Article Reflection 4: Panera’s Gift Economy

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Article Reflection 4
The articles “Panera’s Gift Economy” and “Medicare Scam” focus on the different ways in which limited resources in the economy are utilized in society. In the first case on “Panera’s Gift Economy Experiment”, the article’s central message is on the ideals surrounding the gift economy and circumstances that can lead to the failure of such a system. In the article, Panera used the pay-what-you-want strategy whereby customers were given the freedom to decide on the price they were willing to pay depending on their status in the economy. In the end, those who were willing to pay more became lesser than those that paid less or nothing at all, hence leading to the failure of the business. In the Medicare Scam case, the article describes a situation whereby there was a collaboration of some doctors, call centers, medical equipment companies and telemedicine firms to give the disabled and the elderly unneeded “free” braces, which would then be paid by Medicare. The two situations describe the wrong use of economic resources and the manner in which this affects the economy.
The two articles are connected to economics in various ways. To begin with, there is the issue of demand and supply in the case of the Panera business whereby the demand for free and cheap food was high while the supply of those willing to pay extra prices was low. By using this demand and supply model, it is possible to predict the future of Panera since in such kind of situation, a slight drop in the number of willing donors would mean failure for the business since the donors are the ones financing the business. In the end, the business was also unable to pay its taxes to the government, a clear indication that it had failed. The concept of scarcity of resources is evident in the Medicare scam case whereby the struggle for the limited resource (money) has led to individuals engaging in fraudulent activities in order to get access to these resources. For instance, the fraudsters are said to have manipulated the people into believing that they needed braces and in turn gained access to their Medicare financial information. The articles are insightful in offering a glimpse of just the extent that man would go in order to access the scarce resources.
To a large exten...