Marketing- Analyzing Buying Behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Marketing- Analyzing Buying Behavior - Essay Example â€Å"eco-friendly† product can be created through informative advertising by telling consumers the hazards of using the product that are not made for the wellbeing of the environment. Another danger in the proposal is the pricing of the new product which will be charged 150% more than the current price. However, if the consumer perceives that the product is not doing a better job than their conventional products, then once again our marketing proposal could lose out. Hence, careful pricing needs to be done to see if it is consistent with the benefits that it promises to render. The increase in the availability of the product in various retail outlets will be very beneficial for the business and this could increase our sales and profits and we can try to increase retailing outlets for even our conventional products. Commercial products are often sold to different organizations once a problem is recognized by these institutions. As far as the anti-bacterial is concerned we should go with the plan. The reason behind this is that currently there is no competitor in the market and we can afford to charge high prices without losing any customers. We can therefore squeeze the maximum revenue from the market until new competition arises in the market of anti-bacterial cleaners. The consumers in this market have no opportunity for supplier search and we can squeeze the total market sales from our production. Neither will they need any proposal solicitation nor will they be reviewing our performance as there be no benchmark in the market. Thus we can go in the market to meet our objectives. Similarly, we can also repackage the wax product due its distinct features in the market and command high prices. This again will be a success due to lack of any similar product in the market. Therefore, we can trust Rena and immediately implement the plans as proposed by her to meet our marketing objectives. This exercise provided us with knowledge that businesses can produce a

“Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller Essay Example for Free

â€Å"Death of a Salesman† by Arthur Miller Essay Death of a Salesman â€Å"Death of a Salesman† by Arthur Miller is a narration about American society, its expectations and attitudes that shape people’s lives. It is told through the lives of a salesman Willy, his family and several other people who, in some way, have an impact on them. Willy, who falls into his imaginary word of the past frequently during the day, is regretful for some of his actions in the past that ‘prevented’ him of becoming rich. Now, he wants his sons to succeed who are in their 30s and are of different characters. Although the genre of the play is realism, the author uses attributes of surrealism that help in developing the story. The protagonist of the play has an imaginary word that reminds him of his past; thus helping the audience to see the motives of his or his family’s current actions. The play starts when Willy has already gotten into a trouble because of dreaming while driving which suggests that the play is not about an ordinary person. For the reader, the shift from reality to dreams of Willy is sometimes warned by the long speech of his or by the reaction of the people around him. As for the audience, there are visual effects that the author recommends for the play in order to illustrate his story clearly. â€Å"†¦ in the scenes of the past these boundaries are broken, and the characters enter or leave a room stepping â€Å"through† a wall onto the forestage†. Moreover, the play is full of symbols and diverse characters. The ‘new† critic would notice the significance of the names. Some of the names of the characters reflect to their personalities; such as the name of the younger son of Willy whose name is Happy and he is careless and self-assured. Biff (which also means a hit, a clout), is the elder son who has a troubled relationship with his father. He goes against his father’s wish of getting a prestigious job in New York since he finds himself unfit for it. In contrary to his father, he finds his strength and self-esteem in the end of the play. However, the marxist critic would notice the positions and actions of the rich and poor. Uncle Ben who visits Willy’s imaginary world time to time is the brother of his. He became rich after he went to Alaska, and this continues to disturb Willy throughout the play and has a huge impact on his behavior because he had overlooked the chance. Also, Willy faced the bitter truth when he got fired from his job. Although, he had worked f or the company for thirty-four years, he received no sympathy when he asked to stay and work in the town he lived in and be paid a small amount of salary. Consequently, he was worried that his sons won’t think of him good and nobody will remember him. â€Å"†¦Because he thinks I am nothing, see, and so he spites me. But the funeral, Ben, that funeral will be massive! They’ll come from Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont†¦ -I am known, Ben, and he’ll see it with his eyes once and for all†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The feminist critic would observe the behavior and the status of Linda who is the wife of Willy and how she was portrayed. She is caring and patient with Willy. All through the play, she takes the side of her husband and encourages him. She is also presented as humble and tolerable towards their financial and social status. The only thing she dreams of is paying off the house mortgage and the bills so they can enjoy a free life. Despite these ‘perfectâ₠¬â„¢ traits, Linda is passive in her actions and lacks of understanding some situations and her husband’s behavior. After the suicide of Willy, she says, â€Å"Why did you do it? I search and search †¦I can’t understand it. I made the last payment on the house today†¦We are free and clear†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Possibly, Willy’s suicide is part of the consequence of her character. In this play, Arthur Miller introduces a society by developing a story about a salesman and involving several other people. Ironically, those people have some impact on Willy’s fate and his family. Biff loses his self-confidence and drive when he discovers his father with ‘the woman’. He fails math class which becomes the foundation of his future failures and career choices. There is also Willy’s neighbor and his son Bernard who is a friend to Biff and a foil to Willy. However, nothing is told about Bernard’s life until Willy loses his job and meets Bernard on his way to borrow some money from his father. The author lines the scenes and the actions in a way that support in showing the psychological and emotional effects on Willy and Biff. Willy wonders how Bernard became successful, but his son is still struggling and they were childhood friends. Here Bernard ‘reminds’ him of the math class which Biff failed and refused to continue after discovering his father with another woman. Although Uncle Ben is Willy’s brother who shows up in his imagination and gets into a conversation with him, his replies to Willy are more likely Willy’s own answers and opinions about himself. The fact that he could not become more than a traveling salesman and be known and respected is haunting Willy throughout his life. The author tries to show that Willy’s desires and attitude towards life had an effect on those around him and the other way around; the people around him had an impact on his actions and fate. Consequently, this is how a society behaves.

China’s Economic Expansion: Implications for U.S. Trade and Hegemonic Stability

China’s Economic Expansion: Implications for U.S. Trade and Hegemonic Stability A Changing Global Landscape China is very rapidly approaching economic parity with the United States, which may lead to significant global shifts in power.   Hegemonic stability theory suggests that an international system is more likely to remain stable if a single player is a dominant world power, thus the global equilibrium tends toward a hegemonic state.[1]   The United States emerged as the global hegemon after World War II, specifically in terms of economic power, and has largely provided stability for the global economic system since that time.   While the U.S. has been able to maintain this position throughout most of the 20th Century, China is rapidly rising as an influential economic player and could potentially displace the United States as the global economic leader.   China’s ambitious economic expansion projects, including the New Silk Road initiative and Made in China 2025, have the potential to shift the nexus of economic power from the United States’ and the West toward a Europe-China-centric scenario.   Additionally, the rise of populist-nationalist political rhetoric within the United States could portend a policy shift toward economic protectionism, which would further accelerate the demise of the U.S. economic hegemon and the rise of China as its successor.   It would be in the best interest of the United States to engage with China in a cooperative and mutually beneficial way, perhaps even as a partner in China’s economic development initiatives, in order to preserve American economic prosperity. China’s Economy: An Historic Overview Insight into China’s modern strategy for economic expansion is only possible within the context of China’s past.   Throughout most of China’s history, the Chinese economy was barely able to meet the basic needs of the country’s huge population, including its basic nutritional needs.[2]   Drought, war and social unrest often led to periods of famine and mass starvation before 1949, when the Chinese Communist Party came to power.[3]   After this transition, food storage became centrally controlled by the government.   This method allowed the country to successfully avert famine, and food production grew rapidly after 1949.   This increase in productivity was largely matched by population growth until the one-child policy was instituted in the 1980’s, thus the increased production capacity was not able to outpace essential consumption needs, and very little surplus was produced.[4] The long-term goal of the Communist party was to transform China into a modern, industrialized nation with improved living standards and minimal economic disparity (i.e. a classless society), and to modernize military equipment.   The government leadership initially adopted the Soviet economic model, which focused on achieving a high rate of economic growth that emphasized industrial development at the expense of agricultural development.   Through this process, a solid foundation was created in iron and steel manufacturing, coal mining, cement making and other modern industrial technologies.   Although the government also endeavored to facilitate the mobilization of agricultural resources by encouraging farmers to organize into increasingly large and socialized collective units, the results were not as dramatic as the level of growth within the industrial sectors.[5] In response to the tepid growth in the agricultural sector, in 1957 the Chinese government largely shifted authority for economic decision making to the provincial, county, and local level.   During this time, the Chinese leadership abandoned the Soviet model and instead adopted an approach that relied on spontaneous efforts by the entire population to induce a â€Å"great leap† within all economic sectors at once, which helped to stimulate agricultural growth.   The initial problem with this approach was the lack of sufficient capital to invest in both industrial development and agriculture simultaneously.   To overcome this problem, the leadership attempted to create capital within the agricultural sector by building vast irrigation systems, employing huge teams of underemployed farmers.[6] Despite these advances, the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s under Mao Zedong severely stifled technological innovation within China.[7]   This was largely a political phenomenon, where the Communist Party attempted to consolidate power by expelling any hint of budding capitalist ideas, Chinese traditionalists, and intellectuals.   However, it had a pronounced effect on the growing Chinese economy.   Factory managers were largely replaced with Communist Party operatives who had very little knowledge of management or of the enterprise they were supposed to run.   Engineers, scientists, and other professional personnel were sent to the countryside as laborers, or were jailed as dissidents.   Additionally, the Cultural Revolution forced the closing of Universities, which severely hindered China’s ability to develop new technology.   This loss of key knowledge resulted in a 14% decline in industrial production by 1967.[8] In the late 1970’s, after the death of Mao, the Chinese government reaffirmed the modernization program espoused prior to the Cultural Revolution.[9]   The Chinese leaders determined that the centrally planned economy had failed to produce sufficient economic growth, and had caused China to fall behind the industrialized powers of the West and the newly industrialized Asian nations.   While the Communist leadership did not want to completely abandon the centrally planned economy idea, it strived to make it work better by increasing the role of market mechanisms and by reducing the level of centralized government control.   For industry, this included increased autonomy and the ability of managers to keep profits instead of remitting everything earned to the state.   While some key industries were still centrally controlled, individual enterprise was allowed (to an extent) as a means to incentivize economic growth and to reduce unemployment.[10] In recent history, China has been less of an innovator and more of an imitator of foreign technology and innovations.   China’s modern industrial development paradigm lags behind that of the developed world.   While the Chinese government has policy initiatives to encourage internal research and development and technology transfer from outside economies, shortcomings from the pre-reform, planned economy era have constrained China’s ability to efficiently innovate.   China’s Modern Innovation Strategy   In order for any economy to innovate and grow, individual firms must focus on a combination of internal research and development efforts and external technology acquisition.   In this context, the definition of â€Å"technology† is expanded from the vernacular to include processes and ideas that enhance a firm or organization’s ability to compete.[11]   Establishing a strategy that combines these efforts most efficiently is necessary to maximize overall economic development.[12]   In modern microeconomic theory, internal research and development and external technology acquisition are considered to be complimentary innovation strategies.   Economic activities are complimentary if the adoption of one does not preclude the other, and if the sum benefit of implementing both activities concurrently is greater than the benefit of implementing just one or the other.[13]   Assuming the complementarity of internal research and development and external technology a cquisition, authors Fu, Pietrobelli and Soete argue that the absorptive capacity of any small or medium firm within a developing economy is the limiting factor to successfully executing technology transfer.[14]   The authors define absorptive capacity as â€Å"a firm’s ability to recognize the value of new information, assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends.†[15] In another study, Authors Hou and Mohnen[16] tested the complementarity of internal research and development and external technology transfer in Chinese firms and found that the two technology acquisition strategies are indeed complimentary, but that external technology acquisition yielded higher returns than internal research and development for small and medium firms.   Additionally, the authors found that state-ownership of firms correlated with both product and process innovation, presumably because of increased access to financial and policy support from the central government.   This relationship would likely increase the absorptive capacity of the firm.   This suggests that small and medium firms with no government connection may be at a disadvantage due to a reduced absorptive capacity, and may be incentivized to work closely with the central Chinese government in order to acquire the necessary resources to compete within the Chinese and global marketplace.[17]   Thus , while China’s modern economic development strategy is ostensibly about supporting the expansion of small, private firms, state-connections are highly incentivized by the market. The New Silk Road China’s New Silk Road initiative is a logical extension of China’s economic expansion and modernization efforts.   This initiative is an allusion to its namesake trade network stretching from China to Central Asia and the Middle East, which was established over 2,000 years ago.[18]   In 2013, China proposed establishing a modern analog to the ancient Silk Road; however, instead of transporting silk and spices, this would build a network of railways, pipelines and utility grids to link China to the Middle East and Eastern Europe via Central Asia.[19]   Also known as the One Belt One Road Initiative (OBOR), this massive infrastructure project aims to create the world’s largest network for economic cooperation.   This development would make it much more efficient for China to trade with 65 countries, representing 60 percent of the global population.[20]   China markets the initiative as a net win for all parties involved, and host governments see the New S ilk Road as an opportunity for job creation, economic development, and participation in the global supply chain.[21]   The New Silk Road initiative would allow China to more efficiently project soft power within Asia, Africa and Europe, which could have significant trade and national security implications for the United States.   Chinese firms have increased their foreign investment within partner countries in order to pave the way for the New Silk Road.   According to the Economist, several economic research organizations predict that the total Chinese investment abroad could rise to $2 trillion USD by 2020.[22]   For comparison, this figure was less than $800 billion USD at the end of 2014.[23]   As stated previously, Chinese firms are strongly incentivized to maintain connections with Chinese state-owned entities (or to be state-owned entities themselves), thus it stands to reason that much of the value earned through this investment will directly benefit the Chinese government.   The Chinese regime’s entanglement within the region will likely introduce significant hurdles to U.S. activities, and may diminish U.S. influence in Central Asia, the Middle East, and possibly Europe.   It is worth noting that Beijing established $100 billion USD Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIID), a multinational funding body, to support New Silk Road investments. [24]   The AIID currently has 57 members, including Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Russia.[25]   Notably absent is the United States. Made in China 2025 Not only is China expanding its economic reach and soft power influence within Eurasia via the New Silk Road, but it is also working to shift its overall production upmarket from low level manufacturing to advanced technology development.[26]   Made in China 2025 is an effort to completely upgrade Chinese industry.   The Chinese government has outlined clear principles establishing the goals of the initiative, including a desire to comprehensively upgrade Chinese industry by making it more efficient so that it can participate in the highest-level global production chains.   It also strives to create more innovation-driven manufacturing that emphasizes quality over quantity, environmentally sustainable development, and human capital management.[27]   While these are worthy goals for any country, China’s upmarket shift from manufacturing large quantities of inexpensive, low-quality goods to high-tech, high-quality products could disrupt the global market for high-tech go ods because of China’s large production capacity.   In the same way that inexpensive Chinese manufacturing has shifted labor from the United States to China, an upmarket shift in China’s manufacturing may have the same effect on highly skilled workers within the United States. Implications for the United States In order to mitigate the global effects of China’s economic expansion that may be detrimental to the U.S. strategic position, it is imperative for the United States to engage with China in a cooperative and mutually beneficial way.   President Donald Trump has been a vocal critic of trade deals, and has been especially harsh on Beijing, effectively blaming low Chinese labor costs for the perceived lack of American jobs.[28]   According to the United States Trade Representative, two-way trade with China was $598 billion USD in 2015, thus making China the United States’ largest trading partner.[29]   If the anti-Chinese rhetoric manifests as higher tariffs on Chinese imports, China may focus its trade efforts away from the United States and toward its New Silk Road partners, thus significantly reducing U.S. international trade.[30] The impact of arresting trade with China on U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) is difficult to ascertain due to competing variables, but it is likely to have a net negative effect.   While tariffs would increase the net exports variable used in calculating GDP (the U.S. is a net importer from China), they may adversely affect other factors that contribute to GDP.   For example, Chinese goods are less expensive to produce than U.S. and most European goods.   Thus, if the United States diverts its import activities from China to Europe or increases domestic production, these goods will likely be more expensive than the Chinese alternatives, thus reducing overall domestic consumption within the United States.   This new equilibrium would also affect the supply of domestic goods as demand decreases, thus also reducing U.S. investment in domestic production (and a subsequent reduction in demand for labor).   Overall, this may lead to a net decrease in the U.S. GDP and a reduction in available jobs within the United States.   This American jobs loss would be exacerbated further as China shifts its manufacturing capabilities upmarket via the Made in China 2025 initiative, which may induce the offshoring highly skilled U.S. jobs in addition to skilled labor.   Not only would tariffs further incentivize China to focus its trade efforts on its New Silk Road partners, but they may evoke the second order effect of encouraging Europe to look to China for economic leadership.   This could occur if China responds to U.S. tariffs by accelerating its economic expansion into Eastern Europe.   This would likely reduce U.S. economic influence in Europe, and thus limit the U.S. ability to project soft power within the region.   This would further shift the hegemon toward China as the global economic leader.   In conclusion, Chinese economic expansion activities, including the New Silk Road Initiative and Made in China 2025, could lead to a global hegemonic shift.   This is especially true as China expands its influence toward Europe.   As the United States’ global influence wanes, Europe and U.S. allies within Central Asia may turn to China as the new hegemon – a new global economic leader.   Global power structures are dynamic, and it is unlikely that the future global power landscape will encompass a unipolar U.S. hegemon as it has in the past.   However, a multipolar hegemon including both the United States and China is surely possible.   It would benefit the United States to engage China in a cooperative and mutually beneficial way by preserving economically liberal trade arrangements.   Additionally, the U.S should strive to maintain its position as a major soft power player in Asia and Europe and work diligently to maintain its trade relationships withi n Europe and Central Asia, possibly through partnering with China on the New Silk Road.   This is of great strategic importance not only for the U.S. national security, but also for continued American economic prosperity. Bibliography Buck, John.   China’s Farm Economy. (University of Chicago Press, 1930). Carbaugh, Robert. Contemporary Economics: An Applications Approach. (Cengage Learning, 2006). Christensen, Clayton M.   The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (Management of Innovation and Change).   Harvard Business Review Press.   January 5, 2016. Cohen, Tyler.   â€Å"Seeing China Through its Economic History.† Bloomberg (July 25, 2016), Accessed 4 April 2017. https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-07-25/seeing-china-through-its-economic-history Cohen, Wesley M. and Levinthal, Daniel A., Absorptive capacity: A new perspective on learning and innovation, Administrative Science Quarterly 35, no 1 (1990):128-152. Elisseeff, Vadime.   The Silk Roads: Highways of Culture and Commerce.   Berghahn Books, 2000. Fu, Xiaolan, et al., â€Å"The Role of Foreign Technology and Indigenous Innovation in the Emerging Economies: Technological Change and Catching-up†, World Development 39, no 7 (July 2011): 1204-1212. Gramer, Robbie.   â€Å"All aboard China’s ‘New Silk Road’ Express.† Foreign Policy.   4 January 2017. Guluzian, Christine R. â€Å"Making Inroads: China’s New Silk Road Initiative.†Ã‚   Cato Journal, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Winter 2017). Heilmann, Sebastian.   â€Å"China’s Technology Grab.† The International Economy.   Spring 2016. Hou, Jun and Mohnen, Pierre, â€Å"Complementarity between in-house R&D and technology purchasing: evidence from Chinese manufacturing firms†, United Nations University Working Paper, (August 2011). Jinchen, Tian. ‘One Belt and One Road’: Connecting China and the World. McKinsey&Company: Capital Projects and Infrastructure.   July 2016. â€Å"Made in China 2025.†Ã‚   Center for Strategic and International Studies.   Accessed 31 March 2017. http://www.csis.org/analysis/made-in-china-2025. Miller, Berkshire, J.   â€Å"Dissecting Trump’s Hardline Rhetoric on China.† China U.S. Focus.   Accessed 4 April 2017.   http://www.chinausfocus.com/foreign-policy/dissecting-trumps-hardline-rhetoric-on-china. Morrison, Wayne M.   â€Å"China’s Economic Rise: History, Trends, Challenges and Implications for the United States.† Congressional Research Service Report. (October 21, 2015). Oatley, Thomas.   International Political Economy, 5th Edition.   New York: Routledge, 2016. Office of the United States Trade Representative.   The People’s Republic of China.   Accessed 4 April 2017.   https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/china-mongolia-taiwan/peoples-republic-china. Slate, Robert. â€Å"Competing with Intelligence: New Directions in China’s Quest for Intangible Property and Implications for Homeland Security,† Homeland Security Affairs 5, no 1 (January 2009):1-27. â€Å"The New Silk Road.†Ã‚   The Economist Special Report. September 2015. Worde, Robert, et al., ed, China: A Country Study (Federal Research Division, U.S. Library of Congress, 1987). [1] Thomas Oatley.   International Political Economy, 5th Edition.   New York: Routledge, 2016. [2] John Buck.   China’s Farm Economy. (University of Chicago Press, 1930). [3] Robert Worde, et al., ed, China: A Country Study (Federal Research Division, U.S. Library of Congress, 1987), 207. [4] Ibid, 207. [5] Ibid, 215. [6] Ibid, 216. [7] Tyler Cohen.   â€Å"Seeing China Through its Economic History.† Bloomberg (July 25, 2016), Accessed 4 April 2017. https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-07-25/seeing-china-through-its-economic-history [8] Ibid, 220. [9] Wayne M. Morrison.   â€Å"China’s Economic Rise: History, Trends, Challenges and Implications for the United States.† Congressional Research Service Report. (October 21, 2015). [10] Ibid, 223. [11] Clayton M. Christensen.   The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (Management of Innovation and Change).   Harvard Business Review Press.   January 5, 2016. [12] Jun Hou and Pierre Mohnen, â€Å"Complementarity between in-house R&D and technology purchasing: evidence from Chinese manufacturing firms†, United Nations University Working Paper, (August 2011): 1-23. [13] Robert Carbaugh. Contemporary Economics: An Applications Approach. (Cengage Learning, 2006), 35. [14] Xiaolan Fu, Carlo Pietrobelli, Luc Soete, â€Å"The Role of Foreign Technology and Indigenous Innovation in the Emerging Economies: Technological Change and Catching-up†, World Development 39, no 7 (July 2011): 1204-1212. [15] Wesley M. Cohen and Daniel A. Levinthal, Absorptive capacity: A new perspective on learning and innovation, Administrative Science Quarterly 35, no 1 (1990):128-152. [16] Hou and Mohnen. [17] Robert Slate, â€Å"Competing with Intelligence: New Directions in China’s Quest for Intangible Property and Implications for Homeland Security,† Homeland Security Affairs 5, no 1 (January 2009):1-27. [18] Vadime Elisseeff.   The Silk Roads: Highways of Culture and Commerce.   Berghahn Books, 2000. [19] Tian Jinchen, ‘One Belt and One Road’: Connecting China and the World. McKinsey&Company: Capital Projects and Infrastructure.   July 2016. [20] Robbie Gramer.   â€Å"All aboard China’s ‘New Silk Road’ Express.† Foreign Policy.   4 January 2017. [21] Christine R. Guluzian. â€Å"Making Inroads: China’s New Silk Road Initiative.†Ã‚   Cato Journal, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Winter 2017). [22] â€Å"The New Silk Road.†Ã‚   The Economist Special Report. September 2015. [23] Ibid. [24] Guluzian, Cato Journal. [25] Ibid. [26] Sebastian Heilmann.   â€Å"China’s Technology Grab.† The International Economy.   Spring 2016. [27] â€Å"Made in China 2025.†Ã‚   Center for Strategic and International Studies.   Accessed 31 March 2017. http://www.csis.org/analysis/made-in-china-2025 [28] J. Berkshire Miller.   â€Å"Dissecting Trump’s Hardline Rhetoric on China.† China U.S. Focus.   Accessed 4 April 2017.   http://www.chinausfocus.com/foreign-policy/dissecting-trumps-hardline-rhetoric-on-china [29] Office of the United States Trade Representative.   The People’s Republic of China.   Accessed 4 April 2017.   https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/china-mongolia-taiwan/peoples-republic-china [30] Gramer, Foreign Policy.

politics today :: essays research papers

What is politics? Throughout history, people have participated in politics on many different levels. They may have participated through a direct democracy, in which they directly governed, or they may have participated through a representative democracy, in which they participated by electing representatives. As citizens’, people have participated in politics to attain the things they needed or wanted, the valued things. Participation in politics has been the way that people have a voice and change the things that directly affect their lives. Throughout the course of history, politics has been the competition of ideas; they decide who gets what, when, where and how. Politics is the means for attaining valued things. Although, valued things are different in every society, the means of securing those things has never changed. The competition for power, authority and influence will always be the backbone of politics. Applying power, authority and influence to the valued things that support the public good, will produce the quality of life a society desires. In the present day, citizens in the United States demand certain valued things such as welfare, education, safe streets and healthcare. Through politics, citizens can apply their power in many different ways to get the things they want. Power is the ability to get someone to do something they may or may not want to do. Through the use of or the application of coercion, persuasion, manipulation and negotiation, power is used to influence the system. It would seem as if valued things, such as safe streets and healthcare, would already be established in a society such as ours. Using safe streets as an example, it is hard to believe a person would not support safe streets. But the discussion about safe streets is not exactly whether we want them or not. The disagreement on this topic, and most political topics, is how much should be spent fiscally on achieving and maintaining safe streets. The question of how much money should be spent on what and where is usually decided by whomever or whatever has applied the most power, influence and authority. How active or inactive should the government be in getting valued things? Politics must be used as the means of answering this question. Politics should be used to attain the things that the society needs most and should represent all of the people equally. In America today, there is a general, underlying equality that has been offered to everyone.

Epistemology †Plato Essay

There were many great philosophers who have contributed in making philosophy what it is today, one of them being Plato. In addition to being an outstanding philosopher, he was also a mathematician and a writer. One of Plato’s biggest inspirations was his very own teacher Socrates. Socrates never wrote down a word of what he said, but thankfully Plato was able to record it all down for him and wrote many dialogues about Socrates words and teachings. One of Plato’s most famous works was his dialogue, The Republic which was written in 380 BC. The Republic consists of ten books total each consisting of different topics concerning ancient philosophy. From reading a short excerpt from the philosophical text: Western Philosophy: An Anthology (Second Edition) edited John Cottingham, Cottingham takes an excerpt from (Plato, Republic [Politeia, c. 3800 BC], Bk V, 474b-483e. Trans. B. Jowett, in The Dialogues of Plato (Oxford: Clarendon, 1892), vol. lll, pp. 171-9)), Plato writes about knowledge versus opinion and Socrates views on each from a first person point of view. In the following excerpt there is an ongoing conversation between Socrates and Glaucon discussing their personal views and thoughts on knowledge and opinion. Socrates does not oppose of having opinions, he says they can later be turned into knowledge. These beliefs and opinions will only act as a guide to our knowledge. Socrates believes that opinions are very good and can be useful while one has them as they stay in our minds, but they are only temporary and eventually will leave our minds. Opinions are not of great value and will escape from our minds. This means they will not be worth much until they are tied down and figured out by working out the reason. Once they are tied down those opinions will evolve into knowledge. This knowledge is permanent and overall much better than true opinion. Knowledge is when one can thoroughly and fully explain why a certain belief is correct. Knowledge can be used to back up ones opinion by using facts and explanations from prior experience. Socrates believed that philosophers were to rule the polis’ of Greece because they were better than all the others due to the knowledge they held. He believed that anyone who did not have knowledge and rather held to their opinions should remain as followers, that it is only possible for a leader to have knowledge and only philosophers can have knowledge. Socrates felt philosophers were the only ones who could have knowledge because they knew the process of reason. Knowledge is what makes a philosopher who he is and separates him from the rest of mankind. Philosophers are a different kind, special people, being able to see and know more than what meets the eye. Socrates believes that philosophers should be rulers and kings of Greece. Knowledge is so power that one could mange to be a king. In Socrates mind, philosophers would be the best fit to being a king and having all rule. Knowledge and opinion are very different powers, therefore they must have different objects. Everyday objects can be told and described to be what they are in detail. For example, Iona College has a beautiful campus. This very statement is in between what is, and what is not. Knowledge is relevant to what is, and opinions are just assumptions. This is where Plato introduces us to his theory of the forms, which are absolute true objects of knowledge. Forms cannot be obtained from any of the senses, only from true knowledge. Forms are absolutes such as justice, happiness, goodness, etc. Forms are responsible for making sense of our surroundings and making sense of why things are as they are. On page 13 in John Cottingham’s book, Socrates says, â€Å"I need not remind you, that a lover, if he is worthy of the name, ought to show his love not to some one part of that which he loves, but of the whole. † meaning when someone loves something they love the entirety of it, not just a part but every part. Socrates knows that the average human is unable to love something for all that it is because they do not have any knowledge. The philosopher loves all knowledge and wisdom and will always be curious and stay open-minded until they find knowledge. During this dialogue Glaucon disagrees with what Socrates says, Glaucon believes that you do not need to be a philosopher in order to be curious and know things. Socrates says that the difference between a person of that type and a philosopher is that philosophers are lovers of truth. On page 14, Socrates says, â€Å"The lovers of sound and sights, I replied, are, as I conceive, fond of fine tones and colours and forms and all the artificial products that are made out of them, but their mind is incapable of seeing or loving absolute beauty. † He is saying that philosophers are very different from the lovers of sight and sound because they claim to know all about the beauty of things but cannot claim to have any knowledge. Those lovers of sight and sound do not see the beauty itself, they are only lovers of opinion. These lovers cannot, and will not ever be philosophers. Whereas philosopher embrace each and every thing for itself and each part that it is. Socrates is defining a true philosopher as someone who desires the entirety of knowledge and loves the sight of truth. A lover of truth is a knower of truth. This knowledge that philosophers possess are the forms. Socrates does not actually know of the World of Forms, he never gives a name to these realities and form of true knowledge. Plato is the one who introduced the world of forms based off of Socrates ideas. When reading The Republic, one must infer that Socrates is talking about the forms. Socrates knows the forms are present, that there is a higher level of knowledge and reality, but never puts a name to this object. Knowledge is certain and can never change due to the forms. Socrates is a firm believer in that knowledge as a whole is relative to being and knows being. He then will go further and divide all being into classes. The classes are, what is completely and what is not at all. These classes can be further divided into what is both and what is not. What is completely is knowable, which is also the forms because only they can count as what is knowable. The forms are certain knowledge and unchangeable. Only philosophers have knowledge because only they have access to the forms. What is in no way is inexperience and what has not used by the senses. What both is and is not is the matter of opinion. Knowledge and opinion can be separated since they are such different objects. The philosopher is known for being wide awake on top of having knowledge. The philosopher is awake to reality of the world and his eyes are wide open to understanding truth and consuming knowledge. Being in his actual world he is able to use reason and come to conclusion of obtaining knowledge. The non-philosopher, the one who only has opinions is a dreamer, living in a dream world. This dream world is only a reflection of the forms, which are only minor images and are not existent. This dreamer can be awoken from his slumber of the world of forms once his temporary turn into more permanent knowledge. Socrates now introduces faculties of our mind which are knowledge of the real and our notion in appearances. One can use reason to understand the properties of the form of beauty, when doing this that one has achieved the power of knowledge of beauty for its true self. But if one only see some parts of beauty they only believe in its general appearance. His senses can deceive him if that is all he is doing. This person cannot be a philosopher for believing in only the appearance of a thing. Glaucon compares the attempt to separate knowledge from the belief in appearance by saying this process is so weak that it reminds him of riddles and children’s puzzles. On page 17 Glaucon says, â€Å"They are like punning riddles which are asked at feasts or the children’s puzzle, and upon what the bat was sitting. A man who was not a man (a eunuch) threw a stone that was not a stone (a pumice-stone) at a bird that was not a bird (a bat) sitting on a twig that was not a twig (a reed). † Glaucon is expressing the misperception of the intellect and how it is hard to actually separate knowledge from the appearances of things. As one can see from The Republic, Socrates has generally the same repeating ideas about those who have knowledge and those who have opinions. It is extremely clear that Socrates only believes that philosophers are the only ones who have knowledge. The non-philosophers consist of those who only have opinions meaning they only view the appearance of things. These non-philosophers are quick to judge a thing not for itself due to the fact that they are lacking from knowledge in their minds. Plato introduces us to a new concept the world based off of the teachings of Socrates. This new concept is the world of forms and will take us into a deeper understanding of knowledge more than one could ever think to have known. The forms are what lead us to true knowledge. With the help of the knowledge from the forms one can now know reason, and why things are the way they are. The world we live in now makes sense and everything can come into place. In conclusion Socrates says knowledge is much more powerful than opinions, that the philosophers who love the truth in each thing are to be known as lovers of knowledge, they are not and never will be lovers of opinion due to how much knowledge they have.

Principles of Banking and Finance

Principles of Banking and Finance: Single Cashflow 1. Present Value (PV) * the value on a given date of a payment or series of payments made at other times (past or future) * Discounting from the future * Value at t=0 on a given time line (â€Å"t† is the period, ranging from 0 to n where â€Å"n† being the last period). * Net Present Value (NPV): PV after deducting all the costs 2. Future Value (FV) * The amount to which a specific sum and /or series of payments will grow on a given date in the future * Compounding (interests upon interests) Value at t>0 on a given time line Single Cashflow: Formulas FV = PV(1 + i)t PV = FV / (1+i)t i = (FV / PV)1/t – 1 Effective Interest Rate * Effective (Annual) Interest Rate (EIR) * The interest rate expressed as if it were compounded once a year. * Used to compare two alternative investments with different compounding periods * Does not include any fees incurred as part of the loan package * Nominal or Quoted Annual Interest Rate (NIR) * (periodic rate) x (number of periods per year) The rate normally quoted in the loan agreement * All-in Rate * NIR that includes all the fees incurred as part of the loan package Formulas: Uneven Cashflow Even Cashflow * Annuity – series of equal payments (â€Å"PMT†) that occur at regular intervals for a period of time (â€Å"t†). * Payment is normally made at the end of the period. For payment occurs at the beginning of the period, it is Annuity Due. Perpetuity – infinite series of equal payments Formula: Annuities Formula: Perpetuities When n > ? , PV (Perpetuity) = PMT/i