1. After watching “Tulip Mania” (on SeeSaw), can you think of something in your experience / life where the price soars and then drops suddenly? 

The Tulip Mania is described as a Economic Bubble, which are items that have no value, suddenly becoming popular and are then sold at a much higher price than what it should. Nowadays, children tend to use social media such as; Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube much more, with all these big creators creating trends, the media kind of pressures you to follow the trends and to fit in.

I have experienced prices plummeting UP extremely for Pokémon cards, over the years. When I was in Year 1 (2015), the most trending game that all the “popular kids” played was trading and battling with Pokémon cards, during recess and lunch the whole school would be going on about them. It’s worth noting that Pokémon card packs are now in a lack of supply but yet in high demand, therefore contributing towards the value of Pokémon cards. Rare Pokémon card are actually considered to be worth 10,000’s of dollars, an Espeon and Umbreon Gold Star POP Series 5 has been sold for $22,000 this year in February and currently, many other Pokémon cards are being held at high prices and dramatically increasing. Although there is yet a time to come when Pokémon cards suddenly decrease of value, the possibility may very well only start in a few years time.

2. After watching “Tulip Mania”, how will you protect the wealth of your City if the World Bank devalues the Red Tulip (or no longer accepts it as a form of payment)?

There are two main factors that I would firstly invest my time in; gathering materials and to make allies. Once Red Tulips are no longer accepted as a form of payments, instead of using actual money, cities will start trading goods. If you own resources that other cities don’t, you own an advantage during trading and you’ll be rich through the value of your materials. Allies will also do you good in protecting and earning more wealth, simply by giving you more land/opportunities to work with. Being able to trade something that other cities don’t have and aren’t able to access, privileges you to be able to set a higher price**. Another option is to simply create/offer a new form of payment without the bank.

**(What you receive in the trade)

3. Why is it important for Cities to have “cool stuff”, to have “wealth, and to be “inclusive”?

Cool Stuff, Wealth and Inclusivity are 3 main factors that would urge people to come and become citizens of your city. A city’s Cool Stuff provides daily entertainment and tourist attractions for your society. The wealth of your city could possible determine your citizens daily life. If your city was poor, offered terrible buildings, a small selection of foods and don’t have enough to build necessary buildings, that could just end up with all your citizens in bad conditions and leaving your city for a better life.

4. What have you enjoyed about this Inquiry?

The whole inquiry was both educational and super fun! Experiencing going through the whole process of designing our cities and building it up to what it is today was the best part. The freedom that we were given has ensured that our cities reflects our personality and our creativity. Ensuring that we learn while having so much fun in Minecraft has made this inquiry amazing!

5. What have you found difficult or frustrating about the Inquiry?  What changes would you make?

Sometimes all the requests coming in at once from everyone can be quite overwhelming however it wasn’t always so frustrating. A change that I would like is for us to move onto the Economics part probably a bit earlier so we have more time to really develop our cities. Another main issue that everyone probably agrees with is to change, is for us to have more time in the world. The lack of time that we have had in the world has kind of effected that most of our cities are half complete and it gives off a feeling of an incomplete inquiry.