Why is there unequal division of household labour in most of the society?

In this article, we address the division of household labour by examining its general situation and exploring different approaches used by different sociologist to account for it. The five approaches are namely exchange theory, resource theory, Marxist feminist theory, radical feminist theory and social construction theory will be discussed. With the evidence of previous researches, the situation of division of household labour is explored and evaluated in terms of its degree of gender inequality as manifested. In the second part, the situation is being accounted by those five approaches so as to determine whether the situation can be altered. Household labour can be defined in a variety of ways, however, in this article, we acquire those employed by Shelton (1996), that is defined as unpaid work done to maintain family member and/ or a home, which, emotion work and other â€Å"invisible† types of work are typically excluded. Meanwhile, it is a job described as monotonous, fragmented, with low status not being treated as a â€Å"real† work, bring no financial remuneration, isolated with inherent time limits, and often received no recognition Oakley (Morris 1990:81). Since mid 1960s, researches on comparing the division of household labour between men and women has been mounting, it is not only due to the great impact of household labour on the family life of contemporary married couple, but also due to its implication of gender equality in the society to certain extend. In this article, we address this issue by examining its general situation and exploring different approaches used by different sociologist to account for it. Through this process, it is hoping to find out the most comprehensive approach so as to determine whether the situation can be altered. A great amount of researches on the division of household labour have evidenced that women share the majority of the housework with especially the responsibility for regular, routine repetitive and childcare related housework. While for men, they are more likely to perform non-routine tasks. For instance, from Chu's research on the household distribution between women and men in Hong Kong (1997) revealed that â€Å"wife alone† occupies the largest share in taking up the actual responsibility of all the regular housework such as foodstuff buying, meal making, dish washing and house cleaning. etc.. Whereas, husband's involvement is limited on those irregular tasks such as car washing, bill recording and maintaining and repairing household apparatus. He also find that more than one quarter of the 230 interviewed households rely entirely on wives alone to do eight items of housework. One may doubt the situation in western countries. Would the westernized value system decrease the discrepancy in the household division of labour? This is clarified by numerous researches done in UK and US recently, which suggest that the â€Å"traditional allocation of domestic work to the woman hold firm† (Morris, 1990:86). Martin and Roberts echoed with the above conclusion by reporting that 73 percent of wives and 72 percent of husbands said that most of the wife did most or all of the housework. Though, the percent decrease when the wife is in employment, yet, majority said that wife did majority of the housework. Abbott & Wallace, 1997). From all these findings, we can conclude that the most notable characteristic of the current division of household labour is that whether employed or not, women continue to do the majority of housework. This pattern should never be ignored since as pointed out by several sociologists that the women's rare continuous full-time careers or small labour-market participation are greatly affected by their family responsibilities especially the existence of dependent children (Abbott & Wallace, 1997). The family responsibilities born by women despite their employment status create a dual role for them and the effects have been conceptualized by Morris in terms of â€Å"role strain†. She proposed that â€Å"it is manifest as a ‘wide', distracting and sometimes conflicting array of role obligations† (1990:94) where the source of strain comes from the accumulation of roles and their contradictory, incompatible role expectations or from the competing demanding for time and attention. This result in overload of total demands on time and energy for women in general and may turn employment from a mean of offering positive social and psychological rewards and a major contributing factor to women's increased liberation and independence (Pearson, 1990), to a stress for women. The tension for women between career and family is therefore is due to the unequal household distribution in the family on one hand. The inequality in power, status and wealth between men and women on the other hand is another reflection from the household distribution. However, what contribute to this pattern of household labour division? In the following, we explore five approaches in accounting this situation and concluding if it is possible for the unequal situation to be altered. The five approaches are namely exchange theory, resource theory, Marxist feminist theory, radical feminist theory and social construction theory. â€Å"Exchange theory with a view to examining family cohesion from the perspective of reciprocity and the exchange of rights and duties between husband and wife† (Morris, 1990:82). It sees marital satisfaction such as companionship, empathy and affection was attained from the instrumental exchange between economic provision and domestic labour from husband and wife respectively. From this approach, we can get inference that men spend more time in paid work while women spend more time in domestic work as they are naturally assigned to. Therefore, it fails to take account of differential power within marriage and of social status outside the marriage. That is it cannot explain why there is such exchange pattern, why man as a breadwinner and women as a housekeeper? Resource theory, an alternative approach may provide some explanation for it. It is proposed by Blood and Wolfe in 1959 (see Morris 1990) who applied the idea of differential control of valued resources and elaborated its application to the organization of household labour. This approach sees the division of housework as reflecting resources men and women bring to relationships. The possible critical resources proposed are the educational attainment, occupational prestige and the amount of earning from labour market. It formulated that the more powerful spouses do least household labour and that if the wife does most household labour it is because she wields least power. In other words, the individual with most resources can use those resources to negotiate his/her way out of housework (Brines 1993: quoted from Shelton & John 1996:304). Thus this approach assumes that housework is viewed negatively by both women and men and that they are therefore motivated to reduced their share of it. So, in this approach, division of household labour is actually an indicator of power and through which, we can understand the specific negotiations and decisions arrived at by individual couples in the organization of domestic life. Blood and Wolfe continue to argue that base on cross-cultural comparison, husband's relatively low contribution to domestic labour is not ideologically based but a result of rational resources distribution. In other words, the man has strength in the labour market and the women have time. Nonetheless, this approach have not addressed why men has more strength in the work field with higher educational attainment, higher earning and higher occupational prestige. According to above two approaches, division of household labour should be more equally shared with recent growth of married women's employment as well as the release of many men from the rigours the occupational system by unemployment, when, women are provided with chances to gain more resources and independence. Young and Willmott (1973; Quoted from Morris, 1990) proposed that the middle classes were at the forefront of a move towards symmetricality in marriage in which the role of husband and wife will become more identical. Wong stand in the same line with Young and Willmott stated that industrialization has substantially increased employment opportunities for women and as a result, has significantly advanced their position within the family. He observed that the wife's paid employment has contributed to much greater equality between spouses, in sharing of household duties and in decision-making (Leung, 1996). However, hitherto tasks of wage and earning and domestic labour are still largely segregated. Many researches can only give little evidence of male unemployment leading to major responsibility for domestic work, nor even to their taking an equal share. It is because most of the researches which asserted male have participated more in domestic labour are actually based on proportional sense but not absolute sense (Morris, 1990; Chu, 1997). In this sense, the proportion of man's contribution rises with the wife's employment is only due to her own household labour time falls rather than to his rise. This kind of â€Å"cutting back† or the kind of â€Å"role expansion† as mentioned above is not a real reappointment of household labour. The following three approaches can provide a more in depth explanation to account for such persistent pattern of unequal household division pattern between men and women. The emergence of capitalism with the related rise of mercantilism, industrialization, and a cash-based economy, eroded the position of women by shifting the centre of production form the domestic until to the public workplace. This separation not only devalued women's labour in the home, but it also made women more economically dependent on men† (Tilly and Scott, 1978; quoted from Anderson, 1997). This view of devaluation in women's status is clearly linked to the raise of industrialization and capitali sm. It is claimed that industrialization make the home became separated from the place of work and gradually women became associated with the domestic sphere, while men with public sphere, earning a wage and participating in politics. Then capitalist benefited from this segregation in domestic and earning labour as â€Å"women's domestic labour reproduce the relations of production and also contributes to the maintenance of tolerable living standards for men and may reduce political pressure for radical change†(Abbott & Wallace, 1997:201). From this approach, the division of domestic labour is related to the sexual division of labour in paid employment and this is why Marxist feminists derived women's oppression from capitalism. It is this benefit for the capitalist help keeping the division of domestic labour in a way that trapped women in the domestic sphere by decreasing women from opportunity of promotion and high earning. This view set out to analyze the situation not simply the relationship between domestic labour and the capitalist system, but also queries the nature of the relationship between paid worker and the domestic worker. Nonetheless, as Morris pointed out, once we take the feminine nature of the domestic role as our starting point then the focus of analysis need to be directed from an exploration of the relationship between capitalism, waged labour and domestic labour, to a focus on the nature of the male-female relationship (1990:83). This change of emphasis leads us to the post hold by radical feminist, which holds that the sources of women's oppression and domination at unpaid labourers is not capitalism but patriarchy that is â€Å"a system of values that asserts and maintains man's dominant position in society† (Morris, 1990:83). Abbott and Wallace also proposed that it is men's control over financial resources that gives them power in marriage and makes it difficult for a wife to be independent from her husband. Radical feminist argue that patriarchy in the patriarchal mode of production existed long before the development of capitalism. Yet, the line between patriarchy and capitalism is ambiguous as they are both historically induced from industrialization, in which separation of paid and unpaid work, and development of the role of â€Å"housewife† is evoked. This in turn developed capitalism and patriarchy intertwiningly. The picture provided by capitalism and patriarchy for domestic labour distribution is not complete if we did not take social construction theory into account. It explain why the above two ideologies about the economic structure and men respectively can have a spiral effect in the society. Sociologists who regard gender as social construction (Fenstermaker et al, 1991, Lorber 1986; quoted from Shelton & John, 1996) argue that housework produces both household goods and services and gender. It is pointed out that women's time spent on housework and men's general avoidance of it produce and transform gender. Therefore, researches find out that women and men may view their housework as expression of their gender and that women's attempt to think of housework as nurturance and love rather than work. This social construction of gender is a product out of the two ideologies as evidenced from institutional and normative forces and the cultural message about the role of male and female. As mentioned before, capitalism and patriarchy exploited women by depriving them to get as much power and status as men. When this is widespread and progress to become a social norm which in turn rooted into people's mind and constructed an ideology of gender, a vicious cycle may be resulted. For instance, they employers assume that motherhood is more central to women's lives than in career and the limited job opportunities and the low pay that the women receive may actually push them into marriage and motherhood. Women are then described to be trapped into the domestic sphere in an extreme sense as early socialization in the family, schooling, presentation of women's role in mass media and the structure mode in society all promote the unbalance share of domestic household. This approach can account for findings about the conservative gender role held by most of women even nowadays. It is found that a few women believed their husband were not doing enough and majority did not expect their husbands to share household responsibilities equally (Yogev, 1981: quoted from Morris, 1990:101). Undoubtedly, women's right and status are increasing with more voices against gender inequality. Yet, whether the trend of more and more obligation for a married women to became a working wife or working mother can attenuate the role specialization within the conjugal setting, depends much on the how they perceive housework and how they define fairness in the household. From the five theories discussed above, we can concluded that household labour division is inevitably a manifestation of gender inequality, while exchange theory and resources theory explain the situation with the most salient phenomenon such as material and resources allocation between men and women, Marxist feminist theory, radical feminist theory and social construction theory use a relatively more thorough approach to account for it. Therefore, we can speculated that in order to breakthrough the long-drawn practice of unequal division of household labour, women should firstly be conscious that equal share of domestic household with men is a right that is reasonable for them to pursue and secondly she has to undergo the struggle induced from the rooted cultural predisposition on the role as being a women, that is a mother and a wife. Otherwise, the spiral effect caused by capitalism, patriarchy and social construction will resist the division of household labour to change.

Chemistry In our Daily Life

Chemistry is a big part of your everyday life. You find chemistry in daily life in the foods you eat, the air you breathe, your soap, your emotions and literally every object you can see or touch. We live in a world of matter. From the food that sustains our lives to various objects that have built up our physical culture, everything is made up of matter. The human body itself is a mixture of matter of differing types. The humans who used materials obtained from nature for centuries, later made new materials out of these to suit their needs.Now the humans have thousand of materials for their use – both natural and human made. The ability that humans acquired to make new materials from natural materials is the basis of human progress. When the structure of the material world and the nature of physical and chemical changes in them were studied, humans were able to make new materials and to control their different properties. The development of chemistry made this progress possib le. The contribution of chemistry to fields like, agriculture, industries, health care, food industry, habitat, transport and research has been invaluable.1. You feel hungry because of the satiety center in your brain falls short of particular hormones to function and then sends the signal of hunger.2. If you have wondered, why is the sky blue, it is due to a phenomenon called the â€Å"Rayleigh scattering†, which depends on scattering of light through particles which are much smaller than the wavelength. Hence when light passes through gases, there is scattering and the sky appears blue.3. Coffee keeps you awake because of the presence of a chemical called adenosine, in your brain. It binds to certain receptors and slows the nerve cell activity when sleep is signaled.4. Anaerobic fermentation is also a great concept which is present in the chemistry of everyday life. It is present in yogurt, breads, cakes and many other baking products. It is the multiplication of certain us eful bacteria which increase the size of the food and make it more filling and soft.5. Soap is formed by molecules with a â€Å"head† which likes water (hydrophilic) and a long chain which hates it (hydrophobic).6. Lactose is the main complex sugar found in the milk. It's a pretty big compound formed by two smaller components: glucose and galactose. Such a big compound cannot get through the intestinal wall and into the bloodstream, so we need â€Å"something† to break it into smaller pieces. This â€Å"something† is an enzime named lactase. The more milk and milk products we consume, the more lactase we need.7. The iodised salt is a necessary intake. It prevents a disease called goitre.8. In the garden we use sprays to kill insects from attacking our plants.9. Vermiwash is a liquid fertilizer. It isused as a leaf spray.10. Elements in the Human BodyYour body is made up of chemical compounds, which are combinations of elements. While you probably know your body is mostly water, which is hydrogen and oxygen. Most of the human body is made up of water, H2O, with cells consisting of 65-90% water by weight. Therefore, it isn't surprising that most of a human body's mass is oxygen. Carbon, the basic unit for organic molecules, comes in second. 99% of the mass of the human body is made up of just six elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus.11. The medicines which we use to cure diseases is produced with the help of chemisty.Chemistry has a major role in our lives.Chemistry In Everyday LifeOur entire universe is made up of matter which is constantly changing forms and evolving into other forms of energy. Chemistry is defined as the study or science of this ever changing matter. The other sciences which we study commonly like biology, physics and mathematics are all dependent on chemistry and are known as specific studies under the elaborate subject of chemistry. Since there is chemistry seen in biological forms as we ll as physical states of nature, there are subjects called biochemistry and physical chemistry which help study these changes. There are many chemical changes which occur around us everyday but we are never aware of them.Chemistry in Everyday Life Examples:1) Water, which occupies 70% of the earth's surface is made by two chemical elements, hydrogen and oxygen.2) Soap is an emulsifier which allows oil and water to mix and so the oily mixtures on body and clothes can be removed after application of soap and water.3) Chemistry in everyday life for kids can also include why vegetables are colored. Colored vegetables consist of chemical compounds called carotenoids which have an area known as the chromophore. It absorbs certain wavelengths of light and thus there are colored vegetables.4) Food is cooked because of the steam that's present either in the water added or that which is present inside the food items.5) Onions make you cry due to the presence of sulfur in the cells which break after the onions are cut. This sulfur gets mixed with moisture and thus irritates your eyes.6) Polymers: Cotton is the material used for the manufacture of clothes for our daily use. Clothes are made by weaving together thick strands that are obtained by twisting together delicate fibres. Different kinds of fibres are utilized for different purposes. In modern times, we have been able to make substances that are similar, and with better qualities with the help of chemistry.

Structured Equity Derivatives Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Structured Equity Derivatives - Essay Example Leverage on equity returns over predetermined ranges. Limit or reduce downside exposure to the underlying equities. Even out, compensate or reduce transaction costs as part of multiple option sophisticated investing strategies. The term equity derivative essentially means a class of financial instruments whose value is at least partly derived from one or more underlying equity securities. Market participant's trade structured equity derivatives in order to transfer or transform certain risks associated the underlying. Options are by far the most common equity derivative; however there are many other types of equity derivatives that are actively traded. Ramaswami et al(2001) have lucidly described the concept of structured equity linked derivatives through the concept of Equity Linked Notes(ELNs).They state as follows, "An Equity-Linked Note (ELN) is an instrument that provides investors fixed income like principal protection together with equity market upside exposure. An ELN is stru ctured by combining the economics of a long call option on equity with a long discount bond position. The investment structure generally provides 100% principal protection. The coupon or final payment at maturity is determined by the appreciation of the underlying equity. The instrument is appropriate for conservative equity investors or fixed income investors who desire equity exposure with controlled risk". The figure below explains the profits at the expiration of a fully protected ELN . Current Industry Scenario Since their launch on the London Stock Exchange in 2005, Listed Structured Products have become popular and flexible investment tools for UK wealth managers and brokers. In there simplest form, they offer ETF like access to underlying that may be otherwise difficult or expensive to trade, such as commodities, emerging markets or property indices. The more structured products, such as Accelerators, provide enhanced upside participation with no worse than market risk. In addition they can reduce other risks, such as eliminating currency risk for non UK investments, or provide an element of capital protection in case of market falls. Another range of products are designed for Income seeking investors. These can offer high annual (or semi-annual or quarterly) coupon payments in return for giving away upside market participation. All Listed Structured Products enjoy the benefits of being traded directly on the London Stock Exchange. These include: Transparency:Live, two-way prices are maintained throughout the trading day Ease of trade:Products trade and settle via CREST as with UK equity Liquidity: Trades of 5m+ can be executed at prevailing market prices Flexibility: Min trade size of 1,000 makes products highly accessible Key Terminology:1 Trackers: Tracks an underlying asset (commodity, Halifax house price index, equity indices etc) Cost efficient means to trade an asset Diversify exposure across an index Stamp duty free Typically long-dated or indeed undated with an indefinite lifespan Reverse Trackers: An inverse relationship with the underlying asset Profit from downwards price movements in the underlying Stamp duty free Capital Protected: Exposure to underlying asset at fixed percentage Capital invested is protected at specified level Stamp duty free Yield Enhancement: Track underlying instrument without leveraged downside Can incorporate many different features which affect

Week 6 Project Deliverable 3 Submission Assignment

Week 6 Project Deliverable 3 Submission - Assignment Example The database is going to be designed based on the various requirements that are to be integrated in the Order management System, Inventory System and the Supply processing system. The general idea for the implementation of the database schema would adopt a general flow basing on the fact transactions in a certain business entity take a general format of: 6. The ordering process will capture the essential requirements of the customer for instance the customer name, physical address, contact information, the type of goods that have been ordered and their specific quantities. 7. The ordering process be able to forward a report to the supply processing system where stock issues will be done and will be able to make the necessary adjustments on the stock level quantities upon retrieval from the stores The database design process will be divided into different autonomous design tasks relative to the followed design process. Particular emphasis will be laid on the logical database design and the physical database design (Teorey et al, 2011). The logical database design main objective is to determine the relevant user requirements, examination of the process flows of the existing system with an aim of identifying the challenges that are faced by the user of the system. It is also aimed at studying the specific business environment of the company. Therefore, the expected outcome will be the emergence and formulation of a system-independent database description that meets the key requirements (Teorey et al, 2011). It represents the database actual implementation process in relation to the system that exists. The physical database design is dependent on the RDBMS (Relational Database Management System) which is adopted by the user (Teorey et al, 2011). The software and the hardware environments greatly influence the structure. The system will be used by different personalities of which important roles

The Effects of Brand Management (Global and Domestic) on the Internet Research Paper

The Effects of Brand Management (Global and Domestic) on the Internet - Research Paper Example This paper illustrates that the activity of brand management is equally important for both domestic and global brands as the prime objective of every organization, whether operating nationally or internationally, is similar, i.e. to increase profit margin through sales. Hence, in order to fulfill this aim, every organization attempts to offer high concentration over the concept of branding of products. Branding also improves the position of a particular product thereby improving its sustainability in future times. Besides, in this era of modernization and industrialization, the process of brand management, both in case of domestic and global concept, has developed as quite easier being restructured. Majorly, this is due to emergence of Information Technology (IT) which has eased the process of marketing of the products and /or services. Moreover, introduction of IT enhanced the passion of the Internet which offered a considerable impact on brand management in today’s context. Hence, it can be affirmed that introduction of Internet services has not only augmented the brand portfolio of business concerns but has also alleviated the efficiency of a product both in domestic and global scenario. Riezebos, Rizebos, Kist, and Kootstra describe brand management as the process which offers a detailed perception about a particular brand of an enterprise. Brand management is an art of performing various research processes in order to introduce inventive features in the brand. The main objective behind this type of procedure is to offer innovative products along with modern facets and thus retain its position in this competitive market. In addition, with the help of branding, brand equity along with customer tastes and preferences can also be analyzed in an effective way. This facilitates in improving both the tangible and intangible aspects of a brand, which enhances its stability and consistency in the market. Thus, branding is mainly important in order to provide the message to the targeted customers regarding a particular brand. This would at large enhance loyalty and help to establish an emotional relationship

MARX Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

MARX - Essay Example This is why the Christian God, the Jewish God, Buddha or any African God, for example, are wise, just and powerful1. All of man’s characteristics are gathered and joined in a larger than life, larger than man figure, with all of these characteristics projected on a grand, infinite scale. Feuerbach himself states that God is â€Å"of mans species-essence, the totality of his powers and attributes raised to the level of infinity†2. Feuerbach’s atheism may, for some part, resemble the classical atheism to which Marx himself adheres. However, we may notice that in Feuerbach’s case, God is not a non-existence, he is a creation. We may argue that Feuerbach implies the creation by a small group of people (the clergy, the religious class that exists in every society) of an infinite figure that will reflect the ambitions and needs of the entire mankind. Gods are images of the people itself and, in this sense, will reflect the main characteristics of those people. So far, we have stated that, according to Feuerbach, God is an image of man. Nevertheless, we are aware that in all monotheistic religions, God is the Supreme Being of the existential Universe, the most powerful element of the Universe. A creation of man has become more powerful than the Creator itself. Substituting the Creator and the Created, Feuerbach states that it was man that created God and not the other way around. This anti-theological (I would not consider it necessarily atheist, looking at atheism in its stricto-sensum definition of denying God’s existence altogether) paradox leads to alienation: man is separated from its own creation, which has become more powerful than himself. For Feuerbach, the subject (man) has become the object, hence the state of alienation in which he finds himself. Marx intervention is not necessarily on the conceptualization of religious alienation, but on the causes of this religious alienation that Feuerbach

Risk Assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 7500 words

Risk Assessment - Essay Example The participants involved in the risk assessment include:  Jack Philips, Hewlett-Packard chief IT officer who reviewed the safety of the entire report after completion.Patrick Michaels, Hewlett Packard senior IT technician that uses the information risk management to ensure that the operation of the company runs smoothly and providing additional information on what needs to be improved within the firm (Loughman et al., 2011 p 45).  James Williams, Hewlett Packard systems administrator who provided information on how secure the system was for use online. The information was obtained through the completion of questionnaires.  John Wallace, Hewlett Packard Data administrator provided information on the same through the completion of various reports after having done assessments and questionnaires.  Mike Johnson, Hewlett Packard computer security officer, gave information on the security system through doing reports and filling questionnaires.  Control objectives needed to secu re an organization.  This step will help in identifying the risks associated with the information system installed at Hewlett Packard. This will be effective in analyzing the various vulnerabilities that the systems may be exposed to. The systems may also be exposed to a number of threats within the company, for instance, environmental factors and various human factors (Calow 2009 p 12).  The process that was used to identify involved:  Ã‚  a) Identification of the susceptibility of the organization’s information system

The Portrayal of Transsexualism in Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Portrayal of Transsexualism in Media - Essay Example Transgender people know that most of the outsiders consider them to be somehow impaired, or mentally ill. This opinion dictates the suspicious attitude towards those, who don't belong to the community. The transgender community positions itself as a group of people who have a complex of medical/psychological problems they help each other to solve. They also let the outer world know that they unite not to let the world offend or discriminate those, who belong to their community. Transgender community is centered on the idea that the members have to support each other to ensure their survival. Some researchers identify transsexuals as the representatives of the "third sex" (Shapiro, 1991), thus transgender people often feel that they differ from the rest of the world psychologically, socially, and culturally. Some historians said that transgender people have always existed, but they revealed themselves only in the 20th century. "The modern study of what might be called transgenderism began with Magnus Hirschfeld and the 1910 publication of his book, The Transvestites: An Investigation of the Erotic Desire to Cross Dress", - says Vern L. Bullough, the author of the study Transgenderism and the Concept of Gender (2000). After this study, many scientists contributed to creating the transgender scientific base, including Freud. People have been becoming more and more tolerable towards this minority throughout the 20th century. Transsexualism is an issue that is widely discussed in media nowadays. Transsexuals as a group have announced themselves relatively recently, thus there is still lots of misunderstandings about the nature of the desire to live like the representative of the opposite gender. Lots of Americans have wrong information about the issue of transexualism, that is why prejudicial stereotypes are developed in the U.S society. Unfortunately media is one of the main sources of those stereotypes. It is natural, as it is from the media that most U.S dwellers get the information about transsexuals, but when this issue is put in the wrong light in books, articles, or TV shows, it creates severe problems for transgendered people and their families. The transsexuals often have problems with medical care, and with legal forces. The thing is that the usual doctors and nurses, as well as policeman, have little understanding of what the transsexual are. They have their own stereotypes about transsexuals, and, as a result, the transsexuals are often discriminated by these specialists. (Conway, 2003).They also have problems registering marriage in some state. In Kansas and Texas, for example, transsexual marriages are sometimes declared invalid, and the judges even sometimes refuse to acknowledge that the operated person is a representative of the gender other than he was born in. (Minter, 2004). For example, some articles and books, especially those written by orthodox believers, promote an idea that transsexualism is a mental illness. Moreover, de-jure they are right, as in DSM-4 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) it is classified as an illness. This is one of the main reasons for which transsexual people suffer discrimination when trying to find a job, as most employers don't wont to hire a person who is "mentally

Week 4 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 4

Week 4 - Assignment Example The risk management could aid in the development of the Comet in several ways to avoid the problems that emanated. The risk management could have engaged in risk identification and assessment. This could be done through proper risk analysis to establish the potential impacts of such risks. This could help in coming up with mitigative measures to such risks early enough. In addition, the risk management could have aided through monitoring of such risks and offering professional advices to de Havilland Aircraft Company regarding such risks. in addition, the risk management could have helped in ensuring design testing for the Comet to ascertain the credibility of the aircraft for its operations. There are several risks associated with any invention. These may include technical risks, financial risks, commercial risks and psychological risks. In addition, sociological risks also form part of the risks associated with innovations. In relation to the Comet, technological risks, sociological and financial risks were evident. A lot of money was invested in the design of the aircraft. In addition, several funds were invested in the manufacturing industry of the Comet. This money was invested in creating a streamlined airplane that could comfortable carry the passengers amidst maintaining aerodynamics at relatively high speeds (Case Study 7.1. Classic Case: de Havilland’s Falling Comet). Technological risks associated in the comet’s case involve the repeated accidents that befell the aircrafts leading to loss of several lives. This follows the new and radical features in such aircrafts. These new features were too risky and were associated with the explosions of fuse lages, as well as, metal fatigue from the wings of the aircrafts. The success of innovations majorly depends on the time taken to come up with such discoveries. Investing

Traditional Budgetting Essay Example for Free

Traditional Budgetting Essay Essay: â€Å"Traditional budgeting is counterproductive in today’s fast paced and highly competitive environment. Instead of tinkering with current budgeting systems, managers would be better off abandoning budgeting altogether – that is, companies should move beyond budgeting.† Discuss Introduction In the worsening economic conditions we live in today the question of the efficiency of budgets is constantly being discussed. â€Å"The usefulness of budgets has generated much recent discussion and debate. Though budgets are useful for coordination, communication, and performance evaluation, many people consider them the cause of gaming and earnings manipulation by managers, time-consuming and costly to develop, and a barrier to change. †(Murray-Lindsay and Libby, 2007) Van Mourik (2006) states, â€Å"Research suggests that 80% of companies are dissatisfied with their planning and budgeting processes and it has been estimated that these processes use up to 20% of all management time.† Research completed by Schmidt (1992) states, â€Å"In a study of 10 large energy, transportation and banking companies, we found that, on average, the equivalent of 5% of all staff employees were devoted full-time to budgeting activities. At one of these companies, which has a staff-support team of 3,000 employees, 160 employees devote time to aspect of budgeting. â€Å"Total budgetary costs in this company â€Å"may exceed $20 million a year†. I believe if a company is investing this much time and money in the process they should trust it whole heartedly but alas even a company with that much committed to the process are voicing their concerns at the process. Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, is attributed as saying, â€Å"the budget is the bane of corporate America.† (Daum, 2002) There are those that plump for the abolishing of budgets altogether, â€Å"Budgeting, as most corporations practice it, should be abolished. That may sound like a radical proposition, but it would be merely the culmination of long-running efforts to transform organizations from centralized hierarchies into devolved networks that allow for nimble adjustments to market conditions.† (Fraser and Hope, 2003) On the other side of the argument lie those who will openly agree that that the current budgeting techniques are not without their faults but they argue for the adaption of current techniques for the improvement of the company as a whole. â€Å"In recent times, headlines have appeared whose controversial nature have gained attention, for example ‘beyond budgeting’ and ‘who needs budgets?’ (Hope and Fraser, 1997, 2000) and which might have great emotional appeal to managers. As we shall see, less controversial and arguably, more appropriate, alternative headlines could be ‘time to change the nature of our budgets’ and ‘time to change how we use budgets’. (Van Mourik, 2006) In this paper I will outline: 1. The problems with current budgeting. 2. The arguments for abandoning budgets altogether. 3. The adaption of current budgeting techniques. 4. Give my thoughts on which is the best way forward for modern day budgeting. Criticisms of Budgeting Budgets as they stand currently are laden with criticisms. â€Å"Our study indicates that the budget process is obsolete given today’s economy, resulting in documents that are time-consuming to produce, of little predictive value, subject to gamesmanship and, quite frankly, out of date by the time they’re implemented.† (Doucet, 2002) â€Å"The budgeting process can often be bureaucratic and expensive, budgeting can fail to meet the needs of managers in competitive environments and budget systems can lead to managerial ‘gaming’ of the numbers.† (Lyne, 2004) â€Å"Budgeting seems almost totally divorced from the company’s overall strategic direction.† (Bourne, 2004) I feel that a document that is intended to help the company as a whole should at the very least be aligned with the company’s strategic goals. â€Å"Good budgeting comes down to trust, integrity and transparency.† (Jackson and Starovic, 2004) It can be argued that modern day budgets have none of these attributes. Management all seem to be in agreement that there are too many issues with budgets to make them worthwhile. According to Morlidge (2005), â€Å"Energy is focused inwards and not outwards. On negotiating targets, rather than on beating the competition. On sticking to ‘plans’, rather than responding to opportunities.† From my research I think Morlidge’s argument is very apt. Organisations are becoming more about beating the budget rather than making profits and beating the competitor. An example is cited in Jensen (2001) where, â€Å"The managers of one durable-goods manufacturer, struggling to make their minimum bonus hurdles, announced late one year that they would be raising the prices 10% across the board on January 2. The managers made the price hikes because they wanted to encourage customers to place orders by year-end so they could hit their annual sales goals. But the price increase was out of line with the competition and undoubtedly ended up costing the company sales and market share.† Budget makers should think to themselves how would they react faced with these goals? It promotes self interest over the best interests of the company, basic agency theory. This example leads me to believe that the tieing of budgets to performance evaluation encourages questionable and sometimes illegal behaviour in companies. This behaviour, â€Å"in most corporate cultures has become expected of responsible managers and board members.† (Jensen, 2003) Personally I feel that performance evaluation being tied to budgetary goals is not in the best interest of a company. If a company’s strategic goal is to develop its market share and boost profits then a budget should support these goals not openly conflict with them. â€Å"Budgets are created by looking back, when leaders should be looking forward. â€Å" (Ewing, 2006) Modern budgets encourage compliance and not enterprise. The same problems came up again and again in my research and gamesmanship seems to be at the heart of all that is wrong with budgeting. If management are to persist with budgeting I feel it is essential to remove the link between performance evaluation and remuneration. Abandoning Budgeting The Beyond Budgeting Round Table has stated, â€Å"the only way the inherent contradictions of the budgeting process can be resolved is by scrapping it altogether. It goes on to cite a number of companies that have ‘broken free from the shackles of budgeting and its culture of gaming and misinformation’.† (Bunce, 2004) Is abandoning the budgetary process really the way forward? Companies such as â€Å"Svenska Handelsbanken, Volvo Cars, IKEA, Borealis, Boots, Ericsson, Diageo, and British cider maker Bulmers† (Fraser and Hope, 2000) (Van Mourik, 2006) would all agree it is. These companies have all abandoned traditional budgeting in recent years and haven’t looked back. Svenska Handelsbanken a large bank in the Scandinavian area abandoned budgeting in the early 1970s. Since their change in philosophy they have outperformed their Scandinavian rivals on nearly every measure. Return on equity, total shareholder return, earnings per share, cost-to-income ratio, and most importantly customer satisfaction. Svenska in the late 1960s was losing customers and underperforming in the banking industry this all changed when they hired a new CEO by the name of Jan Wallander. Wallander only accepted the job on the condition that the bank would dramatically decentralize its operations. Svenska agreed and set in place a project that would change the face of their company. Nowadays the bank has only 3 organization layers – branch managers, regional managers, and the chief executive. This means the spans of control are very wide, stopping micro management. Each branch is free to set prices and discounts and to decide which products they will sell. The company operates its performance evaluation by putting their 11 regions in competition against each other like teams in a league. This competition is healthy for the business as each region is trying to outdo the other it is only in hindsight that they know how well they have performed relative to the other managers. This leads them to focus on maximising profits at all times rather than playing games with the numbers. This drastically differs from a budget where management have no incentive but to reach their preset goals. Beating the competition rather than some negotiated budget goes to the heart of the Handelsbanken model. (Hope and Fraser, 2003) (Gary, 2003) (Daum, 2002) (Cleary, 2012) Another example is Ahlsell, a Swedish wholesaler who abandoned budgeting in 1995. Since abandoning budgeting its main lines of business, electrical products, heating and plumbing have overtaken their Swedish counterparts in profitability. They changed their whole outlook on the budgets after suffering a slowdown in business in the early 1990s. Their organisational structure changed from one central command unit to giving responsibility to a large number of profit centres. Each profit centre competes against each other in the same way Svenska do. Local units have been freed to develop their own approaches in response to local conditions and customer demands. Key Performance Indicators are now used to set goals and impose controls for example the key indicators for the sales units are profit growth, return on sales and market share. These are all then compared against the competition which again incentivises the units to get the best possible result and not just to meet a target. (Hope and Fraser, 2003) (Daum, 2003) (Paludnach, 2003) From the above examples it is evident to me that company’s who are willing to put in the effort can abandon budgets and succeed. The above companies have not only had success but are leading their areas in most performance measures. Modifying Current Budgeting Although the corporate world is aware of the problems associated with budgeting most are set in their ways and feel there is a need for budgeting in all successful companies. â€Å"Companies that do without budgeting systems run the risk of being considered poorly managed.† (Jensen, 2003) The alternative to abandoning budgets completely is adapting the current processes to remove the chinks and have processes that are,†introducing new and more accurate financial models capable of linking budgeting to overall strategy. Research from the Accenture/Cranfield School of Management Study states that there is a correlation between companies modifying their budget processes and stock price performance.† (Doucet, 2002) One such modified budget technique is a Linear Compensation Plan. A linear compensation plan rewards actual performance, independent of budget targets. A manager receives the same bonus for a given level of performance whether the budget goal happens to be set beneath the level or above it. In simpler terms the linear compensation plan rewards people for what they actually do, not for what they do relative to what they say they can do. It removes the incentives to game the system. Managers no longer feel the need to provide inaccurate numbers to the budgetary process in order to low ball their goals. As a result the senior management receives unbiased estimates of what can be accomplished in the future. For lower level management it means they can stop wasting time spent on trying to game the budgetary system and this time can be dedicated to their real job: maximising the performance and value of their businesses. Removing the problems from the compensation system allows the budgeting process to do what it’s intended to do: provide the basis for good business decisions and enable the effective coordination of disparate units. (Jensen, 2001) (Jensen, 2003) Another option detailed in my research was Multidimensional budgeting (MDB). Multidimensional budgeting converts conventional budgets into formats that are more relevant to management. The main difference between a conventional budget and a Multidimensional budget is the conventional budget is broken down into four separate budgets. 1. The activity budget: This discloses how the company spends on specific tasks and the types of resources it devotes to them. It is useful for management as it enables them to look beyond the general ledger and probe the underlying work the organization performs. 2. The product budget: which states that each activity adds some value to a product for either and internal or an external customer. 3. The customer budget: This is created by matching products with their internal or external customers and shows the total spending proposed for each customer or customer service served by the budgeting entities. 4. The strategy budget: Provides a basis for determining whether proposed expenditures are aligned correctly with corporate, business and supporting strategies. By getting an in-depth breakdown of the processes in the company management can get insights into resource effectiveness and enables them to align resources with corporate strategies and customer needs. MDB can transform a company’s profitability and competitive position. (Schmidt, 1992) These new modified budgetary techniques are great in theory but these techniques may not be suitable for all companies. Research compiled by Cranfield School of Management states that leading companies these days are applying budgets that: 1. Have an external focus: what matters at the end of the day is their performance against competitors, not their results against an already out of date budget 2. Explicitly focused on strategy: They know that better financial performance ultimately comes from having and maintaining a competitive advantage 3. Use forecasting models, separate from their financial management system: These models are readily adaptable to changes in the business environment. The company is afforded a higher level of speed and flexibility. 4. Put their efforts into managing future results, not explaining past performance: They realise that endless scrutiny of past results adds little value. Instead they focus on taking actions that really do drive value. (Bourne, 2004) It is clear to me from the above evidence that wholesale changes to current budgetary processes could also be a way forward. The need for budgets in some organizations is evident and this could be a way to please both those who claim the current processes are unworkable and to those that are insistent that the company needs a budget. Conclusion From my research in the area of beyond budgeting I feel it is clear to all that budgeting in its current state is no use to anyone. It is full of legitimate problems whether it is the gaming of the numbers, or the vast amount of time that is going into producing; let’s face it, a nearly worthless document. But what is the way forward? The likes of Svenska Handelsbanken and Ahlsell have shown that organizations can not only function without budgets but can actually go on to thrive. There are then the arguments for adapting the current techniques to deal with the modern day climate. Multi dimensional budgeting and linear compensation plans are just two of the techniques I found in my research and both sound great in theory but not all of these processes will work in every organization. I believe the way forward to be adapting the current budgetary processes and continuing with some form of budgeting. The research that the Cranfield School of Management conducted shows me that companies are realising that budgets need to be adapted and the way they see to improve them is to add the four points listed above. The external focus is very important as evaluating a company against its nearest competitors is a much better fit than meeting predefined budgetary targets that were full of dishonest behaviour to begin with. Professor Andy Neely asserts that, â€Å"Firstly, companies can no longer justify the time and effort they invest in the budgeting process; Secondly, budgets have to be much more responsive, enabling nearly real-time tracking; and thirdly, management must understand that budgets cannot serve both as control and motivational devices. Companies that understand this and act on it are posed to enhance credibility and performance.† (Doucet, 2002) I feel with the adaption of the current techniques that all these criticisms, cited by Professor Neely, can be removed and the budgeting process can help lead a business through the tough current economic climate. I leave you with Miles Ewing’s take on the modern budget, it is very similar to my own outlook on the process. â€Å"Budgeting can be a powerful asset when leaders build in the flexibility that’s needed in this uncertain economy.† Bibliography 1. Bourne, M. (2004), â€Å"Driving Value through strategic planning and budgeting†, Paper presented at Better Budgeting: A report on the better budgeting forum from CIMA and IACEW, July 2004. 2. Bunce, P. (2004), â€Å"The beyond budgeting journey towards adaptive management†, Paper presented at Better Budgeting: A report on the better budgeting forum from CIMA and IACEW, July 2004. 3. Cleary, P. (2012), â€Å"Planning Budgetary Control Systems†, U.C.C Blackboard 4. Daum, J. (2003), Beyond Budgeting on the Move†, Report from the First Annual Beyond Budgeting Summit in London 5. Daum, J. (2002), â€Å"Beyond Budgeting: A Model for Performance Management and Controlling in the 21st Century?†,German Newsletter of Controlling Finance, July 2002. 6. Doucet, K. (2002), â€Å"Companies abandon traditional budgets to boost shareholder value†, CMA Management 2002. 7. Ewing, M. (2010), â€Å"Is it time to Abandon Budgeting?†, Deloitte Debates http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-UnitedStates/Local%20Assets/Documents/us_consulting_AbandonBudgetingDebate_092111.pdf 8. Fraser, R., Hope, J. (2000), â€Å"Beyond Budgeting†, Strategic Finance, 4,30 9. Fraser, R., Hope, J. (2003), â€Å"Who needs Budgets?†, Harvard Business Review, Feb, Pg 108-115 10. Gary, L. (2003), â€Å"Why budgeting kills your company†, Harvard Management Update, May 11. Jackson, C. , Starovic, D. (2004), â€Å"Debating the traditional role of budgeting in organisations†, Paper presented at Better Budgeting: A report on the better budgeting forum from CIMA and IACEW, July 2004. 12. Jensen, M.C. (2003), â€Å"Paying People to Lie: The Truth about the Budgeting Process†, European Financial Management, 9, 3, 379-406 13. Jensen, M.C. (2001), â€Å"Corporate Budgeting is Broken – Lets fix it†, Harvard Business Review, Nov, 95-101 14. Libby, T., Murray-Lindsay, R. (2007), â€Å"Beyond Budgeting or Better Budgeting ?†,Strategic Finance, 89, 2, Pg 46 15. Lyne, S. (2004), â€Å"Beyond Budgeting or Better Budgeting†, Paper presented at Better Budgeting: A report on the better budgeting forum from CIMA and IACEW, July 2004. 16. Morlidge, S. (2005), â€Å"Life Beyond Budgets? An implementation story- Beyond Budgeting at Unilever†, Beyond Budgeting by

The Importance Of Accurate Financial Statements

The Importance Of Accurate Financial Statements The role of financial accounting is not to show the value of a company, but rather it provides enough information for others outside the company to determine the value of the company for themselves. Financial Statements according to Oxford Online Dictionary are annual statements summarizing a companys activity over the last year. They consist of    the profit and loss account, balance sheet,    statement of total recognized gains and losses    and, if required, the cash flow statement    together with supporting notes.    Proper financial statements are crucial for a companys success. Bad financial management can quickly lead to a companys downfall. Income statements, also known as PLs or profit and losses are a basic account of the companys profits, expenses and sales. These reports will give insight into the finances of a company in the immediate and distant future.    Balance sheets are the assets, liabilities and the equity of a company. This sheet is simply the statement of a companys financial position. The balance sheet does not apply to the future only to the present point in time. Retained earnings statements are forms that show the balance of initial earnings, any changes that took place and the resulting balance of that.    Lastly, when discussing financial statements comes the cash flow statement. This is basically a statement that contains information about a companys cash flow for the short term. This statement will break down all investing, financial and operations activity.    Companys use all of these statements to determine current financial profitability and potential future growth. Without accurate financial statements, and owners and managers ability to correctly understand them, any company is fated to failure. A company could track previous growth and then make an estimate on possible future growth of the company.    Liabilities are any debts, claims, obligations or potential losses a company may have. An example of a liability is an account payable. Accounts payable is simply money that a company owes but has yet to pay. This could be tracked to help reduce future expenses that have ended up costing more than they should have. Businesses have two primary objectives: to remain solvent and to earn a profit.    A companys solvency is the ability of the business to pay its bills and service its debt. The better their solvency, the better they are financially. This is different from a company being profitable.    There are four financial reports that show business owners their profitability: the Balance Sheet, the Income Statement, the Statement of Owners Equity, and the Statement of Cash Flows.    These reports are also the financial product of an accountants analysis of the transactions of the business. A lot of effort goes into preparing these financial statements.    The Balance Sheet shows a particular point in time.    It highlights what resources are owned by a business and what it owes to other parties.    It also shows how much has been invested in the business and what the sources of that investment were.    The balance sheet is often referred to as the snap shot of the business, or a picture of the financial position at that specific point.    In contrast, the Income Statement, also known as the profit and loss statement, provides a perspective on a longer time period. If the balance sheet is a snap shot, think of an income statement like a photo album of the business activities. That photo album is like a story of what financial transactions took place in a particular time frame, and what the overall results of the transactions actually were. The Statement of Cash Flows explains the change in the companys cash during the time interval indicated in the heading of the statement. It is meant to help managers and investors understand the relationship of net income to change in cash balances.(Holmgren, Sundem, Elliott, Philbrick, 2006, pg.185) This report is split into three sections: Operating activities, which explains how a companys cash has changed due to operations; investing activities, refers to amounts spent or received in transactions involving long-term assets; and financing activity, which shows such things as cash received from long term debt, or most commonly through the issuance of stock. All of this reporting shows company information.    It explains where a companys money came from, where it is now, and where it is going, but the root of it all begins with bookkeeping. Basic bookkeeping monitors what the companys check book looks like and what their reoccurring expenses are like payroll, rent, along with any other operating expenses. Every business needs some sort of process to track their expenses and their income without any analysis of their in-and-out flows.    This is where the accountants come in the picture. They evaluate and analyze the information making sense out of the numbers to explain the bigger picture.    For any of the above reports to be useful to an owner or investor, they need to be understandable, timely, relevant and free from bias.

Comparing Fate in Virgils Aeneid and Homers Iliad :: comparison compare contrast essays

Fate in Virgil's Aeneid and Homer's Iliad      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In Virgil's Aeneid and Homer's Iliad, a picture of the supernatural and its workings was created.   In both works, there is a concept of a fixed order of events which is called fate.   Fate involves two parts.   First, there are laws that govern certain parts of mens' lives, such as human mortality and an afterlife.   Second, fate deals with the inevitable outcome of certain events, outcomes that cannot be changed by men or gods.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Both Homer and Virgil allude to the existence of unchangeable laws, one of which is the mortality of human beings.   This can be seen by the fact that character after character dies during war.   In Virgil's Aeneid, Aeneas journeys to Hades to visit his father.   During his stay, he talks to a large number of the warriors that have died in the Trojan War.   The death of these warriors shows the mortality of human beings (Forman 2015).   Another unchangeable law is the period of limbo that is said to await the souls of the unburied after death. Homer indicates this law by writing of Patroklos' spirit's return to remind Achilles that, until he has been properly buried, he must wander the earth. These events show Virgil's and Homer's belief in laws that cannot be changed (Strong 62).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The second element of Fate deals with the unalterable predestined occurrence of certain events.   One example of such an event is the fall of Troy. According to Homer, the destruction of Troy was foretold in Hekuba's dream that her son, Paris, would be the cause.   This prophecy was confirmed by a seer. Although Hekuba tried to avert the disaster by attempting to have Paris killed, fate overcame and Troy was destroyed as a result of Paris' judgment concerning the golden apple of discord (Strong 15-16).   Virgil also writes about a similar situation when Venus pleads with Jupiter to help Aeneas with his journey.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Meanwhile, on Olympus, Venus, the mother of Aeneas, berates Jupiter for allowing her son to be persecuted in such a manner.   Jupiter calms her and reminds her of the many prophecies concerning her son and his progeny: how he will found the city of Lavinium in Latium and win a great war; how his son

Federalism in Canada Essays -- Canadian History, Politics

Since federalism was introduced as an aspect of Canadian political identity, the country has undergone multiple changes as to how federalism works; in other words, over the decades the federal and provincial governments have not always acted in the same way as they do now. Canada, for example, once experienced quasi-federalism, where the provinces are made subordinate to Ottawa. Currently we are in an era of what has been coined â€Å"collaborative federalism†. Essentially, as the title would suggest, it implies that the federal and provincial levels of government work together more closely to enact and make policy changes. Unfortunately, this era of collaborative federalism may be ending sooner rather than later – in the past couple decades, the federal and provincial governments have been known to squabble over any and all policy changes in sectors such as health, the environment and fiscal issues. Generally, one would assume that in a regime employing collaborative federalism there would be a certain amount of collaboration. Lately, it seems as though the only time policy changes can take place the federal government is needed to work unilaterally. One area in which collaborative federalism has been nonexistent and unilateral federalism has prevailed and positively affected policy changes is in the Post-Secondary Education (PSE) sector. As Bakvis writes, â€Å"the transformation of Canada’s university system†¦ came about largely through the effort of the federal government alone,† (Bakvis 205). There are a few key abnormalities to this statement, one being pertinent to the CA 1867. When one looks at the constitution, under sections 91 and 92, anyone remotely well-versed in Canadian politics would know that those two sections outline w... ...210). To conclude, in the present Canadians are seeing change in PSE funding policies begin to come from the provinces. Due to the fact that â€Å"when Ottawa went against the grain and launched the Millennium Scholarship programs, provincial feathers, especially Quebec’s, were immediately ruffled,† provinces such as Quebec and British Columbia, among others, were motivated to â€Å"set up their own research funding agencies with the view to [maximize] the likelihood of obtaining funds from Ottawa,† (Bakvis 216). As for the legitimacy of cooperative federalism in Canada today, it seems as though executive federalism itself is turning largely paternalistic – at least in the sense of PSE. More often than not, in PSE funding, the federal government has taken the initiative while â€Å"one set of executives – those from provincial governments – was largely absent,† (Bakvis 218).

Marketing :: essays research papers

American companies take many things into consideration when marketing products in other countries. The article â€Å"Tough Cookies† by Oliver Libaw, and the article â€Å"Not so fast† by Jean-Marc Lehu discuss marketing American Products in other countries. â€Å"Tough Cookies† discussed Nabisco and their success of selling Oreos and Chips Ahoy in Mexico. â€Å"Not so fast† discussed the triumph of the store Crazy George, which is like American Rent-A-Center, in the United Kingdom and their failure in France. North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which was established in 1994, made it possible for Nabisco to sell their products in Mexico. NAFTA produced almost free trade between the United States and Mexico. The European Union (EU) did basically the same thing as NAFTA in Europe. EU produced many marketing advantages because it made it possible not to have to market items by one nation at a time. NAFTA and EU make marketing products in other countries easier.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Nabisco took a big chance by marketing their cookies in Mexico. Nabisco succeeded in establishing their products even though Mexico was in a recession. The company realized that there was an open opportunity for their products. In Mexico there was not a cookie exactly like theirs. Oreo and Chips Ahoy are the best selling cookies in the United States so they thought that the products might do the same in Mexico. They did not have an expansive advertising campaign. Instead they relied on in-store promotions. On reason for their success is that they have a strong distribution and name recognition. Many people did not think that the product would sell, even though they have great presence. There are two main events that might have helped Nabisco. One event is that snack foods are cheaper, so instead of eating more expensive, healthy foods, people switched to a substitute. Another event is that the people who were buying the cookies are the wealthier individuals, which price would not effect them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There is research that proved to Nabisco that they would be successful in Mexico. There are generalizations that have been discovered for many cultures, each culture respond to products and marketing differently. Hispanic culture as a whole are very name brand oriented, they especially American products. They are willing to pay a little extra for quality that goes along with a name of a product. This would make sense for the success of Nabisco. Their cookies are slightly more expensive then other cookies but they were still successful in the Mexican market. Nabisco also did not spend much on advertising, they relied on word of mouth to get their name around. The buying pattern of the Hispanic culture suggests that they listen

Expansion and contraction of matter Essay

Thermal Expansion and Contraction Most of the matters, without some exceptions, expand with the increasing temperature. When you give heat to matters; speed of its particles increase and distance between them also increase which results in the increase of the volumes of matters. All expansions occurs in volume of the substance however, sometimes some of the dimensions of them expand more with respect to others. In this case we neglect the less expanded ones and assume expansion like linear expansion in long materials. Moreover, we take the expansion of plate as area expansion and finally we take the expansion in three dimensions as volume expansion. thermal expansion Inverse of the expansion is called contraction, generally when matters lost heat and their temperatures decrease they contract. Now we will learn which factors effect expansion. If the initial volumes, areas or lengths of the matters are big enough their expansions with the same temperature are also big. In other words, expansion or contraction is linearly proportional to the initial volume of the matter. Different matters have different atomic structure, thus distances between the atoms are also different. They give different reactions to the same amount of temperature changes. So, another factor effecting expansion is type of matter. Final factor that affects expansion is the amount of change in temperature. Larger the change in temperature results in larger the change in the volume of matter. We get following formula from the explanations given above; ∆V=V0.ÃŽ ±. ∆T Where; ∆V is the change in the volume, ÃŽ ± is the coefficient of thermal expansion and ∆T is the change in the temperature of the matter. ÃŽ ±= Coefficient of thermal expansion is equal to the change in the volume of a unit of mass under 10C change in temperature. Expansion in Solid Matters We will examine this subject under three title, linear expansion, area expansion and volume expansion. Linear Expansion: Picture given below shows the linear expansion of metal rod. When it is heated, its length increases. linear expansion Our formula for linear expansion is; ∆L=L0.ÃŽ ±. ∆T Where; ∆L is the amount of change in the length of the rod, L0 is the initial length of the road, ÃŽ ± is the coefficient of linear expansion and ∆T is the change in the temperature of the matter. Example: There are three same metal rods having same length and thickness. If the temperatures of them are given like; T, 2T and 3T find the relations of final lengths of the rods. (Rods are in contact) We find the final temperatures of the system by the formula; Tfinal=T1+T2+T3/3=6T/3=2T Since the temperature of the first rod increase, its final length also increases. Temperature of the second rod stays same, thus there won’t be change in the length of this rod. Finally, temperature of the third rod decreases, thus its contract and final length of it decreases with respect to initial length. As a result relation of the final lengths of the rods; L1>L2>L3 Area Expansion: When plate given below is heated, it expands in two dimensions X and Y. We find the area expansion with the given formula; ∆S=S0.2ÃŽ ±. ∆T  Where; ∆S is the amount of change in the area of the plate, S0 is the initial area of the plate, 2ÃŽ ± is the coefficient of area expansion and ∆T is the change in the temperature of the matter. area expansion Example: We cut a circular piece from the rectangular plate. Which ones of the processes given below can help us in passing through the circular piece from the hole? expansion example I. Increasing the temperatures of rectangular plate and circular piece II. Decreasing the temperature of the circular piece III. Decreasing the temperatures of the rectangular plate and circular piece I. If we increase the temperatures of the plate and circular piece, expansion of the hole and the circular piece will be the same. Thus, this  option can help us. II. If we decrease the temperature of the circular piece, it contracts and hole becomes larger than the piece. This option can also help us. III. If we decrease the temperatures of the plate and circular piece, hole and circular piece contract in same size. This process can also help us. Volume Expansion: If the objects expand in volume with the gained heat, we call this volume expansion and find it with the following formula; ∆V=V0.3ÃŽ ±. ∆T  Where; ∆V is the amount of change in the volume of the cube, V0 is the initial volume of the cube, 3ÃŽ ± is the coefficient of volume expansion and ∆T is the change in the temperature of the matter. volume expansion Heat Temperature and Thermal Expansion Exams and Solutions  Phase Transition of Water< Prev Next > Heat Temperature and Expansion Cheat Sheet Tags:area expansioncalculations of thermal expansionlinear expansionsamples of thermal expansionthermal contractionthermal expansion and contractionvolume expansion

Warren and Rehnquist and the Effects of Major Court Cases on the Law Enforcement of Today

Have you thought about how much the Supreme Court decisions really affect your life and what we do on a daily basis or how important these decisions are to our civil liberties? Earl Warren and William Rehnquist are two of the most well knows Supreme Court Chief Justices. Each having different opinions on the importance’s of civil liberties and public order maintenance. Many of the court cases that each Chief Justice would hear would change the very way that we live today. As well as how law enforcement interact with regards to the 5th, 6th, 8th, and 14th Amendments. In this essay we will discuss compare and contrast the Chief Justice Earl Warrens Court versus the William Rehnquist Court, with special regards to how they effected the law enforcements, then finally addressing how the current Supreme Court balances out civil liberties against public order maintenance. Earl Warren was born on March 19, 1891 in Los Angeles, California. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, he majored in political science for three years before entering UBS’s School of Law. He received his B. S. degree in 1912 and his J. D. degree in 1914. On May 14, he was admitted to the California Bar (http://warren. csd. edu/about/biography. html). After he graduated Warren got hired on at law offices in San Francisco and Oakland. In 1925, he was appointed Alameda County district attorney when the incumbent resigned. He won election to the post in his own right in 1926,1930, and 1934. During his fourteen years as district attorney, Warren developed a reputatio n as a crime fighter. In those years he never had a conviction reversed by a higher court. Earl Warren was a republican although he had broad bipartisan support because of his centrist to liberal views. He was then elected to governorships of California in 1942, 1946, and 1950. In 1953 President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren the fourteenth Chief Justice of the United States. Earl Warren is one of the most well know Chief Justice because of his most popular Supreme Court decisions in the case Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, 1955, which ended segregation in school. This decision and many others like this are important cases that the Earl Warren Court made. The Warren Court left a legacy of judicial activism in civil rights law and individual liberties. The focus was specifically on the rights of the accused as addressed in Amendments 4 through 8. In the period from 1961 to 1969, the Warren Court examined almost every aspect of the criminal justice system in the United States, using the 14th Amendment to extend constitutional protections to all courts in every State. This process became known as the â€Å"nationalization† of the Bill of Rights. The Warren Court's revolution in the criminal justice system began with the case of Mapp vs. Ohio (367 U. S. 643 [1961]) (http://www. infoplease. com/us/supreme-court/cases/ar19. html). In 1957 Cleveland, Ohio, police thought a bombing suspect, and illegal betting equipment might be in Dollree Mapp’s home. Three officers went to Mapp’s home and asked permission to search, but Mapp refused. Mapp requested the police obtain a search warrant. Two officers left the home while one remained. About three hours later, the two officers returned with several other police officers. The returning officers flashed a piece of paper at Mapp, and broke her door entering the residence. Mapp asked to see the â€Å"warrant† and took it from an officer, putting it down the front of her dress. The police fought with Mapp and regained the paper. They handcuffed the non-compliant Mapp for being belligerent. Police did not find the bombing suspect or the betting equipment during the conduct of their search, but found some pornography in a suitcase by Mapp's bed. Mapp said that she had loaned the suitcase to a renter and the contents were not her property. Mapp was arrested, prosecuted, tried found guilty, and sentenced for possession of the pornography. No search warrant had been obtained during the course of the investigation of this case, and was not produced as evidence at her trial. When Mapp vs. Ohio reached the Supreme Court in 1961, the decided in a five to four decision that the exclusionary rule applies to the states. It concluded that other remedies, such as reliance on the due process clause to enforce fourth amendment violations had proven worthless and futile. In this landmark case, it changed the way law enforcement at the state level operated. Where illegally obtained evidence had been admissible in State Courts previously, now under the Mapp ruling this would no longer be tolerated. In another landmark case Terry vs. Ohio (392 U. S. 1 [1968]) Martin McFadden, a police detective for 39 years, was patrolling the streets of Cleveland, Ohio, on October 31, 1963. In the afternoon, McFadden saw two men, John Terry and Richard Chilton, hanging out on a street corner. McFadden's training and experience told him the two men looked suspicious, so he began to watch them from nearby. As McFadden watched, Terry and Chilton took turns walking past and looking inside a store window, they did this twelve times. At that point a third man joined them for a brief discussion on the street corner. Ten minutes later they headed down the street in the same direction as the third man whom they had met. McFadden believed the three men were getting ready to rob the store they were casing. McFadden again through his training and experience believed the suspects were armed and dangerous. McFadden followed Terry and Chilton and confronted them in front of Zucker's store with the third man. McFadden said he was a police officer and asked their names, and received only mumbled responses. McFadden grabbed Terry, spun him around to face the other two men, and frisked him. McFadden felt a gun inside Terry's coat, and ordered the men inside the business. Inside, McFadden removed Terry's overcoat and found a . 38 caliber revolver. McFadden ordered the three men against the wall, and patted them down. McFadden found an additional revolver in Chilton's overcoat. Ohio convicted Terry and Chilton of carrying concealed weapons. In an eight to one decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Ohio stating the police officer’s training and experience in this case gave him â€Å"reasonable suspicion† a robbery was going to occur. This allowed him to stop and frisk the suspects, which led to him finding pistols on two of them. From this court case the Supreme Court concluded reasonable suspicion is required to stop and frisk a person.

National Geographic: the World’s Most Dangerous Drug

The World's Most Dangerous Drug is a documentary produced by the National Geographic Channel in 2006, that explores the disturbing effects of methamphetamines, not only to those who use the drug but also to those people associated with them. American journalist and news presenter, Lisa Ling, takes the viewer on a journey to the mental and physical aftermath of taking Meth. The use of selection and omission, re-enactment and archival material, manipulation of codes and actuality, all contribute to the portrayal of the issues presented in this documentary. These issues conspire: the high percentage of crimes in the United States created by meth users, the promising lives destroyed by Meth and the life-long damage Meth has done to those who have stopped taking it, yet are still under the influence of the drug. Selection and Omission plays an important part in portraying the ideas of the documentary because it is an effective technique used to control what the audiences are able to view and what they are not. Interviews are widely used, not only of the Meth users but also of those who deal with the issue of meth on a daily basis. Examples of interviews that stood out were the ones of Kobe Kempey and his family. The portrayal of the idea that anyone can be victimised by Meth is initialised through these interviews. Kempey’s life story also depicts the lives of those who have survived being meth addicts in the past, however are still haunted by it. Professional interviews from doctors and from the police are used to show the lifelong consequences Meth does to people and to communities. The audiences are purposely affected by the interviews so that they can sympathise with the Meth victims and so thatthey are aware of the repercussions of taking the drug. The archival material shown in the beginning of the documentary creates a feeling of anxiety within the audience and introduces the main objective of the film. Through the footage and sound, the audiences are aware of the growing popularity of Meth among young adults. The re-enactment of Michael Wamsley and Janel Hornickel’s experience, half-way through the documentary, rogresses this idea and proves the promising lives destroyed by Meth. Similarly, the documentary Sicko, by Michael Moore, uses archival footage and sound to show real events and to make the documentary more persuasive. The manipulation of codes can affect one’s reading of a text. Symbolic codes are shown throughout the film to signify various meanings. The American flag is shown outside the Meth house to convey the idea of Methamphetam ines ravaging communities in America. The British pound being used as a ‘spliff’ also informs the audience that meth, not only ravages American communities, but also damages other countries through its diversity. Actuality is a code of realism that involves the recording of images and sounds on location as they actually happen. An example was when Lisa Ling went to a Bangkok red-light district to film the two, Thai, young women taking Meth for more booze. The women did not want to be shown on camera due to the constraints in the country. This scene depicts a real event that occurred in an unrehearsed situation. It represents the cultural context of Thailand and a part of their way of social life. Another example is of the ‘drug deal’ scene with the undercover cop, Sean Christian. This documentary is presented in third person Point of view to look at the issue of Meth from a different perspective. The Thai government’s values of discipline and safety throughout the country were conveyed through 3rd person P. O. V. The audiences are aware of those values because of the event that was shown in the documentary. A few footages from â€Å"Bankok’s Brutal Crackdown on Meth in 2003† were shown to purposely appeal to the audience and make them more aware of the generation of Thai Meth addicts. Visual effects and confronting images both assist in making this text more persuasive. Diagrams of the brain were shown to give the audience an insight to what really occurs inside the body when Meth is consumed. Before and after images of meth addicts were shown to reveal the physical effects and ‘meth mouths’ to portray the dame Meth causes to the teeth. Confronting advertisements from the Montana Meth Project were also shown to target young audiences and to promote their campaign. Repetition is also used, when showing the Meth bags and the ‘Methamphetamines’ medical sign to highlight the important of knowing what meth looks like to avoid wasted lives of addiction. Technological developments such as, animation allowed this portrayal to be more powerful. This documentary was produced mainly in the American states of Portland and Omaha and also in Bangkok, Thailand in 2006. Technological developments have made travelling to these destinations more accessible. This is a large-scale type of production because it was produces by the national Geographic Channel. The World’s Most Dangerous Drug depicts the mental and physical effects of taking Meth through the use of selection and omission, re-enactment and archival material, manipulation of codes, actuality and visual effects to raise awareness concerning the issue of methamphetamines, continuing to seduce millions around the world, infecting brains and bringing crime, chaos and death wherever it goes.

Automobile and Cars Essay

The official definition of an automobile is â€Å"a passenger vehicle designed for operation on ordinary roads and typically having four wheels and a gasoline or diesel internal-combustion engine† (Merriam-Webster 51). There is no one person accredited for the invention of the automobile, but rather a collection of advancements that evolved into the modern-day automobile (Smith 12). Today, there are approximately 600 million passenger vehicles in existence worldwide, with numbers rapidly increasing in emerging economic â€Å"power countries†, such as China and India (Smith 23). A Flemish man named Ferdinand Verbiest introduced the first design for a self-propelled vehicle in 1672, in China, nearly one hundred years before the first internal combustion engine (Smith 25). From the late seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century, a series of vehicles, all propelled by steam, were constructed and demonstrated worldwide (Smith 34). The steam car was a superior machine in the nineteen hundreds (Smith 34). Steam cars were responsible for everyday travel, commercial transportation and even held land speed records (Smith36). It wasn’t until 1807 that the world’s first internal combustion engine was created, in France, by Nicephore Niepce (Smith 36). Another leader in the creation of the internal combustion engine was Francois Issac de Rivaz, who revolutionized the fuel that the engines ran on (Smith 36). Early automobiles powered by internal combustion engine ran on fuel made of powered and coal mixed with oil or a mixture of elements, such as hydrogen and oxygen (Smith 36). In 1824, and Englishman named Samuel Brown adapted the steam engine to burn gasoline and created the first gas vacuum engine (Smith 38). Sir Dougald Clerk, of Scotland, was accredited in 1876 for designing the first successful two-stroke engine (Smith39). In 1890, Wilhelm Mayback created the first four-cylinder, four-stroke engine (Smith39). Everything changed in 1885, when vehicle engineering took a sharp turn towards the future in regards to efficiency and affordability, thanks to the German inventor, Karl Benz (Smith 49). As the market for economical automobiles in the late nineteenth century began to grow, the need for industrial production was pressing. Benz patented the first four-stroke engine to be placed in his company’s production automobiles in 1888 (Smith 50). The first large-scale assembly production lines appeared in the early 1900s, many of which are still around today (Smith 24). Oldsmobile and Ford were two of the first companies to successfully mass-produce vehicles to meet the vast automotive market needs. American entrepreneur, Henry Ford, invented and improved the assembly line and installed the first conveyor belt system in his automobile manufacturing plant, based in Detroit, Michigan (Smith 95). Assembly lines reduced production costs by training workers to become experts with one specific part of the automobile or machinery, thus reducing production costs (Smith 97). Ford introduced the Model T in 1908, which could be assembled in an unprecedented ninety-three minutes. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, governments began to create and enforce automobile safety and environmental regulations (Smith 103). The World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations is a working party of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the goal of this organization is to facilitate international trade by creating a uniform model of regulations for vehicle design (Corbett 67). The UNECE is also responsible for creating and enforcing regulations on vehicle safety among automotive manufacturers (Corbett 69). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than one million people are injured or fatally wounded on the world’s roads annually (Corbett 70). Some examples of vehicle regulations include seat belts, air bags and laminated windshields (Corbett 71). Seat belts limit the forward motion of the driver or passengers and absorb kinetic energy by stretching to retain movement if an accident occurs (Corbett 71). Air bags inflate to cushion to cushion the impact of the vehicle occupants and are placed in various locations in the vehicle’s interior, such as steering wheels, dash and doors (Corbett 71). Laminated windshields are designed to remain in one piece when impacted to prevent shattering, while maintaining visual clarity just after an accident has occurred, allowing the driver to safely redirect themselves from harm’s way (Corbett 71). There are also regulations for vehicle’ side windows and back windshield (Corbett 72). Windows and rear wind shields must be manufactured with tempered glass, which breaks into granules with minimally sharp edges, rather than splitting into jagged fragments as ordinary glass does (Corbett 72). Many new luxury features, such as paint color choices, differences in interior and upgraded designs and environmental features much as electric or hybrid engines in the twentieth century emerged on the market (Anderson and Anderson 167). The modern day automobile is a vehicle of evolutionary change and has transformed exponentially over the last several centuries. Today, the leading manufacturers of automobiles are Toyota (Japan), General Motors (USA), Volkswagen (Germany) and Ford (USA) (Corbett 22). These leading manufacturers all embody features and characteristics that make their product and branding unique and memorable, as well as abiding by worldwide government standards which include regulations of vehicle safety, environmental protection, energy efficiency and theft resistance (Corbett 13-16, 18). The evolution of motor vehicles from the seventeenth century to present-day is astounding. It would be reasonable to argue that the automobile is the single most evolved piece of modern machinery of all time. Motor vehicle usage has evolved over time, beginning with use for personal leisure and developed for commercial transportation, public transit and racing. The transformation of production and assembly, as well as the addition of customizable features mark the individualistic ideals of the twenty-first century. There no doubt, motor vehicles will continue to evolve throughout time with environmental needs at the forefront worldwide and the ever-growing necessity of increasing luxury among automobile owners. Works Cited Anderson, Curtis Darrel, and Judy Anderson. Electric and Hybrid Cars: A History. Chicago: McFarland, 2010. Print. Corbett, David. A History of Cars. New York: Gareth Stevens Publishers, 2005. Print. Merriam-Webster, Inc. , . Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. 11th. New York: Merriam-Webster, Inc. , 2003. Print. Smith, Kaelyn. A Brief History of Automobiles. New York: Webster’s Digital Services, 2011. Print.

Planning for the East Coast Banks Future Term Paper

Planning for the East Coast Banks Future - Term Paper Example Where the teller/customers agents recorded a33% turn over whereas the assistant managers recorded the lowest turnover of 17%. This holds an indication that, the customer teller agents level, has got the highest percentage of employees leaving the bank and hence, signifying a labor shortage at the teller/customer agent level. Whereas, the assistant manager’s level indicated a 17% turnover, which implied that the employees at the level of assistant managers hardly left the bank, indicating a surplus in this positions (Ivancevich, 2006). I would embark on the Recruitment strategies as one of the techniques to curb the labor shortages in the East Coast Bank. It involves the process of attracting, screening and also selecting the competent individuals for the positions experiencing shortages within an organization. Recruitment is one of the key activities carried out by management in the attempt to secure an efficient workforce. Apart from curbing employee shortage, recruitment enables the top management to identify the potentiality of the labor market (Riley, 2012). Employee retention is another strategy that I would embark on to curb labor shortages. The hiring of employees constitutes only the first step. But creating awareness on the significance of employee’s retention is extremely essential. Costs that are linked to employees turnover include losing of customers together with damaged employee morale. Retention of the employees is thus, the ability of an organization to both attract and ensure retention of their workforce. A retention practice ensures a diverse workforce, where obstacles are eliminated, allowing workers to have a full participation at their places of work. This results in employee’s commitment and high productivity levels.

Energy-Nonrenewable,Renewable Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Energy-Nonrenewable,Renewable - Essay Example Major consumers of energy include the industrial, transportation and residential sectors (Gaudreault 683). There has been shifting trends in energy conservation. The conservation efforts involve the use of other alternative forms of energy and increasing awareness to conserve energy for use by the future generations. Oil is the fulcrum of the modern society. It is used run heavy machinery. It also continues to fuel serious political tensions. As a non-renewable resource, its continued use may result into ultimate depletion. This is because oil takes a long period to renew. It has to take organic matter to live, die and decay to form oil. Decaying plants and animals form the basis for fossil fuels. It is estimated that the process of oil formation takes 300 million years (Pfeiffer 287). The combustion of these fossil fuels provides the energy that man needs. Energy sources include oil, coal and hydroelectric power. Non-renewable resources are resources that do not renew themselves at a sufficient rate for sustainable extraction. Examples of these resources include carbon-based and derived fuel. The organic material becomes fuel oil, gas after it is subjected to varying amounts of heat and pressure. Fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas and petroleum are other examples of renewable sources. These resources contribute significantly to environmental degradation because of inability to be reused after extraction (Arthur 1510). Humans extract other non-renewable sources of energy such as minerals and metal ores since they exist within the earth’s crust. Their extraction is made possible by the natural geological processes such as weathering, heat. These processes occur due to many years of crustal recycling, tectonic subsidence and plate tectonics. The deposits of these metal ores can be extracted by humans for their economic gains w ithin the human-time

U.S. Fiscal Budgeting and Government Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

U.S. Fiscal Budgeting and Government - Essay Example The proposal has recently sparked debates on both the Republican and the Democrat controlled Congress, an ordinary occurrence prevalent in American history especially during those times when the president puts forward his budgetary plan. Both the Republican and the Democratic parties would often disagree on what causes imbalance on the Federal budget, and oftentimes, heated debates soon ensue with regards the subject. The issue of budget in the US is an interesting topic to listen to except that ordinary Americans are not privy to the language and the esoteric terms employed in this discussion. It is also imperative that the public and the US legislators be able to pinpoint the sources of imbalance in the federal government expenditures. The president, as a rule, submits his proposal in the month of February after which it is submitted to the Congress on the first Monday of the said month. As this is only a proposal, the budget constitutes and specifies the government’s intended spending for the following fiscal year. This proposal is backed by voluminous documents aimed at convincing the Congress of the importance and value of the budget provisions. The cabinet and the agencies under the Federal government likewise submit their proposals which will consequently be included in the final version of the proposed budget (Taylor 1950). This proposal contains some line items specified as discretionary and some as mandatory expenditures. Discretionary spending obliges a yearly appropriation bill, a piece of legislation which should be enacted and determined by the Appropriations Committee of both Houses of Congress – the Senate and the House of Representatives. This spending is under the discretion of the Congress and usually lasts for one year. On the other hand, mandatory spending is a spending which also requires legislation but is not dependent on a yearly appropriation bill. Examples of these are Social Security