An Important Idea in on the Side Walk Bleeding Essay Example for Free

An Important Idea in on the Side Walk Bleeding Essay An Important Idea in on the Side Walk Bleeding and the Sniper An important idea in On the Sidewalk Bleeding by Even Hunter was that of the importance of having your own identity. Andy, the central character of this short story taught me a valuable lesson as to the significance of this. He also made me aware of the fact that we need to think things through thoroughly rather than making impulsive decisions. Andy was a sixteen year old boy who Wore a purple Jacket; the lettering on the back of the Jacket read The Royals, a name which he was proud to own. But not until he was stabbed did he realize the reality of taking on the identity of what you are not. Underneath the rough, tough appearance of the Jacket Andy was a normal boy, who wanted to live a normal life and achieve many things But now he was dying. Andy had made the fatal mistake of wearing the Jacket of a gang. He had thought that this would give him power and prestige, and did not realism until too late that his identity needed to come from himself, that he had to work hard, and be himself rather than simply follow a crowd in order to form it. This taught me that we an take on someone elses identity the easy way, but it is not so easy to lose, even when it is no longer wanted or needed. A valuable lesson I learnt from Andy was the importance of having your own identity and the necessity of thinking things through thoroughly before making decisions. When Andy became part of the gang he did not know that he was about to die, he did not know that it would rob him of his life and destroy his dreams, he did not know that a time would come when he would hate the title and its meaning, he did not know that he would die A Royal when he Just wanted to be Andy. From this I learned that Andy did not recognize the importance of having his own identity, until he understood that he would be Judged by the group he belonged to, rather than who he was himself. He was A Royal and proud of it. However, the time did come when he resented the title, he wanted to get rid of it but couldnt. This reminds us of our own actions that we have all taken on the spur of the moment while blinded by the glitter and glory of what may lie ahead, without taking the time to stop and think that it may be deeply regretted. We are simply attracted by someone elses power and think we can share it with no effort of our own. It teaches us that we need to spend time in thought, instead of making impromptus decisions, in order to avert these disastrous outcomes. The boy lay on the sidewalk bleeding to the world he wasnt Andy he was simply a boy. a royal how could he escape the title and Jacket that branded him with a stupid word, that to him now seemed meaningless? If he had not been wearing the Jacket he would not have been stabbed, the knife had not been plunged in hatred of Andy. The knife had only hated the purple Jacket; the Jacket was a stupid, meaningless thing that was robbing him of his fife and identity. It is clear that Andy understood too late; however, it has taught me that if we give up our identity to take on that of another group or body we may lose our own completely. It takes time and effort to find our own identity; teenage years in particular are a time for building identity, however, they are often too busy and too occupied to take this time and effort and therefore turn to a gang for the identity they also an important idea in The Sniper by L. Flattery. Unlike Andy in On the Sidewalk Bleeding the sniper has no name and is only referred to as The Sniper money who kills. This text taught me, that in war nobody has a face; nobody has an identity of their own. This story is about two snipers shooting at each other from opposite roof tops. A woman darted toward the side street. The sniper fired and she fell with a shriek into the gutter. A mans head and shoulders appeared, looking toward the sniper. The sniper raised his rifle and fired again, the head fell heavily on the turret wall. The short story ends ironically when the sniper realizes that he has killed his own brother The sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his rooters face. Only then when he saw his brothers face did he realism that his opponents were all individuals with identities of their own. A valuable lesson this taught me was that in war nobody has a face, everyone is Just shooting at the identity of the enemy, at the uniform of the opponent. The fact that none of the characters are named proves this yet again. A young republican, they are only identified by the side they ar e supporting. Because of this inability to see people as individuals they never realism that they may be killing friends and family. T also taught me that we deed to be prepared for the consequences of what may happen when we take sides of war and that we alone must be responsible for our actions. Both the short texts On the side Walk bleeding and The Sniper look at this idea of identity. However, while Andy finally recognizes the danger of not having his own identity and dies rejecting the gangs overriding one, we are left to assume the snipers ultimate understanding of the danger of losing your identity, that he will realism that he is in conflict with humans and will begin to wonder about the identities of all he has killed.

Environmental Responsibility in Global Capitalism

Environmental Responsibility in Global Capitalism Environmental Responsibility in Global Capitalism Global capitalism refers to an economic system and a method of production in which industries, trade, and means of production are mostly owned by private investors and corporations for profits. In a capitalist economy, capital accumulation, stiff competition for the markets and wage labor are common to the parties to a transaction. Even as capitalism and democracy increase human wealth, leading to an improved lifestyle, nations should regulate their industries and agricultural production so that they become environmentally friendly. This essay will thus seek to clarify how capitalists strive to maximize profits with environmental conservation as a critical issue. In my reading, the stronger governments may be disadvantaged when they implement policies that work towards environmental responsibility. The regulations are in favor of avoiding pollution and encouraging recycling. Their weak counterparts may continue with the whole idea of environmental degradation; hence producing cheaper products. The result is unfair competition in the world market. (Rolston, 2012, p. 2) For fair competition, both the strong and weak governments should enforce regulations that would ensure the industries only carry out production activities that are friendly to the environment. China’s current advancement in its economy shows its willingness to trash its environment for earning profits and exposing its citizens to a lot of health risks. The author of the book â€Å"a new environmental ethics† states that coming out of poverty requires an efficient state to enforce workers rights and environmental health. Without the implementation of such policies, workers may suffer from pollution, especially from air and water. Health problems are not only meant for the poor who, in this case are the workers but also the rich who suffer the consequences of pollution caused by the environment. Trading blocs such as the World Trade Organization have been against the environmental regulations by their member states. Capitalists are also up to the point that environmental concerns do not directly affect international entrepreneurs as capital will flow to the poorer countries. The investors argue that the development in poor countries would make them rich enough to afford environmental protection after some time. The environmental race seems to be moving to the bottom instead of heightening. Capitalists should find ways of maximizing profits for their businesses while keeping in mind the whole concern of environmental conservation. The world Trade Organization has not considered the consumption of genetically modified foods to be of a discussion in the health sector. The trading bloc argues that so long as the food is safe for consumption, there is no need for raising an alarm. The only advice the trading bloc gives is for consumers to boycott the products if they wish. Such misunderstanding brings confusion to the users who do not know which direction to take considering consumption of certain products. Statements that are issued by capitalists regarding their products make consumers have the notion that environmental conservation is a voluntary activity. Ever since, voluntary programs have never been done to the best, and that is the case in voluntary environmental protection. (Rolston, 2012, p. 3) A major problem with globalized capital based development is that the rich grow richer as the poor become poorer. Capitalists have continued to look for cheap labor in order to maximize their production. Such global inequalities created by capitalists have made the attempts to secure the environment unsuccessful. Wealth is inappropriately distributed leading to a gap between the economic statuses of nations. (Rolston, 2012, p. 3) It is unethical to conserve nature but fail to take full measure of the distribution of the benefits of exploiting natural resources. The overconsumption among the rich developed countries and under -consumption among the poor in developing nations is a cause of environmental degradation in both the sets of nations. The escalating consumption patterns with changes in population growth continue to create a difference in the state of the environment. Utilization of natural resources in countries varies, depending on the population and the consumption patterns. The author of the book also explains how both the developed and underdeveloped countries suffer from environmental degradation in different capacities. (Rolston, 2012, p. 5) Social fairness is associated with environmental protection and a more fair distribution of the world’s wealth is needed for the environmental preservation to last. Both the wealthy and the environmental ethicists are faulted for overlooking the poor in their concern to save the elephants. The setting aside of the biodiversity reserves and forest reserves makes the poor more unfortunate as the wild animals cause destruction to plants and crops in the areas inhabited by the poor people. Such damage to crops may be a source of environmental degradation in the areas. The crops and vegetation play an important role in the control and prevention of soil erosion that causes water pollution. The silt deposited in water bodies will not only have an impact to the poor but the wealthy as well. Sediments cause clogging of water pipes that are used globally hence affecting everybody. (Rolston, 2012, p. 6) It the book, it is noted that international markets and religion are the two places where humans learn a sense of global concern and fairness. The dimension of faith is expected in the world religions that compare individual behavior with the act of compassion and respect for human beings. In Christianity and Buddhism, for instance, fairness in markets would be encouraged to show concern for the poor. (Rolston, 2012, p. 8) The dimension of religion in environmental conservation should be given a priority in order to show respect for the gods. Global fairness would ensure that the developed countries carry out activities that do not lead to unfair competition in the world markets. The same would apply to the developing countries who should not take advantage of the opportunity they are given to production. Locally, fair trading can be reinforced by punishing the breakers of the laid rules and regulations. In international markets, the implementation of punishment for law breakers is hard. Thus, it is upon the competitors to promote the peaceful existence and fair competition. For such to exist, religion plays a significant role in guiding those involved in the transactions. The Chinese remarkable economic growth has been among the most histrionic development progress in the universal economy over the past few years. Nevertheless, the evolution of Chinese financial progression has had tremendous ecological effects. In the previous couple of years, the brief ascent in social and in addition budgetary irregularity, natural griminess, amassing rural emergency, predominant focal debasement and fading frequent administrations have developed to unsafe heights that could hypothetically lead to a volatile state (Chun, 2013 ,p. 34). In this part of the essay we emphasis on the conservation influence of Chinese e entrepreneurship improvement. Chinas vast populace and also its developing significance in the universal economy makes the environmental disaster go far beyond China itself. It is a significant portion of the evolution of the international ecological crisis (Lu, 2007, p. 19). Capitalism is focused in the search of profit and the continuous, strong force from the competition makes private industrialists, associations and the conditions to take after revenue accretion on progressively higher scales; this leads to populace intensification. The activities of the entrepreneurial financial scheme tend to result in endless incline in the revenue imbalance and prosperity distribution among nations (Rolston, 2012, p. 21). The inclination concerning slanting the slanting unevenness could, in the long run, lead to finish decays in expectations for everyday comforts for some individuals universally, coming about to a socially untenable state. The developing economic activities results in the exhaustion of materials. Besides, production and manufacture activities lead to material wastes that are a significant adverse effects on the ecology. Limitless economic development outcomes to drain off the resources and lead to environmental squalor. By use of a formula, the impact of capitalist buildup on the ecology can be figured: Ecology effect= Population Ãâ€"AffluenceÃâ€"Technology Hypothetically, if technological advancement can result in less ecological effect per dollar in central the population, then affluence can be immense (Philander, 2012, p. 54-56). As the Chinese drifts to a market entrepreneurial scheme connected to the universal entrepreneurial economy and ethos, resources deplete plus ecology deterioration takes into the course in vast and large levels. During the economy developing years, China was and still is a major producer of industrial wastes. China is a global factory in addition to a dumping site (Lu, 2008, p. 61). The environmental crisis is calamitous not only for China but also for the entire world. Conferring to a World Health Organization report, seven of the ten most inhabited cities in the globe are Chinese. Air contamination results to approximately 300,000 demises annually. In excess of 35 percentage of the aggregate lives claimed by air pollution are Chinese. Acid rain affects approximately more than a quarter of China (Gallagher, 2007, p. 37-39). Large scale air pollution from automobiles has recently worsened the situation. Most of China’s inhabitants who rely on bicycles and public channels of transport suffer from the dirty, polluted air as well as inclining traffic brought by the combustion of fuel in the automobiles. The consumption autos in China is increasing at 18.5 percent annually. Cleaner technology tried to be put in place cannot regulate the pollution if this tendency continues. Water scarceness issue in China is immense (Lu, 2008, p. 16). Upper China mainly experiences water inadequacy. Yellow River flows beneath Loess Plateau where much of vegetation is swept away by erosion; this leads to a decrease in the capability of the plants to hold and reserve water and the water supply from Yellow River has decreased. There is violent rivalry for water amid many farming upstream districts and the industrialized downstream districts. Owing to water scarcity, as well as mass contamination of shallow water, many towns and villages are progressively getting water from subversive reserves. Effluence is deteriorating the aquatic catastrophe. In a preceding report, in Pearl River Deltas besides Yangtze River Delta areas, the water crisis is dominant and the water is considered inconsumable due to heavy effluence (Gallagher, 2007, p. 57). China’s 27.9 percent total land is an expanding desert and more than a quarter of the land suffer from high extents of erosion. More than 35 percent of the total land is tainted due to erosion plus pollution (Chun, 2013, p. 35-39). The high growth of industries and urban centers is demanding more agricultural land. The rest of the agricultural land is affected by pollution from chemicals, mining activities, and effluence from industries. According to an International Energy Agency report, the Chinese are the reason for 7 percent consumption of the global primary energy in 1974 besides 14 percent in 2003. China’s energy consumption is approximately 4 percent and if this trend endures it will double in less than two decades (Chun, 2013, p. 41). Recently, China’s energy demand has risen. Amid the years 2000-2004, China was accountable for 40 percent of the worldwide total increase in energy depletion. The escalation in the use of individual automobiles in the past decade lead to a vigorous increase in oil consumption. China uses its energy much more inefficiently compared to other developed capitalist nations thus China needs to fuel its vigorous economic advancement by upgrading its efficiency instead of inclining energy consumption. In relation to other countries, China’s energy consumption per dollar of GDP is greater than the global average only by a small percent that proposes that China has bounded its potential to increase energy efficiency (Larsen, 2004, p. 68). Chinas developing interest in vitality and hunger for oil happen against the foundation of a creating worldwide vitality emergency. The world right now relies on upon oil and gas for 56 percent and all types of fossil powers for 80 percent of its aggregate essential vitality utilization. There is developing confirmation that worldwide oil and gas creation could achieve a top and begin to decrease in the advancing decade. A developing reliance on coal would quicken the consumption of coal and significantly intensify the effect on an unnatural weather change (Gallagher, 2007, p. 62). Soon it is exceptionally impossible that the different types of renewable energies can supplant the fossil fills to manage the present levels of world vitality utilization and future monetary development. The current Chinese development example could enormously quicken the happening to the worldwide vitality emergency and lead to possibly exceptionally perilous geopolitical circumstances. Climate structures forecast that global warming would result in reduced rainfall in northern China and increased the fuel in southern China. The North China Plain has been experiencing water shortage since thirty years ago. On the other hand, southern China has regularly been covered by floods (Philander, 2012, p. 51-56). Climate alteration in China could cause a decrease in its agricultural yield especially affecting rice, maize as well as wheat. In short, climate change may significantly worsen the Chinese water crisis as well as loom if food security. Recently, environmental awareness amid city inhabitants has advanced. Cities like Beijing is being cleaned up and cleaner, gas-fueled power stations are being constructed. However, polluting firms are moved to rural areas in place of being retrofitted to decrease effluence and waste water should be treated instead of being sent away to the sea. As a result of these actions, the rural inhabitants are affected by environmental squalor unfairly (Philander, 2012, p. 61). For example, the profit- making capitalist firms has a huge role in generating pollution. Farmers endure the consequences of heavy metal pollution without any mode of reimbursement. More than 100 million are affected by this crisis. Farmers may be ignorant of the ecological effects of the polluting firms at early levels in any case, which is evident to that something is not right when the waterway runs dark or when a kid pass away. Nevertheless, complaints from the poor rural farmers are not considered and little is done (Larsen, 2004, p. 73). The central government is contingent on the revenues made by the firms. In other circumstances, the administrators are major shareholders of the contaminating firms; therefore have a direct interest to retain the firms in a production mode and reduce expenditure as much as possible. When the affected have no valid channels to discourse their complaints, social turbulence is inevitable. Finally, Chinese capitalist growth is bearable. In the event that the ebb and flow development example proceeds, in the not extremely inaccessible future, China may need to battle with significant vitality emergencies, intense decreases in sustenance generation, fatigue of usable water assets, wild general wellbeing emergencies and calamitous characteristic debacles (Larsen, 2004, p. 89-93). Not just the Chinese economy would need to develop and the current social structure would fall, the potential outcomes on the populace could be excessively terrible, making it impossible to envision. To forestall such a self-annihilation from happening, it is important to change generally the whole existing social and financial structure. The economy must be arranged towards meeting the populaces essential needs as opposed to the quest for benefit and capital aggregation (Philander, 2012, p. 65). To balance out and enhance China ecological conditions, China needs to most importantly settle its general utilization of vitality, water, and area assets and afterward steadily decrease the utilization of these assets to manageable levels. In conclusion, as capitalism teaches anyone never to be satisfied with their income, and instead promote endless growth, environmental conservation should also be brought to a high gear. The escalating consumption in developed countries and an increasing world population, in general, should be a motivating factor in controlling environmental degradation. We ought to be reminded that the escalating numbers of people, who would if they could, work together in preventing and controlling environmental pollution. It is through the efforts of everybody that the beautiful environment will be preserved even as production activities are growing. References Chun, Lin. China and Global Capitalism. 2013. 19 May 2015. Gallagher, Mary Elizabeth. Contagious capitalism globalization and the politics of labor in China. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2007. Larsen, Lene. Responsibility in world business managing harmful side-effects of corporate activity. Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2004. Lu, Haitian. The role of China in global dirty industry migration. Oxford: Chandos, 2008. Philander, S. George. Encyclopedia of global warming climate change. 2nd. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications, 2012. Rolston, H. A new environmental ethics. New York: Routledge, 2012.

The Globalization Of Youth Culture Cultural Studies Essay

The Globalization Of Youth Culture Cultural Studies Essay In their article The Glocalization of Youth Culture: The Global Youth Segment as Structures of Common Difference, Kjeldgaard and Askegaard provide an analysis of global youth cultural consumption based on an empirical study. In our modern life, global teens play an important part in the global culture, and the teenage culture on a global scale reflects a youthful lifestyle and affects the constitution of global culture (Kjeldgaard and Askegaard, 2006). Hence, Kjeldgaard and Askegaards research has a special significance for us to know more about the global youth cultural consumption. From the article the fact can be also found that the young value changes and leads the future trend and fashion. Through the analysis of the global youth segment which may have common difference, readers can have a clear understanding of youth culture. In the article The Production and Consumption of Japanese Culture in The Global Culture Market, the author demonstrates an explicit process of the production and consumption of culture, and presents the fact that Japanese culture crosses national borders and has profoundly influenced the global culture. In the process of economic globalization, local culture crosses boundary and penetrates into other nations. This process can be called cultural globalization (Golstein-Gidoni, 2005). In this article, culture is presented in front of different people as a product, which is an approach for readers to understand the process of culture transfer in globalization. The author focuses on Japanese culture as a global cultural production to explain the global culture market. Meanwhile, both of the two articles demonstrate the fact that in globalization, culture has significant impact on peoples contemporary way of life. The essay will comment the two articles from the following four aspects: th e first one is about material culture and consumerism shaping peoples contemporary way of life; the second one is on cultural and social representations reproduction; the third one mainly analyzes the production and construction of identities through consumer society and global cultural industry; the last one discusses the social ramification of culture industry by addressing the relationship between the consumer and the marketplace. 2, Critical Review Material culture and consumption have a close relationship in the modern world. Due to the special relationship, they affect and shape the modern lifestyle. In the first article, the author shows readers different cultures of young people by comparing the differences of young consumers in Denmark and Greenland. Yong people establish their own culture, and they pursue fashion and have their own values. Young culture affects the lifestyle of young people. Young people advocate fast-paced life and pursue their own lifestyles, because they are deeply affected by the young culture (Abrams, 1959). Although young cultures in the world have some differences, they also have some common grounds that have an impact on young people and shape the lifestyle of young people. In the second article, readers can know more about the Japanese cultures influence on the contemporary way of life. Consumer culture is a culture of life after all. The Japanese lifestyle is different from other countries by th e affect of Japanese culture. Every country has their own culture, which can distinguish them from the other people. Duo to the differences of culture, people may have different lifestyles. Different social representations create different culture of their own, and different culture can also form different social representations. Young people form their own culture. à £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Coolà £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾ is popular with young people, and they regard the cool as a fashion. Nowadays, à £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Coolà £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾ culture has become the popular culture between young people. Culture shapes gender, tribal, and ethnic identities as a form of consumption. On the one hand, they have their own music tastes, clothing styles, and media habits, which distinguish them from the other people. On the other hand, young have become a social category, which has been closely related to the development of modernization. Young culture represents the young people, and young people develop the young culture. Japanese culture crosses national borders, which leave a deep impression on the people of other countries (Featherstone, 1990). Because Japanese form a unique culture of their own country , Japanese culture can differ from culture of other countries. Gravity and enthusiasm are often read in the Japanese culture, and they have become the special symbols of Japanese. Consumer society and global cultural industry affect the identities of different people. People share the different culture and they have different consumption in their daily life. Consumer society supplies a positive and fast-paced environment for the young people, and young people have become a social category by the effect of consumer society and global cultural industry (Thomas, 1997). The model of young people gain cultural significance in the early of this century, and the young consumers are lack of responsibilities. As a result, the teenage identity become inevitable a symbol of leisure and hedonic consumption. In the context of cultural globalization, Japan has generated its own Japanese culture, which makes Japanese people different from people of other countries. Japanese culture has given Japanese people special identities that belong to their own. Since post-World War II, young people have been seen as a huge market segment and the new mass popular culture, so more and more social ramifications of culture industry are created by the market segmentation. Marketing industry begins to tap into young by the driving of this cultural viewpoint. As a result, some new sunrise industries enter the market and carry out the strategy of market segmentation. Culture industry can generate all kinds of social ramifications, and young culture is no exception. Japanese culture develops into a special culture industry by the strategy of exporting and importing (Theodore, 1989). In the long process of development, representations of Japanese culture are becoming more and more, such as Japanese art, martial arts, ink painting, tea ceremony, and some of them have become new industries by addressing the relationship between the consumer and the marketplace. 3, conclusion From the two articles some key themes can be found that on the one hand, material culture and consumerism shape contemporary way of life, and culture has a lot to do with the lifestyle of people. On the other hand, material culture such as young culture and Japanese culture can also produce different industries, which are all in the context of cultural globalization. Culture distinguishes people from other people. In the process of cultural globalization, people should resist the invasion of unhealthy culture and study excellent culture, in order to achieve their own development.

Democracy In Ancient Greece :: Ancient Greece Essays

Democracy in Ancient Greece   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Greeks were very advanced for their time. They realized that they need a new form of government and they were able to invent the first democratic government in the world. The democracy that the Greeks came up with was based on two important factors. The first one was the population growth in Athens grew at a very fast rate. The second was the advocating of political, economic, and legal equality for all which some male citizens remembered from the living conditions in the Dark Ages. The Greek system of Democracy did have its shares of problems though.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Greek system of democracy was ruled by a body of nine elected officials whom were called archons. These men who were aristocrats lead the government and had supreme control over all of the verdicts and criminal accusations in Athens. Problems arose when aristocrats become jealous of one another and rivalries ensued under the early stages of Athenian democracy. The result of this jealousy was the establishment of a code written by the appointed ruler Draco. This code of laws promoted stability and equity. These laws however did more to hurt the democracy of Athens than to help it. It seems that Draco wrote this code of laws in order to benefit himself rather than to benefit the government of Athens.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The democracy of Athens was used in many ways other than for what it was designed for. It was abused by many rulers of that time. They were concerned with their own personal growth and because of their greed and selfishness, they made laws and codes that would benefit their own personal gain. The results though have not always been as what they had expected to have been. Many of the lower classes were treated very unfairly and rulers lost popularity to the lower classes. Civil war was even about to break out at one point due to Draco's codes and laws.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When civil war almost broke out in Athens the codes and laws were once again revamped. This time a pathway was attempted to be laid down that would accommodate both the upper and the lower classes. In the end four classes were developed to rank the male citizens of Athens based on their income. The five- hundred-measure men, horsemen, yoked men, and laborers were the four classes that were devised by this new system of codes and laws.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the Athenian society both the theories failed the men, and in turn the men failed the theories. Some of the theories that the rulers came up with

The Theory of Human Development :: Papers

What makes a person what they are? Why does a person do what they do? Where does personality come from and how does it grow? These are some frequently asked questions when discussing the topic of personality. The latter of the questions is actually an answer in itself. Personality does originate from a specific point, and from then on it continues to grow and become exponentially more complex. This core point from which personality begins and the growth of it will be discussed in the sections to follow, but first we must look at certain assumptions that are commonly made when developing a personality theory. Assumptions The first of these assumptions concerns whether one believes that the behaviors, any type of action, a person exhibits are produced by conscious choices and decisions, also known as free will, or "determined" by forces beyond one's control. I believe in the free will explanation, but not the type of free will commonly imagined. Humans do ultimately have the power to choose their actions, however the extreme influence of other factors, such as heredity, environment, and learned behaviors, may make it seem like a persons actions were predetermined. For example, if a starving people were put into positions where they could either eat a Subway turkey round placed in front of them or just sit there and stare and stare at it, common sense shows that these people would eat. However, it is possible that one person, like an anorexic, would just sit and stare at the sandwich. For that reason, it can be assumed that human beings do have free will, however the choices made are greatly impacted and seemingly determined by inherited basic needs, environment, and learned behaviors. This leads us into a second assumption, rationalism or irrationalism. Do human beings operate primarily on the basis of intellect, or on the basis of impulses and passions? The answer is the latter theory. Going back to the Subway example, the most likely decision on whether or not to eat the turkey round would be based on an irrational impulse in one's subconscious. The basic physiological need of food has a profound influence on the given choice. But note that this is only the most likely response and not a definite one. There is always the chance that a person could make a conscious, rational decision not to eat. Because a people ultimately do have some sort of a conscious decision over their actions, it cannot be assumed that behavior is solely determined by irrational impulses.

Eskimo Pie

Eskimo Pie Case Part 1 â€Å"As an advisor to Reynolds, would you recommend the sale to Nestle or the proposed IPO? † Subpoints: 1. The managers of Eskimo Pie wanted to find an alternative to Nestle’s acquisition offer for one main reason: Eskimo pie would lose its independence. If Nestle went through with the acquisition, Eskimo would not continue its tradition of being a stand-alone company in Richmond with this meaning that its headquarters and management staff would probably be replaced too.Fundamentally, Eskimo was reluctant to being acquired by Nestle because it felt it would be an aggressive takeover of the company. It would ruin a 70-year long business to take advantage of its tax conditions and it would probably transform the business similar to a traditional integrated manufacturing and marketing approach. 2. David Clark knew that Goldman Sachs had a long-standing relationship with both Reynolds and Nestle. This meant that GS had a conflict of interest in this acquisition.The solution that would best satisfy GS’s interests would be to sell Eskimo to Nestle but this might not be the best solution for Eskimo. So David Clark is dealing with Wheat First Securities instead of Goldman Sachs because he wanted to find an alternative to Nestle’s offer. Since Wheat First Securities had no long-standing relationship with neither Reynolds nor Nestle, it had no conflict of interest in this acquisition. It could see with more objectiveness which acquisition is the best for Eskimo.Furthermore David had personal interest in dealing with WFS because his own position could be put at risk by a Nestle acquisition. 3. IPO alternative: Bulls| Bears| * Good IPO market conditions, in terms of number of deals and value| * No exploitation of possible synergies with competitors, confirmed by Nestle as the major bidder| * Updated forecasts containing results (Sales, Net Income, Capex) better than expected| * Timing – an IPO offer would take a l onger time than a private sale| * Proceeds from the sale at least equal to Nestle’s offer in the worst hypothesis ($14 share rice)| * Uncertainty – related to price and future market conditions| * Less complications- no terms, provisions, negotiations, or compromises| * Lack of expertise of Wheat First Securities| * Social Benefits – saving a local company and jobs| | * Reynold would be able to get liquidity| | Part 2 1. Considering the DFCF model with the projections of Wheat First and growth of FCF of 5%, the equity value of the firm is $47. 286 million. Thus the offer from Nestle of $61 million is appealing for Reynolds, aiming to sell the company.Also the proceeds from the IPO proposed by the management and Wheat First Securities are able to adequately compensate Reynolds. Assuming a price range within $14 – $16, the net proceeds for Reynolds would be $51. 652 and $57. 230 respectively, still higher than the considered equity value. As a matter of fac t the private sale to Nestle is still the most convenient to Reynolds. 2. To value Eskimo Pie using multiples method we should decide whether to use the transaction multiple, available from the Drumstick deal, or business and market based multiples. The implied value on sales from Drumstick transaction can be used to assess the value of the company only if the two companies and deals are significantly comparable. In this case accurate information are not available and the peculiar business model of Eskimo Pie, based on licensing, makes this method not highly reliable. * Multiples based on business and market data imply the use of realized or projected values. The management of Eskimo Pie forecasts higher sales in the future years, thus using realized data to calculate the value of the company could lead to mispricing.Therefore the information of 1991 is used to implement the method. * Looking at comparable companies, two firms are operating in the same business, Empire of Carolina, Inc. and Steve's Homemade Ice Cream. Since multiples based on operating measures such as EBIT or EBITDA depend less on firm leverage and cash than those based on Earnings and we have relevant information available from those two companies, multiples like EV/EBITDA or Firm Value/EBIT seems to be most accurate. Considering the calculations in Exhibit 7 based on the Firm Value/EBIT multiple, Reynolds should sell Eskimo Pie for an amount not less than $56. 68 million. The offer from Nestle is consistent with this valuation of the company, whilst the proceeds from the IPO are sufficient to adequately compensate Reynolds only if the share price is higher than $15. 66. Notwithstanding, if we take into account the implied price using the P/E multiple or transaction multiple, the threshold to sell the company is even higher ($82. 891 and $73. 200 respectively). Thus, neither the IPO option nor the Nestle offer are appealing to Reynolds. 3. The theory says that multiples only work if the comp arison group is sufficiently comparable in all other respects.In order to know if we could use other companies’ multiples or the average of them we must see if they are sufficiently comparable to Eskimo, in other words we must see if the value drivers of the firms are approximately the same. The eligible companies in terms of business model and structure are Empire of Carolina, Inc. and Steve’s Homemade because they both market ice cream and license their formula. All the other companies having a different business model and structure will not be taken into consideration as comparable companies.As a first comparable driver we will use the operating profit margin. Eskimo has a 6,83% operating profit margin calculated on data of 1990 (exhibit 1). Carolina and Steve instead have respectively 15,38% and 11,11% operating profit margins. This tells us that†¦ The tax rate is the same for all companies therefore it is not a relevant driver in making a choice on which comp arable company to use. Since we don’t have the cost of capital and the cost of debt, we will compare the risk class and leverage among the considered companies.We can see that Carolina and Steve have very different risk classes, one is a C and the other is a BBB, Eskimo on the other hand is a BBB because to calculate the WACC we used a cost of debt correspondent to long-term bond in the BBB risk class. So this means that†¦ The leverage of the three companies are 0,07 (Eskimo), 0,08 (Steve) and 1,747 (Carolina). Carolina has a very high leverage because its debt is more than 1,5 times its equity, instead the other two have a debt which is inferior to their equity.So even if the two companies have similar business models, through a deeper analysis we found that Eskimo is effectively similar to Steve but very different respect to Carolina. Steve has a closer operating margin to Eskimo’s than Carolina. It also is in the same risk class, and its leverage is alligned wi th Eskimo’s. Carolina on the other hand has more than double of Eskimo’s operating margin. Its in a riskier class and its leverage is much higher than Eskimo’s. Therefore it was correct to use Steve’s Homemade Ice Cream as a comparable company.The only case in which we would use an average, instead, would be if the two companies were both very similar to Eskimo. 4. The fact that DFCF approach gives a lower value for the company than multiples-based approaches depends on market drivers. In particular, the case can be that the DFCF model implies a WACC that does not reflect the cost of capital and implied risk perceived by the market. As a matter of fact the market overvalues future growth opportunities, leading to high multiples on EBIT and Earnings.

Alternatives to Prison Summary

need of â€Å"correction† than the prisoner. The caring communities have yet to be built. from Instead of Prisons: A Handbook for Abolitionists Why Decriminalize? Abolitionists advocate drastically limiting the role of criminal law. We do this not because we wish to encourage certain behaviour, but because we realize that criminal sanctions are not an effective way of dealing with social problems. There are far too many laws on the books. It would be prohibitively expensive to enforce them all. This results in unjust and arbitrary law enforcement. Powerless persons are imprisoned while more powerful persons go free. People of colour, first nations and poor people bear the brunt of unequal law enforcement. The crimes most frequently considered for decriminalization are those which are â€Å"victimless†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. offenses that do not result in anyone's feeling that she has been injured so as to impel himher to bring the offense to the attention of the authorities †¦. behaviour not injurious to others but made criminal by statutes based on moral standards which disapprove of certain forms of behaviour while ignoring others that are comparable. A system â€Å"bursting at its seams† is perhaps the most visible effect of overcriminalization. Overcriminalization encourages the wide use of discretionary power in law enforcement. Because there is no complainant, police resort to questionable means of enforcement. Investigative techniques used to gather evidence are often immoral and sometimes illegal. These include entrapment, use of informers, wiretapping and use of constitutional rights such as illegal search and seizure, invasion of the right to privacy and self-incrimination. from Instead of Prisons Alternatives to Incarceration Imprisonment should be a last resort. The presumption should be against its use. Before any offender is incarcerated, the prosecution should bear the burden of proving in an evidentiary hearing that no other alternative exists. An equal burden should be required for the denial or revocation of â€Å"good time†, probation and parole, which really are only other ways of imposing imprisonment†¦ We should further reduce our excessive reliance on prisons by making extensive use of alternatives to imprisonment, such as fines, restitution, and other probationary methods, which could at least as effectively meet society's need for legal sanctions. However, such alternatives must be made available to all people who have committed similar offenses, so as not to become a means for the more affluent to buy their way out of prison. And where some kind of confinement seems necessary, halfway houses, community centres, group homes intermittent sentences, and other means of keeping offenders within the community should be preferred to prison. from A Program for Prison Reform