Economic connections between me and 4 places.
The story I would like to talk about is my life in Canada as a foreign student. There are a lot of factors in daily routine and I want to choose economy as my theme. Economy is a fundamental element for all our lives. While people sometimes ignore their economic actions because they are so routine. I believe that I can tell a totally different story of mine by analyzing my economic activities.
FIC/SFU
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Location of FIC and SFU
https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Simon+Fraser+University/ |
Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a university in British Columbia with campus in Burnaby, Surrey and Vancouver. Burnaby campus (which I interact with most) is located on Burnaby mountain and 20kms away from downtown Vancouver. Fraser International College(FIC) is a college which provide international student a direct pathway to year two at SFU and it is located in the Burnaby campus.As a student in FIC trying to transfer to SFU in the future, so let me show some economic relation with SFU and FIC first.
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| domestic student |
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| international student https://www.sfu.ca/students/calendar/2019/spring/fees-and-regulations/tuition-fees/undergraduate.html#domestic |
Tuition fee is the most important economic activity in this relation. I need to pay the tuition fee every semester according to my major and courses I choose. In SFU for international student like me the fees is four times as much as domestic students. However, it is actual a relatively low price for international students in North America. From my point of view it is frustrating but reasonable. It is frustrating because it do cost my family a large amount of money and bring much pressures on economy. But the higher price for foreign student can also be explained. First as we known teaching is considered as tertiary part of economy which is more advanced in core regions and it is true that the university in core region usually ranks higher and university. And in English area universities mostly require high tuition fees which is kind of like oligopoly market where price is leaded by large companies(good universities) and consumers(foreign student) have no choice but pay it. Also the research part of SFU is considered to be quaternary part which requires much money and international students help solve the problem. Last but not least the money is from other countries and the knowledge we learn will probably help our periphery or semi-periphery homeland develop which might harm the interests of core region in the future. By the mean time even if we stay here, competition on jobs will be increased. So it is reasonable that they increase the fees to compensate for their potential loss.
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| use the room finder to find facilities https://roomfinder.sfu.ca/apps/sfuroomfinder_desktop/public/ |
Also the Book store and some cafeterias on campus have economic connections with me too. I buy their products because the place of them is with more accessibility and utility, in other word they are more convenient. Even if they often cost more but I do appreciate that they save my time and offer me a lot of social experience and services when I was a rookie in Canada.
I think their economic impact on me is mostly make me cost money and try to plan to use money wisely. But the impact on culture and self-development make the money worth. At the same time my impact help the system of university work and keep the leadership in tertiary and quaternary part of core region thus strengthen their control over other countries.
7-11
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| 7-11 near my home and other 7-11s https://www.google.ca/maps/place/7-Eleven/ |
7-eleven is a international company owns 66000+ convenience stores in 17 countries. It is famous for providing all kinds of goods and services for customers. And the 7-11 nearby my home in Coquitlam does provide me much convenience. First, it has great accessibility for me because it is only about 300m away from where I live. Also it opens 24 hours a day meaning I can go there whenever I want to. Second, Its utility is high for me too. The kinds of goods are various enough for me to fulfill me daily needs(I am a home stay student so I don't need to buy food myself ). I can get snacks, drinks, tissues and other ordinary staff there.
First and foremost, as I mentioned shopping at 7-11 is my most frequent economic activities. But except for convenience is there other reasons? There is. Because it is economic for me. For I am not a real SFU student I do not have u-pass which means I will have to pay extra money for every time to go to supermarket like Walmart. Even if I cost less on some goods but the saved money may still cost on transportation. Also people tend to buy needless goods when go to large market and cause waste finally. For example there are still two bags of peanuts going to expire in my room because I bought too much when went to Safeway. Therefore 7-11 not only cost my money but also save me some.
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| GNI in different countries http://chartsbin.com/view/43624 |
Moreover, It showed me some interesting economic phenomena. Even if I have got the idea that the food price here is higher than in China, I was still surprised that Most snacks and drinks are actually about 2 times what they cost in China. It is clear that the difference of raw material’s price isn’t large and the modern automotive factory prevent big difference on labour cost. Though it may not be true but I think large food company dominating market charge Canadian more just because they are rich. At the same time people are actually paying less for some other food. The unhealthy food industry really should be exposed and treated seriously.
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| 7-11 around the world https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/6mfeq3/world_map_of_countries_where_7eleven_has_stores/ |
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| food brands https://firstperson.oxfamamerica.org/2013/03/10-everyday-food-brands-and-the-few-giant-companies-that-own-them/ |
Last but not least, No matter the 7-11 or the large food company they are all TNC which means the money we spend in 7-11 will probably not stay in Canada. Economically it do harm to Canada local business and make the power of TNC stronger. But from the point of geography They will cause more problems. We should be careful with their huge economic power that overuses our resources and control our life.
The analysis of 7-11 remind me that our daily actions may affect our earth more than we thought. Its impacts on me may just be bringing convenience and make me a bit fat. However, my impacts on this place will be enlarged and affect the world even if initially it is just some extra income.
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| https://kindlepreneur.com/free-universal-book-links/ |
Amazon is an American electronic commerce and cloud computing company based in Seattle, Washington. It is considered to be one of the largest internet retailers in the world.And it also participate in my economic activities in Canada. Some says that it is wrong to consider a website as a place because it does not have a specific location.But from my point of view I think we can set it as a place. When we using websites we are actually interacting with a set of absolute locations like sellers, warehouses and servers which providing the service for the site. If we combine them together as the physical location of amazon.ca and this website perfectly fits the definition of places.
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| amazon market share https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/19/amazon-to-be-the-no-1-apparel-retailer-in-the-us-morgan-stanley.html |
Now that we see amazon.ca as a place, let me tell you my views about it. As it is a website it obviously have higher accessibility than other place, with the help of Wi-Fi and mobile date I can find the goods whenever I want. At the same time the utility is relatively low. First, It is impossible to get the good immediately after paying. Second, there are still a lot alternative choices for amazon like supermarket and other online shopping sites and they may provide more reasonable price or better shopping experience . Third, there are goods like clothing that people just don’t want to get from internet. The lack of utility decided that it is unlikely for people to buy all goods on it. And it just my situation. According to the list of my orders I shop on Amazon mostly for electronic products because there are so many elements related to them that you can hardly get all choices in a real-world market while I can easily compare my options on the internet.On one hand amazon.ca helps me get my ideal goods and save me money.on the other hand my money mostly goes to Amazon and this huge TNC will use my money to develop itself and reaches for more profits.
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| online vs offline https://visual.ly/community/infographic/computers/online-shopping-vs-store-shopping-which-one-you-prefer |
From economic point of view the rise of online shopping is attributed to people’s need for convenience and cheaper price. With the development of information technology and Logistics the online shopping are able to offer consumer more convenience. Also a platform where you can find more product increase competence thus help reduce the price of products. It is a revolution for shopping and it is the future of shopping. It is possible with the further development of technology that online shopping will finally replace the traditional ways. But It may not be economically positive. It hurt local business which is helpful for development and environment. There have been a lot of local business being replaced because of the rise of online business. Also online business are controlled by large companies which have had too much economic powers, while these TNC become more powerful the uneven world system will be even harder to change. Because It is nearly impossible to stop the trend I think government may should make plans to help all business take advantage of the internet.
Scotiabank
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| Scotiabanks near SFU https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Scotiabank/ |
There is surely a lot of locations can be called Soctia Bank but these branches have basically the same functions so I think it is appropriate to define them as a place. Scotiabank (Bank of Nova Scotia) is a Canadian multinational bank having business in more than 50 countries aiming to providing customer bank services around the world.
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| Scotiabanks worldwide http://dr.scotiabank.com/ca/en/0,,385,00.html |
Globalization is actually a important factor for Scotiabank and they do mark themselves as “Canada’s most international bank”. Its globalization begins in Halifax Canada and has expanded to the world . Now they have over 1800 branches around the world. The strategy of going to the world means a lot for its customer and itself. For customer they can get rid of a lot of issues with support of bank service all around the world. For Scotiabank forming a net around the world allowing money to flow freely can keep them move the money to where it needed. And the corporation can profit more efficiently by managing money wisely. At the same time they will get customers and resources around the world making system larger and more stable.On the other hand the offshore of their business and the foundation of international finance market also make the world more connected.
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| some of my economic activities related to Scotiabank |
Scotiabank is a special place among the all four places because I don’t directly interact with it for the most time but using it as a media in my other economic activities. Whenever I use my Scotiabank debt card to pay or transfer money I am actually using the service of the bank. As I seldom use cash for paying it means that Scotiabank is the basis of my other economic actions. Except from the media of paying Scotiabank also take its basic job, it keeps my money safe and pays me interests.
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| https://www.fdic.gov/about/learn/learning/banks.html |
My effects on Scotiabank is generated from my money saved in bank.I need to spend around 40000 Canadian dollars a year in Canada. And my parents will transfer me money to Scotiabank. Usually there will be more than 5000 dollars in my account. These money will be loaned to other people to help them or invested somewhere else requiring money. From my point of view moving money to more useful place and making people benefit from their saved money can be seen as a kind of simple sharing economy. Though it may differs from normal ones but they have similar core “Make people’s life better by moving assets already exists”. I believe my money in bank not only help Scotiabank profit it also improves others life.
conclusion of my story
After showing the role these places play in my life it’s time to display a whole picture by combing them together. My cost is divided to several parts. First I pay my landlord and FIC through e-transfer on the internet .Second I buy daily staff mostly in 7-11, buy some unusual and specific staff with the help of amazon.ca and buy study related products in SFU bookstore. Third, Scotiabank helps me pay in the above activities and keeps my money safe. Also their role can be shifted, I may buy books on amazon and buy snacks in SFU. It means these places corporate and compete at the same time and I take advantage of their relations to make most of my money. At the same the money I paid also causes a lot of effects too. It may helps Canada keep advance in education and research area but it also can be took by TNC thus hurting local business and enlarge wealth gap. To tell the truth all my economic story is just a little stone in the nature . Though it is unknown but it still connects to various things. Though it may doesn’t have large effects but it owns countless possibilities.
It is interesting to have a look over my story in the economic and geographic aspects. As the first law of geography says “everything is related”. Even if all these places seem don’t have a lot of connections but when looking from my aspect they get together and form the story of my life.
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