Automotive Production Levels Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Automotive Production Levels - Essay Example It also ensures that firms do not make profits at the expense of consumers. This essay highlights issues relating to mergers, the role of government in market economy, complexities of self-expansion, and other issues facing companies. Government regulation and importance of government involvement in a market economy Government regulation is of major importance in the creation of mergers, as a certain level of regulation is needed to enhance the functions of contemporary markets. Through regulation, the government ensures that merging industries support policy goals. Government regulates mergers to ensure that the parties to the contract have confidence in it and that the stipulated property rights are defined clearly. According to Gaughan, (2010) regulation comprises of rules, which are administered by the government with the aim of influencing business behavior and economic activities. In the light of this, regulation captures a range of government actions such as setting market fra meworks, primary legislation to detailed regulations that are enforced by specialist sectoral regulators. Government regulation of mergers has beneficial effects to the society as it provides protection. Some government regulations for instance, protect the safety and health of workers. Moreover, regulation plays a huge role in consumer protection as industries are approved and licensed. Government involvement in the market economy aims at attainment of important goals such as equity and social efficiency. In equity, the government aims at achieving fair distribution of resources while social equity is achieved by equating marginal benefits and marginal costs of consumption and production. The government also plays an important role in the market economy by formulating policies with the intent of promoting dissemination of information. To achieve this, government provides education, extension, and supports the media for the delivery of important information regarding the markets. Fu rthermore, through distribution, price assembly and labeling requirements, the government ensures that there is some truth in advertising (Gaughan, 2010). Government involvement in the market may be in order to combat externalities. According to Gaughan ( 2010), externalities arise when the activities assumed by some agents in the market affect the technologies or preferences of other agents. There are positive, negative, consumption, and production externalities. The government is also involved in the market for provision of public goods. These are goods, which are consumed concurrently by many individuals and are free to access. In case the government is not involved in the provision of these goods, the market mechanism cannot provide them, as they are not profitable. These goods include infrastructure, environmental amenities and national security. Government involvement in the market economy curtails non-competitive behavior. Non-competitive behavior arises in case of monopoly w hereby the supply of a good is controlled by a single agent and whereby a single agent controls demand. Moreover, the government checks the activities of middlemen to ensure that consumers do not suffer. In addition, the government is also involved in the market economy to ensure that equal distribution of income is attained. The government achieves this through transfer policies such as inheritance and income taxes and social security

Why Aristotle Sees Moral Virtue

Why Aristotle Sees Moral Virtue Aristotle claims we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts. (p120). How does he establish this, and what does it tell us about virtue, and the goal of human life. In this paper I will make discuss why Aristotle sees moral virtue as something which must be taught through emulation of role models, rather than learnt through detached methods. I will then extrapolate what Aristotles claim tells us about moral virtue, and what this means for the goal of a human life. Before I begin to determine what Aristotles claim tells us about virtue, and means for the goal of human life, I will reconstruct how Aristotle arrives at his conclusion. In Book II, chapter I Aristotle begins by defining exactly what he believes virtue to be. Aristotle sees virtue as, being of two kinds, intellectual and moral, intellectual virtue in the main owes both its birth and its growth to teaching (for which reason it requires experience and time), while moral virtue comes about as a result of habit (Aristotle 120). Essentially Aristotle is of the opinion that we are taught intellectual virtue, and we are habituated through repeated exposure to displays of moral virtue by moral role models. Aristotle next contends that moral virtues are not imbedded in us naturally, noting, nothing that exists by nature can form a habit contrary to its nature (Aristotle 120). Aristotle claims that we are constituted by nature to receive moral virtues, but that their full development in us is due to habit. Essentially, we are not born with moral virtue, but it is natural for us to become moral through the emulation of the morality of others. Aristotle moves on to propose the crux of his views on moral virtue, that we develop moral virtues by observing others, and then practicing them. In order to convince the reader of this, he introduces the analogy of the Arts in order to make his case for moral virtue, using the two examples of building and lyre-playing. For things that we have to learn by doing, he says, we learn by doing. Aristotle then delivers his argument that, men become builders by building and lyre players by playing the lyre ; so too we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts (Aristotle 120). Aristotle offers support for this view by introducing the example of legislation in the contemporary Greek city-states. Aristotle argues that legislators make their citizens good by habituation, which he feels should be the intention of every legislator. Those who do not carry out this habituation of their citizens fail in their goals. Essentially, Aristotle feels that under a good constitution, legislators pass laws that habituate the citizens to behave morally. According to Aristotle, this is what makes the difference between a good constitution and a bad one. Aristotle further purports that like activities produce like dispositions. As a result, he feels that we must give our activities a certain quality, as it is the characteristics of the activity that determine the resulting dispositions. Aristotle expresses this sentiment by claiming that, it is from playing the lyre that both good and bad lyre-players are produced (Aristotle 121). It is essential that good habits be instilled in a person from early youth, he claims, so it is a matter of great importance what sort of habits we form from the earliest age. Aristotle goes as far as to say that, it makes a very great difference, or rather all the difference in the world (Aristotle 121). I will now move on to a discussion of what Aristotles declaration tells us about virtue, and what it suggests that the goal of human life be. Aristotle tells us that virtues cannot be passions, because we are not praised or blamed for the way we feel, but instead are praised or blamed for our virtues this is because our feelings arise more or less involuntarily in response to circumstances (Aristotle 123). Aristotles reason for denying that virtues are faculties is similar. Part of a persons faculties consist of his or her ability to feel anger, however, we do not praise or blame people for having the ability to feel anger instead we often praise people for tending to manifest their ability to feel anger when, and only when, the circumstances call for it (Aristotle 123). Aristotle concludes that virtues must therefore be states of character. By understanding that moral virtues are states of character, Aristotle presents us with a picture of what virtues are. Aristotle tells us that moral virtues are states of character lying at the mean between extremes of excess and deficiency. The view that virtues lie at the mean between the two extremes is intended to help us identify which states of character are the virtuous ones. Both excess and deficiency in the practice of a virtue can result in its destruction while the practice of the mean between them can preserve it. The virtuous state of character will therefore be a tendency to feel and react to circumstances in an appropriate manner and to an appropriate degree (Aristotle 126). Aristotle however, does not tell us just what circumstances warrant what degree of passion with respect to virtues, or what degree of action is appropriate under which circumstances. Common sense suggests that there should be some leeway for judging the deviation from the mean towards excess or def iciency, and that our behaviour must be suited to the particular circumstances as best we see fit given our understanding of intellectual virtue. Not all states of character can be construed as virtuous however. Aristotle notes that there are acts and characteristics that are truly evil and have no intermediate degrees. Aristotle expresses this by declaring that, every action or feeling admits of a mean; because some have names that directly connote depravity, such as malice, shamelessness and envy, and among actions adultery, theft and murder (Aristotle 125). Aristotles theory of moral virtue contends that our ultimate purpose or goal in life should be to reach eudaimonia, the state of moral happiness. However, to reach this state of happiness requires the ability to function according to both our virtues and our sense of innate reason. By using principles of both the intellectual and moral virtue, which becomes habit upon practice and imitation, we must learn to make decisions that are right and just-not necessarily for our own personal benefit, but simply because we possess an understanding that something is the right course of action. Without having these two aspects of morality work together, obtainment of eudaimonia is impossible. In summary, it is our understanding of intellectual virtue (which we learn from others) that allows us to perceive what is right while our display of moral virtue aids us in carrying out what we know to be the correct and just course of action. One of the most important ideas which Aristotle expresses in his Nicomachean Ethics is the need to strike a balance between extremes in behaviour, thought, and action. In his attempt to explain moral virtue and, eudaimonia which is the central goal of human life Aristotle describes the importance of finding a middle ground in ones life or, achieving a balance. To achieve these aims and reach eudaimonia, Aristotle declares that we must do the right thing because it is right, not because there is a personal stake in terms of the future possibility of pleasure or pain (Aristotle 126-127). Essentially, what is morally right or wrong is something that we can understand through intellectual virtue, and we can apply this knowledge of moral behaviour through our practice and habituation of moral virtues. In conclusion, Aristotle arrives at his claim that we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts by offering an analogy of the Arts. By utilizing the example of a lyre-player, Aristotle shows that one can only become proficient in their actions, including the expression of moral virtues, by observing others actions and then practicing. Moral virtues, for Aristotle, are to be distinguished from intellectual virtues. Moral virtue has to do with feeling, choosing, and acting well. Intellectual virtue is identified as a kind of wisdom acquired by teaching. Aristotle is vehement in his belief that moral virtues are not imbedded in us naturally and that we must acquire them by habituation that this acquisition come during early childhood is of extreme importance in his mind. Aristotle tells us that moral virtue is displayed as the intermediate condition between excess and deficiency with respect to a persons feelings and actions. According Aristotles theory of moral virtue, the goal of human life should therefore be to achieve eudaimonia, which can be acquired by an intellectual understanding of what is right and wrong, and the striking of a balance between extremes in behaviour, thought, and action.

where the red fern grows :: essays research papers

In the story, Billy was walking home one day when there was a dog fight in the ally and he went to investigate to see what was going on and there was a bunch of dog’s beating up on one dog so he decided to get involved and break it up. They all scattered away when they saw him coming. The dog that was getting beat up and was lying on the ground and it was hurt. He went to the dog and saw it was a beautiful hound dog. He also noticed that the dog wasn’t hurt that bad, just scared.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When Billy was a boy he always wanted a pair of hound dogs. However, as much as he wanted a pair of hounds he did not receive them. Every now and then he would hear the neighboring dogs calling treed to their masters, and their masters whooping back to them to tell the hound that they were on the way. This encouraged Billy to want a hound even more. His dad told him one day that his grandpa wanted to see him soon. Once he got to his grandfather, his grandfather told him that he had seen an ad in the newspaper for some hound dog pups. So he went and got an old tin can and started putting money in it that he made from working in the fields. Over the next year he had saved up enough money to buy his hound dog. He hiked over the mountains to the nearest town post office because that’s where his dogs where going to be until he picked them up. He got to the post office and put them in a potato sack bag and headed for home. His grandpa had given him a coon trap so he could train his dogs. He named his dogs Little Anne and Old Dan. By the time hunting season had come he had his dogs trained and ready to go. The first night they treed their first ringtail coon. He skinned the coon and took it to his grandfather for money. He gave the money to his father. After about a year his dogs had become very good at hunting. The neighboring kids thought that their dogs were the best dogs. He told them that his dogs could catch any coon. So they challenged him thinking that they were going to get five dollars out of him.

Master Budget Preparation

(Master budget preparation) Sopchoppy Company manufactures a red industrial dye. The company is preparing its 2000 master budget and has presented you with the following information. 1. The December 31, 1999, balance sheet for the company is shown below. SOPCHOPPY COMPANY Balance Sheet December 31, 1999 AssetsLiabilities and Stockholders’ Equity Cash $ 5,080 Notes Payable $ 25,000 Accounts Receivable 26,500 Accounts Payable 2,148 Raw Materials Inventory 800 Dividends Payable 10,000 Finished Goods Inventory 2,104 Total Liabilities $ 37,148 Prepaid Insurance 1,200 Common Stock $100,000Building $300,000 Paid-in Capital 50,000 Accumulated Depreciation (20,000) 280,000 Retained Earnings 128,536 278,536 Total Liabilities and Total Assets $315,684 Stockholders’ Equity $315,684 2. The Accounts Receivable balance at 12/31/99 represents the remaining balances of November and December credit sales. Sales were $70,000 and $65,000, respectively, 3. Estimated sales in gallons of dye for January through May 2000 are shown below. January 8,000February 10,000 March 15,000 April 12,000 May 11,000 Each gallon of dye sells for $12. 4. The collection pattern for accounts receivable is as follows: 70 percent in the month of sale; 20 percent in the first month after the sale; 10 percent in the second month after the sale. Sopchoppy expects no bad debts and no customers are given cash discounts. 5. Each gallon of dye has the following standard quantities and costs for direct materials and direct labor: 1. 2 gallons of direct material (some evaporation occurs during processing) @ $0. 80 per gallon $0. 6 1/2 hour of direct labor @ $6 per hour 3. 00 Variable overhead is applied to the product on a machine-hour basis. It takes 5 hours of machine time to process 1 gallon of dye. The variable overhead rate is $0. 06 per machine hour; VOH consists entirely of utility costs. Total annual fixed overhead is $120,000; it is applied at $1. 00 per gallon based on an expected annual capacity of 120,000 gallons. Fixed overhead per year is composed of the following costs: Salaries $78,000 Utilities 12,000 Insurance—factory 2,400 Depreciation—factory 27,600Fixed overhead is incurred evenly throughout the year. 6. There is no beginning inventory of Work in Process. All work in process is completed in the period in which it is started. Raw Materials Inventory at the beginning of the year consists of 1,000 gallons of direct material at a standard cost of $0. 80 per gallon. There are 400 gallons of dye in Finished Goods Inventory at the beginning of the year carried at a standard cost of $5. 26 per gallon: Direct Material, $0. 96; Direct Labor, $3. 00; Variable Overhead, $0. 30; and Fixed Overhead, $1. 00. 7.Accounts Payable relates solely to raw material. Accounts Payable are paid 60 percent in the month of purchase and 40 percent in the month after purchase. No discounts are given for prompt payment. 8. The dividend will be paid in January 2000. 9. A n ew piece of equipment costing $9,000 will be purchased on March 1, 2000. Payment of 80 percent will be made in March and 20 percent in April. The equipment will have no salvage value and has a useful life of three years. 10. The note payable has a 12 percent interest rate; interest is paid at the end of each month.The principal of the note is paid off as cash is available to do so. 11. Sopchoppy’s management has set minimum cash balance at $5,000. 12. The ending Finished Goods Inventory should be 5 percent of the next month’s needs. This is not true at the beginning of 2000 due to a miscalculation in sales for December. The ending inventory of raw materials should be 5 percent of the next month’s needs. 13. Selling and administrative costs per month are budgeted to be 30 percent of each month’s sales. Of that amount, 50 percent is depreciation.These costs are paid in cash as they are incurred. 14. Prepare a master budget for each month of the first quarte r of 2000. a. sales budget with expected cash collections, including the accounts receivable for the next quarter b. production budget c. purchase budget with expected cash payments, including the accounts payable for the next quarter d. direct labor budget e. manufacturing overhead budget f. finished goods ending inventory budget g. selling and administrative budget h. cash budget i. balance sheet j. income statement

Tuesday with Morrie response

â€Å"Tuesday with Morris† Is structured at first. Like a school's hand book, then It changes to a diary. Unlike the fiction work, chapters are not labeled one, two, three, and four. Instead, the first chapter was called â€Å"The Syllabus† which is an introduction to Morris, the author's college professor, a significance figure in this book. The second chapter was called â€Å"The Student†, the chapter title refers to the author, who is the student of Morris's.It continues as â€Å"The Orientation† â€Å"The Classroom† â€Å"Taking Attendance†, these chapters tells us about the life of the author after the last time he'd seen Morris (after the author graduated). The author would insert a short conversation in italic text at the end of each chapter about the past conversation he used to have with Morris while he was a college student. The chapter changed into a diary structure after the author met Morris accidentally. He had learn that Morris was dying from a disease called SSL.The author started seeing Morris every Tuesday and he wrote down what they had converse about: â€Å"The First Tuesday We Talk About the World†. The Second Tuesday We Talk About Feeling Sorry for Yourself† and so on†¦ The author's tone was as calm as his dying teacher. The content of the book itself is already interesting. The reader wants to know why and how Morris could stay so positively happy and serene while the disease is making him unable to wipe his behind. It differs from fiction novel because we already know the ending (Morris is going to die) but we still keep on reading.Annie,2 Is the writer trying to elicit a certain response from the reader? Place this memoir in a cultural context and examine the social issues the author offers commentary on, either directly or indirectly. What argument is the writer making? Has this reading altered or enhanced your view of any particular social Issues? The social/culture issue is presented very clearly in this book. Morris and Album (the author) had had diverse discussions about life and the society they were living in. Album is trying to make us question ourselves: what we really need and what is the meaning of our life.Morris said that we all are so busy with our lives we forget what's really the important part of It. For example, the society is brainwashed by having the Idea In their head that owning things Is good. More money, more property, more otherwise, they have no perspective of what is really important anymore. People who goes around keep buying things and boasting around, Morris takes them as people who are â€Å"so hungry for love that they were accepting substitutes†(125,Album). But not money nor power can be substitute for tender and care.People are lost with their own meaning of life they are depending that on the society. They don't cry because the society says it's not okay to be weak, and they feel ashamed because the society makes them feel ashamed. People haven't found their meaning of lives, that's why hey keep running. The next car, the next house, the next Job, then it empties and they have to keep on running. They forget to be present of the actual purpose of being: a meeting with a lost friend but they're thinking about their work, or someone coming for an advice and after listening to them they go â€Å"Uh-huh†.The writer is trying to tell us that the society is lacking love, and not a lot of people had found their meaning of life, until they do, they will stop chasing things and finally be happy with the present. After reading this book, it had effect on me and enhanced my view of his social issue more. I now understood more to issue of why people act in such ways. Annie,3 Explore techniques the writer utilizes in developing character throughout the text. Include discussion of a memorable scene in the book that reveals character and explore how this scene relates to the whole of the text.Album' s technique of developing character is to mention us the same thing every chapter: emphasizing Morris's sick condition. Since the first day they had met accidentally and through out every Tuesday Album had met with Morris, he will always emphasize Morris's SSL condition. The day Album accidentally met his teacher; he was embarrassed to see him and actually bending down to hide. The first Tuesday, Album describes to us how bad Morris's condition was, and it got worst after many Tuesdays. Not only Morris's condition was mentioned, but Album's feelings toward it were also there.On the Eleventh Tuesday, we could see how Morris had affect Album deeply: â€Å"Morris's physical therapist had come earlier in the day, and I usually excused myself when nurses or specialists had business with him. But as the weeks passed and our time ran down, I was increasingly less self-conscious about he physical embarrassment. I wanted to be there. I wanted to observe everything. This was not like me, but then, neither were a lot of things that had happened these last few months in Morris's house† (1 53, Album). He was telling us that he had developed through out the book.The change of Album's thoughts toward Morris's condition is a clear character development. This scene shows us a new kind guy, not embarrassed by anything, which differs from the guy we first met in the start of the book. Morris had changed him and his view on many things. Album was actually impairing his present self to his previous self by saying â€Å"this was not like me†. Album was very successful in using the control group (Morris's condition) and giving us his feelings towards it so we could see the change happening inside him, a brilliant character development technique.Discuss how the writer's experiences have affected and shaped her/his views. Album had his first encounter with death, not with Morris, but via his favorite uncle. His uncle, as he describe, is a very important person in his lif e. His uncle died from a heart attack and it said to have changed Album entirely. He stopped writing songs, stopped dreaming of becoming a musician, stopped going to parties and turned to school instead. He earned a Counselors degree and took the first Job offer: sports writer.He ended up being someone he didn't want to be, a person who's writing about other people's dreams instead of chasing his own. He lived a lonely life, and said his friends he knew in college had lost touch with him. His Jobs gets better, though, earning more salary and he starts owning things. He got a wife, but never had a family. He buried himself in accomplishments, because he believed that he loud control things and could squeeze every bit of happiness out before he died like his uncle. His life stayed busy that way until he was reminded of Morris.Album's life seems to be normal like everyone else, busy. He was the person who Morris had talk about; rushing to find their meaning of life. Album was walking r ight pass his true happiness, as what Morris had pointed out. He never saw the world in Morris's point of view. He had embrace his uncle's death as something totally miserable where else Morris accepted it welcome. It was because of the hardliner Album had had, and Morris pointing loving things out to him;how things he view as â€Å"happiness† turns out to be fake (his mansion, the society he lives in, his Job) and him taking things as granted (his wife).Morris had changed his perspective in a positive way. Annie,5 Memoirs, in some way, typically contain coming of age stories addressing the quest to discover or define a person. Elements may include family, friendship, community, home, culture, values, education, rebellion, travel, politics†¦ What does â€Å"coming of age† mean to your author? At first, Album's quest of his life is to be happy with the life he was living. Making lots of money, work hard on his Journalism Job; try to get wealthier and wealthier. Mor ris, however, had changed his point of view entirely.Morris had told Album the key happiness is not buying new things to satisfy you, or owning more things so you could be above other people. We put our values in the wrong things and it leads us to having a delusional lives. You don't have to listen to the society in order to be happy. Morris reminds Album that you will always be in control of your own happiness, don't let the media delude you, don't let people around you deceive you with their rich social status. Social status or money earns you nowhere because in the end, we all die.Those two things cannot be a substitute for care and tender. Be clear that the quest of Album's life had changed and its elements include: family, friendship, home, love. He had tried to contact his cancer-fighter brother who left the family and flew to Spain for recovery. Even if his brother told him he doesn't want to talk, he still has a good faith within himself and did not regret contacting him at all. After spending plenty of Tuesdays with Morris, â€Å"Coming of age† to Album means to build a little community of those you love and who love you.