New Venture Proposition - Individual work Essay

New Venture Proposition - Individual work - Essay Example The selected name of the restaurant will be â€Å"Rene sense Dinner theatre†. The new theatre restaurant named â€Å"Rene sense Dinner theatre† is offering the area of entertainment and fine dining concept with different, tasty and innovative food recipes. While considering the food in the restaurant, the menu includes cuisine of America, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, and the Middle East. The wide range of cuisines is also a new and different idea in the market. Moreover, when it comes to services presenting good food in a friendly environment will be a positive and strong point for the restaurant. The representation of different cultures and music within a colourful environment, which adds an entertainment factor with dinner, will amaze the customers. Customers will be allowed to choose any theme for their table and then the service for that table will be according to that theme. It will delight the customers and the experience of extreme fun and uniqueness will attract and grab the concentration of the customers towards one restaurant that is providing all entertainment activities and food at one place (Rainsford, 2000). The restaurant industry is a diverse business the reason is that there are various cuisines and cultures that restaurants offer and follow according to the needs and demands of the customers. There are various restaurants that are offering delicious and different food items. Mostly focus on the services and food quality. People around the globe like fast food items a lot, and it is a part of their daily food intake. It is the reason due to which there is majority of fast restaurants in the industry. However, for special occasions and different taste people prefer to experience uniqueness in food items within a good environment. Although there is majority of restaurants, there is no such

Nucor Corporation Case Essay Example for Free

Nucor Corporation Case Essay Summary: For more than 20 years the Nucor Corporation has been one of the leading manufacturers of steel and steel related products in the world. With their technology advancement, low debt ratio, decentralized type of organization and many more, this company still thrives to achieve better goals in their company. Aside from the positive views of the company, it also faced problems like bankruptcy. (te pakidagdagan n lng) History: Nucor traced its origins to auto manufacturer Ransom E. Olds, who founded Oldsmobile, and later, Reo Motor Cars. Through a series of transactions, the company eventually became the Nuclear Corporation of America, a company involved in the nuclear instrument and electronics business. In 1972, the firm changed its name to Nucor Corporation. By 1998, it had become America’s second-largest steel maker. Operations: Nucor related its diverse facilities in rural areas across the United States, establishing strong ties to its local communities and its work force. As a leading employer with the ability to pay top wages, it attracted hard-working, dedicated employees. These factors also allowed Nucor to select from among competing locales, siting its operations in states with tax structures that encouraged business growth and regulatory policies that favored the company’s commitment to remaining union-free. By mid-2008, Nucor operated 53 facilities throughout the United States and one in Point Lisas, Trinidad. The company also maintained operations through wholly owned subsidiaries, Harris Steel and the David J. Joseph Company (DJJ). Strategy: Nucor’s strategy focused on two major competencies: building steel manufacturing facilities economically and operating them productively. Organization Structure: Compared to the typical Fortune 500 company with 10 or more management layers, Nucor’s Structure was decentralized, with only the four management  layers illustrated below: Chairman / Vice Chairman / President Vice President / Plant General Manager Department Manager Supervisor Human Resource Policies: Employee relations at Nucor were based on four principles: 1. Management is obligated to manage Nucor in such a way that employee will have the opportunity to earn according to their productivity. 2. Employees should feel confident that if they do their jobs properly, they will have a job tomorrow. 3. Employees have the right to be treated fairly. 4. Employees must have an avenue of appeal when they believe they are being treated unfairly. Compensation: Nucor provided employees with a performance-related compensation system. All employees were covered under one of four compensation plan, each featuring incentives for meeting specific goals and targets. 1. Production Incentive Plan * employees directly involved in manufacturing were paid weekly bonuses based on actual output in relation to anticipated production tonnages produced. The bonuses were paid only for work that met the quality standards and were pegged to work group, rather than individual output. 2. Department Manager Incentive Plan * Department managers earned an annual incentive bonus based on the performance of the entire plan to which they belonged. The targeted performance criterion here was return on assets. 3. Non-Production and Non-Department Manager Incentive Plan * All employees not in the Production Incentive Plan or Department Manager Incentive Plan – including accountants, engineers, secretaries, clerks, and receptionists – received a bonus based primarily on each plant’s return on assets. It could total over 25% of an employee’s base salary. 4. Senior Officers Incentive Plan * Included all corporate executives and plant general managers. A portion of pre-tax earnings was placed into a pool that was divided among the officers. If Nucor did well, the officers’ bonuses, in the form of stock (about 60%) and cash (about 40%), could amount to several times their base salaries. If Nucor did poorly, an officer’s compensation was only base salary and, therefore, significantly below the average pay for this level of responsibility. Information Systems: Benefits: Nucor took an egalitarian approach toward employee benefits. Nucor’s benefit program also attested to the company’s commitment to education. Technology: Nucor did not have a formal RD department, a corporate engineering group, or a chief technology officer. Instead, it relied on equipment suppliers and other companies to do the RD, and they adopted the technological advancements they developed – whether in steel or iron making, or in fabrication. Teams composed of mangers, engineers, and machine operators decided what technology to adopt. Future: The company’s biggest challenge (in the future) is to continue to grow the company at 15 – 20% per year, and to keep earnings parallel with its growth. Analysis: Nucor Corporation became one of the top corporations in the steel industry because of their handwork and technology innovation. This company also sees and takes care of its employee’s needs, which in return gives them  a quality service in their work. Conclusion: Nucor, even though we can see it as a successful, almost perfect company, still faces problems like other businesses in the industry. Problem: The company has lost one-third to one-half of its market value when the stock reached its peak value (mid-2008), and has not recovered as of 2012. Recommendation: We can recommend change in the company’s technology, like getting more advance equipments in making steel and steel-related products. Or the company could make a merger to other company to utilize its resources to its maximum while keeping cost low.

Proposal for International Foods at the University Dining Services Essa

Proposal for International Foods at the University Dining Services Pedro Cabrera came to State University from Puerto Rico. He decided to be an exchange student at State because he was interested in experiencing life in the United States, and because he was excited about the excellent veterinarian program offered at State. While he loves attending college and living in the United States, there are some things that he would like to change, or rather introduce to State University. Pedro admitted that he feels homesick at times, a feeling not uncommon to new freshmen. He confessed that one of the most important things that he misses about his home is his mother's home cooking. Pedro confessed that the food that the State University dining service provides, does not offer a very wide selection of international food, especially none that are specific to Puerto Rico. Therefore, Pedro would like to propose to the State University dining service that a wider variety of international be incorporated into the daily dining menus. Comfort for international stud ents, variety and accessibility for all students, and a positive aspect of State University are some of the reasons why the introduction of international foods would be beneficial in the residence hall dining services. Pedro shyly admitted before that he feels homesick at times for foods that he eats in Puerto Rico. Like many other students, international or not, food can be a great comfort when students feel homesick. Many students who are not international students can at least relate to the kinds of foods that are found at the dinning services, even if they are not exactly the same as a home cooked meal. For international students, however, the food served at the dining ser... ...idence hall dining services. On an everyday basis, State University tries to help students adjust to college life in one way or another. The dining service would be taking a large step towards assisting international students in this matter. Not only this, the dining service would join in the campaign to educate students in something new, each and everyday, by exposing all students to new international foods. Plus, at the same time, they would be saving all students a great deal of time and money, and not to mention, keeping them excited about eating in the dining services on a daily basis! The proposed way of incorporating international foods to dining service is both simple and efficient. The introduction of new and different international foods to residence hall dining services would benefit everyone who has the pleasure of dining at Iowa State University.

Effectiveness Of Cost Sharing Mechanisms Health And Social Care Essay

The cost of health care has become an progressively outstanding issue in recent old ages. In the United States every bit good as in many European states, wellness related costs have risen significantly and have progressively constituted a larger proportion of GDP.[ 1 ]The rapid addition in health care costs has threatened to force healthcare systems in certain states to the fiscal threshold. Citizens in states with privatized systems like the United States ‘ have seen their premiums rise at rates higher than rising prices with many people going unable to afford even basic wellness insurance. In states with cosmopolitan wellness attention, costs have besides risen with much of the load being passed on to occupants in the signifier of higher revenue enhancements.[ 2 ]The recent health care argument in the United States underscores the importance of this issue. Although there was dissension as to how the job of unaffordable health care should be solved, there was a general consens us that something had to be done to lower wellness attention costs. The demand to drastically cut down health care costs and increase efficiency has led to much research and argument. Many inefficiencies exist within the system but for the intents of this paper, the chief focal point will be on over use of wellness attention services and more specifically ambulatory attention. Regardless of the type of insurance, the presence of the 3rd party remunerator has the possible to bring on over use of wellness attention services. If patients are non straight exposed to the costs of their ingestion, there is considerable inducement for them to take advantage of the system and to devour at a higher rate than they would hold otherwise. This extra ingestion is the consequence of a general phenomenon called moral jeopardy. Moral jeopardy exists when one party ‘s insularity from hazard causes it to act in mode that is inconsistent with how it would hold behaved had it been exposed to that hazard.[ 3 ]In order to battle extra ingestion and fringy use of ambu latory services, the mechanism of cost sharing through copayments is frequently used. Copayments are either a level fee or per centum of entire monetary value which the user must pay upon ingestion of services. The principle behind copayments is as follows: insurance users are by and large desensitized to the cost of their services because they incur no disbursals at the point of ingestion. This desensitisation leads to an extra ingestion of services. By doing the user wage a part of the cost at the point of ingestion, one forces the user to go sensitive to the costs of his/her ingestion therefore cut downing his/her leaning to demand and consume unneeded services.[ 4 ]The usage of copayments is rather important because by cut downing the over use of ambulatory attention, one efficaciously reduces the load born by taxpayers and premium remunerators. Cost sharing through copayments has proven effectual at cut downing over use in many cases but is its effectivity the same in all systems? Furthermore, do the economic demographics of the user population have any consequence on the efficaciousness of user payments in cut downing the use of ambulatory attention? A expression at the effects of copayments in the Medicaid system in the U.S. versus in the German Universal Healthcare system will supply great penetration into this issue. Overview of Systemic Differences Both health care and wellness insurance in the United States are provided chiefly by the private sector. The cost of health care constitutes a important part of national and single income with the United States taking the universe in money spent per individual on health care. Although the United States spends a considerable proportion of its income on health care, approximately 11 per centum of its citizens remain uninsured with an estimated 21 per centum holding less than equal coverage. The logical thinking of those who remain uninsured varies from circumstance to circumstance. Some people choose non to inscribe in an insurance program because they do non experience like they have considerable wellness hazards and experience that their income could be put to better usage. Others, who have fallen victim to fiscal strain, merely do non hold the resources to afford equal insurance or any insurance at all. The people in the latter class frequently have incomes that are merely above the threshold that would measure up them for governmental assistance, but for those who live below what has been established as the poorness line, assorted plans exist to help with wellness insurance.[ 5 ] One of the primary plans which the U.S. uses to supply wellness insurance to the hapless is the Medicaid system. Medicaid was founded in 1965 under the Social Security Act. The Medicaid plan is jointly funded by the federal and province authoritiess. Each province names its ain Medicaid plan and has the duty of puting its eligibility guidelines while the Center for Medicare and Medicaid services sets general parametric quantities with respects to support and service bringing. Poverty is seen as the chief requirement for Medicaid eligibility, but low income entirely does non measure up an person for Medicaid coverage. In fact, a considerable part of hapless person in the United States do non measure up for Medicaid. In order to measure up for Medicaid, an single must fall into either one of the Mandatory Medicaid eligibility groups or into what is defined as a flatly destitute group. The people who fall into these classs range from Supplementary Security Income receivers to medically destitute individuals with inordinate medical costs. For the intents of this paper the most of import thing to maintain in head is that the bulk of Medicaid users fall below the poorness line.[ 6 ] The universalized German health care system contrasts greatly with the privatized American system. 88 per centum of Germans are covered under their Statutory Health Insurance Plan with the other 12 per centum choosing for the private sector. The national health care program is compulsory for all salaried employees, and merely a few select groups have the option of buying premium private insurance. Premiums are set by Germany ‘s Public Ministry of Health to degrees that are determined to be economically feasible. Premiums do non take into history the wellness position of persons but alternatively are based on a per centum of wage. Because the cosmopolitan system covers the bulk of German citizens, the demographics of its users differ greatly from those of the Medicaid system. More specifically, the mean income of the typical German user is significantly higher than that of the norm Medicaid user.[ 7 ]Comparison of Two Natural ExperimentsIn order to compare the comparative effect ivity of copayments in the two systems, this paper will see informations from two natural experiments. One survey by Helms, Newhouse, and Phelps entitled â€Å" Copayments and the Demand for Healthcare: The California Medicaid Experience, † examines the consequence of the debut of copayments on Medicaid users in California. The other survey entitled â€Å" Copayments in the German Healthcare System: Does it Work? , † examines the effects of the debut of a 10 Euro copayment for the first physician visit of each one-fourth in Germany. Because of lifting wellness attention outgos, in 2004, the German authorities introduced a copayment for all those covered by Statutory Health Insurance. Those covered by private insurance programs where exempted from the copayment and therefore within the model of this experiment service as a natural control. The copayment was 10 Euros and was to be paid upon the first physicians visit of each one-fourth. Certain groups were to be exempted including those with chronic conditions and patients with well low incomes. The information collected in the survey covers 2000-2003 and 2005-2006 – the periods before and after the intercession. Harmonizing to the Data collected in the Study, the figure of doctors visits for non exempt SHI members dropped from 2.75 in 2003 to 2.5 in 2004. That figure increased to 2.6 in 2005 before falling back to 2.5 in 2006. Interestingly PHI members followed a similar tendency during this period with mean visits falling from 2.25 in 2003 to 2 in 2004 so lifting back up to 2.5 in 2005 before falling back to 2 in 2006.[ 8 ]The fluctuation in these Numberss suggests that while the copayment may hold had an initial consequence, it did small to cut down use of ambulatory services in the long term. A similar natural experiment took topographic point in California in 1972. In order to cut down use of ambulatory services, Medicaid patients were asked to pay a little out of pocket fee for certain out of infirmary services. A group of patients was exempted to function as a control. Data was collected for six quarters from July 1971 to December 1972. The sample includes 400,662 persons from the San Francisco, Tulare, and Ventura Counties. The demographics of the sample differed greatly from the general population with 100 per centum the participants being low income persons. From January 1, 1972 to the terminal of the experiment, the Californian authorities imposed a copayment of 26 per centum on the sample population. The copayment was $ 1 for the first 2 visits of each month with subsequent services being offered for free. In the copayment group, the mean figure of doctors visits per one-fourth decreased from.6772 before the imposed copayments to.6494 stand foring a 4.1 per centum lessening in use. For the control group the figure of visits dropped from.7316 to.7274. Using complex methodological analysis, the Numberss where adjusted to account for demographical and behavioural differences between the experimental and control group. After this accommodation, it was found that the existent consequence of the 1 dollar copayment was a important 8 per centum decrease in physicians visits.[ 9 ]DiscussionThe findings of these two experiments are important. While the debut of the copayment in the German system seemed to hold the initial consequence of cut downing use, in the long tally it proved futile. On the other manus cost sharing seemed to hold rather a important consequence in the Medicaid system in California. There are assorted grounds for this statistical disparity. One may be the differences in fringy public-service corporation that exist between the two populations. The Californian experiment monitored a public assistance population. Because all of the to pics were of low income the fringy public-service corporation of one dollar was rather high. Given this fact, it is rather likely that even a little sum of money played a important function in changing their behaviour. In contrast, the mean member of the German population was comparatively good off. The bulk had the agencies to take attention of life ‘s basic necessities. The fringy public-service corporation of their money was well less than those of the Medicaid users. This is likely why the infliction of copayments had really small permanent consequence on the use of ambulatory services. It is besides likely that other factors including assorted regional, societal, and cultural differences, may hold contributed to the disparity, but more research is required to asses the effects of these variables.DecisionGiven the consequences of the two experiments, it appears that the socioeconomic demographics of an insured population play a important function in the effectivity of user payments at cut downing over use of ambulatory services. Cost sharing mechanisms are rather effectual at cut downing over use in poorer populations, but loose their effectivity with more flush insured populations. While it is rather clear that a important relationship exists between the efficaciousness of cost sharing mechanisms and the income degree of insured populations more research is needed to find the full extent of this relationship.

Proficiency Level in English Communication Skills Essay

â€Å"English is without a doubt the actual universal language†. While English is not an official language in most countries, it is the language most often taught as a second language. English is most widely used in communicating around the world. The information that we* the researchers gathered about communication and English made them realized that the two terminologies must be always together. Good communication creates a good ambience and relationship between everyone in every organization most especially if it is inside a business while English is now required in every company. Language is now considered a skill, in fact, big companies, both here and abroad, are now looking for good English communication skills among potential employees, sadly, these companies are disappointed. Sad to say that even the students nowadays are not practicing effective communication; some really don’t want to practice it and some are practicing it in the most improper way in the form of the so-called â€Å"taglish†, a combination of Filipino and English words in one sentence. We* The researchers became interested with the English communication proficiency of the secondary students nowadays; those who can afford to enroll in college will be privileged to learn and be trained more with their communication skills, but what about those students who cannot afford to be upgraded in tertiary level? Of course they’ll apply for a job to make a living, but the problem is, even the few available jobs for high school graduates require good communication skills, and unfortunately, we*as the researchers have noticed, most high school students are not prepared for this kind of challenge. Some of the students are good in written communication but not that good when it comes to oral because some are shy to let others hear their English, or afraid to execute a wrong grammars or bad sentence on how or the way they talk.

Democracy in American History essays

Democracy in American History essays There are many events in United Stated history that prove democracy had worked in this country. I researched five different examples in American history where the American people got what they wanted. The five things I choose to discuss are the fight for womans voting rights, Civil rights movement, Prohibition, Education, and Gay and lesbian rights. Winning Suffrage, the right to vote, had been a focus of woman reformers since the Seneca Falls convention in 1848. Woman have tried many things though out American history to gain woman voting rights. Woman have challenged the 14th amendment and pushed for an amendment to let them vote but all this did not work until the 1900s. People like Carrie Chapmen Catt organized committees to help push for the amendment. Finally in 1919 the nineteenth amendment was ratified, after 72 years of work the woman got what they deserved. In the 1873 many people wanted prohibition which is the banning of selling alcoholic beverages. Committees like the Woman Christian Temperance Union founded in 1873 promoted prohibition. But by the mid 1920s only 20 percent of the American people supported prohibition because it increased the crime rate. So in 1933 it was repealed by the 21st amendment. Education was another issue that stirred peoples concern about the future of there children. In 1963 a presidential commission issued a report on education entitled A nation at risk. The report showed American schools scores lagged behind those of other nations schools. It also showed that an average 17 year old could not tell Russia from Florida on a map or fill out a job application. The commission recommended increasing school year , long school days , increase pay for teacher , and emphasis on math and English. Finally in 1991 President bush announced a bold new education initiative called America 2000 which stated that people can choose to send there children to privat...

How does Baz Luhrmann make his film of Romeo and Juliet exciting and relevant for a contemporary audience Essay Example

How does Baz Luhrmann make his film of Romeo and Juliet exciting and relevant for a contemporary audience Essay Example How does Baz Luhrmann make his film of Romeo and Juliet exciting and relevant for a contemporary audience Paper How does Baz Luhrmann make his film of Romeo and Juliet exciting and relevant for a contemporary audience Paper Essay Topic: Romeo and Juliet Baz Luhrmann had to encapsulate a timeless Shakespeare classic into a contemporary, snappy, interesting and engaging Hollywood blockbuster. Well, no one said it was going to be easy. But the question still remains how did he do it? Todays generation has been brought up with incredibly strong visual input through media such as television, posters, magazines and the internet. So doing justice to Shakespeare himself, while still trying to appeal to a modern audience was the first problem he would encounter. To tackle this he would have to incorporate an element that would not only relate to his target audience: teens and young adults, but would maintain the genius of Shakespeares masterpiece as well. However, Shakespeare has been thought of by many as being dreaded and boring, so Luhrmann had to overcome this first and push forward into a new realm of understanding and interest. He tried to find the things in Shakespeares work that still go on today; for example the idea of gang wars and illicit relationships. After this he substituted all the things in the original text for more updated things, guns instead of swords, cars for horses and crazy partys with drugs and transvestites instead of glittering balls. In general Luhrmann has tried modernising the whole film and using familiar images of today to give a sense of security so the people watching arent completely lost. One of the ways this was used was to have the setting in a place similar to somewhere like Miami Beach, but then changing the name to Verona Beach, the original name of the town. They have chosen this location to give an element of fun into it and lift the weight off the heavy content of the play, and since the original play was set in Italy, they mixed it in with a little Rio De Genero, giving it a Catholic slant. To make the 2 families bear a visible difference, Luhrmann dressed them in a very different style of clothes. The Montagues were dressed in easy-going Hawaiian shirts and beach like clothes, whilst the Capulets are dressed in black with cowboy boots and spurs on the end. This idea is used when the two houses fight and some western style music plays and its like a showdown. They also have pictures of Mary and Jesus on their guns which has a link to the catholic theme of the city. Luhrmanns used music to weave its way through the film so that even if you dont understand the complex language just by listening to the music and watching the screen you can get a hold on what is going on surprisingly well. He also uses special effects in the same way, so that anyone can work out the gist of whats going on. He used different camera angles to create some of the effects, for example long shots to generally set the scene for action, or to show the aftermath of something, for example at the scene of Mercutios death. At the very beginning of the film, they show the prologue as a news reporter reading it out on the news. This immediately sets the scene by showing the audience that it set in the relatively modern day. A man then repeats it while its showing some quick flashes of fights and the statues in the city and their buildings. This adds drama and properly sets the scene, as it really shows what level the fighting is at and how much each house hates each other. Looking more closely at a particular scene you can see how the special effects and music and all the elements of the film come together and make it work. The scene I chose to look at is like a turning point in the film, where the good turns bad and the true tragedy begins to unfold. At the start of the scene there is a long shot of some of the billboards near the beach. There is some dancy background music coming from a radio and the camera is darting around and pans from side to side giving the impression of someone looking around, and to establish the surroundings. Then it has a series of close-ups on peoples faces, for example people in a car driving past in bikinis and beach clothes. A beat starts then it goes to Benvolio and Mercutio walking down and play fighting with the guns and doing tricks on them. A western style of music comes on and they carry on walking down the beach. The use of guns is relevant to the society and the camera angle is rolling which gives it a strong feeling of unease, like there is something wrong. A while later the nurse arrives wearing a red outfit, which is the colour of love, so it means that love is in the air.

Palindrome Definition and Examples

Palindrome Definition and Examples A Palindrome is a type of word play in which a word, phrase, or sentence reads the same backward or forwardsuch as Madam, Im Adam.   Semordnilaps (the word palindromes in reverse) are words that spell other words when spelled backwards (for example, star/rats, drawer/reward). Aibohphobia is the palindromic term for an irrational fear of palindromes. Palindrome Examples popdeedkayakcivicradarleveldeifiedrotatorrepapertestsetracecarredividerdetartratedtattarrattat(James Joyce, Ulysses, 1922)Wassamassaw(from an American Indian name for water, a swamp outside of Summerville, South Carolina)A man, a plan, a canalPanama!Able was I ere I saw Elba.Too badI hid a boot.Do geese see God?Murder for a jar of red rum.Drab as a fool, aloof as a bard.Go deliver a dare, vile dog![Caption below a cartoon of a family sitting around a dinner table; the boy is speaking]Mom, Dad, sisIm not like youIm not a palindrome.(Paul Karasik, The New Yorker, January 21, 2013)Norma is as selfless as I am, Ron.(attributed to poet W.H. Auden)Gateman sees name, garageman sees name tag.Some men interpret nine memos.Go Hang a Salami! Im a Lasagna Hog!(title of a book on palindromes by Jon Agee, 1991)Doc: note, I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod.(James Michie, New Statesman, May 5, 1967)Once you notice that decaf backward is faced, it is but the work of a moment to invent the indignant complaint of a coffee drinker confronting the absence of regular coffee: I faced decaf! I!! The same process yields a tailors cranky opinion (Knits stink!) and a travel agents apology to a volcanologist: Avalon? No lava . . .(Ellis Weiner, Mind Games. Smithsonian, April 2008) T.S. Eliot, top bard, notes putrid tang emanating, is sad. Id assign it a name: gnat dirt upset on drab pot-toilet.(Alastair Reid)Are we not drawn onward, we few, drawn onward to new era? Demetri Martins Palindromes for Specific Occasions A FATHER TRYING TO CONNECT WITH HIS ESTRANGED SON BY OFFERING HIM SOME PIZZA:Son, Im odd. Dominos?A DIALOGUE BETWEEN A MAN AND HIS YOUNG SON. THE MAN IS TRYING TO TEACH THE BOY THE NAME OF A PIECE OF FRUIT AND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SINGULAR AND PLURAL:Son, say a papaya.Papayas.No s.  A SCIENTISTS REACTION TO WHAT HE FINDS IN A PETRI DISH.P.U.! Organisms in a group.(Demetri Martin, This Is a Book. Grand Central, 2011) The Longest Palindromes Malayalam, the native tongue of the people of Kerala, is the longest palindromic language-name. The credit of the longest palindromic place-name goes to Kanakanak, which is near Dillingham, Alaska, USA. The 19-letter Finnish word saippuakivikauppias, meaning a dealer in caustic soda, is the longest known palindromic word. . . .The first palindromic sentence in English appeared in 1614: Lewd did I live evil I did dwel. (O.Abootty, The Funny Side of English. Pustak Mahal, 2002) The Language of Magic For the most part finding palindromic words or composing palindromic phrases and sentences is a form of light entertainment. Some devotees display great ingenuity in finding long palindromes covering more than one sentence. In the past, however, palindromes have figured in the language of magic, and many have taken reversibility to be significant.(Barry J. Blake, Secret Language. Oxford Univ. Press, 2010) Dylan Thomass Semordnilap The first minister chuckled as he pointed out how [Dylan] Thomass fictional village in Under Milk WoodLlareggubspelled out something rather rude backwards. That shows the devilment of the man.(Steven Morris, Dylan Thomas Centenary: South Wales Gets Ready to Welcome the World. The Guardian [UK], January 5, 2014) Roger Angell on the Darker Side of Palindromes [T]hat night, shortly after four, I began with the words. In a few minutes, I found gulp plug (something to do with bass fishing) and live evil, and sailed off into the best sleep I had enjoyed in several weeks. The next night brought straw warts and repaid diaper, and, in time, a long if faintly troubled snooze (ezoons). I was delighted. My palindromic skills improved rapidly, and soon I was no longer content with mere words. . . . One morning, after a mere twenty minutes of shut-eye, I met my wife at the breakfast table and announced, Editor rubs ward, draws burro tide.Terrific, she said, unenthusiastically. I dont get it. I mean, what does it mean?Well, you see, I began, theres this editor in Mexico who goes camping with his niece, andListen, she said. I think you should take a phenobarb tonight. You look terrible.(Roger Angell, A Day in the Life of Roger Angell. Viking Press, 1970) Etymology:From the Greek, running back again Pronunciation: PAL-in-drome

Abortion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

Abortion - Essay Example In the United States of America much of the legislation relating to Abortion has been set by judicial activism i.e. in the form of court rulings. While the effort of the congress to resolve the conflict on a legal foundation is welcome, it would be prudent to question if they alone can settle so cavernous and sensitive an issue. To see how wide ranging the conflict is, simply consider the fact that the Pro-Life and Pro-Choice activists prefer different terminology in their arguments. Thus, ‘Pro-Choice’ is interpreted to mean ‘Anti- Life’ and Pro-lifers consider the terms ‘fetus’ and ‘embryo’ dehumanizing; while in the opposing camp, referring to the fetus as an ‘unborn child’ is thought to be too emotional (Wikipedia). The laws relating to abortion in this nation is derived from the Supreme Court ruling on the famous Roe Vs Wade trial. That this ruling is not accepted by all is established by the fact that there are many US states that have passed various ‘Trigger Laws’ which would come into action if and when the Roe Vs Wade ruling is overturned (Reuters). Feminists today regard anti abortionist campaign as a direct infringement on their reproductive freedom (Willis). If the human fetus is declared as a human being from the moment of conception, then it implies that all abortions irrespective of the context would amount to murder and hence would be illegal in the eyes of the law. This is a very strong moral argument and is the starting point for all debates on abortion and has attained the centre stage in most forums (Willis). Various methods of logical deduction have been used to reach from here to the final step. Thomson has conjectured a number of situations and in each has considered the ethical question of whether the life of a fetus is more important than the life of its mother. In each case that he has hypothesized, he has

HR- Grievance and disciplinary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

HR- Grievance and disciplinary - Essay Example The two cases display the picture of what can happen in the real-life contract termination. There can be conflicts among the both parties which can potentially cost millions of pounds to the employer despite his efforts to prevent any breakdown in relationship with the workers and making sure that sanity surrounds the workplace and work environment. The best practice in employee termination is to give an employee proper warnings and compensation on his dismissal. Air Bus has rightly given the warning to Mr. Jones on his wasting time on work. He repeated his misconduct and one can say that Airbus was fair dismissing Mr. Jones. However, on the flipside of it there was no mention of any compensation paid to Mr. Jones. It has become an important norm for large employers like Airbus to pay around three month’s salaries to its employees in case of a dismissal. This would help the outgoing worker to sustain his family for the period for which he remains unemployed. However, there was no such mention of this kind of compensation payment in the case of Airbus and hence Mr. Jones can claim this compensation from the code. Although the law only asks for a lump sump payment, but the industry usually pays around three month’s salary and that should be paid to Mr. Jones. It was right on the part of Airbus to dismiss Mr. Jones a fter he was given second warning for wasting time on work. Although Mr. Jones insisted that the first warning has expired and hence Airbus Ltd cannot fire him. The law on the other hand would approve this firing because it was the second time Mr. Jones has made the same mistake and Airbus was right to penalize him. Hence, the only obligation on Airbus is to follow the market’s best practice and should compensate Mr. Jones for his services to the firm. The second case tells us about a strained relationship between the Chief Executive and Board of

Under the Whiplash by Lara Oruno Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Under the Whiplash by Lara Oruno - Essay Example First used by the Greeks, slavery has roots in the antique forced labor practices of the Egypt of pharaohs, Greece, Italy and the Middle East, particularly in Babylon and Assyria. A people stripped of any right to demand status of origin or title [name], slavery, apparently has a long history that saw Europe enslave approximately 20 percent of their own population at some point; a practice that only faded out in the fifteen century with the newfound sources from the far continents of Africa and Asia (Coates 18). With the advent of large scale plantations in the Americas, tens of millions of Africans became victims of slavery. Like the antique slaves, they were not only subjected to forced labor, but had to yield to the sexual demands of their masters. Keeping with the old tradition, all male slaves, irrespective of their ages, acquired the tittle "boy". Unlike the old slavery that offered a relief through some form of emancipation, slavery in the Caribbean was but a totalitarian syst em based on extreme exploitation driven in part by racism (Coates 19). The only alternative to freedom to such cruelty were brave flight efforts with a subsequent strong resistance. While the two terms, forced labor and slavery, have historically been used interchangeably, there exist a thin line in between. According to the International Labor Organization, forced labor refers to â€Å"work imposed on a person under the threat(s) of a penalty and for which the willingness to offer such a service is non-existent† (ILO par 3). Slavery, however, is an elastic concept that not only covers forced labor, but includes the dimension of the subjects involved being treated as property worth some definite price. (Laura 162). In the second article, â€Å"Who was responsible?† Elikia M'Bokolo tries to navigate the thicket of who should take the responsibility on the massive shipments of Africans to the Americas. A controversial subject that has left historians with more of a guess work, M'Bokolo works extracts extra hard to deconstruct the myth placing the Africans themselves right in the middle. From slave-raiding that involved outright abduction to slave-trading, either of the processes engaged the expedition of man-hunts that carried maximum risks, including mass killings; the 1446 massacre near the Cap Vert peninsula in present-day Senegal was but a clear indication of the Africans determination to fight off enslavement. Accordingly, the Europeans, particularly the Portuguese, were the pioneer traders in slaves, perhaps to minimize the risks of deaths in millions, of people whose services were increasingly needed to sustain plantation farming in America. Understandably, slave-raiding continued even after the routinisation of slave-trade, occasionally becoming a buffer source of slaves’ supply for traders. M'Bokolo goes to note that the terms of trade were never in the hands of Africans; the occasional raids coupled with the building of forts along the coastline sent a clear message to the rulers of the continent that left them with no choices other than to comply (Coates 21). As such, though Africans got involved in selling their fellow brothers, Europe’s domination shaped every aspect of the trade, leaving Africa counting its losses as they [th e Europeans] reaped massively. Bluntly put, slave trade, to Africans, was a kind of diabolical-plot which forcefully made them [Africans] accomplices or otherwise perish in the merciless expeditions. The section â€Å"A Controversial Question† highlights the controversy on who between the Europeans and Africans should bear the blame in perpetuating the

The Subprime Meltdown Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Subprime Meltdown - Movie Review Example Many banks, carried away by the rising real estate prices, extended loans to even those people who had a compromised credit history or did not qualify to secure such loans. The banks went extending such risky loans to profit from the high-interest rates agreed upon by such people. Being too overconfident that their creditors will eventually be able to honor such mortgages, considering the rising real estate prices, these banks did not care to be particular about the credit history of many of the creditors. By omitting this cardinal practice they not only compromised the eventual financial health of their banks but also betrayed their shareholders. The irony was that many Western investment firms also gave in to this opportunistic greed and readily purchased these loans from the erring banks to repackage them and sell them as Mortgage Backed Securities to their customers. The net result was that when in 2007 many customers started defaulting on their mortgages, it gave way to a chain reaction, leading to many banks and financial institutions going bankrupt. This avoidable economic debacle was caused by the basic unethical decision made by many banks to extend risky loans to customers with poor credit history. Simply speaking, defaulting customers, irresponsible banks, and unrealistically speculative investment firms were responsible for this fall. Primarily, the parties involved in these acts of omission were guided by ethical egoism. It is an ethical philosophy that lays stress on validating the rightness or wrongness of any action in relation to the extent to which it serves one’s self-interest. The banks and their customers opted for risky mortgages led by their greed for higher profits, even at the cost of forsaking sound financial practices. In contrast, if the investors and financial institutions had pursued a philosophy of ethical utilitarianism, which favors such decisions that enhance positive outcomes for the maximum number of people associatedà ‚  with such a decision, things would have turned different.  

Introduction to Statistics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Introduction to Statistics - Essay Example a) Proportion of affected patients was with the 95% confidence interval for the proportion of stroke patients who become clinically depressed given by . The confidence interval indicates with a confidence coefficient of 0.95 that the true proportion of stroke patients who become clinically depressed lies within this interval. b) To evaluate the claim of the health magazine, we check whether the confidence interval contains 60% of stroke sufferers. Since 0.60 is within the confidence interval, we conclude that the claim by the health magazine is consistent with the observed data (Mendenhall en Sinchich). c) The assumptions for the confidence interval to be valid include large sample size to ensure the validity of the normal approximation. The sample size of 79 is large enough to guarantee the validity of the normal approximation. d) Sample size to be used to achieve a 99% level of confidence that the sample proportion of stroke patients suffering from depression is within 0.025 of the true proportion is computed from the following formula. b) The main assumption for the validity of the confidence interval computed is that the sample should be drawn from a normal distribution or asymptotically, it should tend to a normal distribution. This assumption is violated since from the boxplot, the distribution of the temperature is right skewed. This is evident from the unequal length of whiskers of the boxplot, with a longer whisker for data to the right of the

The Subprime Meltdown Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Subprime Meltdown - Movie Review Example Many banks, carried away by the rising real estate prices, extended loans to even those people who had a compromised credit history or did not qualify to secure such loans. The banks went extending such risky loans to profit from the high-interest rates agreed upon by such people. Being too overconfident that their creditors will eventually be able to honor such mortgages, considering the rising real estate prices, these banks did not care to be particular about the credit history of many of the creditors. By omitting this cardinal practice they not only compromised the eventual financial health of their banks but also betrayed their shareholders. The irony was that many Western investment firms also gave in to this opportunistic greed and readily purchased these loans from the erring banks to repackage them and sell them as Mortgage Backed Securities to their customers. The net result was that when in 2007 many customers started defaulting on their mortgages, it gave way to a chain reaction, leading to many banks and financial institutions going bankrupt. This avoidable economic debacle was caused by the basic unethical decision made by many banks to extend risky loans to customers with poor credit history. Simply speaking, defaulting customers, irresponsible banks, and unrealistically speculative investment firms were responsible for this fall. Primarily, the parties involved in these acts of omission were guided by ethical egoism. It is an ethical philosophy that lays stress on validating the rightness or wrongness of any action in relation to the extent to which it serves one’s self-interest. The banks and their customers opted for risky mortgages led by their greed for higher profits, even at the cost of forsaking sound financial practices. In contrast, if the investors and financial institutions had pursued a philosophy of ethical utilitarianism, which favors such decisions that enhance positive outcomes for the maximum number of people associatedà ‚  with such a decision, things would have turned different.  

How specific groups are represented in scripted television shows Essay

How specific groups are represented in scripted television shows - Essay Example It is important for such representation to adopt strategies that would help in the dismantling of misrepresentations, which have always been propagated with regard to some specific groups. Such specific groups could include gay groups, African Americans, women, immigrants, and others, which have attracted conflicting perspectives in the various attempts to access the inner patterns and rhythms of their world view. One potent illustration is the representation of the African American woman in â€Å"Awkward Black Girl† by Issa Rac (Christian, 2011). One of the underlying objectives of this show is to provide alternative portrayal of the African American woman. The creator emphasizes on the need to develop a product that would capture the real lives of the African Americans (Christian, 2011). She argues that the subject has been misrepresented in a variety of discourses across time and history. The aspect of creativity is equally important as it helps to instil the proper aesthet ics in the subject as portrayed in a completely new dimension. When properly represented, such strategies help in redeeming the special groups from the injustices of negative or inaccurate representations, which are mainly guided by misconceptions, stereotypes, and untruths as understood within the mentalities of the superior groups. Consistently, many special groups have lost favour in the cable television networks and must find alternative forms of media in order to reach their target audiences. Web series have become one of readily available and most resourceful solutions to such groups (Christian, 2010). However, this alternative features multiple opportunities and challenges. Web is slow and compares poorly to cable networks. As an alternative to cable television, web does not attract large audiences and does not have a determinate and visible physical presence on the market. By its very nature, it is fluid and variable, which denies it the advantage of stability and popularity . These same qualities also lock it out from lucrative segments of the market such as older audiences who are less likely to consume web-based products. Such audiences are conservative in nature are more likely to stick with the tried and tested methods (Siapera, 2010). Statistics from comparative analyses between web series and cable television show that the consumption of web series products is likely to correspond with the patterns of internet use. Past studies on internet usage have shown significant variations in the patterns and trends of internet consumption across the variables of gender, race, social status, levels of income, and other demographics that are to be found within the American population (Fourie, 2010; Hammer & Keller, 2009). Web has not built stable and reliable clientele that would shore up the ratings and performance of the upstart networks. Some media scholars have explained it as being at an evolutionary stage and that it may take some time for it to be emb raced wholly by larger segments of the society. Web is still a new invention in the media world and has not built reliable metrics that would help to even the odds faced by minority shows (Christian, 2010). Even then, web series remains some of the most convenient escapes onto the wider market by programs and shows run by minorities and which have been affected by structural and systematic challenges of survival. Studies have also shown that the web-based media

Kantian and Utilitarian Essay Example for Free

Kantian and Utilitarian Essay Kant believed in an absolute moral law that he called the Categorical Imperative. It is this imperative that determines our duty. (2) Two formulations of this imperative can be used to determine the morally correct action that Alistair should choose. The first formulation, The Formula of Universal Law: Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law [of nature]. (2) Alistair has two possible maxims to act upon. These maxims, if it were universally applicable, are: â€Å"Anyone may lie in order to promote increasing human welfare† and â€Å"Everyone always tells the truth†. The first maxim is contradictory. If people had the option to lie, it negates the system of trust on which the world is built. When, for example, I put my money in the bank, I trust them to keep it safe. If the first maxim was universally accepted, I could not trust without reservation that the bank would keep my money safe because they would be able to give my money away if they felt it would increase the welfare of those less fortunate. If this was the case, there would be widespread mistrust and, ironically, it would have a negative impact on human welfare. The second maxim is universally applicable and is thus, according to Kant, the maxim on which to act upon. The second formulation, The Formula of the End in Itself: â€Å"So act as to treat humanity, both in your own person, and in the person of every other, always at the same time as an end, never simply as a means. †(2) If Alistair were to withhold the truth about the bribery, he denies the rationality of the board and denies that there is any rational action for them to perform. He denies them the option to rationally make a decision on what to do about the situation. In doing this he is using the board merely as a means to ensure the delivery of the medicine. According to Kant, for Alistair to use the board as a means in themselves, he would have to tell the truth. According to Kant’s theory, the action of ignoring the bribe fails the first and second formulation of the Categorical Imperative, thus the right thing to do would be to tell the truth to the board of directors. Utalitarian Theory Looking back at the case study it is clear that, on the one hand, people are receiving inexpensive kits of medicine, the drivers don’t get shot and the reputation of the relief organisation and the director is still intact. On the other hand, the board doesn’t know about the bribery, thus the unethical activity cannot be put to a stop. Utilitarianism is a theory based on consequences, not the action leading to the consequence. This theory holds that we should choose those actions that would result in the greatest amount of good in the interest of the greatest number of people affected by our actions. 1)(4) The â€Å"good† is anything that, directly or indirectly, brings happiness or pleasure. (4) The consequences of each particular action is considered to determine which outcome will best serve the greater good. (3) Act Utilitarianism prescribes that every situation be evaluated independently. The action that leads to the greatest net outcome of utility is then c onsidered to be the correct choice. According to this theory, Alistair should choose the action that will maximise happiness and minimise unhappiness. Alistair has two possible choices with two different consequences. The first is that Alistair tells the truth about the bribery. The possible outcome of his choice are the following: the drivers stop receiving cash and get shot, the contract is terminated and the less fortunate stop receiving their medicine, the director in charge of the contract is fired, and the relief organisation suffers great embarrassment. These are all negative effects and cause great unhappiness. On the other hand, the happiness of the board is increased because they can put a stop to more unethical activity. The second choice that Alistair has to consider is to keep silent and overlook the bribe. This would lead to the situation staying the same (as stated in the case study) and would secure the happiness of the greater good which include: the director, the relief organisation, the drivers and the people receiving the medicine. The board of directors would not know about the bribe, so there would be no unhappiness to consider. Considering the consequences of both actions, the happiness of the greater good is maximised when Alistair keeps silent.

Competition in the banking industry

Competition in the banking industry The banking system of a country plays a vital role in social welfare of the people in the country and of people of the world in general. It offers services to enterprises and consumers to undertake their business activities and to easily perform their day-to-day transactions. It is necessary to ensure an efficient functioning of the banking system; otherwise, a dull and bogus banking system brings about an ultimate threat of potential for financial instability. That is the reason why the competition in financial sector is of much importance. The importance is for many reasons; i.e. it relates to the efficiency, quality and innovation of the production of financial services. Most importantly, it helps in taking careful decisions in policy making for banks (Claessens and Laevens, 2003). In recent years, a lot of research work has been carried out, investigating the nature of competition in the banking industry along with the degree of competition, factors affecting the competition and the effects of competition on other market factors on micro level as well as on macro economic level. An explanation for the vast amount of studies on this topic is that competition can not be measured directly due to the lack of detailed information on prices and costs of the various banking products (Bikker et al., 2007). This topic has also gained popularity among bankers, economists and policy makers because of globalisation, liberalization of financial markets and banking harmonization all over the world, especially in the European Union. Since early 90s, there are a lot of regulatory changes observed in the banking industry in order to achieve the establishment of a single, competitive market in the financial sector of Europe. It was initially triggered with the implementation of the Second Banking Coordination Directive defining conditions for Single Banking License. As a consequence, entry barriers have been removed substantially for the new entrants increasing competition, coupled with a significant consolidation process. The intuition behind this was Market Contestability; a market is contestable if there are no barriers to entry, exit is absolutely costless and the prices are highly elastic to demands for industry output. The key idea is that a firm may be compelled to be more competitive and efficient by the prospect of new entrants (Allen and Engert, 2007). Furthermore, costless exit means that if a firm enters into a new market and then decides to withdraw, it is required to recover sunk entry costs. These features insure that even if a market has a small number of active firms, it is still effectively contestable and competitive (Nathan A. and Neave E., 1989). Moreover, the pro-competitive deregulation process has increased the level of competition (Cetorelli, 2004), particularly in non-traditional and non-interest bearing areas of banking activity (Goddard et al. 2001). Trivieri F. (2005) documents that in the course of the 1990s, the Italian banking system underwent profound changes at normative and institutional levels, which led among other things to a significant relaxation of the entry barriers, to the liberalisation of bank branching, to the redefinition of ownership structure and to a large number of mergers and acquisitions. The effects of these transformations and, in particular, of those linked to the process of consolidation have been studied by many authors (see, among others: Resti, 1997; Angelini and Cetorelli, 2000; Messori, 2001; Sapienza, 2002; Focarelli et al., 2002; Focarelli and Panetta, 2003). According to European Central Bank 1999, 29 percent banks had been merged or shrunk between 1985 and 1997. In Italian banking industry, the Second Banking Directive was implemented in 1993, followed by a 20 percent reduction in the number of banks as a result of consolidation. It is observed that competition has been increased in recent years in European banking markets which is also generally true for Italy. Angelini and Cetorelli (2000) cite that a rise in the competition is easily found in European banking markets during recent years. Danthine, Giavazzi, Vives and von Thadden (1999) report a somewhat generalized decrease in banks net interest margins across Europe during the 1990s. Consistent with the European evidence, a declining trend in bank margins is also observed across different markets in Italy. This paper focuses only on the banking industry of Italy and analyzes the evaluation of competitive conditions, nature and the degree of competition in the Italian banking industry using firm-level balance sheet data. In this paper, we explore more thoroughly the competitive nature and degree of competition in the Italian banking industry by adopting a methodology developed in empirical industrial organization and used extensively in banking. Further more, we will compare our results with previous results to find out that whether the degree of competition has been increased or it has been as same as it was in the past. The setup of the remainder of this paper is as follows. Section 2 contains some important information about structure and features of a competitive banking industry which helps in understanding the competition more thoroughly. Next Section 3 introduces the original Panzar-Rosse model along with the previous studies in the field. Section 4 gives a brief explanation of the general Panzar and Rosse model. This section also shows the interpretation of the H-statistic along with the description of the testing hypothesis. Following Section 5 deals with the empirical model used in this study including long-run equilibrium test. This section also contains the banks data used for the empirical illustration for our theoretical findings. Finally in the last Section 6 empirical results and conclusion is discussed. OPTIMAL COMPETITIVE STRUCTURE OF THE BANKING SYSTEM According to Northcott C. (2004), competition improves efficiency and growth in the banking sector but market power or concentration is necessary for stability in the industry. Moreover, competitive environment promotes productive and allocative efficiency leading towards economies of scale while market power improves credit availability, stability, quality of banks loan portfolios, screening of loans and monitoring them. As a result, market power should not be eliminated, but rather used to facilitate an environment that promotes competitive behaviour. FEATURES OF A COMPETITIVE BANKING INDUSTRY Concentration weakens competition by fostering collusive behaviour among firms. Increased market concentration was found to be associated with higher prices and greater than normal profits (Bain, 1951). Smirlock (1985) and Evanoff and Fortier (1988) argue that higher profits in concentrated markets could be the result of greater productive efficiency. Berger (1995) finds some evidence that the efficiency hypothesis holds in US banking. In Europe, on the other hand, structural factors appeared to be more important and the SCP hypothesis seemed to hold (Goddard et al., 2001). If a well-developed financial system is provided then contestability improves with new entrants. Contestability is not necessarily related to concentration or the number of banks. Concentration and competition can exist together because of the presence of asymmetric information and branches and the effect and use of new technologies. (Northcott C, 2004) LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL ISSUES: According to Bikker and Haaf (2000), initially the economic literature on the issue of competition in the industrial sector can be divided into two main categories; structural approach and non-structural approach. Structural approach can be further divided into two main paradigms. First type of structural approach is Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP) paradigm, which tells us that the degree of competition is determined by the structural characteristics of the market, such as, number of firms, size of the firms, etc. The SCP was developed in the early 1950s by Mason (1939) and Bain (1951). Bain (1951) constructs the market power hypothesis that collusive behaviour is initiated by high concentration which results in large profits for firms. Later, Stigler (1964) and Demsetz propose efficiency hypothesis in contrast of marker power hypothesis stating that the efficiency of bigger firms may be the reason for high concentration instead of collusive behaviour of firms, while during 1980s, Baumol, Panzar and Willig (1983) build contestability hypothesis. Their hypothesis states that if entry and exit barriers are relaxed then competition may be prevailed (Mkrtchyan A. 2005). Second approach is Efficient-Structure-Hypothesis (ESH), which states that greater concentration in the industry not only increases the level of efficiency in the sector but also increases the degree of competition in that sector. Non-structural approach is based on describing the nature of competition in the context of the studies of New Economic Industrial Organization (NIEO). It suggests non-structural models to analyse the competition in markets which do not rely on the markets structure. Particularly, Klein (1971), Baumol, Panzar, and Willig [1982] provide a theory that shows that market competitiveness can be inferred irrespective of the structure of the market. NIEO studies include Iwata Model (1974), Brasnahan Model (1982), Rosse and Panzar (1977), Panzar and Rosse (1982), Panzar and Rosse Model (1987), etc. Non-structural method or firms input-output cost studies have gained more popularity than the structural approach among academics, researchers, analysts and policy makers. Particularly Panzar and Rosse model (1987) is the most widely used and is very popular model for competition. Duncan (2003) mentions that the Panzar and Rosse (P-R) model provides a comprehensive and simple method to calculate the competition. It does not require intensive data as compared to other models and has been firmly related to theoretical side. The information required for this model is easily available as it calculates the sum of the factor prices elasticities estimated from a reduced form of revenue function. The Rosse-Panzar test has been developed to examine competitive conditions in the light of the contestability theory (Rosse and Panzar, 1977; 1982; 1987). This approach measures the degree of competition by analyzing how each banks revenues react to changes in input prices. It has primarily emerged to test market conditions that encompass all spectrums of competitiveness away from the restrictions brought about by the structural concepts. Basically, it depends on the relationship between gross revenues of the firm and the change in its input prices by using a statistic which is called the H-statistics that measures the sum of elasticities of total revenue with respect to each input price. As this approach includes the revenue equation so for banks, mainly the revenues are interest revenue. In this approach, h-statistics is used to measure the degree of competition. The H-statistics will tell us the responsiveness of revenues to the changes in input prices. If h-statistics is less t han or equal to zero then there will be monopoly, if it is between zero and one then there will be monopolistic competition and if it is equal to one then there will be perfect competition (Greenberg J. and Simbanegavi W.). This approach is preferred when testing the data of different individual banks. Moreover, P-R approach yields similar results without any ambiguity as it has clearly defined hypotheses with specific interpretations. PREVIOUS GENERAL STUDIES ABOUT BANK COMPETITION: Rearrange the literature review according to the claessens and neave. A great number of papers have been written on investigating competition in the banking industry using Panzar and Rosse model (1987). But the motivations for analyzing the nature of the competition are vastly varied like contribution of institutional and structural factors, growth, regions, stability, financing, efficiency, contestability, consolidation, cross-border capital flows, risks etc. The summary of the previous works and their findings can be seen in the Appendix Table 1. Panzar J. and Rosse J. (1987) develop test for Monopoly and use linear regression model to estimate the H-statistic for the newspaper industry, reporting that it is vague to conclude that the newspaper firms earn oligopoly profits. Looking at the cross-country studies carried out in the EU banking markets, one of the earliest analysis is undertaken by Molyneux et al. (1994) who test the Panzar-Rosse statistics on a sample of banks in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK for the period 1986-89. Results indicate monopolistic competition in all countries except Italy where the monopoly hypothesis can not be rejected. Shaffer and Disalvo (1994) use this test to analyze the data of a duopoly banking market in south central Pennsylvania to exercise the procedure for concentration and competitive conduct. Waleed Murjan and Cristina Ruza (2002) examine the Arab Middle Eastern banking markets with this test concluding that the banking sector is more competitive in non-oil-producing countries than the banking industry in oil-producing countries. Gelos and Roldos (2002) apply this method on 8 different countries of Latin America and Europe, finding that market contestability prevents the competitive pressure from declining which can happen because of the consolidation while Claessens and Laeven (2003) process the data of 50 countries obtaining the same results. Bikker and Haaf (2002) assess the banking industry in 17 European countries and six countries that are outside of Europe comparing competitive conditions and market structure. Goddard, J. and Wilson, J. (2006) report misspecification bias in the revenue equation for the banking sectors of 19 developed and developing countries. They suggested a dynamic revenue equation for unbiased estimation rather than fixed effects estimation which is severely biased towards zero. Gilbert (1984) and Berger (1995) test the data for 8,235 banks in 23 developed nations producing the results that a higher degree of market power has less risk exposure. Yuan Y. (2005) assesses the competition in Chinese Banking sector and comes up with the results that China already has had perfectly competitive condition before new foreign entrants and it still has the same situation. Duncan D. (2003) presents the empirical assessment of the market structure of the Jamaican banking sector and competitive trends in the market finding monopolistic behaviour. Al-Muharrami S. et al. (2006) take GCC Arab countries into observation and suggest that Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE operate under perfect competition; and Bahrain and Qatar operate under conditions of monopolistic competition. Nathan A. and Neave E. (1989) exercise the test on Canadian financial industry and reject the hypothesis of monopoly power in Canadas financial system. PREVIOUS STUDIES ABOUT COMPETITION IN ITALIAN BANKING INDUSTRY: A great number of studies on competition in financial sector of EU countries have been reported which also include Italy in general. But there are also some research-papers which are produced specifically for Italy. Some of them are: Cetorelli N. and Angelini P. (2000) study the case of the Italian banking industry and cite that competitive conditions have improved substantially after 1992, and it is believed that the introduction of the Single Banking License in 1993 also helps fostering the competitive behaviour in Italian banking industry. DellAriccia G. and Bonaccorsi E. (2003) investigate the relationship between bank competition and firm creation. They document that the effects of competition in the banking sector on the creation of firms in the non-financial sector are less favourable to the emergence of new firms in industries where information asymmetries are greater. Coccorese P. (2002) rejects the theory that competition can be easily reduced by the collusive behaviour of the firms, and comes up with the conclusion that strong concentration does not necessarily prevent competition among firms. Trivieri F. (2005) compares the banks involved in the cross-ownership and banks that are not involved. He finds that Italian banks involved in cross-ownership are less competitive than the banks which are not involved in cross-ownership, hence proving cross-ownership decreases competition. GENERALIZED PANZAR AND ROSSE (1987) APPROACH: P-R model assumptions: Firstly, there are some assumptions and conditions in which Panzar and Rosse model works. The model supposes that banks operate in long run equilibrium. Although Goddard Wilson (2006), documents that this condition is not needed any more if a correctly specified dynamic revenue equation is adopted which permits virtually unbiased estimation of the H-statistic. This eliminates the need for a market equilibrium assumption, but incorporates instantaneous adjustments as a special case. So in this paper long run equilibrium postulate holds. Another assumption is that the market participants affect the performance of the banks by their actions. Another postulate is that the price elasticity of demand is greater than unity. Moreover, the model posits that there is a homogenous cost structure. Furthermore, profits are maximised to obtain the equilibrium number of banks and the equilibrium output. In long rum equilibrium, it is known that banks maximise their profits when, marginal revenue eq uals to marginal cost (Bikker and Haaf, 2000). Trivieri F. (2005) also adds that the banks are treated as single product firms which mainly provide intermediation services. EXPLANATION OF PR MODEL: Claessens and Laeven (2003) cite that the Panzar and Rosse model studies the impact of changes in factor input prices reflected in equilibrium revenues by a specific bank. Bikker and Haaf (2000) write that Panzar and Rosse model gives simple models for oligopolistic, competitive and monopolistic markets. This test works on the reduced form revenue equation and uses H-statistics. This H-statistics can tell us not only the nature of competition but also gives information about the degree of the competition. H-statistics if measures between 0 and 1, it is monopolistic competition, 0 is considered as monopoly and 1 as perfect competition. Here, a general banking market model is used, which determines equilibrium output and the equilibrium number of banks by maximising profits. The model is also able to allow for bank-specific variables in the equation. According to Bikker and Haaf (2000), in the long run equilibrium, it is known that banks maximise their profits at the break-even point. The break-even point is where marginal revenue equals marginal cost. So, the bank i maximises its profits, where marginal revenue equals marginal cost: (1) Ri refers to revenues and Ci to costs of bank i (the prime denoting marginal), xi is the output of bank i, n is the number of banks, wi is a vector of m factor input prices of bank i, zi is a vector of exogenous variables that shift the banks revenue function, ti is a vector of exogenous variables that shift the banks cost function. Secondly, it means that in equilibrium at the market level, the zero profit constraint holds (Bikker and Haaf, 2000): (2) Variables marked with an asterisk (*) represent equilibrium values. Panzar and Rosse define a measure of competition H as the sum of the elasticities of the reduced-form revenues with respect to factor prices (Bikker and Haaf, 2000): (3) According to Khan, M. (2009), it measures the percentage change in (equilibrium) revenue due to a one percent change in all input factor prices (change in cost). From duality theory, it is known that one percent increase in factor prices will lead to one percent upward shift in cost function. The impact of this shift in cost function on the (equilibrium) revenue of the banks is directly related to the degree of competition in the banking sector. Bikker and Haaf (2000) further explain that Panzar and Rosse prove that under monopoly or under perfectly collusive oligopoly, an increase in input prices will increase marginal costs, reduce equilibrium output and subsequently reduce revenues; hence H will be zero or negative. An increase in input prices raises both marginal and average costs by an equal proportion as the cost is homogeneous of degree one in input prices without altering the optimal output of any individual firm. Exit of some firms increases the demand faced by each of the remaining firms, thereby leading to an increase in prices and total revenues by as same amount as the rise in costs, resulting perfect competition where H-statistic is positive but not greater than unity. In this case marginal and average cost will be increased by the rise in input prices (Nathan A. and Neave H., 1989). INTERPRETATION OF H-STATISTICS: Panzar and Rosse prove that, under monopolistic competition, H is between zero and unity. H is a decreasing function of the perceived demand elasticity, so H increases with the competitiveness of the banking industry. As a result, this H-statistic can serve as a continuous interpretation of the competitiveness. Although this is not mentioned by Panzar and Rosse (1987) but with some assumptions this continuous interpretation is correct. So, the testable hypotheses are: The banking industry is characterised by monopoly for H=0, monopolistic competition for 0 HYPOTHESIS TESTING; Khan, M. (2009) mentions: Two-sided Perfect Competition Test: Maintaining the long run equilibrium postulate, if banks are operating under perfect competition, a one percent change in cost will lead to a one percent change in revenues. Output will not be changed if the demand function is perfectly elastic under perfect competition, output price and cost both will increase by the same extent. This implies that under perfect competition, H-statistic will be equal to one. Statistically, we will test the following hypothesis. H0 : H = 1 Perfect competition prevails in the banking sector. H1 : H à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚   1 There is no perfect competition in the banking sector. Two-sided Monopolistic Competition Test: If banks are operating in monopolistically competitive environment, one percent increase in cost will lead to less than one percent increase in revenue as the bank faces fairly inelastic demand function. Statistically, we will test the following hypothesis. H0 : 0 H1 : H à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤ 0 or H à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥ 1 Banks are not operating in a monopolistic competition environment. One-sided Monopoly Test: Standard theory of market structure suggests that the sum of factor input price elasticities should be less than zero if the underlying market structure is monopoly. Statistically, we will test the following hypothesis. H0 : H à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤ 0 Banks are operating in a monopoly condition. H1 : H > 0 Banks are not operating in a monopoly condition. (Khan M., 2009) EMPIRICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY: The test is robust with any definition of market whether it is within the national boundaries or it is the global international banking industry because there is no need to specify a geographic market. Before testing, it is commonly necessary to obtain a reduced form of revenue equation which consists of revenue as a dependent variable, factor input prices as independent variables and some controlled or firms specific factors. The basic equation is: Total interest revenue = total cost + controlled variables + error term The panel data is used in the paper which is the data collected over multiple time periods. It is the combination of cross-sectional and time series dimensions. Hence, it can be derived as: Ci = a + Byi + Ei (4) Ct = a + Byt + Et (5) Where, C is the dependent variable, a is constant term, B is the coefficient of the independent term, y is the independent variable and E is the error term. Combining both the equations (4) and (5), the final basic equation can be given as: Cit = a + Byit + Eit (6) But Panzar and Rosse define the H as the sum of the elasticities of the reduced-form revenues with respect to factor prices, so the econometric model of the Panzar and Rosse statistic may be represented by the following equation: (7) For i = 1,..I; t = 1,T; Where, R is a measure of gross revenue. W is a vector of factor prices (the H statistic is given by the sum of the estimated coefficients of the variables in this vector); S is a vector of scale variables; X is a vector of exogenous and bank-specific variables that may shift the cost and revenue schedule, ÃŽÂ µ indicates the error term; I is the total number of banks; T is the number of periods observed (Trivieri, 2005). To calculate the sum of elasiticities, it is necessary to estimate the log linear model instead of estimating a simple linear model that is the reason for taking the log of all the variables in equation (7). The sign of the variables of different costs and bank specific variables are positive showing a direct relationship to revenues (Trivieri, 2005). In this pooled regression, extra intercepts or dummies for time are used, but dummies for individuals are not included because of the application of within-group-estimators. Because with-in-group estimator takes first difference and removes the individuals dummies variables by itself. Thus being a fixed effects model, it measures differences in intercepts for each group and the differences are calculated by a separate dummy variable for each group (Trivieri, 2005). The use of fixed effects panel regression with time dummies allows calculating the relevant parameters of the empirical model. Furthermore, unobserved heterogeneity is controlled by the fixed effects too avoiding omitted variable problems (Trivieri, 2005). In this paper, the intermediation approach developed by Sealey and Lindley (1977), is followed which tells that deposits, labour and capital are inputs for the banks. The empirical model applied in this paper is as: LGIRTA = B1LLABCOST + B2LCAPCOST + B3LFUNDCOST + B4LLTA + B5LBMIX (8) Where, LGIRTA = Log of Gross Interest Revenues over Total Assets LLABCOST = Log of Labour factor price LCAPCOST = Log of Capital Cost LFUNDCOST = Log of Funding Cost LLTA = Log of Loans to Total Assets LBMIX = Log of Loans to Banks and Clients over Total Loans This paper addresses the banking industry of Italy. The data includes 480 banks approximately, of all sizes in Italy. The data contains two different samples. First sample consists of the data from 1995 to 1997, total 3 years, and the second sample contains data from 1997 to 2000, total 3 years. We make a comparison and inference between the results obtained by these two samples through our empirical model and find out the competitive behaviour of Italian financial market. LONG RUN EQUILIBRIUM TEST: An important underlying condition of the H-statistic for competition is the long run equilibrium. Panzar and Rosse (1987) cite that this postulate is crucial for the cases of perfect competition and monopolistic competition. Though, it is not a fundamental assumption in the case of monopoly because when H is less than or equal to zero then it is a long run assumption for monopoly (Trivieri, 2005). Long run equilibrium test for the observations can be done with the prerequisite that: competitive markets equalise the return rates across firms, so that in equilibrium these rates should not be correlated with input prices (Trivieri, 2005). In our empirical model as in Shaffer (1982), this test can be carried out by re-estimating the equation with the proxy for the return on assets, ROA, as dependent variable in the calculation of H. In this context, H = 0 implies that the data are in long run equilibrium (Trivieri, 2005). The intuition behind this theory is that, return on assets, ROA, should not be related to input prices. De Bandt and Davis (1999), define the equilibrium condition as the state in which changes in banking sector are considered as gradual, long run equilibrium for the observations does not mean that competitive conditions remain the same and do not change through out the period of observations (Trivieri, 2005). Although it is inappropriate to use Rosse-Panzar test which is based on a static equilibrium framework, but in the real financial market, the equilibrium adjustments are less than instantaneous, resulting disequilibrium on some points in time or frequently, or always. Moreover, when it is known that the adjustments towards equilibrium are partial and not instantaneous then using fixed effects estimation for the static revenue equation will result in biased H-statistics toward zero (Goddard J. and Wilson J., 2006). For the long run equilibrium, we estimate the following equation: LROA = B1LLABCOST + B2LCAPCOST + B3LFUNDCOST + B4LLTA + B5LBMIX (9) DATA AND SAMPLE DESCRIPTION: The empirical part of this paper uses an unbalanced panel data set on which the Panzar and Rosse methodology has been applied containing a range of Italian banking firms. The data and the samples used for the estimation of H indicator are provided by Dr. Leone Leonida, Queen Mary, University of London. The data used in this paper are annual and refer to the period 1995-1997 (3 years) for the first sample. The first sample for the econometric analysis is made up of an unbalanced panel data of 480 financial institutions of all sizes, for a total of 1401 observations. The number of parameters is 487. The longest time series is 3 years long and the shortest time series is only 2 years long with 2 time dummies. The second sample covers the period of 1998-2000 (3 years) having 1330 number of observation from 474 banks of all sized. The number of parameters is 481. The longest time series is 3 years long and the shortest time series is 2 years long depicting unbalanced panel data with 2 time dummies. In the Appendix, Table 3 provides a summary of the definition of relevant dependent variable, independent variables, bank specific factors variables and control variables. LGIRTA is the log of gross interest revenue over total assets, which is used as dependent variable, also used by De Bandt and Davis (2000), and Trivieri F. (2005). Trivieri (2005) points out that according to Vesala (1995) and De Bandt and Davis (2000) it is the most appropriate choice because it then represents a price equation and not the revenue equation. Moreover, our equation will be consistent with the conceptual structure used by the application of Panzar and Rosses statistic to the banking sector. The choice for taking only the interest part of the total revenue of banks is consistent with underlying notion of the P-R model that financial intermediation is the core business of most banks. However, Shaffer (1982) and Nathan and Neaves (1989) have included total revenue instead of only interest revenue because of the fact that banks have increased their non-interest activities and services which have started generating income other than interest. But s

Examining Pascals Argument for God Essay -- Religion Pascal

There have been many responses to Pascal’s proposition. British humorist Terry Pratchett cleverly summed it up in one of his books with a story of a philosopher who said, â€Å"Possibly the gods exist, and possibly they do not. So why not believe in them in any case? If it's all true you'll go to a lovely place when you die, and if it isn't then you've lost nothing, right? (Pratchett 51)† To the average person, it seems as though there are two choices of religion; to believe in God or not to believe in God. Pascal’s theory is that it is better to believe in God, even without reason, because in so believing, you lose nothing, whereas if you do not believe, you stand to lose significantly. On the surface, this wager seems to make an adequate amount of sense, but upon further examination, the argument begins to break down. Pascal states, â€Å"According to reason, you can defend neither of the propositions. (Pascal 444)† He does not think that reason is sufficient to prove God’s existence, nor is there solid evidence one way or the other. â€Å"There is an infinite chaos which separates us, (Pascal 444)† Pascal says, meaning that if there is a God, humans cannot comprehend Him or His actions. This is to say, even if God exists, humans could not possibly know enough about Him to prove His existence by proof or reason. This, Pascal says, is why the wager is necessary; we cannot know if He exists, we must decide to either believe or disbelieve based on logic. Pascal says that the choice is between several sets of human qualities or characteristics: the true vs. the good, reason vs. will, knowledge vs. happiness, and error vs. misery. He theorizes that the believer who turns out to be correct in his belief will have true good, agreement with rea... ... of belief that have been created around the deity by humans. Even if there is a God and belief in Him is founded, there is no way to know if He will or will not bestow rewards upon His followers. Pascal’s theory would make sense if it were based on anything other than religion. Theology depends more on personal motivations than a desire for some unknown reward that may or may not exist. Pascal seems to be merely covering his own ass with this wager, telling himself that he is believing in anticipation of his eventual reward. This is not a satisfactory justification for believing in a God for which one has no evidence. Works Cited Pascal, Blaise. â€Å"The Wager.† Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings. William L. Rowe and William J. Wainwright, ed. Harcourt Brace, Orlando, FL. 1973. Pratchett, Terry. Hogfather. Harper Prism, London, England. 1996. Examining Pascal's Argument for God Essay -- Religion Pascal There have been many responses to Pascal’s proposition. British humorist Terry Pratchett cleverly summed it up in one of his books with a story of a philosopher who said, â€Å"Possibly the gods exist, and possibly they do not. So why not believe in them in any case? If it's all true you'll go to a lovely place when you die, and if it isn't then you've lost nothing, right? (Pratchett 51)† To the average person, it seems as though there are two choices of religion; to believe in God or not to believe in God. Pascal’s theory is that it is better to believe in God, even without reason, because in so believing, you lose nothing, whereas if you do not believe, you stand to lose significantly. On the surface, this wager seems to make an adequate amount of sense, but upon further examination, the argument begins to break down. Pascal states, â€Å"According to reason, you can defend neither of the propositions. (Pascal 444)† He does not think that reason is sufficient to prove God’s existence, nor is there solid evidence one way or the other. â€Å"There is an infinite chaos which separates us, (Pascal 444)† Pascal says, meaning that if there is a God, humans cannot comprehend Him or His actions. This is to say, even if God exists, humans could not possibly know enough about Him to prove His existence by proof or reason. This, Pascal says, is why the wager is necessary; we cannot know if He exists, we must decide to either believe or disbelieve based on logic. Pascal says that the choice is between several sets of human qualities or characteristics: the true vs. the good, reason vs. will, knowledge vs. happiness, and error vs. misery. He theorizes that the believer who turns out to be correct in his belief will have true good, agreement with rea... ... of belief that have been created around the deity by humans. Even if there is a God and belief in Him is founded, there is no way to know if He will or will not bestow rewards upon His followers. Pascal’s theory would make sense if it were based on anything other than religion. Theology depends more on personal motivations than a desire for some unknown reward that may or may not exist. Pascal seems to be merely covering his own ass with this wager, telling himself that he is believing in anticipation of his eventual reward. This is not a satisfactory justification for believing in a God for which one has no evidence. Works Cited Pascal, Blaise. â€Å"The Wager.† Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings. William L. Rowe and William J. Wainwright, ed. Harcourt Brace, Orlando, FL. 1973. Pratchett, Terry. Hogfather. Harper Prism, London, England. 1996.

The Principles of Morality

Humans must not treat each other merely as a means to satisfy an end. Human beings are objects of dignity and not a mere machine, thus deserving respect to and from each other and respect to the law as well. Respect, although a human feeling, is a self-wrought rational concept and, thus, free of influences. This is the true essence of ethics that   is supposed to exist among human beings. However, as Kant implied in his Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals this is not always the case, that humans behave to each other in pursuance of freedom, human rights, violence, peace and anything attributing to his own well-being as well as to the well-being of others and the community in general. Kant has acknowledged in his arguments   that aside from respect and duty, human acts accordingly based on his inclinations and, or worse, out of fear. However, it was emphasized that with obedience to law the actions would be in conformity to that law and would become a binding principle among humans. Respect is properly the conception of a worth which thwarts my self-love. Accordingly it is something which is considered neither as an object of inclination nor of fear, although it has something analogous to both. The object of respect is the law only, and that the law which we impose on ourselves and yet recognise as necessary in itself. (Kant) Humans need guidance to be enlightened and eventually be free and at the same time, need a universal law to exist among them for their own sake.   This law would be the imposing object of humans to themselves as a result of their will. This include the common day-to-day congenial acts of humanity such as honesty, faithfulness, respect for each other, trustworthiness, non-imprisonment of innocent individuals and be like the example that was in Kant’s Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, keeping ones promises. Why is it a wrong deed for A if she took the hand of B forcing the latter to shoot C? This case would be an act of deception and coercion and obviously a crime, in which case, against the universal law. A have â€Å"bypassed†(Hare 13) the agency of B as A used B as the shooting medium. It is also a deception when A impede the rational   choice and free will of B to make the decision and the action. This is a violation of the universal law and it is a treatment of humans, in this case B, as without dignity but only used as a means to achieve an end, the shooting of C. As the source of guidance to the acts, duties and obligations of humans, morality is very important. In fact, as Kant have argued, â€Å"it is only a pure philosophy that we can look for the moral law in its purity and genuineness.† This means that even morality itself may have something of its own immoralities within: a hidden motive. To someone of a morally good, or a virtuous, character that someone should perform an act without looking at the effect of that certain action or, without deriving the motive of that act from its possible effect. A virtuous character â€Å"wants† or â€Å"wills† (or what Kant calls the â€Å"principle of volition†) the performance of an act for the act itself and not from the expected results or a return that can be gained from doing such acts. As Kant have put it: â€Å"an action done from duty derives its moral worth, not from the purpose which is to be attained by it, but from the maxim by which it is determined† Moreover, the virtuous person thus acts in accordance to the â€Å"autonomy†, that would be an act of the holy will, which can be viewed as â€Å"absolutely good† according to Kant. The autonomy causes the Will of the action a â€Å"law to itself†. This is because the Autonomy of the Will is the supreme principle of morality which makes a rational being of freedom efficient and independent upon his choices and actions, as opposed to an irrational being who is fragile to influences of the external environment. However, if the will is only based on necessity of morality, this would become an obligation, and the action resulting from it is called duty. This makes autonomy as one of the important limitations of morality: â€Å"part of the dignity of life is choosing one's own path through it. Given those limits, there can be principles so demanding that compliance simply will not be forthcoming.† (Griffin 127) Human actions have imperatives and are governed by the Ought. Acknowledging its obligations is a way for humans to be within the world with sense and understanding. However, this conception of obligation is not easily accepted or might be challenged by humans due to immaturity, ignorance or fanaticism. Humans are supposed to be rational beings that belong to an intelligible world, conscious and responsible for its actions. It is, however, very evident that humans act in the contrary and as Kant has argued, â€Å"can never conceive the causality of his own will otherwise than on condition of the idea of freedom.† This might be attributed to immaturity which not an outside force to him but something that he has self-incurred. This is the lack of courage and resolution from the side of humans to use his â€Å"own understanding without the guidance of others.† (Kant) Immaturity would hinder the purpose of morality laws that have an ultimate principle conceived to guide humans in every possible circumstances in life. Without recognizing their respective obligations, humans would be living in darkness, without a well defined function in life. This would hinder the attainment of human freedom, his free will. In Kant’s An Answer to the Question: â€Å"What is Enlightenment?† he has emphasized the value of freedom that can only be attained by an enlightened humanity. Without recognition of the obligations, there would be no duty. Without duty means without worth of   morality for human actions. Works Cited Griffin, James. Well-Being: Its Meaning, Measurement, and Moral Importance. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986. Questia. 5 May 2008 ;http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o;d=26035794;. Hare, John E. The Moral Gap : Kantian Ethics, Human Limits, and God's Assistance /. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Questia. 5 May 2008 .