Julius Caesar and Abraham Lincoln Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Julius Caesar and Abraham Lincoln - Essay Example Apart that the two leaders were well respected in their time and beyond; they also share a similarity in the sense that they were both assassinated. They both lost their parents at very young ages and both left a child behind after their death. This paper will analyze and compare the lives Abraham Lincoln and Julius Cesar. Firstly the creation of America by its forefathers can be likened to the Roman Republic. The American forefathers aimed to create a nation with liberty, life and happiness. The comparison between the two nations dates back to the very beginning with Gorge Washington possessing similar qualities to Lucius Junius Brutus whilst King George portrayed the tyrant role played by King Tarquinius (Wineburg, 488-499). Julius Cesar was assassinated differently to Abraham Lincoln; however, the two events are comparable to certain a extent. One similarity between the two is that they were both assassinated by individuals, who were concerned about their leadership and what they would do with their power. In more simplistic words, the two were just simply killed due to the position they occupied. The two leaders both accumulated a larger following and more power as their term in office grew longer. As Julius Cesar began to implement certain policies, his senators began to feel threatened as they were of the opinion that their positions were under threat. However the difference between Cesar and Lincoln in terms of their attitudes towards power is that Cesar was power hungry and aimed to control as much territory as possible. Whilst in office he extended his term to five years rue in IIIyricum and Cispine Paul. However, Lincoln on the other hand was the exact opposite and did not want to control a larger territory (Wineburg, 488-499). Despite Cesar’s hunger for power, he felt it not for his own benefit but for Rome. Cesar frequently stated that if he was to step down from power, it would lead to a civil war in Rome. Cesar is quoted to have said, †Å"I have long been sated with glory and power, however, it is more important for Rome than myself that I survive. If I was to be removed from my position, Rome will never know any peace. A civil war is likely to break out, one far worse than the last. In essence, Julius Cesar was an advocate for peace, a trait similar to that of Abraham Lincoln. Cesar fought for peace which led him to the accumulation of more enemies and his fight for change is similar to that of Abraham Lincoln. Despite the different positions they occupied, Abraham Lincoln and Julius Cesar were both military men. Lincoln enlisted in the army to be a member of the force fighting the Black Hawk war. While he was enrolled he quickly gained a promotion to the position of Captain for a wing of volunteers. Julius Cesar joined the Roman army with great ambition and quickly rose to the rank of military Commander. Their rise to political power was also different as Lincoln was required to perform a series of debates agains t his opponent. The two were both emulated and respected in their time. Both leaders wanted to make changes in their areas and they both gained enemies in the areas which they implemented their policies. Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in the year 1862 (Wineburg, 488-499). This act was intended to free all people and eradicate slavery in the Southern part of the country. Cesar gained enemies from the senate due to his advocation for peace whilst Lincoln was eventually assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, who shouted, â€Å"This is for the South!† before he shot him in the hea (Wineburg, 488-499). In fact, prior to being assassinated the emancipation proclamation led to a civil war in

Summary of Running Observation Essay Example for Free

Summary of Running Observation Essay This observation was made at 11:30 am for 20 minutes while the kids were playing in the park. Observation was done on 3-4 year old children. The children were playing in the park under teacher’s supervision. There were two teachers present in the park. Some of the children were playing on the play structure: on slides, some on monkey bars. Children that did not want to play on the play structure were coloring. One of the boys was playing with the ball on the play structure. The teacher instructed him to play with the ball on the grass and another boy joined him too. They started playing catch on the grass. The teacher was keeping an eye on them. After some time a 3rd boy wanted to play ball. The teacher suggested that they make a triangle and play together. After some time one of the boys left to play on the play structure. After 10 minutes into the observation the teacher asked the children if they would like to eat apples. A 3rd teacher bought sliced apples and served them on the table on the side with water and small cups for water. A few kids went to eat apples. After they finished eating apples they wiped their hands with a tissue paper and received a small cup of water from the teacher and went back to play with their friends. While a few kids were eating apples there was a girl screaming and crying on the play structure as she had wet her pants. The teacher tried to console and calm her down but she wanted to be left alone and kept on crying and screaming. After a few minutes another teacher tried to calm her down. The child kept on crying and screaming, â€Å"My pants hurt, Ouchy Ouchy†, and started to pull her pants down. The teacher in a calm voice told the child to stop the tantrum, calm down and then she can help her in the classroom. After few minutes, the child calmed down, holding teachers hand went into the classroom. One of the teacher mentioned that the child’s mom had dropped her early to school and she had a change of schedule that day.

Economic Changes to the Welfare State

Economic Changes to the Welfare State Write a 2000 words essay describing the economic aftermath of the Welfare state in the last century I. Introduction A welfare state is broadly defined as a state in which the government/the public sector undertakes key roles in the production and distribution of economic activities with the objective of protecting and promoting the economic and social well-being of its citizens. A welfare state is essentially a mixed economy type of economic system where the government undertakes a greater proportion of economic activities. This essay describes the economic aftermath of the welfare state in the last century. The essay is organised as follows. Section II focuses on the theoretical foundations of the welfare state, while Section III concentrates on the economic aftermath of the welfare state. Section IV finally concludes the essay. II. Theoretical Foundations of the Welfare State The theoretical foundations described in this essay are from; (a) classical economics, (b) Keynesian economics, (c) Suzumura (1999), (d) Barr (1992), and (e) Heath (2011) Classical economics The classical economists including Adam Smith favoured a minimal role for the public sector. Their preference was for a limited role for the government in the provision of essential public works, the maintenance of law and order, and the defence of the country. They believe that the government’s role is to provide these core activities to provide an enabling environment for the market/private sector to undertake economic activities for economic growth. Keynesian economics Keynesian economics was used to justify an expansion in the economic role of the public sector. Keynesian economics created pressures on the government to stabilise the economy by helping to sustain the disposable income of individuals during cyclical fluctuations. Suzumura (1999) argues that welfare economics plays critical roles in enhancing human well-being and in the design and implementation of welfare state policies. Welfare economics is a normative concept and in general takes account of both efficiency and equity. On equity grounds, society may prefer an inefficient resource allocation for reasons for equity justice and this provides a justification for government intervention in the economy. Suzumura argues that the enlarged concept of welfare economics to incorporate equity justice has also extended the concept of well-being to incorporate/capture the basic considerations as liberty, opportunity and procedural justice and that this widening of the concept of well-being should reflect itself properly in the concept and agenda of the welfare state. Based on this conceptual framework, Suzumura then employs Amartya Sen’s concepts of functions and capabilities as vehicles to examine an individual’s advantages in the welfare s tate. To Suzumura the welfare state consists of one main system of competitive mechanism and three subsystems of (i) the competitive policy subsystem, (ii) the co-ordination policy subsystem, and (iii) the social security subsystem. Suzumura concludes that the task of the welfare economics in the welfare state is to deliberately design the main system and the three subsystems of the welfare state so that the whole system becomes incentive compatible to make it work effectively to maximise the well-being of the individuals in the society in terms of liberty, opportunity and procedural justice. Barr (1992) provides another theoretical foundation of the welfare state. Barr’s thesis and his contribution is on information problems for an efficiency case for various types of state intervention. He identifies two broad types of imperfect information problems leading to market failure in dealing with risks as adverse selection and moral hazard. The insurance industry was the focus of Barr’s analysis. Adverse selection results from asymmetric information between buyers and sellers of insurance, with buyers having more information than sellers and thus making it difficult to establish the ideal price for each individual. These characteristics of adverse selection cause the problems of (i) unstable pooling equilibrium because low risks drop out or because of competitive behaviour by insurers, and (ii) inefficient separating equilibrium, if it exists. Thus, in the face of adverse selection, the market is inefficient, or fails entirely and the state intervenes by making membership compulsory with social insurance as a typical example. Heath (2011) identifies the three normative models as redistributive, communitarian and public economics. The redistributive model describes the redistribution of resources to ensure that the outcomes produced by the market economy are less unequal.. The underlying assumption under the redistributive model is that the market is to maximise efficiency while the state promotes equity through redistribution by allocating initial endowments and adjusting final outcomes. The communitarian model considers the imposition of moral limits on the scope of the market so as to resist the commodification of certain domain of interaction. It is argued under this model that basic human needs should be satisfied through communal provision in which everyone is guaranteed a share rather than through commodification. The public economics model regards the state as correcting market failure, either through regulation, subsidisation and taxation, or the direct provision of goods and services. This model is referred to as the economic model because of the emphasis put on Pareto efficiency and the narrow conception of public goods based on Samuelson’s definition. Under the public economics model, market failure allows for the intervention of the state in economic activities. III. Economic Aftermath of the Welfare State The economic measure of welfare state activities is given by the proportion of public expenditure/spending to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), that is, as a share of GDP. Gwartney, Holcombe and Lawson (1998) argue that even after providing for a generous definition of the concept of core functions to include (i) the protection of persons and property, (ii) expenditures on national security, (iii) expenditure on education, (iv) expenditure on physical infrastructure, and (v) the operational costs of the central bank to maintain a stable monetary regime; the share of the expenditures on core functions for most developed countries did not exceed 15% of GDP up to 1996. Meanwhile as at 1996, the share of government expenditure as a percentage of GDP was above 45% in most developed countries. The authors argue that this higher percentage above the required percentage for the core functions exerted a negative impact on the economy in terms of slower economic growth. Their findings indicate that a 10% increase in government expenditure as a share of GDP results in approximately 1% reduction in GDP growth. The authors assigned the following reasons for this ou tcome; (i) higher taxes/and or additional borrowing to finance government expenditures impose excess burden on the economy, (ii) as government grows, its productivity declines. This is characterised by the following trajectory – expenditure on core functions increases productivity but expenditure exceeding the core functions leads to diminishing returns and more and more expenditure eventually produces negative returns which leads to productivity declines, (iii) the political process accompanying increased public expenditure inhibits the entrepreneurship that drives economic growth through the discovery process. It is argued that as entrepreneurs discover new and improved technologies, better methods of production and opportunities that were previously overlooked, they are able to combine resources into goods and services that create wealth and economic growth, and (iv) the growth in government expenditure was characterised by heavy involvement in redistribution of income and regulatory activities that encouraged individuals to seek personal income via government favours rather than through production in exchange for income. Eventually resources are shifted from wealth creating activities toward the pursuit of wealth transfer which retards economic growth and generate income levels well below the economy’s potential. Tanzi and Schuknecht (1998) argue that from the late 19th century to early 20th century total government expenditure was less than 12% of GDP with expenditure covering the core functions. In the 1920s, the average total expenditure increased to nearly 20% of GDP. In 1937 public spending went up to an average of 23% of GDP resulting from the effects of the Great Depression. Between 1960 and 1980, there was a rapid increase in public spending from around 28% of GDP around 1960 to 43% of GDP in 1980. They further argue that the increased public expenditure/spending reflecting welfare state activities produced the following effects; (i) growing public spending and debt, (ii) rising real interest, (iii) slower growth, (iv) less attractive investment destination by international investors, even under growing globalisation, growing competition and capital mobility, (v) disincentive effects caused by higher taxation, and (vi) large-scale redistributive expenditures with negative impact on gr owth, employment and welfare. The authors’ table 6 (page 83) provides a comparative analysis on the size of government and economic performance as at 1990 between big governments and small governments. Big governments are equated to states with higher government expenditure, that is, with GDP shares exceeding 40% while small governments show government expenditures of less than 40% of GDP. The main findings were based on the following indicators of economic performance; (i) real GDP growth, (ii) Gross fixed capital formation (in percent of GDP), (iii) inflation (1986-1994), (iv) public debt (in percent of GDP), (v) economic freedom indicator, (vi) size of shadow economy (in percent of GDP), (vii) PPP-based per capita GNP (in US$), and (viii) standard deviation of GDP growth. The summary findings were as follows; (a) real GDP growth over a longer period lower in big government countries and that could account for growing unemployment experienced in welfare states with big gove rnments, (b) GDP per capita based on Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) much higher in countries with small governments, (c) based on the ratio of the standard deviation and the average growth rate (the coefficient of variation), there was no evidence that higher public spending leads to more stable growth (i.e no evidence that welfare states exhibited more stable growth rates). This indicator was to provide evidence on one of the main justifications of Keynesian economics that growing public spending is needed for a stabilisation policy to reduce fluctuations in growth over the business cycle, (d) gross fixed capital formation and inflation did not show much difference across groups of countries (i.e both big and small governments recorded almost the same rates), (e) public debt averages almost 80% of GDP in countries with big governments in 1990 – leading to the payment of considerable risk premiums on public debt obligations (higher real interest rates), (f) economic freedom in countries with big governments worse than countries with small governments, and (g) a strong correlation between spending by governments (and corresponding taxes) and the size of the shadow economy (almost 18% of GDP for big governments compared with 9.4% foe small governments in 1996). The authors recommend that fiscal reforms and lower public spending are needed in many countries with big governments in order to increase economic growth without sacrificing much social and economic well-being. IV. Conclusion In the current globalised world where technology is making major strides, the role of the state should be significantly different from the role played to the end of last century. The economic aftermath of the welfare state in the last century indicates that to increase economic growth, the state should now play a more significant and intelligent regulatory role of providing a level playing field which allows the private sector to expand to areas traditionally undertaken by the state. The role of the state in income redistribution and in providing safety nets is very important but needs reassessment by policymakers. Targeted coverage and not universal coverage is what is needed and with the concept of redistribution narrowly defined to avoid many inefficient policies pursued under the justification of redistributing income. REFERENCES Barr, Nicholas, â€Å"Economic Theory and the Welfare State: A Survey and Interpretation†, Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 30, No. 2 (Jun. 1992); pp 741-803 Gwartney, James, Holcombe, Randell, and Lawson, Robert, â€Å"The Scope of Government and the Wealth of Nations†, Cato Journal Vol. 18, No. 2 (Fall 1998); pp 163-190 Heath, Joseph, â€Å"Three Normative Models of the Welfare State†, Public Reason, 3 (2), 2011; pp 13-43 Suzumura, Kotaro, â€Å"Welfare Economics and the Welfare State†, Review of Population and Social Policy, No. 8, (1999); pp 119-138 Tanzi, Vito and Schuknecht, Ludger, â€Å"Can Small Governments Secure Economic and Social Well-being?† Fraser Institute, 1998 YAW BEDIAKO

Imaginary Journey in Dantes Divine Comedy :: Divine Comedy Inferno Essays

Imaginary Journey in Dante's Divine Comedy Dante's Divine Comedy is a moral comedy that is designed to make the readers think about their own morals. The poem could have been used almost as a guide for what and what not to do to get into Heaven for the medieval people. Dante takes the reader on a journey through the "afterlife" to imprint in the readers minds what could happen to them if they don't follow a Godlike life and to really make the reader think about where they will go when they die and where they would like to go when they die. In the Divine Comedy, Dante uses his imagination and his knowledge of the people's perception of the "afterlife" to create a somewhat realistic yet somewhat imaginary model of the afterlife. In the first lines of the Divine Comedy, Dante says "In the middle of the journey of our life I came to my senses in a dark forest, for I had lost the straight path."(Dante 1416 lines 1-3) This is the typical stereotype of today for when a person becomes "lost" or consumed in sin. The sinful life is a dark life and a sinless life is a bright, white, and pure life. Dante's coming to his senses in a dark forest symbolizes his realizing how "lost" in sin he truly was and realizing that he needed to do something about it, meaning he needed to go through the seven sacraments so that he could become pure enough to see God in Paradise and not have to spend and eternity in Hell. Dante realized that he had strayed from the true faith without realizing it, not knowing exactly how it happened, and is trying to return. Losing the straight path symbolizes losing the holy, pure, or Godlike life. Darkness is more or less a symbol of evil and light or brightness a symbol for good. Throughout the poem, Dante is advocating that man must consciously aim for righteousness and morality. People can often become so involved with day-to-day living that they will fall into a life consumed with sin. Man must always be aware of his need to perform righteously. The dark forest symbolizes a human life where every waking moment is not consciously devoted to morals and righteousness. The Inferno is probably the most realistic section of the Divine Comedy because it comes closer to fitting the people's perception of what Hell is really like then than Purgatory and Paradise do.

Cost-Quality Relationship Essay

There are three types of costs when quality considerations are made: Appraisal Costs, Prevention Costs, and Failure Costs. These costs are affiliated with the efforts of process improvement and are also known as quality costs or cost of quality. Appraisal costs are associated with measuring, evaluating or auditing products and services to satisfy quality and performance requirements set by the company. Examples of this cost include inspection and testing of purchases material, final inspections, audits for products and services, and testing equipment. Prevention costs are associated with all activities designed to prevent and stop poor quality in the products and services provided to the customers. Examples of this cost include new product review, supplier surveys, capability evaluations, improvement projects, education and training. Failure costs result from products and services that did not meet the quality standards and requirements set by the company. They divided into two categories: Internal Failure Costs and External Failure Costs. Internal failure costs occur before delivery and shipment of product and/or before services are performed to the customer. Examples of this cost include scrap,  rework, retesting, re-inspecting, reviewing the material and downgrading. External failure costs occur after delivery and during or after providing the service to the customer. Examples of this cost include reviewing and processing customer complaints, customer returns, claims based on warranty, and recalls. The total quality costs are the sum of the appraisal, prevention, and failure costs. This will represent the difference between the actual costs of the product and/or service. The trade-offs between the appraisal, prevention, and failure costs are relevant. Some believe when the prevention costs are increased , the appraisal and failure costs will decrease substantially. This means that the total costs will be lower. Others say that if they spend too much on quality, it will reduce the money available for other projects such as upgrades to technology.

Discuss the Advantages and Disadvantages of Advertisements Essay

Topic: â€Å"Advertisements do more harm than good. † Discuss. In general, advertisements promote products or services to the public. Advertisers use all sorts of gimmicks to promote their own product. For example, fast-food restaurants promise attractive toys and prizes in â€Å"scratch and win† competitions. As a result, children badger their parents to take them to that particular fast-food restaurant. Many advertisements make misleading claims and promise instant solutions to people’s problems. For example, an advertisement may depict a pimply boy being surrounded by pretty girls as soon as he applies a particular brand of pimple cream. Though many know that this is an exaggeration, they may still cling to the hope that it may be true and rush out to buy the cream and try it out. When the claims are not matched in real life, it can cause a lot of frustration. In my view, the greatest harm advertisements cause is that they nurture superficial values in people. People lust for products they cannot afford and some even resort to illegal ways of getting money in order to obtain them. This in turn breeds a class of snobbish people who only respect others for the material things they possess. However, advertisements are inevitable in a modern society that depends on trade and production. Advertisements inform the public about the products that are available in the market. Furthermore, advertising is a booming industry. This contributes greatly to the economy of the country. In fact, advertisements create competition among producers. As a result, they constantly try to upgrade the quality of their products and services to outdo their rivals. This also encourages creativity and talent among the advertisers. In conclusion, I feel that it would be impossible and unwise to ban advertisements. However, I feel that it is important to control their influence. The government can do so by imposing stringent rules on advertising methods. Internet connecting people Do you play games on-line ? Do you send e-mail messages to your friends ? Do you surf web to get information ? You can do all these things through the internet . So I think the internet has many advantages in our life. Firstly, the internet is a great source of information. You can get almost every kind of information such as news, articles, weather forecast ,†¦And it is always availble whenever you want to use it. Seccondly, the internet is also a great source of entertainment. You can listen to music, play games, watch movies, †¦. Thirdly, the internet is a very fast and cheap way to communicate with friends and relatives by means of e-mail, chatting, webcam,†¦Although you are far away from your family, you can see them through webcam and talk to them normally. Thank to the internet you can also make many new friends. Next, the internet plays an important education role. It provides many opportunities to broaden knowledge in almost every subject. You can learn E on-line, take an on-line course,†¦ect Finally, the internet is a convenient medium to do shopping, book a room in a hotel or buy a ticket to see a play without going out. Today, the internet is a highly effective tool for communicating, for gathering information and for cooperation between distant locations. Millions of people worldwide are using the internet to communicate ,share information, make new associations ,†¦. But on the other hand, the internet has some limitations . It is time-consuming if you don’t know how to use it properly. It is also dangerous beacause of virus and bad programs. Sometimes the internet users have to suffer various risks such as spam or electronic junk mail and personal information leaking. So while enjoying surfing, be alert ! Therefore, the internet is very useful but whether it is good or bad depends on the way you use it. Good and bad things of Change In our daily life, different kind of human has various characteristics and lifestyles. Some people prefer staying the same whereas the others prefer changes. In my point of view , I frankly say that change is an indispensable factor in developing human and society process. The first reason I choose change is that every minute, our society is changing. If it comes to a standstill, how can we keep up with pace of this world . Changing pushes the development of society from ancient time to modern period. Thus, we can have chances to expose with advanced technology and convenient facilities. Moreover our life standard is increasing and improved. For instance, by changing solar energy into heat and electricity, people can find a new way to prevent the energy shortage. Or a students know to change their studying method properly for himself, he ‘ll certainly get good results. The second reason is that changing opens up chances for people to improve themselves. If you don’t want to listen to other’s opinion and resist yours, you ‘ll never get better. It also form bad characteristics,Conservative person are narrow-minded and selfish. They only think of themselves and can do any thing even hurting the others to protect their thought. In contrast, a person who is modest and always crave for learning will be respected and admired by many relatives and companion around them. The third reason is that changing assists us to explore our talents better and deeper. Only by overcoming storm or big change can you become more maturer and stronger. Changing is precious experiences in your career and life. For example, somw people like challenges and want to change their job. Even in crisis economy, job is very difficult to find, they still want to choose a suitable job for them . Through it, they will find their real abilities and try hard to achive their goals. In a nutshell, I think changing is always a good thing . Nobody can deny the convinience and huge benefits it brings to our society and human.