Red bull Essay

Red Bull is a functional beverage founded by Austrian entrepreneur, Dietrich Mateschitz, in 1984. Containing ingredients such as taurine and caffeine, Red Bull beverages are specially developed for those who wish to be physically and mentally active. The various product variants under Red Bull aim to enhance performance, concentration and stimulate metabolism which improves the overall well-being of consumers. Red Bull is currently present in over 162 countries, and holds 65% of the worldwide energy drink market. With a witty slogan â€Å"Red Bull gives you wings†, the product is marketed through advertising, extreme sports tournament sponsorships, sports team ownerships, athlete endorsements, online games and a record label, Red Bull Records. However, in the fast progressing beverage industry cluttered with many substitutes and large competitors, Red Bull might face issues concerning its lack of product variability as well as arising health concerns with regards to its high caffeine content. In order to tackle these issues, we will first conduct a SWOT analysis to determine the internal and external environment which Red Bull is operating in. Secondly, we will conduct an in-depth analysis on Red Bull’s market structure and control systems to determine if these systems are effective complementing strategy implementation. Lastly, we will provide relevant recommendations to address the issues and problems faced by Red Bull in its strive expand and grow globally. 2.0 SWOT Analysis of Red Bull Strengths †¢ Market share leadership with approximately 65% market share in the energy drinks market. †¢ Strong reputation especially backed up by strong customer loyalty from Generation Y †¢ Strong brand identity since its incorporation in 1987 with steady growth into a market giant and is now synonymous with brand and product excellence. Weakness †¢ Small product base as Red Bull markets only 4 branded products (Red Bull Energy Drink, Red Bull sugarfree, Red Bull energy shot and Red Bull Cola), therefore vulnerable to market fluctuations †¢ Lack of product innovation thus being left behind when a number of new energy drinks have been launched in 2004. Opportunities †¢ Could diversify retail outlets and distribution network by means of capitalizing on vending machines as a new route to increase sales as well as keep up with industry trends. †¢ Potential to extend product lines by adding new products, such as new flavours, forms, colours, added ingredients and packages sizes. †¢ Marketing their products as functional drinks so as to capitalize on strong consumer awareness of its brand. †¢ Geographical expansion in the Asia Pacific regions by building upon developing markets such as India. Threats †¢ Imminent threat of new entrants as the energy drink industry has always been considerably attractive due to its high profit margin †¢ Near zero switching cost for consumers makes it even easier and more attractive for new entrants to capture market share †¢ Real threat of substitute products which serve the same functional purpose of Red Bull but main ingredient of caffeine replaced by electrolytes, which is a healthier choice. †¢ Government regulations could pose as a threat to the expansion and penetration plans of  Red Bull as their products is not just another flavoured beverage in the market; the high caffeine content in the drink has always been a concern to certain interest groups. †¢ Recent popularity with organic food and drinks products could eat into Red Bull’s market share, especially when Red Bull’s market is seen to be in the maturing stage. 3.0 Analysis of Red Bull’s Market Structure and Control Systems 3.1 Market Structure 3.1.1 The number of players in the Energy Drink Market  Red Bull belongs to an oligopoly market structure where the market is dominated by a few large players. The degree of market concentration is relatively high with a large % of it taken up by Red Bull. There are currently more than 30 types of energy-drink products in the market, with Red Bull occupying the largest market share of approximately 65%. With the number of players in the market, there is therefore certain degree of interdependence between firms and it is necessary for Red Bull to take into account the likely reactions of other firms during strategy planning. 3.1.2 The Degree of Product Differentiation in the Market Being in an oligopoly market structure, Red Bull produces branded products where advertising and marketing is an important feature of competition. The different types of energy drinks in the market serve as close substitutes to Red Bull. Hence, Red Bull presents itself as a premium product, having â€Å"a unique combination of high quality ingredients† (Red Bull, n.d.) which â€Å"vitalizes body and mind† (Red Bull, n.d.). It segments its market differently from its competitors, focusing on performance-oriented individuals who want to have a clear, focused mind and a fun and active lifestyle. This has resulted in Red Bull pricing its product higher than its competitors. For instance, an 8.4 fl oz. can of Red Bull retail for $2.59 whereas a 16 fl oz. can of Rockstar retails for $1.50, which constitute to about half the price per fl oz. as compared to Red Bull. 3.1.3 The Ease of Entry and Exit Into And Out Of the Energy Drink Market There are huge, though not insurmountable, barriers to entering the energy drink market. One prevalent barrier is brand loyalty which Red Bull has built up over the years. This strong brand loyalty has the effect of reducing consumer  consideration of alternatives in the marketplace. Also, the high initial capital cost associated with research and development prior to formulating energy drinks could deter potential competitors from entering the market. In addition, government policies pertaining to licensing and patents create the biggest barrier to entry, which aids in the dominance Red Bull enjoys today. 3.2 Marketing Control System In order to ensure that the company’s objectives are achieved, Red Bull markets its energy drink in three ways, namely the media advertising, sports and event sponsoring as well as sampling. The three marketing techniques not only increase the brand awareness of Red Bull, but assist the management in terms of market control. Additionally, Red Bull also performs control techniques in the following ways. 3.2.1 Intensive Research Work Firstly, Red Bull conducts on-going research to determine if consumers are satisfied with its product. This includes sampling to its primary target market – tired people who need energy. Through sampling, consumers are able to provide feedback on the product, essentially its taste, packaging and effects. If there is negative feedback received, Red Bull will then look for ways to improve so as to meet consumer needs. 3.2.2 Internal Statistics Secondly, Red Bull uses statistics such as sales, revenue and market share to assess if its marketing strategies are successful. Based on analysis, a total of 4,204 billion cans of Red Bull were sold worldwide in 2010, which signifies an increase of 7.6% against 2009 (Red Bull, n.d.). This can be one of the factors indicating that Red Bull is heading in the right direction in marketing its product. 3.2.3 Marketing and Pricing Strategies Thirdly, Red Bull employs advertising strategies that are suitable to its primary target market. Hence, at this moment, Red Bull does not need to adjust its strategies to change consumer perception. Nonetheless, if Red Bull has decided to introduce new uses for its product, changes have to be made to the advertising strategies to market the new uses. However, unlike most companies which adopt pricing strategies that involve adjusting the  product prices to meet market changes so as to remain competitive, Red Bull does otherwise. Consumer reviews state that Red Bull is being priced steeper as compared to other energy drinks in the market. Despite that, Red Bull continues to maintain its premium price as it has positioned itself as a premium product. 4.0 Solutions and Recommendations Q1. Red Bull should construct a market-oriented mission statement, focusing on customer needs rather than products. A product-centered mission statement is too myopic and does not reflect the long-lasting basic market need. Red Bull’s mission statement has to reflect the company’s core product, position in the market, distinctive competencies, and lastly, it has to be motivating. Our group proposal of Red Bull’s mission statement: â€Å"As a market leader, Red Bull promotes an active lifestyle by providing high-quality energy drinks to the global market, empowering our customers to live to their fullest potential and have the courage to achieve their dreams.† Q2. Red Bull has managed to identify the best target market. Red Bull has segmented the market as follows: Demographic segmentation Red Bull is targeting young teenagers to busy working adults. It targets students who often suffer from exhaustion, blue collared workers who require strength for their manual jobs, and office professionals, who require concentration to focus in meetings and their respective work. Psychographic segmentation Red Bull targets markets based on the consumers’ lifestyles. These consumers include party-goers, sportsmen and gamers. In terms of the personalities of the customers, Red Bull targets those who are able to connect with the brand image of Red Bull, which is to live with zest and lead a fun, happening and risk-taking lifestyle. Product – Red Bull does not have a wide variety of flavours – only original, sugar free, cola and Red Bull shot. The rationale for this is mainly to establish a clear core product. Furthermore, Red Bull is recognized as an energy drink that gives a strong and immediate energy boost to improve performance. In terms of design and packaging, a Red Bull can is small and easy to carry which is chromed, making it reflective and hence, it can catch a customer’s eye easily. As for recommendations, Red Bull could produce an alcoholic beverage of its own, which can be sold over-the-shelf in stores. This would be able to create new product that mixes Red Bull and alcohol. Thus, the non-party-goers can have a taste of an alcoholic Red Bull as well. Promotion – One of the most well-known activities that Red Bull has been involved in for many years is Formula 1. This is a form of above-the-line advertising done by Red Bull to increase consumer awareness of Red Bull. Other than that, Red Bull also engages in â€Å"Opinion Leader Marketing† by having more than 250 agreements with top athletes. This is to attract people who follow and look up to these athletes. Red Bull’s strategy of attracting celebrities to endorse their products is very unique because they do not pay the celebrities a single cent. Instead, they approach athletes who support Red Bull wholeheartedly. Q5. Red bull’s competitors come in two forms – direct and indirect. This is measured by how close these competing products are in relation to Red Bull’s. The direct competitors would be those who produce similar utility/functional products, such as Monster, Rockstar and Naughty G. Indirect competitors would be other drinks that are somewhat similar but do not give the same benefits as Red Bull. Examples would be Pepsi and Coke (caffeinated and soft drinks, but not energy drinks) and 100 Plus and H20(sports and soft drinks, but not caffeinated). Clearly indirect competitors are furthest away in terms of substitutability. Examples are Nescafe (caffeine only), Sprite (soft drink only) and Gatorade (sports drink only). Q6. Currently, we think Red Bull’s marketing strategy is already very successful. In relation to how Red Bull reaches out to ‘tired’ and ‘exhausted’ people by giving them free samples, we feel there might not be such a strong need to raise more awareness about the product as it has already established itself adequately. Instead, Red Bull can invest in product Research and Development, which might enable Red Bull to introduce more flavours and variety to its current line of products. Red Bull can introduce â€Å"limited edition† flavours, where they can bring in new flavours for a limited period of time, and then see how well the sales of the new flavours turn out to be before deciding to permanently add them to their product line. For example, Red Bull can come out with a product comprising of natural ingredients, such as Siberian/American Ginseng(natural alternatives to caffeine), or add in some vitamins like vitamin C to its existing products , which might capture more of the ‘health-conscious’ consumers. Furthermore, this might attract Asian consumers who prefer traditional/herbal ingredients. Control measures: Analysis of how the market share amongst Asian consumers is affected(look at sales, growth, etc.). Red Bull can also give free samples to consumers, just like how it does for its existing products through its Red Bull vehicles. Along with their free samples, they can conduct surveys on the consumers and ask for their feedback. Also, they can conduct online surveys, as the use of online social media is largely pervasive today. Red Bull can build a theme park comprising of extreme rides. It can aim to break the world records for the highest roller coaster drop or have the fastest ride. In this theme park, it can also provide complementary Red Bull drinks to its visitors. This will also be a great avenue for new flavours to be sampled. Such an extreme theme park would create much buzz all around the world, and people who visit the theme park will definitely share their extreme experiences with their friends. Thus, Red Bull would have come out with another form of its already famous buzz marketing. Control measures: By calculating the theme park’s return on marketing investment. Building such a theme park has a lot of fixed costs, like the costs of land and constructions. Hence, it is easy to calculate total cost. Furthermore, sales can also be easily calculated by simply looking the number of tickets sold. Therefore, it would be easy to calculate the theme park’s return on marketing investment. ​ Q7. Small Asian Businesses have relatively lower financial power as compared to big companies. They face difficulty competing with the big companies given similar products. To simply put it, they are the small ‘fishes’ regardless of the size of the market. Firstly, like Red bull, they can focus on a small product base and differentiate their products from the competitors’. They can identify the right market segments and target markets which have been relatively untouched and fit their products to be the most attractive for the consumers in their targeted markets. Like Red Bull, small Asian businesses should create an efficient Marketing Informatics Systems (MIS) and have an  appropriate mix of marketing research and intelligence, so that they are constantly able to discover new opportunities and cater to the needs of consumers, and at the same time be aware of their competitors’ strategies. Also, small Asian businesses can adopt Red Bull’s stealth marketing approach. This eliminates costs such as large scale advertising costs coming from big billboards or banners for example. Red Bull has also shown through stealth marketing that doing something unorthodox and not merely following what everyone else does can also lead to success. Therefore, small Asian businesses can draw inspiration from this and be creative and brave in their marketing strategies. References http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Red-Bull-Energy-Drink/001242937921959 Drawert. http://www.drawert.com/red_bull_1.php

Jane Loevinger and Her Theory of Ego Development Essay

Human development is a fascinating subject. Psychologists have long studied the recurrent patterns of how humans develop physically, emotionally, and psychologically. If psychologists can find patters, then they can begin to predict behavior and understand how and why people behave the way they do. Many theories have been put forth to try to explain some of the consistencies people go through as they develop. Jane Loevinger is one of those developmental theorists. Her theory of ego development has been a significant contribution to the psychological world. Loevinger was born in 1918. She grew up in Minnesota as the daughter of a lawyer and homemaker. Her home was comfortable, but not full of a lot of love. After finishing her undergraduate and master’s degree at the University of Minnesota, she ended up at the University of California. There she was a research assistant for Erik Erikson. She learned a great deal during this time about her own thoughts and beliefs about psychology (www. webster. edu). In 1943 she finished her PhD dissertation on the construction and evaluation of tests of ability. Her critique of test reliability made her no friends in the psychometric world, and publications refused to publish her work. She ended up paying for the publication herself. After finishing her dissertation, Loevinger quit working full time to have her two children. During this time she felt the guilt and pressure all moms feel. Working moms feel guilty for all the time they spend away from their children, and stay-at-home moms feel guilty for not doing anything professionally. She also felt discriminated against because of her gender. After working in unfulfilling part-time jobs, Loevinger finally decided to get back to research. She was one of the first psychologists to focus her testing on the demographic of women. She began working with a small group of women, and eventually designed the Sentence Completion Test (SCT) which consists of thirty-four open-ended questions that measures ego development. This test led her to develop her theory of ego development, which states that a person’s ego development follows nine typical phases (psychology-health. today. com). Loevinger’s theory of personality asserts that as people grow, they begin to internalize social rules, become less impulsive, and mature in their decision-making processes. The first stage of development is the infancy stage. This is the very beginning of development and ego. The infant does not know how to do anything but cry when it needs something. No thoughts are about anything other than the self. The impulsive stage is similar; when a young child wants something, they want it now. They are starting to understand consequences at this stage, so there is some awareness of others. The self-protected stage is when children first exhibits self control. They understand rewards and consequences, and are very motivated by them. The next stage, the conformist stage, is when conforming to the group of peers in paramount. There is no identity outside the group, and the disapproval of others is a major problem. Behaviors are judged by what happened, not by the intentions behind them. Finally, in the self-aware stage, there begins to be a bit of maturity. This is when people begin to become individuals. There is more to life than the group, and an inner sense of self is emerging. The conscientious stage takes those ideas even further. Here the person has goals and ideals, a sense of responsibility, and feels guilt not only about breaking a rule, but because of the thought of hurting others. Motives are taken into account as well as actions. During the individualistic stage, there develops a greater tolerance of other people, as well as an awareness of inner conflict. During this stage, the person will pull away from the group toward a more individual identity. People in the autonomous stage show a great deal of maturity. They worry about their needs verses the duties of their lives, they want self-fulfillment, and they can understand more than one point of view. Finally, the integrated stage is reached when a person fully understands their own identity. She is self-actualizing, and can understand behavior motives and intentions of others as well as herself. While not all people will be able to reach this last stage of integration, Loevinger shows a road map of how to get there. I feel her developmental theory is meaningful today, because people still have inner struggles throughout the course of their lives. When I think about all of my friends and family, I can see which stage they are each in. Loevinger contributed a theory that definitely stands the test of time and is relevant to people today. I can also look back over my life and see that some decisions I made were direct results of the stage I was in at the time. I feel like I am always trying to improve myself on the inside, and be a good person on the outside, so I feel I am in the conscientious stage. I know some of my friends who are still in the conformist stage, and this is probably a source for much of our conflict. I cannot understand why they are so concerned with what others think about them, but it might be simply because they have no matured past that stage yet. I think most young adults fall somewhere between the conformist and self-aware stages. That is why so many young adults get into trouble; they follow the group and try drugs or things they would not ordinarily try on their own. The group mentality can be very problematic, and the power it has over young adults is scary. Loevinger contributed a theory of ego development that has made a significant impact on how we understand why we act the way we do. Her stages of development represent specific time frames of life and the decisions that many people make during those times. Her theory is relevant today and still has valid implications for anyone studying human development. References Women’s intellectual contributions to the study of mind and society. Retrieved May 17, 2009, from http://www. webster. edu/~woolflm/loevinger. html Writer 44. Jane Loevinger’s theory of ego development. Retrieved May 17, 2009 from http://psychology-health. today. com/2009/03/01/jane-loevingers-theory-of-ego-development/

The Effects of HIV on the Body

HIV is a fascinating disease because of the fact that you do not actually die from the disease itself; you die from another, potentially harmless, disease, which your body cannot protect against due to its weakened immune system. In order to understand this better, it is important to understand how HIV affects the body. HIV weakens the body’s immune system by attacking T4 lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell. These T4 helper cells are called this because they have a receptor molecule on their surface called, CD4. The T4 cells don’t create antibody but they are responsible for chemically communicating, using chemokine, with other white blood cells in order to â€Å"launch an attack† on a virus. The HIV cells contain two viral proteins that are directly involved in the process of infecting someone, these proteins are called gp41 and gp120. The â€Å"CD4 on the surface of the T cell allows for the docking of gp120; once docked, the gp120 changes its shape so that it can bind to the chemokine receptor (called CCR5), and fusion and entry of HIV take place after binding. Sherman p. 178)† It is not known exactly how the viral proteins deplete T4 cells but it is believed to â€Å"involve a depression in the ability to expand their numbers. (Sherman p. 178)† Once the T4 cells reach 400 to 800 cells/mm^3, as opposed to the healthy 1,000 or more T4 cells/mm^3, the first opportunistic infections can arise. This refers to infections that would normally not cause a disease, or a t least nothing life threatening, but given the bodies weakened immune system begins to cause serious health problems for the individual. After this point things become dangerous, but can still be turned around, however if a persons T4 count reaches 200, they officially have AIDS. Once someone has gotten AIDS, there is little to nothing a doctor can do because their immune system is so damaged that they can barely fight off a cold. At this point the person’s immune system is so damaged that they could very easily die from something like pneumonia or meningitis. As the infected decline further they become more and more susceptible to disease and even something like herpes, which is almost always not fatal, can cause death. Once a person reaches the 100 T4 cells/mm^3 mark there is no telling what could kill them, it could even be something as simple as a cold or influenza. The good news is that, although there are no cures for AIDS, there are some options for controlling HIV before it reaches the AIDS state. The first AIDS treatment, which is still used today, is an antitumor compound called azidothymidine (AZT). AZT was developed in 1964 by a pair of chemists-pharmacologists named George Hitchings and Gertrude Elion who had created several other antitumor drugs. AZT works by delaying â€Å"the onset of AIDS by inhibiting viral multiplication†¦AZT jam’s the cell’s copier and, in do doing, blocks the synthesis of new virus particles. (Sherman p. 184)† There are several other drugs called nucleoside analogs that also block the synthesis of viral nucleic acids, and are generally used along with AZT to make the famous â€Å"drug cocktail. † Another treatment option is a combination of protease inhibitors and reverse transcriptase inhibitors. The protease inhibitors work by preventing the viral enzyme, protease, from cutting viral proteins into shorter pieces. If short viral proteins cannot be produced then a complete virus cannot be assembled. The reverse transcriptase inhibitors work by blocking viral replication. This combination of drugs is able to significantly reduce virus production, up to 90-99%. The only problem with these treatments is that they are expensive and need to be taken daily. Although there is no cure for HIV/AIDS there is constant research being done on the possibility of creating some sort of vaccine that would be able to prevent HIV and, at least, slow the development of new HIV cell in those who are already infected. So far there have been some advancements but nothing has been created that would be effective or stable enough. That being said, the continuing efforts of the medical field and breakthroughs in treatment, we are moving closer and closer to the possibility of having some kind of vaccine and maybe someday a cure.

Global civilization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Global civilization - Essay Example The legend of Napoleon came about in form of effective internal governance. Code of Napoleon and other associated functions were the gift of his works. Napoleon Bonaparte consolidated his power and in turn enforced the influence of France in the affairs of Europe. For next fifteen years Napoleon single handedly took upon the rest of the European states and created panic in their ranks. The Tsarist government and rule came to an end towards the later part of First World War. It was brought about by number of events. The disturbances and nerviness within could be felt from the middle of 19th century. The decay of the monarchy from within was another factor. The appearance of the likes of Rasputin did not help the cause and made it further worse. The elements of Rasputin only added controversy and scandal to the existence of the monarchy (Garrard & Newell, 2006, 180). The war with Japan did not go too well either. The Dumas established as an attempt to bring about reforms did not auger well for the Tsar. In the light of these events, the commoners were dissatisfied and demanded a revolution. Vladimir Lenin was the pioneer of this entire movement and he organized the party of Bolsheviks in an effective manner to stage an upset and revolution. Woodrow Wilson was the first American President who aimed at breaking the American isolation from the global affairs. This came about in the form of the 14 points of Woodrow Wilson at the end of the First World War. Being an important global player, it aimed at imposing its influence and contributing towards the global peace. The 14 points were an effort towards restoration of the peace and avoiding of similar affair and account. Woodrow Wilson had aimed at bringing about an early end to the war that was causing direct damages to the humanity. Although there were number of significant points in the 14 point agenda, yet the establishment of the League of Nations was one of the direct gifts of Woodrow Wilson’s ideas.

Discuss the Servqual and Gap Analysis concepts and demonstrate how it Essay

Discuss the Servqual and Gap Analysis concepts and demonstrate how it can be applied in hospitality operations - Essay Example It is based on the pre-purchase expectations of an individual and the quality perceptions after purchase. The customer satisfaction differs with quality of service through psychological factors which play a vital role in an individual’s personal experience. Customer satisfaction is premised on the outcome or the process undertaken and thus defining customer satisfaction as the attributes of an end-state originating from consumption of experience base on perception, evaluation and psychological factors. The hospitality industry focuses on customer satisfaction as the main concern for producing service to its customers. Potential customers are lured to the hospitality sector for a number of reasons not limited to satisfaction, enjoyment, sense of achievement and self- esteem benefits that can be sought from this industry. Robinson (2009, p.21) discusses the benefits of leisure that provide customers with intellectual challenge, involvement and enjoyment, intellectual stimulation due to education, relief of stress through social benefits, relaxation and other aesthetic benefits. This factors link customer needs and satisfaction and motivation which is variable from individual to individual and thus obligating the customer oriented marketing to consider customer needs and be flexible to changes in internal processes to suit them. Satisfaction brings new customers through a positive word of mouth recommendations from existing customers. Secondly, it results into a stable source of income through maintaining customer loyalty through repetitive quality service delivery in the industry. Lack or inadequate customer satisfaction leads to additional expenses through handling customer complaints with an end result of wasting productive hours and ruining the reputation of a firm. There are a number of factors that affect customer satisfaction. However, the aspects of this paper aims at pre-purchase expectations that affect the overall

Economics of Shipping Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4750 words

Economics of Shipping - Essay Example This paper deals with how different factors affect bulk carrier's demand and supply and how Baltic Dry Index be used to predict the demand and supply of Dry Bulk Carrier for next three months. This paper also describes how recent global economic recession has caused decrease in steel production and thus decreases in global demand for iron, coal and minor bulk commodities and how this has affected the demand for bulk carriers. The paper also deals with industry specific risk factors and how they can affect the earnings of the companies supplying bulk carriers. A bulk carrier is a merchant ship that is used to transport bulk cargo that is not packaged such as coal, ore and grains. The ship usually carries cargo in its cargo holds. It is a ship in which the cargo is carried as bulk. The bulk carriers were first made in 1852 but with time, the economic forces caused these ships to become more sophisticated and caused them to increase in size. There are two types of bulk carriers, wet bulk carrier and dry bulk carrier. The bulk carriers are dominating merchant ships. In terms of tonnage they comprise about one third of total world's fleet. So far the world's largest bulk carrier is able to carry about 365,000 metric tons of dead weight (DWT). The bulk carriers are divided into six main categories: small, handy size, handy max, panamex, capsize, very large bulk carrier (VLBC) (MAN Diesel Group, 2005, p. 3-4. ). Small bulk carriers have capacity of about 10,000 DWT and mini bulk carriers are most popular amongst them. They have a capacity of about 500 to 2000 tons and are usually used for river transport. Such ships easily pass under bridges and they have small crew. Handymax and Handy size have a capacity of more than 10,000 DWT and these two represent about 71% of all bulk carriers. Handymax ships have a capacity of about 52,000 DWT and have about four holds to carry cargo. Panamax canal's lock chamber limits the size of Panamax vessels. And it can accommodate ships with beam of up to 32.31m, a length of overall of up to 294.13m, and a draft of up to 12.04m (Autoridad del Canal de Panam, 2005, pp. 11- 12) Capesize vessels are very large vessels and have capacity of about 20,000 DWT. They carry cargo mainly like coal and iron. Large capacity capesize ships are specially designed to carry iron. Baltic Dry Index Baltic Dry Index is based on Baltic Exchange. This index is means of providing prices of raw materials transported by sea (Baltic Exchange, 2009).. The Baltic Exchange is a membership organization and its member is at the heart of world trade. Every day brokers around the world want to know how much it would cost to transport cargo around the world. These indices are made by assessment of international broking companies. The bulk cargo market relies on the mutual agreement and cooperation of ship owners and brokers to ensure a smooth flow of business(Baltic Exchange, 2009).. It is a rule of Baltic Exchange that all members should follow a code of business and abide by the rules. In case any member fails to follow rules then the member is expelled. There are about five hundred companies and about two thousand people that are member of Baltic Exchange

Real Estate Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Real Estate - Essay Example The people took properties on mortgages and also took loans from the bank. The economy also started to flourish as the real estate market has a direct impact on the economy of the country. It was during this period that different kinds of policies and loans were introduced by banks and estate companies. All other industries that were somehow associated and linked with the real estate market also grew stronger (Hersh, 2002). But soon with the start of the new millennium the situation started to reverse and the market started to face a downfall. The financial institutions started to withdraw the money and the gross percent money assets diminished rapidly and within single year it decreased to an extremely low value (New York University, 1971). The subprime credit was completely eliminated from the market and the interest rates greatly increased and rates for all types of loans also dramatically increased. The housing prices continued to hike and this continued to fuel the flame. The closure rates hit new records and the domino effect began (Hersh, 2002). As a result the people stopped to invest, the banks stopped to lend loans to people and companies and those companies which were still giving loans were giving them at increased interest rates. As the people stopped to invest and started to take out their money, business started to decrease and the entire market started to fall. The industries and factor ies had much reduced works and therefore the companies started to fire people because keeping the workers without any work was a loss to the company and the people started to lose their jobs and started to seek governmental aids (California Real Estate Association, 1936). The government was also facing financial problems as the government banks and estates were easily issuing loans to the people and when the housing market crashed the people became unable to pay back their loans and many companies filed bankruptcy and the banks had no more money to lend. The

International Institute of Finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

International Institute of Finance - Essay Example IIF has a robust Knowledge space in the form of its website which is used to provide above packaged knowledge in part of full to public and members. Knowledge events include briefings, meetings, seminars, conferences, workshops, staff visits to information sites, collaborative efforts to bring together global financial lenders, etc. Firstly, CRM can help IIF to handle the increase in its membership base (from 150 in 1996 to 20,000 in 2001). CRM will handle list of members with appropriate information, such as contacts, areas of interests, history and other related information. So IIF can create groups and subgroups of members, classify them by various parameters, send them adequate promotion information, and notify them about potentially interesting events. Although IIF does not have revenue goals, all these improvements will raise quality of services, members' satisfaction and loyalty and facilitate work of staff of IIF. Secondly, CRM can provide staff and members of IIF access outside of the office that increases flexibility and mobility for both staff and members. It is true that top managers of banking and financial institutions travel a lot, so access to IIF knowledge base via Internet from anywhere on Earth will be very useful for them. ThThirdly, CRM will provide ground for interaction of members with potential members, for example, via newsletters, online discussions, publications, meetings and other forms of communications. So marketing to potential members will be supported. The proposed CRM is much better then Access database, what IIF is currently using. To begin with, use of Access was limited to IIF premises; its traveling staff could not access it in travel. Also, it had limited versatility in that it abruptly aborted when accessed by more than five users simultaneously. Then, membership-billing system was separate and membership department sent bills manually to members. Similarly events department had to collect events' registration details from IIF website and re-key it in the Access database system. So Access database does not meet current needs of IIF. The new CRM must meet management's strategic objective to have robust activities even with incredibly increased client base and offer members a comprehensive user interface. More importantly, the management wanted an integrated view of CRM, billing, accounting and events management alongside making its databases accessible to mobile staffers and public-members or non-members. The new CRM included not only all of the above in its design but also had the capability to handle increased staffers' research efforts warranted by dynamic economic scenarios in emerging markets. The value of designing the system with an open architecture Before talking about open architecture, I would like to mention that an architecture-first approach would really help in the situation. An early focus on the architecture results in a solid foundation for the 20% of the stuff (requirements, components, use cases and risks) that drives the overall success of the project. Getting the architecturally important components to be well understood and stable before worrying about the complete set of different features should make

Global Financial Crisis Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Global Financial Crisis - Article Example The article further claims that financials problem could be avoided if people could have adopted the current economic models. Depending on the article's argument, financials problems have been brought about by people negligence. States have been neglecting the economic models which can help in resolving the economy. Currently, most of the states depend on others in order to get enough supply of goods and services. Many, countries have their foreign policy which governs their relationship with other states. The lack of an international organization to bring about a general foreign policy to govern all states as led to the lack of corporation in terms of international business. Conflict exists between some states, and this makes it difficult for the international business to take place. Due to increasing level of transnational and globalization activities countries needs to interact and share business difficult importation and exportation of products. The article states that the proble m will affect the livelihood of people in all corners of the world, and this is because people move to other states to seek employment and perform business. When one country is affected, it means that the whole world will be affected (Shah 2013). It is true that I am persuaded by the reading in this article because I have seen it happening. From the time to time, foreign currencies change their market status from being stable to unstable and vice versa (Shah 2013). The level of globalization has increased and without inclusion of the current economic model a country’s economy can decline. Those economic models which could have prevented financials crisis include qualitative models, stochastic and non-stochastic model.  

Public and Private Sector Accounting Essay Example for Free

Public and Private Sector Accounting Essay Accounting, known by and large to be a skilled, remunerative, but rather dry profession, has a long and fascinating history. In existence practically from the dawn of civilization, in one form or the other, accounting activity has been integral to some of the most important phases of history. Responsible for the invention of writing, accountants have over the ages, (because of their organic and fundamental association with the processes of trade, business, industry, governance, and taxation), been involved in monarchy and empire expansion, the process of colonisation, the industrial revolution, the World Wars, scientific progress, globalisation, and the spread of neo liberal economics across the world. Confucius, as a government official, was responsible for accounting, and much of what we know about the daily lives of ancient peoples comes from accounting records, such as inventories and sales records, found at archaeological sites. Accounting evolution has followed dissimilar routes in different countries and states and has been extensively shaped by the immediate and larger environment. Japan’s accounting processes, for example, which were significantly shaped by western influences, are very dissimilar from that of neighbouring China and have played an important role in the country’s far more rapid advancement in business, industry and international trade in the 19th and 20th centuries. Accounting policies and procedures in the modern day have, in somewhat similar fashion, evolved rather differently for private sector businesses and public sector corporations, being shaped and constructed by the unlike needs of the two sectors, the dissimilar nature of their income and expenditure streams, the different control processes under which they operate, and their diverse reporting requirements. Recent years have however witnessed significant rethinking in and rerouting of the functioning of public enterprises; the steadily increasing application of neo-liberal economic principles and greater accountability for the commercial and financial success of public sector corporations, leading to increasing convergence between the accounting policies and practices of the public with that of the private sector. This essay attempts to investigate the reasons for the differences in their historical evolution, and the current worldwide efforts to bring about greater convergence between the two accounting methods. Commentary and Discussion Historical Overview of Evolution of Accounting Whilst the extent of involvement of accounting activity in historical life across cultures is becoming clearer with the progress of archaeological work, the accounting profession has historically chosen to adopt a low profile, there being very few pioneers who can be identified with major accounting developments. The most important historical name to arise, in this connection, is that of Luca Pacioli, who in 1494 wrote a book on mathematics, in which he discussed the concept of double entry book keeping. The chapter on practical mathematics addressed mathematics in business. He said that the successful merchant needs three things: sufficient cash or credit, an accounting system that can tell him how he’s doing, and good bookkeeper to operate it. His accounting system consisted of journals and ledgers. It rested on the invention of double-entry bookkeeping. Debits were on the left side because that’ s what â€Å"debit† meant, â€Å"the left†. The numbers on the right were named â€Å"credits†. If everything was done right, then the bookkeeper could do a trial balance (â€Å"summa summarium†). Add up all the debits and then add up all the credits, he said. If everything had been done right, the totals should match. If not, â€Å"that would indicate a mistake in your Ledger, which mistake you will have to look for diligently with the industry and intelligence God gave you. † He wrote† It is difficult to overestimate the importance of double entry bookkeeping. Simple and adequate for the needs of business, it caught on immediately with Italian merchants, was central to their success, and contributed towards the impetus that led to the emergence of the Renaissance. Whilst the conceptualisation and implementation of the double entry system of bookkeeping in the 15th century was the first major watershed in the development of modern day accounting theory, the following centuries were also witness to a number of major developments in Europe and Asia in the area of business recording and accounting, many of which contributed to the development of modern day accounting principles and policies. Notwithstanding Pacioli’s seminal contribution to accounting methodology, a number of other renaissance forces also helped in giving body and shape to the discipline; key factors among these being the concept of private property, capital, widespread commerce, money, the use of credit, the development of arithmetic, and the growing use of writing for recording transactions. Although many of these factors did exist in ancient times, they were not found together, until the Middle-Ages, in a form and strength necessary to push for the innovation of double entry. Accounting rules, policies and practices evolved over time in response to the needs of businesses and to a range of developments. The emergence of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century led accountants to devise accounting methods for finding the cost of production; large scale production of goods in the United States led to the formulation of cost accounting procedures, the arrival of income tax laws saw substantial modifications in the practice of keeping accounting records, and the great depression of the early decades of the 20th century led to the introduction of standards, the establishment of accounting principles and accounting frameworks. Josiah Wedgwood, the famous potter, contributed significantly to cost accounting by studying his books, manufacturing cost structure, overhead, and market structure to avoid bankruptcy during the recession. He became an accounting pioneer and his firm survives even today. Accountancy practices in recent years have been repeatedly scrutinised, modified and clarified through the setting up of accounting standards, the establishment of auditor responsibilities and the enactment of laws for appropriate disclosure. The reputation of the accounting profession has been severely tarnished by corporate scams and frauds like Enron, which has led to the questioning of accounting methods and principles, as well the integrity of the accounting profession. Accounting systems and practices, whilst developing side by side all over the world have followed distinctly different routes, being influenced by institutional and cultural factors. Institutional factors like legal systems, taxation laws, financing norms and methods, credit availability and stock exchange requirements, which have been markedly different for Anglo-Saxon, European, Central Asian, and East Asian environments have shaped the development of accounting systems accordingly. Researchers like Hofstede and Gray have theorised that cultural differences have also played a significant role in the establishment of different accounting systems in different countries. Gray took up Hofstede’s cultural hypotheses and linked them to the development of accounting systems in a meaningful way, stating that cultural or societal values permeated through organisational and occupational subcultures, and vice versa, though obviously the degree of integration differed from place to place. â€Å"Accounting systems and practices can influence and reinforce societal values† Development of Accounting Methods in the Public and Private Sectors The power of various influences to shape the development of accounting systems and methodologies is also evident in the shaping of accounting norms for the public sector and their significant differences from those adopted by or enforced upon the private sector; the public sector, basically implying corporations whose ownership vested with governments, and whose control was accordingly decided by government diktat. Whilst governments had until the 1930s focussed mainly on the controlling of law and order, defence, foreign policy, and similar other areas, the end of the Second World War saw them taking a far greater interest in business and commercial affairs, as well as in infrastructural sectors. Whilst some of these developments were due to the influence of socialist thought and the example set by socialist states, (where all businesses were controlled by the government), they were also influenced by the widespread disenchantment with the capitalist way of governance after the great depression of the 1930s. The huge task of nation building after the devastation caused by World War II made it necessary for governments to actually contribute to infrastructure building, nursing of revived industries, and setting up of new businesses. In the UK, activities like mining and railways were controlled by the government. In Italy the state owned IRI (Institute for Industrial Reconstruction) owned companies engaged in mining, steel, airlines, banking, telephones, and automobile manufacture, and in India the government, apart from controlling all infrastructural activity also controlled the majority of heavy business investment and activity. Substantial governmental control over infrastructural and commercial activity, in addition to its existing control over governmental departments, led to the evolution of a significantly different form of accounting than what was followed by the private sector. The most important of these differences concerned the mode of booking expenditures and incomes, which in the private sector worked on the accrual basis, even whilst the public sector chose to stay with the older method of recording them only after they had been realised in cash or kind. The cash basis of accounting, which records income or expenditure transactions only after such transactions have resulted in the physical receipt or payment of cash, constituted the commonly followed way of accounting for all enterprises, until the adoption of the accrual way of accounting by businesses, changed commonly held accounting perspectives. The cash system records accounting events when they become tangible, e. g. , when a customer’s check arrives, when a shipped product reaches the customer, or when money for a business-related expense is removed from the bank. Cash accounting registers income when money arrives and registers expenses when money goes out of the business. Even today the cash accounting method is a more familiar accounting method because of its use by most individuals in tracking of personal finances. Under this method, one’s income is taxable when it is received, and expenses are deductible when they are paid. Cash accounting remains a straightforward and easily understood method of record-keeping for tax purposes. The accrual method on the other hand approaches accounting events in real time. A sale is registered as soon as a customer receives a consignment even though the actual payment could come much later. Similarly an expense is recorded as soon as the event occurs and a liability recorded as soon as an event occur, whether it is purchase of material, use of services like water or electricity and use of employed or contracted labor, even though such transactions do not involve the simultaneous exchange of money. Over time most private sector businesses, apart from those controlled by small individuals or which were small in size, chose to switch over to the accrual system, forced as much by pressure from regulatory bodies and lending institutions, as by their desire to reflect more logical and realistic business and accounting outcomes. Most tax systems stipulate the compulsory use of accrual systems for private businesses after they achieve a certain size or adopt specified legal structures like those of privately owned or joint stock companies. Most public sector organisations, across the world, however chose to remain with the cash based system of accounting. Such decisions grew out of certain specific circumstances. Governments are essentially different in their nature from businesses, the information required for better understanding and assessment of the financial operations of government organisations extending beyond the reporting of surpluses and deficits. Governments, unlike the private sector, whilst required to run their operations efficiently, are required to provide goods and services to the public, which in some cases becomes more important than making profits. The measurement of surpluses or deficits is in many cases not the primary indicator of the performance of government working. In many countries the public sector continues to retain a separate and different approach from the private sector. Their services are often provided free at the point of use and there is little or no direct link between the cost of these and government income, which is mainly in the form of taxation. The government, in many cases, decides upon the amount of grants required for specific public sector organisations through the formulation of budgets and provides the same on a periodic basis; many such organisations preferring to call their financial statements â€Å"receipt and expenditure† rather than profit and loss statements. The accounting policies of public sector organisations are also shaped by their different reporting requirements. Private sector organisations, especially those that are legally structured as joint stock companies need to provide a true and fair description of their financial performance for the benefit of their shareholders, the tax authorities, and other stakeholders. Even smaller organisations need to necessarily satisfy the requirements of tax departments and their owners, and their accountants routinely adopt the accrual system for recording transactions and preparing statements. Reporting requirements for government controlled organizations is significantly different. Comparison of actual disbursals and expenses with those budgeted is a routine requirement, a need that is more conveniently filled through the use of cash accounting records. The managements of such organisations also have to report on specific information needs of various bodies, including supervisory government departments, parliamentary bodies, and the governmental auditors. Conclusion Recent years have seen extensive debate in public sector accounting and the changes made in many countries for shifting from the cash to the accrual basis of accounting. Public sector working has been influenced during the last three decades by the concepts of New Public Management, (NPM), which expressly calls for enhancement of the efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of public service delivery through the implementation of a wide range of changes that include deregulation, decentralisation, outsourcing, substitution of input control by output control, result orientation, responsibility assignment and introduction and implementation of private sector management techniques. Whilst the adoption of the accrual system of accounting will lead to the production of more logical and more accurate financial statements, the convergence process will need extensive retraining and education not just of public sector accountants but also of public sector auditors and the users of these financial statements. Such lack of familiarity may lead to inaccuracies in the preparation of financial statements and will need to be addressed through appropriate training and skills upgradation of the concerned people. With the aim of public sector reforms being the dismantling of bureaucracy and more efficient use of resources, increased managerial autonomy and discretion is being accompanied by an emphasis on more extensive accounting practices. Again with accounting playing a key role in NPM implementation and in public sector reforms, the need for greater convergence between public and private sector accounting is being increasingly evidenced. Significant accounting reforms are taking place in many countries, more specifically in the United States, the UK, and West and Nordic Europe. Many public sector companies are changing their accounting policies to institutionalise accrual accounting for budgetary and external financial reporting purposes in order to provide useful information about liabilities, debt, usage of assets, and the cost of public services Whilst change is coming about slowly in public sector accounting, the issue is still being debated vigorously in many countries. The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) formulated the â€Å"Guideline for Governmental Financial Reporting† in 1998 to help public sector units at all levels to prepare their financial reports on the basis of accruals. The IFAC Guideline, along with the International Accounting Standards (IAS) followed by the private sector, make the basis for the International Public sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) developed by the Public sector Committee (PSC) of IFAC.

Uses Of Nuclear Energy In Agriculture

Uses Of Nuclear Energy In Agriculture Nuclear technique is being an important application in many sectors such as food agriculture, industry, medical, environmental protection and power production. It is known that there are both advantages and disadvantages of using nuclear energy. However, nuclear energy is being widely used in agriculture which includes food production, animal production, crop production, fertilizer, soil fertility and more. According to Farm Press, nuclear power is considered cheap to be used in agriculture development. It has been reported that the increasing price of gasoline, electricity, diesel fuel and natural gas is one of the major problems to farmers. Nuclear energy is found to be the cheapest power source for agriculture. For example, nuclear energy can be used in production of nitrogen fertilizer instead of natural gas which has increasing price nowadays. Co-ordinated Research Project (CRP) was carried out on the use of nuclear techniques for optimizing nitrogen fertilizer application under irrigated wheat. It has been found that this technique increases the efficiency of nitrogen fertilizer while reduces environmental pollution. Other than that, Khanal and Munankarmy (2009) stated that there is possibility to improve health, feeding and fertility of livestock. They further explained that nucleic acid hybridization (nuclear related technique) is a promising technique for disease diagnosis. The conventional approaches of disease diagnosis involving direct detection and isolation consume more time compared to nucleic acid hybridization. Thus, it is said to be very effective in terms of time and sensitivity. Besides that, this technique is also unique because it focuses on the genome of organism instead of its products. According to the study conducted by Khanal and Munankarmy (2009), ionizing irradiation is another nuclear technique which plays a vital role in animal health. Virulence of some parasites can be eliminated using this technique which also helps to produce safer and cost effective vaccines. These methods have increased the rates of growth and milk and meat yield. There are some non-isotopic nuclear techniques that are being implicated in agriculture, especially in livestock production (Makkar, 2008). Gamma irradiation is one of the non-isotopic nuclear techniques. This gamma irradiation is an effective technique which enhances nutrient availability in plants that are fed to livestock. According to Makkar, content of plant secondary metabolites in some of the unconventional feed resources, could give adverse effects to the feed of livestock. He further explained that bioavailability of nutrients decreases at high levels of plant secondary metabolites. Thus, it is found that gamma irradiation is an effective technique to inactivate the adverse activities. Committee On Agriculture has discussed on à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"nuclear techniques in food and agricultureà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ . This committee stated that nuclear related techniques help to improve the food production system in terms of stability, resilience and productivity. Biodiversity of crop plants can be increased by radiation induced mutations which change the genetic make-up. For instance, mutation breeding has given more than 3000 crop varieties of some 170 different plant species in more than 100 countries. This includes rice that grows successfully in saline soil and barley that grows at 5000 meters. Nuclear technique is playing a vital role in soil and water management system. It is important to improve soil moisture conservation measures and reduce wastage of irrigation water which leads to the improvement of water management in agriculture. One of the nuclear techniques that help in soil and water management is Soil Moisture Neutron Probe (SMNP). SMNP is a portable device that is used to measure soil water content at different depths through access tubes installed in the soil profile. Data obtained from SMNP are used to calculate the soil water balance and estimate the total amount of soil water removed from soil evaporation and plant transpiration (Joint FAO/IAEA, 2004). Furthermore, nuclear techniques are also used to identify the source of soil pollutant. This helps farmers or environmental planners to know the specific sources of pollutant and design most appropriate management strategy, so that the impact of pollutants can be reduced. For example, fertilizers and pesticides that are used to improve the agricultural activities can become pollutants if they reach the rivers, streams and lakes. To overcome this problem, fallout radionuclides are attached to soil particles which can track the movement of soil particles from where they originate (Nuclear Technology Review, 2007). On the other hand, nuclear energy also has disadvantages. One of the major concerns about nuclear energy is there is a chance for severe accident to occur in the reactor. This accident is very dangerous because it releases radioactive materials into the environment. In 1986, there was a Chernobyl accident occurred in Ukraine. It was caused by the flawed Soviet reactor designed coupled with mistakes made by plant operators. As a result, 30 operators and fireman died within three months (Scientific and Technical Committee Euratom, 2001). Scientific and Technical Committee Euratom has explained on another negative effect of nuclear energy. According to this committee, nuclear energy produces radioactive waste which is very dangerous. There are two types of wastes: short-lived and long-lived wastes. Many countries have safely disposed the short-lived wastes. Whereas, the long-lived wastes which are generated in a very small amount are conditioned and stored carefully without releasing it to the environment. However, the final disposal of long-lived wastes is still an unsolved problem. As a conclusion, even though nuclear power has disadvantages which are really harmful to the environment and human beings, it should be still encouraged to use it in agriculture. This is because nuclear energy is really needed to improve our Malaysian agricultural sector which is the main focus of our country as our ex-prime minister decided. It is suggested that Malaysian government should encourage creating more researchers on nuclear energy. Other than that, our government can implement joint projects with developed countries, so that more application of nuclear energy can be used in Malaysian agriculture. At the same time, it is very important to be aware of the dangerous of using nuclear energy and always be safe and secured.

Arguments for and against prostitution legalization

Arguments for and against prostitution legalization The articles writer is Emily Bazelon who is a senior of Slate. Majority of the articles in which she wrote, were mostly controversial subjects, such as, the Hamdan v. Rumsfelf trial and post-abortion syndrome. She is a contributing writer who plays in many roles. Emily is the co-editor of the Jurisprudence blog, and edits Slates legal column. The Jurisprudence blog talks about womens issues. Emily Bazelon was a senior editor of Legal Affairs before she started joining Slate as well as a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine. In the year 1993 and 1994, she worked as a reporter in the San Francisco Bay Area and also as a journalist in Israel. Moreover, she is also a Senior Research Scholar in Law and Truman Capote as well as a fellow for the Creative Writing and Law at Yale Law School. She examined the reasons why prostitution is illegal or why it should be legal in the article of Why is Prostitution. Emily was comment that the reasons of it are because of the deprived wom en in the industry and it would only help brothel frequenter who are the ones who exploit and demean these women. From the article of Why Is it prostitution illegal?, Emily Bazelon talks on the prostitution issue by giving argument. Argument on legalizing prostitution expands, leads to back-alley violence and fails to protect woman. It also causes greater demand for human trafficking victims. Martha Nussbaum argues on sale of bodily services and poor woman that work as bad conditions. Difference between a street worker controlled by a pimp and a high-end call girl who picks her own clients, and how to increase poor womens access to decent and safe work. Prostitution is inevitable but if its regulated then conditions will be better. Countries that prostitution is legal arent cesspools. In 1999, legal to sell but illegal to but sex and only johns and traffickers can be prosecuted. According to Womens Justice Center, Swedens way is a big success. Prostitution has been reduced in Stockholm and Finland. SANS, for sex workers and Allies Network in Sweden dislike the 199 law. It has more dangerous clie nts and unsafe sex. Industries want straight-out legalization but without systematic studies shown law has made sex work worse or riskier. Prostitution laws should not come down to working conditions, laws that would lead for sex workers. Due to a recent working paper (PDF) by economist Steven Levitt and sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh, apparently dont know that much about the specifics of the structure of the sex market. Levitt and Venkatesh found that women working on streets were making $27 a day and less than $20,000 a year from the data of Chicago police department. The Ricks of the trade were serious as an annual average of a dozen incidents of violence and 300 instances of unprotected sex. Surprisingly, high prevalence of police officers demanding sex from prostitutes in return for avoiding arrest. Its another argument against the bans on prostitution; presumably women would not be caught in this particular trap if they were not worried about going to jail in the first place. Prostitution means, the act or practice of engaging, and a career in which it is contempt by society even if it has been around for centuries. In ancient Greek, prostitution is not to be contempt because of the prostitutes dedication to the Gods or goodness of the priests. It began many centuries ago, as a way to service for the God. Today prostitution has become more and more open to the extent that some countries approve for the legalization of prostitution, countries such as, Bulgaria and the Netherlands industry. In my opinion, prostitution is an immoral transaction, even if it has been around for thousands of years. Legalization of prostitution is a problem on the countrys controversial topic. The article does not entirely agree because it has brought many negative effects, such as health, community policy issues and religious issues. As we all know, that the biggest impact caused by prostitution is none other than health problems. There are many impacts created by prostitution, whether to the society or other people, and it is physically harmful to sex workers. Those sex workers have a high probability will get sexually transmitted disease (STD), such as HIV/ AIDS, Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Herpes, Human Papilloma virus , and Syphills. These STD are alarmingly high among women in the prostitution industry. According to Minneapolis/St. Paul, studies demonstrated that 31% of the women interviewed had experienced at least one episode of DID which is the accounts for most of the serious illness associated with STD infection.(Janice, 1994). Besides that, it does not only gravely impair to the sex workers, but it will also be passed to innocent people such as their couple partners. In some developing countries, it has been estimated that 70% of females have STD and infertility, most of which were caused by their husbands o r partners who were involved in prostitution (Jacobson, 1992). It shows that prostitution does not only affect sex workers and clients, but it also implicates to innocent people as well. Assuming that these diseases are uncontrollable and are continuously being spread out into community, the consequences will be disastrous. Hence, the rate of health in the community will be in the danger zone. Furthermore, prostitution also related to the crime problems in the community. Most prostitution industries connected to crime groups such as triad. Illegal prostitution does not bring any benefit to the society; instead, it will increase the rate of crime. Because prostitution is being induce, it leads to the production of criminal such as theft robbery, assault, murder, alcoholism, drug abuse, kidnapping, human trafficking and others. Some of the sex woman workers are victims of human trafficking which are manipulated by criminal groups. Many of them are living in a violent environment even life threatening ones as Emily Bazelon mentioned in the article. She mentioned that women who fear prosecution could not go to the police for help due to life threats. As the article mentioned, many of the works involve the sales of bodily services and that lots of the works involve bad working condition. I strongly believe that legalizing prostitution is a huge mistake because not only will it encourage the rate of crime to continuously rise but sooner or later it will become a rampant increase. For example, as Why Is Prostitution Illegal article mentioned, the government claimed that legalizing or tolerating prostitution would create a greater demand for human trafficking problem. More succinctly, legalizing prostitution industry will increase the demand of sex worker because of the shortage of voluntary sex workers, so they will kidnap girls and force them to be sex workers. Therefore, do not legalize prostitution is the best choice. In fact, professional ethics have always despised sex workers in the society because it is a violation of religious moral teachings. Prostitution represents a distortion of traditional cultural values and a corruption of humanity. For example, there have five percepts in Buddhism. One of the percepts is talking about prostitution. The third percept is to be refraining from sexual misconduct. Prostitution is a systematic violation of this rule, a problem Buddhists need to take more seriously. Among other things, a substantial improvement in the economic well-being of rural areas, as well as the enforcement of laws punishing profiling from the business of prostitution, is needed to reduce pressure on rural young women to resort to prostitution (Peter, 1999). From this, we know that a religionist or a superior man does not allow prostitution. Even in ancient China, the status of sex workers has no value and its level is lower compared to slaves. Despite some countries acceptance, the Mu slim religionist in Malaysia does not. Therefore, Malaysia has laws to those prostitution offenders. They will be given serious punishments if the laws are violated. It is stated in the Syariah Criminal Offences (Federal Territories) Act 1997. In section 21 of Act 559, it is demonstrates that any women who are involves in prostitution shall be arrest and offense on conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or to whipping not exceeding six strokes or to any combination thereof. This is one of the ways Muslim people go against prostitution, which is using strict laws. Therefore, the legalization of prostitution would be very likely to break with the harmonious relationship between governments and religionists. In conclusion I strongly believe that these three factors are why prostitution is should not be legalized. Prostitution is to increase the culture of corruption in a society, because it will gradually undermine the social morality and the destruction of human conscience. If peoples cultures are being corrupted continuously, we will no longer live in a peaceful and harmonious life. Thus, prostitution should not be legalized. Reference Page Parriott, Ruth. Health Experiences of Twin Cities Women Used in Prostitution: Survey Findings and Recommendations. Unpublished, May 1994. Available from Breaking Free, 1821 University Ave., Suite 312, South, St. Paul, Minnesota 55104. Retrieve from November 27, 2010 from http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/mhvhealt.htm. Jacobson, Jodi L. The Other Epidemic. World Watch. May-June 1992, pp. 10-11. Retrieve from November 27, 2010 from http://www.enabling.org/ia/vipassana/Archive/J/Jackson/homoBuddhaJackson.html Emily Bazelon. Article of Why is Prostitution Should Illegal? Posted Monday, March 10, 2008 at Slate Magazine. Retrieve from November 27, 2010. From http://www.slate.com/id/2186243/ Syariah Criminal Offences (Federal Territories) Act 1997. In section 21 of Act 559. Retrieve from November 27, 2010. From http://www.mylawyer.com.my/pdf/Syariah_Criminal_Offences_Federal_Territories_Act.pdf

Zeynep Tons A Minimum Wage Essay -- elastic supply, demand, employees

The article that I am studying is Zeynep Ton's A minimum wage hike could help employers, too, in the Harvard Business Review. This article is a speculative piece about the effects of proposed minimum wage increases at the federal level. The author takes a look at companies that superior wages and benefits for their industry. The underlying theme is that this is juxtaposed against a common argument that raising the minimum wage will be universally harmful. The common argument takes beginner's level supply and demand graphs and uses them as the basis for the claim. The basic elastic supply and demand graph shows that as the cost of a good increases, demand for that good declines. Thus, if the minimum wage increases, businesses will face higher costs, will pass those costs onto consumers, will suffer lower profits or will reduce employment, or some combination of these negative outcomes. The author here is pointing out that the world is a heck of a lot more complex than that. Microeconomics does not end with the study of rudimentary supply and demand graphs, but incorporates a broader range of considerations into its arguments. The author highlights a couple of those arguments. The first is the "good jobs strategy". The second is the efficiency concept. The two are at times related. First, microeconomic principles can be used to examine the good jobs strategy. The author cites four firms in particular – Trader Joe's, Costco, Spanish supermarket chain Mercadona and convenience store chain QuikTrip. The author acknowledges that these companies do not have too many similarities, perhaps except for the nature of the goods they sell – they are all in convenience and food retailing. This industry is characterized by a st... ...vers. Better people won't work for minimum wage, but better people make for stronger companies. And what of customers? There are price elasticities of demand to consider in this argument. They are not relevant at Costco, and Trader Joe's is good value for its competitive niche, but many Americans are perfectly willing to pay a higher price for better quality. Yes, there are other considerations not mentioned here – the effect of minimum wage on overall inflation and things like that – but the article is a great starting point for understanding the complexity of microeconomic analysis that goes beyond the superficial analysis we often see in the media. Works Cited Ton, Z. (2014). A minimum wage hike could help employers, too. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved February 2, 2014 from http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/01/a-minimum-wage-hike-would-help-employers-too/

Loves Executioner, by Irvin D. Yalom Essay -- Literary Analysis, Yalo

In the story, â€Å"Loves Executioner†, Yalom treats and old woman named â€Å"Thelma† that is overly obsessed with her a former therapist from ten years ago named Matthew. Yalom feeling though that he is drawn to the facets of her dilemma decides to do everything he can to empower Thelma move past the obsessions that had been wrecking havoc on her mental health. Although Thelma’s love obsession with her therapist, and her subjective experiences on life of what is preventing her from living in the present, Yalom attempts to treat a 70-year-old woman only to learn that being love executioner more complicated as he had anticipated. First and foremost are Yalom and Thelma’s first meeting. In beginning, Yalom is intrigued with her love obsession with Matthew and couldn’t understand why her former therapist that was considerably younger would even want to have sexual relations Thelma as he describes her as, â€Å"a shabby old woman† (Yalom, 2000). The possibly of helping her move past her obsession to ease her suffering, were the reasons why Yalom ultimately decides to treat her. I thought that though Yalom had good intentions from the start to treat her, I think that he was thrown off by her demands as she tells him right from the start, â€Å"Eight years ago I had a love affair with my therapist. Since then he has never left my mind. I almost killed myself once and I believe I will succeed the next time. You are my last hope.† (Yalom, 2000 p. 18) A person that has been seeing therapists for over twenty years and be stuck on an obsession for ten, I thought, was rather intimidating and I think that Yalom did the best he could to remain optimistic. If I had a patient like Thelma that told me that I was her last hope and if I could not help her she wi... ...ought that in some ways Yalom lost his patience, but he was on time constraints had more time to work with Thelma, therapy may have turned out different. This was defiantly one most confusing and intricate stories I have read in Yalom’s book and that the overall take home message I took from this was that, love and obsessions are hard to intellectualize and understand objectively as much as we would like to. Although what may be logically the best decision, love is not based on logic and that the only loves executioner cannot come from the suggestions of another person or therapist, but more from themselves and within. I think this quote states the story best, â€Å"Love and Psychotherapy are fundamentally incompatible. A good therapist fights darkness and seeks illumination, while romantic love is sustained by mystery and crumbles upon inspection† (Yalom, 2000 p. 17)

Gender differences

Males will use the Splashradio in different ways than females and will react differently to how it is used. The Splashradio is designed for both males and females and they can use it in many similar situations, however, males and females may use it to play in very different ways and since the Splashradio has no major rules, it can be used however the players choose. Gender roles still hold their stereotypical values developed throughout time, but they are continuously changing. Some barriers are starting to break and girls are beginning to enjoy video games more. The difference between male and female has been culturally constructed and society teaches children what is appropriate and inappropriate based on social norms and stereotypes (Cassell 6, 28). For example, boys are generally more interested in computer games and electronics than girls. This is not due to lack of women's ability, but their access to technologies and prior negative beliefs about women and electronics (Cassell 11-12). Stereotypes wont stop girls from using the Splashradio, but it may effect how they use it. Stereotypically girls play house and Barbie's while boys play more aggressive games, like war and wrestling, due to social norms. They can still do this with the Splashradio, but it doesn't limit them to the stereotypical roles. It will allow them to easily cross the line between designated male only and female only games. Right now it is still too difficult to market towards girls alone, but since the Splashradio can be used in any situation, it should be easily marked for both sexes (Cassell 16). Just because games like Purple Moon and Hawaii High failed don't mean all will. Girls can still play with romance plots, secrets, Barbie's and other traditional interests if they wish, but they aren't limited to them (Cassell 21). Cassell and Jenkins suggested it is best not to design gender specific games, because they will tell users how they are supposed to act and what they should like. The Splashradio leaves these decisions entirely up to the user. Girls may seek â€Å"complexity in terms of character relations, not in terms of action elements† like boys do, but they will be able to create this with the Splashradio. Simplifying games or making things pink, like the tanks in â€Å"Barbie Quake† won't help girls enjoy using the Splashradio (Cassell 26). The genders are different; they think differently, like different things, and in some cases want to play differently. Girls and boys should be given equal opportunities to explore and play with the same toys and they will have this chance with the Splashradio. Typically boys tend to explore and roam more than girls do (Jenkins 267). Boys are, stereotypically, more outdoor-oriented and girls are more indoor-oriented (Jenkins 268). In the past, boys have grown up more independent, they have gained recognition for risky play, were more competitive, violent, aggressive, and participated in more role-playing activities than girls did (Jenkins 270-274). Girls grew up being more dependent, house ridden, quiet, and conservative. According to Jenkins, girls are more interested in romance novels, secrets, and gossiping. However, in the 21st century girls aren't as interested in the romance novels and slow â€Å"exploring† games, like Purple Moon (Jenkins 284). Some girls still choose to play stereotypical games, but others are interested in competitive games, just like boys. Gender roles are not as strict as they used to be and girls are discovering many new forms of play that earlier generations thought were only for boys. Girls and boys may use the Splashradio to play games like Star Wars, football, or Marco Polo. However, it can still be used to play with dolls or house, as well, but the device is not gender specific and does not limit the kind of games people play relating to gender. Only social experiences and past stereotypes will control the types of play people participate in while using the Splashradio. One major reason boys and girls will play differently with the Splashradio and other toys is gender segregation. â€Å"Not only do preschool-age children tend to self-segregate by sex, but that segregation leads to the development of different sets of social skills, styles, expectations, and preferences† (Cohen 1). Observational studies have proven that the more children play with same sex peers, the more they follow gender stereotypes created by society. Researchers Carol Lynn Martin and Richard A. Fabes of Arizona State call this phenomenon â€Å"the social dosage effect†, implying how a greater â€Å"dosage† of gender segregated play will increase gender differences (Cohen 2). It is important for children to experience mixed-gender play in order to eliminate falling into gender stereotypes, however, when playgroups include both genders, another problem may arise. Girls aren't as active in play when boys are around, because boys tend to â€Å"monopolize† toys (Maccoby 514). Powlishta's research shows when two kids are alone boys get more play time with the toy, in this case a movie viewer. When an adult is present boys are more inhibited and girls acquire at least equal access to the toys (Maccoby 515). This means that in coed situations girls may not play with the Splashradio as much as boys, unless an adult is present.

Plato’s View of Justice in the Republic Essay

Having lived an extraordinarily long life (for his time), with no consistent doctrine of belief, it has become customary to divide Plato’s writings chronologically into three periods, Early, Middle and Late. The Republic, a collection of ten books, is thought to have been written after Phaedo during the ‘middle-period’ of Plato’s life. It is during this period that Plato’s philosophy becomes his own rather than a commentary on Socrates beliefs and sayings. It is important to remember that Plato’s time was an age of constant upheaval and it is this air of upheaval and constant change that led him to focus on his societies’ failings and to put forward a structured society that puts his view of justice into practice. The main theme of The Republic is to define justice and other virtues and to put forward an idea for a Utopian city-state based on his beliefs on justice and virtue to show how these ideals could be implemented. The text takes the form of a dramatised discourse between certain characters of differing backgrounds and beliefs. The use of a dramatised debate is a useful way to demonstrate the way Plato (whose ideas are represented by the character of Socrates) would handle his sceptics. It also serves to show the development of his thought through discussion and to sceptic-proof his argument by foreseeing potential counter arguments. Plato starts demonstrating his definition by taking some popular conceptions of what justice means and whether it is better to live a just life. In book one the debate starts with a statement made by Cephalus, an old, retired self-made manufacturer. Cephalus puts forward the view that as people grow older they become more aware of religious teachings regarding retribution in the afterlife for living an unjust life and therefore monitor they’re own behaviour, in the past and present: ‘And when he finds that the sum of his transgressions is great he will many a time like a child start up in his sleep for fear, and he is filled with dark forebodings.’ He is saying that idea of justice is something that is merely a doctrine enforced by the unproven premise of damnation. If fear of an unproven afterlife is the reasoning for living a just life then the argument for justice is weak and reliant on blind faith. If an individual does not believe in ‘Hades’ or Hell then what stops him from acting unjustly? Continuing on Cephalus states ‘Wealth can do a lot to save from having to cheat or deceive someone against our will and from having to depart for that other place in fear because we owe a sacrifice to a god or money to a person’. By this Cephalus means that by having ample wealth he never had the need to be unjust to anyone. He could afford to appease the Gods with sacrifice and to keep his debts paid. This first presented description of justice is flawed. Socrates gives the following example to prove this: Suppose that a friend when in his right mind has deposited arms with me and he asks for them when he is not in his right mind, ought I to give them back to him? No one would say that I ought or that I should be right in doing so, any more than they would say that I ought always to speak the truth to one who is in his condition.’ Socrates, by Cephalus’s definition just living, was acting in a just way when he returned weapons to a maniacal friend (paying his debts). The modern day equivalent of this scenario is the United Nations returning a previously confiscated nuclear weapon to an insane and potentially violent state in full knowledge that it will be used to wreak havoc (injustice). This demonstrates that Cephalus’s popular description of justice is weak and potentially unjust! Later in book 1, When Socrates criticizes Polemarchus’ idea that man should spite his enemies, Thrasymachus puts his view forward; ‘Since the established rule is surely stronger, anyone who reasons correctly will conclude that the just is the same everywhere, namely the advantage of the  stronger’ . Using this idea Thrasymachus has declared that justice is the preserve of the strong and powerful. Justice is whatever the powerful dictate to the masses. He then goes on to state that it is the duty of the poor to rise up and take what they can from the rich. Socrates refutes all these ideas. He believes that the poor should accept the true justice that is imposed on them by the government. This is an idea that is crucial to the utopia he will later describe. Thrasymachus demonstrates a sophistic belief that injustice is more profitable to the individual than justice. By restating his belief that only the powerful have control over justice and successfully canvassing for a general consensus that rulers are fallible he shows that justice (as administered by the powerful) is ‘harmful to the one who obeys and serves’ . This in itself makes a certain degree of sense since in our own modern times we consistently see examples of ‘justice’ (as administered by the powerful) being non-beneficial to the weak and subservient. The most recently highlighted example would be the recent focus on Taliban-governed Afghanistan. Justice to the population of a Taliban controlled region meant harsh punishments and draconian, puritanical laws. This is what by European standards would be called unjust. If Thrasymachus had stopped his argument at this point then he would have contributed an important element to the definition of justice that we assume in our use of the word today, that which is morally correct. However as Thrasymachus is from a sophistic background (i.e. teacher of economics and rhetoric with especially capitalistic, profit driven motivations) he continues into a less popular (by modern standards) potential consequence of his argument, injustice is more profitable than justice. Through clever debate and reasoning with Thrasymachus, Plato (through his ‘mouthpiece’ character, Socrates) arises at the following conclusion: ‘Apparently, then, injustice has the power, first, to make whatever it arises in-whether it is a city, a family, an army, or anything else-incapable of achieving anything as a unit, because of civil wars and differences it  creates, and second, it makes that unit an enemy to itself and to what is in every way its opposite, namely justice.’ This statement shows the Sophist’s argument to be a contradiction. It is impossible for a belief to be profitable if it simply leads to dissent amongst the parties seeking profit. It is impossible for injustice to serve anyone if it is an enemy to itself. Plato points out that for a collective of individuals to act out injustice and all profit from the act there must originally be some sort of justice present to prevent them all betraying each other, an ‘honour amongst thieves’ of sorts. The argument for injustice does not end with book one and returns briefly early in book two. At the end of book one Plato is no longer refuting suggestions on the nature of justice and is no speaking in a pro-active, positive manner. He begins to start to build his own ideas of justice. He believes justice to be more profitable than injustice describing the comparison like so; ‘a just person is happy and an unjust one is wretched’ . This conclusion is reached in the p receding lines when Thrasymachus to agrees that justice is a virtue of the soul and therefore that a soul cannot perform well if its particular virtue is faulty. There is another important argument that Plato addresses in book two, where Glaucon, the youth, returns to Thrasymachus’s argument with an amendment. Glaucon asserts that it is profitable for the individual to pretend to be just but live their life in an unjust manner. The idea behind this being that the individual can appear to have the virtue of justice to others without having to be burdened with the responsibilities and constraints of living a just life. To consider all of these arguments and how they are presented would take many theses and, although relevant to this essay topic, I must move on to Plato’s own decisions of what justice is and their implementation in his polis due to space and time constraints. Plato has argued that living justly is much more superior to living unjustly because justice breeds happiness and contentment. The next step for Plato, to state and demonstrate his own positive views on justice and why it is ‘profitable’, is to describe a city-state, a polis, which is an ideal Utopia where all citizens live in harmonious eudemonia. By using the macrocosm of  the state he will show how justice can be implemented in the individual. Plato believes in the immortality of the soul (a consequence of nous ) and its division into three parts, which in turn are affected by ordering powers. The three parts of the soul are the spiritual, dedicated to the devotion of honour, the rational, dedicated to reason and logical thought and the appetitive, the basic appetites of the human soul such as sex, acquisitions, praise etc. which must be controlled. This is a fiercely rational and, I would argue, flawed break down of the human character. It takes no account for the emotional aspect of mankind and it is this inhuman and extremely rational view of humanity that would lead to the immediate failure of the polis if it wherever established due to some of the constraints placed on the citizens of the polis as will be seen later on. The virtues (aretai) of the soul that Plato describes in book four are wisdom (sophia), courage (andreia), temperance (sophrosyne) and justice (dikaiosyne). It is this idea of the soul that Plato will use in to socially structure the polis . The aim of this city is to make the soul is happy because all three parts of it are moderated, doing their own jobs and nothing else. This relates to Plato’s view of justice in the following manner. To Plato justice and injustice where to the body what health and disease are in the body. This is a beautiful analogy and is very similar to basic facets of Chinese medicine were disturbance in the mind is viewed as a pivotal cause for ill physical health, one wonders were oriental factors an influence on Plato or vice versa at this time. This correlation of classical Greek and ancient Chinese science is especially apparent in 444d of The Republic when ‘Health is defined as the establishment of an order by nature among the parts of the body; disease as a disturbance of the natural order of rule and subordination among the parts (444d)’ . This reading of Plato by Voeglin makes more sense in the context of the polis, as the disease of injustice is the divisor of peoples and the cause of discontent in society. The polis must be designed in such away that contentment is valued at a premium and corruption and vice made unnecessary and irrelevant. This has parallels with the medieval belief in The Great Chain Of Being. The Great Chain Of Being was a description of the balance of power and harmony in the world that probably was inspired by Augustinian and Platonic thought. At the  top of the chain was God who was linked to the King who was linked to his Aristocracy. If any part of a the chain was broken then the natural order of the world was disrupted. An example of how this was believed to manifest would be the mysterious change of calm weather to storms and supernatural occurrences in Shakespeare’s Macbeth following the usurping of Duncan. By usurping the legitimate ruler the chain was broken and chaos and disorder in the natural world ensued. Such is the occurrence of injustice in the Polis that the natural harmony will fall apart. I will now summarise the structure of the polis and hopefully answer how the distinctive roles of State and the individual maintain a just society. The state is divided into three classes, a producer class, a guardian (military/police) class and a ruling class. Later, Plato creates a new ruling class out of the guardians and calls the military/police class auxiliaries and this new ruling class guardians. The main point of this is to have each class fulfilling a need in the city and not ‘usurping’ any other person/classes role. Again there are similarities with the great chain of being. Everybody minds their own business and keeps to the plan and eudemonia will be intact. The city is based on various natural needs and recognises that harmony starts with the satisfying of life requirements. This idea is a nearly to a throw back to Cephalus who does not act in an unjust way because he wants for nothing. The development of a citizen starts with education. Students are thought a wide range of subjects from the academic to physical. Children are taught philosophy so that there ‘will be established within them, as in a polis, a politea’ . In other words they will have the same balanced wisdom and discipline governing their souls in life with the eudemonia of the state as a living example for the individual. The education also decided what class and profession the child would fit into. Classes could be transcended as children showed an aptitude for different and subjects abilities. Once an individual was placed in his/her class they remained in it for the duration of their lives. This has distinct parallels with the education system of Ireland were an aptitude in school for the academic can raise points for a place in a college that would further train you for a position of relatively  more power than the ‘producer class’. The most apt at philosophy and reason were sidelined for the upper two classes and had their education furthered accordingly. This begs the question of what would happen if the polis were sacked and all the ruling class slain. How could the polis recover from such an event if the lower classes are conditioned and brain-washed into believing that all they can ever be or do is be the sheep at the bottom of the chain of command? Procreation was also a stage-mannered affair. Parents deemed fit to ‘marry’ (or mate) were coupled off by what they believed to be random selection. In fact, the couples were selected for their eugenic qualities and paired off like horses on a stud. Children are taken from their parents at birth. The knowledge of their parent’s identity is never revealed to them nor is the child’s identity revealed to their parents. This anonymity was meant to promote equality between young and older generations. The child, being in full knowledge that it is from a foster family, would not be subject to family pride and would have no particular loyalties to any family as its siblings and parents would be unknown. Every elder could be addressed as father or mother as every peer could be addressed as brother or sister. With no bias towards any particular individual the harmony of the polis is further maintained. As mentioned earlier, Plato’s great failure from a modern standpoint is his inability to account for emotional aspects in the polis. The idea of splitting families was doomed to failure in that likenesses between siblings and parents would be impossible to disguise and some people could find out their relatives in this way. However, it could be argued that the psychological effect of not knowing ones natural family could be a non-issue after generations of people living in this way. The eugenic selection of partners makes a sense of sorts as families with undesirable inherited characteristics could be prevented from passing them on and those with desirable ones could be encouraged to mate. This is reminiscent of a quasi-nazi formula for the Aryan race of Third Reich. If one looks closer  one can see Plato using injustice to keep justice by lying about the random selection of couples. Due to the constraints of time and space I will have to conclude at this point by summarising the above. Plato essentially defines justice in the state as the three classes staying strictly to their individual roles in order to maintain a balance of responsibilities for the greater good of all. The state does this by ruling of over every aspect of an individual’s life from birth and plotting their destiny with the greater good of the polis to mind. It does this through education, censorship and rigorous controls. Only those with a high knowledge of wisdom (philosophy) are fit to rule as they have enough knowledge to know that justice is best for all as it is an essential virtue of the soul (dikaiosyne). Injustice is considered ignorance, as someone with a lot of wisdom could not possibly see injustice as profitable to anyone. The justice in the soul is described as the virtues (aretai) controlling the appetitive parts of the soul. In this post world war two and post ‘Brave New World’ time, it is easy to take The Republic as a strange Nazi/Taliban-esque tyrannical state on a first glance. As a state the polis would most definitely have failed. As macrocosm for justice in the individual it is unsurpassed. Its influence to this day was evident recently when it was voted best philosophical work ever by readers of the web page http://www.philosophers.co.uk. Whilst it has certain ideas that maybe questioned against the standards of modern western Europeans, it will certainly provide insight and debate on many philosophical issues for many years.