Random (Funny) Stuff

Personal Finance Assignment 1

Okay, so I'm transferring things to Google Docs because they take less space in the Google Drive, and I'm reading over my Personal Finance Assignments, and... dear me, my otaku is in full view---

Question 8: Choose a well-known company that you know of, and describe its direct and indirect competitors. Describe at least three direct competitors and three indirect competitors. (6-12 sentences)

My answer: (Okay, I'm not familiar with lots of well-known companies, so I'm going to use companies I know and explain them.) Tokyopop is a company that produces manga, or graphic novels, particularly more shojo manga, which is basically romance or girlish manga. Since Viz is another company that sells shojo manga (and other genres of manga), it is a direct competitor of Tokyopop. Another direct competitor of Tokyopop is Shojo Beat Manga, which also sells shojo manga. Another direct competitor of Tokyopop that sells Shojo manga is BL, or Boy's Love. On the other hand, you can usually substitute manga for anime, which is basically the watching form of manga. There is almost always a manga version of an anime and vice versa. This means that Funimation, a company that produces anime, is an indirect competitor of Tokyopop. Toei Animation is another company that produces anime, although it does more shojo works than Funimation. Therefore, Toei Animation is also an indirect competitor of Tokyopop. Another indirect competitor that produces the video form of manga is a company called Fuji TV.

Question 10: Describe a real or made up but realistic example of a product that went through a time of scarcity, when demand was greater than the supply. What is the product, and why do you think it became scarce? What happened to the price of the product when it was scarce? (3-6 sentences)

My Answer: The farmer of a small town plants 100 turnip seeds, assuming this would be enough to sell to his small town of 20 to make money. However, the small town buys more turnips than expected, and there is a drought in the regions around the small town. The regions look to this farmer for turnips. As the season ends, the small town is still buying plenty of turnips, and the other regions are still in a drought and asking for turnips. The farmer only has 30 left. Spring is coming, so he'll be able to make more soon, but for the meantime, the price increases. Rather than being $0.10 per pound, the turnip is now $0.50 per pound.

Definitely influenced by Rune Factory (specifically the first one), but it's officially obvious when you get to Question 11: Describe a product, and then give an example of a time when the demand for this product might be high and the demand for this product might be low. (2-4 sentences)

My Answer: The farmer of a small town plants 200 turnip seeds for the season, having seen the high demand of turnips last year due to the drought of the surrounding regions. However, once he harvests and puts the turnips on the market, the demand is significantly lower than last year. The people are sick of turnips from last year, and there isn't a drought in the surrounding regions anymore! The farmer decides to have some of them for part of dinner every once in a while, since his wife loves turnips and could never get sick of them. After all, they'd have to have a vegetable side for dinner anyhow!

And then we have Question 12: Describe an example of a product that has highly elastic demand. Describe at least two factors that make this product's demand so elastic. (4-6 sentences)

My Answer: There are 20 companies that sell tools in Ghoul City. The companies often compete in prices, trying to find ways to make the tools cheaper. This competition is a factor that makes the tools an elastic product. In addition, the citizens of this city do not need tools, so that makes it even more elastic.

... Why did I feel the need to name the city---?

My teacher was probably like "wtf is with these random answers??? Is this girl obsessed with turnips???"

And that's just the first assignment---