APHumanGeography

This article is interesting. Bronte- you said this is a "popular fad" in America. Does this mean it will most likely die off just like other fads? After all, I don't feel like a vacation for wellness is very family-friendly.

I understand where Jake is coming from with his statement but isn't a vacation that gets you away from the stress of work and neighbours and everything healthy? Wouldn't that constitute a wellness vacation? Also for really busy parents a vacation with their children would be both family-friendly and healthy. Not to mention that the service sector, including the consumer sector, is continuing to grow and in the quote Bronte highlighted it said that wellness vacations make up 14% of all tourism revenues, so wouldn't that imply that this fad will continue to grow?

I find it very interesting that there are vacations that can help you with your wellness. I am curious about the different ways that they actually intend to do this. I agree with Olivia, with the idea that a vacation away from stress would be a wellness vacation in its own idea.

This article explains the changing jobs in the developed country, Australia.

First thought...interesting article Cameron. It encouraging to see a country like Australia developing and implementing services in its economy. I wonder how this will effect the prices of the minerals Australia exports to the majority of the world? With more people moving to the service sector there will be less in the mines, so my gut tells me that the world wide prices will go down due to the fact that companies will be able to make a bigger profit selling the same amount of material due to lower labor costs.

I feel like Australia has a lot going for it! Like you mentioned, it has a high HDI- this is no coincidence. As we know, it has access to important natural resources. It is fairly isolated, which can hurt its economy, but there is less competition for jobs. It is also a highly popular area for tourism. It doesn't get involved in a lot of matters occurring in the northern hemispheres, which keeps it out of costly wars.

With the development and inclusion of technology such as this in industry, unemployment must rise...Robots could reach a level in which their work is superior to that of a human. I imagine robots would be reserved for high precision/high skill careers.

Current Event #9

It is very surprising that the most globally popular sport in the world (soccer) had a lack of medical support at a major FIFA match. However, it is good to see that the next World Cup in Brazil will have the medical bags. You never know when a player could be put into a life threatening situation. I also agree with Bronte, in that Johnson and Johnson will have a significant gain in product sales after advertising at such a prestige event like the World Cup.

It is interesting to know that FIFA has just now decided to construct a standardized medical bag for the 2014 world cup. I wonder what precautions were taken for injuries in the past.

Wewer I too was surprised that secondary sector jobs grew as much as they did. Like you stated, this sector should not be growing in a developed country like our own.

In your article is says "About 80 of those local companies will be featured among the 200 exhibitors at the Mother Earth News Fair, a massive natural products trade show..." It's very exciting to see these small scale, local businesses thriving. In a country dominated by commercial manufacturing, it is good to see these true home grown enterprises succeeding.

It is very surprising to hear that in the very new future, one little program of 3-D printing made available to consumers could jump-start thousands of new businesses and has the ability to create close to a million new jobs. In what other ways will 3-D printing change manufacturing in the future?

The inhumane conditions in the factories caused the workers to strike, and this caused great damage to the apparel industry. This is an example that shows why factories in the U.S. are more likely to locate in states with right-to-work laws. These states have lower chances that unions will organize and even strike, meaning that productivity will most likely remain at a high level. The striking workers in Cambodia will probably also demand higher wages, which lowers profits for manufacturing companies.

It's crazy that it took until now for us to start seeing strikes in developing countries where wages are incredibly low. I wonder what the internet censorship laws are like that prohibited them from discovering what the rest of the world was earning.

Nathan, I found this article to be very interesting and how large this industry is, even in a developing country such as Cambodia. I am surprised to see that in one year this is a 5 billion dollar industry. I also was surprised to find out how many well-known companies outsourced to Cambodia, such as GAP, H&M, Nike and Puma.

I'm surprised that retail services are more profitable than tech. services.

I would believe that the consumer sector would out do the tech sector simply for the fact that it is more traditional. People are more used to shopping and buying things in person, so tech services trying to let people buy things online face an uphill battle one getting people to switch over. Also everyone has to buy things at some point at a retail store, but not everyone will need help with their technology.

I believe that we would expect to see an increase in the profits of tech services because as more and more people grow familiar with these services, it is much more convenient and easier for them, like using online shopping rather than going out and spending the time and effort to shop in person. This can be shown by companies like Blockbusters and Borders who went out of business due to at home conveniences of the internet. However, some retail stores and services cannot, and most likely will not, go away because people need what they sell right away, such as grocery stores.

Fishing industries in Thailand are abusing migrant workers.

I've never heard of a fishing industry helping in human trafficking. It just shows how much people don't know about the messed up industrial world that we live in. It is also crazy to hear about all the different situations people live in around the world. Globalization is happening, but places around the world still are drastically different.

I didnt even know that Thailand had such a prominant fishing industry, let alone the fact that they are basically using slaves instead of at least paying some sort of wage.

This article describes how a health service company is taking advantage of Brazil's booming economy to consolidate business and give itself an edge. This group has an annual growth of about 50% and shows the booming medical services. 

This article details how many container shipping industries are in danger of going bankrupt due to some fuel saving attempts and even attempts to drive up prices to increase profit. Due to these attempts, carriers lost $1.1 billion between 2007 and 2011. This could affect how goods are moved, and may drive up prices as more expensive modes of transportation are used. Since boats are the most cost-effective by distance, the problems of money in shipping could increase. I wonder if this will end up being an issue, or if the government or shipping industries will step up to reduced this problem. This could affect where companies place their factories. It is a largely situational issue.

GM has started to recall millions of cars after 31 deaths throughout the past few years, which has resulted in the industry not being as successful as it once was.

All about possible sanctions of U.S goods from Russia which effects many computer companies which have factories in silicon valley

I think that it is interesting that the company might have to move due to taxes. I don't think that they talked much about it in the textbook but I do feel that it is a HUGE reason that companies might have to move so that they can keep up their profit.

It's interesting that the US is getting involved in the issue between Russia and Ukraine. It's unfortunate that the computer companies might feel a backlash from Russia's actions in Ukraine. Nice work Lockwood!