Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Role of Operations Management Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Role of Operations Management Paper - Essay Example Here I will provide a detailed overview of the operations management and handling. Here I have chosen the Tata Motors for the overall research and analysis of the corporate operations management. The subject of the operations management spotlights on cautious running the procedures to construct as well as allocate services and products. Typically, small industries do not speak regarding area of operations management and its implementation; on the other hand they carry out the actions that management schools normally linked through the expression the operations management (McNamara, 2009). Organizations are by and large involved in operational management for the reason that it gives deep insight into how well and competently the activities and operations of an organization to renovate input into useful products for the operation of business are working (Fisher College of Business, 2008). This research will provide the detailed analysis of the TATA MOTORS and its associated operation management. Here I will elaborate the different areas those are executed under this paradigm in a business. This analysis will offer a deep insight into the overall working and operations in opera tions management. Most important and on the whole tasks of an organization frequently consist of manufacturing goods or production and their distribution. These tasks are as well linked by means of service and product management. However, product management is typically in view to one or additional directly linked goods that is, a manufactured goods line (McNamara, 2009). Operations management is in observation to the entire processes inside the business. Linked tasks and actions encompass organizing acquiring, record control, excellence control, logistics, storage as well as assessments. A huge deal of ideas is on competence as well as efficiency of procedures. Consequently, operations management frequently comprises considerable capacity assessment as well as investigation of interior
Monday, October 28, 2019
Care of a Patient in Acute Pain from a Total Knee Replacement Jahaira Melendez Essay Example for Free
Care of a Patient in Acute Pain from a Total Knee Replacement Jahaira Melendez Essay Nursing care after a total knee replacement is very essential in promoting a speedy and safe recovery for a patient. In an attempt to replicate the kneeââ¬â¢s natural ability to roll and glide as it bends by cutting away damaged bone and cartilage and replacing it with an artificial joint, acute pain following the procedure can be unbearable. In assisting the patient in controlling the pain would only guarantee the best recovery possible. With pain control, the patient will be able to perform follow up care and exercises to the best of their ability and over 90% of patients who undergo a total knee replacement have good results with recovery and ability to resume performing normal daily activities and minimizing the risks of complications to the surgical site. Keywords: Pain management, encouragement, total knee replacement, arthritis, prosthetic Care of a Patient in Acute Pain from a Total Knee Replacement A common medical condition seen in many aspects of the medical field is arthritis. Arthritis is the inflammation of a joint and the most common type of arthritis is osteoarthritis, also known as wear and tear. Pain from any medical condition or procedure can be very stressful to a patient and inhibit any recovery. Arthritis can be diagnosed by performing an x-ray to determine the extent of joint damage. Someone with arthritis of the knee usually has difficulty walking, climbing stairs and getting in and out of chairs. An orthopedic physician can recommend interventions. The most common joint replacement surgical intervention to help control and alleviate chronic pain for a patient is a Total Knee Replacement, also known as arthroplasty. A total knee replacement is performed to relieve moderate or severe pain and restore function in severely diseased knee joints. This procedure is not performed until pain is no longer controlled with non-operative treatment such as weight loss, activity modification, anti-inflammatory medications, joint supplements and cortisone injections. It is also not performed frequently on younger patients due to the implant wearing out quickly. An orthopedic physician would determine the type of prosthetic needed in order to achieve the most success. There are also modified implants to provide the best possible functioning with long lasting results such as partial knee, rotating knee, gender specific knee and custom knee. To perform the procedure, an orthopedic surgeon would administer general anesthesia, which means one is unconscious during operation, or spinal or epidural anesthesia in which a person is awake but cannot feel any pain from the waist down. During the procedure, the knee is in a bent position to fully expose the joint surfaces. An incision of 6 to 10 inches (15-25cm) is made on the front of the knee. The kneecap is moved aside and damaged surfaces are cut away. The femur is cut to match the corresponding surface of the metal femoral component that is placed on the end of the femur and the tibia is prepared with a flat cut on top to fit the metal and plastic tibial component that is inserted into the bone so the femoral component will slide as the knee is bent. If needed, the patella is cut flat and fitted with a plastic patella component and plastic spacers are inserted between the metal components for smooth gliding. Prior to completion, the knee is tested during surgery to ensure correct sizing and then closed with stitches or staples. The procedure would take 1 to 2 hours and recovery would be another 1 to 2 hours and then require a hospital stay of a couple of days. During the hospital stay, encouragement to move the foot and ankle to increase blood flow and prevent swelling or clots and blood thinners, support hoses or compression boots are very important. A nurse should also encourage the patient to cough regularly and take deep breaths to promote the movement of mucus that settles in the lungs during the procedure while being under anesthesia. Caring for a patient in acute pain after a procedure and managing pain levels is a very important part of recovery. Without pain control a patient will not be able to achieve recovery levels as quickly as possible without causing other injuries. Acute pain is related to tissue injury secondary to the surgical intervention. Upon discharge, teaching on follow up care is very important. A patient needs to know what to do and what to watch for as part of their recovery. Vital discharge instructions that a patient must be taught are: * When allowed to shower, usually 3 to 4 days after surgery, carefully wash incision with soap and water, rinse well and gently pat dry. Do no rub or apply creams. * Sit when showering to avoid falls. Avoid soaking to prevent infections. Try using non-slip mats, grab bars and elevated toilet seat or shower chair to prevent falls. Take pain medications as directed, do not double up doses if any doses are missed and do not drive when taking narcotics, usually about 6 weeks before it is ok to drive. * If taking a blood thinner, always verify with physician if it is ok to take Ibuprofen or any anti-inflammatory medications * Always sit in chairs with arms to make it easier to stand or sit but only 30 to 45 minutes at a time. * Sleep with pillow under ankle and keep knee straight but change leg position at night and nap if tired but donââ¬â¢t stay in bed all day. Wear support stockings for about 4 to 6 weeks and do not pivot, twist or kneel. * Walk up and down stairs with support, one step at a time using good knee to step up and bad knee to step down. As a fall prevention, always remove loose wires, throw rugs and have good lighting and keep items within reach. * Before and after any activity, ice the area for 30 minutes. Most importantly, teaching about potential risks such as nerve damage, stroke, and heart attack, blood clots in leg vein or lungs or infection should really be emphasized when discussing discharge instructions. Signs of infection would include increased redness, tenderness, swelling and pain of surgical site, stiffness, and fever with temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, shaking chills and drainage from site. If any of these symptoms occur, a call to the physician should be made immediately. Recovery will take several weeks during which time crutches or a walker will be needed and arrangements for transportation and everyday tasks will have to be made. Physical activity should be resumed slowly with normal household activities, a graduated walking program and knee strengthening exercises until staples or stitches are removed 2 to 3 weeks after surgery. Low impact exercising such as swimming or riding a stationary bicycle is tolerable but high impact activities such as running are not recommended due to an increased risk of joint failure because the knee joint components can loosen. During recovery from the surgical intervention, a nurses care to help control acute pain for the patient is one of the most important factors in helping a patient fully recover without further complications. Walking and knee movement begins soon after surgery so less pain would benefit the patient to move sooner and get strength back quickly. Pain control can be done with the use of analgesic and non-analgesic relief measures and reporting uncontrolled symptoms immediately. A nurse can assist with pain management interventions such as: * Performing comprehensive assessment of pain to include location, characteristics, onset, duration, frequency, quality, intensity or severity and precipitating factors. Always consider cultural differences and in non-verbal patient use the analog pain scale to evaluate pain control measures required * Reducing or eliminating increasing pain factors like fear or lack of knowledge * Teaching non pharmacological techniques like relaxation, massage, guided imagery and distraction * Checking vitals every 4 hours and neurovascular checks every hour during the first 12 to 24 hours then every 2 to 4 hours and always report any abnormal findings * Providing prescribed analgesics before activity to increase participation and assessing levels of comfort frequently * Initiating physical therapy, exercises and range of motion while teaching and reinforcing the use of techniques to prevent weight bearing on affected extremity and recommending home health or a rehabilitation facility * Monitoring incision bleeding, emptying and recording drainage every 4 hours and changing dressing every 24 to 48 hours * Encouraging increased fluid intake and high fiber diet, stool softener and a well-balanced diet with increased protein * Encouraging use of compression stockings to decrease swelling. Nursing care of a patient is very crucial in order to help the patient avoid potential complications with the prosthetic. An infected knee would require surgery to remove artificial parts and antibiotics to kill the bacteria then after clearing the infection another surgery would be required to install a new prosthetic. A nurseââ¬â¢s role in recovery is very important in many aspects of the patientââ¬â¢s care and the nurse can encourage and support the patient in building the confidence that they are able to perform the necessary steps to gain the ability to restore normal functions. Most importantly, helping the patient keep pain levels under control by whatever measures are comfortable to the patient should be first in mind. Pain can be the main factor that would prevent a patient from doing any follow care or treatment they are required to do in order to keep the prosthetic functioning adequately. The patient should be able to rely on the nurse to keep them in a comfortable state with the assistance of keeping in communication with the physician and without this patient-nurse relationship the patient would not be able to recover properly and achieve goals set as part of their recovery treatment plan.
Saturday, October 26, 2019
The Civil Rights Movement: We Can All Live in Peace :: Black struggle for civil rights in America
What is the key to understanding? Is it knowing what our predecessors were thinking? Or is simply just trying to put ourselves in their place. Whatever the case may be, understanding our history is vital in the progression of civilization. In an era when color was everything, understanding our history is what makes life in America today-so beautiful.à à à à à à à à à à During the time of the Civil Rights Movement, the blacks wanted to be free, but the whites wanted to suppress them. The whites were willing to go to any lengths to campaign their ideas of white supremacy. From research it can be learned, that from that movement, to some - it was more than a movement, it was a war for freedom. ââ¬Å" I lived in a time when the white man was our ruler, but he could not suppress me any longer. I refused to get up for that white man, he and I were not seen as equals from societies eyes, but god gave us both red blood in our veins.â⬠(Rosa Parks: Autobiography pg. 23) Rosa Parks was just one of the many powerful spirits that lit the way for many to freedom. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was probably the most influential during this time period. He touched people of all kinds. Blacks, whites, and people of all races were inspired by the way King could move his audiences. Even John F. Kennedy was seen walking down the street with King listening to a personal sermon. Although Kennedy was only president for a little over one-thousand days before he was assassinated, perhaps the most important of his achievements was his support for civil rights and his effort to move the United States away from racial segregation and toward freedom and equal rights for all Americans. Kennedy and King had the same ââ¬Å"dreamâ⬠. à à à à à In an era when color was everything, understanding our history is what makes life in America today-so beautiful. The communication between races was done through many different attempts by both parties. Protests, secret coding, public seminars, speeches, and using the goodness of oneââ¬â¢s heart, were just some of the many ways races attempted to communicate. The nation has grown and learned from the men and women that fought for equal rights, and it shows. Interracial couples are getting married each and every day. Blacks and Whites may sit together on the bus in the front or the back.
Thursday, October 24, 2019
A Blend of Tradition and the Contemporary
Music has always been a part of the rich Lebanese culture and has played a very important role in many religious traditions. The beautiful rhythm of Arabic tunes mixed with peculiar characteristics of gypsy music in the country proved to be a great blend which resulted to a rich production of intensity that captivates listeners.The characteristic soothing rhythm and wild beats made Lebanese music known around the world. Traditional Lebanese music incorporates instruments such as the oud, the derbake and the ney. These instruments are still being incorporated to pop music that the new generation is enjoying today.The traditional music of Lebanon is usually sung in either Lebanese or Egyptian language. Aside from this, musicians, artists, singers etc, differ on the way they incorporate music to their individual sound.à The artists differ in so many ways. Some artists were known to differ in their music because of their Lebanese dialects. Most are distinct because of their style, the ir sound and instruments.Very few Lebanese musicians try to remain loyal to the traditional music which is called Jabali (of the mountains). One of which is Mohammed El Helani more popularly known as Assi Helani, who is a major music force in the Middle East since the 1990ââ¬â¢s. He is a strong musician and follower of the traditional music like mawall and dabke.Dabke, which is usually presented during important and joyous occasions such as weddings, family parties and competitions. This is a very energetic music which usually leaves the audience ââ¬Ëstomping their feetââ¬â¢-which is the literal meaning of Dabke.Pop music on the other hand is not a new fancy among the Lebanese audience. The growing influence of the western culture made itââ¬â¢s way not only on Lebanese every day living but also on itââ¬â¢s music. Although western pop music is very distinct from Lebanese pop music because it fuses pop melodies and itââ¬â¢s pop-Arabic roots at the same time. The pop music of Lebanon also focuses on the melodramatic melodies and sad states of mind.à Nancy Nabil Ajram is also a popular singer among the Lebanese people. A multi-platinum folk artist, Ajram is considered to be one of the most important superstars ranking 3rd among the best selling female singers of Lebanon. Her style is incorporating the traditional Lebanese music with and infusion of Western culture. Her formula proved to be very potent since most of her followers are the young and old alike of the generation.
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Types of Abuse
Abuse: There are many different types of abuse and it can be defined as mistreating another human with the intention to be cruel or violent or cause harm. It can be described as the misuse or mishandle of something. It occurs often and usually done to acquire a nasty but satisfying effect. Dating abuse:This occurs during an unhealthy relationship between two people, usually teenagers, when one person wants control or power in the relationship. It occurs repeatedly and usually aggressive and commanding behavior allows the recipient to gain dominance. Profile of the abuser:o Usually has a past of abuse in the familyo May have been abused when they were youngero They may not cope wello Have a high intake of drugs or alcoholo Usually have characteristics of being:? Jealous? Manipulative ? Controlling? Narcissistic? Disconnected? Hypersensitive Profile of the victim: o Usually blames themselveso Goes into depressiono Low self-esteemo Suicidal thoughtso Socially isolatedo May have anxiety Dating abuse examples:Emotional or psychological abuse Making someone feel like they not important my calling them names or treating them like a child by ordering them around, yelling at someone. Insulting, swearing, ignoring, threating or isolating victim. Physical abuse Hurting someone in a way that leaves bruises, using a firearm against victim, doesn't allow victim to eat or sleep. Chocking, pushing, pinching, biting, pulling your hair, locking you out of the house.Sexual abuse Doesn't allow the victim birth control, forces the victim to have sex with them, forces the victim to engage in pornography and prostitution. Unwanted touching, forces you to engage in sexual behavior that hurts you, refusing you to use safe sex practices. Controlling behavior Is overprotective over the victim to a point where they don't trust the victim, isolates victim from family and friends. Overprotective, jealous, creates accusations, criticize or stalks victim.Use of social media encourages dating abuse1. It's addictive:Research shows that people who constantly use social media and their phones to a point where it becomes addictive or excessive, abandon their personal life, show signs of mood modification, and are mentally preoccupied. This shows that people who use social media increasingly can neglect their partners which may cause their partners to leave them which can cause them to become angry and abuse. It can cause them to have mood swings and therefore take it out on their partners when they get enraged.2. It triggers sadness:Social media isolates the abuser and an increase use of it can make the abuser feel lonely even though their partner is with them. This can make them abuse their partner as they could feel like thei r partner isn't supporting them. Sometimes as people get sadder they tend to take it out on others to feel satisfied or content and this could mean taking it out on their partners.3. It can lead to jealousy:Studies have shown that excessive social media users have triggers of jealousy. Abusers can feel jealous when their friends dating lives are more extraordinary than theirs and could become furious that their partners aren't as exciting and therefore take it out on their partner. Abusers are often overprotective and if their partner is engaging with someone else on social media and they see it could infuriate the abusers which leads to violence. Use of cellphones increase dating violenceTeenagers are usually able to get excess to the internet or if not they all have phones. This makes them an easy target to dating violence as their abuser can threaten them anywhere at any time. This means that the abuser can control and degrade the victim just by a click of a few buttons over their mobile phones. Abusers can harass their victims through online texts which may dehumanize the victim and cause them to feel abused. Abusers may also sexually harass their partners online by asking for nude pictures or forcing them to engage in unwanted, awkward sexting. Abusers often message their partners constantly not because they care but because they need to feel like they in control and make the victim intimidated. Abusers can often hack their partners social media sites to know what they up to, they often post private messages or pictures, they can post cruel things about their partner online, they can track their partners location and they can stalk. By doing this they intimidate their partner and will often abuse if their partner is, according to them, doing something wrong. Warning signs of dating abuseo Your partner threatens youo Isolates you from your friends and familyo Dehumanizes youo Your partner makes you feel guilty to get their wayo Your partner is aggressive towards youo Your partner forces you to do uncomfortable thingso You are blamed for everything that goes wrongo You are called names by your partner and belittled by themo Your partner calls and messages you excessivelyo Your partner touches you in public without your permissiono Your partner exceeds your physical boundarieso Your partner controls your reproductive choiceso Your partner has explosive tempero You are forced into having sex with your partner How to escape an abusive relationship?: 1. Talk to someone about your situation 2. Set aside money and slowly move your belongings out 3. Pack an emergency bag 4. Plan your escape route and where you will live 5. Leave when your partner is not at home 6. Don't take the blame 7. Write everything you experience down 8. Warn and tell your friends and family 9. Block the abuser on any social sites 10. Seek physiological help 11. Move on and regain your value and dignityOrganizations that can help Legal Aid South Africa offers legal assistance. To locate your nearest Justice Centre, call 0861 053 425 or visit www.legal-aid.co.za.Rape Crisis offers free confidential counselling to people who have been raped or sexually assaulted. Call 011 642 4345.SAPS 10111University campus law clinics also offer legal assistance. Powa provides counselling, both telephonically and in person, temporary shelter for and legal help to women who have experienced violence.Call 011 642 434Tears foundation Founded in 2012, this non-profit organization provides a database of medical, legal and psychological services available in South Africa to help those who have been raped or survived sexual abuse.Call 010 590 5920Part 2: 55 Tyrone avenue Parkview Johannesburg 21935th February 2018 Dear: Johanna I've heard about your experience with your violent boyfriend and I am extremely apologetic that you had to go through such an ordeal. I cannot even bear to imagine the pain you had to go through. The suffering you have experienced is traumatizing and has happened solely because your boyfriend wanted control in the relationship. Your boyfriend was extremely jealous, controlling and hypersensitive which is usually the characteristics of an abuser. I as your best friend had noticed earlier how distant and melancholic you were, but I had no idea that it would link to your boyfriend. Your boyfriend was always so loving, caring and protective over you but then again that was probably the first stage of dating abuse. Your boyfriend used physical abuse on you when he hit you and physiological abuse on you when he made you feel guilty about leaving him and threatened to kill you. Johanna, you are currently in the third stage of violence wherein your partner is threating you and exceeding your limits and boundaries. You cannot take any more of this, its traumatizing and upsetting. You need to take measures into place such as blocking him on any social media profiles so that he may have no contact with you. You should also inform your family as to the situation so that they are aware and if anything is to happen they know where you are. You should also keep a journal and write all these experiences down so that in case for future references you want to charge him you have proof. You should seek physiological help, so that you have a better understanding of your situation and so you can move on with dignity and value. Most importantly though you should not take the blame for his actions. Johanna, you are not his punching bag and you should know that no one deserves to treat you in a way that he has treated you. You should know that you are worthful and beautiful and if anyone cannot see that and appreciate it then they shouldn't be around you. Always remember that you are not a victim you alive and that makes you a survivor and don't be ashamed of this story others will be inspired.
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
European journal of law economics The WritePass Journal
European journal of law economics 1 Introduction European journal of law economics 1 Introduction2 The optimal choice of the firm without financial responsibility3 Financial responsibility4 Concluding remarksReferencesRelated 1 Introduction Liability rules are important tool of environmental risks management in Canada, United States and Europe. The major legislations are CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act) adopted by the American Congress in 1980 and the Directive of the European Parliament and the Council on Environmental Liability with regard to the Prevention and remedying of environmental Damages which came into force in April 2004. Aà *E.J.L. E. 78à liability rule induces correct incentive for risk prevention only if information is symmetric and the potential injurer has sufficient wealth to cover his liability. Indeed, it is well known from the previous literature that when the injurers wealth is not sufficient toà payà liability judgments ex post (the injurer is said to be judgment-proof) this leads to underprovision of care ex ante (Summers 1983; Shavell 1986). In the case of environmental risks, on the one hand, perfect control of firms actions in prevention is not possible, and on the other hand, the wealth of theà polluterà may be small relative to the clean-up costs and victims compensation. There are manyà policiesà to alleviate the judgment-proof problem. The first one is to extend liability to the parties who have a contractual relationship with the risky firm, the case under CERCLA which imposes extended liability to lenders. The economic analysis of the extended liability has given raise to mitigated results. Pitchford (1995) considers a one-period moral hazard model with two states of nature (accident or not). Since the loan fee fixed by the lender included his expected liability costs, the more the lender is liable, the more he charges the firm in the no-accident state. Then, the state of the nature ââ¬Å"no-accidentâ⬠becomes unfavourable for the firm and the full liability of the lender2à leads to a suboptimal level of effort whereas partial lenders liability allows achieving the optimal level of prevention. In a two-period model, Boyer and Laffont (1997) show that partial liability of lender is optimal. Consequently, these authors conclude that the society has to make a tradeoff between prevention and compensation. In an alternative setting in which environmental damages are stochastic and prevention cost is a monetary investment that needs external funding, Dionne and Spaeter (2003) show that lender extended liability has a positive effect on the firms prevention level if and only if an increase in the face value of the debt implies an increase in prevention investment. Moreover, Balkenborg (2001) and Lewis and Sappington (2001) show that the benefits of extending liability to lenders depend on the observability of the firms prevention level by the lender, the bargaining power of each party and the nature of environmental damages. Finally, Hutchison and Vant Veld (2005) consider a model with both observable damage-reducing activities and non-observable probability-reducing measures and show that introducing extended liability to lender induces judgement-proof firms with high gross profits to take socially optimal levels of ca re, those with intermediate gross profits to take suboptimal level of care and drives those with low gross profits out of business. Financial responsibility is another remedy for the judgment-proof problem. Under a regime of financial responsibility, the firm is required to demonstrate that the cost of the harm she can cause is covered. The most common instrument of financial responsibility is the insurance contract. But as it is well known, the compulsory liability insurance induces the efficient level of prevention only when the insurer is able to observe the prevention level performed by the firm (Shavell 1986; Jost 1996; Polborn 1998). Following the analysis of Jost (1996), Feess and*E.J.L. E. 79à Hege (2000, 2003) consider a model with monitoring-based incentives and show that the mandatory liability coverage for total harm leads to an allocation that is closed to the first-best. In this paper, we investigate how the socially optimal allocation can be implemented through ex ante financial responsibility and ex post strict liability rule. We do not restrict our analysis to insurance contract but on contrary analyze financial guarantee contract. Indeed, in the Directive of the European Parliament and the Council on environmental liability there is a focus on a future legislation that imposes financial responsibility on the polluting firms. Then we analyze the consequences of financial responsibility on the incitation to prevention in a context of asymmetric information and show that the first-best allocation may be attainable. This follows from the fact that the level of damages provides a signal of the firms prevention level (Lewis and Sappington 1999) and can be used to design an optimal contract. But contrary to Lewis and Sappington (1999), in our setting, prevention measures do not only involve a disutility for the firm but also reduce the funds available f or compensation and clean-up (Beard 1990; Lipowsky-Posey 1993; Dionne and Spaeter 2003; Dari-Mattiaci and De Geest 2005). We consider a firm which activity yields a non-random gross profit and generates random environmental damages. The firm can improve the distribution of damages by an investment in prevention at the beginning of the period and safety measures during the production process. At the end of the period, only the damages and the resources of the firm net of the prevention cost are observable. Moreover, it is assumed that the firms wealth is lower than the highest amount of damages its activity can generate. We establish a necessary and sufficient condition for the implementation of the socially optimal allocation in spite of moral hazard when the firm is mandated to cover the highest amount of damages its activity can generate. We also demonstrate that the set of contracts that implement the socially optimal level of prevention includes a particular contract of the form ââ¬Å"reward or maximal penaltyâ⬠which is closed to a finite risk product referred to as spread loss treaty. The re st of the paper is organized as follows. The following section presents the firms optimal choice in the absence of the financial responsibility regime. Section 3 investigates the impact of financial responsibility on the firms prevention level. Finally, Section 4 concludes. 2 The optimal choice of the firm without financial responsibility Consider a risk-neutral firm which activity generates a fixed profit P and creates a possibility of environmental damages ## ]0,à L[. The firm can improve the distribution of damages by an investment in prevention at the beginning of the period and safety measures during the production process; these two measures are represented by a single prevention variable denotedà e.à However, the reduction of risk generates a cost c(e) when the firm chooses a level of preventionà e.à Moreover we assume that before engaging in its activity, the firm has initial wealth (equity)à Rwhich can be partially used to cover the cost induced by prevention measures. Letà f(##/e) andà F(##/e) be respectively the density and the distribution function of the damages; the following is assumed: *E.J.L. E. 80à à Assumption 1à ##e,à f(##/e) 0, decreases with ##.3à This means that the observation of a lower level of damage is relatively more likely if a higher level of prevention has been adopted. This assumption implies the first order stochastic dominance: ## ]0,à L[,Feà (##/e) 0. Moreover,à Feà (0/e) =à Feà (L/e) = 0. Assumption 2à ## ]0,à L[,à Feeà (##/e) 0. This distribution function is strictly concave inà e.à 4 Assumption 3à ceà (e) 0 andà cee(e) 0. The prevention cost is strictly convex inà e. Assumption 4à If the amount of damages is very high, the firms assets may be insufficient for compensation; then the firm will be pushed into bankruptcy. Assume that the discount rate is null so that the firms net value without investment in prevention noted ## equalsà Rà +à P.Formally, this liability assumption can be written asà Là ##. What about the optimal level of prevention from the firms point of view? The intuition suggests that a firm facing limited liability will underinvest in prevention. But, as stated by the following lemma this is not always true. Lemma 1à A judgment-proof firm does not always choose a suboptimal prevention level. Proof: See the ââ¬Å"Appendixâ⬠. The social welfare criterion is assumed to be the minimization of the total cost which is the sum of the expected damages and the prevention cost. We assume that the regulator observes the prevention level. At the social optimum, the expected marginal benefit of prevention equals the expected marginal cost. The objective of the firm is to maximize its net revenue which equals to the sum of its profit and equity minus the expected liability payments (compensation and clean-up costs). The firm can onlyà payà up to her assets. Hence the private expected marginal benefit is lower than the social one because of the partial internalization of environmental damages by the firm. Moreover, the private expected marginal cost of prevention is lower than the social one because the funds invested in prevention are not available for compensation and clean-up. At the private optimal level of prevention, the private expected marginal benefit of prevention equals the private expected marginal cost. Consequently, the optimal private level of prevention may be lower or higher than the socially optimal one, depending on which effect dominates. However, the judgment-proofness of the firm may result in a partial remediation of damages. One can think about compulsory liability insurance which covers the h ighest amount of damages as a solution to this problem. But it is well known from economics literature that when care is non-observable, a full insurance leads to underprovision of care by the insured. In the following section we demonstrate that under a guarantee structure, incentives work well even if it isà *E.J.L. E. 81à impossible to observe the care by theà polluter. The reason is that under the guarantee theà polluterà receives a return on investment in prevention. Moreover, this scheme provides the full coverage of damages: prevention and compensation are both satisfied. 3 Financial responsibility This section is devoted to the economic analysis of a hybrid regime of ex ante regulation through financial responsibility requirement and ex post strict liability. More precisely, in our setting the financial responsibility takes the form of a guarantee provided by another party that has deep pockets. Then the hybrid regime can be viewed as a regime of vicarious liability in which the guarantor and the firm are joint liable. As we know, in this setting, the victims generally choose to collect from the guarantor because the later has deep-pockets. Then, in what follows, we will assume that the firm and its guarantor are jointly liable and that it is the guarantor who has to compensate for the damages generated by the firm.5,6 The analysis is based on the principal-agent paradigm. In this framework, the firm is the limited liability risk neutral agent and the guarantor is the risk neutral principal. The prevention level performed by the firm and consequently the cost of such a measure are not observable by the principal. Moreover, the amount of damages and theà netà resources of the firm at the end of the period are observable. The timing of the model is as follows. First, the guarantor and the firm sign a contract which stipulates the state-contingent-payments (transfers) that the firm has to make to his guarantor. Secondly, the firm performs a level of prevention and bears the associated cost which is unobservable by the guarantor. Then, the profit is realized and the damages occur and finally the transfer is made to the guarantor. Moreover, it is assumed that the guarantor has all the bargaining power and his objective is to design a scheme of transfers that maximizes his profit. However, the guaran tor has to take into account some constraints. The first one is the participation constraint of the firm which reflects the fact that the financial guaranteeà mustà yield expected revenue at least equals to what the firm would have obtained without contracting (condition 1). The second one is the firms limited liability constraint (condition 2). The third constraint reflects the fact that the transfer is bounded below in such a way that the firm could be rewarded (condition 3).7à The last condition is the incentive compatibility constraint which reflects the optimal behaviour of the firm in choosing the prevention level (condition 4).8 *E.J.L. E. 82à Formally, if we denoteà t(##) the transfer made by the firm when the amount of damages equals ##, the guarantors problem (P1) can be written as: TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE subject to TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE The existence of schemes of transfers that solve the problem above is not guaranteed. Then it is essential to characterize the conditions under which the problem (P1) admits a solution for a given utilityà uà (expected firm revenue) and a given prevention levelà e.à We can establish the following result: Proposition 2à The problemà (P1)à admits a solution, i.e. the levels of utility u and prevention e can be implemented if and only if: TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE Proof:à See the ââ¬Å"Appendixâ⬠. The intuition underlying the proposition 2 is the following. For a given level of preventionà eà it is not possible to find a scheme of transfers that gives a level of utilityà uà if the marginal cost of such a measure is greater than the marginal benefit. Let us remark that the marginal benefit of prevention is reflected by the reduction of the expected transfers that the firm has toà payà to her guarantor. We have demonstrated (see the ââ¬Å"Appendixâ⬠) that there is a schemeà %23t(##) that gives the maximum marginal benefit of prevention, which equals [## à c(e) à B]Feà (##). If this upper limit of the marginal benefit of prevention is lower than the marginal cost of prevention for a givenà e,à then any scheme of transfers cannot implement the prevention levelà e. From the analysis above we can derive the following result: Proposition 3à The social optimumà (u, e*)à can be implemented with the financial responsibility if and only if: TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE *E.J.L. E. 83à à Proof:à See the ââ¬Å"Appendixâ⬠The left-hand-side term of the condition (5) represents the rate of change of the marginal benefit of prevention at the pointà e* with a transfers schemeà %23t(##), whereas the right-hand-side represents the rate of change of the marginal cost of prevention at the same point. Consequently if there is a level of damage ## such that the rate of change of the marginal benefit is at least equal to the rate of change of the marginal cost of prevention then the social optimum can be implemented. The last step of the analysis is devoted to the characterization of a scheme of transfers that implements the first-best level of prevention. We can establish the following proposition: Proposition 4à The set of transfers that implement the socially optimal level of prevention contains a scheme of the following form: TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE Proof:à See the ââ¬Å"Appendixâ⬠The scheme of transfersà 23t(##) is such that if at the end of the period, the actual damage is lower than the target level ##, then the firm is rewarded by receiving the bonus payment B, so her net revenue at the end of the period equals ## Conversely if the actual damage is greater than the target level ##, then the payment made by the firm to the guarantor equals ## à c(e*) and the firm net revenue at the end is null. This form of contract can be approached to a spread loss treaty. It is an alternative risk transfer (ART) solution, more precisely a finite risk product. By this contract, the financial responsibility of the firm is transferred to her guarantor (that can be a bank or an insurer).9,10à At the beginning of the contract, the firmà paysà either annual or single premium into a so-called experience account. Furthermore, the two parties contractually agree on an investment return. The funds are used to compensation and the rest is returned to the client. But if the claims payments exceed the funds available, the client has toà payà the remainder. In this paper, we consider a one-period model. Consequently, the model can be viewed as if we have aggregated the periods of the spread loss treaty. Moreover, if the realized damages are low, the funds into the experience account are sufficient for compensation whereas in the bad states of nature (high realized damages), the fundsà *E.J.L. E. 84à are not sufficient. Hence, because of its limited liability, the firm cannotà payà back the claims payments of the guarantor. Then, the guarantor takes this fact into account by penalizing the firm in the intermediate states of nature [those such that the amount of damages is between the target level ## and ## à c(e*)]. Consequently, the reward is used as an incentive device. 4 Concluding remarks A potentially judgment-proof firm may not internalize the social cost of its activity and then may have insufficient incentives to choose the socially optimal level of prevention. Whereas most of papers studied the incentive effect of extending liability to the lenders of the injurer-firm, this paper on contrary considers another remedy to the problems generated by the judgment-proofness. I demonstrate that a full financial responsibility (operation licence subject to the demonstration of a financial guarantee which covers the highest remediation cost) is compatible with the socially optimal level of prevention and establish a necessary and sufficient condition under which this is realized. Furthermore, I have shown that when the socially optimal outcome is attainable, a contract of the form ââ¬Å"reward or maximum penaltyâ⬠is included in the set of first-best solutions. Such a contract rewards the firm when the actual damages are lower than a target level because the guarantor infers that the firm took an adequate prevention level. Conversely, if the amount of the damages exceeds the target level, then the firm is maximally punished. This particular contract can be approach to an alternative risk transfer product referred to as spread loss treaty. Consequently, the alternative risk transfer solutions seem suited not only for the hedging of environmental risks, but also for incentive purpose. Finally, recall that the Directive of the European Parliament and the Council on Environmental Liability has a special focus on a future legislation which imposes financial responsibility on the polluting firms. It is necessary that before the promulgation of such legislation, European authorities help insurance and banking sectors to develop the market for environmental guarantees. Acknowledgmentsà I am very grateful to an anonymous referee and to the editor for helpful remarks on a previous version of the paper. I would like to thank Jean-Marc Bourgeon, Georges Dionne, Marie-Cà ©cile Fagart, Mahamadou Fall, Claude Fluet, Bruno Jullien, Anne Lavigne, Rà ©mi Moreau, Pierre Picard, Sandrine Spaeter, Jean-Marc Tallon and Daniel Zajdenweber. The paper also benefited from the comments of session participants of the 2005 SCSE congress in Charlevoix, 2005 AFSE congress in Paris and seminar participants at HEC Montrà ©al, Università © dOrlà ©ans, Università © de Sherbrooke and Università © du Quà ©bec Montrà ©al. Financial support by CREF-HEC and the hospitality of the Canada Research Chair in risk management are acknowledged. Appendix Proof of lemma 1 The social optimumà e* is the solution of the following problem: TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE *E.J.L. E. 85à The associated first-order condition is given by: TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE The firms problem can be written as: TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE The left-hand-side term of Eq. 6 (7) represents the social (private) expected marginal cost of prevention and the right-hand-side represents the social (private) expected marginal benefit. From the comparison of (6) and (7)à ePà can be lower or higher thanà e*. Proof of proposition 2 Part 1: uà ## [u,## à c(e) à B] Every level of utilityà uà is given by the following expression: TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE Taking into account this expression, the objective function of the guarantor becomes: TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE Moreover, (2) and (3) imply: ## à c(e) âⰠ¥ ##à t(##)f(##/e)d## âⰠ¥Ã B; thus 0âⰠ¤uà âⰠ¤ ## à c(e) à B Consequently, the existence of a transfers scheme verifying (1), (2) and (3) implies that the utility of the firm is bounded:à uà ## [u,## à c(e) à B]. Note that the principals objective function depends only on the expected transfer (byà u). Therefore, all solutions that verify the agents incentive constraint and that have theà *E.J.L. E. 86à same expectation are equivalent from the principals point of view. However, the existence of such solutions is not guaranteed. Indeed, if the problem does not admit a solution, then it is not possible to implement a given level of preventionà eà for a given level of utilityà u. Part 2: [## à c(e) à B]Feà (##/e) âⰠ¥Ã ce(e) Let us assume thatà uà ## [u,## à c(e) à B], then the next step consists to establish conditions under which the incentive constraint (4) is satisfied. Let ## = {t(##)/Bà âⰠ¤Ã t(##) âⰠ¤ ## à c(e)##}, be the set of admissible transfers. Let us define:G[t(-)] = ##à t(##)fe(##/e)d##;à mà = min ##à t(##)fe(##/e)d## andà Mà = max ##t(##)fe(##/e)d##. We can establish thatà mà is strictly negative andà Mà strictly positive.11à Thus the functionà Gà [t(.)] is bounded in the set of admissible transfers. Then the validity of the incentive constraint depends on the value taken byà mà as follows. Lemma 2à the incentive constraint is satisfied for a given e and u if and only if: TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE Lemma 3à the scheme of transfersà %23t(##)à which minimizes the function Gà [t(-)] = ##à t(##)fe(##/e)d##à has the following formà 12: TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE The second part of proposition 2 follows from lemmas 2 and 3. Proof of proposition 3 From proposition 2, we can derive that when the guarantors problem (P1) admits at least one solution, it is equivalent to the following problem (P1bis): TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE Conditions (9) and (10) imply proposition 3. *E.J.L. E. 87à à Proof of proposition 4 From the proposition 3 we know that the socially optimal prevention level can be achieved ifà Fe(##/e*)/F(##/e*) âⰠ¥Ã ce(e*)/u. Moreover, we can demonstrate that the functionà Fe(##/e*)/F(##/e*) is not increasing in ##.13à Consequently, ifà Fe(##/e*)/F(##/e*) âⰠ¥Ã ce(e*)/u, there is a level of damages ## ## such thatà Fe(##/e*)/F(##/e*) =à ce(e*)/u. References Balkenborg, D. (2001). How liable should a lender be? The case of judgment-proof firms and environmental risk: Comment.à American Economic Review, 91,à 731-738. Beard, R. (1990). Bankruptcy and care choice.à RAND Journal of Economics, 21,à 626-634. Boyer, M., Laffont, J.-J. (1997). Environmental risks and bank liability.à European Economic Review, 41,à 1427-1459. Dari-Mattiacci, G., De Geest, G. (2005). Judgment Proofness under four different precaution technologies.à Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 161(1), 38-56. Dionne, G., Spaeter, S. (2003). Environmental risk and extended liability: The case of green technologies.à Journal of Public Economics, 87(5-6), 1025-1060. Feess, E., Hege, U. (2000). Environmental harm and financial responsibility.à Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance, Issues and Practice, 25(2), 220-234. Feess, E., Hege, U. (2003). Safety monitoring, capital structure and financial responsibility.à International Review of Law and Economics, 23,323-339. Hutchison, E., Vant Veld, K. (2005). Extended liability for environmental accidents: What you see is what you get.à Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 49,à 157-173. Jost, P. (1996). Limited liability and the requirement to purchase insurance.à International Review of Law and Economics, 16,à 259-276. Lewis, T., Sappington, D. (1999). Using decoupling and deep pockets to mitigate judgment-proof problems.à International Review of Law and Economics, 19,à 275-293. Lewis, T., Sappington, D. (2001). How liable should a lender be? The case of judgment-proof firms and environmental risk: Comment.American Economic Review, 91,à 724-730. Lipowsky-Posey, L. (1993). Limited liability and incentives when firms can inflict damages greater than worth.à International Review of Law and Economics, 13,à 325-330. Pitchford, R. (1995). How liable should a lender be? The case of judgment-proof firms and environmental risk.à American Economic Review, 85,1171-1186. Polborn, M. (1998). Mandatory insurance and the judgment proof problem.à International Review of Law and Economics, 18,à 141-146. Ringleb, A. H., Wiggins, S. N. (1990). Liability and large-scale long-term hazards.à Journal of Political Economy, 98,à 574-595. Rogerson, W. (1985). The first-order approach to principal-agent problems.à Econometrica, 53,à 1357-1367. Shavell, S. (1986). The judgment proof problem.à International Review of Law and Economics, 6,à 45-58. Summers, J. S. (1983). The case of disappearing defendant: An economic analysis.à University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 132,à 145-185. IRDES, 10 rue Vauvenargues, 75018 Paris, France e-mail: [emailprotected]; [emailprotected] E.J.L. E. 2010, 30(2), 77-87
Monday, October 21, 2019
The Components of an Intriguing Biography
The Components of an Intriguing Biography A biography is a story of a persons life, written by another author. The writer of a biography is called a biographer while the person written about is known as the subject or biographee. Biographies usually take the form of a narrative, proceeding chronologically through the stages of a persons life. American authorà Cynthia Ozick notes in her essay Justice (Again) to Edith Wharton that a good biography is like a novel, wherein it believes in the idea of a life as a triumphal or tragic story with a shape, a story that begins at birth, moves on to a middle part, and ends with the death of the protagonist. A biographical essay is a comparatively short work of nonfictionà about certain aspects of a persons life. By necessity, thisà sort of essayà is muchà more selective than a full-length biography, usually focusing only on key experiences and events in the subjectsà life. Between History and Fiction Perhaps because of this novel-like form, biographies fit squarely between written history and fiction, wherein the author often uses personal flairs and must invent details filling in the gaps of the story of a persons life that cant be gleaned from first-hand or available documentation like home movies, photographs, and written accounts. Some critics of the form argue it does a disservice to both history and fiction, going so far as to call them unwanted offspring, which has brought a great embarrassment to them both, as Michael Holroyd puts it in his book Works on Paper: The Craft of Biography and Autobiography. Nabokov even called biographers psycho-plagiarists, meaning that they steal the psychology of a person and transcribe it to the written form. Biographies are distinct from creative non-fiction such as memoir in that biographies are specifically about one persons full life story from birth to death while creative non-fiction is allowed to focus on a variety of subjects, or in the case of memoirs certain aspects of an individuals life. Writing a Biography For writers who want to pen another persons life story, there are a few ways to spot potential weaknesses, starting with making sure proper and ample research has been conducted à pulling resources such as newspaper clippings, other academic publications, and recovered documents and found footage. à First and foremost, it is the duty of biographers to avoid misrepresenting the subject as well as acknowledging the research sources they used. Writers should, therefore, avoid presenting a personal bias for or against the subject as being objective is key to conveying the persons life story in full detail. Perhaps because of this, John F. Parker observes in his essay Writing: Process to Product that some people find writing a biographical essay easier than writing anà autobiographicalà essay. Often it takes less effort to write about others than to reveal ourselves. In other words, in order to tell the full story, even the bad decisions and scandals have to make the page in order to truly be authentic.
Sunday, October 20, 2019
Aesops Fable of the Crow and the Pitcher
Aesops Fable of the Crow and the Pitcher One of Aesops most popular animal stories is this one, of a thirsty and ingenious crow. The text of the fable, from George Fyler Townsend, whose translation of Aesops Fables has been the standard in English since the 19th Century, is this: A Crow perishing with thirst saw a pitcher, and hoping to find water, flew to it with delight. When he reached it, he discovered to his grief that it contained so little water that he could not possibly get at it. He tried everything he could think of to reach the water, but all his efforts were in vain. At last he collected as many stones as he could carry and dropped them one by one with his beak into the pitcher, until he brought the water within his reach and thus saved his life. Necessity is the mother of invention. History of the Fable Aesop, if he existed, was a slave in the seventh century Greece. According to Aristotle, he was born in Thrace. His fable of the Crow and the Pitcher was well known in Greece and in Rome, where mosaics have been found illustrating the crafty crow and the stoic pitcher. The fable was the subject of a poem by Bianor, an ancient Greek poet from Bithynia, who lived under the emperors Augustus and Tiberius in the First Century A.D. Avianus mentions the story 400 years later, and it continues to be cited throughout the Middle Ages. Interpretations of the Fable The morals of Aesops fables have always been appended by translators. Townsend, above, interprets the story of the Crow and the Pitcher to mean that dire circumstance gives rise to innovation. Others have seen in the story the virtue of persistence: The crow must drop many rocks into the pitcher before he can drink. Avianus took the fable as an advertisement for the suave sciences rather than force, writing: This fable shows us that thoughtfulness is superior to brute strength. The Crow and the Pitcher and Science Again and again, historians have noted with wonder that such an ancient tale- already hundreds of years old in Roman times- should document actual crow behavior. Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History (77 A.D.) mentions a crow accomplishing the same feat as the one in Aesops story. Experiments with rooks (fellow corvids) in 2009 showed that the birds, presented with the same dilemma as the crow in the fable, made use of the same solution. These findings established that tool use in birds was more common than had been supposed, also that the birds would have had to understand the nature of solids and liquids, and further, that some objects (stones, for example) sink while others float. More Aesops Fables: The Ant and the DoveThe Bee and JupiterThe Cat and VenusThe Fox and the MonkeyThe Lion and the Mouse
Saturday, October 19, 2019
Response Paper 4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Response Paper 4 - Essay Example Historians in the intentionalist side of the divide believe that the Holocaust has been the Fuhrerââ¬â¢s objective all along and has, in fact, been in the offing since 1919. The policy, which came to be known as the Last Solution, has been credited to Hitlerââ¬â¢s madness alone and no one elseââ¬â¢s (or at least primarily) though, according to Totten & Feinberg, he was influenced by the anti-Semitism sentiments in Germany and Austria back in the nineteenth century (29). Here, the Nazi structure has been reduced to a mere tool ââ¬â a mechanism carrying out Hitlerââ¬â¢s specific orders to annihilate the Jews in Europe. On the other hand, the functionalist argument dilutes Hitlerââ¬â¢s complicity in the Holocaust. The main premise of this stand is that anti-Semitism has flourished in the German society, particularly in the Nazi hierarchy, whose members either wanted drastic solutions to Germanyââ¬â¢s problems or to please their Fuhrer or both. Here, it is assumed that such deep-rooted anger towards the Jews made it easier for the bureaucracy to adopt a coordinated program in so short a time to exterminate the Jewish population. According to Berger, there are no evidences that specifically points to direct orders from Hitler himself and that what has been determined was an order to purge Germany of Jews, but with no explicit command as to how this will be achieved (5). In examining the merits and demerits of the arguments raised by the intentionalist and functionalist perpsectives, two important facts emerge. First is that both have legitimate claims to credibility and significance. For example, there are rich sources that demonstrate the systematic evolution of Hitlerââ¬â¢s hate towards the Jews and these underscored how it became easier for him to attempt to annihilate the race, using the war as a pretext. Here, it also became easier for historians to credibly justify the sheer insanity of the mass murder. The breadth and
Friday, October 18, 2019
Taxes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Taxes - Essay Example The country moves forward on account of the government and the government moves because of the income tax. The income tax is a way for the government to acquire money for the country and the money that is collected as the income tax is used to make country brawnier in every manner. A country is conceived to be powerful if it has a rapid growth process in every field such as Science and Aeronautics, Information Technology, Army & Navy Forces, Education, Civil Services, Film industry and many more. If it seems like the taxation laws are changing every second you around, it's not your imagination. If you see, over the past eight years, changes to the Tax Code have been made at a rate of more than one a day. According to the National Taxpayer Advocate office, there were 500 alterations in 2008 solely. Many of them concerned to the 2009 tax year. Amongst countries that serve as the base location for significant global businesses, the US now stands alone as the only country with both the worldwide taxation system and the corporate taxation rate over 30%. The Administrationââ¬â¢s offers would further cut off the US in terms of taxation policy and further disadvantages US businesses competing in the global marketplace. At a time when the rest of the world is cutting down the tax burden on the foreign operations of domestic parties, the Administrationââ¬â¢s proposals would importantly raise the taxation burden on the foreign activities of US companies, which would have substantial implications for all stakeholders and the US economy more largely.
Business plan of Towing Service Company Research Paper
Business plan of Towing Service Company - Research Paper Example The service industry is among the fastest growing sectors in US which has been expanding its horizon with zeal. In the last few years, the demand of towing service companies has increased significantly as the customers are looking for the professionals who can assist them in taking their vehicles to the auto repair outlets (Marsh, 2013). Since Orlando, Florida is offering huge potential for the towing service company, our organization will commence its business operations in January 2014 in this region. Brief description of the business and principals involved Our company has been present in the wrecker/towing service industry for many years and has been evaluating various expansion options so that it can offer the customized services to the customers. As the number of vehicle owners is increasing with the advent of time, it has become imperative for them to avail the services of a registered towing company who can provide them quick solutions for their auto related issues (Haq, 2013). We will make sure that the customers are provided all the required services with utmost ease and convenience. Since the vehicles can get broken down any instant on the road or any emergency situation can arise, the business of towing service will assist people who are caught up in such situations in resolving their matters quickly. All of our service providers will perform all the mandatory services with perfection so that the issues are avoided in future. This business will be beneficial for the society as the transportation safety will be enhanced by our expert offerings.
Thursday, October 17, 2019
W5 BPO GROUP PPP OM Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
W5 BPO GROUP PPP OM - Essay Example Below is how the two tools can be applied to the case points. On the case of time spent by the CSRs on the phone for calls that they handled versus calls that they sent to the BAs, this can be classified as one of the seven wastes under the lean production (Abdullah, 2004). Specifically waste for waiting. Instead of spending that much time on calls to and from the BAs, alternatives that focus on reducing the waiting on phone for response can be used. For example text messages and emails could be used, which will require less time in waiting for response to be given. Since emails and text messages are less interactive between communicating parties, it could save much time and guarantee efficiency at work. On the case point of CSRs giving priority to new incoming calls over callbacks, this can be said to be misplaced priority that undermines the process capabilities of the workplace. Once there is such undermining of process capabilities also, effectiveness becomes affected (Meredith and Shafer, 2014). Clearly, new calls come with much enquiry which require a lot of attention, explanations and feedback. Callbacks on the other hand have solutions to problems. As recommended earlier, there can be other forum for new inquiries, for example through the use of emails and text messages so that after finding appropriate responses, those who made the enquiries can be contacted by the CSRs. On the third case point about BAs giving priority to Database Update sub-process over researching calls escalated by the CSRs, it is important to note that such limited priority to calls escalated by the CSRs can bring about deviation from targets, which is against the principle of the six sigma (Labovitz and Rosansky, 2007). It is said that this situation would lead to deviation from targets because once there is escalation of calls from the CSRs, the time to be
Analysis of the Affordable Care Act Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Analysis of the Affordable Care Act - Essay Example Republicans, on the other hand, provided an alternative where employees would buy instead of employers. A stalemate arose and the bill did not pass. Obama introduced the bill again in 2009 and it stipulated a plan that would achieve the needed healthcare plan for the sake of meeting the main ideals of the organization. Universal care was one of the stated goals to assist in pushing the bill into an Act through the two houses (Barr, 2011). Opposition to the bill was overwhelming from Republicans and protests were initiated to fight against its discussion. Voting, however, made the Democrats win by 60-39 vote thereby ending the debate on the bill in December 2009 (McDonough, 2011). Nonetheless, President Obama signed it into an Act on March 2010. Many termed it as the best overhaul of the healthcare system after Medicaid and Medicare (Jacobs & Skocpol, 2010). More people were insured and subsidies lowered costs by 76% for citizens who qualified for subsidies. Insurance companies now had more clients to cater for, but the law was on guard to protect them. More were eligible to Medicaid. The Act reduced the number of uninsured by 32 million, and only 23 million would be uninsured after 2019 (McDonough, 2011). Implementation process was expensive as more people would have to get into the system and the taxpayers had to give more to meet these expenses. Complications also arose as a result of the individual mandate when it comes to the filing of taxes because of the exemption fee offered to those who can afford health coverage (Jacobs & Skocpol, 2010). Options are man but the pricing will differ amongst private companies, and that makes it difficult to equate healthcare everywhere. The tiered healthcare system would only equate healthcare to money, which is damning for the poor. Medicare payments are more for doctors than other payments, making healthcare costlier for the poor (Feldman, 2011). Partisan disagreements in the Congress have made it
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
W5 BPO GROUP PPP OM Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
W5 BPO GROUP PPP OM - Essay Example Below is how the two tools can be applied to the case points. On the case of time spent by the CSRs on the phone for calls that they handled versus calls that they sent to the BAs, this can be classified as one of the seven wastes under the lean production (Abdullah, 2004). Specifically waste for waiting. Instead of spending that much time on calls to and from the BAs, alternatives that focus on reducing the waiting on phone for response can be used. For example text messages and emails could be used, which will require less time in waiting for response to be given. Since emails and text messages are less interactive between communicating parties, it could save much time and guarantee efficiency at work. On the case point of CSRs giving priority to new incoming calls over callbacks, this can be said to be misplaced priority that undermines the process capabilities of the workplace. Once there is such undermining of process capabilities also, effectiveness becomes affected (Meredith and Shafer, 2014). Clearly, new calls come with much enquiry which require a lot of attention, explanations and feedback. Callbacks on the other hand have solutions to problems. As recommended earlier, there can be other forum for new inquiries, for example through the use of emails and text messages so that after finding appropriate responses, those who made the enquiries can be contacted by the CSRs. On the third case point about BAs giving priority to Database Update sub-process over researching calls escalated by the CSRs, it is important to note that such limited priority to calls escalated by the CSRs can bring about deviation from targets, which is against the principle of the six sigma (Labovitz and Rosansky, 2007). It is said that this situation would lead to deviation from targets because once there is escalation of calls from the CSRs, the time to be
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
U.S. intellectual history since 1877 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words
U.S. intellectual history since 1877 - Essay Example Reinhold Niebuhr suggests there is a persistent flaw in modern American thought that underestimates the power of evil and predatory self-interest. In this way he finds that American liberalism is limited. Dr. Martin Luther King and Allen Ginsburg show how American liberal and progressive thought was challenged, renewed, and expanded as understood through the insights of Reinhold Niebuhr. Yet Malcolm X was almost defeated by the human flaws of which Niebuhr writes, and the writers of the Port Huron Declaration went too far in accepting methods of the children of the darkness as explained by Niebuhr. In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail which he wrote April 16, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King rooted his thoughts to a tradition of philosophers and theologians, including Niebuhr. King expressed how difficult it was to get privileged groups to change. He wrote, ââ¬Å". . . as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.â⬠Niebuhr felt that liberalis m essentially lied to itself. Dr. King could see this. Bourgeoisie society, in the south had advanced because of those lies. Niebuhr identifies the ugly powers of self-interest as pulling the chords of individuals outside any real beliefs in community. The morality that the racist South put forward was a cynical one. It was one that could not stand true from the way it dealt with black people. But the point is that this was not merely a feature of the South. As long as the segregation policies existed it was also a feature of the entire country. Hence, from Niebuhr's view, democracy did not have any adequate cultural base. It had one that was built on a house of hate. This is why Dr. King's letter was important. Building on a principle of progressive liberalism in action, King's letter extended the cultural base of the country with some honest truths. One of these truths reflects the human flaw that Niebuhr saw in man. In this letter Dr. King noted this as the inner conflict of man. He explained that he had been disappointed with his Christian and Jewish brothers. He pointed out how they allowed a "negative peace" to exist in the absence of justice. In a way this is similar to Niebuhr's thought of 'the children of light' who, in this case, were somehow led to believe that the progress of black people, according to Southern standards, was okay. Drawing further from Niebuhr, it is possible to say that Southern racism reflected an order that was cynical on the top, and laid upon Niebuhr's "perils of chaos". Dr. King pointed to this chaos. He pointed to it in the white church and its leadership. He made some exceptions. But what stood out were the members of the white religious establishment that opposed the civil rights movement Dr. King led. Dr. King was actually forging the cultural revolution that exemplified an expression of Niebuhr's ideas. It was a revolution that pursued unity while expressing a freedom and participation of formally denied people into a sy stem of democracy. In the active outplay of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. King led black and white forces to demonstrate how it was possible for America to reflect a real culture of community. That was what King sought and what, while he was living, did. Dr. King stood as the leader who influenced thought and action. There is also a way in which an artist, who has freed his or herself from the limiting confines of human prejudice and self-interest, may also illustrate some of the themes of Niebuhr. Allen Ginsberg is one of these artists. Allen Ginsberg was one of the main poets during the beat generation. He was also a public homosexual during the 1950s when homosexuality was illegal. Ginsberg was at the extreme end of the poets in that he criticized a lot about American society that Niebuhr criticized. Niebuhr, being a Christian, would probably not accept Ginsberg extreme view of homosexuality. But maybe he could have. The important thing is that Ginsberg in his poetry, especially 'Howl', attempted to turn America upside down and look into her. In order to do this all the
Monday, October 14, 2019
Hemingwayââ¬â¢s fiction is not his suicide note Essay Example for Free
Hemingwayââ¬â¢s fiction is not his suicide note Essay Earnest Hemingway, the literary genius of the late 1800s produced volumes upon volumes of both poetry and fiction. After a short and very fruitful life Hemingway committed suicide but failed to succeed in initial attempts. Later, he finally succumbed to the great equalizer ââ¬â death. Some people have surmised that Hemingway left clues to his unlikely demise in his fiction, however, ââ¬Å"suicide cut the strings before they were painfully drawn out; Hemingway attempted to suck life dry of anything and everything he could fathomâ⬠(Gunsberg, 1995) This basically means that Hemingway believed that it was necessary to experience everything, even death, to enrich his art and craft. Although Hemingway committed suicide, and although many of his work focuses on death and suicide, it would be grossly unfair to conclude that he foretold his suicide in his fiction because this would be underestimating the power of the writer and his genius. A brilliant writer like Hemingway used his fiction as a form of exploration of the human condition and not as a reflection of his own condition. It would be very presumptuous to suppose that Hemingway used his fiction to foretell his suicide as many writers and literaturists would agree that although literature is a means of exposing internal emotions, it is also a means of release; hence, Hemingwayââ¬â¢s fiction is more of an illustration of his literary genius than they are, as most would suppose, cries of help of a man in pain. Therefore, Hemingwayââ¬â¢s fiction could not be considered his suicide notes. For instance, in the story ââ¬ËIndian Campââ¬â¢ (Hemingway), the author does narrate an instance where the Indian Father commits suicide, (Hemingway) but this is simply used as a platform for the issue of emancipation from pain as illustrated by the contrasting incident of the Indian Mother who is professionally attended to by Dr. Adams who stops her pain and successfully delivers her baby. (Hemingway) In this particular story, it is not so much the suicide that is the issue but the prospect of hope and new beginnings that takes center stage. Another story where suicide is tackled is ââ¬ËA Clean and Well Lighted Placeââ¬â¢ (Hemingway) where Hemingway portrays the pain of old age suffered by a deaf old man (Hemingway). In this particular story, there is an incident where the old man attempts to commit suicide by hanging himself, but the noose is cut by his niece and foils his attempt. (Hemingway) The story, albeit tackling suicide in one of its details does not necessary give much value to this issue, it even illustrates how one cannot escape the pains that accompanies life; that not even death can release us humans from what we have to deal with in life. So, if carefully considered, this particular story does not actually vindicate Hemingwayââ¬â¢s own suicide, in fact it even serves to sissify his own attempt by indirectly implying that if the author believed that suicide was not a means of ending the suffering of existence as shown in his fiction, then he would have been a great coward to commit what he was writing against. Hemingway did not use his stories as a platform for the justification of his own suicide; he had his own reasonââ¬â¢s for his suicide, and those reasons are not in any way connected to his stories. Finally, in ââ¬ËHills like White Elephantsââ¬â¢ (Hemingway) the author tackles the issue of abortion with a couple arguing over whether to have it (the baby) or not; the man insisting of having an abortion and the woman, subtlely indicating that she would like to have the baby. (Hemingway) Although there is no reference to suicide in this particular Hemingway story, what is obvious is the argument between two people regarding the issue of ending a life, which, by the way, is not really an argument that you would normally hear from ordinary chat. In this story, Hemingway, again, although, very discreetly, makes references to why life should be valued and why it should be considered with utmost respect, even going to the extent of contrasting childbirth with happiness. (Hemingway) Easily, from this story it is immediately evident that the author was against any form of taking away life intentionally, and so totally debunks the assumption that his fiction was an indirect indication of his consequent suicide. If such is the case, then it can be easily concluded that Hemingway committed suicide for a higher reason; this being related to the progress of his art and craft. Like many other writers who had grappled with the peculiarities of life, Hemingway was no different; and like many other creative writers then and now, it has to be considered that art, in any form, is already a means of airing out recluse emotions; it is a release that is even perhaps more effective than death itself. Hemingway, like many other artists during his time, had peculiarities of his own, and what most of these writers had in common was the ability to use the human condition as a platform in their work. While many of Hemingwayââ¬â¢s stories talked about suicide, it has first to be understood that the author is not necessarily the ââ¬ËIââ¬â¢ in any of his/her work, and so it would be terribly unfair to affine subject matters in Hemingwayââ¬â¢s stories to his actual existence. The relationship of the author to his story ends with his by-line; all the other things in the written work should be set apart from the author. It is very elementary to assume that the author only writes about his/her own personal life because, then, creativity would not have as big a role in literature as it is supposed to have. What could be more accurate, however, is the fact that the literary genius of Hemingway was enough for people who read his work to assume that he was foretelling his own suicide. While this assumption is blatantly misdirected, it simply shows how a writer is able to twist and distort the minds of his readers to think that there is much more to his fiction than meets the eye (or mind). If such is the case, then every reader might as well apply for a position at the Vatican interpreting the ancient Dead Sea scrolls. Works Cited Gunsberg, Ben. Earnest Hemingway: Would Be King. Earnest Hemingway. 18 Dec. 1995. 16 Apr. 2009 http://www. users. muohio. edu/shermalw/honors_2001_fall/honors_papers_2000/gunsberg. html. Hemingway, Earnest . A Clean, Well-Lighted Place. Earnest Hemingway. 1999. 16 Apr. 2009. Hemingway, Earnest . Hills Like White Elephants. Earnest Hemingway. 1999. 16 Apr. 2009 http://www. moonstar. com/~acpjr/Blackboard/Common/Stories/WhiteElephants. html. Hemingway, Earnest . Indian Camp. Earnest Hemingway. 1999. 16 Apr. 2009 http://amb. cult. bg/american/4/hemingway/camp. htm.
Sunday, October 13, 2019
Freuds Theory of Unconscious in Inter Group Relations
Freuds Theory of Unconscious in Inter Group Relations Freudââ¬â¢s contributions to inter group relations Freudââ¬â¢s theories on unconsciousness provided an important perspective that was relevant to the study of inter group relations. Freud believed that groups were composed of the unconscious life of each member. He thought a group couldnââ¬â¢t be understood without exploring the unconscious aspects of the individual member. He also was of the opinion that the individual couldnââ¬â¢t be separated from the group. In order to understand the mind, Freud believed that attention had to be paid to how the mind of an individual interacts with others (Caper 1999). The basis of Freudââ¬â¢s psychoanalytic theory is that all behaviour is both instinctual and biological. Freudââ¬â¢s psychoanalytic theory is composed of the ego which works to find a balance between the id and the superego. The superego would be classified as the demands our society places on the individual for acceptable behaviour, and the id comprises instincts, such as sex and aggression (Schultz Schultz 2005). T his aspect of Freudââ¬â¢s theory plays an important role in inter group relations. It addresses the unconscious nature of each person in a group environment, as well as the unconscious nature of the entire group (Wrogemann 2003). Unconscious influences at work in inter group relations are experienced in different ways. One example is when a group is experiencing a failure and in order to protect their ego they engage in defence mechanisms by blaming other groups for their failure. They look outside of themselves for excuses as to why their effort failed, instead of realizing as Freud did, that the anxiety each member experienced was cause by low self-esteem and insecurities (Bodenhausen, Mussweiler, Gabriel, Moreno 2001; Wrogemann 2003). Freudââ¬â¢s theory of the unconscious and ego protection sheds light on how to improve inter group relations and increase success. If a group stopped deflecting from their own shortcomings by looking outside of their own organization they could more effectively correct their problems. If they would attempt to find the roots of their own behaviour they could get to the source of their failure. They would find it didnââ¬â¢t come from an outside group, but from within the mselves (Wrogemann 2003). Freudââ¬â¢s theories, in part, are the basis for Terror Management Theory (TMT), which deals with managing thoughts of death and is important to inter group relations (Navarette, Kirkpatrick, Kurzban Fessler 2004). Looking inwardly is a concept that originated with Freud. McCormick and White (2000) reported that this self-analyzing method was an important aspect of psychoanalytic theory. Other scientists picked up on it and applied it to the study of groups (as cited in Wrogemann 2003). Cilliers and Koortzen (1998) report that Freudââ¬â¢s theories of psychodynamics contributed to the concept that groups have a life of their own. Not only does a group have a collective consciousness, it also is composed of the collective unconscious nuances of each individual (as cited in Wrogemann 2003). Each member of a group brings to it their own unconscious desires and unmet needs. Their inner conflicts and tensions are played out in the group setting, such as at work. In the work environment, as each person unconsciously attempts to solve their issues, they are met with frustration and disappointment. The work environment cannot meet those needs leading the individual to become aggressive and exhibit ot her negative behaviours. The end result is that of strained relationships with others. As with other groups experiencing failure, workers have a tendency to blame their frustrations on someone else. They blame others for their lack of success or their disappointment while at the same time attempting to find security in those very relationships (Wrogemann 2003). Freudââ¬â¢s theory of regression was important to understanding inter group relations. Freud believed that depersonalization took place in the group causing a shift in inter group relations. The shift occurred when the individual member of a group loses his individuality and those unique qualities that set him apart from others. The process is an unconscious one where the group member takes on the role of child and the leader that of the parent. The result is a type of dependence on the leader that leads to thoughts that the group is not composed of individuals (Freud 1921). The lines become blurred. Bion (1961) had a more positive outlook on the dynamics of inter group relations. He claimed that when individuals came together in a group that they surrender their individuality to the leader and group in order to experience wholeness, oneness, and security. In order for the group to continue to exist it takes on something bigger that is outside of themselves. Freudââ¬â¢s contributions to the study of inter group relations was significant. By focusing on the unconscious he brought attention to the elements of group dynamics that involved unmet needs, unfulfilled desires, and other drives that are hidden, yet influencing factors in group interaction. His theory of the id, ego, and superego help to explain what happens in the mind of the individual and then collectively when part of a group. On his views regarding the importance of the individual in the context of a group, Freud wrote: only rarely and under certain exceptional conditions is individualà psychology in a position to disregard the relations of this individualà to others. In the individuals mental life someone else is invariablyà involved, as a model, as an object, as a helper or as an opponentâ⬠¦Ã¢â¬ (quoted in Caper 1999, pg. 1). Some of Freudââ¬â¢s theories have not been supported by subsequent testing by others, but a number of them have been shown to be valid. Freudââ¬â¢s theories on the unconscious and its relation to a personââ¬â¢s behaviour, thoughts, and emotions were accurate. Research that was conducted long after the Freud era ended demonstrated that his theory on the role of the unconscious was more extensive than anyone thought possible. Freud had no idea just how far-reaching his theory on the unconscious was (Schultz Schultz 2005). Research into inter group relations is based partly on the contributions of Sigmund Freud and the benefits derived are substantial. References Bion, W. 1961, Experience in Groups. New York, Basic Books. Bodenhausen, G., Mussweiler, T., Gabriel, S. Moreno, K. 2001, Affective Influencesà On Stereotyping and Intergroup Relations. In Handbook of Affect and Socialà Cognition, ed. J.P. Forgas, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Mahwah, NJ,à pp. 319-338. Caper, R. 1999, ââ¬ËGroup Psychology and the Psychoanalytic Groupââ¬â¢, [Online],à International Psychoanalytic Organization, pg. 1. Available from:à http://eseries.ipa.org.uk/prev/CIRC/Caper-m1.htm> [3 January 2006]. Freud, S. 1921, ââ¬ËGroup Psychology and the Analysis of the Egoââ¬â¢, London,à International Psychological Press. Navarette, C. , Kirkpatrick, L., Kurzban, R. Fessler, D. 2004, Group Processes andà Intergroup Relations, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 370-397. Schultz, D. Schultz, S. 2004, A History of Modern Psychology (8th ed.). Belmont,à CA, Thompson/Wadsworth. Wrogemann, G. 2003, ââ¬ËIntergroup Relations in Organisationsââ¬â¢, 6th Annual Conference ofà The Society for Industrial and Organisational Psychology, Available from:à http://www.siopsa.org.za, [3 January 2006].
Saturday, October 12, 2019
The History of Cake Essay examples -- Food and Drink
The history of cake is a very long and complicated history and the origins of it are not known by many people. How did all of the traditions related to cake start? Why is cake round? What were the first cakes made of? Cakes have been discovered and recorded throughout history. To find the true ancestors of the cake as we know it, one would have to look back to before modern civilization to when people were still mostly traveling nomads. Their main source of sustenance had always been meat. However, people could not rely on meat alone to keep them alive since that depended upon always being surrounded by animals. When farming was started man began growing many different types of produce, one of which was wheat and grains. The most primitive people in the world began making cake shortly after learning how to make flour. In fact, the remains of their cakes have been found in the ruins of Neolithic villages. ââ¬Å"The cakes found there were extremely simple and consisted of crushed grains that were moistened, compacted, and probably cooked on a hot stone.â⬠(Stradley, 1) The cakes then were closer to crackers though than the cakes we know of now, but they were definitely the beginning of the id ea. The word cake is said to have been used as early as the 13th century and is derived from the word ââ¬Å"kakaâ⬠, an old Norse word for a baked flour confection sweetened with sugar or honey. According to food historians, the first people to show modern baking skills were the Egyptians, who started the concept of filling their breads with nuts and fruits. (the History of Birthday Cake, 1) After the Egyptians, the Greeks and Romans both started their concept of cake, which will be discussed later. After them the English and their neighbors began... ...chy and can never be known for certain due to their long history but they have definitely helped with many celebrations throughout the years. Works Cited "History of Birthday Cake." Birthday Gifts,Anniversary Gifts,Send Flowers to India,Rakhi Gifts, Diwali Gifts,Send Gifts to India. Web. 16 Jan. 2012. . Lynne, Oliver. "Cake History Notes." Food Timeline: Food History & Vintage Recipes. Foodtimeline. Web. 14 Jan. 2012. . Stradley, Linda. "Cakes-History of Cakes." What's Cooking America, Cooking Recipes, Food History, Dinner Party Menus and Recipes, Health and Beauty Articles, Culinary Dictionary, Baking Hints, Cooking Tips. Web. 15 Jan. 2012. . Krondl, Michael. "Let Them Eat Cake!" Sweet Invention: A History of Dessert. Chicago, IL: Chicago Review, 2011. Print.
Friday, October 11, 2019
Greek Influence on Western Literature Essay
Slide One: The plays performed at the Festival of Dionysus represented a completely new performance genre: drama. Plays like Oedipus Rex, Medea, and Antigone laid the groundwork for the great plays to make up the western canon, from Shakespeareââ¬â¢s Hamlet to Arthur Millerââ¬â¢s Death of a Salesman. Slide Two: This era also saw the birth and development of a new literary genre: tragedy. In plays like Oedipus Rex, the basic tragic structure in which a character experiences a change from happiness to suffering was codified and refined. In the hands of writers like Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, it became a vehicle for the exploration of some of humanityââ¬â¢s fundamental fears and questions about existence. You can see the same questions being explored in works by Shakespeare, for example, hundreds of years later. Today, more than 2,000 years later, these plays are still studied by modern tragic playwrights. Slide Three: Finally, the Athenian tragedies were important because they put humans at the center of the story. In the Iliad, for example, the gods are closely involved in the action ââ¬â they take sides, they intervene on behalf of their heroes, and so on. While gods do appear in these plays, it is the very human protagonists such as Oedipus or Medea who take center stage, and whose actions determine the plot. This change signaled a shift in focus from the supernatural to the human in literature, which would have a profound influence on the Western tradition, particularly after the Middle Ages.
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Today’s Unions
Over the years unions have been forced to change with the times. Looking at some of these changes and discussing how the unions have evolved over time will be discussed in this paper. Also the philosophy and how the unions accommodate its members have changes so this to will be discussed. After looking at all of this a couple of proposals will be discussed to help unions broaden their appeal. Unions all over the world are considered to be failing because of their low numbers. The influence and power unions had over management in companies when it came to policies has faded due to the huge decline in total number of members. (Troy, 2001). Troy stated in his research that the unionism which is experiencing a huge membership demand and the market share in past is now lagging far behind from the expected objective in this regard (Troy, 2001). According to facts from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), countries that are impacted by unions are facing challenges in terms of the diminishing ratio of the workers associated with the union. Kumar & Murray, 2002). Looking at the evaluations from the past years concerning union history, one can analyze that the real challenge that the companies have is to change the organization so that the threat of losing competent union members will be null. Unions should evaluate their history so that they can use the data to formulate a strategy to keep control over the influence of management. Befo re unions were born the people were born into poor families and had to work in organizations from the age of six, where the average day consisted of 18 hours. During this time such things as a day off, overtime compensation, and minimum daily wages were only a thing of dreams. ââ¬Å"There exist no rules and regulations related to the job security, social security, job insurance, security against layoffs and several other serious issuesâ⬠(Slupik, 2005, pg 22). Introducing unions into organizations help change the conditions for the employees. These drastic changes made the difference and started a movement in favor of the employees. Individuals could express their individual interest which was previously hampered by the company. Human resource departments and unions help influence power over the management and obtained authority to stand against the policies of company. If it did not seem to be in the best interest of the workerââ¬â¢s the union would flex its authority to make changes. The unions establish policies and rules that are pro employee and push for fair wages, a fair work schedule, overtime compensation, and job security to name a few. This helped give the employees a piece of mind and helped not only the welfare of the employee but the employer. Unions over time changed their focus from individual concerns to the organization and the collective concerns of all industries. Unions are now looking at the bigger picture and instead of focusing on the employees of a particular company they are looking at the welfare of all that work in similar industries. This means that the unions are working for and on the behalf of the employeeââ¬â¢s and their rights. The unions focus is safeguarding the security of the employees and these interests seem to align with the human resource department. In the late 20s unions started losing its influence in the industries and due to aggressive attacks from rich and efficient organizations which eventually wiped out unions and created a system of non-union semi-slave labor areas in some other countries. This enabled them to continue to sell their product and services at same or higher prices in the market. By these measure organizations succeeded in reducing the union represented jobs, which was 36% in 1954 to a now lower 16 %. Slupik, 2005) The unions have to implement new philosophies that consider the largest population and broaden its scope of operation to other workplace environments. First unionââ¬â¢s must concentrate on diversity and look past their initial focus of manufacturing and broaden its scope to all businesses. With todayââ¬â¢s changing economy the manufacturing side of business has diminished so the unions must change in hopes to keep their members. Secondly unions must focus on changing policies within organiz ations and focus their efforts on those that go against the interest of the people. This can prove to be a stressful process since policy is constantly changing these days to keep up with government laws. Unions must form partnerships with the companies to keep up with all of these changes. Constant change seems to be the only norm within companies and this causes difficulties for the unions. Looking at some of these changes unions have made and how their philosophies have changed two proposals were briefly discussed to help in this transition. The bottom line is the only way for the unions to keep up with the every changing company is to become fluid and stay one step ahead of them.
The Necessity Of Computer Security
When the first electronic computers emerged from university and military laboratories in the late 1940s and early 1950s, visionaries proclaimed them the harbingers of a second industrial revolution that would transform business, government and industry. But few laymen, even if they were aware of the machines, could see the connection. Experts too, were sceptical. Not only were computers huge, expensive, one-of-a-kind devices designed for performing abstruse scientific and military calculations, such as cracking codes and calculations missile trajectories, they were also extremely difficult to handle. Now, it is clear that computers are not only here to stay, but they have a profound effect on society as well. As John McCarthy, Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, speculated in 1966: ââ¬Å"The computer gives signs of becoming the contemporary counterpart of the steam engine that brought on the industrial revolution ââ¬â one that is still gathering momentum and whose true nature had yet to be seen. â⬠Todayââ¬â¢s applications of computers are vast. They are used to run ordinary household appliances such as televisions and microwaves, to being tools in the workplaces through word processing, spreadsheets, and graphics software, to unning monumental tasks such as being the heart and soul of the nations tax processing department, and managing the project timetables of the Space Shuttle. It is obvious that the computer is now and always will be inexorably linked to our lives, and we have no choice but to accept this technology and learn how to harness its total potential. With any progressing technology, an unauthorized application can almost be found for it. A computer could and has been used for theft and fraud ââ¬â for example, as a database and manager of illegal activities such as drug trafficking and pornography. However, we must not just consider the harmful applications of the computer, but also take into account the good that they have caused. When society embraced the computer technology, we have to treat this as an extension of what we already have at hand. This means that some problems that we had before the computer era may also arise now, in the form where computers are an accessory to a crime. One of the problems that society has faced ever since the dawn of civilization is privacy. The issue of privacy on the Internet has risen many arguments for and against having it. The issue of privacy has gotten to the oint where the government of the United States has placed a bill promoting a single chip to encrypt all private material on the Internet. Why is privacy so important? Hiding confidential material from intruders does not necessarily mean that what we keep secret it illegal. Since ancient times, people have trusted couriers to carry their messages. We seal out messages in a envelope when sending mail through the postal service. Using computer and encrypting programs to transfer electronic messages securely is not different from sending a letter the old-fashioned way. This paper will examine he modern methods of encrypting messages and analyse why Phil Zimmerman created an extremely powerful civilian encipherment program, called the PGP, for ââ¬Å"Pretty Good Privacy. In particular, by focusing on cryptography, which was originally intended for military use, this paper will examine just how easy it is to conclude why giving civilians a military-grade encrypting program such as the PGP may be dangerous to national security. Therefore, with any type of new technology, this paper will argue that the application of cryptography for civilian purposes is not just a right, but is also a necessity. Increasingly in todayââ¬â¢s era of computer technology, not only banks but also businesses and government agencies are turning to encryption. Computer security experts consider it best and most practical way to protect computer data from unauthorized disclosure when transmitted and even when stored on a disk, tape, of the magnetic strip of a credit card. Two encryption systems have led the way in the modern era. One is the single-key system, in which data is both encrypted and decrypted with the same key, a sequence of eight numbers, each between 0 and 127. The other is a 2-key ystem; in this approach to cryptography, a pair of mathematically complementary keys, each containing as many as 200 digits, are used for encryptions and decryption. In contrast with ciphers of earlier generations, where security depended in part on concealing the algorithm, confidentiality of a computer encrypted message hinges solely on the secrecy of the keys. Each system is thought to encrypt a message so inscrutably that the step-by-step mathematical algorithms can be made public without compromising security. The single key system, named the Data Encryption Standard ââ¬â DES for short ââ¬â as designed in 1977 as the official method for protecting unclassified computer data in agencies of the American Federal government. Its evolution began in 1973 when the US National Bureau of Standards, responding to public concern about the confidentiality of computerized information outside military and diplomatic channels, invited the submission of data-encryption techniques as the first step towards an encryption scheme intended for public use. The method selected by the bureau as the DES was developed by IBM researchers. During encryption, the DES algorithm divides a message into blocks f eight characters, then enciphers them one after another. Under control of the key, the letters and numbers of each block are scrambled no fewer than 16 times, resulting in eight characters of ciphertext. As good as the DES is, obsolescence will almost certainly overtake it. The life span of encryption systems tends to be short; the older and more widely used a cipher is, the higher the potential payoff if it is cracked, and the greater the likelihood that someone has succeeded. An entirely different approach to encryption, called the 2-key or public- key system, simplifies the problem of key distribution and management. The approach to cryptography eliminates the need for subscribers to share keys that must be kept confidential. In a public-key system, each subscriber has a pair of keys. One of them is the so-called public key, which is freely available to anyone who wishes to communicate with its owner. The other is a secret key, known only to its owner. Though either key can be used to encipher or to decipher data encrypted with its mate, in most instances, the public key is employed for encoding, and the private key for decoding. Thus, anyone can send a secret message to anyone else by using the addresseeââ¬â¢s public key to encrypt ts contents. But only the recipient of the message can make sense of it, since only that person has the private key. A public key cryptosystem is called the PGP, for Pretty Good Privacy. Designed by Phil Zimmerman, this program is freely distributed for the purpose of giving the public the knowledge that whatever communications they pass, they can be sure that it is practically unbreakable. PGP generates a public and private key for the user using the RSA technique. The data is then encrypted and decrypted with the IDEA algorithm ââ¬â which is similar to the DES, but the work factor to decode the encrypted message by brute orce is much higher than what the DES could provide. The reason why the RSA is used only when generating the keys is that the RSA takes a very long time to encrypt an entire document, where using the RSA on the keys takes a mere fraction of the time. At this time, Zimmerman is bing charged by the US government for his effort in developing the PGP. The government considers encryption as a weapon, and they have established regulations controlling or prohibiting the export of munitions. Since the PGP is a powerful encryption program, it is considered and can be used as a powerful weapon and may be a threat to national security. On the Internet, it is clear that many people all over the world are against the US governmentââ¬â¢s effort on limiting the PGPââ¬â¢s encryption capabilities, and their reason is that the ban infringes on the peopleââ¬â¢s right to privacy. The PGP must not be treated only as a weapon, for it contains analogies that are not used in wartime. One of them is authentication. The two-key cryptosystem is designed with authentication in mind: Using someoneââ¬â¢s public key to encrypt enables only the owner of the private key to decrypt the same message. In the real world, we use our own signature to prove out identity in signing heques or contracts. There exists retina scanners that check the blood vessels in out eyes, as well as fingerprint analysis devices. These use our physical characteristics to prove our identity. A digital signature generated by a public key cryptosystem is much harder to counterfeit because of the mathematics of factoring ââ¬â which is an advantage over conventional methods of tests for out identity. Another analogy the PGP has with the real world is the need for security. Banks and corporations employ a trusted courier ââ¬â in the form of an armoured truck or a guard ââ¬â to transfer sensitive documents or valuables. However, this is expensive for civilian purposes, and the PGP provides the same or better security when securing civilian information. While many argue that limiting the PGPââ¬â¢s abilities are against the peopleââ¬â¢s right to privacy, the PGP must also be seen as a necessity as we enter the Information Age. There is currently little or no practical and inexpensive way to secure digital information for civilians, and the PGP is an answer to this problem. Computer privacy must not be treated differently than any other method to make private any documents. Rather, we must consider the computer as a tool and se it as an extension of societyââ¬â¢s evolution. Clearly the techniques we employ for computer privacy such as encryption, secure transfers and authentication closely mirrors past efforts at privacy and non-criminal efforts. The government is putting more pressure against the distribution of PGP outside of the United States. One of their main reasons was that since it is freely distributed and thus can be modified in such a way that even the vast computational resources of the US government cannot break the PGPââ¬â¢s secured message. The government could now reason that the PGP can provide criminal rganizations a means of secure communications and storage of their activities, and thus make the law enforcementââ¬â¢s job much harder in tracking criminals down and proving them guilty. Also, we must never forget one of out basic human rights ââ¬â one that many laid their lives for, is freedom. We have the freedom to do anything we wish that is within the law. The government is now attempting to pass a bill promoting a single algorithm to encrypt and decrypt all data that belongs to its citizens. A multitude of people around the world are opposed to this concept, arguing that it is against their freedom and their privacy.
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