Their Eyes Were Watching God / a Streetcar Named Desire Comparison Paragraphs

While Janie and Blanche have their similarities, they are also very different. Blanche is born white and affluent; Janie is born black and poor. Blanche grows up on an old plantation in Mississippi, and Janie is raised in Florida by her grandmother, who has a house in the backyard of a white family she works for. Janie is brought up with their children; in fact, until she sees a picture of herself standing next to them, Janie does not realize she is black.While Janie eventually learns to not care about what people think of her and become self-sufficient, Blanche is always depending on others. She relies on Stella to take care of her. When Stanley threatens to send Blanche away, she quickly begins a relationship with Mitch, hoping to secure her future by marrying him. However, this is unsuccessful: Blanche eventually goes insane after she is raped by Stanley, and is sent to an asylum in the country. In contrast, Janie gets everything she wants out of life: sexual love and adventure.Te a Cake provides for her sexually and allows her to be the person she wants to be, unlike her previous two husbands, who each had their own ideas as to how she should act and live out her life. When Pheoby attempts to dissuade her from seeing Tea Cake, she tells her â€Å"Ah done lived Grandma’s way, now Ah mean tuh live mine† (Hurston 114). Janie has been living the life her grandmother planned out for her, but she is unhappy, so she has decided to start over and go her own way. You can read also  Similarities and Conflicts in † a Streetcar Named Desire†Janie is the better feminist protagonist for her time period; unlike Blanche, she makes choices based on her own beliefs and desires rather than worrying about how those around her may perceive her. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston uses vivid imagery and metaphors paired with a unique dialect in order to paint a colorful picture of black life in West Florida during the 1930s. The more â€Å"literate† language of the narrator paired with the â€Å"uneducated† way of speaking in the dialogue creates a sort of balance that is not often found in literature.Her distinct, melodic, and almost poetic style of writing flows almost effortlessly with the contrasting speech of the characters. Hurston’s use of local color helps to give the reader a better image of her characters’ background and way of life, particularly in the scene where Eatonville holds a fune ral for Matt Bonner’s mule. The funeral is not a somber occasion as one might expect it to be: it consists of shouting and chanting. Hurston writes, â€Å"Everybody enjoyed themselves to the highest and then finally the mule was left to the already impatient buzzards† (Hurston 61).This scene alone is effective in portraying much of the customs and culture of the people of Eatonville, as the funeral is more of a celebration than a bereavement. Lastly, Hurston’s use of slang gives the reader insight into the language of the time, and while it may be somewhat coarse, its use does not affect the tone of her writing. Their Eyes Were Watching God is memorable not only because of its story, but because of its originality in style as well. The pear tree, which grows outside Janie’s grandmother’s cabin, is important throughout Their Eyes Were Watching God.Janie, in her youth, often spends time underneath it, thinking about love and its connections to marria ge. The tree and its cycle through the seasons are a symbol for the stages of sexual maturity, â€Å"from barren brown stems to glistening leaf-buds, from the leaf-buds to snowy virginity of bloom† (Hurston 10). Under the pear tree, Janie sees â€Å"a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight† (Hurston 11).This represents the kind of sexual love that Janie desires and believes will come to her through marriage. However, the pear tree is desecrated when Janie’s grandmother forces her into marrying Logan Killicks, a man Janie finds to be very unattractive, in order to secure her the â€Å"comfortable† life she herself was unable to have. When she leaves Logan for Joe Starks, a wealthy man looking to build up a town of only black people and make himself mayor, she thinks that sh e will finally have â€Å"flower dust and springtime sprinkled over everything. A bee for her bloom† (Hurston 32).Her image of Joe, however, is changed when he hits Janie for messing up his dinner, and she no longer has â€Å"blossomy openings dusting pollen over her man, neither any glistening young fruit where the petals used to be† (Hurston 72). Janie does not find the love she desires until after Joe’s death, when she meets Tea Cake, who is much younger than she is. The pear tree is especially significant because during the time period Their Eyes Were Watching God was written in, it was unheard of for a woman to acknowledge her sexuality, an important part of feminism, and is rguably the most important metaphor in the story. With Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston asserts her view that the idea of never-ending racial oppression is degrading and a falsehood, that â€Å"the man himself must make his own emancipation† (Gates 199). She respo nds to the Harlem Renaissance movement, centered on rising above oppression through the arts, by almost entirely leaving out racial issues from her novel.Unlike other black artists and writers of her time, she believes that not acknowledging racism and discrimination will have more of an effect on society than constantly speaking out on its ways. With this method, Hurston effectively makes her point, as her unusual ideology stands out against the repetitive voices of her contemporaries. Works Cited Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006. Print.

King Philip’s War Essay

King Philip’s War lasted from 1675 to 1676. It was the bloodiest conflict between American colonists and Indians in the 17th century New England. By 1600, colonial settlers no longer depended on the Indians for survival; therefore they pushed into Indian Territory in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. To protect their lands, the Wampanoag chief, King Philip, also known as Metacom organized a federation of tribes, which in 1675 destroyed several frontier settlements. King Philip’s War was the beginning of the development of a greater American identity; the conflicts suffered by the colonists gave them a distinct identity than that of the subjects of the English crown. The first Thanksgiving feast took place in 1621. This celebration marked the partnership of the Native Americans and the colonists. That year, Massasoit signed a treaty with the Pilgrim governor promising to give aid against enemies; they maintained 40 years of peace. However after Massasoit died in 1661, this peace began to deteriorate. The population of the colonial settlers grew rapidly and soon they outnumbered the Indians. Therefore, Europeans and the Indians frequently fought overland. When Metacom became sachem he was amid Plymouth Colony’s demands for land. He was humiliated several times, and forced to admit guilt and surrender. He then soon became angry at the colonists because they forced him not to sell Wampanoag without seeking their council first. Benjamin Church is considered the father of  American ranging. He was the captain of the first  Ranger force in America. Church was commissioned by the Governor of the  Plymouth Colony  Josiah Winslow  to form the first ranger company for  King Philip’s War. He played a unique and crucial role in King Philip’s War because he developed friendship with Native Americans and worked to understand and learn from those who lived near his frontier home. Church designed his force primarily to emulate Indian patterns of war. Toward this end, he endeavored to learn to fight like Indians from Indians. Philip and his followers went to New York hoping to find recruit and supplies. However Edward Andros, the governor of New York feared that the war might spread to his colony, therefore, he formed allies with the Mohawks who were enemies of Wampanoag. The Mohawks attacked Philip’s forces, and he returned to the New England colonies. On Aug. 12, 1676, a Wampanoag informer named Alderman killed King Philip. Philip was beheaded and quartered, and his head was displayed on a pole in Plymouth for more than 20 years.

Health Care Reform

Basic overview of health care reform (3 articles):The Health Care Reform is making a huge economic impact as it has very important  insinuations when it comes to the US economy. Hence it is important to understand what is going on with this topic. In  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Health care reform stands: How it impacts your coverage† by Parija Kavilanz, it states that the Supreme Court supported the health care reform meaning that it is obligatory for people to purchase coverage by 2014 and if not they will have to be fined.Hence by 2014, this will affect uninsured persons because they will have to purchase coverage by either doing it personally, by their employer's offered health plans or by a health insurance exchange. If they decide not to purchase coverage then a tax penalty would apply, for example when 2014 arrives, if an individual has not purchased coverage than the penalty fee will be $285 per family or 1% of their revenue (they will have to pay the higher one). By 2016, the penalty f ee will increase drastically to $2,085 per family or 2. 5% of their revenue, paying the higher one.In the intervening time, the people that are insured will still benefit from the significant things that are offered by the law. This includes things such as full coverage for preventive care and for grownup dependents of up to 26 year of age. However, this is possible because of the personal greater expenditure. Today in the US, greater than 50% of everyone (about 160 million people) acquire their health insurance straight from the company they work for and with this law in place by 2014, employers with greater than 50 full-time workers will be obligated to offer health insurance and if not they will have to pay fines.For the remaining people, 50 million of them don’t have coverage and the other millions purchase coverage personally through a private insurance or obtain coverage from the government though plans like Medicaid or Medicare. In  Ã¢â‚¬Å"How health reform may help †¦ or hurt,†Ã‚  by Jeanne Sahadi, it explains how this reform in  health care can have huge impacts. Citizens in the US are being informed that this health reform is a correct objective and that it will help the economy. Obama had stated that this reform does not pertain to the problems when discussing the fiscal future but that it is part of resolving issues.However, the issuer is that the US health care expenditures are way more than other established countries and yet the cost and what get out of it does not match up. Temporarily, many citizens don’t have enough money for coverage or their coverage that they do have does not cover sufficiently their medical charges. In Washington discussions are often raised to talk about the possible outcomes and options for this issue. In the past 40 years, the cost for health care expenditures has gone up quicker than inflation and incomes.Currently, the US’s government, companies and people, devote greater than 16% of its GDP on health care, which according to Kaiser Foundation is about $7,421 per individual. Furthermore, the US’s high debt is also because of the growing health care costs, which increases federal expenditure on Medicare and Medicaid. However, if the health reform does work, as time goes by it would cover its own cost as well as decrease health spending without conceding quality and deliver inexpensive, accessible care for everyone.Lastly, they have to think about if the health reform fails. All these  Ã¢â‚¬Å"what ifs† are essential because one key point of why complete health reform has been an indecisive process is  that  it is very hard to  uncover how to do it well. In â€Å"What the Supreme Court ruled on health care ‘tax'†Ã‚  by  Josh Levs, it discussed how the Supreme Court finds that consequences that the law puts on individuals that do not purchase health insurance amount as a constitutional tax protection while Obama claimed that th e fees should be reflected as a penalty.Meanwhile, the high court did not agree with Obamas view point. The court said that the law does not require other penalties for negation to purchase health coverage and hence there will be about 4 million individuals per year that will rather have the IRS fee instead of purchasing coverage. Furthermore, the court highlighted that it was not upon if this command was the right thing to do but because the Constitution allows this type of tax, hence it is not the courts part to prohibit it.In summation, it is important to understand the health care reform as discussed in these articles, as it has a huge impact on the country. Health Care Reform's Effect on Business  (http://www. accountingtoday. com/news/):  Ã‚  Ã‚  This article explains the opinions that very influential accountants have towards the health care reform and its effect on the economy as it’s  becoming a very important topic in the elections as well as to every day busi nesses that have considered this issue and because of it have hindered business decisions. One of these influencers is Mark Albrecht, CEO of XCM Solutions.He explained that every business will now have to see if it is convenient to keep providing health coverage for their employees or to pay the fine while the employees buy their coverage from a private insurance company. He believes that since the fines are not that high, that there can be many companies that will prefer not offering health insurance, which is the opposite of the objective of the health care reform law. Hence, insurers have a lot of work ahead of themselves because of the fact that customarily they do not sell coverages to individuals and being that health insurance exchanges are a new notion.As for health care providers, the impacts to them of this reform will fluctuate since they will have to demonstrate that they are providing superior care and if not it is likely that they will get a compensation cut. For state governments, almost all of the weight of this reform implementation will be on the states. The states will be responsible for arranging the health insurance exchanges as well as management for the programs. Therefore, a lot of states are questioning the constitutionality of this reform as it interjects the states' rights.As for the taxpayers, this new reform doesn’t have an established or authorized method to monitoring the increasing health care costs. Health care expenditures are anticipated to keep on growing and hence will become a worry for many citizens in the US and for businesses as well. With no regulatory system of this increase in health care costs, it will be very challenging for the federal government to reduce the deficit and diminish the national debt liability; hence there will still be a huge economic crisis. Why Reform Health  Care (http://useconomy. about. com):The U. S. devotes $2. 5 trillion to its health care system, which is the highest contribution within other developed nations. This is because the majority of the expense derives from the first and last days of a lifetime. A huge progress and a lot of research has been conducted in order to save premature infants and very ill seniors and this has been very expensive. Also there is an increase of malpractice lawsuits, as doctors sometimes rather prefer to conduct unnecessary expensive tests instead of getting sued later because they had not conducted the test.Furthermore, it is very expensive in the US because there is less price competition than in other industries as people simply have a fixed charge (co-pay). Health care costs keep on increasing and hence there is a need for a reform. Other reasons for a reform is to increase the superiority of care and to cover the 25% of citizens that have minimum or no health coverage to refuge their medical expenditure as each year more than 101,000 Americans pass away for not having coverage. This threatens the economy as half of all b ankruptcies are of medical expenses.Furthermore, a reform would be needed to stop the  financial expenditures of health care fraud. In 2010, when the  Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act  law came about, it gave coverage to individuals with present illnesses, kids, and individuals who had lost their jobs. It offered  aid  to  small businesses, elders with high medicine expenditures, and capital to help the scarcity of doctors. The overheads of this was planned to be balanced by having greater payroll taxes, greater charges to medicine companies, and less expenses to infirmaries and clinics.With this act, greater than 600,000 young individuals are now covered, as individuals of up to 26 years of age are insured under their parents' coverage, which benefits the insurance companies. Also a Kaiser survey found that greater than 46% of small businesses, compared to 2010, had health care benefits. With an increase in small business with coverage for their employees, the re are less bankruptcies as well as improved credit scores and greater consumer  demand which permit greater spending, hence stimulating economic growth. Opposing Views: Voices on Health-Care Reform:Eric Ries, in â€Å"Why the New Health-Care Law May Encourage Entrepreneurship,† explains that as an entrepreneur, he was aware that if his company didn’t succeed , he could always attempt something else. Hence, he always thought the actual risk of financial loss would be from the probability of a severe sickness that wouldn’t be covered by his insurance. However, these fears were overcome because at the time he began as an entrepreneur, he was young, healthy, and with no family to provide. Most successful entrepreneurs are in their forty’s and need to provid their families to health insurance.Hence, the Kauffman-RAND Institute for Entrepreneurship Public Policy conducted a study indicating that entrepreneurship increases as prospective entrepreneurs become capable of getting Medicare. He believes that for there to be greater entrepreneurship, there has to be policies that decrease the price of failure so that more individuals are capable to be â€Å"start-up founders† and that the Health care reform is part of the answer to make this happen. On the other hand, Rose Corona in â€Å"Why the Health Care Law May Be a Harmful Prescription for Entrepreneurs† emphasis that ObamaCare is a catastrophe for small businesses.She believes that this tedious, unclear and costly law will not help the economy. As a small businesses owner that doesn’t provide insurance to her employees, she doesn’t see the fairness of proposing her 30 employees a coverage if it means her business would go bankrupt. Also, she believes that with this reform, small businesses will maintain their employee count below the 50 employee minimum prerequisite to remain excused from offering health insurance hence this will create less jobs and expansi on of businesses.So this will have small businesses considering to either increasing their prices to be able to offer health care to their workers or to reduce benefits to hence maintain competitive prices. Rosa clearly does not agree with this reform. Businesses Ponder Impact of Health-Care Reform: The Supreme Court has been dealing with opinions over the topic of obligating all Americans to buy health coverage because the reform states that in 2014 businesses with greater than or equal to 50 employees will have to offer health insurance or pay a fee of $2,000 per employee. About 96% of all U. S. Small Business have less than 50 employees.Many questions have risen such as are part-time or seasonal employees part of this reform, is it less costly to pay for health coverage or the fee and what is the minimum of coverage that has to be provided? David Keiter, the owner of Yellow Van Cleaning, a carpet cleaning business with currently 48 workers is putting off hiring more employees unt il he sees what happens to this reform and many businesses are going through the same. He says that prosperous small businesses are about performing in â€Å"better, faster and more efficiently† ways and that with â€Å"complicated regulations,† it is just â€Å"an obstacle† in the way of achieving this goal.The Economic Effect of Health Care Reform on Small Business and their Employees:Small businesses in the US compromise a great part of the country’s economic world. However, small businesses are strictly underprivileged with the existing health care system. The Council of Economic Advisers conducted a study that showed that small businesses are very important to the economy and are a huge foundation of the US job evolution as they are the mainstream of business start-ups, hence very crucial when it comes to the topics of innovation and fiscal progress.Also, it showed that the health care now does not function very well these small companies as well as their employees as there are hefty taxes enforced. The health care reform would help small businesses to buy health insurance through an insurance exchange which offers a huge amount of coverage options at a lower price and for small businesses that offer health coverage to their workers, they will get a tax credit to ease the excessively costs and therefore make them want to offer coverage.This establishment of the insurance exchange will deliver improved and lower price alternatives for employees that currently do not receive insurance from their job. Moreover, health insurances will not be able to judge who to give insurance because of present illnesses. The reform can also help grow the entrepreneurial movement by potentially increase the amount of workers that would want to work for a small business and can decrease â€Å"job lock† of when employees are scared to quit their job because of terror of finding inexpensive health insurance.Only the small business that cannot or will refuse to offer health insurance will endure a huge cost. Papa John's CEO Says Health Care Reform Law Will Increase Price of Pizza:Papa John's CEO John Schnatter stated that people should anticipate for pizza orders to be more expensive by 2014 because of the health care reform. The estimate for this reform per pizza is about an additional 11 to 14 cents. In a company meeting, he informed the company that its approach would be to impose the additional expense onto customers in order to keep the shareholders of the company at their best benefit.They also commented about how this reform might have a undesirable influence as the company and its franchises might have to offer health insurance to their part-time employees which is something they don’t always do for certain part time workers. This also applies to other employers and a study by Mercer L. L. C. said that about 46 percent of hospitality businesses will experience greater health insurance costs by about 3 perce nt by 2014. Cogent statement:After reading the articles summarized above and getting a better understanding of the health care reform, even though many of the articles oppose this reform, it might not be such a negative approach for the country but instead in the long run, I think that it will have a positive change. A lot of thought has been put in this reform and there are reasons of why it includes specific details. With the study conducted by the Council of Economic Adviser, we can have an idea of the economic influences that this health care reform will have on the US economy as a whole.They approximated that by reducing the yearly increase in health care costs by 1. 5 percent, then this would give rise to the real GDP. Hence, with a decrease in the growing rate of health care expenditures, the revenue gains are slightly minor, but still significant. Also, decelerating the growing percentage of health care expenditures will avert the devastating increases that we see in the Fed eral budget deficit as well as decrease the unemployment levels. Furthermore, offering health insurance to those without coverage would increase the net financial welfare by approximately $100 billion per year.The health care reform will possibly also rise employment and eliminate preventable obstacles to work mobility. In the article â€Å"Health Care Reform Bill Summary: A Look At What's in the Bill† on CBS News, it informed that the cost of this reform would be about $940 billion in ten years, but that the deficit would decrease by $143 billion in ten years after implementing it. This reform would offer health insurance to about 32 million people in the US, who presently do not have coverage. For the people with no insurance or for those who are self-employed, they will be capable of obtaining insurance by going to their state insurance exchanges.There will also be subsidies accessible to people as well as their families if their revenue falls in the 133 percent through 40 0 percent of the Federal Poverty Level. For small businesses, distinct exchanges would be formed to buy insurance which will be in live in 2014. As for small businesses, with the present health care system of the country, they spend significantly more to offer coverage to their employees. Normally, small businesses spend about 18 percent extra on health insurance than bigger businesses. Hence, Health Care Reform The present healthcare system compared with other developed nations is currently spending more for healthcare. In 2005, the U. S. spent 15. 3% of its GDP for healthcare compared to the average 9% of others in the first world (ACP, 2008). However, despite greater spending and a wealthier economy, the number of uninsured and underinsured is still high with 47 million at present. Not a few hospitals have complained that the rising number of uninsured they serve is leading to greater financial struggles to maintain operations.The greater national spending can be attributed to the more frequent use of technologies in the U. S. that other countries may regard as luxury (ACP, 2008). In addition, there is a marked shortage of healthcare workers. The aging healthcare workforce attests to this. There seems to be no incentive given for individuals to gain education in this field and current workers face a lot of difficulties as they perform their jobs. They are not rewarded for conducting preve ntive services but are greatly remunerated if the number of people seeking medical services increase.These problems exist because of the lack of regulation on healthcare and its related industry. Other countries exert more effort to regulate this area which has a great impact on the health and well-being of their citizens. The greatly market-oriented and profit-based healthcare system in the U. S. leads to the benefit of pharmaceutical companies and greater individual expenses for those who can afford it while denying access to the underprivileged (ACP).Clinton, McCain and Obama have presented their own versions of healthcare reform which are mainly anchored in increasing the access of the uninsured to healthcare. However, none have gone to a detailed outline of how exactly they can implement these once elected. This may be because garnering the most votes is more important than presenting a definite and concrete stand on such a complex issue which may turn off some sectors of socie ty. Health Care Reform Basic overview of health care reform (3 articles):The Health Care Reform is making a huge economic impact as it has very important  insinuations when it comes to the US economy. Hence it is important to understand what is going on with this topic. In  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Health care reform stands: How it impacts your coverage† by Parija Kavilanz, it states that the Supreme Court supported the health care reform meaning that it is obligatory for people to purchase coverage by 2014 and if not they will have to be fined.Hence by 2014, this will affect uninsured persons because they will have to purchase coverage by either doing it personally, by their employer's offered health plans or by a health insurance exchange. If they decide not to purchase coverage then a tax penalty would apply, for example when 2014 arrives, if an individual has not purchased coverage than the penalty fee will be $285 per family or 1% of their revenue (they will have to pay the higher one). By 2016, the penalty f ee will increase drastically to $2,085 per family or 2. 5% of their revenue, paying the higher one.In the intervening time, the people that are insured will still benefit from the significant things that are offered by the law. This includes things such as full coverage for preventive care and for grownup dependents of up to 26 year of age. However, this is possible because of the personal greater expenditure. Today in the US, greater than 50% of everyone (about 160 million people) acquire their health insurance straight from the company they work for and with this law in place by 2014, employers with greater than 50 full-time workers will be obligated to offer health insurance and if not they will have to pay fines.For the remaining people, 50 million of them don’t have coverage and the other millions purchase coverage personally through a private insurance or obtain coverage from the government though plans like Medicaid or Medicare. In  Ã¢â‚¬Å"How health reform may help †¦ or hurt,†Ã‚  by Jeanne Sahadi, it explains how this reform in  health care can have huge impacts. Citizens in the US are being informed that this health reform is a correct objective and that it will help the economy. Obama had stated that this reform does not pertain to the problems when discussing the fiscal future but that it is part of resolving issues.However, the issuer is that the US health care expenditures are way more than other established countries and yet the cost and what get out of it does not match up. Temporarily, many citizens don’t have enough money for coverage or their coverage that they do have does not cover sufficiently their medical charges. In Washington discussions are often raised to talk about the possible outcomes and options for this issue. In the past 40 years, the cost for health care expenditures has gone up quicker than inflation and incomes.Currently, the US’s government, companies and people, devote greater than 16% of its GDP on health care, which according to Kaiser Foundation is about $7,421 per individual. Furthermore, the US’s high debt is also because of the growing health care costs, which increases federal expenditure on Medicare and Medicaid. However, if the health reform does work, as time goes by it would cover its own cost as well as decrease health spending without conceding quality and deliver inexpensive, accessible care for everyone.Lastly, they have to think about if the health reform fails. All these  Ã¢â‚¬Å"what ifs† are essential because one key point of why complete health reform has been an indecisive process is  that  it is very hard to  uncover how to do it well. In â€Å"What the Supreme Court ruled on health care ‘tax'†Ã‚  by  Josh Levs, it discussed how the Supreme Court finds that consequences that the law puts on individuals that do not purchase health insurance amount as a constitutional tax protection while Obama claimed that th e fees should be reflected as a penalty.Meanwhile, the high court did not agree with Obamas view point. The court said that the law does not require other penalties for negation to purchase health coverage and hence there will be about 4 million individuals per year that will rather have the IRS fee instead of purchasing coverage. Furthermore, the court highlighted that it was not upon if this command was the right thing to do but because the Constitution allows this type of tax, hence it is not the courts part to prohibit it.In summation, it is important to understand the health care reform as discussed in these articles, as it has a huge impact on the country. Health Care Reform's Effect on Business  (http://www. accountingtoday. com/news/):  Ã‚  Ã‚  This article explains the opinions that very influential accountants have towards the health care reform and its effect on the economy as it’s  becoming a very important topic in the elections as well as to every day busi nesses that have considered this issue and because of it have hindered business decisions. One of these influencers is Mark Albrecht, CEO of XCM Solutions.He explained that every business will now have to see if it is convenient to keep providing health coverage for their employees or to pay the fine while the employees buy their coverage from a private insurance company. He believes that since the fines are not that high, that there can be many companies that will prefer not offering health insurance, which is the opposite of the objective of the health care reform law. Hence, insurers have a lot of work ahead of themselves because of the fact that customarily they do not sell coverages to individuals and being that health insurance exchanges are a new notion.As for health care providers, the impacts to them of this reform will fluctuate since they will have to demonstrate that they are providing superior care and if not it is likely that they will get a compensation cut. For state governments, almost all of the weight of this reform implementation will be on the states. The states will be responsible for arranging the health insurance exchanges as well as management for the programs. Therefore, a lot of states are questioning the constitutionality of this reform as it interjects the states' rights.As for the taxpayers, this new reform doesn’t have an established or authorized method to monitoring the increasing health care costs. Health care expenditures are anticipated to keep on growing and hence will become a worry for many citizens in the US and for businesses as well. With no regulatory system of this increase in health care costs, it will be very challenging for the federal government to reduce the deficit and diminish the national debt liability; hence there will still be a huge economic crisis. Why Reform Health  Care (http://useconomy. about. com):The U. S. devotes $2. 5 trillion to its health care system, which is the highest contribution within other developed nations. This is because the majority of the expense derives from the first and last days of a lifetime. A huge progress and a lot of research has been conducted in order to save premature infants and very ill seniors and this has been very expensive. Also there is an increase of malpractice lawsuits, as doctors sometimes rather prefer to conduct unnecessary expensive tests instead of getting sued later because they had not conducted the test.Furthermore, it is very expensive in the US because there is less price competition than in other industries as people simply have a fixed charge (co-pay). Health care costs keep on increasing and hence there is a need for a reform. Other reasons for a reform is to increase the superiority of care and to cover the 25% of citizens that have minimum or no health coverage to refuge their medical expenditure as each year more than 101,000 Americans pass away for not having coverage. This threatens the economy as half of all b ankruptcies are of medical expenses.Furthermore, a reform would be needed to stop the  financial expenditures of health care fraud. In 2010, when the  Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act  law came about, it gave coverage to individuals with present illnesses, kids, and individuals who had lost their jobs. It offered  aid  to  small businesses, elders with high medicine expenditures, and capital to help the scarcity of doctors. The overheads of this was planned to be balanced by having greater payroll taxes, greater charges to medicine companies, and less expenses to infirmaries and clinics.With this act, greater than 600,000 young individuals are now covered, as individuals of up to 26 years of age are insured under their parents' coverage, which benefits the insurance companies. Also a Kaiser survey found that greater than 46% of small businesses, compared to 2010, had health care benefits. With an increase in small business with coverage for their employees, the re are less bankruptcies as well as improved credit scores and greater consumer  demand which permit greater spending, hence stimulating economic growth. Opposing Views: Voices on Health-Care Reform:Eric Ries, in â€Å"Why the New Health-Care Law May Encourage Entrepreneurship,† explains that as an entrepreneur, he was aware that if his company didn’t succeed , he could always attempt something else. Hence, he always thought the actual risk of financial loss would be from the probability of a severe sickness that wouldn’t be covered by his insurance. However, these fears were overcome because at the time he began as an entrepreneur, he was young, healthy, and with no family to provide. Most successful entrepreneurs are in their forty’s and need to provid their families to health insurance.Hence, the Kauffman-RAND Institute for Entrepreneurship Public Policy conducted a study indicating that entrepreneurship increases as prospective entrepreneurs become capable of getting Medicare. He believes that for there to be greater entrepreneurship, there has to be policies that decrease the price of failure so that more individuals are capable to be â€Å"start-up founders† and that the Health care reform is part of the answer to make this happen. On the other hand, Rose Corona in â€Å"Why the Health Care Law May Be a Harmful Prescription for Entrepreneurs† emphasis that ObamaCare is a catastrophe for small businesses.She believes that this tedious, unclear and costly law will not help the economy. As a small businesses owner that doesn’t provide insurance to her employees, she doesn’t see the fairness of proposing her 30 employees a coverage if it means her business would go bankrupt. Also, she believes that with this reform, small businesses will maintain their employee count below the 50 employee minimum prerequisite to remain excused from offering health insurance hence this will create less jobs and expansi on of businesses.So this will have small businesses considering to either increasing their prices to be able to offer health care to their workers or to reduce benefits to hence maintain competitive prices. Rosa clearly does not agree with this reform. Businesses Ponder Impact of Health-Care Reform: The Supreme Court has been dealing with opinions over the topic of obligating all Americans to buy health coverage because the reform states that in 2014 businesses with greater than or equal to 50 employees will have to offer health insurance or pay a fee of $2,000 per employee. About 96% of all U. S. Small Business have less than 50 employees.Many questions have risen such as are part-time or seasonal employees part of this reform, is it less costly to pay for health coverage or the fee and what is the minimum of coverage that has to be provided? David Keiter, the owner of Yellow Van Cleaning, a carpet cleaning business with currently 48 workers is putting off hiring more employees unt il he sees what happens to this reform and many businesses are going through the same. He says that prosperous small businesses are about performing in â€Å"better, faster and more efficiently† ways and that with â€Å"complicated regulations,† it is just â€Å"an obstacle† in the way of achieving this goal.The Economic Effect of Health Care Reform on Small Business and their Employees:Small businesses in the US compromise a great part of the country’s economic world. However, small businesses are strictly underprivileged with the existing health care system. The Council of Economic Advisers conducted a study that showed that small businesses are very important to the economy and are a huge foundation of the US job evolution as they are the mainstream of business start-ups, hence very crucial when it comes to the topics of innovation and fiscal progress.Also, it showed that the health care now does not function very well these small companies as well as their employees as there are hefty taxes enforced. The health care reform would help small businesses to buy health insurance through an insurance exchange which offers a huge amount of coverage options at a lower price and for small businesses that offer health coverage to their workers, they will get a tax credit to ease the excessively costs and therefore make them want to offer coverage.This establishment of the insurance exchange will deliver improved and lower price alternatives for employees that currently do not receive insurance from their job. Moreover, health insurances will not be able to judge who to give insurance because of present illnesses. The reform can also help grow the entrepreneurial movement by potentially increase the amount of workers that would want to work for a small business and can decrease â€Å"job lock† of when employees are scared to quit their job because of terror of finding inexpensive health insurance.Only the small business that cannot or will refuse to offer health insurance will endure a huge cost. Papa John's CEO Says Health Care Reform Law Will Increase Price of Pizza:Papa John's CEO John Schnatter stated that people should anticipate for pizza orders to be more expensive by 2014 because of the health care reform. The estimate for this reform per pizza is about an additional 11 to 14 cents. In a company meeting, he informed the company that its approach would be to impose the additional expense onto customers in order to keep the shareholders of the company at their best benefit.They also commented about how this reform might have a undesirable influence as the company and its franchises might have to offer health insurance to their part-time employees which is something they don’t always do for certain part time workers. This also applies to other employers and a study by Mercer L. L. C. said that about 46 percent of hospitality businesses will experience greater health insurance costs by about 3 perce nt by 2014. Cogent statement:After reading the articles summarized above and getting a better understanding of the health care reform, even though many of the articles oppose this reform, it might not be such a negative approach for the country but instead in the long run, I think that it will have a positive change. A lot of thought has been put in this reform and there are reasons of why it includes specific details. With the study conducted by the Council of Economic Adviser, we can have an idea of the economic influences that this health care reform will have on the US economy as a whole.They approximated that by reducing the yearly increase in health care costs by 1. 5 percent, then this would give rise to the real GDP. Hence, with a decrease in the growing rate of health care expenditures, the revenue gains are slightly minor, but still significant. Also, decelerating the growing percentage of health care expenditures will avert the devastating increases that we see in the Fed eral budget deficit as well as decrease the unemployment levels. Furthermore, offering health insurance to those without coverage would increase the net financial welfare by approximately $100 billion per year.The health care reform will possibly also rise employment and eliminate preventable obstacles to work mobility. In the article â€Å"Health Care Reform Bill Summary: A Look At What's in the Bill† on CBS News, it informed that the cost of this reform would be about $940 billion in ten years, but that the deficit would decrease by $143 billion in ten years after implementing it. This reform would offer health insurance to about 32 million people in the US, who presently do not have coverage. For the people with no insurance or for those who are self-employed, they will be capable of obtaining insurance by going to their state insurance exchanges.There will also be subsidies accessible to people as well as their families if their revenue falls in the 133 percent through 40 0 percent of the Federal Poverty Level. For small businesses, distinct exchanges would be formed to buy insurance which will be in live in 2014. As for small businesses, with the present health care system of the country, they spend significantly more to offer coverage to their employees. Normally, small businesses spend about 18 percent extra on health insurance than bigger businesses. Hence,

Communication, Writing and Professional Practice Essay - 1

Communication, Writing and Professional Practice - Essay Example Most employees are students or other less skilled workers. These workers come from a diverse background, and mostly belong to different age groups, gender and races. The jobs that the employees of a supermarket generally perform, ranges from manual work, such as stocking shelves to management duties. A part of the on-floor employees work description is that they have to help the customer locate what they desire and provide them product information if required. Another form of on-floor activity is performed by the cashiers who man the POS. Apart from the shop floor, most supermarkets have at least one manager present at the store at all times. These are usually college graduates with experience and their job description involves keeping inventory controls to other management related issues. Rest of the work team at a supermarket consist of the office workers, the clerks, secretaries and the accountants. From the order filler to the stocker to the on-floor supervisor, how does the communication occur? And what are the rules and norm patterning that communication? As in all other organizations and businesses, effective workplace communication is among the most important factors that determine the success of a supermarket. Deal and Kennedy (1982, Cited in Gilsdorf, 1998) talk in their book about how a strong corporate culture, effective communication and cost saving are linked together. They say that by knowing exactly what their organization expects of them, employees will waste very little time trying to decide how to act in a particular situation. We can conclude from the above statement that people who know the ropes of their organization; those who know the rules are generally more effective in the work that they perform. The term rule here is used to denote the assumptions organizational members make about the right way to communicate in given situations in their particular organization (Gilsdorf, 1998). In her paper,

Impact of Nationalism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Impact of Nationalism - Essay Example The most important feature of nationalism is the nationalistic behavior. It defines the ability and willingness of a nation to make sacrifices to construct national instruments such military, diplomacy, intelligence, economic etc that are necessary for the survival and integrity of any nation to keep them safe from external threats. This ability to make sacrifices for the country is the most important aspect of any countries foreign policy. The same is true for all aspects of national life. This willingness of the people to make sacrifices and nationalism makes any country more powerful. An empirical study of different cases of the world reveals that this nationalism can be mobilized to identify opportunities and achieving national goals and it can also be channelized to deal with threats to the nation as is the case of USA. Emergence of Nationalism was also observed in Russia and China after the cold war. However in the case of Russia with the disintegration of Soviet Union, the pow er, prestige, authority and economic independence was lost but Russians gain their identity and could express their love and affection for their nation. This nationalism helped them come out as triumphant from the economic and political turmoil caused by disintegration. The impact of nationalism is so strong that just ten years after the disintegration of Soviet Union, all the countries that emerged from it are very different from each other.

Investments in Education May Be Misdirected Article

Investments in Education May Be Misdirected - Article Example Consequently, the impact of poverty on intelligence is also addressed in the article using experiments conducted to link poverty with cognitive development (Porter). The findings indicate that poverty plays an integral role in shaping the cognitive development of the children. In summary, the article addresses the impact of family environment on cognitive development of children with the focus being on poverty and education of the mother. In spite of the ideas state, the title of the article is misleading because it does not link the government funding and failure in the education system. Surprisingly, the problem of the parents level of education is not directly linked with the government investment in the education sector. Therefore, improving the education of the parents cannot be linked directly with government funding. However, the impact of financial and educational gap between parents and its impact on child development can be solved by supporting children from poor families. Therefore, the article does not link the issues perfectly leading to bias in reasoning. The environmental challenges should be addressed by different government department in order to improve education. The head-start given to children from educated and wealthy parents can be countered by supporting children from the poor families, which will reduce the gap and increase student performance. Porter, Eduardo. "The New York Times." 2 April 2013. Investments in Education May Be Misdirected. Online. 27 October 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/business/studies-highlight-benefits-of-early-education.html?_r=0

Management Analysis for Whole Foods Market Essay

Management Analysis for Whole Foods Market - Essay Example Whole Foods Market get suppliers that produce least processed, most flavorful and naturally processed food and organic products which consumers prefer the most. Whole Foods Market has stores located mostly on urban areas and major cities to tap the most number of their potential and target customers. This is to ensure that the company will be able to maintain its market share and at least compete at par with its competitors that are mostly located on urban and major cities across the nation. One of the main weaknesses of Whole Foods Market would be its expensive natural and food items relative to its competitors. Even though the company has been able to make various ways to amply cut down their market price, but still when compared it closely to its competitors like Trader Joe's, Whole Foods Market's products are relatively expensive. Whole Foods Market failed to insulate, or at least minimize the adverse effects of economic slowdown of the country. This only suggests the degree of dependency of its growth from the economic condition of the country despite of the fact that it also operate abroad. The increasing health and wellness consciousness of many consumers in the market makes natural and organic food items more in-demand to the market, thus, giving enough room for Whole Foods Market to expand by establishing more stores to accommodate more customers and generate more income. The fast development of technology, software solutions like ChefTec which is primarily being used in inventory control and recipe and menu control, made Whole Foods Market to perform efficiently. The advent of new software solution indeed help Whole Foods Market to minimized their production cost and maximized their profit through achieving efficient operations. Threats The increasing degree of competition in the natural and organic food industry make it a lot harder for Whole Foods Market to optimally utilize the high demand of consumers for natural and organic food items in the market. With the growing number of stores of their competitors, Whole Foods Market started to experience declining profits and sales volume. The economic slowdown of the country has also starting to penetrate the natural and organic food industry which directly affects the profitability of Whole Foods Market. Last August 2008, Whole Foods Market recorded a 31% profit drop in the market which was enough to shake their stockholders (McRoskey 1). Works Cited McRoskey, Ricky (2008) "Whole Foods' Big Markdown" 11 October 2008. Business Week.