Communism Communism And Capitalism - 1237 Words

The 20th century was marked by a brutal struggle between two great powers, the United States, and the Soviet Union, but in reality it was a struggle between two, distinct ideologies: Communism and Capitalism. Communism was supposed to be the scepter against all the evils that the old world contained. The people of the world would be freed from the oppressive chains resulting from the few in power, and be lifted from the brutal, unfair world of capitalism. Millions of people across the world saw the enticing, heavenly lure of communism and seized the opportunity to revolutionize their communities. To the millions of disenfranchised citizens stuck in Capitalism’s underbelly, the chance to finally see the light, to finally escape from the†¦show more content†¦In Fences by August Wilson, the main protagonists are African Americans living in the last rays of the Jim Crow era who try to escape the meager life they’ve always had because of the systematic discriminatio n in that period. The circumstances may be against them, with many of them dealing with the trauma of childhood abuse and racism at work along with the feeling of being hopelessly fenced in and powerless, but despite this they manage to scrape by. Troy, the father of two sons, works as a garbage worker, which is a mere semblance of the dreams he once wanted to achieve. He’s jaded, and he takes his pent-up anger on the people around him, including his son. Cory’s struggle to go against his father is a product of him trying to be different from what he perceives as an oppressive, dream-shattering force in his life. However, the argument that arises between Cory and Rose when Cory tries to turn his back on his past sheds a greater light on the very nature of Troy’s ebullient, tough, and jaded traits. Cory sees Troy’s ethics and morals as not just outmoded, but restraining and constricting not only to Troy’s life, but also to those around him. Rose understands Troy’s actions on a deeper level, and views Troy’s actions as an attempt to be the masculine, stable protector and provider he desiresShow MoreRelatedCapitalism And Communism : Communism Essay852 Words   |  4 PagesCapitalism Communism Communism The theory of communism was designed by German Philosopher Karl Marx. In 1848, he wrote a book of his ideals known as The Communist Manifesto, which later served as the inspiration for the formation of the Communist Party. Communism is also known as Marxism. Marx believed that an ideal society must be classless as well as stateless. His main idea and aim +was simple- to allow the poor a fighting chance and free the lower class from poverty. In order to extricateRead MoreCommunism And Capitalism And Communism Essay2038 Words   |  9 Pagescontroversial; Communism and Capitalism. In political and social, communism is a social, political, and economic ideology and movement whose ultimate goal is the establishment of the communist, which is a socioeconomic order structured upon the common ownership of the means of production and the absence of social classes, money, and the state. However, Capitalism is defined as an economic system based on private ownership of the means of productio n, and their operation for profit. Capitalism centralizedRead MoreCapitalism Vs. Communism And Communism1266 Words   |  6 PagesRaia Creative Writing 1 5 May 2015 Capitalism vs Communism Throughout history, people have tested many different political systems have a better society. The most common political systems that people have tested are monarchy, oligarchy, theocracy, aristocracy and democracy. I will talk about capitalism and communism in this research paper. Both those systems are created to change the economic situation. There have been a huge debate about Capitalism vs Communism. Throughout this research paper, IRead MoreCommunism vs Capitalism992 Words   |  4 PagesIs Communism a better economic system than capitalism? By Michael Kujawski Since the beginning of the 20th century many countries have favored the economic system of communism over capitalism many political partys around the world that are communist based have the term â€Å"workers party†incuded in their name because communism is a system for the working class and capitalism is a competitive system for the upper class society to benefit. Read MoreThe Impact Of Communism And Capitalism1694 Words   |  7 PagesStephanie LeBlanc Professor Wesley Austin Economics 201 16 October 2016 The Impact of Communism There are faults within both communism and capitalism, but sometimes one can even effect the other. This paper will explore what the possible connection is between North Korea’s communistic economy and how it may have impacted South Korea’s capitalistic economy. At the end of the World War II in 1945, two separate regimes emerged on the Korean peninsula to replace what was once the colonial governmentRead MoreCommunism, Democracy, And Capitalism3017 Words   |  13 Pagesclashing of ideology, communism was battling with democracy. It was one of the most emotionally charged war, and time, in American, and possible the globes history. There was great fear of a global nuclear conflict, that would leave thousands dead, and essentially ending the world as we had ever know it. I will cover the history that is the cold war, and delve into the philosophies of the two main nations involved. I will be comparing the ideas behind communism, democracy, and capitalism. When World WarRead MoreCommunism, Capitalism, and Socialism Essay652 Words   |  3 PagesThree different types of economic systems used by governments are Communism, Capitalism, and Socialism. Each type of system is unique in different ways. Each has distinct aspects that make it what it is. In communism, the government runs everything and there are no social classes. The government in capitalism doesn’t interfere with any businesses and lets the citizens own and operate them. Socialism is basically a mixture of the two economic systems. The government runs certain businesses,Read MoreThe Cold War : Communism And Capitalism997 Words   |  4 Pagespeople that thought it was caused by the conflicts of communism and capitalism, so who was right? Well we only know what we read in our history books which says that it was caused by the conflicts of communism and capitalism. Was this the real reason for the cold war? In my essay I will give details about the cold war and tell why the war was started, who started the war, what doctrines were put in place to keep the Soviet Union from spreading communism, and how the Cold War impacted the foreign and domesticRead MoreAmerican Capitalism And Soviet Communism1344 Words   |  6 Pages American capitalism and Soviet Communism were incompatible systems; Washington shouldn’t have been surprised to hear this in George Kennan’s long telegram. But the tensions were not always this high between the two word powers. In the end of world war two, â€Å"Stalin s empire was won with reservoirs of soviet blood†(cite 1). The thought to be never ending Soviet army was not limitless anymore. The estimated cost of the war was at 2.6 trillion(cite 4), with most of the population wanting to focusRead MoreCapitalism Versus Communism1257 Words   |  6 PagesSome may argue that capitalism is a cruel economic system that has been known for the corruption, exploitation of poor people and where greed overcomes anything good. However, the majority will agree that capitalist system is best system in the world of economics. It drives people to do better, as the certain amount of effort will bring the same level of result. There are examples in the history where indi vidual’s wealth was affected by the corporate greed, but with the government regulations history

Cost Theory Free Essays

Cost Theory in Economics A central economic concept is that getting something requires giving up something else. For example, earning more money may require working more hours, which costs more leisure time. Economists use cost theory to provide a framework for understanding how individuals and firms allocate resources in such a way that keeps costs low and benefits high. We will write a custom essay sample on Cost Theory or any similar topic only for you Order Now 1. Function * Economists view costs as what an individual or firm must give up to get something else. Opening a manufacturing plant to produce goods requires an outlay of money. Once a plant owner spends money to manufacture goods, that money is no longer available for something else. Production facilities, machinery used in the production process and plant workers are all examples of costs. Cost theory offers an approach to understanding the costs of production that allows firms to determine the level of output that reaps the greatest level of profit at the least cost. 2. Features * Cost theory contains various measures of costs. These include a firm’s fixed costs and variable costs. The former do not vary with the quantity of goods produced. Rent on a facility is an example of a fixed cost. Variable costs change with the quantity produced. If increased production requires more workers, for example, those workers’ wages are variable costs. The sum of fixed and variable costs is a firm’s total costs. * Additional Measures * Cost theory derives two additional cost measures. Average total cost is the total cost divided by the number of goods produced. Marginal cost is the increase in total cost that results from increasing production by one unit of output. Marginals–including marginal costs and marginal revenue–are key concepts in mainstream economic thought. Falling and Rising Costs * Economists often use graphs, similar to supply-and-demand charts, to illustrate cost theory and firms’ decisions about production. An average total cost curve is a U-shaped curve on an economic diagram. This shape illustrates how average total costs decline as output rises and then rise as marginal costs increase. Average total costs decline at first because as production rises, average costs are distributed over a larger number of units of output. Eventually, marginal costs of increasing output rise, which increases average total costs. Maximizing Profits * Economic theory holds that the goal of a firm is to maximize profit, which equals total revenue minus total cost. Determining a level of production that generates the greatest level of profit is an important consideration, one that means paying attention to marginal costs, as well as marginal revenue (the increase in revenue arising from an increase in output). Under cost theory, as long as marginal revenue exceeds marginal cost, increasing production will raise profit. Types of Cost Economics Economists factor costs in many different ways. Though you may read the cost of a soup can at $1 as it’s listed on the grocery store shelf, economists view the cost of the soup can in very different ways. For example, an economist asks what you are giving up to buy that can of soup over another item. They measure the firm’s cost of producing that soup can as it relates to their output and factors of production. Thus, the different types of economic costs are varied. 1. Sunk Cost * A sunk cost is an expense that cannot be recouped. Mark Hirschy, author of the book, â€Å"Fundamentals of Managerial Economics,† explains that sunk costs should not factor into a decision when deciding between alternatives. For example, say a person spent $50,000 on a degree in education and earns $60,000 as a teacher. She is later offered a job in marketing that pays her $80,000. Though she may be tempted to factor in her education degree as reason to stay in her current teaching job, her $50,000 degree is regarded as a sunk cost. She already spent this money, and it cannot be recouped. In this case, she should only compare the respective salaries of the positions. If all else is held equal, she should pursue the marketing job. Opportunity Cost * An opportunity cost is the value of an alternative choice. Though the word â€Å"cost† usually equates to a numerical value, like a dollar figure, this is not always the case. William Baumol and Alan Blinder, authors of the book, â€Å"Economics: Principles and Policy,† state that an opportunity cost calculates intangible things like time, location and job satisfaction. They explain opportunity costs are what you give up to follow one course of action. For example, a college graduate is deciding between a job as a tech consultant in Seattle or an investment broker in New York City. If the grad pursues the investment broker position, the opportunity costs of foregoing the job in Seattle could be a slower pace of life, $10,000 higher salary and lower costs of living like rent and food. * Marginal Cost * A marginal cost is the amount it takes to produce one more item. Under this view of costs, they vary along the production line and in most cases the cost to produce a good reduces over time. Intuitively, this makes sense: the more proficient you become at producing a good, the faster you can do it and less waste is produced. The savings in labor and material as you achieve â€Å"economies of scale† means the cost of production usually decreases. The way economists find the marginal cost is by taking the derivative of the total costs as it relates to the total output. How to Find Marginal Cost in Economics Deciding whether to produce more units is often based on marginal cost. The economic concept of marginal cost is the cost associated with producing one additional unit. This information is important to businesses because it allows the company to decide if the additional unit is worth producing from a financial standpoint. When a company produces a small amount of product, the cost of additional units often decrease. However, marginal costs increase when additional units are added once the production level reaches a minimum. This is based on the law of diminishing marginal returns. Instructions 1. * 1 Calculate the change in total variable cost. This is the amount that the costs increased by after additional units are produced. For example, if you’d like to produce more T-shirts and the increase in output would change the costs by $100, then the total variable cost is $100. * 2 Find the change in quantity produced. This represents how many additional units you would like to produce in the given scenario. For example, the change in quantity would be 50 if you’d like to produce 300 T-shirts instead of 250. * 3 Divide the change in total variable costs from Step 1 by the change in quantity from Step 2. This will give you the marginal cost (marginal cost = the change in total variable cost/the change in quantity). For this example, $100 (the change in total variable cost) / 50 (the change in quantity) = $2 in marginal costs, which is the cost of producing each additional T-shirt. What Is the Relationship Between Production ; Cost? Production costs are linked to the cost of materials and labor. The relationship between production and cost in any manufacturing process varies based on volume produced and whether any part of the manufacturing process is outsourced or performed by subcontractors. Additionally, production and cost ratios vary based on the amount of automation involved in production and the amount of human oversight and involvement required. 1. Factors of Production * The main factors of production are labor, capital and supply costs. Capital is defined as equipment, cash reserves, and physical location or production facility. Labor is defined as the amount of and cost of manpower required to bring a product to market. This includes not only the physical labor and oversight related to product production, but also the associated costs of salaries of positions such as managers, delivery drivers, warehouse supervisors, marketing directors and even administrative assistance. Supply costs are any fee associated with securing necessary materials for production. Subcontractor or outsourced work is considered a supply cost as well, as the manufacturer is essentially purchasing a product or service for use in the production process. In this example, work such as offsite creation of product packaging or assembly of minor components of a finished product are considered supply costs in the same way the purchase of raw materials are considered supply costs. Volume of Production * Volume of production figures signify the amount of products being produced. Typically, the greater the volume the lower the cost per unit as raw material suppliers often offer discounts on mass or bulk orders. Volume of production is based on a company’s anticipated product needs, past sales records and placed orders. * Volume of Business * The relationship between production and cost is frequently determined by the volume of business a company is doing. An example that illustrates this point is a multinational vitamin supplement company that produces vitamins in bulk compared to a small health food chain that produces its own vitamin line in small quantities. The cost of the product produced by the small company will typically be greater than the cost of the product offered by the bulk manufacturer because the smaller company produces its product in smaller volumes. Price Points The more it costs a company to produce a product, the greater price the company will have to charge consumers. A company’s production costs include the price of materials, the cost of manpower, the production and packaging process, advertising, and distribution. Mass producers may be able to offer more competitive pricing to end users because they have the luxury of working on a thin margin due to the large volume of production. In microeconomics, the long run is the conceptual time period in which there are no fixed factors of production as to changing the output level by changing the capital stock or by entering or leaving an industry. The long run contrasts with the short run, in which some factors are variable and others are fixed, constraining entry or exit from an industry. In macroeconomics, the long run is the period when the general price level, contractual wage rates, and expectations adjust fully to the state of the economy, in contrast to the short run when these variables may not fully adjust. [1] In the long run, firms change production levels in response to (expected) economic profits or losses, and the land, labor, capital goods and entrepreneurship vary to reach associated long-run average cost. In the simplified case of plant capacity as the only fixed factor, a generic firm can make these changes in the long run: * enter an industry in response to (expected) profits * leave an industry in response to losses * increase its plant in response to profits * decrease its plant in response to losses. Long-run average-cost curve with economies of scale to Q2 and diseconomies of scale thereafter. The long run is associated with the long-run average cost (LRAC) curve in microeconomic models along which a firm would minimize its average cost (cost per unit) for each respective long-run quantity of output. Long-run marginal cost (LRMC) is the added cost of providing an additional unit of service or commodity from changing capacity level to reach the lowest cost associated with that extra output. LRMC equalling price is efficient as to resource allocation in the long run. The concept of long-run cost is also used in determining whether the long-run expected to induce the firm to remain in the industry or shut down production there. In long-run equilibrium of an industry in which perfect competition prevails, the LRMC = Long run average LRAC at the minimum LRAC and associated output. The shape of the long-run marginal and average costs curves is determined by economies of scale. The long run is a planning and implementation stage. [2][3] Here a firm may decide that it needs to produce on a larger scale by building a new plant or adding a production line. The firm may decide that new technology should be incorporated into its production process. The firm thus considers all its long-run production options and selects the optimal combination of inputs and technology for its long-run urposes. [4] The optimal combination of inputs is the least-cost combination of inputs for desired level of output when all inputs are variable. [3] Once the decisions are made and implemented and production begins, the firm is operating in the short run with fixed and variable inputs. [3][5] Short run All production in real time occurs in the short run. The short run is the conceptual time period in which at least one factor of production is fixed in amount and others are variable in am ount. Costs that are fixed, say from existing plant size, have no impact on a firm’s short-run decisions, since only variable costs and revenues affect short-run profits. Such fixed costs raise the associated short-run average cost of an output long-run average cost if the amount of the fixed factor is better suited for a different output level. In the short run, a firm can raise output by increasing the amount of the variable factor(s), say labor through overtime. A generic firm already producing in an industry can make three changes in the short run as a response to reach a posited equilibrium: * increase production decrease production * shut down. In the short run, a profit-maximizing firm will: * increase production if marginal cost is less than marginal revenue (added revenue per additional unit of output); * decrease production if marginal cost is greater than marginal revenue; * continue producing if average variable cost is less than price per unit, even if average total cos t is greater than price; * shut down if average variable cost is greater than price at each level of output. Transition from short run to long run The transition from the short run to the long run may be done by considering some short-run equilibrium that is also a long-run equilibrium as to supply and demand, then comparing that state against a new short-run and long-run equilibrium state from a change that disturbs equilibrium, say in the sales-tax rate, tracing out the short-run adjustment first, then the long-run adjustment. Each is an example of comparative statics. Alfred Marshall (1890) pioneered in comparative-static period analysis. [6] He istinguished between the temporary or market period (with output fixed), the short period, and the long period. â€Å"Classic† contemporary graphical and formal treatments include those of Jacob Viner (1931),[7] John Hicks (1939),[8] and Paul Samuelson (1947). [9] The law of diminishing marginal returns The law of diminishing marginal returns to a variable factor applies to the short run. [10] It posits an effect of decreased added or marginal product of from variable factors, which increases the supply price of added output. [11] The law is related to a positive slope of the short-run marginal-cost curve. 12] Macroeconomic usages The usage of ‘long run’ and ‘short run’ in macroeconomics differs somewhat from the above microeconomic usage. J. M. Keynes (1936) emphasized fundamental factors of a market economy that might result in prolonged periods away from full-employment. [13] In later macro usage, the long run is the period in which the price level for the economy is completely flexible as to shifts in aggregate demand and aggregate supply. In addition there is full mobility of labor and capital between sectors of the economy and full capital mobility between nations. In the short run none of these conditions need fully hold. The price is sticky or fixed as to changes in aggregate demand or supply, capital is not fully mobile between sectors, and capital is not fully mobile to interest rate differences among countries fixed exchange rates. [14] A famous critique of neglecting short-run analysis was by John Maynard Keynes, who wrote that â€Å"In the long run, we are all dead,† referring to the long-run proposition of the quantity theory of, for example, a doubling of the money supply doubling the price level. 15] Marginal  Analysis Thinking at the  Margin From Mike Moffatt, former About. com Guide From an economist’s perspective, making choices involves making decisions ‘at the margin’ – that is, making decisions based on small changes in resources: * How should I spend the next hour? * How should I spend the next dollar? On the surface, this seems like a strange way of considering the choices made by people and firms. It is rare that someone would consciously ask themselves – ‘How will I spend dollar number 24,387? ‘, ‘How will I spend dollar number 24,388? . Treating the problem in this matter does have some distinct advantages: * Doing so leads to the optimal decisions being made, subject to preferences, resources and informational constraints. * It makes the problem less messy from an analytic point of view, as we are not trying to analyze a million decisions at once. * While this does not exactly mimic conscious decision making processes, it does provide results similar to the decisions people actually make. That is, people may not think using this method, but the decisions they make are as if they do. Marginal Analysis – An Example Consider the decision on how many hours to work, as given by the following chart: Hour – Hourly Wage – Value of Time Hour 1 – $10 – $2 Hour 2 – $10 – $2 Hour 3 – $10 – $3 Hour 4 – $10 – $3 Hour 5 – $10 – $4 Hour 6 – $10 – $5 Hour 7 – $10 – $6 Hour 8 – $10 – $8 Hour 9 – $15 – $9 Hour 10 – $15 – $12 Hour 11 – $15 – $18 Hour 12 – $15 – $20 The hourly wage represents what I earn for working an extra hour – it is the marginal gain or the marginal benefit. The value of time is essentially an opportunity cost – it is how much I value having that hour off. In this example it represents a marginal cost – what it costs me by working an additional hour. The increase in marginal costs is a common phenomenon; I do not mind working a few hours since there are 24 hours in a day. I still have plenty of time to do other things. However, as I start to work more hours it reduces the number of hours I have for other activities. I have to start giving up more and more valuable opportunities to work those extra hours. It is clear that I should work the first hour, as I gain $10 in marginal benefits and lose only $2 in marginal costs, for a net gain of $8. By the same logic I should work the second and third hours as well. I will want to work until which time the marginal cost exceeds the marginal benefit. I will want to work the 10th hour as I receive a net benefit of #3 (marginal benefit of $15, marginal cost of $12). However, I will not want to work the 11th hour, as the marginal cost ($18) exceeds the marginal benefit ($15) by three dollars. Thus marginal analysis suggests that rational maximizing behavior is to work for 10 hours. Next Lesson: Market Distortions: Altering the Supply and Demand Equilibrium. Marginal Analysis * Marginal Revenue – Glossary – Dictionary Definition of Marginal Revenue * Marginal Significance Value – Glossary – Dictionary Definition of Marginal Si†¦ * Marginal Revenue and Marginal Cost Practice Question Related Articles * Running a Private Practice – Working with Animals * Work Stress – Long Work Hours Are Not the Culprit * Open for Business: Scheduling Your Week – Being a Personal Trainer * Three Union Work Rules That Increase the Cost of Operating Transit * Hold On to Your Sanity – Start Your Own Business AN INTRODUCTION TO COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS| * Background * Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) estimates and totals up the equivalent money value of the benefits and costs to the community of projects to establish whether they are worthwhile. These projects may be dams and highways or can be training programs and health care systems. * The idea of this economic accounting originated with Jules Dupuit, a French engineer whose 1848 article is still worth reading. The British economist, Alfred Marshall, formulated some of the formal concepts that are at the foundation of CBA. But the practical development of CBA came as a result of the impetus provided by the Federal Navigation Act of 1936. This act required that the U. S. Corps of Engineers carry out projects for the improvement of the waterway system when the total benefits of a project to whomsoever they accrue exceed the costs of that project. Thus, the Corps of Engineers had created systematic methods for measuring such benefits and costs. The engineers of the Corps did this without much, if any, assistance from the economics profession. It wasn’t until about twenty years later in the 1950’s that economists tried to provide a rigorous, consistent set of methods for measuring benefits and costs and deciding whether a project is worthwhile. Some technical issues of CBA have not been wholly resolved even now but the fundamental presented in the following are well established. * Principles of Cost Benefit Analysis * One of the problems of CBA is that the computation of many components of benefits and costs is intuitively obvious but that there are others for which intuition fails to suggest methods of measurement. Therefore some basic principles are needed as a guide. There Must Be a Common Unit of Measurement * In order to reach a conclusion as to the desirability of a project all aspects of the project, positive and negative, must be expressed in terms of a common unit; i. e. , there must be a â€Å"bottom line. † The most convenient common unit is money. This means that all benefits and costs of a project should be measured in terms of their equivalent money value. A program may provide benefits which are not directly expressed in terms of dollars but there is some amount of money the recipients of the benefits would consider just as good as the project’s benefits. For example, a project may provide for the elderly in an area a free monthly visit to a doctor. The value of that benefit to an elderly recipient is the minimum amount of money that that recipient would take instead of the medical care. This could be less than the market value of the medical care provided. It is assumed that more esoteric benefits such as from preserving open space or historic sites have a finite equivalent money value to the public. * Not only do the benefits and costs of a project have to be expressed in terms of equivalent money value, but they have to be expressed in terms of dollars of a particular time. This is not just due to the differences in the value of dollars at different times because of inflation. A dollar available five years from now is not as good as a dollar available now. This is because a dollar available now can be invested and earn interest for five years and would be worth more than a dollar in five years. If the interest rate is r then a dollar invested for t years will grow to be (1+r)t. Therefore the amount of money that would have to be deposited now so that it would grow to be one dollar t years in the future is (1+r)-t. This called the discounted value or present value of a dollar available t years in the future. * When the dollar value of benefits at some time in the future is multiplied by the discounted value of one dollar at that time in the future the result is discounted present value of that benefit of the project. The same thing applies to costs. The net benefit of the projects is just the sum of the present value of the benefits less the present value of the costs. * The choice of the appropriate interest rate to use for the discounting is a separate issue that will be treated later in this paper. CBA Valuations Should Represent Consumers or Producers Valuations As Revealed by Their Actual Behavior * The valuation of benefits and costs should reflect preferences revealed by choices which have been made. For example, improvements in transportation frequently involve saving time. The question is how to measure the money value of that time saved. The value should not be merely what transportat ion planners think time should be worth or even what people say their time is worth. The value of time should be that which the public reveals their time is worth through choices involving tradeoffs between time and money. If people have a choice of parking close to their destination for a fee of 50 cents or parking farther away and spending 5 minutes more walking and they always choose to spend the money and save the time and effort then they have revealed that their time is more valuable to them than 10 cents per minute. If they were indifferent between the two choices they would have revealed that the value of their time to them was exactly 10 cents per minute. * The most challenging part of CBA is finding past choices which reveal the tradeoffs and equivalencies in preferences. For example, the valuation of the benefit of cleaner air could be established by finding how much less people paid for housing in more polluted areas which otherwise was identical in characteristics and location to housing in less polluted areas. Generally the value of cleaner air to people as revealed by the hard market choices seems to be less than their rhetorical valuation of clean air. * Benefits Are Usually Measured by Market Choices * When consumers make purchases at market prices they reveal that the things they buy are at least as beneficial to them as the money they relinquish. Consumers will increase their consumption of any commodity up to the point where the benefit of an additional unit (marginal benefit) is equal to the marginal cost to them of that unit, the market price. Therefore for any consumer buying some of a commodity, the marginal benefit is equal to the market price. The marginal benefit will decline with the amount consumed just as the market price has to decline to get consumers to consume a greater quantity of the commodity. The relationship between the market price and the quantity consumed is called the demand schedule. Thus the demand schedule provides the information about marginal benefit that is needed to place a money value on an increase in consumption. * Gross Benefits of an Increase in Consumption is an Area Under the Demand Curve * The increase in benefits resulting from an increase in consumption is the sum of the marginal benefit times each incremental increase in consumption. As the incremental increases considered are taken as smaller and smaller the sum goes to the area under the marginal benefit curve. But the marginal benefit curve is the same as the demand curve so the increase in benefits is the area under the demand curve. As shown in Figure 1 the area is over the range from the lower limit of consumption before the increase to consumption after the increase. * Figure 1 * When the increase in consumption is small compared to the total consumption the gross benefit is adequately approximated, as is shown in a welfare analysis, by the market value of the increased consumption; i. e. , market price times the increase in consumption. * Some Measurements of Benefits Require the Valuation of Human Life * It is sometimes necessary in CBA to evaluate the benefit of saving human lives. There is considerable antipathy in the general public to the idea of placing a dollar value on human life. Economists recognize that it is impossible to fund every project which promises to save a human life and that some rational basis is needed to select which projects are approved and which are turned down. The controversy is defused when it is recognized that the benefit of such projects is in reducing the risk of death. There are many cases in which people voluntarily accept increased risks in return for higher pay, such as in the oil fields or mining, or for time savings in higher speed in automobile travel. These choices can be used to estimate the personal cost people place on increased risk and thus the value to them of reduced risk. This computation is equivalent to placing an economic value on the expected number of lives saved. * The Analysis of a Project Should Involve a With Versus Without Comparison * The impact of a project is the difference between what the situation in the study area would be with and without the project. This that when a project is being evaluated the analysis must estimate not only what the situation would be with the project but also what it would be without the project. For example, in determining the impact of a fixed guideway rapid transit system such as the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) in the San Francisco Bay Area the number of rides that would have been taken on an expansion of the bus system should be deducted from the rides provided by BART and likewise the additional costs of such an expanded bus system would be deducted from the costs of BART. In other words, the alternative to the project must be explicitly specified and considered in the evaluation of the project. Note that the with-and-without comparison is not the same as a before-and-after comparison. Another example shows the importance of considering the impacts of a project and a with-and-without comparison. Suppose an irrigation project proposes to increase cotton production in Arizona. If the United States Department of Agriculture limits the cotton production in the U. S. by a system of quotas then expanded cotton production in Arizona might be offset by a reduction in the cotto n production quota for Mississippi. Thus the impact of the project on cotton production in the U. S. might be zero rather than being the amount of cotton produced by the project. * Cost Benefit Analysis Involves a Particular Study Area The impacts of a project are defined for a particular study area, be it a city, region, state, nation or the world. In the above example concerning cotton the impact of the project might be zero for the nation but still be a positive amount for Arizona. * The nature of the study area is usually specified by the organization sponsoring the analysis. Many effects of a project may â€Å"net out† over one study area but not over a smaller one. The specification of the study area may be arbitrary but it may significantly affect the conclusions of the analysis. * Double Counting of Benefits or Costs Must be Avoided Sometimes an impact of a project can be measured in two or more ways. For example, when an improved highway reduces travel time and the r isk of injury the value of property in areas served by the highway will be enhanced. The increase in property values due to the project is a very good way, at least in principle, to measure the benefits of a project. But if the increased property values are included then it is unnecessary to include the value of the time and lives saved by the improvement in the highway. The property value went up because of the benefits of the time saving and the reduced risks. To include both the increase in property values and the time saving and risk reduction would involve double counting. * Decision Criteria for Projects * If the discounted present value of the benefits exceeds the discounted present value of the costs then the project is worthwhile. This is equivalent to the condition that the net benefit must be positive. Another equivalent condition is that the ratio of the present value of the benefits to the present value of the costs must be greater than one. * If there are more than one mutually exclusive project that have positive net present value then there has to be further analysis. From the set of mutually exclusive projects the one that should be selected is the one with the highest net present value. * If the funds required for carrying out all of the projects with positive net present value are less than the funds available this means the discount rate used in computing the present values is too low and does not reflect the true cost of capital. The present values must be recomputed using a higher discount rate. It may take some trial and error to find a discount rate such that the funds required for the projects with a positive net present value is no more than the funds available. Sometimes as an alternative to this procedure people try to select the best projects on the basis of some measure of goodness such as the internal rate of return or the benefit/cost ratio. This is not valid for several reasons. * The magnitude of the ratio of benefits to costs is to a degree arbitrary because some costs such as operating costs may be deducted from benefits and thus not be included in the cost figure. This is called netting out of operating costs. This netting out may be done for some projects and not for others. This manipulation of the benefits and costs will not affect the net benefits but it may change the benefit/cost ratio. However it will not raise the benefit cost ratio which is less than one to above one. For more on this topic see Benefit/ cost Ratio Magnitude. * An Example * To illustrate how CBA might be applied to a project, let us consider a highway improvement such as the extension of Highway 101 into San Jose. The local four-lane highway which carried the freeway and commuter traffic into San Jose did not have a median divider and its inordinate number of fatal head-on collisions led to the name â€Å"Blood Alley. The improvement of the highway would lead to more capacity which produces time saving and lowers the risk. But inevitably there will be more traffic than was carried by the old highway. * The following is a highly abbreviated analysis using hypothetical data. TRIP DATA| No Extension, â€Å"Blood Alley† Only| 101 Extension and â€Å"Blood Alley†| Rush H ours|   |   | Passenger Trips (per hour)| 3,000| 4,000| Trip Time (minutes)| 50| 30| Value of Time ($/minute)| $0. 10| $0. 10| Nonrush Hours|   |   | Passenger Trips (per hour)| 500| 555. 55| Trip Time (minutes)| 35| 25| Value of Time ($/minute)| $0. 08| $0. 08| Traffic Fatalities per year)| 12| 6| * The data indicates that for rush-hour trips the time cost of a trip is $5 without the project and $3 with it. It is assumed that the operating cost for a vehicle is unaffected by the project and is $4. * The project lowers the cost of a trip and the public responds by increasing the number of trips taken. There is an increase in consumer surplus both for the trips which would have been taken without the project and for the trips which are stimulated by the project. * For trips which would have been taken anyway the benefit of the project equals the value of the time saved times the number of trips. For the rush-hour trip the project saves $2 and for the nonrush-hour trip it saves $0. 80. For the trips generated by the project the benefit is equal to one half of the value of the time saved times the increase in the number of trips. * The benefits per hour are: TYPE| Trips Which Would Be Taken Anyway| Trips Generated By the Project| Total| Rush Hour| 6,000. 00| 1,000. 00| 7,000. 00| Nonrush Hour| 400. 00| 22. 22| 422. 22| * To convert the benefits to an annual basis one multiplies the hourly benefits of each type of trip times the number of hours per year for that type of trip. There are 260 week days per year and at six rush hours per weekday there are 1560 rush hours per year. This leaves 7200 nonrush hours per year. With these figures the annual benefits are: TYPE| Trips Which Would Be Taken Anyway| Trips Generated By the Project| Total| Rush Hour| $9,360,000| $1,560,000| $10,020,000| Nonrush Hour| $2,880,000| $160,000| $3,040,000| Total| $12,240,000| $1,720,000| $13,960,000| * The value of the reduced fatalities may be computed in terms of the equivalent economic value people place upon their lives when making choices concerning risk and money. If the labor market has wages for occupations of different risks such that people accept an increase in the risk of death of 1/1,000 per year in return for an increase in income of $400 per year then a project that reduces the risk of death in a year by 1/1000 gives a benefit to each person affected by it of $400 per year. The implicit valuation of a life in this case is $400,000. Thus benefit of the reduced risk project is the expected number of lives saved times the implicit value of a life. For the highway project this is 6x$400,000= $2,400,000 annually. * The annual benefits of the project are thus: TYPE OF BENEFIT| VALUE OF BENEFITS PER YEAR| Time Saving| $13,960,000| Reduced Risk| $2,400,000| * Let us assume that this level of benefits continues at a constant rate over a thirty-year lifetime of the project. * The cost of the highway consists of the costs for its right-of-way, its construction and its maintenance. The cost of the right-of-way is the cost of the land and any structures upon it which must be purchased before the construction of the highway can begin. For purposes of this example the cost of right-of-way is taken to be $100 million and it must be paid before any construction can begin. At least part of the right-of- way cost for a highway can be recovered at the end of the lifetime of the highway if it is not rebuilt. For the example it is assumed that all of the right-of-way cost is recoverable at the end of the thirty-year lifetime of the project. The construction cost is $200 million spread evenly over a four-year period. Maintenance cost is $1 million per year once the highway is completed. * The schedule of benefits and costs for the project are as follows: TIME (year)| BENEFITS ($millions)| RIGHT-OF -WAY ($millions)| CONSTRUCTION COSTS $millions)| MAINTENANCE ($millions)| 0| 0| 100| 0| 0| 1-4| 0| 0| 50| 0| 5-29| 16. 36| 0| 0| 1| 30| 16. 36| -100| 0| 1| * The benefits and costs are in constant value dollars; i. e. , there was no price increase included in the analysis. Therefore the discount rate used must be the real interest rate. If the interest rate on long term bonds is 8 percent and the rate of inflation is 6 percent then the real rate of interest is 2 p ercent. Present value of the streams of benefits and costs discounted at a 2 percent back to time zero are as follows:   | PRESENT VALUE $ millions)| Benefits| 304. 11| Costs|   | Right-of-Way| 44. 79| Construction| 190. 39| Maintenance| 18. 59| Total Costs| 253. 77| |   | | Net Benefits| 50. 35| | *independent rounding| * The positive net present value of $50. 35 million and benefit/cost ratio of 1. 2 indicate that the project is worthwhile if the cost of capital is 2 percent. When a discount rate of 3 percent is the benefit/cost ratio is slightly under 1. 0. This means that the internal rate of return is just under 3 percent. When the cost of capital is 3 percent the project is not worthwhile. It should be noted that the market value of the right-of-way understates the opportunity cost of having the land devoted to the highway. The land has a value of $100 million because of its income after property taxes. The economy is paying more for its alternate use but some of the pay ment is diverted for taxes. The discounted presented value of the payments for the alternate use might be more like $150 million instead of $100 million. Another way of making this point is that one of the costs of the highway is that the local governments lose the property tax on the land used. * Summary By reducing the positive and negative impacts of a project to their equivalent money value Cost-Benefit Analysis determines whether on balance the project is worthwhile. The equivalent money value are based upon information derived from consumer and producer market choices; i. e. , the demand and supply schedules for the goods and services affected by the project. Care must be taken to properly allow for such things as inflation. When all this has been considered a worthwhile project is one for which the discounted value of the benefits exceeds the discounted value of the costs; i. . , the net benefits are positive. This is equivalent to the benefit/cost ratio being greater than on e and the internal rate of return being greater than the cost of capital. * History of Cost-Benefit Analysis * CBA has its origins in the water development projects of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps of Engineers had its origins in the French engineers hired by George Washington in the American Revolution. For years the only school of engineering in the United States was the Military Academy at West Point, New York. In 1879, Congress created the Mississippi River Commission to â€Å"prevent destructive floods. † The Commission included civilians but the president had to be an Army engineer and the Corps of Engineers always had veto power over any decision by the Commission. * In 1936 Congress passed the Flood Control Act which contained the wording, â€Å"the Federal Government should improve or participate in the improvement of navigable waters or their tributaries, including watersheds thereof, for flood-control purposes if the benefits to whomsoever they may accrue are in excess of the estimated costs. The phrase if the benefits to whomsoever they may accrue are in excess of the estimated costs established cost-benefit analysis. Initially the Corps of Engineers developed ad hoc methods for estimating benefits and costs. It wasn’t until the 1950s that academic economists discovered that the Corps had developed a system for the economic analysis of public investments. Economists have influenced and improved the Corps’ methods since then and cost-benefit analysis has been adapted to most areas of public decision-making. How to cite Cost Theory, Papers

Dress Reform from 1850 to 1930 in the United State Essay Example For Students

Dress Reform from 1850 to 1930 in the United State Essay s: The Impact on HeaDress Reform from 1850 to 1930 in the United States: The Impact on HealthDress reform has played an integral part of the womens movement, health reform and political agendas. This paper will explore the time period of 1850 to 1930 in the United States of America concerning dress reform for women. It is important to explore this topic because the eighty year span marks a time of rapid change for women concerning health, leisure, independence, political and gender constraints and liberties. A description of the social forces must be discussed in order to have a distinct grasp of the reform movement. Next, the problems caused by fashion will reveal why there was a strong reform movement for dress and clothing. Examining the feminist and health movements of the time period will demonstrate what created the change in the movement, and the benefits and tribulations associated with the reform.Wellness was not fashionable in the 1850s. Women associated being ill and weak with class superiority. It was almost as if illness replaced a sense of wealthy leisure because these women did not have to worry that their illness was impeding their ability to have a job or care for a household. This sickness afforded the women the opportunity to use new medical treatments and cures. Affording such medical attention was one way of noting the wealth behind the sickly woman . Sickness not only distinguished people within classes, but it highlighted gender distinctions. Illness was a form of true femininity. The sick, delicate and frail woman was at the pinnacle of femininity because she embraced the weaknesses of the sex . But this sense of illness was not a psychological phenomenon. Given the time period, there was a great amount of disease present. However, through historical analysis, it is obvious that far women complained far more of illness than did men. In a time when a lot of female illness were linked to the uterus, one can begin to understand that the more sick you were, the more womanly it made you as your body was thought to have been constructed around the uterus . Beyond the class superiority and femininity linked to illness, there lies a concrete explanation for why many women suffered from physical discomfort. The dress that was considered fashionable in the 1850s was more than just physically exhausting, it was detrimental a womans body. Imagine a woman rising from bed wearing heavy bedclothes of wool or cotton. Underneath she would be wearing a corset for sleep, made of cotton, wool or a mix of heavy linen. After brushing out long hair, which was rarely washed, she would be wrapped in a light cotton garb that would protect her skin from actually touching her formal corset. Often corsets would stretch from the mid-hip region to the breasts. Corsets were constructed of whalebone and metal stays, which shaped the ribs and stomach to form a fashionable waist of approximately eighteen inches. After the corset was tightly laced (which required assistance of at least one other person), then heavy wool or cotton stocking would be pulled on. Stockings were held up ties, girdle-like bloomers or special buttons in the petticoats. At this time, a woman would put on six to eight petticoats . She would put on a special top to keep the corset from touching her dress. At this point, a woman may have worn a large hoop skirt. The large metal device would allow the woman to keep proper social distance from her guests and potential suitors. Often the woman would have to be lowered into the hoop skirt. If the hoop was too heavy, a woman would be placed in the parlor room and she would remain there until after a dinner party or until such a time she could remove the hoop because it could render her immobile. In some rare cases, small rolling wheels were attached at the bottom of hoop skirts to aid women in moving such a contraption. After all of this, then a dress would be placed on a woman. .u35b0e264dd9d1bef81def677948f232b , .u35b0e264dd9d1bef81def677948f232b .postImageUrl , .u35b0e264dd9d1bef81def677948f232b .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u35b0e264dd9d1bef81def677948f232b , .u35b0e264dd9d1bef81def677948f232b:hover , .u35b0e264dd9d1bef81def677948f232b:visited , .u35b0e264dd9d1bef81def677948f232b:active { border:0!important; } .u35b0e264dd9d1bef81def677948f232b .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u35b0e264dd9d1bef81def677948f232b { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u35b0e264dd9d1bef81def677948f232b:active , .u35b0e264dd9d1bef81def677948f232b:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u35b0e264dd9d1bef81def677948f232b .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u35b0e264dd9d1bef81def677948f232b .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u35b0e264dd9d1bef81def677948f232b .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u35b0e264dd9d1bef81def677948f232b .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u35b0e264dd9d1bef81def677948f232b:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u35b0e264dd9d1bef81def677948f232b .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u35b0e264dd9d1bef81def677948f232b .u35b0e264dd9d1bef81def677948f232b-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u35b0e264dd9d1bef81def677948f232b:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: My Grandpa Van Essay To top it all off, she may have worn heavy wigs

Its Not About School Prayer Essays - Prayer, Religion And Children

It's Not About School Prayer The question of school prayer has been moved from one of the storage rooms way beyond the wings to somewhere prominently on stage, if not front stage and center. The most important thing about the discussion of a school prayer amendment is not school prayer as such. People of eminently good sense and religious conviction can disagree about whether there should be prayer in public schools and, if so, what kind of prayer and who should be in charge of it. Those decisions should be made by thousands of communities and local school boards across the country. That is called democracy. An amendment is needed not to mandate or even to encourage school prayer but to restore to the people their right and responsibility to deliberate and decide a question that bears upon the kind of education they want for their children. Parents who are serious about the moral and religious formation of their children should have no illusions that adding a prayer at the beginning of the school day will achieve that goal. Public policy should help such parents send their children to schools that share their educational goals. This means school vouchers, education tax credits, flexible charter schools, or other instruments that can enable parents to exercise real choice in education. That, however, does not obviate the need for a school prayer amendment, which might better be called an educational democracy amendment. Quite apart from the merits or demerits of prayer in public schools, an amendment is needed for three reasons. First, it is a necessary check upon the overreach of the imperial judiciary. The school prayer decisions of the early 1960s were a particularly blatant instance of judicial activism. The Constitution neither mandates nor prohibits prayer in the schools. What the Constitution says about school prayer is absolutely nothing. For almost two centuries nobody thought that school prayer was a constitutional question. It was up to local communities and their school boards. (Some scholars claim that a fairly small percentage of public schools actually had such prayer.) That is the way it should be again. Those who claim that the American people are not capable of deciding the question in a civil and mutually respectful manner reveal an unseemly contempt for the democratic process. Our point, however, is that what the Constitution does not say is unconstitutional is not unconstitution al. The Constitution does not say that prayer in the public schools is unconstitutional, therefore it is not unconstitutional. One may argue that school prayer is unfair, divisive, mischievous, or just plain dumb. But it is not unconstitutional, and apparently it will take an amendment to make that clear. The second reason for an amendment is that it will challenge the judicial advancement of the pernicious ideology of the naked public square, of American public life denuded of religion and religiously grounded values. Whatever else one may think of the school prayer decisions of the 1960s, they sent a powerful message that ours is a secular society, and that a secular society is one in which religion must be expunged from any sphere that is designated as public. Combine that with the notion that public is a synonym for governmental and the conclusion is inescapable that religion must retreat wherever government advances-and government advances almost everywhere. This has been the unhappy pattern of more than thirty years. An amendment can check that pattern and perhaps, in due course, reverse it. The third reason for an amendment, closely connected to the first two, is that the incoherence of church-state jurisprudence over the last three decades is tied up with the school prayer decisions. Many, if not most, of the justices of the Supreme Court in the last decade have at one time or another publicly admitted that the Court has gotten itself into a brier patch of confusion and self-contradiction when it comes to the religion clause of the First Amendment. In our view, the Court's decisions have created a situation in which the no establishment provision of the religion clause has increasingly undercut the free exercise provision, even though the free exercise of religion is manifestly the purpose of the religion clause. Former Chief Justice Warren Burger has observed

Unit 4 Discussion Example

Unit 4 Discussion Example Unit 4 Discussion – Coursework Example Unit 4 Discussion It takes an average of five seconds in order to decide whether to continue using the site or leave. Therefore, websites should not only be appealing to the user, but also have clear purpose, user friendly, and quick to load. Such a website should persuade visitors to visit the page in future. On the other hand a bad website usually has confusing layout, user unfriendly, unclear, use of and unbearable colors. An example of an excellent website is YouTube. YouTube is a video sharing website and supports different video technologies. This is a good website because it contains good animation aspects, attractive color coding, good template and it is user friendly. The site also opens fast and provides the user with different options of the subject one is searching for. The layout of the site is excellent and one is able to select the item being searched easily. The website has meaningful graphics and compatible on dissimilar browsers (Hurley, Chen, & Karim, 2014). Heaven .internetarchaeology.org is an example of a bad website. The website is disorganized with poor color scheme. The website is slow to load with poorly laid out content. Visually, it is extremely unappealing and it is poor to navigate. This means that the site is user unfriendly due to poorly optimized images. Additionally, the website has left out crucial information. One cannot tell exactly what it entails thus inconclusive (Heaven.internetarchaeology, 2014). It is evident that an excellent website attracts the intended target audience easily. There are excellent tips for designing excellent websites like, selecting and sticking to a good color scheme. This means that one should not change colors on every single page. One should select three principal colors to utilize. Secondly, the navigation system should be user friendly. Lastly, it is imperative o ensure that the content of the website is easy to understand and with the right font. By following these tips, one will be ensured of designing an excellent website (Martin, 2012).ReferencesHeaven.internetarchaeology. (2014). Love You. http://heaven.internetarchaeology.org/heaven.html#button Hurley, C., Chen, S., & Karim, J. (2014). YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/Martin A. (2012). 1O Tips: Designing a Good Responsive Website. Retrieved from basenew.net/2012/12/11.html

Business overview of British American Tobacco

Business overview of British American Tobacco British American Tobacco (BAT) is the world’s second largest tobacco group by global market share. BAT produces cigarettes demanded by one-eighth of the world’s one billion adult smokers and this particular company is holding robust market position in each of their regions. Besides that, BAT has leadership in more than 50 markets. Based on last year’s performances (2009), BAT’s subsidiaries enabled the worldwide government to gather more than  £26 billion a year in taxes, including excise duty on their products which total up to almost nine times the Group’s profit after tax. BAT, which was founded in 1902, has existed as a significant global presence for over 100 years. By 1912, the company had become one of the world’s top dozen companies by market capitalization. This company works with thousands of tobacco farmers worldwide, producing some 724 billion cigarettes through 50 cigarette factories over 41 countries. The company employs more than 600,000 people worldwide. BAT’s workforce is of multi-cultural and they have devolved structure, with each local company having wide freedom of action and responsibility for their own operations. Within a framework of principles, standards, policies, strategies and delegated authorities, decisions are made as close as possible to the local stakeholders of each business. BAT operates according to responsibility seeing that their products pose risks to health. The business stresses on managed responsibility as it is integral to their strategy and through dialogue with their stakeholders, they are working towards commercial objectives in ways consistent with changing expectations of a modern tobacco business. This international tobacco group is the only group with a significant interest in tobacco leaf growing. Their companies run leaf programmes providing direct agronomy support to farmers, covering all aspects of crop production and environmental best practice. In 2009, the group purchased about 400,000 tonnes of tobacco leaves, grown by more than 250,000 farmers. BAT ensures the employees’ welfare. The company has specially carried out a global employee opinion survey also known as â€Å"Your Voice† to give them a secure and confidential way to voice their opinion about working at British American Tobacco. BAT’s business starts with their consumers and brands. The company focuses more on meeting preferences of adults who have chosen to consume tobacco and differentiating their brands from their competitors rather than encouraging people to start smoking or to smoke more. The business’ portfolio of more than 250 brands is based on distinct ‘must-win’ consumer segments which are: international, premium, lights and adult smokers aged below 30. ‘Dunhill’, ‘Kent’, ‘Lucky Strike’ and ‘Pall Mall’ are the four Global Drive Brands which cover the premium and value for money price segments. They grew by 4 per cent in 2009 (8 billion more cigarettes). The business is also increasing the profile of Vogue in the super premium segment and Viceroy, a leading low price international brand besides developing their Global Drive Brands. The growth of their brands is driven by innovation ranging from filters to flavours and packaging to cigarette formats. The business provides a mix of brand balanced between premium, mid-price and low-price. Besides that, the business applies the four managerial functions in its organization management; planning, organizing, leading and controlling. We have also interviewed a manager of British American Tobacco Singapore for further understanding.

Issues of Transformational Leadership in the Organization Research Paper

Issues of Transformational Leadership in the Organization - Research Paper Example This research report will focus on the alleged benefits of transformational leadership style as a potential tool for ensuring higher motivation, less resistance to change, the improvement of organizational culture, and generally gaining more employee commitment. The literature surrounding transformational leadership style seems to be gaining ground as an effective leadership model based on known employee behavior patterns that could effectively serve multiple business environments. It is hypothesized that transformational leadership style can bring significant value-added benefits to a diverse organization over that of other less-progressive styles. What is Transformational Leadership? To understand the potential implications of adopting a transformational leadership model, it is necessary to engage with its dimensions and understand how it applies to a contemporary, diversified organization. Transformational leadership is a progressive style, much like that of a mentor or coach, tha t inspires others through behavior, policy and attitude. This leadership design engages others to share goals and uses â€Å"inspirational appeals of authenticity to focus on the best in people: harmony, charity and good works† (Bass & Steidlmeier, 1999, p.188). In this context, the transformational leader refutes some of the fundamental concepts of management through control or even incentives usage and instead elicits charismatic leadership style that gains ground with creating affiliation and belonging while also raising the emotional intelligence of employees and other staff members. A transformational leader â€Å"opens new thinking for fresh possibilities, re-imagines purpose and vision, ignites growth for employees, gives decision-making power, and manages through commitment strategies† (Adams & Adams, 2009, p.17). This leader takes the responsibility for the role of champion toward change philosophy and also teaches others how to make fundamental shifts in thei r thinking that align the organization toward a unified culture and does this through modeling positive new behaviors (Adams & Adams). In essence, the transformational leader takes on a personal role much like that of a human resources manager with a soft HRM approach that builds confidence, autonomy, and motivation. â€Å"Employers consistently mention collaboration and teamwork as being a critical skill, essential in all working environments† (Tarricone & Luca, 2002, p.55). Many of the pre-existing models of leadership, both justified through research and also through practical experience, do not have the ability to gain motivation in employee groups and build a sense of cultural unity. Transformational leaders have a progressive methodology that influences others with persuasive techniques and also by promoting ethical behavior that is consistent for the sake of modeling by others in the organization. This makes the transformational leader considerably accountable for thei r actions when others in the environment are building concepts of trust and team-based philosophy. Thus, it should be said that the transformatio

Credit control and charity research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Credit control and charity research - Essay Example The supplier`s background is unknown to RTE and so there is huge risk involved in making the payment early. What if payment is not done, supplier waives off from his liability, the goods promised are not provided? The above questions are examples of financial risk that the company features. To reduce financial risk RTE can do a credit check on the customer’s financial history. To verify credit worthiness these are checks on the customers financial position (Gruening, 2000). To see whether a party is capable enough of making the loan payments, these checks are carried prior to accepting loan requests. Credit Bureaus run these credit checks and to verify financial data, various financial institutions are contacted. The company`s credit score is then a measure of the company’s credit worthiness – and therefore a low credit score means high financial risk. To reduce their financial risk RTE can make use of references that are provided to them by customers. The mechanism is simple. A list of references is exchanged at or before the contract .Reference is one who confirms that the details provided by a particular person are legal or not. Verifying the details by all references prior to making the payment can actually minimize Regeneration Through Charity Limited`s exposure to financial risk. By this they will not expose themselves by paying anything that should not be paid. A true picture of the supplier can be obtained as the references are often people and companies with good reputation (Weiss, 2000). Other option on hand to the company to reduce financial risk is negotiating. In the current case the supplier asks for fifty percent initial payment. New terms can be set between RTE and supplier which are beneficial to RTE. There is an option that the supplier might agree to lower the initial amount of payment to be made if the overall contract price is increased by a little margin.

African American vs. Caucasian Americans Essay Example for Free

African American vs. Caucasian Americans Essay At first glance some people might consider this paper to be on the racial side, however it was all written by observations made. There are many differences between African Americans and Caucasians, some people dont see the differences because of ignorance . You must read the paper with an open mind and take none of this to heart. African American and Caucasians function differently in public surroundings. When you see a young African American you usually see them in groups of four of more. However, when one of them gets into a disagreement five to ten more show up in their defense. They are a very close knit group of individuals. I have also noticed that when you see a young African American walking around they are usually singing, talking very loud or running around. Also when they are in groups they are very loud and take over the area that they occupy. On the other hand when you see Caucasians they are rarely in groups of three or more. To top it off when someone in one of their groups gets in trouble the rest of the group is nowhere to be found. Most times when you see young Caucasian people in a group they are for the most part within a normal speaking level. These two groups tend to act differently in the public due to their cultural differences. There are a number of differences between the churches of African Americans and Caucasians. At most typical African American churches there are no true sermons. The African American churches tend to do more entertaining rather than teaching. They also do a great deal of singing and dancing involved in there praising of God. They emphasize fellowship in their churches especially after church when they all gather and close the celebration with a meal together. However at a typical Caucasian church there are a few differences. To start it off when you first walk in you get a program detailing what will be happening through the service. They tend to structure the whole service around a sermon or story. The service every week is very predictable as to what will happen. The Caucasian churches are more there to teach the ways of the lord as they have interpreted it. Although not all the African American and Caucasian churches are along this line a majority of the main stream ones are.

Igbo Government and Social Structure :: Essays Papers

Igbo Government and Social Structure Details of traditional Igbo government and social structure varied from place to place throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but its characteristic nature remained the same. The basic unit of Igbo life was the village group, and the most universal institution was the role of the family head. This was usually the oldest man of the oldest surviving generation. His role primarily involved settling family disputes, and because he controlled the channel of communication with the all-important ancestors, he commanded great respect and reverence. In some areas the government of chiefs and elders was composed of a governing age grade, in others the council of elders was made up of the oldest members of particular families. Titles played a major part in this society. There was a hierarchy of ascending titles that were to be taken in order, accompanied by an ascending scale of payments. The system acted as a simple form of social security, in that those who acquired titles paid a particular fee, and then were entitled to share in the payments of those who later acquired titles. A series of intense rituals were to be undertaken before acquiring a title, which was considered a symbol of character as well as of success. A titled man’s life was dominated by numerous religious restrictions, and it was expected that these would be strictly adhered to. A few Igbo states, such as Aboh and Onitsha, which had a tradition of origin from elsewhere, were ruled by kings, which were regarded as sacred and lived in ritual seclusion. However, the decisions taken by these kings were by no means final, they were often challenged and overruled by other titled men with whom they were required to consult. In general, h owever, kingship was an unfamiliar concept to the majority of Igbos. A political institution that was widespread but not universal was that of the age-grade. Each age-grade was responsible for specific areas of community service, and this often promoted rivalry between the groups. This was actually a valuable instrument of social control, in that in order to preserve the good name of their age-group, its members became involved in disciplining and restraining those who tended to cause trouble within the community. Secret societies were also an instrument of social control. Their members would appear at night, masked, in the guise of supernatural beings. Any offenders in the community would be denounced.

Healthcare Fraud Essay

On May 14, 2013 Attorney General Eric Holder and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sibelius announced â€Å"nationwide takedown† by Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations, in eight cities that resulted in charges against 89 individuals, which included doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes involving approximately $223 million in false billings. In Chicago, seven individuals were charged, including two doctors, with a variety of health care fraud schemes. This (sixth) nationwide takedown targeted eight cities: Miami, Houston, Los Angles, Detroit, Tampa, Brooklyn N.Y, and Chicago. On April 16, 2013, the owner, senior executive of Sacred Heart Hospital, along with four physicians in the west side facility were arrested for conspiring to pay and receive illegal kickbacks. The kickbacks included more than $225,000 in cash, along with other forms of payment, in exchange for the referral of patients insured by Medicare and Medicaid to the hospital. On Oct 19, 2012, a west suburban dermatologist, Robert Kolbusz, was indicted in U.S. District Court on four counts of wire fraud and three counts of mail fraud. He was accused of submitting false claims for hundreds of patients, according to FBI officials. The Department of Health aand Human Services reported that in fiscal year 2011, in Illinois alone there were: 326 Medicaid fraud investigations, 48 were indicted on Medicaid fraud charges, 30 were convicted, 18 cases of civil settlements/judgments, and $47.8 million dollars was recovered in Medicare fraud cases. There are abundant news stories in the media today about the federal government enforcements against hospitals, laboratories, medical equipment suppliers, hospices, home health agencies, physicians and other health care service providers. Unfortunately, these cases are just the tip-of-the-iceberg with many health care fraud cases going undetected and or unreported. According to Black’s Law Dictionary fraud is defined as â€Å"some deceitful practice or willful device, resorted to with intent to deprive another of his/ her right, or in some manner to do him an injury. It is distinguished from negligence, and is always intentional†. Healthcare fraud is a white-collar crime that usually involves filing health care claims by healthcare service provider to turn a profit for the healthcare service providers. It involves â€Å"an unlawful act, generally deception for personal gain†, and encompasses a wide range of irregularities and illegal acts that  are characterized by intentional deception. (Pozgar, 2011) According to the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigations) healthcare fraud in our country costs an estimated $80 billion a year- making it one of the biggest â€Å"white-collar-crime†. Health care fraud is committed when a dishonest provider or consumer intentionally submits or causes someone else to submit false or misleading information for use in determining the amount of healthcare benefits payable. (Pozgar, 2011) Health care fraud usually includes insurance fraud, drug fraud and medical fraud. There are several ways by which the health care insurance fraud can be committed by fraudulent health care service providers: 1.) billing for services not rendered, 2.) up-coding of services which is billing the Medicare for services that were more expensive than the ones provided, 3.) up-coding of items which is billing for more expensive items than was provided, 4.) unbundling, wherein a corrupt healthcare service provides bills that stagger over time in order to claim more monies from Medicare, 5.) unnecessary services, 6.) duplicate claims- Medicare is charged twice for the same service and 7.) Kickbacks, which are rewards in cash or kind received by healthcare professionals for recommending or referring specific services for example referring a patient for an MRI even when it’s not required. The findings from the Office of Management and Budget’s fact sheet â€Å"Transforming and Modernizing America’s Health Care†, revealed that the United States spends approximately $8,000 per person on health care. This figure is expected to rise to approximately $4 trillion by 2017. Even the most conservative estimates of the cost of fraud abuse within our health care system range from between $66 billion and $220 billion per year. With the increasing cost of health care in America, the cost of health care fraud abuse could easily rise above $400 billion per year by the year 2017. (Office of Management and Budget’s fact sheet). Therefore, it is safe to say that health care fraud is not only an economic drain on our health care system, but costs our nation the health of its citizens (Semi-Annual Report to Congress, 2009) as it robs the system of the money that would be far better spent on making sick people healthy. Health care fraud not only costs our nation in terms of health care dollars and patient care. It is one of the important factors that has contributed to the increasing cost of the health care services. Due to the immense role played by the healthcare fraud on the economic drain on our health care system and  also on the health of the nation, it is receiving a tremendous attention from both the government and the people. Increasing cost of healthcare is a valid concern for American families and a primary concern for the American government. It affects all individuals, directly or indirectly as the billions of dollars that are lost to the healthcare fraud lead to increased health care costs and increasing the cost of potential coverage, which may further lead to loss of personal income savings leading to ruined credit. Health care fraud is not a victimless crime. (Price & Norris, 2009) The money lost due to fraud increases the costs of providing a full range of legitimate medical services tremendously. Physicians may perform unnecessary procedures to increase reimbursement, which may compromise the safety of the patient. Further, when medical providers bill for services that were never rendered, they end up creating a false medical history for patients which may hinder them from obtaining disability or life insurance policies, at a later date. An inaccurate medical history also influences treatment decisions and allows some third party insurance companies to deny coverage based on a previous medical condition. Health care fraud also tarnishes the reputation of the medical profession and other health care service providers. Additionally, the efforts by the federal and the state government cost taxpayers billions of dollars a year, thus diverting the scarce tax money from other essential services and meeting the needs of elderly and the poor. This diversion of the taxpayer’s money often results in reduced benefit coverage, changes in eligibility for programs such as Medicaid, higher premiums for individuals or their employers, or higher copays. Health care fraud has become a primary issue for people and the government. In the last ten or so years, the government has invested a lot of effort and time on investigating health care fraud with the goal of decreasing its occurrence, and the government continues to initiate new policies, and create investigative bodies to deal specifically with health care fraud. Health care fraud is a critical issue for the government for a variety of reasons. Firstly, given that the government is the principal payer of health care, it is obviously concerned about how that money is spent. Secondly, health care fraud is a waste of taxpayer money. Third, it is the government which is in charge of regulating the health care system. Last but not the least, it is the government that is entrusted with protecting its citizens  from all sorts of criminal and crimes. Health care fraud is a serious problem affecting every patient and consumer. The devastating situation is rooted not only in the excessive financial losses incurred, which often extends into the billions of dollars every year, but also in patient harm. The Department of Justice has declared health care fraud to be its second highest priority, following violent crimes (Kalb, 1999). In the past fifteen years the government has spent millions of dollars fighting health care fraud. In May 2009, the HHS and Department of Justice (DOJ) collaborated to create the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT). With the creation of HEAT, the battle against the healthcare fraud especially against Medicare and Medicaid fraud became a cabinet-level priority. The HEAT’S mission is to 1.) â€Å"Gather resources across the government to help prevent waste, fraud, and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. 2) Crack down on the people and organizations who abuse the system and cost Americans billions of dollars each year. 3) Reduce health care costs and improve quality of care by preventing fraudsters from preying on people with Medicare and Medicaid. 4) Highlight best practices by providers and organizations dedicated to ending waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare. 5.) Build upon the existing partnerships between HHS and DOJ to reduce fraud and recover taxpayer dollars.† (HEAT Task Force Mission) In addition, to creating a task force, the administration also encourages ordinary citizens to report against health care fraud. There are several ways to report a healthcare fraud – a patient or health care provider who may have witnessed a fraud, may report to FBI, at their local office, or telephone and or online forms. â€Å"Stop Medicare fraud† website also provides various tips to citizen to protect themselves from healthcare fraud. Understandably, to completely stop healthcare fraud is a difficult task, but â€Å"the more we know about it, the easier it is to stop† (Blue Cross Blue Shield) References Black’s free online law dictionary Definition of Fraud. (2nd Edition) Retrieved June 13, 2013 http://thelawdictionary.org/fraud/ Blue Cross Blue Shield. Healthcare Fraud Regence. Retrieved June 17, 2013 from htttp://www.regence.com/docs/legal/provider-fraud-brochure.pdf. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Office of the Actuary. National Health Expenditure Projections 2007- 2017 Chicago Tribune, Featured Articles. Retrieved June 13, 2013 from http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-10-19/news/ct-tl-downers-dermatologist-charged-20121019_1_medicare-fraud-fraud-cases-medicare-medicaid-services Federal Bureau of Investigations. Healthcare Fraud. Retrieved June 14, 2013 from http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/white_collar/health-care-fraud Illinois Policy Institute. News & Blogs. Retrieved June 14, 2013 from http://illinoispolicy.org/blog/blog.asp?ArticleSource=5746 Kalb, Paul, E. â€Å"Health Care Fraud and Abuse†. Journal of American Medical Association 282 (1999): 1163-1168. Price. Marilyn & Norris, Donna. Health Care Fraud: Physicians as White collar criminals? Journal of American Academy Psychiatry Law 37:286–9, 2009 Pozgar, George. D (2011). Legal Aspects of Healthcare Administration (11th Edition) Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Lea rning. Semi-Annual Report to Congress October 1 2008-March 31-2009, Office of the Inspector General Stop Medicare Fraud. HEAT Task Force Mission. Retrieved June 17, 2013 from http://www.stopmedicarefraud.gov/index.html US Department of Health and Human Services. News and Press Release. Retrieved June 13, 2013 from http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2013pres/05/20130514a.html US Department of Justice. News and Press Release. Retrieved June 13, 2013 from http://www.justice.gov/usao/iln/pr/chicago/2013/pr0416_01.html

Borderlands Gloria Anzaldua

Imagine present day Mexico, there are many popular Mexican staples that can come to mind i. e tacos, warm weather, and pesos. However, when you take a closer look at their culture it is clear that the Mexican people are very religious. More specifically they are very connected to the Virgen de Guadelupe. The Virgen is depicted all over Mexico and is one of their most celebrated and loved saints. The Virgen de Guadelupe originates from Coatlicue The Aztecs, a 12th century CE civilization, were very religious and worshiped many gods and goddesses. The ritual sacrifices that took place in the Aztec society influenced their everyday lives. The Aztec’s were highly spiritual, always inspired and taught by the gods and goddesses, for which they were the creators of the earth and life. â€Å"The earliest is Coatlicue, or â€Å"Serpent Skirt. † She had a human skull or serpent for a head, a necklace of human hearts, a skirt of twisted serpents and taloned feet,† (Anzaldua 49). She was a woman, an Earth Goddess, the beholder of all. â€Å"Coatlicue, Lady of the Serpent Skirt, contained and balanced the dualities of male and female, light and dark, life and death,† (Anzaldua 54). Since Coatlicue possesses these dualities she consisted of everything and in turn accepts all. â€Å"She is the central deity connecting us to our Indian ancestory† (Anzaldua 49). Of the many rituals performed by the Aztecs, only sacrifices would please her. The Spaniards embarked into the Aztec civilization during the 15th century CE. They were disgusted by the Aztec 2sacrifices, considering them barbaric. The Spaniards decided to disregard this ancient religion. â€Å"Coatlicue, the serpent goddess, and her more sinister aspects, Tlazolteotl and Cihuacoatl, were â€Å"darkened† and disempowered much in the same manner as he Indian Kali† (Anzaldua 49). Coatilicue became the good mother, split from her dark guises. The Spaniards along with the Church continued to split her. What they were doing was desexing Coatlicue; her dualities were never discussed again. The manifestation of this change is now called la Virgen de Guadalupe. Coatlicue is embodied in all of us . I feel that she is in everything around us as well. This is because she is good and evil; light and dark. What the Spaniards did was hide half of her. Letting only the good shine through and thus being unfaithful to the true Earth Goddess. Then there is the Antigua, somebody who is a greater figure, more of a divine presence. I think this is my connection with Coatlicue, the serpent woman, with la Virgen de Guadalupe, with what people call goddesses† (Anzaldua 241). The divine presence is what Gloria Anzaldua feels within her soul. She has unleashed a deep yearning that she has known her whole life. â€Å"The loss of a sense of dignity and respect in the macho breeds a false machismo which leads him to put down women and even to brutalize them. Coexisting with his sexist behavior is a love for the mother which takes precedence over that of all others. Devoted son, macho pig. To wash down the shame of his acts, of his very being, and to handle the brute in the mirror, he takes to the bottle, the snort, the needle, and the fist,† (Anzaldua 105). The western culture has morphed men into the almighty power. When Coatlicue ruled, women were highly regarded and men didn’t have superior attitudes. Since Coatlicue has been desexed and buried amongst the â€Å"voodoo† worshipers that we all laugh at today, there has been a major shift of power that was not for the greater good. I feel that if the 21st century can accept their inner Coatlicue this wouldn’t be common among men. This is because Coatlicue doesn’t allow this and men would be ashamed to put down a woman. Present day, many men think that its their duty to â€Å"wear the pants† in the family. Our dominant male society has caused women to become suppressed. Women still don’t receive equal pay and are pressured into a caretaker role in the household. The most upsetting aspect is that 50 years ago it was even worse and the progress women have strived for has only recently been accredited. Breaking the glass ceiling† is a common term amongst working women philosophy. However, I feel that there wouldn’t be a glass ceiling to break if Coatlicue was present in our lives. Anzaldua struggles with her many identities; her homosexuality is one which caused major conflict within herself and family. â€Å"We are ashamed that we need your good opinion, that we need your acceptance. We can no longer camouflage our needs, can no longer let defenses and fences sprout around us. We can no longer withdraw† (Anzaldua 110). Feeling this resentment towards your culture and your family is a huge struggle. Like many other homosexuals, Anzaldua wants to be accepted. It would be comforting to know that no matter what you were accepted. Sadly, this is not how our culture is and many of us, like Anzaldua, feel rejected. Coatlicue was the one who gave her strength when she was down and when Anzaldua needed her Coatlicue was there. Coatlicue accepts all; this is because she embodies everything and is not the good mother virgin that we are all accustomed too. Coatlicue is true to life and accepts the good and the bad. I am cultureless because, as a feminist, I challenge the collective cultural/ religious male-derived beliefs of Indo-Hispanics and Anglos; yet I am cultured because I am participating in the creation of yet another culture, a new story to explain the world and our participation in it, a new value system with images and symbols that connect us to each other and to the planet,† ( Anzaldua 102,10 3). Coatlicue is all cultures and this is why Anzaldua gravitates toward her in so many ways. Coatlicue doesn’t shun homosexuals or mixed races. This is because she accepts all life, Coatlicue looks beyond these superficial traits and looks inside of you to see who you really are. This freedom to be whoever allows everyone to express themselves freely. Anzaldua is drawn to this especially because she has a lot of distinct qualities that the western culture looks down on. Coatlicue allows Anzaldua to be herself free of guilt or shame. Anzaldua has a place with Coatlicue and everyone who believes in her spirit. â€Å"The mestizo and the queer exist at this time and point on the evolutionary continuum for a purpose. We are a blending that proves that all blood is ntricately woven together, and that we are spawned out of similar souls,† (Anzaldua 107). This is inspired from the meaning of Coatlicue. Anzaldua has a chance to overcome the obstacles she feels within herself. Globally we need to accept this because as time passes we will all blend into a melting pot†¦ to not accept one of us, is the same as all of us, bec ause we are all one of the same. Coatlicue is the heart of expressing yourself and the Aztecs understood the power of this message. No matter who you are there is a point in your life that you feel alone, left out, or different. During this time of stuggle is when you can reach for Coatlicue. She will accept you and not be disgusted with you like western culture. At times like these I wish I had Coatlicue. I feel as if knowing about Coatlicue I am a stonger person. As a Roman Catholic I have always felt that having the Virgin Mary’s grace and love was unobtainable. It’s not realistic to say you will never sin, never hate, never have any evil. Coatlicue is the true model of who and what we are. This is because we all have good and evil within us and Coatlicue is that. Gloria Anzaldua didn’t intend on inspiring or captivating the public. This naive way of writing, at some points almost talking to herself, is what I liked the most. This style of writing is very true to her and all that she discussed. With this, the outcome of Borderlands had a greater effect than Gloria ever thought. Especially when published within a western culture that doesn’t accept much. This acceptance shows the need people want to change, grow, and overcome these man-made obstacles built hundreds of years ago. Gloria’s book will continue to inspire countless generations and I truly feel that time will allow Coatlicue to rise again.

An Overview of Impressionism in Art History

An Overview of Impressionism in Art History Impressionist art is a style of painting that emerged in the mid-to-late 1800s and emphasizes an artists immediate impression of a moment or scene, usually communicated through the use of light and its reflection, short brushstrokes, and separation of colors. Impressionist painters,such as Claude Monet in his Impression: Sunrise and Edgar Degas in Ballet Class, often used modern life as their subject matter and painted quickly and freely, capturing light and movement in a way that had not been tried before.   Key Takeaways: Impressionism Impressionism is a style of painting that was developed in the late 19th century.  The style, methods, and topics of Impressionism rejected previous historical painting, replacing carefully hidden brushstrokes of historical events with visible thick bright colors of modern scenes.  The first exhibition was in 1874, and it was roundly panned by art critics.Key painters include Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Impressionism: Definition Avenue de LOpà ©ra. Snow Effect. Morning, by Pissarro Camille. Mondadori / Getty Images Although some of the most respected artists of the Western canon were part of the Impressionist movement, the term impressionist was originally intended as a derogatory term, used by art critics who were flatly appalled at this new style of painting. In the mid-1800s, when the Impressionist movement was born, it was commonly accepted that serious artists blended their colors and minimized the appearance of brushstrokes to produce the licked surface preferred by the academic masters. Impressionism, in contrast, featured short, visible strokes- dots, commas, smears, and blobs. The first piece of art to inspire the critical nickname impressionism was Claude Monets 1873 piece Impression: Sunrise, a piece that was presented at the first exhibition in 1874. Conservative painter Joseph Vincent was quoted in a review in increasingly sarcastic ways, calling Monets work not as finished as wallpaper. To call someone an Impressionist in 1874 was an insult, meaning the painter had no skill and lacked the common sense to finish a painting before selling it.   The First Impressionist Exhibition Frà ©dà ©ric Bazille, Bazilles Studio, 1870. Musà ©e dOrsay, Parà ­s (Francia) In 1874, a group of artists who dedicated themselves to this messy style pooled their resources to promote themselves in their own exhibition. The idea was radical. In those days the French art world revolved around the annual Salon, an official exhibition sponsored by the French government through its Acadà ©mie des Beaux-Arts. The group (Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, and Berthe Morisot, and a raft of others) called themselves the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Engravers, etc. Together they rented exhibition space from the photographer Nadar (a pseudonym of Gaspard-Fà ©lix Tournachon). Nadars studio was in a new building, which was a rather modern edifice; and the entire effect of their efforts caused a sensation. For the average audience, the art looked strange, the exhibition space looked unconventional, and the decision to show their art outside of the Salon or the Academys orbit (and even sell directly off the walls) seemed close to madness. Indeed, these artists pushed the limits of art in the 1870s far beyond the range of acceptable practice. Even in 1879, during the fourth Impressionist Exhibition, the French critic Henry Havard wrote: I confess humbly I do not see nature as they do, never having seen these skies fluffy with pink cotton, these opaque and moirà © waters, this multi-colored foliage. Maybe they do exist. I do not know them.   Impressionism and Modern Life Edgar Degas, The Dance Class, 1874. Mondadori Portfolio Impressionism created a new way of seeing the world. It was a way of observing the city, the suburbs, and the countryside as mirrors of the modernization that each of these artists perceived and wanted to record from their point of view. Modernity, as they knew it, became their subject matter. Mythology, biblical scenes and historical events that had dominated the revered history painting of their era were replaced by subjects of contemporary life, such as cafes and street life in Paris, suburban and rural leisure life outside of Paris, dancers and singers and workmen. The Impressionists attempted to capture the quickly shifting light of natural daylight by painting outdoors (en plein air). They mixed their colors on the canvas rather than their palettes and painted rapidly in wet-on-wet complementary colors made from new synthetic pigments. To achieve the look they wanted, they invented the technique of broken colors, leaving gaps in the top layers to reveal colors below, and abandoning the films and glazes of the older masters for a thick impasto of pure, intense color. In a sense, the spectacle of the street, cabaret or seaside resort became history painting for these stalwart Independents (who also called themselves the Intransigents- the stubborn ones). The Evolution of Post-Impressionism Mary Cassatt, A Cup of Tea, 1879. Corbis/VCG / Getty Images The Impressionists mounted eight shows from 1874 to 1886, although very few of the core artists exhibited in every show. After 1886, the gallery dealers organized solo exhibitions or small group shows, and each artist concentrated on his or her own career. Nevertheless, they remained friends (except for Degas, who stopped talking to Pissarro because he was an anti-Dreyfusard and Pissarro was Jewish). They stayed in touch and protected each other well into old age. Among the original group of 1874, Monet survived the longest. He died in 1926. Some artists who exhibited with the Impressionists in the 1870s and 1880s pushed their art into different directions. They became known as Post-Impressionists: Paul Cà ©zanne, Paul Gauguin, and Georges Seurat, among others. Important Impressionists   Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette, on the Butte-Montmartre. Painting by Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), 1876. Corbis   / Getty Images The impressionist artists were friends, who as a group were part of the cafe set in the city of Paris. Many of them lived in the Batignolles neighborhood,located in the 17th arrondissement of the city. Their favorite meeting place was the Cafà © Guerbois, located on Avenue de Clichy in Paris. The most influential impressionists of the period include: Claude MonetEdgar DegasPierre-August RenoirCamille PissarroBerthe MorisotMary CassattAlfred SisleyGustave CaillebotteArmand GuillauminFrà ©dà ©ric Bazille