AJ
6/2/2020 09:40:05 am
A question I had was when we went over the creative destruction slide. The graph on the right showed the Macbook's revenue over the years and the graph showed it went down a good amount. With this big drop, does it mean the price of the computer went down as well? I have seen in other places where things that are not as popular drop in price, so I was just wondering if the same thing occurred here.
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Mr. Millican
6/4/2020 08:57:08 am
Apple has created a brand where they are seen as higher quality and more geared towards "creative" people. This allows them to keep their prices high and their hardware/software incompatible with others. It is like the Mercedes of technology :)
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Cameron
6/2/2020 10:01:24 am
One question I had about the presentation is that when you talked about iPhone's and Mac's, you never talked about gaming. For example, Play Station has made many different types of gaming consoles, like the PS4 or the PS3. Has the gaming consoles evolved more over the past years? Did they improve the economy socially or physically?
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Mr. Millican
6/4/2020 08:59:55 am
The whole point of releasing progressively numbered models is that improvements are created. Now these could be big modifications or pretty small ones that really are about selling the next product (iPhones come to mind). Improve the economy socially? Not sure what you mean.
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Audrey
6/2/2020 10:07:46 am
I had a question about jobs being replaced. What do people who have spent thousands of dollars on college do when the business they work at is replaced with robots or high-tech? Also, would that make people try to avoid jobs that they think could be replaced with higher tech, which might run the jobs out of business?
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Mr. Millican
6/4/2020 09:08:16 am
Well, there are a lot of potential answers to that question. My two cents is that specialization is no longer the way to go. If you have a broader base education and are able to adapt and learn quickly then you make yourself more capable of dealing with the shifts in the economy. And if you don't have the money for an expensive college then don't do to one :)
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Thea
6/2/2020 10:14:30 am
Is the port in Everett exporting goods? If so, there are a lot of sawdust containers being tug boated around, so are those also being exported?
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Mr. Millican
6/4/2020 09:20:05 am
Yes the port does export, both forestry products and aerospace cargo (Boeing). They somewhat specialize in what is called breakbulk, so cargo that doesn't fit in a container that has to be lifted. They do a little bit of wheeled vehicle business too, but this is for imports.
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Jameson crow
6/2/2020 10:39:06 am
One question I had is that is the economy changing from the fatalities causing there not to be enough jobs. Or is it that everyone is at home and not working.
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Mr. Millican
6/4/2020 09:24:13 am
Interesting question. There were huge shifts in the economy after the Black Death. Harder to say after Spanish Influenza since it is hard to disentangle the effects from WWI. Today it is a matter of unemployment, moreso than fatalities, one because the scale isn't big enough yet and two it is not hitting those of working age as hard.
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Emi
6/2/2020 10:57:45 am
I know this question wasn't really mentioned in the video much, but when the government gets envolved with economy, they gain money. So my question is what do they use it on? They are additionally getting money from our taxes, so plus money from the economy must be spent on something.
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Mr. Millican
6/4/2020 09:32:59 am
Well it depends on which government you mean. If you mean the Federal Government then about 31% goes to Social Security and related programs, 25% goes to Medicare and Medicaid, 16% goes to defense, and, because we can't balance our budget to not spend money we don't have, 8% goes to interest payments on all of the government's debt. The other 20% covers all sorts of things like pensions, transportation, education, research, international aid, etc.
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Hope
6/2/2020 11:29:44 am
My question is kinda random, but why do us Washingtonians not get a discount on apples? I was looking at the averages, and other states are $1.32 a pound, while Washington is $1.90 a pound. The apple sellers don't have to worry about shipping them around, so why are they more expensive here?
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Mr. Millican
6/4/2020 09:44:40 am
That's a good question. I'd have to know which states in order to give you a good answer. One thing to consider is that prices are not the same around the country. A grocery bill in Hawaii that is $169 would be $90 in Kentucky. Since we are in the 14th most expensive state to live in, our costs are generally higher. Also closer transportation is not always cheaper since commodities don't travel as far in large loads. Smaller loads travelling shorter distances are always more expensive.
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Guadalupe
6/2/2020 11:49:25 am
I was wondering how the pipeline transportation works. Does it work on land, over sea, or underground? Does it only transport liquid things, or gas and solids as well?
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Mr. Millican
6/4/2020 09:48:44 am
Pipelines are primarily liquids. It is expensive to bury them, but it happens sometimes to limit sabotage. They also run in seas at different spots in the world. Gasses are often cooled until they reach their liquid form to transport any significant distance in a pipeline. There are very short "pipes" used in shipping that are used to load/offload wood chips, grain, sugar, etc.
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Sam
6/2/2020 01:03:51 pm
My question is about people whos job might be replaced due to our advancements in technology and do the people that are losing their jobs because of this get other options or any help to make sure they will get another good job or are they on their own?
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Mr. Millican
6/4/2020 09:50:46 am
Retraining programs vary from state to state. For the most part though, it is on the individual to seek their own education to make themselves more marketable.
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delaney
6/2/2020 01:05:31 pm
as we are slowly getting closer and closer to the world "re-opening", is there a specific way we are planning to do that while bringing up the economy at the same time?
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Mr. Millican
6/4/2020 09:52:42 am
Surely. Every state has its own ramp up plan. You can look ours up online. It's fairly clear, although what will happen to our state economy and especially our national economy is very unclear.
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Peter Dufresne
6/2/2020 03:24:14 pm
On the slide about trading with non-capitalist China, you mentioned there are many reasons why we take more from China while China takes less. What are some of the reasons why this is?
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Mr. Millican
6/4/2020 09:58:46 am
We are a consumer driven society. We are wealthy and have lots of free time, money and access to credit (to fill in for money). We want to buy things, preferably cheap things. China makes things, and even after shipping them across an ocean, they are cheaper than things made here. So we buy them. Then complain ;) That said, there are always other factors. A big one is China artificially declaring the price of their money (called currency manipulation), as it is done to allow Chinese exports to be cheaper, but US imports to their country to be more expensive.
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Dominic
6/2/2020 03:41:43 pm
My question is how is the government able to keep getting money from taxes if they aren't getting as many taxes and are having to pay things like unemployment. For me I think I am going to do what I fell like doing later on in life.
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Mr. Millican
6/4/2020 10:01:57 am
By borrowing...a lot.
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Beatrix
6/2/2020 10:12:47 pm
When Amazon started to get big, did businesses start to suffer? Like were they not getting as many customers, ect?
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Mr. Millican
6/4/2020 10:03:10 am
Correct. Ask Kathleen all about it--that's what her project was on :)
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Olivia
6/2/2020 10:41:52 pm
My question is, what is the future for the logging industry in the State of Washington? It seems like an outdated industry that is reducing in size.
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Mr. Millican
6/4/2020 10:12:56 am
Well it's definitely an industry that has declined. Logging is much more centered on being sustainable these days. Some flatter, more remote areas are still clear cut and then replanted. Other areas do selective cutting, but this is more labor intensive, which means it costs more and then lumber is often imported from South America or SE Asia since its cheaper. I think it will always be a part of Washington's economy because of the high rainfall and wide swaths of undesirable land, but it will never be the major player it was before.
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Jamil
6/3/2020 04:25:34 pm
my Question is will is companies that create technology like Boeing, or Microsoft have to lay off workers during this time be laid off
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Mr. Millican
6/4/2020 10:15:21 am
I'm not sure that was actually a question, but if I understand you, then yes Boeing will lay off people since they have aerospace plants that physically make things that are not in high demand right now. Microsoft will probably not lay off many people, since most of their business deals with the internet, either directly or indirectly.
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