Ebay Assignment

My strategy on bidding was to make a very late low bid at the last minute and hoped that no one will outbid me. I was pretty nervous because I was afraid I was going to lose something that I needed badly. After making my bid, I kept refreshing the page to check if anyone outbid me. Luckily, no one used J-bid on the product. Then, of course, there's always the pride of winning something by bidding for the first time.

This experience felt like capitalism because it seemed like it was me against everyone else who had their eye on the product. It was unlike the simulation we did in class, where some people were able to transfer credits to others so that they can get what they want. This reminds me of when we talked about the Koreans, Cubans, and Japanese, the model minorities, and how they became rich by borrowing money. They borrowed wealth to earn more wealth to pay the money they borrowed and made profit. When I was on eBay bidding, I was not able to borrow money from anyone; I was not a Korean, a Cuban, or a Japanese. On the other hand when we were doing the simulation, there were Koreans, Cubans, and Japanese because money were being borrowed; but in the simulation, the money were not paid back.

This affects some of the American Way of Life because people who are not like the Koreans, Cubans, or Japanese cannot depend on anyone else. Therefore, they create their own little bubble and block out everyone else. Some of these people learn to not trust other people and only trust themselves. Their point of view on the American Way of Life may be to be independent because no one can be trusted. However, the Koreans, Cubans, and Japanese may have the exact opposite point of view on their American Way of Life. Because they are able to trust one another that they borrow money to one another. Their American Way of Life is to help others and may be easier with all the money that they earned.