Thursday, January 30, 2020

Microeconomics Project Essay Example for Free

Microeconomics Project Essay An overview Facebook was realized on February 4, 2004 by an American computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur- Mark Elliot Zuckerberg. Facebook has said it will be valued at up to $96bn ( £59bn) when it sells shares to investors this month in a record-breaking flotation. The first investment from Peter Thiel was $500,000 into Facebook. Facebook has minted four billionaires: Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin and Sean Parker. The 27-year-old Zuckerbergs net worth was estimated at $17.5bn on the 2011 Forbes list of the wealthiest Americans. Moskovitz had a net worth of $3.5bn but pipped Zuckerberg for the title of worlds youngest billionaire, being eight days younger. The Brazilian-born Saverin, who left Facebook early on after a falling-out with Zuckerberg, had a net worth of $2bn. Parker, the Napster co-founder who briefly served as Facebooks president, had a net worth of $2.1bn On November 15, 2010, Facebook announced it had acquired the domain name fb.com from the American Farm Bureau Federation for an undisclosed amount. On January 11, 2011, the Farm Bureau disclosed $8.5 million in domain sales income, making the acquisition of FB.com one of the ten highest domain sales in history Nowadays, 1 in every 13 people on earth uses Facebook, more than 900m active users, with over 250 million of them who log in every day. The average user has about 130 friends, but that has expanded in. The core 18-24 year old segment is now growing the fastest at 74% year on year. Almost 72% of all US internet users are on now Facebook, while 70% of the entire user base is located outside of the US. (Source: Facebook) At the beginning, Facebook has 1 million users. In 2008, it increased to 100 million. In 2010 the number of users reached 400 million and up to 500 million within 5 months. Google- a web search engine, it is the companys most popular service. It began in January 1996 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were both PhD students at Stanford University in California. Technology is enhancing us as human beings and the integrating of artificial intelligence is slowly being weaved and embedded into our activities and habits almost without us noticing. This reliance that is permeating our day to day existence even extends to a reported 60% plus of all buying decisions now starting with a Google search as we start our research online rather than walk the shop aisles and asking sales attendants questions. The first funding of $100,000 for Google was provided by Andy Bechtolsheim the co-founder of Sun Microsystems. Googles initial public offering (IPO) took place five years later on August 19, 2004. The stocks performance after the IPO went well, with shares hitting $700 for the first time on October 31, 2007. primarily because of strong sales and earnings in the online advertising market. In 2004: Gmail launched, Google IPO 8 billion pages indexed. They acquired YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion. Android was announced in 2007 and Google Chrome was launched in 2008. The 3 charts show the Revenue, Income and number of Employee in two companies. RIVAL PRODUCTION The big question is given, why a search engine like Google to be afraid of Facebook, a social network when the field of activities of these two different companies as far as they seem completely can live peacefully. Google is famous for its searching services, the key point lead to the huge success of Google. It links to billions of Web pages, so users can easily obtain the information they want through the keywords and the operators. Google also uses its search technology for many other search services, including Image Search (photos), Google News, interactive community Google Groups, Google Maps. They also launched variety kinds of services such as Gmail, Google Earth, Google Docs, Picasa, Google Desktop, Google talk, Google Chrome, Google Translate and Android. Facebook is a social networking website for free access with more than 600 million members worldwide with hundreds of millions of activities that occur every day. The amount of data produced in a day of Facebook occupies a huge part of Internet data. Users can communicate with others, make friends, send messages and update their personal profile. Facebook has several features that users can interact such as Wall, Pokes, Photos, Status, Tag (feature of imaging applications), Facebook Notes, Facebook Username, Facebook Messages, Voice Calls, Video Calling, Facebook Subscribe. Looking closely, using the Internet for social purpose has been increasing over the years. More and more people spend longer hours of socializing than browsing so the use of the internet had tilted more on the social side. Facebook has a strong impact to our society. The social circle will suggest what to read, what to check out, where to go to and what to see. These matters may seem not important, but for the business this is such a big deal. As a result, a vast number of companies had recently shifted their focus on socializing, this led to the competition Google versus F acebook. Google is stepping into the Facebook market. Google also has promoted the search function in social network (Social Search) combined between Facebook and search engine Bing with support in 19 languages. Google Social Search helps users to find the appropriate content from the online link on their social network such as websites, blogs, articles and other content created or shared by their friends. Moreover, through many failures of Orkut (social networking and discussion), Google Buzz and Google Wave, in 2010 Google also revealed their plan about new social networking called Google Me to compete Facebook. Google Me combines best features of these social networks having failed before such as allow users check how many visitors clicked, watched, or your missed updates, provide variety kinds of games and application, control the amount of friends who have connected with your friends, stop spreading wide for what was posted. Example, both Orkut and Facebook allow users to delete the share, but this feature of Orkut is much better. This means that if you share a picture for yourself, then you want to delete them, you are allowed to erase that image on your home page, and on top of all other friends.Facebook does not do this,so Google Me is expected as a more attractive version of social networking. In 2011, Google has officially announced the Google+project, a social networking service has the functionality looks very similar to Facebook such as update status, share links and upload photos. Google+allow users to communicate separately for each group. Instead of posting a content update for everyone, Google+ allows users to display that content to the particular group (called a circle), such as classmates, colleagues, family members. Recently, Facebook is actively improving its own search engine. Old founder of the Google Wave, Lars Rasmussen, has joined Facebook, is developing a version of the search engines social networking to develop a new version called â€Å"search engines social networking†. This system will be expected to compete with the search engine of Giant Google in the future. The main purpose of the project is to develop a better search engine that can help brows through the huge amount of content created by users on social networks, as the status updates, articles, video clips and other information. Facebook expects a new email service will help them overtake Google and dominate the social networking world. In 2010, Facebook unveiled the project Titan to compete with Gmail from text messages (SMS), instant messaging (IM), email to Facebook messages. The system will combine messaging via mobile phones, email and chat messages to send to the recipients and they can reply to messages in any way. Facebook uses this project likea special strategy for competition generally on the Internet and particularly on social network. This time, there is notjust the war on email. Facebook seems want to dominate in every field. Facebook is a best place to share photos, surpassing all other services from Flickr, Picasa to Twitter even though its image quality is not high. Facebook members posted 250 million photos per day and this is the function most users use in the social network. Therefore, the Facebook pay billions for the application only works on iPhone and Android also is understandable. Moreover, they also developed a tool Facebook camera similar to Instagram. BUSINESS MODEL To understand why Google and Facebook abominate each other, it is necessary to study their business model. Facebook is now one of the largest social networks while Google is believed as the most powerful searching engine. Each tech titans have been reaping significant success in their domain. However, they both seem have the same main source of revenue is advertising. â€Å"Facebook has 901 million monthly active users (MAUs) as of March 31, 2012, an increase of 33% as compared to 680 million MAUs as of March 31, 2011. And 488 million MAUs used Facebook mobile products in March 2012†-Facebook Amended S1. With great numbers of users, people are deeply impressed by Facebook’s growth. Nevertheless, Google has crossed the 1 billion user mark, while Facebook is not far behind at 900 million however, users spend a far greater amount of time on Facebook per day, approximately 7 times higher. Top 10 Web Brand for August 2011 (U.S., Total) Rank| Brand| Total Internet Audience(thousand)| Time per Person (hh:mm:ss)| 1| Google | 176,235| 1:47:42| 2| Facebook| 163,163| 7:45:49*| 3| Yahoo| 149,072| 2:12:08| 4| MSN/WindowsLive/Bing| 134,410| 1:43:45| Read as: During August 2011, 176.2 million unique U.S. people visited Google’s websites(Source: Nielsen) In the term of valuation, after the most crucial event of Facebook’s timeline- IPO, going public, Facebook is known being in the position of Google’s 2003. The table below indicates the comparison between Google (GOOG) and Facebook (FB) in different categories such as revenue, revenue growth, operating income and gross margin as they are in the public day. That means for Google, its first quarter is when they were in Q3, while Facebook’s would be Q1 2010 As the table shows, the growth of both companies over the time is almost equivalent as Google 19% and Facebook 16%. If taking into the specific, Google growth rate is arguably more stable than its counterpart social network. The primary reason causing such deviation is that Google was well-established. The following chart will present that point more clearly Source: GOOG data YCHARTS In comparison, Facebook had a dramatic variable number and especially it was negative in the last quarter, Q9 with -6%.Probably, the company has not decided which its business model is yet (Husky Financial, Facebook vs Google: what you need to know post-IPO). Besides, the other factor affects a volatile Facebook’s development is the dependence in Zynga. There is 15% of Facebook revenue from Zynga (Forbes, By the numbers: Facebook investor checklist). According to the S1, â€Å"If Zynga does not maintain its level of engagement with our users or if we are unable to successfully maintain our relationship with Zynga, our financial results could be harmed†. The crucial income of two companies is generated from advertising. Google have recently proved their Google Adwords comes off well. Thousands of business could buy ads on Google and leads or sales with a proven positive ROI, return on investment. Advertising on Facebook shows much less convincing at this position. The stop in using Facebook’s ads is the forceful example. General Motors Co said on Tuesday (June 22) it will stop advertising on Facebook, even as the social networking website prepares to go public, with a source familiar with the matter saying the automaker had decided Facebooks ads had little impact on consumers (Reuters). When going to public in 2004, raising just under $2 billion with an initial market cap of le than $25 billion, less than a decade, Google is worth close to 10 times. The IPO gave needed capital to expand their business. This scenario maybe not actually happen to Facebook, according to the previously mention. CONCLUSION A famous Chinese quote â€Å"One mountain cannot have two tigers†. Thus, a social media site or a search engine site will gain a victory? It has not exactly answered yet. However, according to several surveys and analysis in previous parts, Google has more strengthened than Facebook for some reasons: 1. We have many reasons to access Google but only a few reasons to login in Facebook. Most of us go Facebook for chatting , sharing your thoughts , seeing new update , seeing who liked our status, and sharing from our friend or using some applications and playing games . We are busy at looking the updates rather than ads on Facebook. Nobody logins in Facebook to check or to search when they can buy a cheap T shirt or which books are famous, so on. On the other hand, Google is more useful than Facebook. We can search to know any information that we need such as which college is the best or which food is good for health. When we all open up Google for the above mentioned purposes we click on various ads and indirectly generate revenue for Google. The more we search information the more revenue we will generate for Google. 2. People use Facebook less than they used to be A recent survey showed that 34% of users spend less time for Facebook over half a year ago. They assumed that Facebook is boring, not useful, not related and not safe to keep personal information. 20% users spend more time for Facebook, 1/3 users now do not login in Facebook, and nearly 50% of users login in Facebook that stay the same. In addition, a survey from 31/5 to 4/6 /2012 with 1.036 people in America by Reuters and market research company Ipsos presented that most of 80% users never buy product or service on Facebook. As a result, many advertising companies are disappointed and do not want to advertise on facebook anymore. For example: Early 2011, Facebook earned $3.7 billion through advertising. In 2012, this revenue is slowing. In fact, General Motors has recently regained about 10 million investments for advertising on Facebook because it was not effective. 3. Facebook will be forgotten Eric Jackson, founder of Ironfire Capital, said that in 5 to 8 years, Facebook would disappear the same way Yahoo now. Although Yahoo is still making money, still profitable, still has 13 thousand employees, but Yahoo is just 10% in value compared with their peak in 2000. Basically, Yahoo! has been considered as disappeared. Whether Google or Facebook win, users also have benefit. Both companies are fighting to capture the heart of users worldwide. The competition gets its benefit because it can prevent monopoly situation. As long as the two companies keep on fighting, users will continue to gain benefits because the two companies will continue to improve, change, and figure out new features to attract users. For example: Currently, Google has extra the Google Plus to attract users and many other existent features such as YouTube, Feedburner, Chat, Analytics, and Docs. Facebook has the latest new Facebook Timeline feature. The competition between Google and Facebook is just at the beginning stage. We will be seeing more actions and tricks from both sides in future. As the main goal is to gather as many users as possible, both parties will take any necessary steps to capture users’ attention. In the future, users can get more benefit such as gifts, discounts, coupons, competition prize, lucky draws and many other events by just participating. Works Cited August 2011 Top US Web Brands. August 2011, Top US Web Brands. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 June 2012. http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/august-2011-top-us-web-brands. Facebook. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 19 June 2012. Web. 20 June 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook. Google Se Tao Ra Mang Xa Hoi Tot Hon Facebook. Http://www.pcworld.com.vn/articles/tin-tuc/tin-quoc-te/2010/08/1220500/google-se-tao-ra-mang-xa-hoi-tot-hon-facebook/. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 June 2012. http://www.pcworld.com.vn/articles/tin-tuc/tin-quoc-te/2010/08/1220500/google-se-tao-ra-mang-xa-hoi-tot-hon-facebook/. Google vs. Facebook. Netchunks. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 June 2012. http://www.netchunks.com/google-vs-facebook/. PGDE Scrapbook. Enter Website Address or Keywords to Cite. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 June 2012. http://pgde.tumblr.com/post/3289734065/enter-website-address-or-keywords-to-cite. Và ¬ Sao Google Lai Ghet Va so Facebook. TGDT. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 June 2012. http://genk.vn/c188n2011090408403182/vi-sao-google-lai-ghet-va-so-facebook.chn. â€Å" 1/3 ngÆ °Ã¡ » i dung đà £ â€Å"ngá º ¥y â€Å" Facebook†.vietnamnet.9 June 2012. Web . 14 June 2012. â€Å"Google vs. Facebook†. netchunks.18 May 2012. Web. 14 June 2012 . â€Å"The Competition Between Facebook and Google Which Might Benefits Users†. toasteggme.24 September 2011. Web. 14 June 2012. â€Å"Why Facebook still not equipped enough to compete with Google†.aryaninfo.n.d.Web. 14 June 2012. Husky Financial. Facebook Vs. Google: What You Need To Know Post-IPO Seeking Alpha. Facebook Vs. Google: What You Need To Know Post-IPO Seeking Alpha. Seeking Alpha, 17 May 2012. Web. 4 June 2012. http://seekingalpha.com/article/598731-facebook-vs-google-what-you-need-to-know-post-ipo. Klayman, Ben, and Alexei Oreskovic. GM to Drop Facebook Ads Due to Low Consumer Impact. Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 15 May 2012. Web. 4 June 2012. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/15/net-us-gm-facebook-idUSBRE84E1D420120515. Nielsenwire. August 2011- Top US Web Brands. August 2011 Top US Web Brands. N.p., 30 Sept. 2011. Web. 20 June 2012. http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/august-2011-top-us-web-brands. YChart. Google Price: 581.53. Google Price (GOOG). N.p., n.d. Web. 4 June 2012. http://ycharts.com/companies/GOOG/price. YCharts. By The Numbers:Facebook Investor Checklist. Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 18

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Free Essay on John Steinbecks Cannery Row :: Cannery Row Essays

Cannery Row Cannery Row by John Steinbeck is a post World War I piece written with a mixture of humor and sadness about the lives of the residents of Cannery Row, a street in Monterey California. The story opens in a messy grocery store run by a Chinese man named Lee Chong. The one room store is described like so "while not a model of neatness, was a miracle of supply... clothes, food, both fresh and canned, liquor, tobacco, fishing equipment, machinery, boats, cordage, caps, pork chops, slippers, and a silk kimono" and last but certainly not least whiskey, could all be purchased. All of the whiskeys had names like "Old" Tennessee and were at least four months old. Our casts of characters have nicknamed the cheapest whiskey "Old Tennis Shoe". Lee Chong is a good man who has the respect of the town. He manages to be respected by the entire town, while most of the town was in his financial debt. Debt would rise for many people who shopped at Lee's, because he would trust co nsumers "until further trust would be ridiculous". From this beginning comes a cast of characters long and detailed, making the book and the street come alive. Turning to the next page was not a chore but a leap into another person's woes and prospers. We meet men like Horace Abbeville who's summarized tale is one that begins with debt, which Horace pays off with a shack he owned that housed fishmeal. After Lee Chong agreed to this arrangement, Mr. Abbeville sauntered up the long trails to this shack and shot him self in the head, leaving his wife and children sad and confused. Lee had not pressured Horace for payment he had only suspended Horace's credit. Lee felt badly about Horace's suicide and always watched out for Horace's family. Lee's new ownership of Horace's shack leads us to the introduction of Mack and the boys. Mack twists Lee's arm to allow them to stay in the fishmeal shack now called the Palace Flophouse and Grill. Mack and the boys are men who very well could go off and do something with themselves. Instead, Mack and the boys would sit around drinking Old Tennis Shoe, getting into trouble whenever possible.

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

A1 Steak Sauce

A1 Steak Sauce and Marinades| To:| Smith, Chuck | From:| | CC:| | Date:| | Re:| Lawry's Defense| Comments:| Issue Lawry is attempting to release a new steak sauce that should penetrate the market by early April. Obviously a new player in the market is not a major concern to A1/Kraft, having over 50 percent of the market share. The best case scenario for Lawry is that they will only gain ten percent of the market share. The direct threat for A1 lies with Lawry’s marketing tactics. Lawry is attempting to launch a Memorial Day advertisement with Publix, offering a two-for $5 promotion.The issue is that retailers generally support only one brand in a particular category in a given week. In recent years A1 has always locked in that spot. Aside from Lawry’s promotion dates, their promotion price is also a major concern. A1 sells over ten percent of their yearly volume each promotion during the summer holiday promotion weeks of Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. Generally A1 would run a fifty cent off promotion with the unit sale price lowered to $4. 49. As the category leader in the steak sauce, A1 has been able to continually increase sales revenue by relying on price increases.The price increase is the primary way that A1 is able to increase revenue since volume has been stagnant the past few years. [Appendix A is a SWOT analysis displaying the internal and external factors that contributes to A1’s current dilemma] Evaluating Alternatives A1 Steak Sauce has several alternatives to evaluate. A1 can be proactive or reactive. By taking the proactive approach, A1 can beat Lawry at its own game of strategic pricing. Option 1: A1 can directly price match and copy the promotions of Lawry. A1 Steak Sauce will considerably drop its prices, which will clutch all of Lawry’s forecasted sales.However, it will not only affect Lawry but it will decrease A1’s potential of future revenue too. Option 2: A1 can do a similar price match of a  "two-for† special. Rather than a two-for-$5, A1 could shoot for a more reasonable approach of two-for- $8. Although both scenarios will require the same amount of units sold (sold in pairs) in order to breakeven. [Appendix B shows Pro Forma for Option 1 and Appendix C shows a Pro Forma for Option 2] A1 can also take a reactive approach by increase its advertising while Lawry is running its two-for-$5 promotion.A1 Steak Sauce can pay for more efficient shelf spacing in the retail outlet. This will include end caps, more facings in the stores, larger and increase signage (bigger and better than what they have done in years past). A1 can also use their brand recognition to their advantage by ensuring more restaurants that publically use A1 display their products, rather it’s on the menu or tables. Currently A1 spends roughly 15% of total revenue on advertising. Option 3: A1 could simply increase their percentage of revenue to marketing and adverting from 15% to 20%.This ap proach will decrease A1’s net profit by roughly 7. 5million (with the worst case scenario that A1 will not increase sales at all) but it will allow A1 to increase its brand awareness and make it substantially harder for Lawry to penetrate the market with its new steak sauce. [Appendix D displays A1’s pro forma with the original 15% of revenue funding its marketing while Appendix E displays an increase to 20% of revenue funding marketing initiatives]Recommendation: Based on the financial analysis of each option, Option 2 would be the best approach for A1.Although each scenario is profitable, Option 2 has more incentives than the other options. Option 2 would be a better deal for A1 because it will generate over 17 million dollars more in profit than Option 1. It will take 38k units to breakeven or 19k pairs on sale for two-for-$8. The breakeven amount is not that far off from what A1 is already accustom to meeting. The price cut alone would be also be great incentive fo r the customers because they will save $2 ($1 per unit) rather than the normal fifty cent.That $2 reduction will be very favorable for A1 granted that it’s will go into effect during the holiday season when shoppers are looking for a bargain, especially while the cost of beef is going through inflation. Additionally, the amount of money spent on advertising will not increase compared to Option 3, so A1 can stick to their normal tactics and not have to focus on cutting cost elsewhere to cover the increase in advertising. | APPENDIX Appendix A: SWOT Analysis

Monday, January 6, 2020

The Effects of a Food Taxation on the UKs Budget Deficit Position - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1147 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2018/12/15 Category Food Essay Type Research paper Level High school Tags: Budget Essay Taxation Essay Did you like this example? Introduction Taxation in the United Kingdom can involve payment to the minimum of approximately three different levels of government. A budget deficit is referred as the twelve-monthly amount that the administration has to borrow so as to meet the deficit between the present receipts as well as state expenditure. The government of the United Kingdom need to raise the tax revenue in order to reduce the budget deficit of the country.  Ã‚   In this paper, I will show whether I agree with a politician or not. I disagree with the politician that in United Kingdom, government should place a tax on all food yields since everybody must eat.   This is because it is it is unrealistic that taxation food products like non-alcoholic beverages will automatically the raise the government revenue of UK.   There are several reasons as to why taxation of foods yields will not raise government revenue. One, price elasticity. So as to generate tax revenue to the government, a tax must be applied to foodstuffs which are price inelastic (That is, products whose use lies less compared to proportionately when their cost inelastic) food product price inelastic. This indicates that effects of an increase in cost are hard to affect and may not be estimated thus, food products may not increase tax revenue. Two, effects on the other taxes. Those tax can potentially decrease other types of revenue which are paid by manufacturers, traders as well as merchants of taxed foodstuffs and their related providers and workers. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Effects of a Food Taxation on the UKs Budget Deficit Position" essay for you Create order Three, shopping over a border. The tax could also promote trans-border from buyers attempting in order to avoid the tax decrease. Taxing of food products will offer incentives to food manufacturers so that they may improve the nutritional profile of their own products thus, many people will buy, and hence it will not have effect on overall the government revenue. Four, intrinsic administrative prices. The design, observing as well as implementation of the tax could force significant administrative prices on administration making process to long, complicated as well as cannot be frugally productive as predictable. In addition, taxation of food products may change the way people eat.   Business typically passes substantial percentages of taxes through retail cost (Borrelli, 205.p 225).   Individual eat less food as well as the drink small amount of the targeted product, thus raising the government revenues becomes expensive (Arestis, 2004.p, 74). Also, taxation of food production would be inefficient in raising the government revenues.   Products will not be able to adequately raise the government revenue without putting burdens on the economy too much. I agree with the politician that taxes on food, vegetable, and fruits, will be applied to the grocery stores so that the low-income customers are protected. When food stores incurred a greater taxation they increase the price of food in a regular manner and so they low-income earner can only purchase what they need basically. The introduction of a tax to food especially the food which contributes to poor health is important for the rate to which they are being taken can reduce. The introduction of a tax to grocery stores will reduce the frequency to which unhealthy food contribute to our poor health. The politician suggestion was not positively taken by the people of the United Kingdom but some people agree with him when they see the ?bigger picture. This is because the seller will not allow their business to make a loss. They will distribute the value added tax to the people. This will make the prices of commodities to rise and therefore hard for the easy access to this products. When the tax is applied to sellers unnecessary food manufacturing will increase the cost and their intake will reduce by a great percentage. The reduction of unnecessary food substances, especially unhealthy substances, will reduce, calorie which are taken every day in the United Kingdom every day (Taylor, 2017 p. 2). The groceries industries resist on the tax increase policies is done under responsibility deal which was signed in 2011 by the department of health. The tax applied to the sellers is expected to control the production of food, vegetable, and fruits, and reduce what is being produced unnece ssarily. For the government to collect enough revenue from the sellers, it should in return provide good services so that they can be motivated in paying. The government should create a good environment for the grocers to sell their products and this will ensure them enough profit and therefore they will exploiting the consumers. When the government and the sellers are associating well, taxation can benefit all of them, which include, the seller, the producer, the government and the consumers. Low-income consumers can be protected by the government if it brought back to the consumers what they have taken from the seller in form of a tax (Taylor, 2017 p. 6). Besides groceries, the government of the United Kingdom should focus on taxing soft drinks and other sugar products. Taxing the soft drinks should raise a good revenue for the government. Moreover, this taxation will only affect the profit of the producers and the consumers will not be affected. Although in a way the consumer will be affected, the tax will be distributed evenly to all people. Taxing the soft drinks will also result in a reduction of sugar in the beverage and hence reducing the risk of getting a sugar health problem. The tax that will be collected from the production and distribution of soft drinks and sugar will be used by the government to initiate an anti-obesity initiation (Taylor, 2017 p. 2). On the expenditure budget of the government, it shows that a lot of money is required to support the obese people. Taxing sugar and soft drinks will reduce the level of obesity due to the reduction of sugar in the products as well as raising money to support the people affec ted. Furthermore, the food and beverages companies are not happy about the introduction of taxes on their production. They insist on the voluntary action to be taken. Companies are not willing to support the motion for they are not willing to pay an extra tax for the products they produce. Conclusion From the above discussion, it is clear that food such as fruits, alcohol and other beverages should not be taxed because of various reasons like price inelasticity thus no government revenue there are other types of foods that can be taxable like soft drinks and sugar. Therefore, taxation of some food products in the UK will increase government revenue, hence dealing with the budget deficit. References Arestis, P. and Sawyer, M., 2004. On fiscal policy and UK budget deficits.  Intervention. Journal   Ã‚     of Economics,  1(2), pp.61-74. Borrelli, S.A. and Royed, T.J., 2005. Government strengthand UK budget deficits in advanced democracies.  European Journal of Political Research,  28(2), pp.225-260. Taylor, R. (2017). Debate: this house believes that the UK population trend in obesity cannot be reversed without food taxation.

Sunday, December 29, 2019

Oedipus and Christianity Essay - 652 Words

Responsibility was a big deal in the story Oedipus Rex. Even though the gods knew what he was going to do, he still had the free will to do so. This is quite similar to the beliefs of the Christian religion. Christians are accustomed to the idea that God is all knowing, yet we as humans have the gift of free will and that makes us responsible for our own actions. It seems to be similar in the tale of Oedipus Rex and in Greek mythology as a whole. The ideas of this story within the bounds of Greek mythology seem to coincide quite well with the Christian faith; it is almost as if Sophocles meant to copy the ideas of a religion that was not invented until 425 years after his story was written. That makes this impossible, yet it may just†¦show more content†¦That is not unlike Christianity when God comes down and tells Noah that there will be a great flood. Oedipus has no idea of this and when he finds out he doesnt believe it. But in the beginning he has no idea of this fact, this is due to the fact that this was told to his parents and not to him because he was still an infant. When the king and queen were told this, they immediately and reluctantly told one of the servants to take the child away and have Oedipuss life snuffed out. So to make a long story short, Oedipus was left hanging from a tree by his ankles and a shepherd who gave him to another shepherd. Now this shepherd gave the young child to the king and quee n of another island. He was raised without the knowledge of his true heredity. Thusly, he could not have seen the gross erroneous event that was about to occur and change his life drastically and cause his eventual downfall after this series of events occurs. But even without the knowledge of his horrendous future he still used free will to kill the man he met in the woods and marry the Queen of Thebes. When Oedipus finds out that he is the bearer of the plague that was brought down Thebes he blinds himself and then he leaves to wander in his own blindness and never ending pain. This is not unlike the punishment given to people who are poor Christians, they are doomed to hell and punished for all of eternity in a fiery pain. The fact of freeShow MoreRelatedTragedy In Oedipus Rex And Antigone By Euripides784 Words   |  4 Pagesknown Greek tragedies; Oedipus Rex and Antigone by Sophocles and Medea by Euripides that not only have the common genre of tragedy, but share the same motifs; homicide, suicide, and suffering. What is intriguing about these commonalities is that these playwrights, Sophocles and Euripides, use them. Homicide is an act when a human permanently harms another leading in death and these plays like to use it quite a bit. In Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles, the main character Oedipus (king of Thebes) realizesRead MoreI Sit At My Desk1171 Words   |  5 Pagesplaced over school students echo this aspect of the bond between mankind and God. Through school, a person discovers what it means to be open to instruction. Erik Brewer writes, â€Å"The foundation of Christianity is being a good student. The same Jesus Christ who was a great student went on to form Christianity, which is based on discipleship. A disciple is a learner, a student, who spends his time studying and applying what he learns† (Brewer). Because of this, years of schooling give students practiceRead MoreThings Fall Apart : A Great African Tragedy1727 Words   |  7 Pagesmakes him a danger to his family. This hubris is what will ultimately lead Okonkwo to his downfall. Compare Okonkwo to Oedipus, one of the most famous tragic characters in history. Oedipus, like Okonkwo, is a man of action. Having saved Thebes from the curse of the Sphinx, Oedpius is quickly appointed their king. Similar to Okonkwo, who lives in fear of becoming like his father, Oedipus lives his life in fear of an old prophecy, that he will marry his mother and wed his father. In many ways, Okonkwo’sRead MoreSophocles As A Master Of Character Development1497 Words   |  6 Pagesplaywrights in Greek history. He has written over 120 plays in which they were performed into three tragedies known as the â€Å"Oedipus the King†. Although he has written 123 plays there are only seven of his tragedies remaining and with only a few titles and fragments remaining. The seven tragedies include Ajax, Antigone, Trachinian Women, Oedipus the King, Electra, Philoctetes, Oedipus at Colonus, and Trackers. Sophocles was considered to be a master of character development and made sev eral major and minorRead MoreThe Differences Between Extrinsic And Intrinsic Religious Expression854 Words   |  4 PagesJudaism and Christianity. 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Greek dramaturgy did not reject violence on stage, but considered it impolite and not dramatically effective. To represent Oedipus’ bloody face-to-face withRead MoreT. S. Eliots Poetic Devices Essay1038 Words   |  5 Pagesshowing that this poetic device was used in this particular poem. The second example comes from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. It reads, Have known the evenings, mornings, and afternoons. This quote is an allusion the play Oedipus Rex where the sphinx asks Oedipus to answer a riddle and the riddle is what walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening. The answer is man because the time of day is in reference to life morning being when a baby isRead MoreTragedy Of A Tragic Fate2590 Words   |  11 Pagesin the characters may include the truth about reversal fortunes such as Oedipus’ reversal fortune when he finds out he killed his father and slept with his mother. According to Adrian Poole, tragedy and accident are involved with each other, if there is a tragedy ‘waiting’ to happen there’s a chance for it to be stopped, but is it unavoidable as it’s necessary to bring growth and enlightenment? In Oedipus the King, Oedipus is constantly searching for enlightenment about the truth, and only whenRead MoreArt Commission Statement 11333 Words   |  6 Pagesart piece, or painting is what will reflect on both parties and will represent their background and cultural patterns which they have grown up to know. The Commission Statement will explain how important this work of art is to both Judaism and Christianity. Take the Ten Commandments Statue for example; if this were to be put on display in the lobby of their Historical center many would enjoy seeing it there for various reasons. The Ten Commandments statue reflects on both parties beliefs and is aRead More Hamlet as Victim and Hero Essay1260 Words   |  6 Pagesdecis ion that suicide be a sin. Most human beings, when placed as leaders in a difficult situation, will look for ways to free themselves of their responsibility. Even Jesus Christ, the greatest being to walk the face of this earth, according to Christianity, searched for a way out as He took upon him the sins of the world in the Garden of Gethsemane. In St. Mathew 26:39 he said, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou will (The Holy Bible

Saturday, December 21, 2019

The Mysterious Disappearance Of Ned Scott - 1466 Words

The razor-sharp head of the pick, honed from countless strikes against the hard black coal, dug into the toned muscles of Henry’s back as he hefted it over his shoulder and trudged, head down, along the descending path. Layers of black coal winked in the thin beam stretching from his head lamp before fading and receding behind each step. He knew a long night lingered before him, and, as he had promised, he closed his eyes and let himself enjoy the peaceful solitude of his own mind; the blue of Charlotte’s eyes twinkling like frost in the dawn light behind his resting eyelids. Snippets of a conversation whispered behind him piqued his curiosity, yet the steadily dripping water distracted him from the dialogue. A lone lamp flickered ahead of him, moving and bending to the whim of it’s wearer; his uneven tread leaving differing prints within the loose coal dust. Henry felt his eyes waver over the deeper impressions within the dust and groaned outwardly as the identity of the miner materialised. ‘The mysterious disappearance of Ned Scott is revealed by the impressions of his obvious limp within the dusty coal-filled shaft.’ Henry groaned at the realisation, but Max, walking beside him in silent protest, simply grunted. An earnest and bleak mood settled over the midnight shift as they travelled the well-worn path to their underground vocation. ‘Why do we, so easily, accept our fate as directed by bureaucrats seated upon their fat asses from comfortably furnished leather lounge

Thursday, December 12, 2019

Telecommunication industry in Malaysia-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Critically analyse and evaluate the Incidents related to Business Ethics issues by applying at least 3 relevant Business Ethic Theories. You are also required to provide Criticisms and Opinions on the Issues. Answer: Introduction: The subject matter of the report is to analyse the problems critically regarding the business ethics and to evaluate the aspects of the same. Business ethics contain certain ethical principles to maintain the proper business environment (Crane Matten, 2016). It regulates all kind of business conduct and retains standard by setting out certain necessary norms for the betterment of the company. In 1952, Adam Smith overviewed the importance of ethical issues of business (Ferrell Fraedrich, 2015). In 2005, Jones has expressed his willingness regarding the imposition the ethical norms over the companies. The term Business ethics has been used professionally in United States of America and the official structure of the same has been concocted in 1980 (Trevino, Nelson, 2016). It has been observed that in recent times, the industries are facing certain dilemma regarding the business ethics. In this report, the problems faced by Telecommunication industry of Malaysia have been discussed. T he main reason behind the same is that the companies are not following the proper business ethics and become a profit gaining machine. Various allegations have been made against these companies and therefore, the share markets of Malaysia have been affected a lot. This report points out certain strategies to overcome the ethical problems (Weiss, 2014). This report has made a critical analysis on the two telecommunication based companies in Malaysia. The chosen companies are Maxis telecommunication and DiGi telecommunications. Discussion: Ethical issues: Ethical issues are stands on morality and the grounds of the ethical issues should be depended on honesty and integrity. Circumstances may be differed into such a condition that requires the business group to crave the morality regarding special action (Hoffman, Frederick Schwartz, 2014). In recent times, it has been observed that the ethical issues regarding a business have been highlighted and it involves certain aspects such as honesty, integrity, harassment, professional behaviour and fraud. The problems will remain same if these could not be removed. It has been observed that most of the companies are affected from the ethical misconduct committed against the customer and the employees. The resource abuse is also getting at the top now days (Wang, Kweh, Lai, 2014). In certain times, it has been observed that the companies are involved within the curse of bribery. This malicious intent helps the company towards degradation. It has been observed by business analytics that honesty is the base of every company. If a company fails to achieve the goal and jeopardise the organisational ethics, it will face degradation (Cantwell, Dunning Lundan, 2015). There are certain principles that a company should follow to achieve the ultimate goal by maintaining business ethics. These are beneficence, least harm, respect for autonomy, justice, Deontology, Utilitarianism, rights and virtue. In this report, three of the principles will be discussed. These principles can be categorising as follows: Justice; Deontology, and Justice: According to this theory, it is the utmost duty of the decision maker to concentrate on the works that are fair in nature. The main objective of this theory is to equalise the ethical decision with the ethical theory (Oelze et al., 2016). It has been stated that if the decision taken by the company could not be based on the ethical version, a company cannot make prosperous. The decision will also assist the companies to deal with the ethical dilemmas and therefore, it can be stated that until a company takes an ethical decision regarding their products or company settlement, it could not ensure the interest of the consumers and the employees (Yeboah-Asiamah et al., 2016). Deontology: This theory regulates the process of decision. As per the theory, a company should have to equalise the obligations and the duties and the same should have to apply during the process of decision making. A company should perform that duty which is regarded as ethically correct (Wahid et al., 2017). For instance, a company shall, at all possible times keep the promises and abide by the principle of law. The main criteria of this theory are to follow certain obligations regarding to perform certain ethical duties. The deontological ethics can be formularised in certain ways such as Kantianism (originated by Immanuel Cant), moral absolutism, divine command theory and contemporary deontology (Wang et al., 2014). Utilitarianism: When a company can predict an action and the result of such action, the ability will be regarded as utilitarianism. It has two wings, one deal with act and other deals with rules. The believer of acts utilitarianism performs that job suitable for most of the person. Rule utilitarianism consists of certain legal principles. The objective of this theory is to gain maximum good (Taghizadeh et al., 2014). However, these theories have certain loopholes that are generated from the ethical background and it can be observed that the interest of the individuals is neglected in the process of application of these theories. Ethical dilemma faced by the company: The present company is a bright name in the telecommunication sector of Malaysia. However, this company has been suffering from certain ethical dilemmas that can be stated as under: The main ethical issue is that the price of the mobile has been reduced by the company, but the same has not been offered to all. It has been fixed for certain classified customers. It has been alleged by many loyal customers that they do not enjoy the cheap plan of the company. The decisions taken by the company are not based on ethical issues. It fails to comply with the ethical principles and as a result, the company lost its customer chain. It has been observed that the company has failed to be loyal to its customers and fails to provide quality product to its customer (Taghizadeh et al., 2014). The acts of the company towards its customer are being treated as unfair and it has been observed that the secret post-paid plans by the company become the scandal. The secret plans of the company is being regarded as the dishonest approach of the company to the customers and it can be stated that the reputation of the company has become affected by this a lot. Stakeholder analysis: It is a legal fact that a company is a separate entity and it works through the stakeholders. Therefore, it is obvious to state that the stakeholders are important in nature and without their assistance; a company could not run its business. Stakeholders include Board of Directors, shareholders, and other staffs. The theory of stakeholders applies to them who are getting benefitted from the company and regarding their role in the company, the stakeholders are to be treated ethically (Bryman Bell, 2015). Shareholders are the most important part of the company as the economic background of the company is depended on the shareholders and they are purchasing the shares of the company. They are directly attached to the company and if the company is affected due to certain unethical decisions, the interest of the shareholders will also get inflicted. The suppliers and the customers are also a part of the company. The suppliers are the persons who are distributed the products of the company and reach the products to the customers. If the policy of the company does not go with the suppliers and fails to protect the interest of the customer, it will be unethical in nature and affected both of them (Crane, Matten, 2016). It has been observed that both the companies are affected by the ethical dilemmas and bunch of allegations are pending against them. Stakeholders of both the companies are facing certain dilemma as the reputation of the companies is deteriorating day today. However, it has been observed that the position of Maxis telecommunication is not that mush good. In the Maxis Telecommunication, there are certain reputed stakeholders. It is a part of the Ananda Krishnans empire. One of the important stakeholders of the company is Saudi Telecom Company who owns 25% of stake in the company. It is obvious to state that if the company is suffering from certain disabilities, it will affect the interest of the stakeholders. Therefore, the company should act with the stakeholders ethically and it should not forget the ethical principles so that it will oppose the customisation policies. Stakeholder analysis is important in this regard to understand the necessary policies of stakeholders (Trevino Nelson, 2016). Stakeholder analysis comprised of pondering and evaluating all the rival demands on a company or corporation by each of it who have a claim on it, in order to arrive at the firm's obligation in a particular case. In case of the stakeholder analysis, the necessary thing is that the overall examination regarding the interest of the stakeholder should be the matter of consideration. It is a way to determine the attitudes of the stakeholders regarding the dispute and the way they deal with the same. there is no particular time or process mentioned to analyse the stakeholders. It is depending on the circumstances (Weiss, 2014). In case of the Maxis telecommunication, it has been observed that the marketing policy became a potential threat to the company and it begins to lose its customer chain due to this. The marketing ethics consists of certain ethical values that should be followed up by the marketers. It is the duty of the marketers to take effective decisions regarding the market contradiction and the way these disputes can be resolved. There should be a transparency regarding the potential risks regarding the environmental issues and risks generated due to finance and the security whereas the policies of DiGi telecommunication are quite promising (Ferrell Fraedrich, 2015). It has been observed that the employees of the company are getting training to deal with the customers properly and the product policies of the company are also customer oriented. Therefore, it has been observed that many loyal customers of Maxis are transferring their concentration to the DiGi telecommunication. There are three kinds of stakeholders- primary stakeholders, secondary stakeholders and key stakeholders. Stakeholder analysis will help to avoid the potential risks regarding the interest of the stakeholders. Strategies to be overcome: The ethical dilemma of a company can be resolved by adopting perfect policies or strategies. It is important to make a framework to resolve all the ethical dilemmas and to point out the grounds that causes dilemma regarding the same. The decisions are trade off between utility, rights and justice (Hoffman, Frederick Schwartz, 2014). The company should be indebted to the stakeholders and to the customers as their profit is depends on them. The company should act with them ethically and should provide them certain benefits like efficiency, consistency and pay back policies. The company should value all the possible chances and should not take any fraudulent way to gain ulterior motive or profit. It has been stated by Ambers Parker that the company should treated all the customers and the stakeholders with honesty and ethically. In the words of Plato, the business conflicts should be avoided at all possible chances. The unethical behaviour of the company should be treated with pro-active measures and it should be stated that there should be a common goal for the companies and policies should be taken so that all the stakeholders can take part in it (Wahid et al., 2017). If there is any allegation made against the reputation of the company, it should be responded positively. All the legal and ethical duties are to be fulfilled and all the strategies must be logistic and based on facts. According to Borgerson, and Schroeder (2008), marketing can influence individuals' perceptions of and interactions with other people, implying an ethical responsibility to avoid distorting those perceptions and interactions. The allegations that have been made against Maxis affected the interest of the shareholders and the stakeholders and it can be stated that the customer chain of the company had been affected and the company had to face great dilemma (Trevino Nelson, 2016). Many customers have made the allegation that the company deprived all the loyal customer and providing discount to others. It has been observed that the company has been affected by certain scandals and the reputation of the company had been affected for the unethical decisions and the policy of the company. The company should respond to the allegations and the company should take ethical approach to deal with the problems. Conclusion Therefore, it can be stated that the company is facing certain ethical problems and the report has been discussed the ethical issues that the company is being faced. The company is liable for the launching of Malaysias first four satellites and it is serving as a great name for the telecommunication industry for years and it has a strong customer chain. However, it has been observed that the customer base of the company is being affected by the unethical approaches of the company regarding its 2G spectrum. It has been alleged that the company is supplying certain mobiles to the customers in a cheap rate and deprive the loyal customer (Ismail et al., 2015). There were no positive replies given from the officials regarding the allegations and as a result the company is losing its customers. It has also been observed that the stakeholders of the company are also getting affected as the bad impression of the company regarding the consumers minimize the price of the shares and it has been observed that the costs of the products have faced a financial dilemma. There are other competitors in the telecommunication market of Malaysia and it has been noticed that unethical approaches of the company help others to rise in the market of the company. Many of the customers of the company went to the companies like DiGi. Therefore, it can be stated that the ethical issues of the company should be resolved with positive delights. In the words of Economist Milton Freidman, the corporate executives should have to maintain certain responsibilities. There are certain policies that will help to overcome these ethical issues. It is important to point out the sources of the ethical dilemmas and the policies of the company should be customer oriented. It is important to implement code of conduct for the employees and necessary provision regarding anti-corruption rules should be included. The interest of the customer should be taken on higher priority and the division of customer shoul d be closed by the highest authority as soon as possible. The employees should be trained in a proper way so that they can prove themselves as promising to the customers. The company should provide quick response to the allegations, if any, made by the customers. These strategies will help to overcome the dilemmas and the telecommunication industry can get rid of the dilemmas. References Bryman, A., Bell, E. (2015). Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA. Cantwell, J., Dunning, J. H., Lundan, S. M. (2015). An evolutionary approach to understanding international business activity: The co-evolution of MNEs and the institutional environment. In The Eclectic Paradigm (pp. 192-223). Palgrave Macmillan UK. Crane, A., Matten, D. (2016). Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press. Crane, A., Matten, D. (2016). Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press. Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J. (2015). Business ethics: Ethical decision making cases. Nelson Education. Hoffman, W. M., Frederick, R. E., Schwartz, M. S. (Eds.). (2014). Business ethics: Readings and cases in corporate morality. John Wiley Sons. Ismail, M., Alias, S. N., Mohd Rasdi, R. (2015). Community as stakeholder of the corporate social responsibility programme in Malaysia: outcomes in community development. Social Responsibility Journal, 11(1), 109-130. Oelze, N., Hoejmose, S. U., Habisch, A., Millington, A. (2016). Sustainable development in supply chain management: The role of organizational learning for policy implementation. Business Strategy and the Environment, 25(4), 241-260. Taghizadeh, S. K., Jayaraman, K., Rahman, S. A., Malkifar, S. (2014). A glance on service innovation scenario: case of leading telecommunication companies in Malaysia. Int J Bus Innov, 1(5), 4-22. Trevino, L. K., Nelson, K. A. (2016). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right. John Wiley Sons. Trevino, L. K., Nelson, K. A. (2016). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right. John Wiley Sons. Wahid, N. K. A., Wahid, N. K. A., Mohd. Mustamil, N., Mohd. Mustamil, N. (2017). Ways to maximize the triple bottom line of the telecommunication industry in Malaysia: The potentials of spiritual well-being through spiritual leadership. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 30(2), 263-280. Wang, W. K., Lu, W. M., Kweh, Q. L., Lai, H. W. (2014). Does corporate social responsibility influence the corporate performance of the US telecommunications industry?. Telecommunications Policy, 38(7), 580-591. Wang, W. K., Lu, W. M., Kweh, Q. L., Lai, H. W. (2014). Does corporate social responsibility influence the corporate performance of the US telecommunications industry?. Telecommunications Policy, 38(7), 580-591. Weiss, J. W. (2014). Business ethics: A stakeholder and issues management approach. Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Yeboah-Asiamah, E., Nimako, S. G., Quaye, D. M., Buame, S. (2016). Implicit and explicit loyalty: the role of satisfaction, trust and brand image in mobile telecommunication industry. International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets, 8(1), 94-115