Analyse the Significance of Genetic Influences as Opposed to Social Factors in Human Development free essay sample

Money advised the parents to change the sex of their child since penis reconstruction wasn’t an option then, he was a supporter of the idea that gender wasn’t predetermined genetically and was from the influence of the environment. At the age of 22 months Bruce Reimer suffered a surgery called orchiectomy which would remove his testicles and the sperm cord. He also started a hormone treatment that would change him into a girl; He became Money’s guinea pig called Brenda. The childhood of David Reimer i. e. Brenda wasn’t great; whenever her mother tried to dress her with a dress she would tear it off. She also liked playing with her brother’s toys and was often bullied by her classmates in school. Despite these, Money made his case public and wrote: The childs behaviour is so clearly that of an active little girl and so different from the boyish ways of her twin brother† (1) ‘Brenda suffered terribly; no hormones were able to make her feel like a girl, for some time she urinated through a hole surgeons had placed in the abdomen. We will write a custom essay sample on Analyse the Significance of Genetic Influences as Opposed to Social Factors in Human Development or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page It was clear that she identified herself as male as she declared that when she grew up she would marry a woman, not a man. Besides a traumatizing childhood, her visits to Dr. Money were also highly traumatizing and tiring because she was supposed to visit him regularly. He would often show her and her brother pictures of people having sex and also forced them to take off their clothes and examine each other’s genitals (however these claims might not be true)’. (1) The genetic influences of this story are that originally David was born as a boy and all the way through his life he wanted to be, from the quote above it states that his mother dressed him in dresses and made him play with dolls, but the only thing he wanted to do was play with his brothers toys and wear boys clothes. They also removed his testicles and he didn’t have a penis due to an accident, however even though he no longer had sperm or testicles and actually had a penis he still felt like a boy. There were massive consequences of this story on the boy as he had so much frustration with the world and with himself of why wasn’t he a boy, unfortunately Brenda soon developed psychological problems. ‘She had a nervous breakdown when she was only a small child and by the time she reached adolescence she already had suicidal depression. When told that she was in fact born a man, she took the name David and decided to become a male again. She underwent surgery to remove her breasts and also had penis reconstruction. David married in 1990 and became a defender of sexual liberation. Sadly David Reimer continued to suffer right through till his death; in 2004, David committed suicide; the events that led to his suicide were harsh: his brother died by taking an overdose of antidepressants (he suffered from schizophrenia), he and his wife separated, and he had financial difficulties. Overall in this story the genetic influences are the most important as the nurture couldnâ⠂¬â„¢t change the way that boy felt e. g. even though he had the parts of a girl he still felt like a boy. That just shows that people who are born and feel like they are trapped inside someone else’s body e. . they are female but want to be male. They can be dressed in girls clothes get a job as a nurse have a husband and children but inside they still feel like they should be a male. The next story is a good example of the nature/ nurture debate as it is the differences between identical twins, and how nurture can affect the twin’s even though they can have the exact same DNA. Twins allow scientists to decipher to what extent is caused by genes and how much of it is shared environment. As identical twins, 19-month-old Sol and Luna share 100 percent of the same DNA. Both girls have soft oval faces, tufts of curly brown hair, slight noses and large almond-shaped eyes. If Sol’s coat is taken off, Luna will notice, and she will eagerly mimic for hers to be removed. If one is dancing, the other jumps in without hesitation, and if one drops her cup you can count on the other to follow posthaste—neither likes to be left out of a potentially fun situation. (2) Although they both have 100% of the same DNA, their mother explains how they couldn’t be more different; Grace Castillo (mother of the twins), says they have different personalities. Sol is adventurous,† says Grace. â€Å"She was the first to reach milestones and is much more of a troublemaker. She doesn’t like to be smothered, and only will offer affection on her terms. Luna, on the other hand, is more sensitive. She’ll cry when Sol gets in trouble, and she is oddly more independent in public, showing less fear of strangers. †(2) Their mother also admits that although she knows both girls are developing noticeably different personalities, she still believes that genes are playing a major role in how each child progresses in terms of their behaviors e. . especially when she compares their behavior to her own when she was the same age â€Å"It has to come from somewhere, and genetic inheritance makes sense when your child starts doing things you used to do at that age. † (2) The story of these two twins’ demonstrates the nature side of the debate as even though they are totally different people their mother thinks it is still due to genes and that their personality traits are inherited from her and their father e. g. she states that some of the behavior of her children reminds her of her own at the same age. However if this was true wouldn’t both girls have the same personality genes as they have the same DNA, so somehow their genes must have been nurtured in order for one child to have an adventurous behavior opposed to a shy, sensitive child. The fact that one of the twins is naturally a more stronger person as in ‘doesn’t like being smothered’ whereas the other twin ‘cries when the other twin gets into trouble’, suggests that there is a biological influence on personality development as both children have come from the same environment and unless either of the children have experienced traumatic events i. . child abuse which would be an influence of nurture. Then there is no possible reason for why the girls have different emotional traits as they will as we know have been given the same love and the same example from their parents of how to display emotions e. g. if they see their mother crying then that shows them that it is okay to cry when y our upset, this then would explain why Luna is comfortable with crying and create a mystery of why Sol does not want affection from her mother. Relating to Sol and Luna’s story is a similar but massively different story about two twins called; Daphne Goodship and Barbara Herbert. They first met when they were aged 40, Debbie was raised Jewish whereas Sharon was raised Catholic. Although the twins were raised apart from each other all of their lives they still had remarkable similarities; â€Å"We discovered we had a miscarriage the same year, followed by two boys and a girl in that order,† says Barbara. Segal (the twin’s father) called Daphne and Barbara the â€Å"giggle twins† because they laugh and fold their arms the same way. (3) This story really does show the massive influence of genetics as these twins will have the same genes but have been brought up in totally different environments e. g. they were both brought up in different religious views, that affect their lifestyles i. e. church or mosque and their believes which they will work around to ‘please their god’ i. e. if they are Muslim they will work around not eating pork meat. Overall these stories all represent different sides and give different evidence for the debate; the David Reimer story represents the importance of genes as the environment had no influence of the gender difference of the child; however various nurture factors caused him to lose his internal control and therefore started to suffer from depression. The story about the two twins Luna and Sol differently represents nurture as the genetics would determine both girls to have exactly the same personality traits as they have the same DNA. However the mother thinks it is still because of nature as the traits are similar to her at that age. The last story about the second set of twins also supports nature the same as David Reimer as they have been brought up differently but look and astonishing act the same. This suggests that both nature and nurture are very important as there can be a massive part of nature e. g. gender and nurture social learning in the way you learn how to be a girl or boy. References (1) http://curioustendency. blogspot. co. uk/2011/06/nature-vs-nurture-case-of-david-reimer. html (2) http://brainworldmagazine. com/who-are-we/ (3) http://lornareiko. wordpress. com/2009/10/08/identical-twins-who-were-separated-at-birth-what-are-they-like/

What Is Net Worth Complete Guide

What Is Net Worth Complete Guide SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips If you’ve ever analyzed your personal finances, you may have come across the term â€Å"net worth.† Simply put, your net worth is what you have minus what you owe. While net worth is a useful way to evaluate your financial situation, it also has some major flaws. Let’s define the concept of net worth, and then look at some key adjustments you can make to assess your finances and plan for the future even better. What Is Net Worth? A Hard Definition You just read a simple definition of net worth: what you have minus what you owe. Let’s rename â€Å"what you have† as assets and â€Å"what you owe† as liabilities. Let’s say your major asset is a $10 lemonade stand. Your major liability? The $4 you owe to your mom for sugar and lemons. Overall, your net worth is $6. Not bad for a 7-year-old budding entrepreneur. Twenty-five years later, your assets and liabilities probably look a little different. You lost the lemonade stand, but you collected other assets, like a savings and checking account, a car, a sweet road bike, and several rare Beanie Babies that you had the foresight to save. While you’ve paid off that $4 debt to mom, you’ve amassed some other liabilities: namely a hefty car loan and an even heftier student loan. Your net worth is the total value of all your assets minus the total value of all your liabilities. Using this example, let’s break down the steps to calculating your net worth. Calculating Net Worth: An Example Considering our 32-year-old friend who, sadly, did not grow up to run a lemonade stand empire (let’s call him Joe) we can list out all his assets and liabilities. Next to each one, we assign their current market worth. All of Joe’s assets together add up to $27,000. Again, these values represent the current market worth; who knows what the volatile Beanie Baby market is going to look like tomorrow? His liabilities total $35,000. The chart below shows the breakdown of Joe’s assets and liabilities beside their current values. Assets Current Market Worth Liabilities Current Market Worth Checking account $2,000 Car loan $5,000 Savings account $6,500 Student loan $30,000 Car $15,000 Road bike $1,000 Beanie Babies $2,500 Total: $27,000 $35,000 Net worth = assets - liabilities = $27,000 - $35,000 = - $8,000 After subtracting his liabilities from his assets, Joe is left with a negative net worth totaling $8,000 in debt. While ending up with a negative net worth isn’t ideal, it’s not actually unusual or even necessarily a bad thing, especially at certain points in life. In fact, Joe looks like he’s in a pretty good financial spot, especially if he keeps making consistent payments toward his car and student loans. So how can you calculate your own net worth? Read on for each step of the process. How to Calculate Your Net Worth: 6 Steps To calculate your own net worth, you need to go through the same process as Joe. There are six steps: Step 1: List Out All of Your Assets These could be tangible things like houses, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, land, pleasure yachts, baseball cards, rare coin collections, Basquiat paintings, fur stoles, gemstone-encrusted goblets...you know, the usual. They could also be intangibles, like stocks or other investments. Step 2: Determine Current Market Worth Once you’ve identified your assets, determine their current market worth. Don’t value your car at the amount for which you bought it, for example. Instead, find out what you could sell it for now. Step 3: List All Your Liabilities These could be student loans, personal loans, car loans, mortgages, or credit card debt that you amassed paying for all those pleasure yachts. Step 4: Determine Your Debts As you did with your assets, assign the amount of money that you currently owe to each liability. Step 5: Subtract Assets from Liabilities Figuring out your net worth is a simple subtraction problem: total value of assets minus total value of liabilities. Then you have your net worth! If you end up with a negative net worth like our friend Joe, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Lots of recent graduates, for instance, will be in this position thanks to ever-growing student loans. Your net worth doesn’t account for changes in your earning and spending over time, which is one of its major limitations. I’ll discuss the pros and cons of net worth in more detail below, so if you’re only interested in the hard definition of net worth, you should stop reading here. If you want to know how to make a more realistic assessment of your finances in both the short and long term, though, then you should keep scrolling. Before getting deeper into net worth, a quick note about my background in finance and economics. My Background in Finance and Economics I’ve invested my higher educational life to studying the ins and outs of economics. At Harvard, I got my Bachelor’s in Math, Master’s in Statistics, and Ph.D. in Economics. Eager to put theory to good use, I started a personal finance circle in my community to help struggling neighbors get on the path to financial independence. Along the way, I’ve deftly managed my business PrepScholar’s cash flow and my own personal finances. For many of us, school teaches us a lot about critical thinking, but very little about how to manage our money. With my background, I sincerely hope to assist others in developing solid financial planning skills. Now that you know a little about me, let’s return to the topic at hand: net worth, why it’s a useful metric for understanding your personal finances, and where it falls short. Why Is Net Worth Useful? 2 Main Reasons Calculating your net worth is a traditional approach to measuring your financial standing. It’s relatively easy to calculate, and it shows you the balance between your assets and your debts. If you calculate your net worth several times throughout the year, then it also suggests a pattern in your financial worth. Let’s take a closer look at the two main uses for this framework of net worth. Reason #1: Net Worth Reveals Your Current Financial Standing Net worth gives you a big picture view of your financial profile at a specific point in time. It makes you take stock of what you have and what you owe. If you were to sell off everything you owned and put it all toward paying off what you owe, you’d have your net worth left over- whether it’s cash in your pocket or remaining debt. Realistically, you’re probably not going to trade in all of your earthly positions, move into a log cabin, and pull a Henry David Thoreau, but you do know what your safety net looks like if you were to experience a big financial change, like getting laid off. Calculating net worth gets you to identify your assets and liabilities, connect the dots between them, and understand your financial standing at a particular moment in time. Reason #2: Net Worth Shows Patterns Over Time A one-time calculation of net worth only tells you about the present, but comparing your net worth over time reveals patterns in your earning, saving, and spending. If you were to determine your net worth three times over a year, then you could see how it changes. Imagine your net worth as a see-saw with assets at one end and liabilities at the other. If the see-saw tilts down toward debts, then you can consider ways to level it off over time, perhaps by reducing your monthly spending. If it’s starting on the upswing toward assets, then you can strategize about how to keep that progress going. By calculating your net worth several times over a set period, you can identify patterns in your finances. As a result, you can think about lifestyle changes that would help you yield a higher net worth the next time you sit down with your calculator. All that being said, there are also some major flaws in the concept of net worth. It contains some big blind spots, and it’s important to know what these are so you don’t miss the forest for the trees. Read on to learn how net worth paints the big picture, but overlooks some of its most important details. How Is Net Worth Limited? 3 Major Flaws The idea of net worth misses a few major parts of your life. When it talks about assets and liabilities, for instance, it misses a pretty major one: you! Net worth completely overlooks all the money that you’re making and spending now and in the future. By focusing solely on assets and liabilities, it fails to take into account the human element. Net worth also doesn’t distinguish between types of assets. Some assets get more valuable over time, while others are like a slowly sinking pleasure yacht. Let’s take a closer look at net worth’s three major flaws, and then discuss some excellent ways to fix them. Flaw #1: Net Worth Misses One Huge Asset Don’t take it personally, but net worth completely overlooks you as an asset. It focuses on things that you possess, but it ignores your labor income now and in the future. Let’s say you make $30K a year. If you maintain that income, then you’ll bring in $300K over the next ten years. Realistically, you’ll probably bring in even more as your skills, experience, and earning potential grow over time. Net worth overlooks all of this income. Consider a second example. Alex has $10k saved and no debt. Britney, though, is $100K in debt. According to the traditional net worth definition, Britney is in a way worse financial position than Alex. However, Alex makes $20K a year, while Britney, who’s in debt because she went to medical school, just got a guaranteed $200K per year job! It’s Britney, ultimately, who’s in the superior financial position. The traditional net worth formula, though, doesn’t show it. For many people, especially those in their 20s and 30s, labor income is their primary asset and thus the most important metric when analyzing personal finances. I don’t have a wide array of tangible assets, like a collection of antique motorcycles or Renaissance art. My human capital is, by far, the most relevant asset when assessing my financial standing. If I only used the traditional equation of net worth to measure my finances, I would be overlooking my most important asset. Flaw #2: Net Worth Doesn’t Include Baseline Spending Just as net worth ignores you as an asset, it also overlooks you as a liability (no offense). Your basic consumption- groceries, shopping, climbing gym membership- accounts for major drains on your budget. If you need $20k of baseline spending per year, then you’ll be spending $200k over ten years. Like your income, your basic consumption has a huge influence on your finances. Net worth takes into account big liabilities, like mortgages, student loans, and credit card debts, but it doesn’t acknowledge smaller ones that add up over time. It doesn’t incorporate your baseline spending, which might be a much more relevant metric to lots of people than, say, a bulky mortgage on a farmhouse in upstate New York. Flaw #3: Net Worth Doesn’t Distinguish Between Types of Assets Finally, net worth is a static measure that doesn’t account for the fluctuating values of your assets. Let’s say you have a $20K yacht and $20K in a stock index. When calculating your net worth, these two assets look exactly the same. If you sold everything off that day, both would give you $20K each in your pocket. If you’re trying to make a realistic and forward-thinking assessment of your finances, though, should these two assets really be considered on an equal level? I would answer with a hard no. The boat costs $4K a year to maintain. Your investment is likely to get $1K or more in returns. Since it’s sapping money and losing value over time, the boat is a consumption asset. The investment, on the other hand, is a productive asset. Distinguishing between consumption and productive assets is one way to fix this flaw in the net worth system. Read on for a full breakdown of how to calculate net worth in a way that’s more realistic and useful for your long-term planning. How to Calculate Your Net Worth Better Now that I’ve exposed net worth’s flaws, let’s talk solutions. There are two main adjustments you can make to improve this assessment, the â€Å"Total Net Asset† fix and the â€Å"Productive Net Worth† fix. Let’s look at both in more detail. Fix #1: Total Net Asset Fix As you read above, the standard analysis overlooks you completely. It doesn’t account for the two largest levers to improve yourself: increasing your earning power and decreasing your spending habit, two important topics that I’ll explore in other articles. To fix this oversight, you should estimate the next 10 years of your earnings and baseline spending. Ten years is long enough to give you a good idea of your finances, while short enough that you can make a realistic prediction. If you make somewhere in the range of $40K a year, then you could estimate that your income over the next ten years will add up to $400K. If your annual baseline spending adds up to $20K, then you’ll be spending at least $200K over the next decade. Of course, changes in your income and spending will happen; that’s the whole point. This long-term projection lets you take control of your personal and professional choices, because it reveals just how much a raise in salary or cut in spending could affect your long-term net worth. The Total Net Asset fix gives you better insight into your finances, and it lets you think in a more forward-thinking way about your choices. You can play around with a few estimates to see how changes, both small and big, could increase your worth over time. Fix #2: Productive Net Worth Fix The second solution, which I’m calling the Productive Net Worth fix, helps distinguish between productive assets that gain value over time and consumption assets that lose value over time. I would suggest a somewhat radical departure from the traditional net worth equation. Instead of counting all of your assets, only count your productive assets. These might be money in your bank accounts, cash, stocks, and any investment properties. The consumption assets you’d leave out include a house, car, or boat. The way you use these consumption assets on a day-to-day basis (to live, drive, or throw lavish pirate-themed parties, respectively) is their primary value. Since they both cost money and depreciate over time, they should be left out of the net worth equation. (Side note: you might wonder if a house should be counted as a productive asset. Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, gives a convincing argument on the house-as-liability side. According to Kiyosaki, a liability is â€Å"anything that takes money out of your pocket.† Because of all the upkeep and repairs they require, houses can often be considered a consumption, rather than a productive, asset.) Now that we’ve gone over both adjustments, the Total Net Asset and Productive Net Worth fix, let’s put both of them together to see how you can make the most realistic assessment of your financial worth both now and in the years to come. Measuring Net Worth: A More Realistic Assessment Let’s bid farewell to Joe and consider a new exemplar, Stacy. Stacy has a $20K car, $10K in savings, a $5K student loan, and a $1K personal loan. Here’s her list of assets and liabilities alongside their current market values: Assets Current Market Value Liabilities Current Market Value Car $20,000 Student loan $5,000 Savings $10,000 Personal loan $1,000 Total: $30,000 $6,000 Using the traditional calculation, Stacy has a net worth of $24,000 ($30K - $6K). Based purely on the hard definition of net worth, Stacy could theoretically raise her net worth by upgrading her car. Since we now know that a car is a consumption asset that both costs money and loses value over time, this approach would be a questionable one. The traditional definition of net worth is trying to lead Stacy astray! Let’s fix that. Using our Productive Net Worth fix, let’s eliminate the car completely from our assessment. Then we’ll apply the Total Net Asset fix and add in Stacy’s projected income and baseline spending over the next ten years. We estimate that her income will be $300K, and her spending will add up to $200K. Assets Current Market Value Liabilities Current Market Value Savings $10,000 Student loan $5,000 Projected income $300,000 Personal loan $1,000 Projected baseline spending $200,000 Total: $310,000 $206,000 Stacy’s new net worth over 10 years is $104K. Rather than giving her a one time balance of her assets and liabilities, this â€Å"fixed† net worth assessment helps Stacy figure out her finances over the long-term while incorporating her most important asset and liability, her own labor income and spending. With this estimate, Stacy can begin to think more realistically about her long-term value and how to improve her position. What can she do to yield a net worth higher than $104K over the next ten years? Some strategies for increasing net worth over the long-term are all fodder for another article, but a few key ones include, Improving her earning potential through education and skills training, Making cuts to baseline costs, Eliminating debts, and Avoiding the purchase of consumption assets. Sorry, Stacy, but you probably shouldn’t buy that state-of-the-art Jetski with your current balance of $24K; it’s only going to eat away at your long-term net worth. In closing, let’s review the key points you need to remember about net worth, its traditional definition, and the adjustments you can make to get an even more realistic assessment of your long-term financial profile. Calculating Your Net Worth: What You Need to Remember The concept of net worth helps you balance your assets and debts and evaluate your financial standing. The traditional formula has you simply subtract the sum of your debts from the sum of your assets. While this approach has some uses, it’s not nuanced enough to truly help individuals with their personal finances. Nor does it apply to lots of people whose primary asset is their own labor income. In fact, the net worth formula is a vestige of corporate accounting and much more relevant to businesses than to you or me. By making a few adjustments- namely, by estimating future cash flow and distinguishing between consumption and productive assets- we can make the net worth formula work much better for us. Then we can use this analysis to inform our financial choices. Rather than solely looking at little-picture changes, like cutting out morning lattes at Starbucks, we can focus on big-picture changes that have a great long-term effect, e.g. increasing our earning potential with a new degree, paying off high-interest credit card debt, and resisting the urge to buy a boat. With a couple key fixes to the traditional formula of net worth, we can look outside the present moment and gain a long-term idea of our economic worth. The result? Smart financial choices now that will benefit us substantially in years to come.

Marketplace Structure Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Marketplace Structure - Research Paper Example Contrary, a monopolistic market emerges after a firm produces a product that is not similar to what others produce. The product is unique and there is no replacement. The organization enjoys being the only single producer of the product or service. Consequently, the organization controls the price and quality. Entry in the monopolistic market is challenged by economies of scale. Monopolistic competitive market consists of organizations selling similar products that are not identical. There are many organizations each taking a portion of the market. Baade (33) adds that, the organizations diversify the products so that they have a variety according to name, style and pricing. Movement in and out of the industry does not have a barrier. Oligopoly is a market structure where a few organizations with same or diversified product gain prominence in the market. Because the few large organizations are known to each other, decisions are made putting into consideration the competitor’s reaction. Decisions on advertising, output and prices are influenced by the rival organizations. There is a tendency to diversify or standardize the product. Entering the industry requires a large capital. Economies of scale are the major hindrance to joining the industry.   Manchester United fits into the oligopoly market structure. It is a football club featured in the premier league among other prominent and wealthy football clubs. Its rivals in the market include; Arsenal, Liverpool, Leeds United and Manchester City.

Identify a particular issue or problem that occurs with HRD in a Essay

Identify a particular issue or problem that occurs with HRD in a country with which you are familiar - Essay Example The calculation is very simple.   The number of employees leaving in a year is calculated as a percentage of the total number of employees during the same period.   It is also known as separation rate. Employees in the beginning and closing of the year are averaged for this purpose.   However, if the monthly beginning or closing figures for the twelve months are averaged, it would be better. Some times the companies calculate a retention rate, and alternative method of calculation.   It is also called as Stability Index and worked out as below. The figures in the calculation will be unduly inflated if the replacements are frequent during the year.   For example 85% of the employees are retained.   If the vacancies caused during the year are replaced twice, the labor turnover ratio works out to 30%, if replaced only once, it works out to 15%.   Therefore retention ratio is preferred.  Ã‚   Another problem is in averaging.   If there is huge variation during the year from beginning to end or average, the ratio will be vitiated.   In a country like India, this may happen due to seasonal factors also.   For examples, if rain gods play a trick on farmers, production, consequently the employment is affected in sugar industry.  Ã‚   Michael Hanni and Mark Knold pointed out, ’construction, retail trade, administrative services, and accommodation and food services. Together, these four industries make up 35 percent of all employment, yet constitute 52.2 percent of all job separations (separations were the minimum variable of the numerator for 2006). In other words, these four industries account for a disproportionate amount of job churning.’  Labor Turnover in Utah, Source: U.S. Bureau of Census, LED data.http://jobs.utah.gov/opencms/wi/pubs/specialreports/laborturnover08.pdf We usually consider ‘Year’  as a basis for calculation.   However, year

Acounting and finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Acounting and finance - Essay Example To efficiently administer the various functional areas for which the manager is responsible and also to co ordinate these functions and activities within the overall framework of an organization is the two major purpose of an accounting system Especially the management accounting systems contemplate to analytically measure and report all financial and non-financial information so that the managers can make fruitful and effective decisions to fulfill the goals of an organisation. Thus the focus of the management accounting is mainly internal reporting of the various activities. Modern day management accounting plays a very significant role in both planning and control decisions. Hence in the process of decision making the management accountant has to make a number of realistic and logical assumptions in arriving at an optimal solution for the problem on hand. For enabling the management accountant to take a stand on the various assumptions in the process of decision making, the cost o f the product or service is a key element. Traditionally there are various methods of ascertaining the cost of a particular product or service. One of such methods is collecting the various cost elements and allocating them to the particular product or service which is known as unit costing.As outlined above one of the traditional ways of ascertaining the cost is to apportion a standard cost for each unit based on historical cost data. This system of ascertaining costs and base the managerial decisions has lost significance due to the fact that modern companies tend to have lower truly variable costs as against a very high degree of fixed costs. Also the equipments that are being used have become more complex and specialized and they form a very significant proportion of total costs. In addition organization with a wide range of products has processes which are common to several finished items making cost allocation irrelevant or meaningless. 3.0 ALTERNATIVE TO TRADITIONAL COSTING SYSTEMS-ACTIVITY BASED COSTING SYSTEM (ABC SYSTEM) An alternative to the traditional costing systems, modern day multi process business corporations adopt the activity based costing system which has proved a real tool in the hands of the managers for making proper business decisions. The activity based costing system is a refinement of the costing system in which focus is centered on the individual activities as the fundamental cost objectives. An activity in an organization may take the form of an event, task or unit of work with a specified purpose. To illustrate; the design activity, set up activity, manufacturing operations, shipping activity, distribution activity and administrative activity can form the basic key costing elements for the refinement of the costing system and thereby to arrive at the proper cost of a particular unit or service. ABC system aims at calculating the costs of the individual activities and assign costs to cost objects such as products or services on the basis of the activities undertaken to produce each product or service. 3.1 FEATURES OF ABC SYSTEM OF COSTING Fundamentally there are three distinct features of the activity based costing system: They are: 1. ABC system works by creating smaller cost pools linked to different activities. Traditionally organizations used to have single overhead cost pool related to several cost pools. 2. For each activity-cost pool ABC system aims to measure the activity performed and have this as the base. 3. In some cases costs in a cost pool can be identified and traced back to a particular Product or department or service and such kind of direct tracing of costs improve the cost accuracy as no assumptions are made to allocate the common costs. The logic behind the working of the ABC system of costing is that the more we create finely structured activity-cost pools, greater is the

The Strategy To Raise Standards In British Prisons

The Strategy To Raise Standards In British Prisons Political and Academic interest in the privatization of British Prisons has steadily risen since its sudden revival during the 1980s and 1990s. This interest has been precipitated by a rapid rise in the prison population and the directly related escalation of running costs and difficulties of running a consistently efficient service. Privatization was seen by many policy-makers as providing an important step forward towards improving conditions, bringing about change and innovation, and improving the overall quality of the British prison system. The private sector was believed to be capable of delivering a better standard of service with greater efficiency and a higher degree of accountability. Subsequently, the last decade has seen a steady growth of private sector involvement in the British prison system. This essay will examine the argument that privatization offers an important strategy to raise standards within Britains prisons and consider any problems associated with this appr oach. The privatisation of corrections is now understood to mean some form of the ownership or management of prisons by private corporations. The role of the private sector in contemporary corrections is, however, much broader than this narrow definition. Savas (1987) points out that the private sector is involved in corrections in five distinct ways. It may: (1) finance and construct prisons; (2) operate facilities for juveniles; (3) operate facilities for adults; (4) provide work for prisoners, and (5) provide specific contractual services, such as health care and vocational education for inmates and staff. The recent move towards the privatization of British prisons has been largely based on the substantial increase of the prison population. Between 1993 and 1996 the UK prison population increased from 43,000 to 54,000, a rate of about 100 per 100,000 of the entire population. This rapid rise has led to widespread overcrowding and a decrease in standards, making living conditions for many prisoners highly unpleasant. Prisoners overall health has deteriorated and suicide and self-mutilation rates have climbed rapidly. Added to this, staff morale has also fallen and widespread scepticism of the value and objective of prisoner programmes has grown. It has been clear for some time that widespread changes and new strategies are needed in order to tackle the problems within the prison system. The main priorities for improving the system have included; increasing prison capacity, introducing working practices that are more accommodating and flexible for prison and probation staff and the need for greater accountability from those responsible for running prison services. The claim that all this could be achieved at substantially reduced costs simply by encouraging greater private sector involvement in the delivery of penal policy has been increasingly seen by some as a quick fix solution to many of the penal systems most pressing problems (Cavadino Dignan, 2002: 227) It is important to now look at how it is proposed that privatizing Britains prisons will lead to such improvements in standards. Supporters of the privatization of Britains prisons argue that there are a number of potential benefits directly associated with the commercial competition that privatization would produce. For example, through the creation of a market force private organisations would be encouraged to maintain and indeed improve upon high standards of cost effectiveness and efficiency in order to achieve the successful renewal of current government contracts and to compete for new service contracts. Logan Rausch (1985) suggest that due to the way they are financed public sector organisations are inefficient and ineffective. As the private sector is motivated by competition and profit it is dedicated to providing maximum satisfaction to its clients and customers at a minimum cost. Alternatively, in the public sector; bureaucrats are rewarded not according to the performanc e of their organization but according to the size and budget of their agencies, thus they are more interested in empire building than in increasing their efficiency. Beyens Snacken also examine this point, arguing that; Proponents claim that privatization is the best way to decrease costs and construct new, better designed prisons more quickly. By introducing the element of competition and new management techniques, better quality for less money can be achieved. It is stated that private correctional services can operate more efficiently, because of less bureaucratic red tape and a higher motivation to control costs. Privatization, many claim leads to heightened accountability within the prison system. It is argued that the government is in an ideal position to impose strict guidelines and include detailed service standards within contracts, making companies readily accountable and putting them at risk of financial penalties for failure to fulfil them. As the government no longer have to defend its own shortcomings it can be more active in challenging private companies for failing to meet contractual obligations. Most private contractors accept and appreciate the value of full time independent monitors who are present within private prisons acting as an additional guarantee of contract compliance. Public sector prisons do not have similar fully independent monitors. Also, healthy competition between private sector rivals would also have a regulatory effect as agencies are inclined to monitor each others performance for weaknesses and failings in order to gain a commercial advantage. It is clear that the primary rationale for passing the management of prisons into private hands is that they are expected to operate at lower running costs than those controlled by the Home Office. If success is to be measured on effective cost-cutting and meeting required standards of service, supporters of privatization are convinced that a sustained push in this direction will produce positive results. It has been estimated that the running costs of private prisons are 15-25 per cent below those of state prisons (Tilt, 1995). A prison review in 1997, stated that privately run prisons on average, offered an operational cost saving of 8-15 per cent. A Parliamentary Select Committee in 1996-97 looked at the management of offenders in the public and private sectors. It reported that an expansion of the private sector would lead to an increase in efficiency in the public sector. It concluded that private prisons were operating well in terms of quality of performance, and that their ove rall performance was as good as, and in some cases better than, publicly administered prisons. However, critics argue that recent improvements in the efficiency of public sector prisons have led to a continuous narrowing in the operating cost saving offered by privately operated prisons so that by 1998 the differential had been reduced to 2-11 per cent (Woodbridge, 1999). Those against privatization also argue that any reduced running costs comes at a high price; to the detriment of the number of staff employed, staff wages, conditions of employment and working conditions (Joyce, 2001:221). For example, it has been reported that contracted-out prisons, often favouring high technology security measures, have on average 16 per cent fewer staff per prisoner than public sector prisons. Also pay and conditions for staff at private sector prisons are often poor in comparison with the public sector. Salaries are 14 per cent lower and members of staff deliver on average 10 per cent more working hours per week. These factors may account to some degree for the high levels of staff turno ver at private prisons, reported to be approximately 30 per cent. The usefulness of privatization and indeed its principles have been widely criticised and numerous problems that it potentially produces have been identified. Firstly, many critics focus the emphasis on the traditional notion of privatization a concept already partially discredited in the western world because of its association with inflated profiteering and the abandonment of the public interest (Harding, 1997: 1). It is heavily argued that the running of Britains prisons for profit has very negative consequences. This serious criticism of privatization is that the profit motive is entirely incompatible with successful prison administration. In order to make profit, private organisations are dependent on receiving a continually high supply of inmates into their institutions. There are numerous examples of how this may affect the treatment of offenders and prisoners. Early release times for prisoners may potentially be discouraged or ignored when prison numbers are relatively low. Also, government and other leading political policy-makers may be inclined to put pressure on legislators to create directives and pass acts that are both decisively custody based and increasingly punitive. Another factor that must be taken into account due to the reliance of private contractors on prisoner numbers for profit is the issue of overcrowding. One of the key ideas promoting privatization is the improvement of standards and living conditions for prisoners, private prisons may develop a tendency towards increasing prisoner numbers in order to raise profits leading to overcrowding and its inherent problems This argument clearly reveals how the underlying commercial motivation of private organisations can have serious repercussions for the manner in which private prisons are run, posing serious and seemingly unanswerable questions to those who absolutely support privatization. Another major concern with privatization is that there will be an increased emphasis on security, to the detriment of attempts to reform or rehabilitate prisoners. The contract between the Home Office and a private company does not require the contractor to help inmates lead good and useful lives (Joyce, 2001: 221). Most criminologists agree that the rehabilitation and education of prisoners is a crucial function of the penal system. It is hard to disagree with both Durham (1989) and Shichor (1995) who maintain that the changing penal trend away from rehabilitation and training towards containment, incapacitation and deterrence has hastened the acceptance of privatization as a viable policy option. From a financial perspective, more prisons means more outlay. Prisons are expensive capital items with high running costs. Thus, there is considerable attraction in any policy designed to reduce those costs. In addition, the incapacitation or protection of the public function is an easier administrative task to hand over to private companies and their employees than the treatment and training of offenders (Genders, 2002). By failing to provide any rehabilitation and training to offenders, private prisons become institutions with the sole function of punishing prisoners through incapacitation for profit. Another potentially serious pitfall of widespread privatization is that the government may become reliant on the services of a handful of powerful companies; this could result in the government to some extent being held to ransom and thus be forced to pay higher prices in order to continually increase the profits of the private sector organisations. This potential problem is magnified where private prison operators are contracted to take over the entire running of an institution, including initially building it, owning it and managing it, as is now to be the case for all future tendered contracts in England and Wales. A key question that remains unanswered is whether, in remaining paymaster but delegating service delivery, the state truly does retain control over standards whether in fact there still is present that degree of public accountability and control that must always be requisite when the state exercises its ultimate power of restraint and punishment over the citizen ( Hard ing, 1997: 2)? A final criticism of privatization is based on the limited indicators of how private prisons have performed up to now. Despite the previously discussed increased emphasis on a security focused approach within private prisons, it seems that there are serious control issues within them. Virtually all privately-managed prisons have experienced serious control problems, at least during the initial period after opening. In most cases the problems appear to have been more severe, and more intractable, than would normally be expected in the case of a comparably newly-commissioned public sector prison (Cavadino Dignan, 2002: 247) In conclusion, the involvement of the private sector in Britains prison system has so far been limited to the delivery of particular services; the government has retained responsibility for producing and implementing changes in policy and for monitoring the performance and standards of private prisons. Proponents of privatization claim that it has and can continue to improve standards of service and efficiency, whilst also cutting running costs. As Tabarrok (2003: 10) argues We now know that private prisons can be built more quickly, operated at lower cost, and maintained at a quality level at least as high as government-run prisons. However, many writers dispute such claims and believe that a continued government policy towards privatization as a method of improving the British prison service is deeply flawed and may become a barrier to developing a programme of fundamental change aimed at improving the standards of the whole of the prison system. Privatization as an ideology and as a practice is not only unlikely to provide a remedy for the malaise affecting the prison system; it could easily become a major part of the problem (Cavadino Dignan, 2002: 255). Despite serious criticisms; the future of private prisons is not clear. We do not know whether it will become a viable alternative to government run prisons or remain a small segment of the correctional system as it is today, or if it will be only a temporary phenomenon (Schihor, 1995: 18). Overall, whether private sector involvement in running Britains prisons increases or decreases in the long-term remains to be seen. It is clear, however, that the debate surrounding the subject will continue to flourish at least until clear indicators of the performance of private prisons are revealed. Evidence, so far, provides few answers. As Liebling Sparks, (2002: 283) conclude; Some former doubters and critics have been converted. Some predicted disasters have not transpired; and many privately managed institution s appear on available indicators to have operated at least as well (or put another way no worse than) their directly managed counterparts. References Beyens, K. Snacken, S. (1996) Prison Privatization: An International Perspective in Matthews, R. Francis, P. (eds.) (1996) Prisons 2000: An International Perspective on the Current State and Future of Imprisonment, Basingstoke: MacMillan Press Ltd. Cavadino, M. Dignan, J. (2002) The Penal System: An Introduction (3rd edition), London: Sage Publications Ltd. Genders, E. (2002) Legitimacy, Accountability and Private Prisons in Punishment and Society: The International Journal of Penology (2002) Vol. 4 (3): 285-303. Harding, R. W. (1997) Private Prisons and Public Accountability, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. James, A. L. et al. (1997) Privatizing Prisons: Rhetoric and Reality, London: Sage Publications Ltd. Joyce, P. (2001) Crime and the Criminal Justice System, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Liebling, A. and Sparks, R. (2002) Editors Preface, in Punishment and Society: The International Journal of Penology (2002) Vol. 4 (3): 283-284. Lilly, R. J. Knepper, P. (1992) An International Perspective on the Privatisation of Corrections, in The Howard Journal (1992) Vol. 31 (3): 174-191. Schihor, D. (1995) Punishment for Profit: Private Prisons/Public Concerns, London: Sage Publications. Tabarrok, T. (ed) (2003) Changing the Guard: Private Prisons and the Control of Crime, California: The Independent Institute.

Women in the Workforce

Group: 6 Janelle Maskulka, Hannah Reifer, Laura Welker, Andrea McNett Group Leader: Hannah Reifer Scribe: Janelle Maskulka Topic: Women in the Workforce from the 1800- current Outline and Student Responsibilities Introduction: Our group will discuss how women in the past had limited working rights but over time laws and bills were passed that allowed women to grow in the workplace. However still today women are not treated as equals to their male counterparts. 1. 1800’s – Andrea McNett Before/ Early 1800s little to no rights and strictly housewives †¢ Industrial Revolution o Unmarried women worked in factories and moved to city o Caused women to delay marriage/ less children †¢ Women’s Rights o More Independent o Fought for equal wages ? Female Labor Reform Association in New England (1844) o Fought for education o Fought for voting †¢ The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) o Founded in 1840 o Mainly focused on women’s righ t to vote Branched into two subdivisions ? National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) ? American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) †¢ Susan B. Anothony 2. 1900-1950 – Hannah Reifer †¢ Employment in 1900 o Women only had 5% gainful employment outside of the household ? Woman self-imagine began to change †¢ Went from only wanting children and a husband to wanting to be employed o By 1910 this employment rate had increased to 11% †¢ Women in politics (voting rights) Also by 1910, only four states had equal women rights. ? These failures were partly due to people who believe that politics was no place for women †¢ Women’s Suffrage Amendment (1920) (NAWSA) o 19th amendment o Can’t base the write to vote off of sex †¢ The Great Depression (1930’s) o Prohibited married women to work ? Legislature passed in 26 states †¢ World War II (1939-1945) o Brought major change to women in the workforce o Men went to war o 6 million more w omen entered into the workforce o Some women didn’t want to work Rosie the Riveter â€Å"We Can Do It† was used as motivation o As soon as the war was over men returned to jobs women were laid off †¢ By 1947 women began to once again enter the workforce †¢ By 1950 31% of women in the United States were employed and working 3. 1950- 2000 – Laura Welker †¢ â€Å"Roots of the Revolution† (1950-1970’s) o Warning signs of a revolution, change in women’s expectations of employment †¢ Women began to see themselves as going to college and perhaps even graduate school o Working mothers and wives was slowly becoming more common †¢ â€Å"Quiet Revolution† (1970-2000’s) Woman enrollment in colleges and grad schools increased dramatically o Women began to studying fields men were typically professionalized in such as medicine, law and dentistry †¢ More women were now expected to go to college and join the workf orce by age 35, where in the past women were supposed to be in the home and raise the children 4. 2000’s – Janelle Maskulka †¢ Almost half of the workforce today is made up of women (46%) †¢ Major women in the workforce today o Oprah o Condoleezza Rice o Hillary Clinton †¢ Major changes since 1900’s o Bypassing men in management positions Staying with employers longer than men †¢ However, men still continue to make more money o . 76% higher wages than women Conclusion: (Group collaboration/ Input of tying up loose ends) Over time and history women have worked hard to gain rights in and out of the workforce. If we continue to work in the same direction and gain more and more rights we will see more results such as equal pay compared to men, more women in the management and CEO positions, in turn breaking the glass ceiling and the barrier between men and women in the workforce, which is the overall goal.

Goals: Problem Solving and Population Reference Bureau

Abstract â€Å"To prepare for solving a problem, we must first acknowledge that the problem exists. Then, we must accept it, and clearly define or identify it. Finally, we must commit to solving the problem. Without some degree of personal commitment, the problems that we acknowledge, accept, and identify might never be resolved. 1. using a current local or international newspaper, identify an important local, national, or international concern that needs to be solved.Use the Library and Information Resources Network (LIRN) link by clicking here to locate two or more credible articles that provide background information and an analysis of the problem. You can also access LIRN in your online course by clicking on Course Home tab, then the Online Resources link. Contact your Campus for your LIRN password. 3. Using the articles you found as a resource, explain the concern using the five â€Å"Problem Solving Methods† found on page 104 of your textbook. Use Microsoft Word to resp ond to your problem.Your response should consist of 1-2 pages. Cite your articles using APA guidelines. Visit the APA Guide for assistance with APA formatting. † Week Two Individual Work (1) Introduction Using the articles I found as a resource, I am going to explain the concern using the five â€Å"Problem Solving Methods†. This is a big issue and I think we should all be actively trying to solve this issue. Environmental Problems I am going to be discussing environmental problems. I will use the problem solving methods as they are outlined in our text.â€Å"Problem- Solving Method (Advanced) Step 1: What is the problem? a. What do I know about the situation? b. What results am I aiming for in this situation? c. How can I define the problem? Step 2: What are the alternatives? a. What are the boundaries of the problem situation? b. What alternatives are possible within these boundaries? Step 3: What are the advantages and/ or disadvantages of each alternative? a. What are the advantages of each alternative? b. What are the disadvantages of each alternative? c.What additional information do I need to evaluate each alternative? Step 4: What is the solution? a. Which alternative(s) will I pursue? b. What steps can I take to act on the alternative(s) chosen? Step 5: How well is the solution working? a. What is my evaluation? b. What adjustments are necessary? †(Chafee) The problem is environmental problems, such as we have been polluting our planet’s air, water, and land; depleting its resources; and accumulating a lot of waste for which we need to find places to store.I know this situation needs to be suppressed on some level; because if we continue at this rate, then our environment will not be fit to live in. We have 6. 8 billion people on Earth today (Population Reference Bureau, 2009) and all of these people need food, water, clothing, and shelter. In addition to these minimal needs to survive, millions of people in developed nation s have cars, large homes, air conditioning, heated houses, washers, dryers, heated water for bathing, refrigerators, stoves, and so on.Hence, having nearly 7 billion people on Earth, compared to 5.2 billion people just 20 years ago (Population Reference Bureau, 1990), and having many people with a high standard of living, means that we humans will pollute a lot, deplete a lot, and build up huge amounts of waste that need to be stored. A second major reason why we have a big problem of polluting, depleting, and storing of waste is that during the past 200 years, we have gone from an agricultural way of life to an industrial way of life. Instead of â€Å"living off the land,† â€Å"growing grain to eat, and tending to farm animals, we built  factories and machines and created a new status called the factory worker to produce all kinds of products to consume—as a stroll through a typical shopping mall will show.To create these products, we have used a lot of resources and polluted the air and rivers. One of the most dangerous consequences of our polluting the environment is that we add huge amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere as the result of burning fossil fuels, such as oil and gas, by industries and automobiles.†The result is the warming of our planet and the possible change of Earth’s climate, which could wreak havoc for the growing seasons. What can we do about this? More and more people are coming to the realization that we must consider the long term, what is good for the global community, and what is good for future generations if we want to survive as a species. This will require us to think, plan, sacrifice, and change our ways of living. Many people in our country, and throughout the world, do not realize the seriousness of our environmental problem.Hence, part of the solution is to make Americans more aware of the problem and to educate them about the problem. We must find ways to give these Americans incentives s o that they want to address the environmental problem or at least accept the notion that we must address this problem, regardless of their vested interests. The environmental problem will not go away by denying its existence or by denying that it is becoming a bigger and bigger problem. The oceans and the air are common property that we all share.If air and water pollution stayed only in the country that produced it, the nation producing this pollution could take the initiative and responsibility to clean up the pollution it produced. But air and water pollution does not stop at state boundaries; rather it spreads throughout the world. We as citizens of this world, not just citizens of a nation, will need to work together to clean up our oceans and air. Probably, we will eventually need to agree on some worldwide goals for the planet. We have been moving in this direction by attempting to decrease carbon dioxide and chlorofluorocarbon emissions.We will probably need to make saving o ur environment one of the main goals of our world community. Within this goal, we will need to agree on more specific goals such as decreasing carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and chlorofluorocarbons; increasing the amount of rainforest; finding new, better, and safer ways of storing hazardous waste; and producing more energy without polluting more, depleting more, and creating more waste. Conclusion This is an issue we must all face together. We must realize that there is a problem and work on long term goals to correct this problem.Eventually, we may be able to turn this around. However, we must think long term, not only think about the here and now. Probably, a key factor, if not the key factor, in solving our environmental problem is time. Can we, as a world community, act soon enough to head off environmental trends that could be difficult, if not impossible, to reverse—for example, rising carbon dioxide emissions leading to rising temperatures, melting glaciers, rising s ea levels, and changing cli- mate patterns throughout the world? We must face this with a sense of urgency.

Origins of the Red Scare essays

Origins of the Red Scare essays In the first part of his book "American Anti-Communism", M. J. Heale writes "the fraternal egalitarianism of the American republican heritage with its insistence that rights and opportunities were available to all, enabled collectivist doctrines to be repudiated as un-American." What Heale means by this is that the American society was built upon the idea of equality of man, which at the time meant white male landowners. These wealthy landowners would become the middle and upper class of American society. They created their society on the basis of improving their own lives and did not really consider the ideas of those who could not vote, those that did not own land. These upper and middle class members of America became the ones who would later become fearful of the possibility of a revolution. To them, a revolution would undermine their efforts to advance their own lives and stature in society. Since most immigrants were poor and therefore entered the lower working class, any idea, which would elevate these workers to the same level as their employers at the employers' expense, was viewed as a threat. "In the nineteenth century there were men of Anglo-Saxon stock who came to regard the American mission as their particular inheritance and who feared the subversive effects of immigration and the alien political ideas that were thereby introduced." (Heale, p. 127) In the minds of the middle and upper class, the idea of revolution was associated less with liberty and more with the selfish demands of labor. No place was more evident of this than in Chicago in the mid-1800s. Chicago was the fastest growing major American city in the 1800s. This growth not only attracted immigrants, but also European radicals. In 1886, Chicago was the site of major labor tension over an eight-hour workday. On May 1st some 40,000 workers walked off the job and followed Albert P. Parsons through the center of the city. When police violence o...

The eNotes Blog Lets Get Political 5 Relevant Reads on AmericanPolitics

Lets Get Political 5 Relevant Reads on AmericanPolitics 1.  Evicted:  Poverty and Profit in the American City 6:30 a.m.: Wake up. 6:31 a.m.: Hit snooze. 6:37 a.m.: Wake up for real. 6:37:30 a.m.: Rollover. Check Twitter, news articles, Twitter again, news commentsWHY?! 6:40 a.m.:  Allow the ennui to take over as you shuffle off to brush your teeth. If this sounds like you for the past few months, we get it, and were here for you (but, for goodness sake, put the phone down in the morning). In times of strife, one of our favorite and most effective coping strategies is to march Onward! to the bookshelf. Pouring oneself into a read, be it socially relevant or for the purpose of distraction, can have countless positive impacts- escapism, comfort, or a better understanding of complex topics. Today were dipping into the latter: seeking a  better understanding of complex, relevant topics- in other words, issues that require  way more than 140 characters or a catchy hashtag. We selected books that are, for better or worse, relevant today to give readers different perspectives and more in-depth knowledge on important topics, such as racial inequality, money in political  campaigns, and the bedrocks of American politics.   Lets dive in (and make America read again). 1.  Evicted:  Poverty and Profit in the American City Author:  Matthew Desmond Why you should read this:  To better understand the inner-city housing market in America- a market increasingly controlled by a small number of landlords who monopolize rental properties. Summary:  Matthew Desmonds  Evicted  tells the story of eight families caught in the affordable housing crisis. It relates actual events that took place  in  Milwaukees South Side between 2008 and 2009 while Desmond was a  PhD  candidate in sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Continue reading  Evicted  summary. → 2. Hillbilly Elegy:  A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis Author:  J. D. Vance Why you should read this: To learn more about a large swath of American voters who might be misrepresented or not given enough nuanced attention in the media. Summary: Hillbilly Elegy  is J. D. Vances illuminating memoir of life in Appalachia, a region of the Eastern United States stretching from Alabama in the South to New York in the North. Appalachia used to be an industrial haven, home to the coal and steel industries, but the decline in manufacturing has resulted in widespread economic hardship. Continue reading  Hillbilly Elegy  summary.  Ã¢â€ â€™ 3. The New Jim Crow Author:  Michelle Alexander Why you should read this:  Its required reading if youre interested in criminal justice reform or conquering racial inequality. In light of the recent debate surrounding Confederate statues in public spaces, its more important than ever to understand our countrys racial history- a past that has great bearing on the racial politics of the present. This book powerfully connects past to present, detailing a civil rights crisis that has long been hidden within our own criminal justice system. Summary:  In  The New Jim Crow, civil rights lawyer Michelle Alexander makes the case that the system of Jim Crow never died. It just took a new form in the shape of mass incarceration. Today, African American men are  labelled  Ã¢â‚¬Å"criminals† and stripped of their freedom, their voting rights, and their access to government programs.  Continue reading  The New Jim Crow  summary.  Ã¢â€ â€™ 4. Dark Money Author: Jane Mayer Why you should read this: Mayer knows her stuff- shes been an investigative journalist with the New Yorker for more than two decades. Its a chilling but important read about billionaire-funded politics and how a few well-financed individuals can dramatically change the course of the American political system. Summary:  In  Dark Money, journalist Jane Mayer tells the story of how billionaires like the Koch brothers have financed the rise of the radical right. Mayer focuses primarily on Charles and David Koch, but she also talks about billionaires John M. Olin and Richard Mellon Scaife, who funded the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Continue reading Dark Money  summary.  Ã¢â€ â€™ 5. A Peoples History of the United States Author: Howard Zinn Why you should read this: Remove those rose-colored glasses, put on some truth goggles, and dive into the historical stories that dont normally make it into high school civics and history classes.  Beginning with Christopher Columbus and going right up until the present, this book will show you an untold side of American history- one that includes hidden class struggles, racist agendas, and the fight to replace a broken political system. Summary: Howard Zinns  A Peoples History of the United States  has been highly influential since its initial publication in 1980. It spawned adaptations for young readers (a two-volume adaptation by Rebecca Stefoff:  A Young Peoples History of the United States) and  The People Speak, a History Channel documentary based on Zinns work. Zinn himself remains a heroic figure to many, especially for this book and for his ongoing teaching and social activism, which were directly related. Continue reading  A Peoples History of the United States  summary.  Ã¢â€ â€™ *Bonus: The Constitution of the United States of America Why you should read this: Because duh. Do yourself a favor and read a primary document of immense relevance and importance. An annotate-able copy of The Constitution is available on Owl Eyes.

Did the possession of nuclear weapons prevent war in Europe after 1945 Essay

Did the possession of nuclear weapons prevent war in Europe after 1945 - Essay Example There is no doubt that presence of nuclear programs and weapons enabled Europe to take wise decisions after 1945. The best example of European ‘wise decisions’ is no nuclear war has taken place since 1945. If we talk about the nuclear battlefield in the context of British Government, we would analyse the British Army of the Rhine spent much time and effort in trying to imagine what such a battlefield might look like and in preparing to cope with it. The main reason was that British Government was in debt to the USA, due to which it reduced its armed forced to one million soldiers. Beside this, all European countries were aware of the haphazard of nuclear war, since the bombing of ‘Hiroshima’. During the 1950s and 1960s these efforts were taken very seriously, which involved two steps: possessing advanced nuclear weapons and visualising war with and without them. Of course war cannot be fought without them, which means war fought with nuclear weapons. ‘ Hiroshima’ bombing is a sample view, which is still giving birth to the haphazard of a single nuclear bomb. In the context of war at the strategic level the first response was to emphasise ‘counterforce’. Soviet weapons were the strategic targets and senior commanders still talked as though a nuclear war could be ‘won’. Then the danger of this approach dawned with the development of Soviet Union the means of delivering a massive blow against the United States, so the notion of 'riding out' a first strike and then delivering a counter-blow on what could only be empty silos and deserted bomber bases became highly unattractive. The result was a shift back to 'city-busting', holding the people rather than the weapons as hostages; 400 one-megaton weapons able to hit area targets would suffice. This totally amoral doctrine was dressed up under the term Mutual Assured Destruction and its appropriate acronym (MAD). The tactical counterpart to this change of heart took a further five years to mature. It came to be realised that large-scale assault on NATO, while still a de adly danger, was by no means the only or even the most likely contingency. (Barnaby & Holdstock, 2003, p. 39) At that time the total nuclear stockpile of the United States, at its highest point, had an estimated explosive yield of some 9 billion tons of high explosive and the Soviet stockpile must have been much the same. In the 20 years from 1945 to 1965 nuclear warheads evolved to fill every possible ecological niche on the battlefield and in numbers far greater than any rational person could possibly have considered useful. (2003, p.

PepsiCo Inc. Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

PepsiCo Inc. Case Study - Essay Example Pepsi is popular as many people identify with it. Customer’s lifestyles change regularly, and the company should understand consumer characteristics to facilitate construction of integrative communication message(Fill, 2009). All beverage companies struggle to convince the same consumers to purchase their products. For instance, the Coke studio currently running has little to do with drinks but popularizing Coke brand. Again, associating with critical events, such as world cup, increased the brand value of Coke. Pepsi should come up with new ways of appraising its brand and popularize its products. In short, marketing communication tools and design are essential for brand appraisal. Pepsi faces Coca-Cola as its main rival in the beverage market since they both enjoy global presence. However, Coca-Cola is always ahead in sales and market share. Some of the critical challenges that Pepsi faces include stiff competition both locally and internationally, relatively low market penetration, and weak brand. Therefore, the company marketing strategies should aim at solving the above shortcomings to allow it gain new markets. Possible marketing strategies are identifying market differentiation points, applying effective marketing communication initiatives, and increasing its promotional activities. With sizable investment portfolio and relatively strong brand, Pepsi can shake beverage market remarkably. Above all, agility and diversity in marketing aspects are the best way to retain existing customers and gain others.