...Macroeconomics May 13, 2014 The Two Economic Systems Throughout history there have been two basic forms of social organization: collectivism and individualism. To briefly define each one is to say capitalism is an economic and political system in which all the means of production and distribution are privately owned and operated within a free market society. On the other hand Socialism is an economic and political system in which all the means of production and distribution are collectively owned and operated by all members of a society. In my opinion, both systems, in their purest form, have their pros and cons. Capitalism promotes a free market system whereby citizens are practically free to create almost any product or provide almost any service and ideally start their own business to make their own profits. One of the main selling points of capitalism is that it’s a system that primarily self-regulates. It’s meant to keep prices and the quality of products and services at least half way decent. Of course it doesn’t always work out that way, but that’s the general idea. Another wonderful thing about capitalism is that it aims to preserve economic freedom from excessive government control. However, there is always at least some government regulation involved, as there should be in my opinion. Though most hardcore capitalists believe in the French expression Laissez-Faire, which means “leave it alone.” They hold to the idea that if government would...
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...Gabriela V. Hernandez Prof. Thomas PHI2604 12 November 2014 Film review of “Sicko” Michael Moore’s last two films were based on opinions that many people vehemently opposed: that America has too many guns, and that George W. Bush is a bad president. It didn’t matter how persuasive the films might have been, because half the population disagreed with them before the opening credits even rolled. But with “Sicko,” Moore turns his attention to the American healthcare system, and his central theme is that it needs to be reformed. I think that’s common ground, don’t you? We can argue about what remedies the system needs, and the best way to go about it, and plenty of people will think Moore is off-base for suggesting socialized medicine. But Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, don’t we all agree that the current system is wrong? Let’s use that as the starting point and let the discussion evolve from there. There are 50 million Americans who have no health coverage at all and “Sicko” is not about them. “Sicko,” Moore says, is about the other 250 million Americans, the ones who have health insurance yet STILL get a raw deal. This movie is about how American health insurance companies exploit every means possible to avoid actually paying for their customer’s medical needs, and how people sometimes die because of it. The “lucky” ones live, and are stuck with astronomical medical bills, you know, the bills that were supposed to be taken care of by the insurance...
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...The Truman Doctrine arose from a speech delivered by President Truman before a joint session of Congress on March 12, 1947. The Truman Doctrine is “the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. The immediate cause for the speech was a recent announcement by the British Government that, as of March 31, it would no longer provide military and economic assistance to the Greek Government in its civil war against the Greek Communist Party. Truman asked Congress to support the Greek Government against the Communists. He also asked Congress to provide assistance for Turkey, since that nation had previously been dependent on British aid. The reason President Truman made this request was due to the United States belief that the Soviet Union had joined forces with the Greek Communist in their war efforts. (Randolph) President Truman was concerned that the Communists would prevail and further have an opportunity to influence Greek policies. As a result of the declining relationship, President Truman seized the opportunity to revive America’s foreign policy. During the joint session of Congress President Truman requested Congress provide $400,000,000 worth of aid to both the Greek and Turkish Governments and support the dispatch of American civilian and military personnel and equipment to the region. During his speech he gave two solid reasons for his request; first argument...
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...the backdrop for the changes that they are just beginning to encounter in their new country. Immigrants with peasant backgrounds had begun to arrive in the United States during the late 1890's from places such as Ireland, Poland, Italy, and Lithuania . These people were ill equipped to deal with the harsh realities of urban living in America at the time. In his book Sinclair shows how capitalism creates pressures that undermine the traditional family life, cultural ties, and moral values that these immigrants had brought with them. With "literally not a month's wages between them and starvation" workingmen are under pressure to abandon their families, woman must sometimes choose between starvation and prostitution. Children are forced to work rather then attend school, just to keep starvation away for one more day. The Socialist Party of America was founded in 1901, and for over a decade after that saw enormous growth, by 1912 they had over 1,200 elected public officials in the country, and during the election of that year had very good election results by their candidate Eugene Debs for President (Dickstein). The growth of the Socialist movement primarily took place in the vast heartland of the United States, as it was undergoing the strains of industrialization. The roots of this movement were based on reforms to the social and economic systems that were keeping the immigrants enslaved by the current systems that were in place. The 19th century saw rapid industrial expansion...
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...is told by an all-knowing narrator in the third person. The action of this novel starts when the oldest pig on the farm, Old Major, calls all animals to a secret meeting. He tells them about his dream of a revolution against the cruel Mr Jones. Three days later Major dies, but the speech gives the more intelligent animals a new outlook on life. The pigs, who are considered the most intelligent animals, instruct the other ones. During the period of preparation two pigs distinguish themselves, Napoleon and Snowball. Napoleon is big, and although he isn't a good speaker, he can assert himself. Snowball is a better speaker, he has a lot of ideas and he is very vivid. Together with another pig called Squealer, who is a very good speaker, they work out the theory of "Animalism". The rebellion starts some months later, when Mr Jones comes home drunk one night and forgets to feed the animals. They break out of the barns and run to the house, where the food is stored. When Mr Jones sees this he takes out his shotgun, but it is too late for him; all the animals fall over him and drive him off the farm. The animals destroy all whips, nose rings, reins, and all other instruments that have been used to suppress them. The same day the animals celebrate their victory with an extra ration of food. The pigs make up the seven commandments, and they write them above the door of the big barn. They run thus: 1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. 2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or...
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...Question 1 Before the 20th century South America had a reputation of military dictatorship, democracy had yet to be discovered. The transition wasn’t smooth but yet most South American countries managed to enter the 20th century with somewhat democratic governments. This essay will consider how in a fresh out of the oven democratic era they were still some countries that were dealing with dictatorship; that oddly enough operated in very different ways but the result was the same: One man had full power and control over his state. More specifically this essay will study Venezuela and Chile, Hugo Chavez and Augusto Pinochet, populism and authoritarianism which in a remarkable yet fairly different way narrows it down to the same result: Presidents who made their way to the top and managed to become dictators of their states. Throughout time they way governments have chosen to govern their states has been based on different political ideologies that were shaped over history. This essay will focus particularly on Authoritarianism and Populism. Venezuela had an example of a dictator, which some Venezuelan considered a hero, who based is political career promoting populism as the best way to rule a country. On the other hand you have Chile a country that today remembers the darkest years of their history inflicted by Pinochet an authoritarian that took over power through no democratic mean at all, and forced his way to the top. Firstly becoming familiar with the political ideologies...
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...submit to his will. The Prophet Muhammad is considered the last Islamic Prophet, and the one to whom Allah had revealed sacred scriptures known as Qur’an. Although Muhammad started with a small group of followers, they quickly grew in number and his teachings started spreading rapidly “through the Middle East to Africa, Europe, the Indian subcontinent, the Malay Peninsula, and China”(Mahdi, Rahman, Schimmel). Today, there are about 1.6 billion Muslims in the world which makes it 2nd largest religion of the world. However, Islam is perceived to be radical and contradictory religion by many non-Muslims. Moreover, due to the terrorist attacks which had been associated with this “religion of peace,” Muslims call it, Islam had been viewed as a “bad” religion. Since America is the “melting pot” of different cultures and religions, non-Muslims should strive to learn about the Islamic religion, its teachings and interpretations, its differences and similarities with Christianity and Judaism, and how to improve their interactions with Muslims (Mahdi, Rahman, Schimmel, 2014). In order to become familiar with Islam, one has to learn about its teachings. The faith is practiced through “Five Pillars of Faith” which, formulated shortly after the Prophet’s death were to serve as “anchoring points of community life” (Mahdi, Rahman, Shimmel, 2014). The shahadah, or profession of faith, is the first...
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...therefore realise that Birling's confidence is misguided- he is an ignorant man. This is further proven when he claims that the soon to sail Titanic is 'absolutely unsinkable'.The audience may feel there is a contradiction in this character - worldly success and power coupled with stupidity and ignorance. However, Priestley has deliberately presented Birling in this way to criticise the capitalism for which Birling stands. Being a co-founder of the Socialist Commonwealth Party, Priestley felt that his political views on socialism were very important and the play 'An Inspector Calls' is his vehicle from which to promote these views. It is clear that Mr Birling disagrees with socialism in the way he criticises 'community and all that nonsense'. However, the Inspector proves that this capitalist and selfish viewpoint ends in the death of Eva. Priestley wrote in 1945, and was aiming to use the post WW2 vulnerability of the audience as an opportunity to project his views. Socialism is the belief that a society has the...
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...Economics Economies of Scale Reduction in cost per unit resulting from increased production, realized through operational efficiencies. Economies of scale can be accomplished because as production increases, the cost of producing each additional unit falls. Diseconomies of Scale “Economies of scale” is a simple concept that can be demonstrated through an example. Assume you are a small business owner and are considering printing a marketing brochure. The printer quotes a price of $5,000 for 500 brochures, and $10,000 for 2,500 copies. While 500 brochures will cost you $10 per brochure, 2,500 will only cost you $4 per brochure. In this case, the printer is passing on part of the cost advantage of printing a larger number of brochures to you. This cost advantage arises because the printer has the same initial set-up cost regardless of whether the number of brochures printed is 500 or 2,500. Once these costs are covered, there is only a marginal extra cost for printing each additional brochure. Economies of scale can arise in several areas within a large enterprise. While the benefits of this concept in areas such as production and purchasing are obvious, economies of scale can also impact areas like finance. For example, the largest companies often have a lower cost of capital than small firms because they can borrow at lower interest rates. As a result, economies of scale are often cited as a major rationale when two companies announce a merger or takeover. However...
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...Socialism and Capitalism A Theory of Economics, Politics, and Ethics Hans-Hermann Hoppe The Ludwig von Mises Institute’s Studies in Austrian Economics Department of Economics University of Nevada, Las Vegas Kluwer Academic Publishers Boston/Dordrecht/London Distributors for North America: Kluwer Academic Publishers 101 Philip Drive Assinippi Park Norwell, Massachusetts 02061 USA Distributors for the UK and Ireland: Kluwer Academic Publishers Falcon House, Queen Square Lancaster LA1 1RN, UNITED KINGDOM Distributors for all other countries: Kluwer Academic Publishers Group Distribution Centre Post Office Box 322 3300 AH Dordrecht, THE NETHERLANDS Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hoppe, Hans-Hermann. A theory of socialism and capitalism : economics, politics, and ethics / by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. p. cm. Includes index. © 2010 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute and published under the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Ludwig von Mises Institute 518 West Magnolia Avenue Auburn, Alabama 36832 mises.org ISBN: 978-1-933550-73-2 Socialism and Capitalism Hans-Hermann Hoppe A Theory of Acknowledgements Three institutions assisted me while I wrote this treatise. As a Heisenberg Scholar I enjoyed the most generous financial support from the German Science Foundation (DFG) from 1982 through 1986. The present study is the most recent work I completed during this period. Additional support came from the...
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...In these you include banks, investment banks, wall street. If in a country if it easy to barrow, people will buy more, then companies will produce more, then the standard of living will go up. In order for consumers to buy, we barrow. If we are able to barrow, we buy more. Why are they important? The financial sector makes barrowing and lending easier Most important part of financial sector? Banks Most important funcfion Medium of exchange You give $1, you get a coke. Buying and selling You leave $20 bill in your drawer for a few months, you will be able to buy a similar amount of goods after the few months with the same amount of money. For these months, the $20 bill provided you with a service. It stored value for you. Store of value What are the functions of money? Americans take this for granted. In other countries their money sometimes does not provide this service. Maybe a $20 book in march cost $22 in august. Whenever there is inflation, money loses it's purchasing power. When there is rapid inflation, money will lose its value rapidly. At lunch I want to buy a sandwich. I'll probably need $5 for the sandwich and $1 for a drink. Okay $6. Ah too expensive. Choose to eat somewhere else. We use dollar to make calculations in our mind. It helps us compare value. What are financial sectors? Until of account You didn't buy anything in this process. But you used it to compare value. What do we use in the financial sector? Money If a society accepts an object as a medium...
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...GOVERNMENT MONOPOLY: THE EXAMPLES OF BRITISH AGRICULTURE AND THE BRITISH STOCK EXCHANGE SEÁN CRONIN Pretty much everyone agrees that monopolies — government-run or government-backed, coercive controls over the production, distribution or purchase of particular categories of product or service — are bad for society, i.e. for pretty much everybody. One only has to remember the record of British Leyland — a government industrial monopoly that did considerably more damage to the British motor industry than the Luftwaffe — to see that monopolies are harmful.1 The only exception to this generally agreed belief seems to run along the lines of “all monopolies are bad except when I or my friends are in control ”, which helps to explain why monopolies are so popular with governments. So this essay will not attempt to argue that monopolies are bad, any more than it will attempt to argue that the earth is round. The point I wish here to make is that monopolies, because they are so much more numerous, are accordingly causing much more harm, than is commonly thought. I will focus on two examples, both of which show a monopoly in action and doing great harm, even though at first glance there doesn’t appear to be any monopoly at all. EVERY GOVERNMENT REGULATORY AGENCY IS A MONOPOLY The first example is the long running saga of BSE. Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy is a disease suffered by British beef cattle during the nineteen eighties and nineties, which is believed to be caused by unsatisfactory...
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...1. Why do we study ethics? Sometimes I feel to ask the question, why we don’t study ethics? Simply put ethics is about differentiating between right and wrong. This is going beyond following the rules and laws, it is more about how do we make choices and decisions in our daily personal and professional life. Like my employer allows me to use company’s internet for personal use, but the question is, would it be ethical if I download big files or stream high quality video especially during peak hours and bog down the network? The trend of telecommuting in companies is on rise and different companies have different policies about working from home. But it is ethical for some to misuse this privilege? During a personal discussion with family or friends or business discussion with coworkers or vendors is it okay to talk more and listen less? There are lots of similar questions about our and others behavior that we experience and observe daily and that we should be ask ourselves. In my opinion studying ethics is more like soul searching and finding out are we following the same basics that we learned in our first 10-15 years of life from our parents and teachers on how to be a good and responsible citizen in this global village we live in. We all hear about how businesses are doing unethical practices but in reality it is the people who are demonstrating the unethical behavior not the business. It is important for all of us to study ethics so we can make good choices and decisions...
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...Ryan Jensen Paper #2, 201C 12/11/12 Mr. West Michael Moore’s Sicko: Good Health Equals Bad Business Senator John Kerry once said, “It is time to speak and stand up again for the ideal that in the richest nation ever on this planet, it is wrong for 41 million Americans, most of them in working families, to worry at night and wake up in the morning without the basic protection of health insurance (Health Care Quotes).” The United States of America is the wealthiest nation in the world and ranks number one in terms of health care spending per capita. It is also the only wealthy, industrialized country that doesn’t have a universal health care system. It’s. It ranks no higher than 36th in life expectancy, infant mortality and male and female mortality (Murray). So if the U.S. is spending so much on health care, why are we not seeing better results for its citizens health and what can we do to make it more efficient? In Michael Moore’s film Sicko, he shows us several people’s experiences with their respective countries health care system. He takes the viewers to countries such as France, England and even Cuba to show us other various types of health care systems. What I first noticed after watching this documentary was the different opinions and views regarding health care between Americans and people from foreign countries. Moore shows how the American point of view has a very condescending and distasteful outlook on how our health care system is ran. With the use of...
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...this in “On the Origin of Species.” -People who were into these types of discoveries were known as Naturalists or Scientists. Science was seen as a hobby -Religious -Firm creationists -His discoveries made him change his religious viewpoint -Because of him, science starts to become respected -He only talks about these controversial ideas with his closest friends T. H. Huxley -one of Darwin’s closest friends -His nickname was “Darwins Bulldog” -Had a middle class background -He was trying to live as a scientist. He was angry because science wasn’t respected. -Says science is all facts while religion is something where you can say whatever you want. -He pushes Darwin to publish “On the Origin of Species” (he doesn’t publish it until 20 years later) -He was aggressive and said he would defend Darwin -This all leads to religious doubt Scientists are agnostics – don’t know if there is a God or not. There is no proof and evidence is not available to determine if there is or isn’t a God. German Higher Criticism -A bunch of philosophers of the 1870s basically trying to save the Bible from science fiction -Argue that you have to get rid of the things that are purely supernatural elements to save the Bible -You don’t want to throw out the whole Bible – there’s still a lot of relevant things -Morals, ethics and legal codes are still relevant Social Darwinism -Application of Darwins idea to society -“Survival of the fittest”...
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