6A – Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends -

• Opportunity #1 - Baby Boomers aren't retiring - 
• With many citizens across the United States saddled with debt and high costs of living, many of those between the ages of 45 to 75 have indicated that they continue to work, despite their age and encouragement to retire. 
• I learned about this issue from a plumber and looked it up to gain more insight, and found many statistics supporting the notion that this might be an important issue.
• I feel that incentivizing retirement or increasing benefits might make it much easier for baby boomers to retire, with them being the biggest customers when it comes to such an opportunity.
• I feel that it might be relatively difficult to exploit, as to do so would involve revising laws across the United States in such a way that it would be easier for baby boomers to retire comfortably. 
• I believe I saw this opportunity due to the fact that I'm continually interested in the job market once I graduate, and I'm one of the few who realize that people refusing to retire will make it much harder for me to get a job once I graduate. 
• Opportunity #2 - Climate Change is a growing issue nationwide -
• Having heard about this on the news, the fact of the matter is that rising sea levels worldwide pose huge costs to coastal towns as they struggle to cope. I feel that the opportunity in this lies in creating much more awareness about climate change.
• Our entire country could be the "customer" when it comes to this issue, as people of all ages will be affected as temperatures rise alongside water levels, which would them much more receptive towards wanting to learn more about how to stop climate change.
• I feel like this opportunity is relatively easy to exploit, as with existing coverage, all we need to do is create a marketing campaign that can easily convey just how dangerous climate change is to our global safety and what each person can do to play their part and curbing it.
• I think I saw this opportunity due to me believing that many people don't necessarily know how dangerous or rapid climate change is, and conveying that awareness might inspire more people to do something, which in turn can do more change by creating a positive loop I believe can do more.
• Opportunity #3 - Data Protection Regulations - 
• As hacking becomes a greater issue and people become more aware of protecting their online presence, more European countries are taking steps towards tightening regulations to protect internet users. I feel that the opportunity exists to reform our own internet regulations to also protect consumers on the internet from having their data exploited. I thought of this while listening to recent coverage on election hacking, and after thinking about it, realized that many more people who aren't tech savvy might be open to having their data stolen or monitored while they use the internet. I feel that all internet users will be "customers" for this idea, as they all will benefit from increased protections. This opportunity would be easy to exploit, as all we would have to do is rewrite laws to make hacking penalties that much stricter and also making it so that user data cannot be collected without permission, which isn't difficult considering existing laws.
• While many people do know that laws against hacking exist, being rather tech-savvy, I felt that I know and have read about issues like this before, which allowed me to see this opportunity to improve upon specifically as room for improvement exists. 
• Opportunity #4 - Vaping Awareness -
• After multiple deaths, the American federal government has recently begun to consider an outright ban on electronic cigarettes, something which I heard about on the news. I feel that this should be the opportunity for us to fully consider launching a research study into the long term health effects of such products. I've read about how e-cigarette users tend to use such products in order to end their addictions, and this time might prove to be useful to examine their health effects to verify whether they are a safe product to use. I think that most smokers trying to quit smoking, as well as most e-cigarette users would be the "customers" when it comes to this opportunity. This opportunity won't be easy, as it will take a lot of research funding nationwide in order to guarantee that the research obtained is thorough and allows us to reach a final conclusion as to their safety.
• While many people have been made aware of this, I've always been rather curious about the issue of whether e-cigarettes are safe, and having read about the potential ban, feel that taking this time to evaluate their safety might go a long way to guarantee that people across the nation are safe.