6A – Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/disney-world-fight-for-15-minimum-wage_us_5b8457c8e4b0162f471b7d44 1) This is local news to me, and technically speaking I've been watching the Fight for 15 for a while. I know this is a recent issue so I deliberately searched for this topic. 2) An opportunity exists here, since Disney is one of the largest employers in all of Florida, and one of the most prominent companies in all of America. If Disney starts paying their employees a livable wage, maybe the other disgustingly ruthless employers (I'm looking at you, Amazon and Walmart) will pay their employees much better and give them a chance to you know. Live. 3) The "customer" here in this case is the employee, but they're actually getting paid a wage that allows them not to have to sell their kidneys just to buy food, and thus they can use that extra money to actually buy proper food and afford medical treatment for once. 4) This opportunity is not difficult to exploit. If anything, the employer is exploiting the workers by not paying them a livable wage. By paying the employees a livable wage at least the employer looks like they're not complete monsters, and that may drive more traffic to their company. Why did I see this opportunity? I'm a communist. Employers should treat people like *human beings* and not like some fungible commodity that can be tossed at will and minimally maintained. By treating their employees like humans they will also drive their business up because they're doing much better than others at not being monstrous. ---- https://ultimaker.com/en/blog/52648-developments-and-trends-in-3d-printing 1) I actually just wanted an excuse to write about 3D printers but lo and behold this actually details everything economically happening in the additive manufacturing industry and 3d printing development due to its steady increase in use in the overall manufacturing industry and its extreme explosion in popularity for home and education use in the last 5 years. 2) While this article is specifically directed more towards the manufacturing industry which will purchase 3D printers to integrate into their assembly line, I'm more witnessing how printers are drastically dropping in price while spiking in quality and customizability on the consumer end, enabling not only manufacturerers to rapidly prototype projects, but at-home makers and designers. 3) The groups of people who'd consume 3D printer technology are endless. I figure in a decade, a generic 3D printer will be in every household, as common as standard printers (which they probably also own, most likely one that doesn't or barely ever works). I figure the most likely consumers to take an opportunity out of the explosion in affordable incredible quality 3D printers such as the Creality Ender 3 (which I'll be purchasing very, very soon for myself) are Etsy-type makers, at-home DIYers, and architecture and design specialists. 4) There's nothing to exploit here. The maker community is very big on open source, which is why the technology has developed as rapidly as it has been for 3D printing, after MakerBot fell apart due to them going closed source, the former employees quitting and starting their own services for 3D printing. For once I can't actually see a downside to the technology itself, aside from people doing stupid crap like printing guns that can actually shoot more than one round. But every tech can be used for good and evil. I see an opportunity because I love 3D printers, and I think people should be utilizing their affordability, quality, and ease of use to their fullest potential. The Ender 3 shows that quality can come from a printer less than $200, which is something, when I first heard about 3D printers in 2012, I figured would take 5 years to come out (I was right) and another 5 to be widespread as a "cheap but good printer" everywhere. Let's see if that happens. ---- https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/06/20/transgender-not-mental-illness-world-health-organization/717758002/ 1) This is major news in the trans community. It has been major, major news for a while. 2) This suggests that we can lessen transphobia in communities by making more people understand that it isn't a mental disorder, and punish "therapists" (who call it one and harm transfolk) for malpractice as it actually isn't one. 3) The most likely "customer" for this is obviously the trans community since we can now work towards ridding communities of transphobic idiots, allowing transfolk to feel more comfortable with themselves, and we can form more stores directed towards transfolk run by transfolk. 4) This opportunity may be difficult to exploit because the government is filled with transphobic idiots and probably will try to protect malpractitioning "therapists" rather than the transfolk. I see this as an opportunity as a trans person. Most people are not trans, and barely recognize the trans community. This is why I see an opportunity where transphobes and/or cisfolk wouldn't. -- https://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2018/03/01/florida-house-passes-abortion-restrictions/ 1) There is a lot of issue with idiotic old men telling women what they can do with a lump of stem cells in their body when they obviously don't care for living children because they're idiots. 2) An opportunity exists here for us to riot, and continue to push for abortion rights until these idiots stop trying to control women like the creepy incels they are. 3) The most likely customer here would be women, and people who believe that women have the rights to control their own bodies and nobody else has the right to tell them otherwise. 4) This opportunity is easy to exploit because the incels in congress love to control womens' bodies and until they're gone it's going to be hard to change anything. I see this opportunity as someone with a uterus who understands basic science and sees the hypocrisy in Republicans idiotic regime of trying to control women. I, like people with common sense, see how crazy it is to tell people what to do with their bodies. And if you think that fetus isn't "her body" wait until you get a massive tapeworm and then try to make that same stupid argument.