COMMENTING ON AN EVENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

COMMENTING ON AN EVENT - Essay Example For example, when the San Francisco Healthy Food Incentive Ordinance banned free toys to the customers on the purchase of Happy Meals, McDonald’s started to offer the toys with Happy Meals for an extra 10 cents only so that it adheres to the new law without having its sales impacted much by it. Summaries of Articles In the article â€Å"The Ban Too Far† published in The New York Times on 31 May 2012, the author has generally appreciated Bloomberg’s role in improving the health of the residents of the New York City, but does not approve of his recent attempt to ban the drinks sized over 16 ounces. The author has cited examples of several ways in which Bloomberg has helped the community e.g. the ban on smoking and trans fat in a lot of institutions, but as the name of the article suggests, the author considers the ban an unnecessarily strong action. The author believes that instead of placing such bans on the sizes of drinks or eatables, the administration should d irect its attention towards educating the community and providing them with healthier alternatives without restricting their access to the high-calorie food. According to the author, making tough campaigns and launching exercise programs are also recommendable, but banning something irritates the people.  In the article â€Å"Evolution’s Sweet Tooth† published in The New York Times on 5 June 2012, the author Daniel E. Lieberman says that the libertarian objections to Bloomberg’s ban on the sale of drinks sized above 16 ounces the most noticeable amongst others, that speculates that this ban will be succeeded by bans on the quantities of other kinds of junk foods. Declaring obesity as a biological problem, Lieberman thinks that Bloomberg’s decision is reasonable since such a coercive action is the need of the hour. Lieberman has drawn evidence in his support for Bloomberg from the way human eating habits have been modified by various external factors like advancement of technology. Scarcity of food sustained over millions of years in the past maintained a balance between the cravings for sugar and the human digestive systems. It is beyond the control of many to limit the intake of sugar since the craving for this once-limited-resource is simple tremendous in the present age when it is in abundance. Lieberman puts forth three basic options to deal with this issue. The first option is the discovery of cures for the diseases caused by obesity for which people might have to wait too long while being affected by the diseases. The second and the more popular option is the enhancement of public education about food and healthy eating habits, but this has not proven very effective so far. The third option requires restoration of diets to the natural state with the help of regulations as the times have changed and so has the human lifestyle. Imposing ban on large portions of drinks is just as sensible as banning cigarettes in schools or limi ting the access of children to alcohol. Bans are the ultimate solution as schools have proven ineffective in delivering physical education in the past. Along with imposing such bans, the food industry should honestly

Sports Utility Vehicles Essay Example for Free

Sports Utility Vehicles Essay The paper referred to with this text is the one entitled â€Å"Sports Utility Vehicles: The real cost of power,† and the intention in this document is to endeavor to explain the revision process and what I personally learnt from that process as it applies to this paper. In revising the paper, apart from the obvious spelling, punctuation, grammatical and referencing corrections, I also needed to look at the hypothesis, structure and argument basis. There were two reasons for this. Firstly, revision is necessary to ensure that the research and conclusions reached are in accordance with the main theme of the paper, and that it does not raise additional points, which have been left, unanswered. In the respect of the hypothesis question, upon reviewing my work I found that it was necessary to revise from the original, as this was not concisely presented, nor were the original boundaries of the question defined in a manner that was easy to follow. It therefore needed to be more clearly defined. Similarly, from the structural aspect, there was a need for this to be reorganized. In its initial format, some of the points portrayed in the paper were not organized in a manner that clearly led the reader from one to the next, creating what might have appeared to be a disjointed approach to the subject. Clarity was also one of the reasons for the revision. In parts of the paper, it was found that points were made for which there was no supporting evidence, or the relevance of those points to the hypothesis were not connected properly. During the revision of the work, these points were revisited. In most cases, it was possible to provide further clarification, which addressed the issues. However, it was found in one or two instances that further research was necessary to either support the point raised or re-analyze it. The other aspect of the original paper that did require revision was that of the citations and quotations. In some original cases, these did not provide ease of access for the reader and would have reduced the value of the paper as a credible research document. Some of the references were too vague and in other instances, references and bibliographical connections were missing. I believe that the value that I personally gained from the process of the revision of this paper will benefit future research and other work that I undertake. I learnt the importance of being able review work in an objective manner, questioning the arguments raised in an effort to seek their relevance to the issues being addressed and the hypothesis itself. In addition, I learnt that the style of writing and the structure of the document, in terms of both the sentences and the ordered manner of presenting points raised, make a significant difference to the clarity of the document and impacts upon it knowledge value for the reader or student. As a result, I believe that the revising of the SUV paper will provide me with the ability to produce a better standard of work in the future. It will also enable me to improve my knowledge and development skills. Work Cited Anon (2006). Revising the draft. The Writing Center, University of North Carolina. Retrieved 6 December 2006 from http://www. unc. edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/revision. html

Product analysis of tiger biscuit

Product analysis of tiger biscuit Tiger Biscuit-Milk that are owned by Kraft Foods is the product that we chose to analyse on. This is because we find that, it interest us on how a big company like Kraft Foods actually plan their marketing strategies to compete with many other of their competitors on one of their major business portfolio, which is the snacks category and position them well in the market. Tiger Biscuit are first launch in 1997 in India by the Britannia Industries. It became the companys largest brand among its portfolios in the first year of its launching until today. Tiger Biscuit is a glucose biscuit that are mainly made from wheat and milk to enrich its nutrition and healthier compare to other glucose biscuits in the market. The main target market of this biscuit is the kids. Therefore, they make improvement in their biscuits by offering various choice and flavour. It is tasty and affordable to suit the modern mothers who want the best for their kids and take the role to enable their kids to compete in todays world. Recently, Tiger Biscuit are enriching Iron Zor in their biscuit which attempt to address the problem of iron deficiency among the society, either young or the elderly. SWOT analysis is an overall view of the businesss strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Strengths and weaknesses are the positive and negative trends in the internal environment of the business which are under control while opportunities and threats are external factors that are not under a businesss control. Kraft Tiger can use their strengths to overcome their weaknesses, capturing the opportunities in the external environment to gain advantages and minimizing their threats. They can be benefit from a SWOT analysis by knowing and understanding their current position before make any further decisions and plans. Therefore, SWOT analysis plays an important issue for Kraft Tiger Biscuit. The following are the SWOT analysis of Kraft Tiger Biscuit-Milk. One of the strength of Kraft Tiger is they are well-known. The reason they became so well-known is because they already exist in the market for a very long period of time and also through advertising in the television. Besides, it is used by McDonalds as part of the promotion as gimmick. This will make it even more well-known. On the other hand, Kraft Tiger gives public a healthy concept and image. As we can see on its packaging, it mentions six pieces of Kraft Tiger equal to one glass of milk. It would help in bones growth and also build stronger teeth. It has lesser calories and fats in their bars too compare to others, yet it still tastes nice and suitable for all level of ages. Next, Kraft Tiger is readily and easy access. Customers can get it anywhere such as malls, Seven Eleven franchises and markets which are near to their place. The price is reasonable and affordable too compared to the nutrition value it contains. Last but not least, the packaging for Kraft Tiger is handy. I t is very consumer-friendly as it can be carry along easily. The weaknesses Tiger include its business liquidation. By facing this problem, Kraft Tiger would cut down the cost of production and thus this will affect its business performance at the market. Besides, Kraft Tiger has high sugar level. Nowadays the customers are concern about the food ingredient, they always want for less sugar and less salt. They would go for more organic biscuit rather than too sweet. The opportunity of Kraft Tiger is the changing of consumers lifestyle. Nowadays, part of the society are made up of working parents, which means they would not have enough time to prepare breakfast for their family. Thus, Kraft Tiger can help to replace the parents duty to prepare a nutritional snack for breakfast. Besides, Kraft Tiger positions their milk-flavoured biscuit as healthy snacks. Parents would allow their children to purchase rather than purchasing other unhealthy snacks. It is everybody favourite, for parents and children. Another opportunity of Kraft Tiger includes the growing demand in the snacks and savoury market in these few years. Women always look for better body shape and thus, some of them will skip meals for maintaining or slimming down their body shape. Therefore, they will go for healthy snacks such as Kraft Tiger which will make them full, yet not fattening. There are many competitors in the biscuit industry, such as direct and indirect competitors. Direct competitors are such as Soda Crackers and Chocolate Love Letter. They will actually compete with Kraft Tiger in the biscuit field. While indirect competitors are the tit-bits, such as London Ring Tomato, Happy Nuts, etc. Although they are in different categories with Kraft Tiger, they still can be classified as wanting a share of the same cake. All of these either direct or indirect competitors will somehow affect Kraft Tiger in the market. Beside, Kraft Tiger facing is  [1]  the rising of the input costs such as sugar. The higher the production cost will lead to the increase of the product price which will decrease the biscuit demand. Product Analysis According to the norm of marketing, every product that is offer in the market has its stages of life cycle. Product life cycle stage is separated in four stages, which are the introduction stage, growing stage, maturity stage and decline stage. Introduction stage is when a product is new in the market where people have limited awareness on the product. The company will take marketing effort to build a market for their new product. The usual marketing efforts taken are carrying out research on the similar products prices among the competitors to set an average and affordable price for the new product. This is done to help the company to build their product share market among the potential buyers to try on their new product which they have minimal knowledge about. Besides that, the company will not produce and distribute the product in a large scale just yet. This is because the company could not estimate the responds of consumers demand in the economy. Therefore, distribution is done selectively. Promotions are also done by aiming on the innovator and early adopter of the product to boost the potential buyers interest in buying the product. After taking necessary marketing efforts, company will analyse the responsiveness of consumer in the market towards the product. If the responses are satisfactory, company will implement marketing mix in their marketing strategies in order to expand their products market share. On the other hand, company will also increase their production to meet the increasing demand in the market. New features are added to the existing product to enhance its quality and broaden up the choices for the customer. At this stage, company will maintain their price to encourage new customers to purchase their product at the same time help the company to remain competitive in the market. By now, the company would then broaden their network of marketing intermediaries such as retailers or wholesalers to make their product available in more areas. Promotions are aimed on the existing customer to create a beneficial long-term relationship and also to influence more potential consumer to buy their products. The third stage of the product life cycle is the maturity stage where the companys sales are more stable and competition will arise among the competitors. At this stage, the companys objectives is simply protecting their market share and make profits from it while it still have the ability. In order to protect their market share, company will keep their products price lower than before to remain competitive in the market. They will also emphasize their promotion on the differences between their products with their competitors. The company will also make improvement in their existing product to create brand preference in the consumers mind so that the consumer will be able to differentiate their products from the competitors.  [2]  Distribution of product will be more intensive, where incentives are given to the distributor to encourage preference from competing products. The final stage of the product life cycle is the decline stage where sales will drop drastically. Usually the company will either continue producing, but in a limited quantity to fulfilled the demand of the loyal customer or stop their production as it is no longer profitable to them. There are also company that will continue the production but add a few new features into the product. Based on the product life cycle stages, it is believe that Tiger Biscuit is in the growing stage. Based on Krafts fact sheet, it is show that confectionary and snacks have become their major business portfolio which is 13.7 billion (29%) and 10.4 billion (22%) respectively. In such circumstance, when the company focused on the product portfolio this will indicate that the portfolio is making profit for the company. Therefore, when the portfolio is making profit, the company will make improvement in their product to broaden the choice to build their market share and brand preference among the consumers. It is clearly stated that snacks segment, which Tiger Biscuit-Milk is categorised, there are many flavours and choices make for the consumer to build their brand preference compare to their competitors such as Nestle. As a consumer, we can see that there is no major price change in the price of Tiger Biscuit-Milk since the launching of the biscuit. Tiger Biscuit-Milk is also easily fou nd in the market in any retailer, this would mean that the range of distribution of the biscuit is widely encourage by the company. Core product Core product is defined as the satisfaction a customer expects from a goods and services purchased. It can also be explained as the non-physical benefits of the product that are delivered to the customer. Based on Tiger Biscuit, the mass market brand, the core product is the nutrition content in the biscuit. Besides that, customers experience the convenience that the product provides for the customer. For example, parents who buy this biscuit for their children can ensure that their children are consuming healthy food which contain less chemical content and at the same time having sufficient nutrition and be rest assure that their children will not be malnutrition. Other than that, for busy people who are always in a rush can have this biscuit while travelling so that they can keep themselves from hunger. Apart from that, people who are on diet can fill their hunger by eating the biscuit and gain from its nutrition. Actual Product Actual product is defined as a tangible product which is consumable such as the brand name, quality, style or idea which customers are buying. Our choice of product which is Kraft Tiger Biscuit-Milk is one of the main biscuit consumer choose because of the guaranteed and assurance of its quality. Kraft created its own brand name which is Tiger biscuit among other competitors such as Parle-G, Danone, etc. For example in Malaysia, when we see a packaging which has this animated tiger on it, without a second thought we would identify it as Tiger biscuit. The design of its packaging created an image for the product itself. Quality wise, Tiger Biscuit-Milk offers a wholesome nutritional ingredient such as glucose, milk, wheat and iron zor. There are various vitamins and minerals in the biscuit that are sufficient for a human daily nutrition requirement. This will help to prevent malnutrition in any human being especially children in the third world country that are most prone to malnutrition due to the overpopulation issue in the country. This biscuit can also be consumed by children that are growing because of the high content of calcium which will help growth and healthy bone. The packaging of Tiger biscuit changes from time to time to enhance a new level of product. For instance, looking at one packaging for a long period of time would bore the consumer. In order to attract new and existing consumers attention, producers would create a whole new look for its product. Augmented Product The third level of a product would be augmented product. Augmented product is defined as the non-physical part of the product or value-added services such as a warranty is given when you purchase a car or maybe electronic appliances. As for Krafts tiger biscuit, its not just a biscuit like any other in the market but a biscuit that puts healthy lifestyle as their main priority. Other than that, Krafts Tiger Biscuit also provide customer service online whereby consumers are able to contact them if theres any enquiry. This service provide customer with further information on the product. Segmentation and Positioning Strategy Nowadays, consumers in any market have different in their wants, resources, location, buying attitudes, and buying practices. Companies recognized that they cannot satisfy to all consumers in the market because they are too many, too widely scattered, and too varied in their needs and buying practiced. For this reason, the companies themselves will make changes widely in their abilities to serve different segment of the market. Through market segmentation strategy, companies recognize the large, heterogeneous markets clearly and then divide them into smaller segments that can be reached more effectively and efficiently with products and services that according with their unique needs. What customers will we serve? There is 3 ways segmentation that used in this product; it is Age and life-cycle segmentation, Occupation segmentation and Flavour segmentation. Flavour segmentation Different people have different habit, need, and personality. By this segmentation, different people have different flavour on their food. Some people like the chocolate flavour, some people like vanilla flavour and etc. Maybe some of them like two or more of the flavour such as someone like chocolate and also strawberry flavour. Our product had chosen the milk flavour biscuit. Clearly, it was only suitable for those people who like the milk flavour. Age and life-cycle segmentation This segmentation separates the consumer according to the consumers age and provide different product to the related consumer. In this product, it can be divided into age below 18, 19 45, and 46 and above. In the category age between 19 and 45, it was formed by adults. Most of them are occupied now, or starting to develop their own career. All of them are busy to do they work and no such time to having a packet of biscuit. Besides that, most of them like to have a proper meal rather than the biscuit because they consider the biscuits cannot make the stomach full. For the category age 46 and above, most of them are senior citizen. The body functional decline also happened at this stage. Biscuit which contain high sugar are not suitable for them because it increase the risk to getting diabetes. In the age below 18, most of people in this category are teenagers. It can be say is the developmental stage of human. Puberty also happened at the age between 12 until 18. They consumed the en ergy more than the other categories. So, the biscuits that high sugar, high nutrition and tasty are just right for them. Obviously, the category that most preferable for this segmentation are the category age below 18. Occupation segmentation This segmentation is dividing the consumer according to the occupation. Occupation can be defined as the activity, career that occupies a persons attention, or principal activity in your life that you do to earn money, continue the life. In this segmentation, it can be segment to many kind of occupation. After analyzed and categorized, it can be divide as professionals, workers and students. Professionals and workers mostly is the technical, strenuous, and time-consuming job, most of them will busy on their job. Same reason as the age segmentation on the above, they will prefer having a proper meal than the biscuit. So, students are the most preferable consumer in this segmentation. It is because almost of them are teenagers, they can have this kind of biscuit as their breakfast or lunch during school time. Moreover, the quantities of biscuit exactly satisfy the students food intake and also convenient to carry to school. Market Targeting After the market segmentation process incurred, the next step is market targeting. Market targeting is a process for a firm to estimates the various types of segments and choose which segments suppose to be serve are the best to the firm and consumers. For the segmentation above, flavour segmentation is the best target market for our product. It is because our product only has exactly one flavour, which is milk flavour. Once this product manufactured, the buyers of this product high probability are the milk flavour buyers. Market Positioning Market positioning is when marketer uses some ways to influence the consumers impression of the products or brand relative to the impression of competitors brand or products. A firm will then show the products advantages that are able to compete with their competitors. Its main objective is to position the good image of the product or brand in the consumers mind. For our product, its main objective is to care for consumers health. Besides that, it put a tiger as its logo to symbolize a powerful, energetic animal. Hereby, this creates consumers confidence to obtain energy resources by consuming this product. Besides that, the ingredient of this products show that contains eight kinds of vitamins and six kinds of minerals. One of a special mineral that our product provided is calcium. Calcium is an important component of a healthy diet and necessary mineral for life. Building stronger, denser bones and keeping bone strong are the main function of the calcium. Calcium can be found in mi lk, cheese, and yogurt. Knowing that our product is milk flavour biscuit that contained calcium, it have adequate requirement to compete with another biscuit manufacturer. Competitors In a market, once a new product appears, it will face competition with another product. For this product, it had faced a competitor that is Jacob biscuit. Its competitor, Jacob biscuit used the slogan Jacobs Walk of Life which mean it product can accompany the consumer as long as the consumers lives. It has strongly competitive with our product because their main objectives are the same with our product that is to take care of the consumers. Consumer behaviour Consumer buying behaviour is defined as the process of decision making and involvement of a consumer in buying a product. Every consumer has different buying behaviour towards purchasing a product. The type of buying behaviour of a customer varies greatly between each consumer based on their level of involvement in purchasing the product and intensity of interest in purchasing the product. The level of involvement in purchasing a product varies based on price, income level, risks faced, and frequency of purchasing. There are four categories of consumer buying behaviour which is complex buying behaviour, dissonance-reducing behaviour, habitual behaviour and variety seeking buying behaviour. Complex buying behaviour is where the buyer has high involvement in purchasing the product, for example, buying a house. This is because the product that the buyer wants to purchase is expensive, risky and purchased infrequent. The buyer would also be able to see significance differences between the compared products and the potential products. Dissonance-reducing buying behaviour is when there is high involvement in purchasing the product but the buyer sees few differences between products, such as buying a carpet for the living hall. This is because the product could be expensive or purchase infrequently and there is a risk of buying one that do not suit the environment of the hall but there are no significant or few differences between the carpets sold in the market. Variety-seeking buying behaviour is where the buyer has low involvement in purchasing the product but sees significant differences between the products. For instance, when consumer wants lunch, he will do research on the food or to look into the food price as much as purchasing a car because food is a necessity. But the consumer is very particular on the taste of the food. Therefore, he will switch to other restaurant to seek for varieties. Habitual buying behaviour is when there is low involvement in purchasing a product and sees no significant differences between products. For example, when purchasing household necessity such as sugar and salt. Consumer does not see the brand differences because it is something that they purchase often. Based on researches of Tiger Biscuit-Milk, it is clear that the consumer buying behaviour on this product is the variety-seeking buying behaviour. Generally, no consumers are highly involved in purchasing a biscuit. All that the customers require is the differences of Tiger Milk Biscuit compare to other glucose biscuits in the market. What differentiate Tiger Milk Biscuit to the other glucose biscuits in the market are the social responsibilities that Tiger Biscuit have upon the customers by providing nutrition in their biscuit to prevent hunger and malnutrition to occur. Almost all of the consumers will go through five decision making process before, during and after they purchase a product. The five decision making process is the problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and post-purchase decision respectively. At the very beginning, the consumer will have to identify what is the problem that they are facing and think of a solution to solve the problem. An example based on Tiger Biscuit-Milk, when a consumer is hungry but at the same time, he is in a hurry to work. He does not have sufficient time to have a proper table-top breakfast, so, he can choose to stay hungry or to buy something light to fill his hunger. It can be bread, biscuit or etc. The second stage is the information search where the consumer can get information by either doing research, friends and family (reference group) or advertisement. He goes into a store and enquires the store assistant (reference of information) for suggestion of snacks he can have for breakfast. The store assistant suggested Tiger Biscuit-Milk, Oreo, Gardenia -tuna bread and etc. (gain of information). Third stage is when the consumer evaluates the information that he gains from the information search and evaluate which is the best after comparing the information. He will compare all the information provided by the store assistant to identify the best choice. Usually when there are minimal brand differences, consumer will make decision based on their brand preference. After evaluation the suggested ideas, consumer will decide which is the best choice for them and which brand that they prefer if there are few differences in the economic factor such as price and quantity. If there are significant differences between the products, consumer will know which exactly is better. He decided to buy Tiger Biscuit-Milk as it is healthy and nutritional. This is the purchase decision that the consumer made. Lastly, post-purchase decision is the stage where the consumer had already try the product and identify whether are they satisfied or unsatisfied with the product. In this case, he will try the biscuit and identify whether he like the taste of the biscuit or not. If he is unsatisfied with the biscuit, he will not buy that biscuit again. On the other hand, if he is satisfied, he will tell his network (friends family) how good is the product. If this is the case, he is indirectly promoting the product on behalf of Tiger Biscuit. Conclusion In conclusion, Kraft Tiger biscuit became a brand name itself in the market and is recognized worldwide. Based on reports, this product is at a growing stage which experience sharp increase in profit and strengthening of customer relationships. Besides that, the three level of a product like core,actual and augmented product explains the benefit of the biscuit to consumers. This section would partly determine the post-purchase decision on a customer. Segmentation is the next section whereby it occurs 3 ways which is flavour, occupation, and age/life cycle segmentation. Company will then target the segemented market and position it. This process enables the product to fit in a certain segment in the market which will lead to maximum profit. A factor that may influence the Kraft Tiger biscuit sales would be their competitors mainly Jacobs and Parle-G. Competitive market means Kraft need to work on producing a better biscuit compare to its competitors. Hence, consumer would benefit from its improved biscuit from time to time. More over, consumer behaviours would determine Krafts relationship with its customers. There are four categories which is complex buying behaviour, dissonance-reducing behaviour, habitual behaviour and variety seeking buying behaviour. Researches show that variety-seeking behaviour is involved in purchasing Kraft Tiger biscuit due to its low involvement and brand differences. Lastly, consumers will go through five decision making process before, during and after they purchase a product which is problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and post-purchase decision. Consumers will go through the first four stage before purchasing the biscuit and the last stage after trying the biscuit.

Free Will Determinism Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Every day in our lives and everything we do involves some degree of decision making or choice selection either mental or physical. We start making choices and decisions from the moment we wake up everyday to the second we sleep. Some decisions we make are blatantly obvious to ourselves because of our need to reflect on the choices before choosing. However, most decisions we make throughout the day are made without much thought. We are even, quite often, unaware that we are making decisions due to habituation and preference. Before going further, we must define the terms free will, determinism and fate or destiny. Free will is the ability to choose. Furthermore, it is the power of making free choices that are unconstrained by external circumstances or by an agency such as fate. Fate, or destiny, can be defined as the inevitable events predestined by this force. However, there is a better position to take when it comes to arguing against free will; and that position, or belief, is call ed determinism. Determinism states that the conditions at one moment are the necessary result from the â€Å"previous† conditions. Simply put, every effect has a cause, every action is predetermined. Unlike fate or destiny, it does not mean the future is already established. It is one thing to say that our choice is caused. It is another thing to say that we do not choose, and fate says, we cannot choose. This is definitely an endless argument given that it is a matter of personal opinion with no facts involved. However, free will definitely seems like the most plausible standpoint. We do have free will. First of all, we can all experience something within ourselves that we can conclude to be a decision making process. These decisions we make are obviously made from our own will and not determined by anything other than ourselves. Baron Holbach, an 18th century French philosopher, believes that free will is an illusion. According to Holbach, we have no choice in anything because everything is predetermined. Holbach also states that our decision making boils down to preference. For example, if Bob walked into an ice cream store filled with numerous flavors, it would seem that Bob is free to choose any flavor he wants. Holbach would have to argue that Bob has already made a decision in his mind before walking in due to vanilla being his favorite flavor, h... ... that neurons firing chemicals and so forth could have deterministically resulted in his choice of vanilla. There are arguments which claim that free will is an illusion. It is an illusion that we accept because of our inability to observe all of the processes going on involved with making a choice. Basically, this point of view states that we are unaware and have a lack of understanding for numerous processes present within human thought. Despite the differences between free will and determinism or fatalism, there is some middle ground. Libertarian is the belief that free will is affected by human nature but retains ability to choose contrary to our nature and desires. This is a balance between the ideas from free will and determinism. This is a good stance because of its incorporation of both views. This whole argument about free will is purely subjective. However, it seems that there are stronger arguments for the idea of free will as opposed to determinism and fatalism. As was stated earlier, it would seem rather pessimistic to view the world as a determinist. Just by being a determinist, one is choosing not to believe in free will which is an example of free will in itself.

American Concepts of Property and State Development

The development of the American state has been heavily influenced by different understandings of property over time. What the founding fathers felt about property is not how all leaders have always thought about it, and their opinions regarding private property significantly influenced the choices they made in developing the country and its systems. This is reflected in their early writings. At the beginning, property was considered public for all. Some still feel this way. Today, however, and for the founding fathers, property became privately owned.Early notes show that there was some confusion in who could own property or if, in fact, anyone could own property at all. Most of the writers in the time of the founding fathers believed in God and felt that all of the world was given to man, in general, and so owning any property individually was a difficult idea to grasp. However, they conceded that man did own some things, such as anything he had worked on himself. A man who farmed l and owned what he produced, and could, to some degree, also own the land that it came from because the land was tied to the production itself.Locke covers this idea in chapter 5 of his writing. Initially, all land did belong to all men, who were, in fact, created equally. This idea was featured prominently in the Declaration of Independence. â€Å"All men were created equal,† states the Declaration. If, then, the founding fathers were thinking like Locke, owning property would be a difficult concept to grasp. It may not have been easy in America, either, where all of the land was new and free to the colonists. There was so much land for the taking, since Native Americans did not concern the colonists at all.Westward expansion allowed for all men to have property which they could farm and live on without needing to officially own it. They â€Å"owned† the property via natural law, that if they took care of the land and produced from it, that it would become theirs. Lock e has this to say about the natural rights of property: â€Å"Though the water running in the fountain be every one's, yet who can doubt, but that in the pitcher is his only who drew it out? His labour hath taken it out of the hands of nature, where it was common, and belonged equally to all her children, and hath thereby appropriated it to himself.† That is, anything that comes from nature or is a part of nature belongs to anyone and everyone, but when someone reaps from the land, or draws some small bit of it for himself, it belongs only to him. Locke is convinced that property is a general concept, whereby everything that doesn’t belong to someone personally (and then only because he possesses it) belongs to everyone. However, should someone gather food or drink for himself, to which is naturally entitled, he then owns what he has gathered.This leads to the idea that property is allowed when a man works the land. If he works it, and he can use what he produces, then he owns it. In America’s beginnings, nearly all men would have had to work land to some extent in order to survive. They would also need land on which to house their families. So, the view of property originally grew out of sheer need. The small government expected that men would need to work land to survive. This was especially true when the immigrants were few and there was no nearby central government to care for them.At first there were barely even real civilizations, so very little division of labor could take place. A man’s life was defined by working his land and supporting his family that way, and so he would come to own the property he occupied. This definition of property owning would persist well into America’s history in certain circumstances. For example, during Westward expansion, all a man had to do to own the land was to live on it and work it for several consecutive months, and then he owned it. In addition to this natural law of who could own property, there were certain considerations.A man should not take more than he can reasonably use, because it would deny another man land that he could use. Instead, the first man should take only what he needs, so that all men could have a chance to have their needs met through the use of property. This was, of course, more of an ideal than an actual law at this time, but considered a necessary courtesy. It was also a reaction to the tyranny of the king of England. In the development of the owning of property in the new United States, the founding fathers were reacting very strongly to the tyranny of the king.The king, many writers felt (including Thomas Paine, who saw government as a necessary evil and nothing better), had taken what was naturally available and made it his own when he should not have. The king was abusing his power, Paine wrote, and although God had given him some power, He had not given him as much as he had taken. Because this feeling about the power was prevale nt, the new government did not want to take away these natural laws that held that men were equal and were entitled to land they worked. The government strongly opposed intervention and a major central government.Paine in particular was so opposed to strong government that he wrote this: â€Å"Monarchy is ranked in scripture as one of the sins of the Jews, for which a curse in reserve is denounced against them. † Monarchy especially was seen as wrong, because it destroyed the very nature of men as equal in the eyes of God. Of course, Paine, and other writers of the time, were heavily concerned with the power of any strong central government, because these governments had greed for land and power, and used one to get the other. Otis was especially concerned with this connection.Another concern for the founding fathers was the nature and necessity of property in a government. Some seemed to feel that property was a necessary part of the government. That is, in order to really e xist, the government had to own and deal with property. But in â€Å"Otis Rights,† the author claims that that isn’t true. He writes, â€Å"†¦therefore government is not founded on property or its security alone, but at lest on something else in conjunction. † That is, the government might have a need to deal with property, but owning property does not define a government.He goes on to say that a government need not be based on property, which is likely also a reaction to the British rule. The British â€Å"owned† the land for what became the United States, and therefore they had a right to govern it. This author does not agree with that philosophy. British rule used the fact that they â€Å"owned† the land in their own country, and the land in this â€Å"new world† to their advantage, politically. Their empire had expanded, and they saw fit to treat the colonies in any way that would grant them more power.Many of the ways they treated the colonies – soldiers constantly occupying their territory, for one – were to maintain their dominance and keep hold of their territory. Otis and others were very concerned about this misuse of power and property. With the Declaration of Independence, the founding fathers were declaring that, in fact, England did not own them, and could no longer do the things that they were unhappy with, including high taxes; governance without representation; occupation during peace times; forcing citizens to quarter soldiers, and more.England did not have rights to their property or anything in this country, and so would have to relinquish the control they had. In this way, citizens were declaring their own right to have property because of the natural rights that existed, and that God had given them as equal men. The political consequences of this move were obviously huge. The Declaration itself brought about the American Revolution, in which the newly formed United States fought for these rights against the British.Additionally, not all men within the colonies would have agreed, which is why the Declaration itself went through so many versions before it was finalized. Having so many different definitions of property was tough on the new Americans. Britain told them they did not own their land, while Americans felt that they did, since they lived on it and worked it. This of course led to a huge power struggle and ultimately the war between England and the colonies. It also led to struggles between colonists who supported the war and those who remained loyal to England.Some in the colonies certainly felt that they were not entitled to own the property; that because they had left England to help England expand its empire, they owed what they had to the country. After the war was over, the government was left in pieces in America. The rulers were still determined to have no strong central government, to avoid the tyranny that they had just escaped from. Inste ad, states and individuals were given power. The focus was on the natural rights of man rather than any major leading body. This gave the American states a large amount of power in and of themselves.As they were developing, boundary lines began to be drawn, which essentially designated certain land as the individual states’ property. The states then took it upon themselves to create other arbitrary rules that citizens, and other states, would have to follow. They created their own money, and certain tariffs on trade between the states. Effectively, the states became drunk with their own power. It is interesting that in trying to limit the power of large, overbearing system that the government created many small systems of power that made life even more difficult for some.There is, however, another major problem with the original idea of property. Locke is absolutely certain that whoever works the land and makes use of what it produces is the owner of the land. He is also cert ain that whoever does this should be praised for his efforts, because developed land cares for many and yields nourishment for citizens. God, he says, intended man to use what He had given them. However, in the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson originally intended to put in a section that showed he abhorred slavery and it would not be tolerated.All men were not only equal, he wrote, but also â€Å"independent. † In deference to a couple of southern states, namely North Carolina and Georgia, this part was removed from the Declaration. It was not the only concession made, but it was an important one. Slaves were not considered to be men who were equal under the law, and they had no rights. However, they worked the land and they produced, so by Locke’s argument, they should own the land on which they worked. Of course, they did not.Slaves themselves were owned as property, and could not own property themselves. This meant that their land owners should not own the lan d because they did not work it themselves, but they came to own both the land and the slaves. This was a point of contention in the original Congress, but as the Declaration could not be finished and signed until the delegates all agreed on something, the issue of slavery (despite its obvious contradictions) was left alone for the time being. Despite its general evils, writers believed that some form of government was necessary.In â€Å"Otis Rights,† the author states â€Å"†¦I affirm that government is founded on the necessity of our natures; and that an original supreme Sovereign absolute, and uncontroulable, earthly power must exist in and preside over every society†¦. † This view of government did fly in the face of many others, including Paine, who still believed that the government was a barely necessary evil, and should not have much control over what went on. As Otis points out, though, due to the nature of man, some kind of government was necessary. Without a strong, but fair government, the country would find itself in trouble again.Of course, within only a few years, the country realized (despite their initial thoughts on the matter) that a complete lack of a central government was really no better than an overly strong central government. States squabbled amongst themselves over money, property rights, and more. The government had to step in and do something about it. The states were finding themselves doing what the British government had: owning property for the sake of owning it, rather than using it as a natural right that God had given them, and to be used for the protection and enhancement of all men.In this time, there were a lot of logical fallacies that would have great political consequences in the future, such as in the late 1700s when the central government realized that it did need to take a firmer role in running the country. Later on, the Civil War would result. Overall, the development of the American state t ook time, but boundary lines were drawn, and property was divided up for those states. This in itself was an interesting problem, as drawing boundary lines violated what many writers felt at the time.The states did not and could not really â€Å"own† the land by the arguments the writers gave, yet they did own the land. Within those states, men owned individual parts of the land, and that agreed with the natural laws as stated. In general, the American views on property took awhile to develop, and were very much in reaction to the British stronghold in the beginning. Differences in ideas necessitated the beginning of the Continental Congress, the drafting of the Declaration, and the war itself.However, it also led to the development of the American states, regardless of any problems that they had initially. Reacting solely to Britain’s tyranny was not the best way to make decisions about a new government. Rather, the writers needed to take into consideration what their people currently needed, the way that Otis did in his writings. The nature of man is such that a government needs to watch over the people so that bad things do not happen to them, even if the government is a potential evil to them.Once the colonists realized this, things ended up fine for them, and the states developed a healthier relationship with one another and with other sources. Politically it was a fascinating time, no more so than any other in history, but one that shows the growth of a new country out of small, humble beginnings, belonging to another country entirely. Americans pushed for growth, freedom, and independence for all, even if the final version of the Declaration did not explicitly say so.This thirst for what was right, for restoring man’s natural rights of property and of equality led the Americans to the political juncture they faced with England, and it led them to freedom as independent states. America would never be the same once the Declaration was written, not with all of the strong rebels that lived in the country. They persevered, and the result is the great country that we all now live in, a country where every person has the right to own property, and every state has some of its own rights.The early days factored heavily into today’s current perception, and it is good that it did. America is a country of freedom. Sources Jefferson, Thomas (1776). â€Å"The Declaration of Independence. † Locke, John (1776). â€Å"Second Treatise on Civil Government. † Accessed December 2, 2007. Website: http://www. constitution. org/jl/2ndtreat. htm. Otis, James (1776). â€Å"The Rights of the British Colonists Asserted and Proved. † Paine, Thomas (1776). â€Å"Common Sense. † Accessed December 2, 2007. Website: http://www. constitution. org/civ/comsense. htm.

Rethinking The Organization Example

Rethinking The Organization Example Rethinking The Organization – Article Example Identify some examples of privatization. What works? What doesn’t work? What aspects of your organization could be contracted out? Should it be contracted out? Why, or why not?There are several instances when public organizations have sought the services of private contractors. Garbage collection service (Berman, E., 2006, p. 176) is one. For example, the State of New York has made privatization an option in their solid waste collection problem. (DiNapoli, T., n.d) Another instance is when hospitals acquire private contracts for services in indigent care and public health. (Berman, E., 2006, p. 176) Research conducted on the matter suggests that privatization of a public hospital can be a solution to efficiency and service quality issues. (Metsch, J.M., et. al., 1997) Privatization becomes an advantage when it means the service will be prompt and efficient (Berman, E., 2006, p. 176) and provide savings (Berman, E., 2006, p. 176) However, privatization also comes with risks suc h as the existence of private monopolies (Berman, E., 2006, p. 177) and underperformance of the contractor (Berman, E., 2006, p. 176).The aspect in my organization that could be contracted out is the security system, both equipment and personnel. This should be contracted because recent events have shown that lapses in this aspect have resulted to severe consequences. Currently, my organization does not have adequate means to keep track of the students it is responsible for. Getting new personnel does not ensure that losing a student will happen again. It also does not assure management that those responsible are accountable. However, getting a private contractor to facilitate the installation and maintenance of a security system which would provide the organization with a tracking system would be a big help. With a tracking system in place, it would be easier to account for both students and staff in the organization. ` References:Berman, E.M. (2006). Performance and productivity and Nonprofit Organizations. (2nd ed.). Armonk, N.Y.: ME. Sharpe, Inc.DiNapoli, T. (n.d.) Cost-Saving Ideas: Evaluating Solid Waste Collection Options. Retrieved from osc.state.ny.us/localgov/costsavings/waste.htmMetsch, J.M. , et. al. (1997). Privatization of a public hospital: a quality improvement strategy. Quality Management in Health Care, 5(2): 19-26. Retrieved from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10166209