IlliniBucks

        I think the concept of having IlliniBucks is very interesting in theory. The idea is that the use of IlliniBucks would occur and a pre-specified price set by campus. The goal is to use certain Illinibucks to move to the head of the line for certain classes during registration. I think that this may possibly be applicable but will also come with some problems. First, I think classes with high demand will see the highest amound of Illinibucks allocated towards that. For example, if there is a certain class required by economics majors to take in order to graduate and there are two teachers. Say one teacher has a reputation for being a very stiff grader and aggressive policies while the other teacher is a much easier professor with more leniency. I believe, with this system in play, the university would see a large amount of students allocate Illinibucks towards the teacher who is supposedly easier. Similarly, say a required class only offers times of 8am,1pm, and 4pm. I believe you will see a heavy amount of Illinibucks allocated towards the 1pm class period because many will say 8am is too early, or 4pm is too late in the day.
      If the Illinibucks allocated too much money, many problems would occur. There will be a lot of "ties" in terms of specific amounts of Illinibucks sent towards a class. For example, say if there are five students who allocated ten Illinibucks and there is only one class; how would you go about divvying up one class between five equally qualified students? The same dilemma is possible through having two few Illinibucks. If you have too few Illinibucks you may find students in the dilemma of only being able to get into two classes that they need and having to go random for the rest. The trouble with the policy is finding the right medium; this will be rather difficult because you have to take into account different majors, credit hours, etc. I would personally recommend against such a policy because the policy we have in place right now is the fairest way possible. It rewards students for taking a lot of credit hours and maintaining seniority at the same time. It also takes into account extenuating circumstances such as athletes who need to be able to select their schedule first simply because of their busy schedules. Also, James Scholars deserve to get priority because they are in an elite honors program and have rigorous academic obligations.
            The IlliniBucks idea would only work if many required classes had many options making it so people would not be left out in terms of registering for classes regarding their respective major. That is one of the biggest downfalls to this system; people who are double majoring may find themselves in quite the dilemma and having to narrow down to only a single major. If you are attempting a double major between finance and economics, some of those classes become of high demand and with only limited IlliniBucks it would be difficult. One idea is that if you are pursuing a minor or double major you are allocated extra IlliniBucks. This way students can maintain their pursuance of a dual degree or minor without having to worry about not being able to register for a specific class. Another problem is without previous experience or real life trials it is hard to know what price to set the standard as for the IlliniBucks. The reason this is a serious problem is because if we do not have a solid medium price some students may find themselves at a disadvantage.

Organizations

One rather successful team I have been apart of was my high school track team. Our coach was very successful historically so that led to all of us believing in the program and fully committing to his methods. Similarly like in the book, each individual is only asked to do what it is capable of, and not the impossible. According to page 102 of the book, the Hurwicz criterion "holds that one system operates with less communication than another if the first broadcasts fewer additional variables." This was resembled on our team as we were informationally efficient through our coach and team captains. On page 108 the book speaks about how some design activities are complementary, meaning profitable for the organization. This is what really led to my track team being successful. Our coach had a schedule of activities for the whole season planned months in advance, leading us to participate in activities that were mutually complementary. For example, we would only practice hard twice a week and never before the day before a meet, giving our legs plenty of time to heal. Complementaries also lead to a predictable relationship and we believed we were the best. Our coach was also able to coordinate relative to unexpected conditions such as rain delay or a meet getting cancelled. Our coach had the same goal as us and that was to do everything in his power to get us to move towards the same direction, and that is to be as successful as we possibly can be.

Opportunism

I am a member of a social fraternity and within our fraternity, we have executive positions given to those we see fit. Usually those elected are people who are considered responsible and trusted. It is similar to the idea we spoke about in class regarding being a good samaritan; our vice president has access to over $40,000 and could easily use small amounts of that money for himself and write it off as some expense. The reason why I believe that our vice president does not act in such a manner and does not take advantage of the opportunity is because of the standard of morals he holds himself to. Rather than viewing their position of power as opportunistic, they view it as a responsibility for all. 

Another example of opportunistic behavior that may be more unethical is that of my cousin's father. My cousin who has been very close to me from a young age, is the only person in my extended family with divorced parents. Her father is a taxi driver and by law is required to pay child support until she turns eighteen. However, taxi drivers are able to pocket cash and mark a much more substantially lower amount of income than in actuality. So, her father was paying very little for child support while pocketing an absurd amount. This was very unethical because my cousin's mother is African and knew very little about the legal system let alone have enough money to pursue a lawyer and trial. This is an example of opportunistic behavior because my cousin's father saw an opportunity to get out of paying as much as he should have for child support, all be it unethical. 

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economics 490