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​Farmers use intensive pesticides to harvest cotton, which is harmful to not only the health of the farmers using them, but also our environment as it pollutes rivers and groundwater that negatively interfere with the ecosystem. Even though these farmers know of the health and environmental risks, they still use harmful pesticides to produce cotton, but why is this so. This stock and flow map should explain what impacts farmers to use pesticides to grow cotton despite the risks and explain the cause and effect relationship their use has on the cotton industry and the environment.
According to Clevo Wilson and Clem Tisdell article, "Why farmer continue to use pesticides despite environmental, health and sustainable costs,"

Pesticide use by farmers:
  • "used to reduce yield losses to pests"
  • "avoid economic losses to ensure economical survival"
  • "increase supply market and reduce market prices"
  • "ignorance of sustainable use"
  • "integral part of commercially grow high yielding varieties so without use, high yields may not be sustained"
  • "damage to agriculture land from the use occurs over long period of time so costs may not look serious short term, but reduces economic welfare in long term"
  • "environmental damage: pollutes rivers and groundwater, destroys beneficial predators and interferes with ecosystem overall"
  • "health risks underestimated"
  • "chemical companies selling it have incentive to push their use by advertising and promotion" (1,9).
Farmer Pesticide Use On Cotton
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Explanation of the Model

This is a sample model of Covid-19 outbreak in Burnie, Tasmania showing how the Government responds by implementing relevant health policy and the effects on the Economy of the area. 
 
Assumptions

Economic growth rate is dependent on the proportion of the population who can be exposed. Number of COVID cases negatively impacts the economy. Govt policy is triggered when COVID-19 cases are 10 or more.

Interesting Insights

1) Exposure to the disease has a positive relationship with economic growth rate because the more people goes out, more business activity takes place, resulting in Economic Growth.

2) Increasing the Testing rate results in:

- Higher cases being detected

- Stricter Govt Policy

- Less Deaths


 


Covid-19 outbreak in Burnie Tasmania
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By determining the revenue (sales) and subtracting the expenses (costs), I can calculate my farm's net income that accumulates over time.

After 25 years, I accumulated $77.6 million net income selling strawberry trays at $24/tray in my bank.

The default values used in this model are based off of the data from UC Davis Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics (2024). Values were converted into Canadian Funds.

This model assumes that all variables do not change over time (for example: inflation is not accounted for).
Model 6 - Zach's Organic Farm
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This is to support a discussion on money flows and growth. Money as a lubricant for the flow of embodied energy in human systems.
See also A Prosperous Way Down website
Odum Money and Energy Flows
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Model-SIM from Chapter 3 of Wynn Godley and Marc Lavoie's Monetary Economics, adapted for an open economy. The model is stock-flow consistent with only government money--no bills or bonds. No central bank and interest rates do not change. Government spends buying output from the production sector. The production sector is passive turning over all revenue over to households. Households save out of income and spend partially spend out of wealth. Imports and exports pass through the production sector illustrating the idea that consumer households buy from domestic businesses that which they have imported. The model also tracks the sectoral balance flows and changes in equity. Sectoral flows and equity balances match each other dollar for dollar to satisfy the sectoral balances accounting identity (Household Saving - Consumption) + (Business Saving - Expenditure) + (Taxes - Government Spending) - (Exports - Imports) = 0. Since business investment occurs internally to the Business Sector, 
SFC_Model-SIM_open_economy
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This model shows the operation of an extremely simple economy. The system produces and consumes each item (or good) at a fixed rate.

When production exceeds consumption, consumer goods accumulate in stocks. Trading may occur between actors in this system. That will not, however, affect the quantities of the stocks of goods. It only affects ownership (not a concern of this model.)
Simple Economy: Model 1
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Model description:
This model is designed to simulate the outbreak of Covid-19 in Burnie in Tasmania, death cases, the governmental responses and Burnie local economy. 

More importantly, the impact of governmental responses to both Covid-19 infection and to local economy, the impact of death cases to local economy are illustrated. 

The model is based on SIR (Susceptible, Infected and recovered) model. 

Variables:
The simulation takes into account the following variables: 

Variables related to Covid-19: (1): Infection rate. (2): Recovery rate. (3): Death rate. (4): Immunity loss rate. 

Variables related to Governmental policies: (1): Vaccination mandate. (2): Travel restriction to Burnie. (3): Economic support. (4): Gathering restriction.

Variables related to economic growth: Economic growth rate. 

Adjustable variables are listed in the part below, together with the adjusting range.

Assumptions:
(1): Governmental policies are aimed to control(reduce) Covid-19 infections and affect (both reduce and increase) economic growth accordingly.

(2) Governmental policy will only be applied when reported cases are 10 or more. 

(3) The increasing cases will negatively influence Burnie economic growth.

Enlightening insights:
(1) Vaccination mandate, when changing from 80% to 100%, doesn't seem to affect the number of death cases.

(2) Governmental policies are effectively control the growing death cases and limit it to 195. 

Burnie Tasmania Covid - 19 outbreak simulation Model by Yankang Huang 541 277
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This model analyzes the interaction between climate change mitigation and adaptation in the land use sector using the concept of forest transition as a framework.
Forest Transition
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Any activity  requires the use of energy. Economic activity is not possible without energy,  especially fossil fuels. An increase in economic activity necessarily leads to an increase in the use  fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions. In addition there will   be a commensurate increase in waste products, pollution and heat. This is dictated by the laws of physics and unavoidable.  A problem arise when the cost of this degeneration caused by continual economic growth surpasses the benefit society derives from it. The ecological economist Professor Herman Daly (2014) explained that when the impact on the ecosystem is correctly measured, global growth has reached a point where the total private and social costs of economic growth outweigh the private and social benefits. In other words, more economic growth is making global society worse off overall - growth has become uneconomic! The model shows that eventually pressures will build up that counteract the perennial belief that all social ills can be solved with economic growth. 

The dynamic of UNECONOMIC growth
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mft | manufacturing commons
6 months ago
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A simple budget planning system.  What additional complexities can you add?
ISD Savings Plan
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Irving Fisher's Debt Deflation Theory from Michael Joffe Fig. 3.4 p54 Ch3 Feedback Economics Book with Private Credit Inflation boom added to the  bust cycles
Irving Fisher's Debt Deflation Theory
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When people talk about a government deficit, they forget that this is only one side of the ledger. On the other is a corresponding non-government SURPLUS. The money the government spends is not lost but shows up in the private sector as income. When one talks only of the deficit then one can understand that many think it should be reduced or even converted into a surplus, but reducing the government deficit reduces private sector income and a government surplus forces a deficit on the private sector with a potentially devastating effect on private sector wealth and economic activity.  Unless the economy is overheating, government deficits are usually healthy. For countries that run traditionally a trade deficit, such as the US they are necessary to maintain economic activity. Consider this fact: for almost all of past 40 years the US and the UK have run deficits without any harmful effects!

This video by professor Stephanie Kelton contains evidence that supports the modle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6rlprwQB5E

The Dynamic that shows that Government Deficits benefit the Private Sector
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• This model examines how sustainable consumerism is from social, economic, and environmental aspects. The question in focus is "How will our second-hand clothing donations affect communities in developing countries, specifically Kenya?"

5 Stock Variables: 
• U.S. Consumers
• Multinational Corporations
• Overseas Factories
• Kenya

Highlight Findings: 
To sum up, there are 4 major problems associated to donations:
• 1. Source of problem is the consumer: Cheap deals attract hundreds of millions in revenue for fast fashion, and contribute to 100,000 tonnes of clothing to Kenya annually. 
• 2. Rapid consumerism leads to over-utilization of slowly-renewable resources, such as water.
• 3. Nearly 96% of textiles jobs are eradicated by the massive inflow of clothing donations to Kenya. 
• 4. The offshoring of textiles jobs enrages U.S. blue-collar workers, leading to the rise of protectionism.  



Environmental, social, and economic sustainability aspects of textiles donations
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Final Project Socio-Economic Model
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The economy is a self-organizing system that needs continuous growth and a constant inflow of energy and materials in order to maintain itself.  Absence of growth will make the system fragile, and economic contraction could lead very quickly to its collapse. These are characteristics of dissipative systems that apply to the free market economy. Another characteristic is that economic activity will unavoidably lead to the generation of waste heat, greenhouse gases and waste materials that the system must expel into its environment, making the system unviable in the present context of global warming and increasing oil prices.

The simplified graphic representation of the economy shows how it is basically profits that generate the funds for the resources needed to guarantee that the system can continue to grow. Loans do not fulfil this function, since loans must be repaid from profit and credit institutions will be reluctant to extend loans if they fear their profits are endangered by the inability of creditors to generate enough income to meet interest payments. So the system depends on private companies and blind market forces. However, society can no longer rely on a system that is blindly guided by the profit motive and that is to a large degree responsible for much of the environmental problems that now afflict us. The system cannot continue in its present self-reinforcing growth mode. Governments can and must step in to fulfil their responsibility and fundamentally reform a system that has become harmful and that is driven exclusively by profit.

The profit motive leads to an unsustainable situation and government intervention.
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This model illustrates the current practice and consequences of government spending. Following the direction of the arrows from right to left the model shows the following sequence based on current practice:

Government Spending at a certain point leads to spending in excess of tax receipts. This will automatically lead to the issue of treasuries in the belief that the excess spending must be financed by borrowing (although the government has the capacity to create  money). This in turn will increase the national debt.

 Consequences that follow from this practice:

1) That national debt increases whenever the government spends in excess of tax receipts.

2) That the government must pay interest on the debt issued, which in turn increases and reinforces the need for government spending.

3) That the interest paid on treasuries will increase private sector income.

There is an alternative view, supported by Modern Monetary Theory, of how government spending can proceed. Please see this  Insight: 

https://insightmaker.com/insight/19954

Government Spending (Current Practice)
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This is a toy model of an investment market.

Households follow a simple ratio to invest in bonds or equities.  In part, the investment decision is stochastic, such that stock market returns are volatile, with equities more volatile than bonds and with a higher yield. As such, the system shows increasing volatility as the investment bubble grows.


Investment Markets
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WIP SD REpresentation of Steve Keen's BOMD Minsky model (described in Fig.5 of his patreon Jan2021 Draft New Economics Manifesto) to hope to make the causal structure clearer
Keen Bank Originated Money and Private Debt
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WIP  based on Where profits come from paper , Nathan Tankus blog and other historical sources
Monetary Circuit Flows
2 months ago
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Archetype:  Success to the successful
The more pioneer seed being sold, the more corn is grown.  As more corn is grown, the more pioneer seeds are needed for the next harvest.  More people began using the pioneer seeds, less people used the Ghanaian seeds.  However, the pioneer seed is expensive, so not everyone could buy the pioneer seed.  The more people using Ghanaian corn seeds, less people were using pioneer seeds.  

Way out: 
The best way out of this would probably be to lower the price of the pioneer seed.  The pioneer seed produces more corn that is sweeter.  People prefer this corn over the corn from the Ghanaian seeds.  More people are using the pioneer seeds, so gradually Ghanaian seeds will no longer be used.  Lowering the price of pioneer seeds will make it available to more farmers.  This way, less farmers will go out of business from trying to compete with more sweeter corn.  

Sources:
 Randall, R. (2014, December 15). Are African farmers in danger of becoming slaves to patented seeds? | Genetic Literacy Project. Retrieved January 18, 2016, from https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2014/12/15/are-african-farmers-in-danger-of-becoming-slaves-to-patented-seeds/

Is 4-H trying to hook African farmers on costly seeds? (2014, November 17). Retrieved January 18, 2016, from http://grist.org/food/is-4-h-trying-to-hook-african-farmers-on-costly-seeds/

Butler, K. (n.d.). How America's favorite baby-goat club is helping Big Ag take over farming in Africa. Retrieved January 18, 2016, from http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/11/4h-africa-farming-dupont-hybrid-seeds 
4-H Club in Africa - Economical
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Based on G.P. Cimellaro et al. Framework for analytical quantification of disaster resilience Engineering Structures 32 (2010) 3639–3649 paper

Facilities Disaster Resilience
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Book summary of Albert O Hirschman's 1982 book, explaining cycles of collective public action.
Shifting involvements
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Introduction:
This model demonstrates the COVID-19 outbreak in Burnie, Tasmania. It shows how the government policy tries to reduce the spread of COVID-19 whilst also impacting the local economy.

Assumptions:
This model has four variables that influence the number of COVID-19 cases: infection rate, immunity loss rate, recovery rate and death rate.

In order to reduce the pandemic spread, in this model, assume the government released six policies when Burnie COVID-19 cases are equal or over 10 cases. Policies are vaccination promotion, travel restriction to Burnie, quarantine, social distance, lockdown and testing rate.

Government policies would reduce the pandemic. However, it decreases economic growth at the same time. In this model, only list three variable that influence local economic activities. 
Travel restrictions and quarantine will reduce Burnie tourism and decrease the local economy. On the other hand, quarantine, social distance, lockdown allow people to stay at home, increasing E-commerce business.
As a result, policies that cause fewer COVID-19 cases also cause more considerable negative damage to the economy.

Interesting insights:
One of the interesting findings is that the government policy would reduce the COVID-19 spread significantly if I adjust the total government policies are over 20% (vaccine promotion, travel restriction, quarantine, social distance, lockdown), 3560 people will die, then no more people get COVID-19.
However, if I change the total government policy to less than 5%, the whole Burnie people will die according to the model. Therefore, we need to follow the polices, which saves our lives.
BMA708 assignment3 - Model of COVID-19 outbreak in Burnie