either subsidize or cut the budget for certain issues. As site lists the pros and cons of each choice and gives the limit amount of budget, I had to really think about what is necessary and not. Sometime I could not pick any of the options as there was no middle ground between the choice. Professor Nguyen explained that it was what the final choices look like after going through many steps of sorting out. Maybe the difficulty members of the congress might have is this kind of situation where they have to choose among the options they do not really support. One of the things that troubled me the most was about the education issue. Cons of spending budget on the public education informed me that it was more like state level issue, not the federal government's issue. As the U.S. has both federal and states legislatures, I had to ask myself what is the line the federal government should interfere or not. Although education is important, I felt like giving more choices to state legislature seemed more democratic. Then, again I had to question this though as well; isn't building up the equal opportunity by funding quality education also democratic as it ensures people's democratic ability?
Cindy Tran
11/6/2013 01:51:36 pm
Today in the 8:30 am class, we had Professor James Nguyen as our substitute. We discussed a bit out our Community Based Research Project and he gave us some ideas on what to do. Professor James N. also talked about the federal budget challenge told us to take out our phones/laptops so we can experience completing the challenge, the choices we have to make to keep our constituents. Was it hard to do or was it easy? Honestly, the challenge felt pretty difficult especially since you had to choose in a way that would comply to your constituents and you had to make sacrifices too, so some would get some and others would lose some, so I felt the choices could possibly go bad or good either way. Especially when it came to decreasing the deficient because cutting the budget can’t always be the answer. At the same time we shouldn't be spending an abundance amount of money on war.
Minh Van
11/6/2013 01:53:25 pm
I actually really enjoyed Wednesday's class with Professor Nguyen simply because he got us involved in partaking in a voting that simulates what people in Congress do. Ever since the Iraq War, America has been tons of money towards the defense category. With this issue, we have been spending way more than what we take in, causing big pile of debts to build up. A lot of folks, including me, thought that it is easy to reduce the cost of spending by cutting certain things we don't need. But after the exercise given to us on Wednesday, it changed my POV. Deciding want to cut and fund is more difficult when you can understand which particular groups are being affected by the action. Obvious, there is always a pro and con either way, but these Congressmen have to decide which is best for the country. Some of these bills were tough for me to determine on due to the fact that I wanted to suppress the debt while maintaining the same level of funding. Cutting funds towards certain categories absolutely help with the debt issue, but will definite reduce the quality of satisfaction and jobs security. But one thing that was apparent to me that we need to rethink the amount of money we put into our military system. Spending one billion dollars a day on war is just mind blowing. Rather than that, we can put those tax money into good use: improve public education; healthcare, and such.
Tina Nguyen
11/6/2013 01:57:49 pm
I`ve read the article that was supposed to be lectured on Monday, JP Morgan May Escape Criminal Charges for $13 Billion. In the article, it states that JP Morgan is in the terms of negotiating to escape criminal prosecution for its role in the subprime mortgage crisis by paying the U.S government, investors, and compensate homeowners. This agreement would be consider the biggest payout levied on a single company. While reading this, I thought about the increase rates of homeless people because these banks are lending out a lot of money to the poor and causing them to be in big debts. Not only the homeless rate that goes up, but the unemployment rate too. Bad loans and big debts caused many homeowners to lose their jobs. When I was done with reading this article, I thought of how unfair it is that big companies like this are able to buy their way out of jail. Critical questions : Would you put them in jail or have them pay the $13 billion ?
Joaquin Torres
11/8/2013 01:42:51 pm
I think that one of the things people overlook is the capacity that big business have to help the economy and people on the individual level. I think some sort of payment does better for the public's welfare but that is assuming the corporation changes their ways. In the case of JP Morgan, I don't think their methods will change, being that their motive does not concern the average person. But I also think that if the people responsible were jailed, it would just be a matter of time before someone took their spot.
jonathan garcia
11/6/2013 02:26:54 pm
Today we went over the federal budget with our sub jim nguyen.He got us to go into groups and had us take the federal budget challenge. We had to try to cut spending and attempt to raise revenue. After looking at all the different things that we had to cut or spend,i realize how hard it is to compare neccessities and figure out was is neccesary at the immediate moment.This is suppose to be a balance of government.it sometimes isnt evenly represented because of a structural factor.
Stacey Doyle
11/6/2013 02:29:09 pm
So today I took the Federal Budget Challenge, just like its name it was a challenge in itself. It made me think back to when we talked about the public good, who decides what its best for the rest. When I took the test I was thinking only of the decisions that I thought where adequate. For the most part I noticed that I was with the majority of the voters for certain choices. But hat happens when I didn't agree with them? or een worse was how I knew that if I made certain cuts into the health or education system I would be cutting down a major chunk of the deficit, so what is basically better for our country to not have a debt? or to have a debt based on better options for people? I leave you with this critical questions in hopes of someone knowing a better answer that with what I could come up with
David McCarthy
11/6/2013 02:30:53 pm
During our lecture with sub Jim Nguyen, we took part in an interactive, fun activity where we "balanced the federal budget" online.
Robert Chavira
11/6/2013 02:38:16 pm
Today in class we had professor Nguyen today as our substitute teacher. He spoke with us about the budget, how high it has reached and how it has gotten to that point. we also went to a website that let us try to make an agenda to balance the budget. there were many different options is gave us mostly pertaining to cutting money from certain things such as military and education, and also taxing groups of people more or less. in the end the only real way to bring the debt down all the way was unrealistic which really shows how long the process of doing so might take. what was really hard for me in this activity was trying to figure out what to cut and who to tax and how it would affect mass amounts of people in negative ways.
Chelsey Beckler
11/6/2013 02:38:28 pm
I just read the article: JP Morgan May Escape Criminal Charges for $13 Billion. I must say I am a little disappointed to hear that we negotiated a deal with JP Morgan for $13 Billion in order to avoid further criminal charges for their role in the mortgage crisis. They gave out risky loans to home owners who wouldn't be able to afford it. Then they packaged up the bad loans and sold them to the government and overseas investors. This led to the major economic collapse of 2008 that left many without jobs and homes. The reason why I am so disappointed is because I believe that they should be charged and should go to trial no matter what. There are two reasons why I want a full investigation into the series of events that led up to the collapse for. First, I think it is important for us to determine how to prevent this from occurring again. We have suffered a great deal from their greedy actions and I want to prevent future generations from making the same mistakes. The second reason is that I want them to realize that they can't buy their way out of everything. They are paying these "fines" to shut us up, to pacify us. To be honest it's actually insulting to see them pay us off on "fines" that are tax deductible. They should have to stand trial, explain why they did what they did, they should have to answer to us because we deserve it after all we've been through. They need to be held accountable in other ways besides financially. Its ridiculous. JP Morgan received $25 billion in the bailout, but they will only owe $13 billion for the shit show they created. It's like someone committing a murder and then paying the government off to prevent any investigations. I believe the government has failed in bringing justice to those who have caused so much suffering.
Chelsey Beckler
11/6/2013 02:52:43 pm
Joaquin Torres
11/6/2013 02:38:52 pm
In today's class taught by Professor Nguyen, we accessed a website about the federal deficit. It gave us various real life policy choices that would either increase or decrease the deficit and I thought it was interesting because I found it was difficult to balance the issues that affect us all while making fiscal progress. After what I felt were liberal choices, I still ended up with a ~3 trillion deficit. It made me wonder most:
Edward Yang-Cabebe
11/6/2013 02:42:45 pm
Today's lecture and activities was done by professor Jim Nguyen. The professor wanted the class to try a simulator on federal budget and what you would do if you were a congressperson. Though it was a simulation, it brings about a question of what to spend, raise or cut. Each option presented in the situation shows a pros and cons side, kind of showing how difficult a congressperson's decision is to make. (On a side note, I went through it again checking what happens if I were to cut spending on just about everything, which would make many people unhappy... but let's just say the deficit seems a little too big regardless.) Also, there is a lot of money going into defense in the options, which if I remember correctly was also brought up in lecture weeks ago. Another activity he brought up was to vote on what we think causes poverty, whether it was structure of society or by the choices of the individual. It seems the majority of the class (that voted) chose the structure over the individual, the professor kind of left this as an open-ended question. (He also mentioned about prop 13 and how it's California's "Third Rail," since it is hard to change/touch.)
jorge talamante
11/6/2013 02:46:15 pm
Today in class we were ask to do a Federal Budget Challenge, you had to pretend you were part of congress. By making decisions that they do on a daily basis. Doing this task was harder then I expected, I was choosing which budget i should cut to help out the city where I live. But by doing that there was many pros and cons for each category. It was really hard to choose which would be best for the country. This really opened my eyes to how congress have a lot on their plates. Is there a right answer to cutting or reducing budgets? will this help our debts?
Jazmin Ordaz
11/6/2013 02:47:58 pm
Yesterday in class we talked about the petition that our sub Mrs Gordon's class has started, it's to lower the prices of books in the de anza bookstore. Our class had lots of questions on it and as to why they don't just get it from the bookstore across the street or online but in my experience with buying books they don't always have them across the street or anywhere online so you have to buy them from the bookstore with their crazy prices. For example my psychology teacher only wanted us to get our book from the de anza bookstore and it was 145 dollars so I'm all for their petition. One student even suggested of every student would pay like 5 dollars each so it'd help with the prices like we do for the eco pass. I really wouldn't mind that extra five bucks if it meant cheaper books because I don't get financial aid I have to work and pay for all my stuff so it'd be a big help if they got this to pass.
Leticia Reyes
11/6/2013 02:49:25 pm
In today’s class, we had Substitute James Nguyen. We discussed a bit out our community Based projects and he was able to gives some ideas on what to do with it. Professor James N. also talked about the federal budge challenge. She told us to take out our phones/laptops so we can experience completing the challenge, the choices we have to make to keep our constituents. He gave us he questions id we found it hard or easy to do? Honestly, the challenge felt pretty difficult especially since you had to choose in a way that would comply to your constituents and you had to make sacrifices too, so some would get some and others would lose some, so I felt the choices could possibly go bad or good either way. Especially when it came to decreasing the deficient because cutting the budget can’t always be the answer. At the same time we shouldn't be spending an abundance amount of money on war.
Justine Picar
11/6/2013 02:57:55 pm
I think it's pretty obvious that one of the things we need to decrease spending on is our defense budget and allocate to more useful sectors such as Education or Healthcare. Both things are ridiculously expensive. Also, the funding for prisons would be put to better use if we decreased some of it and put it into programs that help rehabilitate these "criminals" rather than keep them in and off the streets.
Ho Wai "Howard" Mok
11/6/2013 02:49:55 pm
On Tuesday, I, personally, didn't learn a lot because the instructor kept focus on the partition which is more for her class. I am not saying is not related, but I feel more like I am not part of it. Probably, I am not so familiar with this issue. This partition is so domestic. I mean, it is just all about the issue on campus. I felt like politics is more about the issues that affect the majority of the United State's citizen. Anyways, today, the instructor is so interactive. I like how he ask us to vote and do a little budget challenge. That actually makes me think more about how those politicians think while they make every decision. For example, I was thinking which aspect I have to focus more, and which can be cut temporary? There are just too many side effects of every single choice.
Steven Le
11/8/2013 12:22:23 pm
I think the defense budget is important because of the Veteran status, however I feel like we spend too much on the defense budget. Because of the U.S.'s being known for its up-to-date technology and advanced weaponry, I believe they're spending a lot of that money of trying to create new and improved gadgets that cost so much money that they have to fund it the most. I don't think we should spend what we do now on the defense budget but at the same time I don't know the outcome of us lowering that budget.
Justine Picar
11/6/2013 02:52:24 pm
I was watching the Story of Stuff and the commentator mentioned planned obsolescence and perceived obsolescence. I think it's ridiculous how much we waste just because corporations want to make money. It's kind of like the whole new generation of iPhones with the new types of chargers. My old apple products are pretty much obsolete, but instead of buying completely new stuff, I just buy a 30 to 8-pin charger. We've been taught to monetize our values from the get-go, making ourselves feel inadequate when we do not have the latest look or style.
Eric Pham
11/8/2013 01:29:55 pm
I think the whole idea of buying or upgrading to new products whenever they come out makes people happy and feel good, which is the most important thing in life. And they want to live up-to-date with the latest technology like faster speed, attractive design, more features...This kind of lifestyle is becoming a part of our generation, and I don't believe it will ever stop in the future. We just have to live with it. Also we should appreciate with all those companies designing those products great softwares because they help us to have better life and efficient in our work.
Christian Deacreau
11/6/2013 02:58:47 pm
Today in class we participated in a group event, concerning the national budget, as well as managing it, and the various responsibilities associated with it. The site used allowed us to view our impact on the national debt whenever we chose to cut or spend on certain budgets. Each action had no clear outcome, but had both pro’s and con’s arguments to further highlight the aspect of no clear “good” choice. I can’t personally speak for the others, but I found it insightful to see the flaws or arguments against some of the policies or actions that I supported. So my question to you, my fellow classmates, is what did you learn about any choices you had supported or strongly believed in? And by that, I mean how those who would argue against said action would pick at your belief? Did you see any of the pro’s for choices you would not normally support? If so, did it help you gain a better understanding of why those political opponents support that position loyally?
Anna Baucus
11/6/2013 03:04:11 pm
So the Tuesday 8:30 class was interesting. At the time I didn't realize that we were implanted into another poli sci class. Although I've got to say I really enjoyed our conversation held between different members of the different sections. We lost some of that mass silence we seem to so often partake in. The topic and petition at hand - textbook prices at our bookstore (and what it's representative of, which seemed to be missing from the initial discourse): affordable and accessible education is something that for a lot of us is relevant daily.
estefania contreras
11/6/2013 03:05:50 pm
Today I read an article named " Roosevelt 's New deal resurfaces in the US economic stimulus debate ". Basically , in this article talks about how Obama wants to solve the economy crisis . This article compares Obamas " New Deal " with the national crisis back in 1930s. But the only difference between then and now , is that when the Democrats assumed power , seemed to have ideas and answers to a national crisis in the 1930''s, many Republicans in Congress went along because they were still patriots, and wanted to see their country recover. Although ,the only thing the critics of Obama's economic plans I don''t like is that someone other than themselves will benefit , therefore , the money they spent will actually benefit the greatest number of Americans as opposed to continuing to line the pockets of the rich, and that is change that is desperately needed. But I think we just need to see a drastic change of economic policy , which it will use the economic power of the nation to support its people.
Lisa Rabago
11/7/2013 11:24:39 am
It is a difficult question. I remember learning about Roosevelt’s New Deal in high school and the statistics we looked at showed that although the New Deal did provide some relief, the problems of mass unemployment caused by the Great Depression weren’t really solved until World War II (companies were able to sell products to countries at war and both men and women were able to find jobs, by enlisting or contributing to production of war equipment). Nevertheless, I think that the economy wouldn’t be able to pick itself back up without government help like the New Deal programs of then and now. It might not solve the problem but it does supply a little relief to people who desperately need it. The opposite view, that the free market is better off left to its own devices, is part of the reason we had a recession in the first place. The goal of capitalism is to make the most profit possible and the consequences are often neglected by businesses.
Ingrid
11/6/2013 03:11:33 pm
Today in class we did two surveys. Our substitute made us feel comfortable on doing this survey because it was anonymous. The second survey caught my attention the most. The topic was basically about if the government should be responsible that there is poverty in America or that every individual makes there own destiny and makes bad choice to fall into poverty. I chose that every individual makes their own destiny and bad choice which got them there in the first place but as time past by I thought about it more. I started thinking that most people are already born in poverty and can't do much to get out because they don't have the resources as others do although I know some people that could get out therefore I am would say I am in between. I know that the government is much at fault that the poverty rate is so high but we also have to stop making bad decisions.
Aurora Gregory
11/6/2013 03:46:35 pm
I can guess in a way we can do more community work, focusing on main groups and see who knows more.
Isaiah Venegas
11/6/2013 03:26:21 pm
Today in class we discussed the national debt problem. This website we visited allowed us firsthand to get a idea or impression of what our congress goes through when making decisions. We often easily criticize their choices without even realizing what they go through. In one of the exercises i choose to pass the Obama care affordable act. I choose to do this because i feel it is right that everyone should be granted free health care. In addition, i made cuts in government spending dealing with national security. Too much money is spent there, when we have much bigger issues on hand. Another big issue in class was the discussion on the DeAnza Bookstore. Sadly, the bookstore across the street has books over 20% cheaper than our on campus bookstore. I don't think we should petition our own bookstore due to fact that we are one of the only community colleges in the area with one on campus. In my opinion, they charge for their convenience. Furthermore a simple walk eliminates over paying at our store.
Felicia Murillo
11/6/2013 03:28:56 pm
Ok so on tuesday we were in another class and they were talking about getting a petition signed to get the bookstore to lower their prices so that the students would have a convenient place to go for their books and they wouldn't have too look online or go across the street for the same books for a cheaper price. I think that that would be a good idea but our classmates were making a lot of good points about the reasons why the books might be expensive. they were talking about that the book store has to pay the students to work there and they might have to pay rent to the college. also the students in our class thought that they shouldn't take such a hard approach when talking to the bookstore, that they should come to a compromise and try and bargain. i thought one really good idea was that the students would pay a fee to the college like we do for the health services and the bus pass and something else i forgot, but i really thought it was a great idea, because not everyone takes advantage of the fees that we pay to the college so might as well make one of those fees work to our advantage. so once the students from our class mentioned their ideas the other class started having second thoughts about their petition and wanted to re write it. so my questions are, what do think you could do to have the book store selling cheaper books. what would be a bargaining technique that you could use.
Luz Regla
11/6/2013 03:41:50 pm
With the absence of Ms. Craig, we have fallen out of place with this week lectures. One thing I did gain from this starting week was the power of petition. As mention before, we learn that the de Anza student body wants a petition in decreasing bookstores prices. They want to make the books and materials more affordable to students. The class came with great ideas, on how to approach this issue. Yet, I feel this petition doesn't make sense. They are other sources to get "cheap books" ex. Amazon, the bookstore across campus etc.. My question is, if they are other places to get cheap books, why does de Anza bookstore should lower their prices? What about de Anza profit?
estefania contreras
11/7/2013 02:12:29 pm
Honestly , I think De anza should lower the prices because its a way of helping students in campus. Yeah their might be other places to buy cheap books but sometimes I guess students don't have the time or money to buy it from other places .
Aurora Gregory
11/6/2013 03:44:13 pm
In class on Monday we talked about the de anza bookstore, these decreasing and what the school should wisely. Then on Wednesday we talked about a survey and even it was very bad. Many of the students in class, mention a lot of things
Leyla Mousli
11/6/2013 03:49:02 pm
In class today, Professor Nguyen had us partake in the Federal Budget Challenge, on federalbudgetchallenge.org. On that website we first see what the actual spending versus revenue in 2011 really was, and what that spending went towards. I wasn't at all shocked to discover that a big chunk of the money (19%) spent goes towards defense. It's astonishing though, to see that we spend 3.54 trillion dollars when our revenue is 2.45 trillion dollars, that's quiet a gap. So while participating in the federal budget challenge, I did cut quiet a bit from defense, because I think that money could perhaps be put to better use in other areas like health care and education. I discovered that its alooottt harder than it appears to make these sort of decisions.. The people who actually make these decisions don't have choices laid out like we did. Although it was just fake, I felt guilt for cutting in some areas. It showed me what areas I valued more than others and it made me feel guilty. After completing the challenge, we then did a second survey in which we texted what we thought were the causes of poverty. The first option was whether we thought poverty was caused by factors that we could not control, and the second option stated that poverty was caused by factors such as not a good education, not a good career choice, things like that. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to talk about why people had chose what they did. I chose the first option because I truly believe that these things are uncontrollable, for the most part. I am really interested in hearing from the people who chose the second option.
Edward Yang-Cabebe
11/6/2013 05:30:00 pm
Perhaps it is not the right way to look at, but when I think of poverty, I think of homelessness and working at jobs just to barely pay for one's meal. Some of the more apparent people that are in poverty may not be making the right choices, whether it may be addiction or psychological disorder or something else. There are also bad investments, which is like gambling and that if you bet wrong...well, problems may arise but it was choice to gamble. These are just some reasons I feel that causes poverty. Probably hard, people in low economic status and/or bad upbringing can still be successful (I'm kind of trying to refer to the movie "Homeless to Harvard"). I do agree that structure may cause poverty, but I believe that an individual's choice or ability weighs more. On the other hand, I would like to hear some opinions or criticisms from the other side (just in case I'm not thinking this thoroughly enough) and on what made you/them come to the other conclusion.
Chantel Luu
11/6/2013 03:50:02 pm
On Tuesday, Professor Gordon started with talking to the class about a petition that she and her class were working on to get De Anza College to lower its prices on books. As this petition was only started on the previous Thursday, our class was invited to help with its development. A major complaint was that many students within the school's population are of lower income and also do not qualify for student aide. Another being that there are certain teachers who require a textbook but only end up using a couple of chapters throughout the entire quarter, leaving students feeling like they've wasted a lot of money. (I don't know why the gentleman in the front even mentioned that. How much of a textbook is used is at a professor's discretion, not De Anza's.)
Tereza Bagdasaryan
11/8/2013 01:02:02 pm
If the school bookstore isn't making a lot of profit then I think that they should actually consider lowering prices. Reason why they aren't profiting off their students is because there are cheaper ways of getting the same books like going across the street or finding deals online. I believe if the situation will be a win-win if students pay a little extra in the fees in order for the bookstore to lower prices. It obviously depends on how much student fees will increase and how much book prices will decrease but if a a fair amount is set then I don't see why this wouldn't work.
John Eusebio
11/8/2013 02:10:36 pm
I think it's gonna be tough, but even though with all the alternatives (other than our bookstore for instance) it's still racking up some cash. Amazon, the Premier Books place (the store down the street) and dozens of websites can be used. No matter what, this is because of commodity, and I think people will just pay whatever price they need to get their books (specially already being in campus and all). Changing prices would definitely help me tooth and nail, but publishers are just bullies. Can we actually petition to have a publisher stick to one edition and never change it ever? Cause I definitely think that would be cool.
Matthew Kaufmann
11/6/2013 03:59:56 pm
At the beginning of this week we discussed creating a petition to lower the prices of the text books in the book store. Students shared their opinion explaining that the text books are too expensive to the point that many students can't afford them. It was suggested that donations by businesses and the wealthy could help bring down the prices. That way students who can't usually afford many text books can get better grades and can put more money in students pockets.
John Eusebio
11/6/2013 04:01:13 pm
Today with prof. Nguyen we discussed about where our budget is going. Especially with prop 30, and how our education is impacted. We raised the question on asking where most of our money goes, and what the culprit was. I believe that is the economy and how our economy and habits lead us into this situation. The reason our spending is overwhelming, is cause we live a consuming life. This is an uncontrollable factor, its the reason companies go overseas and open up sweat shops, for opportunity costs and profts.
andrew manzanero
11/6/2013 04:04:53 pm
While in class today, our substitute had us do a little class participation survey thing. we also were given a balancing budget task. at the end of it all, i realized i probably couldn't balance a budget this complex, but at the same time i started to think about the politicians and congress and how they do everything they do. And where we are as a country right now. Nothing comes out as planned. i think we should pressure these politicians to do 110% of their effort to help better this country. how much these people make and the work they do isn't right. Critical questions: do you think we should hold the politicians somewhat accountable to the state of the country right now. do you think the work that gets done by these people should determine how much they get paid? have a minimum amount they get paid, yes,but do they really deserve everything they get?
Yocelin barragan
11/7/2013 07:56:16 am
On Tuesday in class with Professor Gordon, we talked about the petition she and other students have been working on. I wasn’t exactly convinced with her argument because of the reaction people got once they heard her petition. Like myself, I was also a bit indecisive due to the fact that it seemed a bit aggressive instead of passive and being able to compromise since there are budget prices and fees within her petition that needs to be looked at. One student in class talked about the Eco pass and how everyone has to pay a small fee even though some of us don’t use it. They could also implement a fee for the bookstore. Either way, it would be the same. Some people would use it and some wouldn’t. I’ve been going to De Anza since fall 2011 and I’ve never used the Eco pass but I don’t mind paying the small fee for others who have difficulty getting to school. What other fees can be utilized in order to reduce our book fees? Why would reducing book fees at De Anza be better than online book companies like Amazon?
Alpha Diallo
11/8/2013 01:37:06 pm
Earlier this week in class under direction of Professor Nguyen we discussed the federal budget and all of the factors that are looked over. This led to us individually working on the 'Federal Budget Challenge' where we attempted to 'balance' the budget to the best of our ability by funding programs we would deem important and cutting funding for those we did not. While we did not have enough time to complete the challenge on our own, we were able to put on the metaphorical shoe of a congress person and assume their responsibility. Afterwards we discussed what factors played into our decision making. From what I heard in class it seemed some students went into the challenge with a specific mindset of cutting certain programs from the get go, while others chose whatever would balance the budget, etc. Prof Nguyen also mentioned the fact that considering congress people are elected from their states and may also receive funding from corporations, is their primary responsibility to the area which elected them, the corporation that provided them the funding to hold their position, or the entire country as a whole. Personally when I made my decisions I used a utilitarian standpoint, choosing whatever seemed to provide the most affordable good while not putting us any further into debt. So the best option in my opinion for every part was the one which had the greatest good for the people not just in the present, but foreseeable goods in the future for the country. In my opinion a congressman is not supposed to expect to hold their seat for a long time. If they do not have that mentality, then it would be easier for them to focus on making the best possible changes they can for the country as a whole.
Thanaa Makdsi
11/9/2013 03:24:58 am
i had a hard time deciding what should i write in my post. i think that i really liked the website that Mr. Nguyen showed us on Wednesday, the web site is about how to allocate our budge and what should we cut. it was hard to cut many budgets for a very important issues for example like, health care, education, even though i think that the system for health care is not working for 70% of the people. its really not about how our government set the budget, its about how we lay out laws that serves certain people and leave others. for example. if we had a law that enforce business owners to buy or share the cost or insurance with the employees we would not have problem with the healthcare budget and this way we have more confident that each employees are covered. and about the people who is not covered, we make a healthcare plan for them. this way we can reduce our national budget for the health care. i have always thought that we should cut the military budget, and try to save some money in case a war happened. we aren`t in a war, and we are making ones all around the world, we aren`t protecting our people enough, in fact we are treating them as a terrors. so these kind of issues should be discussed better in the congress to serve the well being of the American people.
David Ngo
11/13/2013 03:36:30 pm
On Tuesday, we had Professor Gordon leading us instead of Professor Crain. Professor Gordon brought up her idea of a petition. This petition actually caught my attention because the reason behind is to lower prices on school books. I think lowering the prices on school books is an absolutely great idea, everyone can benefit from this including professors. Professor Gordon introduced the petition and requested for our help to join her and her fellow students to help. Professor Gordon asked the class for opinions and other kind of way we can make this happen. Many ideas were brought up and one idea that caught my attention was that some students were forced to buy books and the book were never used in class. In my opinion, that is a complete waste of money. I have went through something similar. Teachers should inform their student whether they will be using the textbooks before the class start taking off. Overall, I suggest that school should start lowering their prices on textbooks. This would be a major aid toward struggling students.
Tyler Bond
11/15/2013 11:01:44 am
So Professor Crain told us if we didn't write our blog for week 7 we could go back and do it due to the fact she wasn't in class, I don't really have much to write about to so ill talk about what I wrote for about my community based research project, I wrote on the problem of graffiti around my city and how the solution will never be found due to the fact no matter the law kids will always be stubborn and due what they want to do. Most see graffiti as a art and a way to express themselves.
Dong June Kim
11/15/2013 05:24:21 pm
Prof. Crain told us to do blog for week 7 if you did not do it yet. so on tuesdays professor gordon talked about the petition for lowering prices on school book in bookstore. I personally think lowering prices for school textbook is great idea. some people can not buy them because it is too expensive. a lot of people can benefit from this petition. i would definitely join the petition to lower the book prices. paying more than 150$ for textbook, i think it is waste of money, and it is too overpriced. i think this petition will help the students who are struggling with their financial problem. Leave a Reply. |
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