6 assignments

classmate A 1. According to the article, Sony is likely reducing its production estimates for the PlayStation 5 as a result of production issues related to some of the electrical components used in the console. The article further states that the gaming market’s focus is instead going to be linked to pricing and on the pipeline of available games. Sony faces an opportunity cost related to undertaking a strategy that focuses on pricing and its pipeline of available games, instead of trying to meet its initial production estimates by means of alternative manufacturing measures. Moreover, if Sony is successful in increasing the number of units through alternative manufacturing measures, the opportunity cost is the potential foregone income associated with the increased number of consoles. Sony however, likely does not want to dramatically disrupt their production processes and in turn potentially sacrifice the quality of the PlayStation 5. Conversely Sony, most likely wants to dedicate its focus on producing the consoles they can through their normal manufacturing means and in conjunction focus their strategic direction on pricing and the pipeline of games. Opportunity costs are defined as the highest valued alternative we must forego in order to obtain something (Parkin, 2012). Opportunity costs are associated with essentially all of the choices we make on a day to day basis. James M. Buchanan argues that opportunity cost is indicative of the relationship between scarcity and choice (Buchanan, 1991). Likewise, we face opportunity costs in deciding whether to stay an extra hour at work or to instead allocate that time with our families. Specifically, as graduate students, we regularly face opportunity costs associated with the time we allocate for course work, our families, careers, and personal interests. 2. Scarcity is the product of our inability to satisfy all of our wants, (Parkin, 2012) in essence humans have a limited amount of resources and an unlimited amount of wants. Scarcity was explicitly evident in each of our lives over the last year, as a result of the Covid-19 Pandemic. The beginning of the Pandemic was characterized by lines at the grocery store to purchase items that we took for granted just a few days earlier. Supply chain issues, like meat processing plants being shut down as a result of many employees testing positive for the disease exacerbated this problem. I distinctly remember my wife and I had to drive to a grocery store half an hour away from our home at 5am just to get the groceries our family needed. There were also many tradeoffs as a result of scarcity that our society made as a whole in order to combat the disease, my wife’s parents like many other grandparents had to watch our nieces and nephews when their school shut down. Grieving families were unable to attend funerals or were unable to see their loved ones in nursing homes. Businesses had restrictions placed on their ability to operate, and many workers lost their jobs due to a combination of factors involving the pandemic. Moreover, the medical system itself experienced constraints as a result of the limited resources hospitals had, and as a result medical professionals had to make decisions whether to allocate hospital resources to the combatting the Pandemic or to engage in other time sensitive medical treatments (Prachand et al., 2020). ================================================ classmate B Before responding to the topic under discussion, let us first define opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is the loss of the benefit that could have been enjoyed if the best alternative choice was chosen instead. With this being said, One can say that Sony had the choice to produced and supplied the entire 15 million PlayStation 5 envisaged from the onset, but because the company realized that there was or is a production issue with the custom-designed system-on-chip (SOC), and to maintain quality and customer satisfaction, the company decided to slash down its production by 4 million; another factor, I believed, that added to this decision is the fact that its rival Microsoft is also introducing an Xbox console that is to be launched in November. Was Sony right to take such a decision? In my opinion, “Yes” because maintaining quality and customer satisfaction is the bedrock to maintaining its positioning in the game market. It is not all about money and wide profit, it is about the integrity of Sony and the satisfaction of its customers. Economically, scarcity, paraphrase, takes the form of a shortage of both human and nonhuman resources to satisfy human wants. That is why society must make wise decisions in maximizing scarce resources when making economic decisions. And those decisions, in my view, should be based on needs and not wants. With this being said, let us take a look at the CO-19 pandemic. We all know, due to the inception of this deadly virus, most of the companies, entities, and businesses maintain a skeleton staff and ask most of their workers to stay home. Those of the companies whose works are computer-related ask most of their employees to work from home. Others shut their doors, especially the small businesses, leaving thousands of people unemployed. This situation led to the shortage of basic and essential goods and services, devastating families, and led to every country around the world diverting its entire resources to the pandemic containment. The emergence of this pandemic did not only create shortages of goods and services, but it also slows down the global economy and made livelihood hard for everyone. Despite the pandemic short notice and rapid spread, mankind was able to cope with the scarcity of basic and essential goods and services. Philanthropic organizations, local and national authorities were able to mobilize the little resources they had to help their citizens and all those affected. Food banks were launched, recreational centers and other facilities were turned into hospitals to treat patients, the federal government even invokes the defense act to mandate medical supplies manufacturing companies to produce materials aimed at treating those affected by the virus and have them supplied to hospitals, scientists and vaccines manufacturing companies were also mobilized, encouraged and empowered to come up with vaccines in the shortest possible time to help arrest the spread of this ugly pandemic because of the number of deaths that were experienced every day worldwide.