Economic Liberalism Essay

Economic liberalism was the prevailing economic philosophy in much of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the U. S. economy developed within its framework. Economic liberalism promoted freedom of action for die indivi ¬dual and the firm through the doctrines of free trade, self-interest, private prop ¬erty and competition. According to this philosophy, individuals were free to seek their own occupa ¬tions, to enter any business, and to act as they saw fit to improve their economic welfare. Economic society was held together by mutual exchanges founded on the division of labor and prompted by self-interest. Self-interest was thus the motivat ¬ing force of the economy. For example, to increase personal economic welfare, an individual might decide to produce goods and sell them for a profit. Bur. in so doing, that individual automatically benefited the community as well—by pur ¬chasing raw materials, providing employment, and supplying goods or services. Workers seeking to increase their wages could do so by increasing productivity. This, too, benefited the employer and the community in general. According to Adam Smith (often called the father of economics), the individual, in seeking personal gain, was led by an invisible hand to promote the welfare of the whole community. Under economic liberalism, individuals were free to engage in the trade, occupation, or business they desired. Workers were free to move from one job to another and to enter into or exit from any industry. Workers were free to work or not to work, and businesses were free to produce or nor to produce. Competition was the regulator of the economy under economic liberalism. Businesses competed with one another for consumer trade by developing new and better products and by selling existing products at lower prices. Free entry into the market ensured ample competition, and prices were determined by the free forces of supply and demand. Equilibrium prices were determined by the actions of individual buyers and sellers, with each buyer and seller acting in his or her own self-interest. Whenever there was excesses on either the supply or the demand side, markets behaved as though there were an invisible hand of competition guiding them back toward equilibrium, where supply equaled demand. This unseen force seemed to select prices that cleared the market by eliminating surpluses and shortages. Equilibrium prices received by sellers and paid by consumers were equal to production costs. Thus, by each individual max ¬imizing his or her own self-interest, everyone benefited. Competitive forces deter ¬mined not only the prices of goods and services but also wage rates. In theory, economic liberalism was a sound philosophy, and the early U. S. economy prospered under it. But it was not without its weaknesses. The most pronounced weaknesses were its dependence on the beneficial effects of self- interest and its undue reliance on competition to regulate the economy and pro ¬mote the general welfare. Unfortunately, self-interest in many cases translated into greed and abuse of economic liberty. At the same time, competition proved to be an inadequate guarantor of the free market.

Feral Children Essay

Genie was a modern wild-child, discovered on 1970. She had been isolated from society for something about ten years. When she was discovered, she had suffered from severe social deprivation. Among the problems that were caused by lifestyle she was imposed to, were significant physical problems. According to Ward (2007): â€Å"She had a strange bunny-like walk— she held her hands up in front of her like paws and moved in a halting way. She could not chew solid food and could hardly swallow. She spat constantly. She sniffed. She was not toilet-trained and could not focus her eyes beyond 12 feet. She weighed 59 pounds and was 54 inches tall. † Some of these problems are undoubtedly caused by girl’s extremely limited social interactions. Her habit to spit and sniff, her strange style of walking are caused by lack of social interaction. Normally an average child is surrounded by the adults who give to it plenty of examples as to how to walk, how to do things and how to behave. Toilet-training also is an acquired skill that is learned only in constant interaction with parents or fosterers, i. e. in constant social interaction. Genie’s inability to focus her eyes at objects that were at relatively long distance from her is a result of life in an environment that had almost no visual stimuli, and hence this physical problem is also result of social deprivation. Genie’s inability to chew solid food and swallow, along with her height and weight are rather the result of her food ration than the aftermath of long-term social isolation. Genie’s amazing initial ability to learn human behaviors from those around her is not surprising, because her ability to perceive and learn from the local environment was not satisfied by the poor environment she lived in for many years. And when her environment was significantly enriched with irritants and stimuli, the mind of Genie had awakened from artificial slumber by the potent stream of new information from her sensory organs. Her ability to copy and took part into the physical actions like dressing are explained well by the initial imprinting that was even more efficient than usually due to the contrast between the emotionally and sensory poor environment she used to live in and new enriched with information and interactions environment she went into. As Genie was found and rescued she immediately became the subject of diversified scientific studies that took significant part of her everyday life. This raises the question – was such intensive study of Genie ethical towards her? Considering the conditions that Genie lived in before she was found, considering the fact that scientists tried to spent with her more time than it was necessary to carry out current tests in order to build a sense of family to the girl that never knew what a family is before, it is possible to say that interactions with scientists were beneficial to Genie. She immediately started to advance in a lot of things she never had a single chance to learn before. She had found people that took care of her and emulated the family to her. And whereas the studies she was subjected to had accompanied her interactions with people and were intended to find out if Genie had retained her ability to learn and socialize and how did her long isolation from society affected her, it is possible to say that such an social symbiosis between socially deprived child and scientists is perfectly acceptable. Scientists quickly found out that, despite the long time spent in environment harsh and deprived both of information and emotions, Genie had retained ability and desire for learning and manifested this ability and eager for learning very quickly after being transferred into more favorable environment. This is quite natural. The young organism with inviolate ability to study and learn her local neighborhood, being transferred from the conditions that disfavored any investigative activity to the conditions that encourage observation and learning, started to overtake the lack of information about the local environment. This is perfectly normal because it is natural to any mammal to explore his local environment to find out where the safe places are and where the places to feed and places to be avoided located. This is an instinctive set of actions that guarantees the organism better adaptation to this local environment and, therefore, better chances to survive. To explore one’s local neighborhood is instinctive, and human child is not immune to these instincts. But in humans the ability to learn and the need to explore his neighborhood is expressed much more than in any other mammal, even in other Primates, thus creating more eminent appetite for learning. But the single need for learning for a human is not enough. Need for learning and appropriate conditions to satisfy this need are important of course, but these factors are enough to learn only physical and emotional aspects of human life. As to more abstract components, for example, ability to speak certain language correctly, putting the words into the logical order in accordance with rules of the language, there are more conditions needed, some of them quite specific. Coming back to Genie example: â€Å"One of the last tests †¦ measured what parts of her brain were active as she conducted different kinds of tasks. †¦ There was almost no left brain activity. Her tests looked similar to tests of children who had to have their left brains removed. † (Ward, 2007) This shows how important is socialization in development of activities that are build on logic and that are physiologically bound to activity of the left hemisphere of the brain. On the example of Genie it becomes clear that early socialization is the key to normal development of intellectual skills based on left brain activity, and the deficit of social interactions in these early years can lead to irreversible underdevelopment of skills vitally important to contemporary human. References: 1. Ward, Andrew. (2007). Genie, a modern-day Wild Child. Retrieved September 15, 2008 from http://www. feralchildren. com/en/showchild. php? ch=genie

Indian Folk and Tribal Dances Essay

India is a land of diverse cultures and traditions. Each region of the country has a unique culture, which is also prominently visible in its various art forms. Almost all the regions of the country have their specific folk music and dance, which proves to be a wonderful way of expression of their community and its traditions. Though these folk dances are not as complex as the classical dance forms, they are very beautiful, because of the essence of rawness in them. Be it the Bihu of Assam, Dol-Cholom of Manipur, Hikal of Himachal Pradesh or Chhau of Bihar, each of the Indian folk dance forms comes across as a reflection of the deep sited beliefs and traditions of a particular culture. The folk dances of any community are performed on almost every special occasion and festival, to express elation and joy. These dances are also considered to be auspicious by many of the tribal communities in the country. Many folk dances are dedicated to the presiding deity of the specific community. The most interesting part of a folk dance is the attire required for its performance. Every folk dance has its own specific costume and jewelry, which differs from dance to dance. They are, in general, very bright and colorful, with traditional jewelries that give a folk touch to the performance. These dances are not only the exclusive art of a particular community, but also an asset of India’s cultural heritage. In our related section, we have discussed the different folk dances of India.

Leadership models Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Leadership models - Essay Example In this regard, the paper will endeavor to identify and analyze different characteristics of change models, and will attempt to discuss its advantages and drawbacks as well. In any organization, commitment plays a significant and decisive role in the success of any change process. However, studies indicated that organizations and business experts were unable to give importance to the notion of commitment that is an imperative component in the process. For such purpose, the identified change model has attempted to provide an illustration of the process of creation of commitment. Specifically, this model has provided three phases that are responsible for the development of commitment, and may have a significant impact on any change process in the organization (Burke, 2007). This model suggests that support is very crucial for any change, and thus, the first phase of ‘Inform’ focuses on the formation of basis for expansion of essential support. In specific, inform phase put efforts by providing awareness to individuals that is necessary for alteration in their behavior, a step that allows positive change in the organization. After some awareness, this model brings individuals and organizations into ‘Educate’ phase that involves recognition of the change and its effect that will create an environment encouraging individual decisions in the organization. Thus, advocates of this model argue that it is very imperative for employers to present a positive and efficient outcome of the change that will facilitate all the stakeholders to take their decision in favor of the change during this phase. After stages of information and education, the model has suggested the last phase of ‘commit’ that begins the implementation of change in the organization. In other words, the first two stages are the preparatory phases and the third one can be termed as executive phase (Burke, 2007). In brief, one of the advantages of this system is

In what ways is organisational culture important to be managed in Essay

In what ways is organisational culture important to be managed in today's organisation - Essay Example All the factors stated above will change with time and consequently affect organisational culture. (Gordon, 1991) One can therefore say that organisational culture is mainly described by group factors such as ideology and concepts; there is a need to include normative behaviour when tackling this issue. Organisational culture is not something that can be seen very easily it is therefore quite hard to replace it. Normally when certain leaders form a company, their values are translated into the actions of the members of that organisation. (Bate 1994) When other leaders take over, it may not be as easy to change those perspectives immediately. Sometimes some of their actions; like rewards may change the ways employees go about their day to day activities but it may be difficult to change their culture. Schein (1985) asserts that it is important to manage organisational culture because he believes the latter term is the key to attainment of excellence within any one organisation. He also believes that leaders are given the task of creating and also managing organisational culture. Managers who are able to identify organisational culture can then build up on the following important aspects; There are certain impediments or strong points that may be created as a result of organisational culture. Structure and methods available for organisations need to be streamlined to suite certain common cultural insights in the organisation. Leaders must identify the elements of organisational culture that will come in the way of achieving organisational goals and eliminate them while at the same time, managers must ensure that they reinforce elements of their organisational culture that facilitate success. (Gordon, 1991) It should be noted that organisational culture makes a company what it is; it gives the organisation a sense of identity. Consequently, members within that organisation will feel connected to that organisation because of its culture. It

Infrastructure Application and Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 3

Infrastructure Application and Review - Essay Example Nevertheless, scientists and engineers continuously laboured to keep abreast of modern trends in highway administration and maintenance. As early as 1989, the maiden version of a digital road map database for land navigation has been completed. The database contains precise information on the road attributes all over Japan and may be used to strengthen highway management initiatives (Kamijo, Okumura and Kitamura, 1989, p. 319). It was, however, in 2003 when Japan introduced a road management mechanism in order to promote efficacy and transparency in road administration. The scheme is anchored on a system of measurements based on indices. Salient features of the road management system are performance plans, achievement reports and the Guidance for Road Administration Management (GRAM). A performance plan which delineates numerical targets, policies and projects are published yearly; while an achievement report which contains an assessment of the level of achievement of the numerical targets are also published at the end of each fiscal year. Meanwhile, to maximize the gains of the road administration management system as it is implemented in the countryside, the GRAM is prepared and disseminated. Figure 1 shows the typical flow of road administration management in Japan as practised by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (Road Bureau, 2008a). Over the years, the Japanese government and the concerned institutions struggled to encourage systematic management founded on existing circumstances and forecasts. Preventive maintenance is commonly implemented to extend the functionality of infrastructure like bridge systems. This approach is known to mitigate costs related to repair and rebuilding. To be able to capitalise on the benefits of preventive maintenance, Japanese road administrators also practiced competent defect identification and

Identify an entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial venture that has Research Paper

Identify an entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial venture that has leveraged global and social media - Research Paper Example The company involved its business owners from the onset to close of their operations. The company attempted to avoid promotional messages to the clients but rather involve them in the entire process of business (Hibbard 1). Sandoval indicates that Microsoft covers over 100 countries; thus, has a responsibility to advance their social as well as economic opportunities (152). This, therefore, led to the sharing of Microsoft messages that touched on â€Å"Your Office, Your Terms† slogan which led to more likes on Facebook and follows on Twitter (Hibbard 1). What I liked the most about the Microsoft’s approach in leveraging social media is the incorporation of women in their campaigns as the women occupy a considerable percentage of the audience group (Hibbard 1). I also loved the aspect that the company opted not to focus on promotion messages but emphasized on the usability of the site and how to improve their experience of the site. This explains why the Microsoft campaign led to more likes than expected. The female executives were targeted, and through file sharing and web conferencing, their businesses grew with a huge margin. What was exceptional and effective about the Microsoft’s approach was the editorial calendar. This calendar as Hibbard indicates included the mix of women who are in businesses (1). Through this platform, the women were provided with a platform for making discussions and post their contributions as far as business deals were concerned. It is through this calendar that the company managed to publish the stories of about 30 women in less than two months. In their social media-based initiative, the venture achieved social action as opposed to the usual interactions (Hibbard 1). The bloggers and users of the social media sites of the Microsoft page were engaged in learning more from the site such as the women who were