Coffee and Starbucks

1 A. What is Starbucks’ â€Å"product† †¢Starbucks’ product is a casual experience in a comfortable atmosphere where the customer can enjoy a premium cup of coffee and a newspaper or relaxing conversation with friends. B. What is their â€Å"core product† and what are the â€Å"auxiliary features† and benefits? †¢The core product is a premium cup of coffee. The auxiliary features include the well-educated baristas that can help select the right cup of coffee and help customers learn how to reproduce the experience at home or the office with fresh coffee bean or grounds they can purchase in store. Along with the coffees available there are also Tazo teas, hand crafted espresso and blended drinks a little something for every taste. To go with the drink of your choice you can also enjoy a fresh pastry or a sandwich while listening to music or utilizing the free Wi-Fi to complete the experience. C. What is their â€Å"unique selling proposition† and how do consumers view it now? †¢Starbucks’ unique selling position was offering a high quality coffee for a premium price, while providing a place to relax other than work, home or going to the bar. With their comfortable seating areas and internet access they branded themselves as your â€Å"third place†. Customers bought into it but now that they have started to get more streamlined their stock is falling because they are losing a little bit of that selling position. As the stores get a little less comfortable and become a little more like an assembly line, customers are starting to see it more like a commodity rather than something special. 2. A. Are McDonald’s and Starbucks direct competitors? Yes. While they don’t offer the same quality of food or coffee, McDonalds has put a lot of emphasis on the quality of their coffee and have been able to increase their sales and profits. With the introduction of their McCafe line of coffee drinks McDonalds is looking to take a share of the market from Starbucks. B. What advantages does McDonald’s have in competing with Starbucks for coffee sales? †¢McDonald’s coffee has a very good reputation as a good cup of coffee. While it is not on par with the gourmet coffee and specialties that Starbucks has to offer it is a much cheaper alternative and with the large selection of menu items it can market to a much broader base of customers. For example parents with small children will be drawn to McDonald’s for their coffee because of what they can offer the children that Starbucks can’t. Another advantage is the speed at which McDonald’s can serve customers. Since the coffee and food they serve is less customized they are able to get people in and out at a much faster pace even with the implementation of the drive thru at Starbucks. . A. What changes in society (at the time of the case) helped Starbucks to be successful? †¢There was a steady increase in the number of coffee drinkers in the US in the mid-90s. That combined with the trend of consumers to drink more and more coffee out of the home has increased sales in the entire market. While a large increase of this coffee consum ption was among those that drink coffee at work, the benefit to Starbucks is that they are getting the coffee from somewhere other than the workplace. Along with the increase in consumption consumers have trended to being more and more environmentally conscious. So the focuses on environmentally friendly ways of doing business have helped to keep them in favor with the customers. B. How are these changes related to their target market? †¢Coffee drinkers ranging from 25-29 increased their out of home coffee consumption from 42% to 66% while in the same year 30-59 years old increased from 33 to 46%. 4. A. What are the â€Å"strategic marketing factors† that help to account for Starbucks’ long-term success in developing brand equity? The environment that they offered was one of the big factors that lead to their ongoing success. While there are more and more cafe styled coffee houses coming into the market at this time the idea was very unique and helped to differentiate them in the market. The high quality product and unique sizing of their products also set them apart. Rather than using the standard small med and large names they used unique identifies that helped make their products stand out in memory. Before they came around your options for coffee outside the home were very limited and the ability to get such high quality even at a premium price was a welcome feature in the market place. For the longest time they were really the only player in the space and that niche afforded them very rapid growth and early successes that help fuel even more growth as they expanded worldwide. 5. A. What are the advantages of the Starbucks Card to the company? †¢The most obvious advantage of the card to Starbucks is the guaranteed income. Once people load money on the card it can only be spent at a Starbucks location. It also makes tracking customer purchasing habits and preferences readily available. Then there is the case of the forgotten or lost cards that never get used that equate to pure profit. One last advantage is that with the card they have also created a secondary market for sales by placing the cards in stores like Giant Eagle where people that wouldn’t come into the stores can buy the cards as a gift. B. What are the advantages of the Starbucks Card to the customers? The consumer can control their spending with the card. By loading the card with the amount they allocate for coffee they can track their spending more effectively than before when just purchasing with cash or a random card. While there is no discount associated with the card it does give the consumer some protection when they register the card online. If the card is ever lost or stolen they can report it and a new card will be issued with the same balance and the existing card voided. 6. A. Evaluate Chairman Schultz’ global strategy. Is it â€Å"good† or â€Å"bad? † †¢The global strategy is â€Å"good†. You can build a lot of customer loyalty by taking care of your employees. If your employees are happy and well trained they will provide a much better experience for the customer. Starbucks mission and direction has a solid base in the customer experience as much as the quality of the coffee. So making sure the employees are trained well and very knowledgeable about all things coffee enables them to take the experience past just when the customer is in the store. Educating the customer on how to get the best cup of coffee at home as well will provide you a regular customer for not only their coffee at the office but also the grounds for home. †¢In addition the image they are able to betray as a company that cares about the community and the environment will help build customer loyalty. The fact that they not only work to be environmentally conscious themselves but also work with partners and suppliers to share the information and work together to buy, sell and use environmentally friendly products. B. What recommendations do you have to improve Starbucks’ competitive position domestically? †¢Starbucks needs to stick to what got them here in the first place. Don’t try to become another fast food establishment. Customers that are coming to one of their stores will respect the time it takes to get a high quality cup of coffee. Take that time to cross sell the customer on coffee beans and other goods for the home. While offering food to the customer is a natural evolution for Starbucks it is important that they put as much time and effort into providing high quality food as they do coffee. If they keep the high quality of coffee but serve a lesser food the lesser image will be what is remembered. On the same lines make sure that if you are going to provide places for the customer to sit and enjoy their coffee stick with the comfortable seating that invites the customer to relax and stay awhile. You will not only bring them back time and time again you will encourage them to spend more time in the store every time they visit and therefore increase the opportunities to sell more products. Coffee and Starbucks 1 A. What is Starbucks’ â€Å"product† †¢Starbucks’ product is a casual experience in a comfortable atmosphere where the customer can enjoy a premium cup of coffee and a newspaper or relaxing conversation with friends. B. What is their â€Å"core product† and what are the â€Å"auxiliary features† and benefits? †¢The core product is a premium cup of coffee. The auxiliary features include the well-educated baristas that can help select the right cup of coffee and help customers learn how to reproduce the experience at home or the office with fresh coffee bean or grounds they can purchase in store. Along with the coffees available there are also Tazo teas, hand crafted espresso and blended drinks a little something for every taste. To go with the drink of your choice you can also enjoy a fresh pastry or a sandwich while listening to music or utilizing the free Wi-Fi to complete the experience. C. What is their â€Å"unique selling proposition† and how do consumers view it now? †¢Starbucks’ unique selling position was offering a high quality coffee for a premium price, while providing a place to relax other than work, home or going to the bar. With their comfortable seating areas and internet access they branded themselves as your â€Å"third place†. Customers bought into it but now that they have started to get more streamlined their stock is falling because they are losing a little bit of that selling position. As the stores get a little less comfortable and become a little more like an assembly line, customers are starting to see it more like a commodity rather than something special. 2. A. Are McDonald’s and Starbucks direct competitors? Yes. While they don’t offer the same quality of food or coffee, McDonalds has put a lot of emphasis on the quality of their coffee and have been able to increase their sales and profits. With the introduction of their McCafe line of coffee drinks McDonalds is looking to take a share of the market from Starbucks. B. What advantages does McDonald’s have in competing with Starbucks for coffee sales? †¢McDonald’s coffee has a very good reputation as a good cup of coffee. While it is not on par with the gourmet coffee and specialties that Starbucks has to offer it is a much cheaper alternative and with the large selection of menu items it can market to a much broader base of customers. For example parents with small children will be drawn to McDonald’s for their coffee because of what they can offer the children that Starbucks can’t. Another advantage is the speed at which McDonald’s can serve customers. Since the coffee and food they serve is less customized they are able to get people in and out at a much faster pace even with the implementation of the drive thru at Starbucks. . A. What changes in society (at the time of the case) helped Starbucks to be successful? †¢There was a steady increase in the number of coffee drinkers in the US in the mid-90s. That combined with the trend of consumers to drink more and more coffee out of the home has increased sales in the entire market. While a large increase of this coffee consum ption was among those that drink coffee at work, the benefit to Starbucks is that they are getting the coffee from somewhere other than the workplace. Along with the increase in consumption consumers have trended to being more and more environmentally conscious. So the focuses on environmentally friendly ways of doing business have helped to keep them in favor with the customers. B. How are these changes related to their target market? †¢Coffee drinkers ranging from 25-29 increased their out of home coffee consumption from 42% to 66% while in the same year 30-59 years old increased from 33 to 46%. 4. A. What are the â€Å"strategic marketing factors† that help to account for Starbucks’ long-term success in developing brand equity? The environment that they offered was one of the big factors that lead to their ongoing success. While there are more and more cafe styled coffee houses coming into the market at this time the idea was very unique and helped to differentiate them in the market. The high quality product and unique sizing of their products also set them apart. Rather than using the standard small med and large names they used unique identifies that helped make their products stand out in memory. Before they came around your options for coffee outside the home were very limited and the ability to get such high quality even at a premium price was a welcome feature in the market place. For the longest time they were really the only player in the space and that niche afforded them very rapid growth and early successes that help fuel even more growth as they expanded worldwide. 5. A. What are the advantages of the Starbucks Card to the company? †¢The most obvious advantage of the card to Starbucks is the guaranteed income. Once people load money on the card it can only be spent at a Starbucks location. It also makes tracking customer purchasing habits and preferences readily available. Then there is the case of the forgotten or lost cards that never get used that equate to pure profit. One last advantage is that with the card they have also created a secondary market for sales by placing the cards in stores like Giant Eagle where people that wouldn’t come into the stores can buy the cards as a gift. B. What are the advantages of the Starbucks Card to the customers? The consumer can control their spending with the card. By loading the card with the amount they allocate for coffee they can track their spending more effectively than before when just purchasing with cash or a random card. While there is no discount associated with the card it does give the consumer some protection when they register the card online. If the card is ever lost or stolen they can report it and a new card will be issued with the same balance and the existing card voided. 6. A. Evaluate Chairman Schultz’ global strategy. Is it â€Å"good† or â€Å"bad? † †¢The global strategy is â€Å"good†. You can build a lot of customer loyalty by taking care of your employees. If your employees are happy and well trained they will provide a much better experience for the customer. Starbucks mission and direction has a solid base in the customer experience as much as the quality of the coffee. So making sure the employees are trained well and very knowledgeable about all things coffee enables them to take the experience past just when the customer is in the store. Educating the customer on how to get the best cup of coffee at home as well will provide you a regular customer for not only their coffee at the office but also the grounds for home. †¢In addition the image they are able to betray as a company that cares about the community and the environment will help build customer loyalty. The fact that they not only work to be environmentally conscious themselves but also work with partners and suppliers to share the information and work together to buy, sell and use environmentally friendly products. B. What recommendations do you have to improve Starbucks’ competitive position domestically? †¢Starbucks needs to stick to what got them here in the first place. Don’t try to become another fast food establishment. Customers that are coming to one of their stores will respect the time it takes to get a high quality cup of coffee. Take that time to cross sell the customer on coffee beans and other goods for the home. While offering food to the customer is a natural evolution for Starbucks it is important that they put as much time and effort into providing high quality food as they do coffee. If they keep the high quality of coffee but serve a lesser food the lesser image will be what is remembered. On the same lines make sure that if you are going to provide places for the customer to sit and enjoy their coffee stick with the comfortable seating that invites the customer to relax and stay awhile. You will not only bring them back time and time again you will encourage them to spend more time in the store every time they visit and therefore increase the opportunities to sell more products.

Health Services Organization Essay

Identify and evaluate at least three forces that have affected the development of the health care system in the U.S. The U.S. healthcare system has continually evolved due to the success of innovative fore-thought. These innovations have been both strategic and tactical, influenced by all segments of the health care industry. There are many key strategic and tactical innovations, I will elaborate on three forces I feel affect the development of the healthcare system in the U.S.; they are: Increasing cost of healthcare, affect of economics on the healthcare system, and labor force trends in the U.S. as it relate to healthcare. * The steadily increasing cost of healthcare in the U.S. 1. The Unites States is known as the land of plenty, but if you are a native of this great nation you might feel quite differently about that statement. Being poor here has to be much like being poor anywhere else in the world, poor is poor; what might be different is opportunity. The opportunity that we are going to discuss is that of the pursuit of receiving the best healthcare regardless of race, creed, national origi n, or station in life (being with or without money). The cost of health care in the U.S. neared 2.6 trillion dollars in 2010, this is a staggering amount of money; but what make it more astonishing is that this amount is ten times higher than the 1980’s sum of 256 billion dollars that was generated by health care system (population bulletin, 2008). The rate of funds generated by health care has slowed down in recent years, but still is expected to grow faster than the national income. Our country need to address this growing burden and not just let politician say it’s a major policy priority, really make it a priority for the overall good of our nation. Furthermore, the United States has been in a recession for most of the past decade, resulting in a high rate of unemployment and lower incomes for many Americans. These conditions have put even more attention on health spending due to its affordability. Since 2002, employer- sponsored health care coverage for employee and family premiums increased by 97%, making the pursuit of health care a burden on the workers and employers. Medicare covers disabled people as well as the elderly; while Medicaid provides medical coverage for low-income families. Medicare enrollment has grown tremendously over the years due to the aging baby boomers and Medicaid due to the recession. This has added considerably to government spending, straining both federal and state budgets. Health spending accounted for 17.9% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2010 (kaiserEDU.com, Health Policy from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Explained). * Economic affect healthcare. 2. Economics and health care is very simple to explain, especially by someone who has seen first-hand families being mentally tormented, because they could not afford dental care for their children, the check-up not covered by the company’s insurance to enable your child to be eligible to play football, or not being able to afford the prescription medication. There are many reasons families go without medical care, and far too many times it’s just because the individual is living just above the poverty line; which make them ineligible for assistance. I personally feel the affect economics have on healthcare or the lack there of, can never be explained any clearer; unless you are experiencing it yourself. * Labor force trends in the U.S. 3. In the 1960’s the U.S. labor force grow at the rate of 1.7 percent annually and continue to grow into the 70’s as the baby boomer (those born between 1946-1964 generation continued to reach adulthood and enter the workforce. During this same period women began to enter the workforce as never seen before causing the labor force to grow at a rate of 2.6 percent annually. One might not see this as a health issue, but with women joining the workforce men began to feel the pressure, causing health complication. Women on the other hand who at one time lived the life of a care free house wife, but now working in corporate America; has started to feel stress now heart attacks are the number one killer of the American female species. I know there was nothing glamorous about being a slave, but slaves lived with just about no illnesses or life threatening diseases, know blacks have the highest numbers when it comes to diabetes, HIV, and high blood pressure than any other ethnic group (but we are free), freedom should make us take life more serious and take care of ourselves as well as our children. During the 1980’s and 90’s fewer people entered the workforce, therefore the labor force growth slowed down and ranged from 1.6 to 1.1 percent. Even though we had covered on set of baby boomers we were about to see another set reach adulthood and struggle for a place in the workplace (U.S. labor force trends), in-turn means no health insurance because they are no longer their parents dependent. Healthcare is becoming a great necessity due to infectious diseases, the year of the flower children seem to have spread more than just flowers. Health Insurance Companies are not seeing their usual capital gain at this point, consequently a change in the way benefits are paid across overall is about to change. At one time people thought as long as they paid their insurance premiums the benefits would be there when or if it was needed (we learned to read the fine print). * Speculate whether or not these forces will continue to affect the health care system in the U.S. over the next decade. (Include a force that was not mentioned that you believe will impact the health care system of the nation. Unfortunately we show no immediate signs that the cost of healthcare will decline in the Unites States anytime soon. With all the bickering about healthcare, there’s one fact everyone seems to agree on: American medicine cost too much, especially considering what we’re getting for the money. As expert look toward the future, they don’t see the cost dropping dramatically anytime soon. Curbing the rise in healthcare cost depend on our ability to gain control of the many forces causing them to climb, technology has helped other industries lower costs by eliminating waste and increasing efficiencies, but it’s done the opposite in healthcare (Lisa Zamosky, Los Angeles Times, September 12, 2012. Without any dispute I’m sure we can all agree the economy will always affect healthcare and the people who need it, which will always be everyone. We all hope the economy will make a rapid recovery, but that’s just not how things work; just as it took decades of bad decisions to get us where we are today it’s going to take time for our nation to make a meaningful recovery. Over the next 50 years, the labor force is projected to grow even more slowly (at about 0.6 percent per year) as baby boomers retire. What will this mean as far as health care is concern; well as we grow older our need for healthcare on a regular base becomes more essential than it was when we were in our prime (population bulletin). Baby boomers, reaching senior living status promotes a different type of demand on the medical system; a tremendous demand for those employed by senior living facilities, as well as those providing home health care. * Evaluate the importance of technology in the health care system. Technology is the driving force behind the universe, if you are not a believer just think about the devices you use to get through your day; hence technology. Medical technology is constantly presenting us with new devices that make our lives more fulfilling, we have laser surgery, hip replacement, artificial limb to replace worn out or damaged ones, cataract surgery that have advanced so rapidly it’s amazing, can you believe a person can have heart surgery and be walking around the next day? This is all because of technology, it’s amazing. This is something we cannot put a price on, what is being learned and the advances being made due to research technology is saving lives as well as making lives better each and every day. References: KaiserEDU.com, Health Policy, from the Henry J. Kaiser family foundation, Explained, Cost and Spending. http://www.kaiseredu.org/en/Top ics/Costs-and-Spending Population Bulletin, Vol. 63 No. 2, June 2008, U.S. Labor Forces Trends By: Marlene A. Lee and Mark Mather (Marlene A. Lee is a senior research associate and editor of the Population Bulletin at the Population Reference Bureau. She holds degrees in public policy analysis and development sociology/demography from the University of North Carolina At Chapel Hill and Cornell University. Mark Mather is associate vice president of Domestic Programs at the Population Reference Bureau, where he coordinates several projects that communicate population research to advocacy groups, educators, the media, and the public. He holds a doctorate and a master’s degree in sociology/demography from the University of Maryland. http://www.prb.org

Leadership in Today's Education System in America Essay

Leadership in Today's Education System in America - Essay Example The university is reviewing the other models to see if they better portray the leadership in military. 1 In USA the knowledgeable and effective school leaders are extremely important. This is to determine the technology use and to understand of learning of the students. These two issues need the leadership qualities in principals and teachers. The administrators used to feel uncomfortable about the leadership qualities, but the removal of uncertainty implemented effective technology and leadership qualities. This is by developing own knowledge about technology, discipline, management, learning and understanding. Technology has been a significant factor in the above factors. 2 According to Heifetz the leadership is a change or adaptive process. This is for addressing the conflicts in the values people hold. This can diminish the gap between the different values of the people. This makes them stand for the facts they have to face. In the past the views of the leadership involved managerial or operational functions. Now the discipline, learning and understanding has to be involved in them to make teachers, principals and educational leaders to guide the student community towards the changing times without or with minimum conflict. This is due to the fact that the American education cannot continue as usual with the systems from 70's. The previous system produced managers but not leaders who can take care of curriculum, instruction and assessment. When the education is concentrating only on management and not on learning and understanding, the principals, teachers and educational personalities cannot be good leaders to resolve the conflicts in the education system. After 1980 the data driven decision making came to the fore. The test results and school design were the chief topics and professional development workshops evolved. The system sought the school leaders to be instructional. This focused on staff, students and parents to concentrate on student learning that is emphasized by effective teaching. School leaders were exhorted to become instructional leaders and focus the staff, students, and parents on student learning by emphasizing effective teaching and learning strategies, use of data for decision making, parental involvement in schools, and more. In the present situation the administrators in educational institutions are managing operations of the institutions focusing on student learning, standards, high stakes accountability and performance assessments. These include the restructuring efforts. This resulted in the excessive work loads for the administrators, teachers and students as it resulted in shifting from operational to instructional leadership. The following is the quote of Lasway and Mazzarella and Grundy in 1995. "At a minimum, we can be sure they [school districts] want someone who can carry out a long list of specific duties. The new principal will be expected to arrange class schedules, resolve discipline problems, administer a labor contract, evaluate teachers, and apply the oil of public relations to points of friction with the community. And that's just in the morning." This is a follow up of the emphasis laid on standards based school leadership in 1990s. Though the focus on the standards is convincing, there is a current need for renewal of focus on

Impact of Shelf-Positioning On Impulse Buying of Fast Moving Consumer Research Paper - 1

Impact of Shelf-Positioning On Impulse Buying of Fast Moving Consumer Goods - Research Paper Example This paper tells that the findings of the research study of Kollat and Willett highlight that 65 percent of buying decisions in supermarkets are made in-stores, 50 percent of these decisions are unplanned and vary based on products and 50.5 percent of the products are bought in supermarkets as unplanned purchases. These unplanned decisions contribute to impulse purchasing which is considered very favorable for the sales of consumer products. Patterson argues that impulse buying is a result of various factors and one of these factors is the store location. Two important factors that influence impulse buying decisions include product packaging and positioning. Breygelmans, Campo & Gijbrechts conducted a research to study the impact of self-positioning on online grocery store choices and they have found that shelf management is an important factor even in the case of online grocery stores. By studying the in-store marketing of Norwegian retailing, it has been identified that are the pro motional techniques which are used to normalize consumers purchasing behavior. By positioning products on the top shelf or near the center, attention and evaluation of brands can be improved whereas, positioning brands on the middle shelves achieve attention but do not improve evaluation. Another important factor that leads to impulse buying is packaging. The difference in packaging directly contributed to sales appeal. Packaging is very significant for low involvement products like impulse purchase categories because, in these categories, consumers do not have the desire or need to investigate the products. Packaging is the key driver of impulse buying and it is significant to understand whether planned versus impulse shopping occurs as a result of packaging.

Chapter 7 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Chapter 7 - Essay Example while being ensured no negative consequences are to occur. Climate for excellence can be real or a superficial facade to hide the lack of innovation. Support for innovation means backing innovative ideas with practical help. Innovation is fostered and/or hindered by the organizational management and the attitude thereof. However, it is good to remember that vision, consistency and articulate argument makes even minority groups (work groups in huge organizations are minority groups) effect change. Minorities need to be (or at least appear to be) autonomous and not working in opposition to the group’s interest. It is good to remember that resistance would be faced, and should be expected. Characteristics of innovative teams, which are actually in the minority include: clear vision, everyone should have the same vision and goal; communication, it needs to be adequate and consistent as assumptions need to be cleared out too; flexibility, willing to listen to others outside the tea m as well, especially when the team’s own ideas are being presented to them; persistence, adaptability does not mean abandoning ideas; participation, include as many people in the team as possible.

To What Extent Did The Armenian Genocide Inspire Hitler's Holocaust Essay

To What Extent Did The Armenian Genocide Inspire Hitler's Holocaust - Essay Example Undoubtedly, Hitler was quite familiar with the Armenian genocide. By comparison, one could arguably say the Armenian genocide was a direct inspiration for him to ignite the Holocaust. Similarities between the two genocides begin with their target minority: both being ethnical and religious minorities and different from their residing nation. Secondly, both target groups were subject to years of prior persecution and unfair governance. Thirdly, both mother nations experienced a radical revolution and rise in nationalism that focused on promoting the well being of the ethnicity of the majority. Finally, both nations were involved in large-scale wars, which were used as cover ups and excuses for the extermination on their minority races. Whether Hitler directly referred to the Armenian genocide when conducting his own Holocaust is questionable. However, there exists plenty of evidence to suggest that Hitler was very familiar with the Armenian genocide and it inspired him to a certain d egree. He was able to observe the reasons, methods, and repercussions of the Ottoman's massacre and weigh them up against his own problems, and in that way, the Armenian genocide could be indirectly attributed to future genocides. Table of Contents Abstract.................................................................................................................. 2 1. ... ............................................................................................7 b. Differences..............................................................................................10 4. Conclusion.........................................................................................................13 Works Cited...........................................................................................................15 Introduction The twentieth century experienced several deliberate mass killings and the attempted extermination of particular ethnic groups, otherwise known as genocide. The precursor for this modernized version of genocide was undoubtedly the Armenian Genocide. Categorized for the methodical â€Å"cleansing† methods and brutality, the political position and public intolerance, and predetermined goals, the Armenian Genocide was influential in dictating the genocides to follow – most specifically, the Holocaust. (Kevorkian 1). The s imilarities and motives behind both tragedies are numerous. Beginning with state-initiated policies to wipe certain minorities from each respective nation in order to attain resources, land, or to appease prejudiced hatred. Both targeted minorities were used as scapegoats in order to deal with internal, political problems. Both victims were religious and ethnic minorities, with a history of persecution and put in a position of defenselessness. Furthermore, both genocides occurred in a world war, hindering the chances of international intervention. In this way, this paper will demonstrate that not only was the Armenian genocide the first genocide of the twentieth century, but it was also a template and a prototype for the proceeding genocides. (Rosenbaun 126). Historical Background Prejudice

Budgeting db5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Budgeting db5 - Essay Example The company would have budgeted unwisely making the budget deficits occur due to poor budget plan. Poor budget plans are source to monetary crisis. The foundation need to assess the risk and re-strategize on the important issues that will assure the children’s summer takes place. The strategy should focus on the strengths of the company, which will help sustain the company in the crisis. Another way to go about the debacle is to share the expense of the evenly in the company endeavors so that every department has little to go around and finding the balance in the budget. The budget restructuring will make economic sense when the company has in place a strategic direction in the crisis period. The company must accept the crisis to move on quicker through tightening the use of money in the company. The expenditure needs to be trimmed to a sizable amount in order to make the company survive the hit. More caution on the use of funds should be placed with scrutiny monetary utility

Communications Professional Interview Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Communications Professional Interview - Essay Example of responsibilities include planning, implementation and coordination of communication; (3) to gain knowledge from the executive’s experiences (academic, professional, other relevant facets) and from competencies and qualifications that effectively fit this position; (4) to gain appropriate knowledge on the duties, functions and responsibilities of the chief communication executive of the chosen organization; (5) to discuss the different communication approaches that the executive has tried and found successful or non-successful; and (6) to gain exemplary lessons from the information generated both from the executive and from external sources on the chosen organization with respect to organizational communication and public relations, its scope and importance. To comply with the requirements, the selected organization was identified as the Methodist University Hospital which is located in Memphis, Tennessee. The communications executive who was interviewed in the process was Christopher Jenkins, the Communications Manager. Memphis, Tennessee. The brief historical overview of the organization and pertinent details was sourced from its official website at: http://www.methodisthealth.org/locations/methodist-university-hospital. It was hereby disclosed that the hospital is identified as the â€Å"major academic campus for the University of Tennessee Health Science Center† (Methodist University Hospital: Home, 2011, p. 1). It boasts of a 661-bed capacity and is reportedly considered one of the largest and most comprehensive health institutions within the Methodist Healthcare system (Methodist University Hospital, 2011). The organization reportedly offer services that range from academic instruction in the field of medicine and health care to the University of Tennessee Health Science Center; as well as comprehensive medical services offered in its various institutions, such as the Brain and Spine Institute, the Transplant Institute, services in Diagnostics and

19th Century United States Presidential Elections Essay

19th Century United States Presidential Elections - Essay Example Hence, each party nominated a second contender: Aaron Burr for the Democratic-Republicans and Charles Pickney for the Federalists. There are numerous issues considered by the electorate in 1800 which resulted in its unusual outcomes. The popularity of John Adams had declined after his alleged inefficient management of foreign policy. Hence, it was obvious from the start that Jefferson would defeat him. The Democratic-Republicans, after the votes were counted, had emerged victorious. However, the impossible had occurred. A deadlock resulted between Jefferson and Burr. So, the Congress had voted. Still, Jefferson won the presidential seat. The 1808 United States presidential election had three candidates, namely, Federalist Charles C. Pinckney, Democratic-Republican George Clinton, and Democratic-Republican James Madison. James Madison was an advocate of a powerful central government. Having been the loyal secretary of state of Jefferson, Madison gained firm support from the Republicans in 1808. Hence, James Madison defeated Charles Pinckney, who was, in contrast to Madison, a failed Federalist contender in the 1804 election. George Clinton, the incumbent Vice President, was also a contender for the presidential seat, acquiring votes from a Democratic-Republican Party’s division that rejected James Madison. ... In addition, this presidential election was unusual in the sense that the candidate garnering majority of the electoral votes did not win the presidential seat. It is also frequently regarded to be the first election where in the president failed to prevail over popular vote. Just then, a number of states did not perform a popular vote, permitting their state parliament to select the members of the electorate. The 1832 United States presidential election had four candidates, namely, Democratic Andrew Jackson, National Republican Henry Clay, Independent John Floyd, and Anti-Masonic William Wirt. Henry Clay discovered that National Republican support was mainly restricted to New England, Mid-Atlantic States, and his homeland Kentucky. He tried to strengthen his position by choosing a running mate who is an officer of the Bank of the United States. The sitting Jackson chose the trustworthy Martin Van Buren. The Anti-Masonic Party gained little consideration and interest, but was able to undermine Clay by taking several votes. The sweeping victory of Andrew Jackson in the 1832 election ended the existence of the Anti-Masonic and National-Republic parties. They would eventually be reconstructed and included in the development of the Whig Party. The 1836 United States presidential election had five candidates, namely, Democratic Martin Van Buren, Whig William Harrison, Whig Hugh White, and Whig Daniel Webster, and Independent W.P. Mangum. The subject matter of slavery in this election became foremost for the first time. Van Buren tried to make the North and South contented. The primary challenger of Van Buren was William Henry Harrison. The latter was a

Home Depot Essay Example for Free

Home Depot Essay Today’s market is characterized by highly competitive organizations which are all vying for consumer’s loyalty. Firms are faced with the challenge to maintain their own competitive edge to be able to survive and be successful. Strategies are carefully planned and executed to gain the ultimate goal of all: company growth. However, external factors are not the only elements which influence growth. Today most companies find that it impossible to create any kind of sustainable competitive advantage based on product alone. It is common knowledge that every one of the successful companies sought and found a precise understanding of how it could create a customer-centered competitive advantage. Along with the changing business world, customers change as well, becoming more demanding and knowledgeable than before. In turn, company management had shifted their focus on their clients or customers so as to stay successfully in business. This transition meant that organizations have to completely reformulate their conventional business aims and purposes from being process-focused to customer-centered. Hence, in order to bring out exceptional customer services within the company operations, the management should employ fine-tuned organizational restructuring. Moreover, employing proactive customer commitment involves the consideration on culture and infrastructure (Lowenstein, 1997). Organizations that capitalize on customers active participation in organizational activities can gain competitive advantage through greater sales volume, enhanced operating efficiencies, positive word-of-mouth publicity, reduced marketing expenses, and enhanced customer loyalty (Lovelock Young, 1979; Reichheld Sasser, 1990). Rather than going after every potential source of revenue, companies eliminate useless assets that do not add value for customers’ satisfaction. Business organizations implement bureaucratic policies and procedures for the benefit of the staff, customers and the company in general. According to Bowers, Martin Luker (1990), if consumers somehow become better customers that is, more knowledgeable, participative, or productive the quality of the service experience will likely be enhanced for the customer and the organization. Company Profile The Home Depot is the worlds largest home improvement retailer and second largest retailer in the United States. From one store to $73. 1 Billion in sales, Home Depot has come a long way in a short time. This organization is very familiar to this writer as he was employed here for a few years after leaving the Marine Corps and was his first civilian job. Home Depot stands out more than many organizations that this writer has worked for because it was his first civilian organization and many adjustments had to be made. The company distributes everyday jobs to participants and creates rules, policies, measures, and hierarchical organizational charts to organize various actions. Home Depot ought to continually amend their structures to become accustomed to the atmosphere shifts, technology changes, organizational grow, and leadership changes. Furthermore, structure is also a means to high-performing teams. Mindful awareness to structure and roles in teams will make the team much more successful. When it comes to leadership, structural leadership contributes a critical role in shaping organizations. It can be influential and stable, even though it is more restrained and less heroic leadership compared on other frames. Structural Change In the traditional supply chain management used by businesses that import materials for production, a lot of people, time and money are invested upon to ensure that the demands of the manufacturers will be handled in the specified date and time required. Before being able to place an order of shipment of raw materials, several transactions are consulted between the supplier and the manufacturer that eats up their valued time. The supply flow normally includes the intention of order, quotation, confirmation, delivery, payment and handling of receipts. Great amount of time is consumed in the mere planning of the purchase orders of a manufacturing company. And since most of the time the transactions involve not only a single supplier, especially in the case of huge international producers, manufacturers deal with sub-suppliers with several forwarders from which a number of consolidations are exchanged. The workload and time that the inventory managers handle defines the proceeding business processes that will follow that predicts and maintains the success and profit of the whole business organization. That is why, efficiency counts! The best suppliers continuously update and upgrade their service deliveries in order to answer the demands of their customers. Customers have the ever-increasing demand on getting their hands into the products which can lead to change in supplier if expectations are not met. This is the reason why suppliers who are also industry leaders trend toward more reliable delivery services across their customers. However, problems of delivery are usually attended by most companies through with either quick fixes that do not work or complete and comprehensive designs that take too long and are expensive. The Implemented Plan of Changes Customer Satisfaction Along with the changing business world, customers change as well, becoming more demanding and knowledgeable than before. In turn, company management had shifted their focus on their clients or customers so as to stay successfully in business. This transition meant that organizations have to completely reformulate their conventional business aims and purposes from being process-focused to customer-centred. Rethinking and reformulating the organization on the other hand, entail the consideration of several factors such as various processes, technology, the environment as well as the success factors of people (Cohen and Moore, 2000). Hence, in order to bring out exceptional customer services within the company operations, the management should employ fine-tuned organizational restructuring. Moreover, employing proactive customer commitment involves the consideration on culture and infrastructure (Lowenstein, 1997). Online Marketing The tremendous growth of technological advancement has become the driving force of contemporary industries. The diffusion of the internet has revolutionized the business arena. The use of the Internet is changing high-tech marketing overnight while different industries have been trying to use it as part of their marketing strategy. It has not only reconfigured the way different firms do business and the way the consumers buy goods and services, but it has also become an effective instrument in transforming the value chain from manufacturers to retailers to consumers, creating a new retail distribution channel (Appelbaum et sl, 1998). E-marketing is a powerful tool used by different business organizations around the world. It is defined as the process of achieving marketing objectives through the use of electronic communications technology. Smith and Chaffey (2001) have provided a 5Ss’ mnemonic for how the internet can be applied by all business firms for different e-marketing tactics. These 5S’s are selling, serve, speak, save and sizzle. E-marketing is also known to be the online marketing strategy utilized by different company whose objective is to be the best company in their field. In various countries worldwide, more and more business firms have been using e-marketing strategy in order to be competitive. From books, foods and beverages, automobiles and other products and services, various firms, irregardless of their company sizes, are trying to survive by means of e-marketing strategy. Aside from being a promotional medium, the internet is a tool for marketing communications as well. Due to its interactive nature, the internet is an efficient method used in communicating with the consumers. Hence, several companies are beginning to realize the advantages of using the internet as a tool for communication. Companies then started to concentrate on designing web-related strategies and employing interactive agencies that will facilitate their development of specific company web sites as part of their integrated marketing communication strategy. There are companies however, that are effectively using the internet by incorporating their web-related strategies with the other areas of their IMC strategies. The approach now becomes integrated and more strategic. On-line marketing is considered to be the most expensive yet seems to be the most comprehensive marketing strategy that every company wants to implement and apply. At present, people, particularly those in the business arena, tend to engage themselves within the trend of rapidly growing technology so as to stay competitive. Upon surfing the internet, various companies have put up their official sites online for customers and potential consumers to view. Online or e-marketing is the latest marketing approach for any firm who wants to effectively market its products and services. In addition, e-marketing enables the company to be known worldwide since more and more people are able to access information derived from the internet. Within the business world, where competition is strict, internet marketing is one essential marketing strategy applied by most industries. Service Delivery Service intangibility means that services cannot be seen, tasted, felt, heard, or smelled before they are bought. For example, people undergoing cosmetic surgery cannot see the result before purchase. Airline passengers have nothing but a ticket and a promise that their luggage will arrive safely at the intended destination, hopefully at the same time. They draw conclusions about the quality from the place, people, price, equipment, and communications that they can see. Therefore, the service provider’s task is to make the service tangible in one or more ways. Although there are also times when product marketers try to add intangible offers, service managers try to add tangibles to their intangible offers. Physical goods are produced, then stored, later sold, and still later consumed. In contrast, services are first sold, then produced and consumed at the same time. Service inseparability means the services cannot be separated from their providers, whether the providers are people or machines. If a service employee provides the service, then the employee is part of the service. Because the customer is also present as the service is produced, provider-customer interaction is a special feature of service marketing. Both the provider and the customer affect the service outcome. Service variability means the quality of services depends on whom provides them as well as when, where, and how they are provided. For example, some hotels – say, Marriot have reputations for providing better service than others. Still, within a given Marriot hotel, one registration-desk employee maybe cheerful and efficient, whereas another standing just a few feet away maybe unpleasant and slow. Even the quality of a single Marriot employee’s service varies according to his or her energy and frame of mind at the time of each customer encounter. Service perishability means that services cannot be stored for later sale or use. Some doctors charge patients for missed appointments because the service value existed only at that point and disappeared when the patient did not show up. The perishability of services is not a problem when the demand is steady. However, when demand fluctuates, service firms often have difficult problems. For example, because of rush-hour demand, public transportation companies have to own much more equipment than they would if demand were even throughout the day. Thus, service firms often design strategies for producing a better match between demand and supply. For instance, hotels and resorts charge lower prices in the off-season to attract more guests. Restaurants hire part-time employees to serve during peak periods.

John Maynard Keynes Circular Flow Money Modern Macroeconomics Economics Essay

John Maynard Keynes Circular Flow Money Modern Macroeconomics Economics Essay Keynes John Maynard Keynes an economist from Britain. Keynes economic theory was based on circular flow of money. His views and ideas greatly affected modern macroeconomics and social liberalism. In Keynes theory, one persons spending goes towards anothers earnings, and when that person spends her earnings she is, in effect, supporting anothers earnings. This circle continues on and helps support a normal functioning economy. However, the advent of the  global financial crisis  in 2007 has caused a resurgence in Keynesian thought. Keynesian economics has provided the theoretical underpinning for the plans of President  Barack Obama  of the United States, Prime Minister  Gordon Brown  of the United Kingdom, and other global leaders to ease the  economic recession. JMK was given low marks for his views on inflation. His preoccupation with unemployment led him to ignore the issue of inflation completely. Since his death in 1946 his name has been linked to such inflationists slogans as full employment at any cost, and money doesnt matter. It is small wonder that he has been widely perceived as an inflationist and that our present inflation is often described as the legacy of Keynes. Democracy in Deficit : The Political Legacy of Lord Keynes Buchanan and Wagner Lord Keynes himself must bear substantial responsibility for our apparently permanent and perhaps increasing inflation. Without Keynes inflation would not be clear and present danger to the free society that it has surely now become. The legacy or heritage of Lord Keynes is the intellectual legitimacy provided to deficit spending inflation and the growth of government. In reality Keynes deplored inflation warned repeatedly of its evils and recommended restricted demand management policies to prevent it. Keynes strong aversion to inflation is evident in even his earliest work. It appears in his Indian Currency and Finance (1913). There he emphatically rejects the argument that a depreciating currency is advantageous to trade contending that any advantages derived from inflation are only temporary and that they occur largely at the expense of the community and therefore do not profit the country as a whole. In his Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919) he said Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch the currency. By continuing process of inflation governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method they not only confiscate but they confiscate arbitrarily and while the process impoverishes many it actually enriches some. He then proceeds to specify at least four ways that rapid inflation works to weaken the social fabric and to undermine the foundations of the capitalist free market system. First, unforeseen inflation he says results in a capricious and totally arbitrary rearrangement of riches that violates the principles of distributive justice. Besides its inequities inflation also renders business undertakings riskier and thereby turns the process of wealth getting into a gamble and a lottery. In generating risk and injustice, inflation strikes not only at security, but at confidence in the equity of the existing distribution of wealth. Second inflation violates long term arrangements based on the assumed stability of the value of money. In so doing, inflation disturbs contracts and upsets all permanent relations between debtors and creditors which form the ultimate foundation of capitalism. Third inflation generates social discontent and directs it against businessmen whose windfall profits are wrongly perceived to be the cause rather than the consequence of inflation. This discontent is exploited by governments which being many of them reckless as well as weak seek to direct on to a class known as profiteers the popular indignation against the more obvious consequences of their vicious methods. In other words governments actually responsible for causing inflation seek to shift the blame onto businessmen who consequently lose confidence in their place in society and become the easy victims of intimidation by government of their own making and a press of which they are proprietors. By making business a scapegoat and target of vilification and control inflation reinforces anti business attitudes and weakens support for what Keynes called the active and constructive element in the whole capitalist society. Finally inflation tends to breed such misguided remedies as price regulation and profiteer-hunting that may do more damage than the inflation itself. Keynes was especially critical of the tendency of governments to resort to price controls which in his view lead to resource misallocation and a reduced supply of goods thereby compounding inflationary pressures. Regarding the dis-incentives to real out-put occasioned by controls he said that the preservation of a spurious value for the currency by the force of law expressed in the regulations of prices contains in itself however the seeds of final economic decay and soon dries up the source of ultimate supply. For by freezing prices at what are likely to be disequilibrium levels controls constitute a system of compelling the exchange of commodities at what is not their real relative value and this not only relaxes production but finally leads to the waste and inefficiency of barter. Keynes concern with the dangers of inflation influenced his policy advice in the post war boom of 1920 when an outburst of inflation threatened the British Economy. Nowhere does Keynes express his concern for inflation more strongly that in the TRACT. There his chief fear is that inflation may retart capital formation and inhibit long term economic growth. He specifies at least three ways that this can happen. He notes first the inflationary disincentive to saving. By eroding the real value of past savings inflation diminishes the capacity of the investing class to save and destroy the atmosphere of confidence which is a condition of the willingness to save. With a smaller portion of national income flowing into saving and investment the rate of capital accumulation falls. And since according to Keynes The national capital must grow as fast as the national labour supply for the maintenance of the same standard of life it follows that a fall in capital growth below the required potential rate will lower the living standards. In short by discouraging saving and capital formation inflation may cause a fall in the aggregate capital/labour ratio and a corresponding drop in labour productivity and output per capita. A second factor regarding capital accumulation is the undercharging of the depreciation during inflation and the consequent inadequate provision for the replacement of worn-out capital. This occurs because depreciation charges on capital equipment are computed on the basis of original cost rather than replacements costs. These replacement costs rise with inflation. Thus when prices rise the depreciation charge calculated on the basis of the original cost are too small to replace the worn-out capital. The result may be an unintended depletion of the capital stock. In such condition said Keynes a country can even trench on existing capital or fail to make good its current depreciation. For it is one of the evils of a depreciating currency that it enables a community to live on its capital unawares. The increasing money value of the communitys capital goods obscures temporarily a diminution in the real quantity of stock. Yet a third adverse effect on capital formation, he noted, is the increased business risk resulting from inflation. For inflation adds to ordinary business risk the extra risk directly arising out of instability in the value of money. To compensate for this extra risk, businessmen add a risk premium to the rate at which they discount the future, and the higher discount rate discourages investment. The discouraging effects of inflation on saving, in-vestment, and growth were not the only inflationary evils described by Keynes in the Tract. Others in-cluded (1) the injustice and inequity resulting from inflationary redistributions of income and wealth, (2) the resort to spurious inflation remedies-e.g., price controls, excess profits taxes, profiteer-hunting and the like-remedies that constitute not the least part of the evils, often doing more harm than the inflation they are designed to cure, and (3) the social resentment and discontent produced by inflation. This resentment, when directed against the business class whose windfall profits are wrongly perceived as the cause rather than the consequence of inflation, works to discredit enterprise and to weaken support for the productive element of society-the prop of society and the builder of the future He notes that unanticipated inflation may temporarily stimulate economic activity by raising profits and profit expectations. Profits rise, he said, because wages and other costs lag behind rising prices during inflation. And with nominal wages lagging behind prices, real wages fall, thus inducing producers to step up their employment of labor. Likewise, the lagged adjustment of market interest rates to inflation and the consequent fall in the real cost of borrowing leads producers to expand their operations. Finally, inflation reduces the real burden of fixed charges, thereby giving a temporary fillip to profits and to economic activity. But Keynes insisted that any such stimulus would most likely be small and short-lived. Moreover it would constitute an undesirable overstimulation of industrial activ-ity requiring undue strain on capacity and a corre-sponding over-exertion of labor. For these reasons he judged the overall benefits to be minimal. Consequently, when Keynes weighed the benefits of inflation against the evils, he found the latter to far outweigh the former and accordingly came down heavily in favor of price stability. He summarized his case for price stability best when he declared that, because inflation is unjust and deflation is inexpedient . . . , both are evils to be shunned. The individualistic capitalism of today, precisely because it entrusts saving to the individual investor and production to the individual employer, presumes a stable measuring-rod of value, and cannot be efficient-perhaps can-not survive-without one It follows, he said, that the government should make price stability its primary policy goal. For, if we are to continue to draw the voluntary savings of the community into investments, we must make it a prime object of deliberate State policy that the standard of value, in terms of which they are expressed, should be kept stable Monetarist Aspects of the Tract The analysis of inflation contained in the Tract has much in common with the position taken by todays monetarists. Specifically, inflation is discussed within the context of an analytical-model that is remarkably monetarist in spirit, embodying such standard monetarist ingredients as (1) the quantity theory of money, (2) the concept of inflation as a tax on real money balances, (3) the monetary approach to exchange rate determination, and (4) the Fisherian distinction between real and nominal interest rates. The paragraphs below summarize Keynes views on these elements in order to demonstrate that he was not the stereotype nonmonetarist caricature of the textbooks. Quantity Theory of Money The Keynes of the Tract was an unequivocal ad-herent of the quantity theory. This theory, he said, is fundamental. Its correspondence with fact is not open to question [7; p. 61]. His own version of the theory as elucidated in the Tract is essentially the same as the modern monetarist version and embodies the following monetarist elements : (1) a money supply and demand theory of price level determination, (2) the notion of money stock exogeneity, implying money-to-price causality, (3) the concept of the demand for money as a stable function of a few key variables, and (4) a focus on the special role of price expectations in the money demand function. Regarding the money supply and demand theory of the price level, he said that two elements determine general prices and the value of money. First, the quantity, present and prospective, of [money] in circulation. Second, the amount of purchasing power which it suits the public to hold in that shape [7; p. xviii]. Elsewhere in the Tract he says that the price level depends on the currency policy. of the government and the currency habits of the people, in accordance with the quantity theory of money Finally, Keynes employed the quantity theory in his policy analysis, arguing (1) that inflation is caused by an excess supply of money, (2) that such monetary excess could stem from falls in money demand as well as from rises in money supply, (3) that the central bank possesses the power to prevent the latter and counteract the former, and (4) that it should employ this power to stabilize prices. For price stability he recommended deliberate countercyclical movements in the money supply to offset or nullify the procyclical impact of changes in money demand on prices. He thought that real money demand fluctuated with the state ofbusiness confidence, falling in booms, rising in slumps, and thereby amplifying cyclical movements of prices. The characteristic of the credit cycle, he said, consists in a tendency of [real cash balances] to diminish during the boom and increase during the depression [7; p. 67]. To counteract these he advocated deliberate monetary contraction in booms and monetary expansion in slumps. The time to deflate the supply of cash, he said, is when real balances are falling . . . and . . . the time to inflate the supply of cash is when real balances are rising, and not, as seems to be our present practice, the other way round [7; p. 149]. In so stating, he rejected the monetarist case for a fixed monetary growth rate rule (which he argued is bound to lead to unsteadiness of the price level when money demand fluctuates) in favor of discretionary monetary management [7; p. 69]. In the modern world of paper currency and bank credit, he declared, there is no escape from a managed currency [7; p. 136]. Note, however, that while he rejected the monetarist case for rules instead of discretion in the conduct of monetary policy, he did voice the modern monetarist complaint that discretionary monetary movements frequently tend to be procyclical rather than countcyclical. That is, he complained that the British monetary authorities had perversely engineered monetary expansions in booms when money demand was falling and monetary contraction in slumps when money demand was rising thereby aggravating rather than mitigating inflation and deflation. These -policy errors notwithstanding, however, he remained a strong advocate of discretionary monetary intervention in the pursuit of price stability. The second monetarist ingredient that Keynes enunciates in the Tract is the concept of inflation as a tax on real money balances. As noted by the late Harry Johnson, this inflation tax analysis constitutes an essential part of the quantity theory approach to inflation. Consistent with that approach, Keynes argues that inflation is a method of taxation which the government uses to secure the command over real resources, resources just as real as those obtained by [ordinary] taxation [7; p. 37]. What is raised by printing notes, he writes, is just as much taken from the public as is a beer duty or an income tax [7; p. 52]. Regarding the inflation tax he says that a government can live by this means when it can live by no other. It is the form of taxation which the public find hardest to evade and even the weakest government can enforce, when it can enforce nothing else [7; p. 37]. In discussing the inflation tax, Keynes stresses that it is a tax on cash balances. The burden of the tax, he says, falls on cashholders, i.e., on the holders of the original . . . notes, whose notes [after inflation] are worth . . . less than they were before. The inflation has amounted to a tax . . . on all holders of notes in proportion to their holdings. The burden of the tax is well spread, cannot be evaded, costs nothing to collect, and falls, in a rough sort of way, in proportion to the wealth of the victim. No wonder its superficial advantages have attracted Ministers of Finance [7; p. 39]. He next explains how inflationary money creation transfers rear resources from cashholders to the government. He notes that a given, say, 25 percent inflation rate requires an equivalent rate of rise of cash holdings just to maintain real money balances at desired levels. To accomplish this, cashholders cut expenditures on goods and services and add the unspent proceeds to money balances. The reduced private outlay for goods and services releases re-sources which the government acquires with newly issued money that is then added to private cash balances. In this way inflation enables the government to appropriate real resources from cashholders just as surely as if it had taken part of their earlier money balances and spent the proceeds on goods and services. How much the government gets depends upon the quantity of real balances the public wishes to hold when the inflation rate is 2.5 percent. Assuming the public desires real balances totaling $36 million, the governments tax take is 25 percent of that sum or $9 million. Or, as Keynes himself put it in discussing the effects of the hypothetical 25 percent inflation tax on real balances of $36 million, by the process of printing the additional notes the government has transferred to itself an amount equal to $9 million, just as successfully as if it had raised this sum in taxation [7 ; p. 39]. Keynes discussion of the inflation tax includes a sophisticated analysis of the optimal rate of inflation from the point of view of maximizing tax revenue. In this connection he makes four points. First, from the formula that tax yield equals tax rate times tax base, it follows that the yield of the inflation tax is the multiplicative product of the inflation rate (tax rate) and real cash balances (tax base), respectively. Second, the tax base is not invariant to the tax rate but falls when the latter rises. That is, when the government raises the tax rate the tax base tends to shrink as people seek to avoid the inflation tax by changing their habits and economizing on real money holdings. Were this not so, said Keynes, there would be no limit to the sums which the government could extract from the public by means of inflation [7; p. 42]. Third, because the tax base shrinks with rises in the tax rate, the government will realize more revenue from a tax rate rise only if it causes a less-than-proportionate fall in the base. A government has to remember, he said, that even if a tax is not prohibitive it may be unprofitable, and that a medium, rather than an extreme, imposition will yield the greatest gain [7 ; p. 43]. Fourth, it follows that there is one inflation rate that maximizes tax revenue and that occurs where the percentage increase in the tax rate equals the percentage shrinkage in the tax base, i.e., where the elasticity of real money demand with respect to the inflation rate is unity. Here is the concept of the tax-maximizing rate of inflation, that plays such a key role in the modern monetarist analysis of inflationary finance. A Treatise on Money (1930) If the Tract is famous for its quantity theory-inflation tax analysis, the Treatise is equally famous for its celebrated fundamental equations of prices and the corresponding distinction between income inflation and profit inflation.8 Constituting the central analytical core of the Treatise, the fundamental equations express price level increases as the sum of two components, namely (1) increases in profit per unit of output, and (2) increases in unit costs of production (chiefly labor costs). Of these two components of price change-namely changes in profit and changes in costs, respectively-Keynes labels the former profit inflation and the latter income inflation. Profit inflation occurs when prices are outrunning costs, leaving a large and growing margin for profit. By contrast, income inflation occurs when wages are rising as fast as prices thereby preventing profit growth. It should be noted that Keynes income inflation does not correspond to what today is called cost-push inflation, i.e., an exogenous rise in wages and hence prices caused, for example, by the exercise oftrade union monopoly power. Rather it is the induced endogenous result of an increased demand for labor and other resources generated by prior profit inflation.9 For, according to Keynes, most income inflations do not stem from autonomous (spontaneous) increases in wages caused by the powers and activities of trade unions [8, p. 151]. Instead they stem from profit-induced rises in the demand for (and hence prices of). labor and other factor resources. That is, a profit inflation. stimulates firms to expand output and hence their demand for factors of production. This leads, to a bidding up of factor prices that raises production costs and generates income inflation. This process continues until wages and other factor prices rise sufficiently to eliminate excess profits.10 Seen this way, income inflations. possess three distinctive features. They occur at the expense of profit inflations, eventually annihilating the latter. They need not cause a rise in prices since they are largely offset by compensating falls in profit inflation. Finally, they are a crucial part of the process that transforms inflation-engendered profits into costs and thereby terminates the. temporary stimulus to economic activity. Having developed the distinction between profit and income inflation, Keynes used it to analyze the effect of inflation on output and economic growth. Regarding these effects he reached two main conclusions. For a recent exposition of the fundamental equations and the corresponding concepts of income and profit inflation, see Patinkin [11; pp. 33-8]. What follows draws heavily from Patinkin. This point is stressed by Patinkin [11; p. 37]. 10 See Keynes [8; pp. 241-2] and Patinkin [11; pp. 37, 45]. First, only profit inflation has the power to stimulate output and growth. It is the teaching of this treatise, he said, that the wealth of nations is enriched, not during income inflations, but during profit inflations . . . at times, that is to say, when prices are running away from costs [9; p. 137]. More precisely, profit inflation stimulates both current and long-term real output. It stimulates current output by raising prices relative to wages thus lowering real wages and increasing employment. And it stimulates long-term real output by shifting income from wages to profit thereby permitting faster capital accumulation and a higher rate of economic growth. In short, the effects of profit inflation include the spirit of buoyancy and enterprise and the good employment which are engendered; but mainly the-rapid growth of capital wealth and the benefits obtained from this in succeeding years [9; p. 144]. These benefits, however, are possible only when prices are outrunning costs, leaving a substantial margin of profit to finance investment and growth. They cannot occur in income inflations where wages rise as fast as prices and thus annihilate the very profits. that constitute both the means and the inducement to economic growth. It follows that income inflation, unlike profit inflation, is incapable of enhancing growth. Second, what matters for investment and growth is how long it takes for profit inflation to give way to income inflation, and this depends on the speed of adjustment of wages to prices. If the interval is short and wages adjust rapidly to prices, then inflation will have little or no impact on capital formation and growth. But if the interval is long and wages adjust slowly to prices, then the stimulus may be considerable and profit inflation, in Keynes own words, becomes a most potent instrument for the increase of accumulated wealth [8; p. 267]. Regarding the interval, Keynes apparently felt that it had indeed been long in particular historical episodes-quite long enough, he said, to include (and, perhaps to contrive) the rise . . . of the greatness of a nation [9; p. 141]. In this connection he advanced the hypothesis that the early industrialization of England and France had been powered by profit inflation. It is unthinkable, he declared, that the difference between the amount of wealth in France and England in 1700 and the amount in 1500 could ever have been built up by thrift alone. The intervening profit inflation which created the modern world was surely worth while if we take the long view [9; p. 145]. Lest one wrongly conclude from the foregoing that Keynes of the Treatise was an out-and-out inflationist, three cautionary observations should be made. First, he was referring to gently rising prices and not to the rapid double-digit inflation that is unfortunately so common today. More precisely, he was referring to slow creeping secular inflation of no more than 1 to 2 percent per year. Today such mild inflation would be viewed as constituting virtual price stability. Second, his analysis of beneficial inflation refers chiefly to capital-poor preindustrial societies and not to wealthy modern capitalist economies.11 Most of his historical examples are taken from the pre-capitalist or early-capitalist era when western Europe was very poor in accumulated wealth and greatly in need of a rapid accumulation of capital [9; p. 145 and 8; p. 268]. Under these conditions it is conceivable that slowly-creeping profit inflation might indeed have spurred industrialization not only by diverting resources from consumption to capital formation, but also by breaking feudal bonds, stimulating enterprise, encouraging market-oriented activity, and widening the scope of the market. These latter benefits, however, are no longer available to wealthy, market-oriented modern capitalist economies that are more likely to find secular inflation a curse rather than a blessing. For this reason Keynes refrained from recommending even slightly inflationary policies for modern economies. Finally, it should be remembered that Keynes was referring to profit inflation characterized by prices persistently rising faster than wages and not to modern inflations in which wages sometimes rise ahead of prices or at least follow them without delay thereby wiping out the profits generated by the price increases.12 As previously mentioned, Keynes held that inflation stimulates growth only if wages lag substantially behind prices leaving a large and persistent margin of profit to finance capital formation. This wage lag, however, is hardly characteristic of modern inflations in which wages rise swiftly not only to restore real earnings eroded by past inflation but also to protect real earnings from expected future inflation. The clear implication is that Keynes would have opposed these modern inflations, which according to his analysis are income rather than profit inflations. Accordingly, it is not surprising that Keynes, at the end of a long passage extolling the historical accomplishments of profit inflation, nevertheless declared, I am not yet converted, taking everything into ac-11 On this point see Haberler [2; pp. 98-100]. 12 See Haberler [2; p. 99]. count, from a preference for a policy today which, whilst avoiding deflation at all costs, aims at the stability of purchasing power as its ideal objective [9; p. 145]. There is no reason to believe that he ever changed that position. On the contrary,. there is strong evidence that he remained a determined foe of inflation and an adamant proponent of price stability even to the extent of warning of the potential danger of inflation in 1937 when the unemployment rate was in excess of 10 percent of the labor force. Articles in The Times (1937) The most convincing evidence of his continuing strong opposition to inflation in the 1930s even after the publication of his celebrated General Theory, appears in four articles he wrote for The Times in early 1937.13 There, in discussing policies for dealing with unemployment at the business cycle peak of 1937, he made it abundantly clear that his primary concern was preventing inflation. In particular, he argued that the 1937 unemployment rate, although very high (indeed, as high as 12 ½ percent), was nevertheless at its minimum noninflationary level at which demand pressure must be curtailed to prevent inflation. Accordingly, he recommended a sharp cutback in government expenditure on the grounds that the economy was rapidly approaching the point where further increases in aggregate demand would be purely inflationary. I believe, he said,. that we are approaching, or have reached, the point where there is not much advantage in applying a further general stimulus at the centre [4; pp. 11, 44, 65]. In so stating, he identified the noninflationary full employment rate of unemployment (NIFERU) below which industrial bottlenecks frustrate the intended output and employment effects of aggregate demand expansion policy so that mainly prices rise.14 Beyond that point, he said, noninflationary reductions in joblessness could only be achieved by specific structural policies designed to lower the full employment rate of unemployment itself. As for the existing high level of that unemployment rate, he attributed it to structural rigidities in the 1. These articles are reprinted and discussed in Hutchison [4]. Unless otherwise noted, all references in this section are to Hutchison. 14 The NIFERU concept also appears in the General Theory where Keynes asserts that! beyond a certain point, structural impediments (a series of bottle-necks) would prevent the noninflationary expansion of output and employment long before full capacity is reached. At the bottleneck point any further increase in aggregate demand would, in his words, largely spend itself in raising prices, as distinct from employment [10; pp. 300-l]. British economy, in particular to a substantial mismatch between the location and skill mix of the labor force and the location and composition of demand. As he put it, the economic structure is unfortunately rigid and this rigidity prevented output and employment from responding to increases in aggregate demand so that only prices rise [4; pp. 11, 65-6]. It follows, he said, that to achieve noninflationary reductions in unemployment we are more in need today of a rightly distributed demand than of a greater aggregate demand [4 ; pp. 11, 66]. In other words, noninflationary reductions in unemployment cannot be obtained by expansionary aggregate demand-management policies but rather require a different technique [4; pp. 11, 14, 44, 66]. To this end he advocated specific structural policies to reduce unemployment on the grounds that noninflationary reductions in unemployment could only be achieved via measures that eradicate structural rigidities and lower the equilibrium unemployment rate itself. In so arguing, he foreshadowed by 30 years the modern monetarist concept of the natural rate of unemployment. He also refuted the popular contention that he was an inflationist who advocated full employment at any cost. That is, his 1937 articles amply demonstrate that, far from being an inflationist, his main consideration was preventing inflation-even at a time when the u

Waxing A Snowboard :: essays research papers

How to wax a snowboard   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There several ways to go about waxing a snowboard. Firs you have to determine what conditions you will be riding in. Then you will have to choose a wax. Say you are going to Vail and the snow condition are.... well lets just say the temp.. of the snow is about 20*. Well the thing you need to do is find a low temp. wax. The way you determine a low temp. wax from a high temp. wax is by the rating.. Low temp. waxes will be in a range from -20* to about 25*. A high temp. wax will be in a range from about 25* to 40*. There are waxes made for higher conditiond above 45* that are used in conditions that are referred to as, summer conditions. The wax that is used in summer conditions is a harder wax that will protect your board from sand, dust, and ice crystals.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  If you are riding in low temp. conditions with a high temp wax your performance will not be that good. If the conditions are going to go back and forth in temp. you should wax your board with a low temp. wax or you can use a wax that can be used in all temps. WAXING INSTRUCTIONS FOR HOT WAXING   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  1. Select wax or waxes for correct snow temperature and condition.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  2. Use in a well-ventilated area or with a respirator. (Only if you are hot waxing)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  3. Heat iron below the 'smoking iron'; temperature.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  4. Melt the smallest end of the wax on the iron and drip all over the snowboard.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  5. Smooth out drips with iron.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  6. Let wax completely dry then scrape with a plastic or metal scraper.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  7. Buff wax with a buffing pad. IF YOU ARE DOING A RUB ON WAS YOU WILL NEED TO FALLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS

Charles Darwins On the Origin of Species Essay -- Evolution Charles D

Charles Darwin in his book, On the Origin of Species, presents us with a theory of natural selection. This theory is his attempt at an explanation on how the world and its' species came to be the way that we know them now. Darwin writes on how through a process of millions of years, through the effects of man and the effects of nature, species have had an ongoing trial and error experiment. It is through these trials that the natural world has developed beneficial anomalies that at times seem too great to be the work of chance. Darwin writes on how a species will adapt to its environment given enough time. When an animal gains a genetic edge over its competitors, be they of the same species or of another genus altogether, the animal has increased its chance of either procreation or adaptation. When this animal has this beneficial variance, the advantage becomes his and because of this, the trait is then passed on to the animals offspring. The theory of natural selection is not limited to inheritable and beneficial variations of a species. It also relies a great deal on the population growth and death of a species. For a species to continue to exist it must make sure of a few things. It must first produce more offspring that survive. If this is not done then the species is obviously going to die off. It is also important for the species to propagate at such a rate as to allow for variance, for it is variance that will ultimately allow the animal to exist comfortably in his surroundings. In his studies, Darwin was led to understand that â€Å"†¦the species of the larger genera in each country would oftener present varieties, than the species of the smaller genera;† (p. 55). Thus the larger species would adapt while the smaller one would not. And to quote Darwin again, â€Å"†¦if any one species does not become modified and improved in a corresponding degree with its competitors, it will soon be ex terminated.† (p. 102) Extinction, although not as pleasant a concept as the idea of adapting to ones surroundings, plays just as large a role in natural selection as anything else. As one adaptation of a species proves beneficial, and as that variation begins to propagate, the original, less advantageous variant will die off. It is the unchanged species that are in immediate conflict with the species undergoing the natural adaptation that stand to suffer... ...was one hundred percent. Sometimes his arguments fell a little flat and at other times he sounded a bit trite as if he were challenging others to come up with a better answer. And in some ways I hope he was. In the meantime, however, I think he could have done a better job. I am an evolutionist. I have always been an evolutionist. For years now I have known the premise of Darwin’s theory of natural selection. And for years now I have blindly believed it. Having read his book, I can still say that I believe in evolution, and I believe in Darwin’s work. But if there was ever a doubt in my mind it was only because Darwin put it there. It is because of this that I truly think Darwin was fair in the utmost sense of the word. Had he not been fair, which he could have been, he could have made a most convincing argument. But he stated every question in his theories and did his best to rebut. And I feel that in his rebuttal, he was convincing indeed. Work Cited Darwin, C. On the Origin of Species. Harvard University Press. Cambridge. 2003. Work Consulted Desmond, A. & Moore, J. Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist. W.W. Norton & Company. New York. 1994

Airport Security Essay -- Safety Airlines Terrorism Papers

Airport Security On September 11, 2001, twenty Arab men boarded four different airplanes with the intent of attacking our country. They boarded the planes with the intent of causing tremendous damage to New York City and Washington, D.C. Two planes crashed into each tower of the World Trade Center, one plane crashed into the Pentagon, and the last plane crashed into a Pennsylvanian field. These twenty men cut short over 3000 lives. The innocent people that died had no need to have their lives taken in the way that they were. However, they lost their lives because they were American, and to the terrorists, they stood for certain principles. How were these terrorists allowed to board these planes with the weapons that they used for the take over? There is an easy answer to that question: airport security was virtually nonexistent. Anyone could be in the terminal. Friends and family could be with the passenger up to the time that the passenger went through the gate. However, since that fateful day, security has been tighter at the airports. Now, before passengers board a plane, they have to go through an x-ray machine and a metal detector before entering the terminal. Sometimes they have to go through random searches at the plane's gate. One question raised from the tighter security measures is whether these security measures invade people's personal rights. Airport security has changed since September 11, but this change is not always a good thing. One of the major changes that has taken place in airport security is more searches are being done. As a result of increasing the number of searches taken place, more people have their privacy rights violated. Another result of the increase of airport security is that less peopl... ...y.html Simon, Harvey. "Homeland Security and Defense." Aviation Week. n.d. 5 June 2002 Swenson, Dan. Personal interview. 23 October 2002 Sperry, Paul. "Know Your Rights at Airport Checkpoints." Worldnetdaily. 9 January 2002, 15 Oct. 2002 http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=25974 "Suggestions for Reducing Security Related Threats." Airsafe. 22 October 2001, 16 September 2002 http://www.airsafe.com/events/war/moresafe.htm The Thompson Chain-Reference Bible: The NIV Version. Indianapolis, Indiana: B.B. Kirkbridge Bible CO., INC., 1990 "Travelers' Blues." Free-Market Net. n.d.15 October 2002 http://www.free-market.net/spotlight/airtravel/organizations/ "Women Travelers Complain of 'Busy Hands' Among Airport Guards." Startribune. 25 November 2002, 15 Oct. 2002 http://www.startribune.com/stories/1631/850064.html

Angels in America

If we were to imagine what destruction is like, how would anyone of us portray it? Would our portrayals be as catastrophic and devastating as the word means? It depends on the person who imagines it. Now, if we were to imagine destruction from a psychological perspective this may be entirely different for each person. Why this would be the case is probably because of the unique personalities that each one of us has. Some of us may not be able to bear the uncertainties that destruction could bring into the world, hence, fearing it. Others may just ignore the details of chaos and live on with their ignorant, static lives. Then, there is the remaining portion of us who know the bigger picture of destruction and are hopeful to change the world from the aftermath of it. In a similar perspective, these comparable portraits of characteristics correlate to one of the unique themes of Tony Kuskner’s play, â€Å"Angels in America†: identity. In this theme, the identities of the characters in the play symbolize emotions of ambivalence, the static views of the gay community, and the hope for change in the chaotic era of the 1980s American society. Kushner subtly conveys Harper’s character to represent the ambivalent emotions of the American society in the 1980s. As a character suffering from psychological problems, Harper’s personality is very complex. In one bizarre aspect of the play, she’s having an interesting conversation with one of her hallucinations, Mr. Lies, to discuss her constructive, yet imaginative, plans to live a new life in Antarctica. While in a counter-perceptive view, Harper feels uncertain and fearful to move out off anywhere because of the paranormal threats that she’s worry about. â€Å"A man with a knife† that she speaks of is one of those dangers that she is strangely concerned about (Millennium Approaches 24). The sort of ambivalence and fear that Harper’s identity carries in Kushner’s play somehow depicts the â€Å"apocalyptic anxiety† that is happening in the United States in the 1980s (Garner, Jr. 2). The â€Å"escalation† of this catastrophic concern is â€Å"reinforced by economic crisis, ecological disaster, overpopulation, the AIDS epidemic, and the fall of European communism† at the time (Garner, Jr. 2). In addition to all this build-up of chaotic events in the country, people begin to dread the nuclear annihilations that could potentially commence during the postwar moments of the Cold War. In order to draw out the people’s sense of fear and uncertainty over the destructive events in the 1980s, Kushner tries to convey it through Harper’s paranormal concern of the ozone layer. After she explains to herself how the ozone layer is â€Å"a kind of gift, from God†, Harper then says, â€Å"But everywhere, things are collapsing, lies surfacing, systems of defense giving away. . . . This is why, Joe, this is why I shouldn’t be left alone (Millennium Approaches 17)†. Her ambivalent concern on the total deconstruction of the world correlates to Americans’ â€Å"Cold War anxiety† on the possible nuclear threats in the 1980s (Garner, Jr. 3). By illustrating Harper’s complex identity in the play, Kushner is able to portray the types of ambivalent emotions (fear, terror, and uncertainty) that people felt in the destructive events of history at that time period. As imaginative and abstract as this drama is, Kushner portrays the stagnant identity of Roy Cohn in his play to figuratively allude the inert views of the gay community in the 80s society of America. In his playwright notes, Kushner briefly explains how he makes use of the real Roy Cohn’s attributions in history to develop his fictional Roy in his play. Based on what Roy has done in the past, his illegal maneuvers during the trial of Ethel Rosenberg make his overall identity cynical and egotistic. Ideally, Kushner effectively make use of these two traits in his version of Roy. In a similar perspective, the fictional Roy knows how to get his way in almost anything throughout the story because of his possession of â€Å"clout† in society (Millennium Approaches 45). He emphasizes his powerful stature by telling his doctor, â€Å"I can pick up this phone, punch fifteen numbers† and â€Å"in under five minutes†, he can reach the First Lady on the other end of the phone line (Millennium Approaches 45). In this scene, Roy reasons with Henry about his social â€Å"image† as a heterosexual lawyer in New York. If his original diagnosis of AIDS has caught news to the media, then Roy’s static identity will be destroyed. Yet, Kushner doesn’t convey this. Instead, Roy says, â€Å"AIDS is what homosexuals have. I have liver cancer† to convince Henry hat he must maintain his appealing status for the public (Millennium Approaches 46). Ideally, Roy has no intention to reveal his homosexual self, nor does he show any sympathy for gays. His biased statement, â€Å"Homosexuals are men who know nobody and who nobody knows. Who have zero clout. † intriguingly portrays his psychological denial of his true identity (Millennium Approaches 45). The selfish desire of social redemption that Roy is struggling to fulfill represents the â€Å"disturbing symptoms of the larger culture’s inauthentic response to suffering† that Kushner is trying to convey in his play (Omer-Shaman 11). Symbolically, Kushner illustrates Roy’s static identity of social redemption in order to depict the general public’s unchanging perspectives against the gay community in the 80s society of America. Interestingly, Prior’s enduring identity in Kushner’s play represent the hope for change in the American society at the time. Kushner makes Prior’s character very apparent and symbolic to his readers; he is a homosexual who is diagnosed with the AIDS at this particular time period – perhaps it’s a historical reference in Kushner’s part. At some parts of his play, Kushner descriptively portrays Prior’s bloody wounds and entrails of his tormenting disease to represent foreshadowing moments of â€Å"Christian redemption† in the latter story of the drama – Prior’s meetings with the Angels (Ogden 6). Similarly, as one critic depicts, the blood lesions that Prior suffers through creates a slight correlation to Christ â€Å"bleeding wounds† and pains from a biblical viewpoint (Ogden 6). How these religious connections tie in with Prior’s enduring personality starts by his own fantasy with the Angel in his apartment. Unlike Roy’s character, Prior openly says, â€Å"I can handle pressure, I am a gay man and I am used to pressure, to trouble, I am tough and strong,† as he courageously calms himself in the mist of the heavenly circumstances (Millennium Approaches 117). Ideally, this scene of the play does not only depict how brave Prior is, but also how strong and confident Prior is to reveal his true self. Furthermore, the fact that he says, â€Å"I am used to pressure†, depicts his enduring identity to overcome the social pressures he has as a homosexual. Similarly, Kushner conveys this familiar perspective of Prior’s in his last meeting with the Angel in heaven. In this scene, Prior rejects the Angel’s prophet of stasis in the final scenes of the drama. He tells the Angel, â€Å"We live past hope. If I can find hope anywhere, that’s it, that’s the best I can do†¦ Bless me anyway. I want more life. † to conclude his declination as he exits heaven (Perestroika 133). What Prior says to the Angel as he leaves heaven is ironic to what he has been through in the whole play. Despite how much he has suffered from his tragic life, Prior’s enduring soul still wants â€Å"more life† to essentially hope for better things to come in the world as it continues to spin forward (Perestroika 133). Remarkably, Kushner utilizes Prior’s enduring soul to symbolize the hope for change in America during the chaotic messes within 80s society. Although the character’s personalities portray an abstractive and imaginative perspective in the play, Kushner subtly make use of this unique aspect to correlate the realistic concepts conveyed in his play’s theme of identity. In general, the dialogues in play may sound a bit fantasized – even strange. Yet somehow, Kushner is able to connect his fictional characters’ lives in his play to the lives of the 1980s society of America. Because of this ironic and interesting comparison between fiction and reality, Kushner is able to express the real, dramatic emotions that are felt during that time in history. By capturing the historical events and moments of the 1980s, Kushner subtly reveals the sense of reality of his drama through the surreal identities of his characters.