After Graduation

Going to college is just the first step in way to achieve goals in life ,so it depend on the person and how much he can gain of skills and experience to begin Incision his own way in the practical life. it was once said â€Å"One person believes in his ability and insisting on achieving its objectives, stronger than 99 people not only have wish list†. What that essay is talking about is first where I will be in five years from graduation . The second point is my personal office of the Interior design in ten years after graduation.Finally My real goal in the practical life which I wish to achieve in 20 years after graduation. After five years of graduation I can see myself in the field of Interior Design has gained experience and skill of the engineering office I work in so that I could gain fame, expertise and experience in practical life and give me the ability to incision my own way. For example ,it is possible to start with working in engineering office where I can gain mon ey and fans to start my own project and built my way.Ten years after graduation I will be able to open my own project either a partnership or personal project in this field and the prosecution of all new and all developments in the field of Interior design. For example, I can begin the project by partnership with a compatriot or with a businessman who can support me by the money than I work to develop and increase the expertise of employees in the office and choose the best engineers to work on to get the trust of customers to spread fame office at the level of the capital and then at the level of the whole state to become one of the best office interior design.After twenty year after graduation I could see myself reaching my real goal which is managing my owe big and famous company of decoration . For example, I will build a company in the manufacturing of furniture and everything that have a relished to decoration with unique design from the best designers around the world with ne w innovations and unfamiliar. To conclude my talk i think that if the person worked hard in collage to gain a lot and learn a lot and support his goals by determination and hard work can turn its goals from just a targets into reality.

Realism, the Portray of Women Mistreatment

Realism, the Portray of Women Mistreatment In the 19th century a new trend of writing appeared in the American literature called, realism and it is defined as the â€Å"faithful representation of reality'. Writers attempt to document life as it â€Å"without romantic idealization or dramatization† and â€Å"character is more important than action and plot†. Two short stories are representative of realism â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† and â€Å"The Story of An Hour. † In these stories Charlotte Gilman and Kate Chopin characterize women who are being dominated by a manly society nd who do not see women more than a simply spouses or mothers.However, they are faithful believers that women in reality are beings that should be allowed to express themselves because they are strong enough to stand for themselves; and should not be subordinate in any marriage. Likewise, in these two stories the realism portrays the maltreatment of women in their marriage, which clea rly can be seen develop in the plot, characterization, setting, and theme of the stories. The works of realism are present in the plot of both stories. Throughout the story of â€Å"The YellowWallpaper† her husband John treats the protagonist with a lot of authority and demand. â€Å"John says if I don't pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell in the fall†¦ But John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad. (Gilman, 86-90. ). And this overwhelming treatment carried the poor woman to a deep insanity, making her hallucinate about the paper design of her room. â€Å"It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper!It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw†not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old oul, bad yellow things†¦ Through watching so much at night, when it changes so, I have finally found out. The front pattern does move†and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it! Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over. † (Gilman, 95, 96. ). The husband's controlling attitude and low ignorance against her destroyed this woman mental stability.At the same time in â€Å"The Story of An Hour,† Mrs. Mallard thought that the death of Mr. Mallard would be the opportunity or her to get out from an oppressed marriage that didn't let her live the life that she ever dreamed. For the first time in her life, she could visualize herself without the control and pressure that her marriage gave her. â€Å"There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully†¦ But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely.And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome. † (Chopin, 66-67. ). In these two stories we can see the great desire of these women to be treated with res pect; a ense of dignity for what they are, something that would make them feel like their voice counted rather than having a meaning to their life because of who theyre married to. Moreover, the women of these stories are truthful realistic characters. The narrator of â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† it is a docile, â€Å"ordinary' (Gilman, 85. middle class woman who suffered from a â€Å"temporary nervous depression† (Gilman, 85). She is forbidden to work and writes in her Journal, which she enjoys very much. She is also torbi dden to take care ot ner newborn baby and visit any triends, making ner eel like no control over her life. â€Å"Am absolutely forbidden to â€Å"work† until I am well again†¦ â€Å"There comes John, and I must put this away, †he hates to have me write a word†¦ And yet I cannot be with him (baby), it makes me so nervous†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ (Gilman, 85-87-88. ).The main character of this story is an oppressed woman, who could not e scape from her reality and in real life a vast of women around the world go through this kind of situation. For instance, my mother is one of them, for many years she undergoes from a temporary nervous depression, caused by my little brother's birth. My father labeled himself a very wise man, but never looked for the help she needed to. As well, he prohibited her to work and the only thing that she could do was to take care of house's chores.Couple times in my life I saw my own mother in the edge of the madness that her monotony life and my father little comprehension about her illness carried her. I remembered, myself scare at her and crying because I did not understand why she behaved in those manner and why my father was so authoritarian with all of us; and with so low emotion about my mother situation. One day my mother woke up from her dream and decides that she had to take control of her life and run away from him, leaving my little brother and me in his cares.I strongly belie ved that many women around the world, most of the time married the wrong man, because they cannot understand them and do not make them feel valuable as their marital partner. On the other hand, in â€Å"The Story of An Hour,† Mrs. Mallard is another typical middle class woman that has â€Å"loved her husband sometimes† (Chopin, 67. ), but with a â€Å"certain strength†(Chopin, 67. ) that all she anted is to â€Å"drink a very elixir of life†, (Chopin, 68. ). And who suffers from heart problem, that probably her outrage marriage had left her with â€Å"Knowing that Mrs.Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble†¦ † (Chopin, 66. ). In fact, Mrs. Mallard is an intelligence woman with a great desire of living her life without any attachments and a visionary woman that proved that she did not need any man to stand up for her. As an illustration, Mrs. Mallard story is similar to my cousin Birmania's story. She is also a very intelligent woman, who m arried her boyfriend whom she was for a long time. After the wedding, they got a beautiful house, equipped with a lot nice furniture. Her boyfriend (now her husband), as soon they got married prohibited her to work.At first, she was happy with the idea because she used to love him and she wanted to play a wife's roles. Times passed and her monotonic life started hit her and her husband's behavior was not what she dreamed about, she felt she wanted to escape from him and divorced him. He, otherwise did not accept her idea, he thought that could not be possible because he had always give her all the material thing that she ad wanted; house, money and car. But, in reality she needed more than that. Birmania needed more emotional attention; she wanted to work, to be herself, once for all.Eventually, how many women nowadays are yet bowed in the oppression of their marriages? As well as the plot and characterization, these two stories share realistic settings. Both take place in the Unite d States during the 19th century and fully described the surrounding of their main characters. For example, in the â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† the story take place in a summer's house, specifically in the narrator's room. She does not have lot furniture on it, except for a bed, the barred around the window and the â€Å"queer† (Gilman, 85. ) yellow wallpaper. I'm really getting quite tond ot the big room, all but that horrid paper†¦ It is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore. It was nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should Judge; for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls. â€Å"(Gilman, 87-88. ). Consequently, â€Å"The Story of An Hour† happened in the Mrs. Mallard's house mostly in er room, where she sat in a chair to contemplate the outside windows landscape and dreamed about her future. She sat with her head thrown back upo n the cushion of the chair†¦ A dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection. â€Å"(Chopin, 66-67. ). The ironic reality in the settings of theses stories is that even though the environment illustrated for these women were a comfortable life, nice houses and neighborhood, deep inside of themselves, their hearts were screaming to be understood as well as heir need of a sense of freedom. Above all, the themes in these stories are the reflection of real struggle of women in their marriage.Even though it is not explain in the story, Mrs. Mallard perhaps had to encounter a lot discouragement and affliction in her marriage in order to feel that only with Mr. Mallard death, she would be free. A sense of freedom that was stronger than the sadness she felt from this news. â€Å"Free! Body and soul free! † She kept whispering† (Chopin, 68. ). Today, despite of a lot of women, they don't feel treated, as they wanted by their spouses; they continue in ilence, struggling in their marriage enduring maltreatment and restrained themselves from the pleasure of doing what they dreamed one day for their life.However, in â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† the woman did not have a voice, she loved her husband too and appreciated all what he did for her, she suffered to know that whatever she said or did was never enough for him. â€Å"John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him†¦ I don't like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all ver the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! But John would not hear of it. (Gilman, 86- 87. ).For this woman to feel underappreciated by her husband, may have been more depressing than her own nervous condition. It is fair to say that the themes of this story it is also relate to the fact that many women in all culture s of our society, become victims of their circumstance, and they lose the control of their life when their husbands do not look at them as human beings that are capable of going beyond of their genders' identity. For the most part, the characters in both of tories go along in the theme of discouragement in their marriage.To conclude, â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper and The Story of an Hour† we now agree that the realism is shown in the plot, characterization, setting, and the theme of both stories. Also, we can see that both characters share the same concerned to their reader, they want women around the world to have self-expression, freedom to be themselves. They believed that women, not only deserve a good house and furniture, but they do also deserve respects. Gilman and Chopin with these work portray themselves as faithful believer n women ‘capacities and do not support any physical or mental mistreatment to them.

Ampex VTR organization Essay

After the second world war, the introduction of televisions opened way for the technological innovation of video recording. In the 1950s, there were major inventions in the video recording industry in the US and Japan. This case study involves the technological advancement in the video cassette recorders (VCRs) manufacturing industries. Six pioneering companies will be considered, namely; RCA and Ampex of USA, Japan Victor Company (JVC) and Sony, Toshiba and Matsushita all of Japan. JVC, Sony and Matsushita had the competitive advantage of management in this industry. They emphasized on opportunities that were more rewarding, productively positioned their technical efforts and executed these efforts in more productively. These companies learnt the market technological demands for videocassette recorders and produced in mass at limited costs. To prove their technological competence, these firms produced equipment with utmost sound clarity and consistently adhered to this. JVC was under pressure to come up with a common standard for its products which led to the advent of VHS system. RCA engineers came up with a video recording machine moving a narrow tape very fast past magnetic heads. At Toshiba, a recording head was made to rotate fast while the tape moved past at relatively slow speed (helical scanner). Despite these efforts, Ampex was the first to come up with a commercial video recorder. This VTR technology was patented but was soon shared out to other companies like RCA. Ampex failed to come up with a manufacturing capability for mass production despite the high performance designs. Ampex engineers opened up the helical scanner technology for broadcast recorder but Sony, JVC and Matsushita overtook them in this technology. RCA suggested the introduction of a television magnetic tape player but this was not considered by the management until later in 1958 in the design of VTR. Sony did not employ the method of market research but instead chose to insist on high technology and innovation. In 1950, Sony introduced the first Japanese magnetic recorder for sound and tape, followed by a TV camera and stereo tape recorder. In 1961, it unveiled the first fully transistorized VTR in the world. Matsushita was a diverse company dealing with a range of electrical appliances. To beat this company’s success, the rivals developed cheaper appliances. The diversities in technology led to a need for international standards to govern this. Sony wanting to outdo its foreign rivals collaborated with JVC and Matsushita in the establishment of ? inch tape cassettes. Sony, JVC and Matsushita made strategic management of technology by learning through trials. These companies were persistent and flexible. Ampex and RCA in America lacked consistency in their strategic direction making them fail to sustain technical development. The Japanese companies had stable technical teams which ensured stability in the organization. Top managers were involved in making critical decisions. Ampex VTR organization was however marred with instability (Rosenbloom & Cusumano, 1987). The basic VCR technology originated from the US and Europe although the Japanese industries have been successful in the industry. The success attributed to the Japanese industries was achieved by more improvements on the basic technology rather than just copying what the West had to offer. The advent of transistors, semiconductors and microchips greatly boosted the electronic industry in Japan.

Planning and Analyzing the Service Concept Essay

Planning and Analyzing the Service Concept - Essay Example Again proper standards and value adding services brings benefits tom clients in this industry. Implementation process is what creates value to customers. During planning and implementation when the â€Å"moment of truth† happens and service creation process and analyzing services results are realized leading to improved efficiency. In all the implementation of a new concept or service what is needed is to analyze the customers’ business operations identifying areas of planning for their need. This explains why sustainable value cannot be achieved for only one group though it has to be created for all of them. This is to say taxi drivers in Illinois have to be properly selected, and developed for them to create value for their customers making investors receive consistently returns. Service blue print has been applied to a broad range of services experiences (Meroni, Sangiorgi, 117). This report shows extended blueprint approach was applied to taxi services in Illinois State. People responding emotionally to taxi services used in this sector by employees providing understanding behavior and action that needed to become aligned with company standards. It is expected that expressive service blueprinting brings continue to provide a proactive empathetic approach for exploring customer responses to improve areas for services. This model shows the process within the taxi industry which is divided into separate components using lines. Service deliver process takes the steps of customer action which they need this must be on top of the service blueprint. When a customer is requesting a taxi driver to pick him the conversation is line of visibility’ that separates Onstage from Backstage actions. The mechanics who help maintain the vehicles are support process ca lled internal line of interaction’ this helps the service to be delivered. Service blueprint is physical evidence which is at the very top

Electronic Communication at Work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Electronic Communication at Work - Essay Example As the report declares ICT has changed not only the social life but also the nature of working life of the people. ICT has greatly changed the nature of work of the Australian community in many aspects which has been brought about by use of new technologies in work. This paper stresses that the diffusion of ICT in some of the aspects of the traditional jobs shows that they can be performed by clients themselves at all levels. For example the increased presence of photocopying machines and computer has taken the services at home from the commercial centres as more people now own these machines. The presence of the internet has led to creation of new jobs in the market as well as evolution of new methods of working. In the industries, it has also changed the nature of work and some of the traditional jobs are not turning multi skilled or they have come to add value in order to remain more viable in the market. Therefore it has led to diversification of skills that are required to perform a certain job while in other cases it has led to reduction of the skills required. This has been an important change in the way we work. The rise of electronic technology has facilitated the aspect of computerization of almost all the sectors of our life. The prod uction sector has been changing very fast which has led some of the trade skills traditionally considered important obsolete. For example typesetters and engravers in the printing industry and the circulation desk in the libraries have been rendered obsolete by the emerging technology. There has also been a great reorganization of the work place. (Capuro 2006, p. 65) This reorganization has led to creation of some departments which never existed before. The change in technology has brought about realignment of the workplace. For example the increased data handling capacity of computers has led to change of some departments that existed before. Computerization in the workplace has also led to the need to have workers who posses computer skills. It has become a requirement for every worker to have the basic computer skills in order to carry out their duty effectively. The use of computers in all departments demands multi-skilled workers. (Coyne 1995, p. 71) ICT has also led to breaking of boundaries of many occupations. There has been replication of services handled by different departments. For example, there has been increased sharing of duties between different departments that have reduced the boundaries between them. If we take the case of human resource department and the accounting department, both share the same database on the employees which is used to account for the payroll by the accounting department while the HR department use for supervision. (Forester 2004, p. 32) The nature of work has also been changed by the development of new products and process inputs in the production process. The change in technology of the production process has led to development of new product and new production process which has changed how we do our work. However the speed at which these new products and

Comparing and Contrasting Operating Systems Assignment

Comparing and Contrasting Operating Systems - Assignment Example The Novelle Netware OS, however, is older than any of these platforms and has been mainly used as a networking OS. The difference and to the disadvantage of the Windows platform is in regard to the security issues. Viruses and worms are far rarer in Linux and OSX than in Windows. Linux is universally held as a very solid OS and much preferred as server and firewall system. OSX, on the other hand, is a highly customized UNIX system, which also makes it a more security aware infrastructure. According to Thomas, Chanelle and Sicam, the total number of viruses and worms found in the wild infecting Linux systems are less likely than 1,000 while Windows must tackle, approximately 1,000 new viruses every month (185). Meanwhile, Novelle used to be the king in terms of security and reliability but that it has undergone very little upgrades since the 1990s. Another important difference between the operating systems being discussed is the cost. Linux is an open platform, hence, it is free. Windows 2000, Novelle Netware, and the OSX on the other hand, come with expensive price tags. For example, when a consumer upgraded from NT4 to Windows 2000, he had to buy Client Access License besides the software upgrade of $400 or $500 (Boswell 31). However, what made Windows 2000 more attractive for users is the availability as well as the sheer number of compatible applications. Linux users are relatively low compared to the Windows platform and the number of applications developed for it over the years is fewer as well. This is also the case in the OSX’s experience. With regards to Novelle, it has stopped being relevant in the OS market because of its poor graphical user interface and have remained as choice server system only for very few administrators. This factor is still the most significant for users. Despite all the advantages that Linux and OSX has over

Final exam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 2

Final exam - Essay Example However, Muslims should explore the following issues in order for them to attain programmatic changes. To begin with, Muslims deploy a Marxist analysis that discourages Marxist discourse and that never allows exploitation of common citizens by anonymous current changes that include market forces (Karam, 16). This appeal can enable Muslims to fill the gap or vacuum left by the country leading to a more conservatism characterized by situations where people know and trust each other. They create circles where everyman is responsible, change any mentality of assault, and resolve problems that act as an obstacle to Muslim’s social prestige. Identify and observe their wealth and fight to get back of those marginalized by the republican ethos. Muslim community should also consider viability in order to attain the change that they aspire. They should uphold the effort to integrate what they view as unacceptable yet compliant in other communities as their weakness and in the meantime act to implement it. For example, they should continue to uphold the importance of dialogue and a high level of understanding in areas where the society requires women’s concerted efforts. Women in Muslim societies are getting opportunities that include; rights activism, involvement in the government’s development projects, and advancing education further. These cases reveal that, the society has changed and unlimited their network to help achieve programmatic change in the society. Nevertheless, this can radically improve more if Muslim heads of state and families can invest more heavily on women and give them more opportunities that fully exhaust their energy in view of realizing transformation. Analysis show that women work for two-thirds of the world’s working hours but yet live in extreme poverty and only earn the least percentage (10%) of the world’s total income. Muslims should surpass that world margin of

Public Opinion and Media Coverage of Labor Unions Article

Public Opinion and Media Coverage of Labor Unions - Article Example Print media, therefore, have the ability to shape new opinion and to influence and stabilize existing public opinions because of their reach to masses. Therefore, it should be mentioned that if media would portray the positive image of labor unions (an interest group) then the public would have positive perceptions, sympathetic attitudes, opinion, and moral support. In contrast, if media would indulge in the negative portrayal of unionism in the corporate sector (either unintentional or intentional) then the probability of negative public opinion when ould increase (excluding union members as they are least affected). Nevertheless, Schmidt’s actual argument is about the involvement ent of media in faulty coverage of labor unions, which then result in the creation of negative attitudes and opinions about unionism among masses. For instance, the independents and non-members followed by Republicans are ones who actually form negative opinions about unions, which is largely based on information provided incredible news the papers such as Times and others etc. The claim was valid as it had been statistically proved in the light of results that indicated the positive relationship between negative media coverage and unsympathetic public opinions. After analyzing the findings of Schmidt (1993), Meister (n.d), Puette (1992) and Chermak (1995), I would like to highlight that print media mostly focus on coverage of union corruption and violent strikes in a dramatic manner so that the news becomes spicy and entices more readers. In addition, it has been a proven fact (the reference to research by menti oned authors) that the journalists (during 1970 – 1995) have remained nonchalant to peaceful and uneventful dispute resolution. Indeed, a rational analyzer should condemn the past attitude of journalists because it led to a portrayal of the ly negative side (and biased) of labor unionism in a highly exaggerated manner. Hence, the public also viewed unions as more â€Å"socially unresponsive, elitist, nondemocratic and ridden by crime†. Meister (n.d) have called that news is presented, just to attract masses, then away as if there has been an inevitable tussle and war between unions and employers / firm owners. In fact, I would argue that it resembles yellow journalism because of exaggeration and dramatics involved.

A FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT REPORT FOR EMAP PLC( A MEDIA COMPANY) Essay

A FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT REPORT FOR EMAP PLC( A MEDIA COMPANY) - Essay Example Financial ratio analysis is a very essential tool in assessing the financial health of a business entity. Specifically, it enables a financial analyst to spot trends in a business and to compare it with the performance of similar business enterprises within the same industry. Financial ratios are grouped into three categories, each showing a different aspect of a company’s financial operations. These are profitability ratios, financial leverage ratios and liquidity/solvency ratios. Profitability ratios measure the ability of the company to generate income from its investments less the costs incurred. The gross profit margin ratio tells us the profit a business makes on its cost of sales, or cost of goods sold. It tells us how much gross profit per peso of turnover our business is earning. Gross profit is the profit we earn before we take off any administration costs, selling costs and so on. The computed operating profit margin, which is the ratio of operating income to sales measures as a percentage of sales, the excess revenue from sales over cost of normal operation excluding financing. Net profit margin, on the other hand, is the ratio of net income to sales. Unlike the operating profit margin, it takes into account the secondary or incidental gains aside from the company’s main business operation and all the costs incurred including financing. Return on assets and return on equity are variants of return on investment, which are more significant rat ios than the margins. While return on assets measures the rate of return on the total investments of the company, the return on equity assesses the rate of return on the investments of common stockholders in the company (Analyzing Company Reports 2005). Logically, higher profitability ratios indicate a healthier financial condition. It can be seen that at the end of March 2005 the company does not perform well in terms of profitability. Gross profit margin is

Cost Theory Essay Example for Free

Cost Theory Essay Once a plant owner spends money to manufacture goods, that money is no longer available for something else. Production facilities, machinery used in the production process and plant workers are all examples of costs. Cost theory offers an approach to understanding the costs of production that allows firms to determine the level of output that reaps the greatest level of profit at the least cost. 2. Features * Cost theory contains various measures of costs. These include a firms fixed costs and variable costs. The former do not vary with the quantity of goods produced. Rent on a facility is an example of a fixed cost. Variable costs change with the quantity produced. If increased production requires more workers, for example, those workers wages are variable costs. The sum of fixed and variable costs is a firms total costs. * Additional Measures * Cost theory derives two additional cost measures. Average total cost is the total cost divided by the number of goods produced. Marginal cost is the increase in total cost that results from increasing production by one unit of output. Marginalsincluding marginal costs and marginal revenueare key concepts in mainstream economic thought. Falling and Rising Costs * Economists often use graphs, similar to supply-and-demand charts, to illustrate cost theory and firms decisions about production. An average total cost curve is a U-shaped curve on an economic diagram. This shape illustrates how average total costs decline as output rises and then rise as marginal costs increase. Average total costs decline at first because as production rises, average costs are distributed over a larger number of units of output. Eventually, marginal costs of increasing output rise, which increases average total costs. Maximizing Profits * Economic theory holds that the goal of a firm is to maximize profit, which equals total revenue minus total cost. Determining a level of production that generates the greatest level of profit is an important consideration, one that means paying attention to marginal costs, as well as marginal revenue (the increase in revenue arising from an increase in output). Under cost theory, as long as marginal revenue exceeds marginal cost, increasing production will raise profit. Types of Cost Economics Economists factor costs in many different ways. Though you may read the cost of a soup can at $1 as it’s listed on the grocery store shelf, economists view the cost of the soup can in very different ways. For example, an economist asks what you are giving up to buy that can of soup over another item. They measure the firm’s cost of producing that soup can as it relates to their output and factors of production. Thus, the different types of economic costs are varied. 1. Sunk Cost * A sunk cost is an expense that cannot be recouped. Mark Hirschy, author of the book, â€Å"Fundamentals of Managerial Economics,† explains that sunk costs should not factor into a decision when deciding between alternatives. For example, say a person spent $50,000 on a degree in education and earns $60,000 as a teacher. She is later offered a job in marketing that pays her $80,000. Though she may be tempted to factor in her education degree as reason to stay in her current teaching job, her $50,000 degree is regarded as a sunk cost. She already spent this money, and it cannot be recouped. In this case, she should only compare the respective salaries of the positions. If all else is held equal, she should pursue the marketing job. Opportunity Cost * An opportunity cost is the value of an alternative choice. Though the word â€Å"cost† usually equates to a numerical value, like a dollar figure, this is not always the case. William Baumol and Alan Blinder, authors of the book, Economics: Principles and Policy, state that an opportunity cost calculates intangible things like time, location and job satisfaction. They explain opportunity costs are what you give up to follow one course of action. For example, a college graduate is deciding between a job as a tech consultant in Seattle or an investment broker in New York City. If the grad pursues the investment broker position, the opportunity costs of foregoing the job in Seattle could be a slower pace of life, $10,000 higher salary and lower costs of living like rent and food. * Marginal Cost * A marginal cost is the amount it takes to produce one more item. Under this view of costs, they vary along the production line and in most cases the cost to produce a good reduces over time. Intuitively, this makes sense: the more proficient you become at producing a good, the faster you can do it and less waste is produced. The savings in labor and material as you achieve â€Å"economies of scale† means the cost of production usually decreases. The way economists find the marginal cost is by taking the derivative of the total costs as it relates to the total output. How to Find Marginal Cost in Economics Deciding whether to produce more units is often based on marginal cost. The economic concept of marginal cost is the cost associated with producing one additional unit. This information is important to businesses because it allows the company to decide if the additional unit is worth producing from a financial standpoint. When a company produces a small amount of product, the cost of additional units often decrease. However, marginal costs increase when additional units are added once the production level reaches a minimum. This is based on the law of diminishing marginal returns. Instructions 1. * 1 Calculate the change in total variable cost. This is the amount that the costs increased by after additional units are produced. For example, if youd like to produce more T-shirts and the increase in output would change the costs by $100, then the total variable cost is $100. * 2 Find the change in quantity produced. This represents how many additional units you would like to produce in the given scenario. For example, the change in quantity would be 50 if youd like to produce 300 T-shirts instead of 250. * 3 Divide the change in total variable costs from Step 1 by the change in quantity from Step 2. This will give you the marginal cost (marginal cost = the change in total variable cost/the change in quantity). For this example, $100 (the change in total variable cost) / 50 (the change in quantity) = $2 in marginal costs, which is the cost of producing each additional T-shirt. What Is the Relationship Between Production ;amp; Cost? Production costs are linked to t he cost of materials and labor. The relationship between production and cost in any manufacturing process varies based on volume produced and whether any part of the manufacturing process is outsourced or performed by subcontractors. Additionally, production and cost ratios vary based on the amount of automation involved in production and the amount of human oversight and involvement required. 1. Factors of Production * The main factors of production are labor, capital and supply costs. Capital is defined as equipment, cash reserves, and physical location or production facility. Labor is defined as the amount of and cost of manpower required to bring a product to market. This includes not only the physical labor and oversight related to product production, but also the associated costs of salaries of positions such as managers, delivery drivers, warehouse supervisors, marketing directors and even administrative assistance. Supply costs are any fee associated with securing necessary materials for production. Subcontractor or outsourced work is considered a supply cost as well, as the manufacturer is essentially purchasing a product or service for use in the production process. In this example, work such as offsite creation of product packaging or assembly of minor components of a finished product are considered supply costs in the same way the purchase of raw materials are considered supply costs. Volume of Production * Volume of production figures signify the amount of products being produced. Typically, the greater the volume the lower the cost per unit as raw material suppliers often offer discounts on mass or bulk orders. Volume of production is based on a company’s anticipated product needs, past sales records and placed orders. * Volume of Business * The relationship between production and cost is frequently determined by the volume of business a company is doing. An example that illustrates this point is a multinational vitamin supplement company that produces vitamins in bulk compared to a small health food chain that produces its own vitamin line in small quantities. The cost of the product produced by the small company will typically be greater than the cost of the product offered by the bulk manufacturer because the smaller company produces its product in smaller volumes. Price Points The more it costs a company to produce a product, the greater price the company will have to charge consumers. A company’s production costs include the price of materials, the cost of manpower, the production and packaging process, advertising, and distribution. Mass producers may be able to offer more competitive pricing to end users because they have the luxury of working on a thin margin due to the large volume of production. In microeconomics, the long run is the conceptual time period in which there are no fixed factors of production as to changing the output level by changing the capital stock or by entering or leaving an industry. The long run contrasts with the short run, in which some factors are variable and others are fixed, constraining entry or exit from an industry. In macroeconomics, the long run is the period when the general price level, contractual wage rates, and expectations adjust fully to the state of the economy, in contrast to the short run when these variables may not fully adjust. [1] In the long run, firms change production levels in response to (expected) economic profits or losses, and the land, labor, capital goods and entrepreneurship vary to reach associated long-run average cost. In the simplified case of plant capacity as the only fixed factor, a generic firm can make these changes in the long run: * enter an industry in response to (expected) profits * leave an industry in response to losses * increase its plant in response to profits * decrease its plant in response to losses. Long-run average-cost curve with economies of scale to Q2 and diseconomies of scale thereafter. The long run is associated with the long-run average cost (LRAC) curve in microeconomic models along which a firm would minimize its average cost (cost per unit) for each respective long-run quantity of output. Long-run marginal cost (LRMC) is the added cost of providing an additional unit of service or commodity from changing capacity level to reach the lowest cost associated with that extra output. LRMC equalling price is efficient as to resource allocation in the long run. The concept of long-run cost is also used in determining whether the long-run expected to induce the firm to remain in the industry or shut down production there. In long-run equilibrium of an industry in which perfect competition prevails, the LRMC = Long run average LRAC at the minimum LRAC and associated output. The shape of the long-run marginal and average costs curves is determined by economies of scale. The long run is a planning and implementation stage. [2][3] Here a firm may decide that it needs to produce on a larger scale by building a new plant or adding a production line. The firm may decide that new technology should be incorporated into its production process. The firm thus considers all its long-run production options and selects the optimal combination of inputs and technology for its long-run urposes. [4] The optimal combination of inputs is the least-cost combination of inputs for desired level of output when all inputs are variable. [3] Once the decisions are made and implemented and production begins, the firm is operating in the short run with fixed and variable inputs. [3][5] Short run All production in real time occurs in the short run. The short run is the conceptual time period in which at least one factor of production is fixed in amount and others are variable in am ount. Costs that are fixed, say from existing plant size, have no impact on a firms short-run decisions, since only variable costs and revenues affect short-run profits. Such fixed costs raise the associated short-run average cost of an output long-run average cost if the amount of the fixed factor is better suited for a different output level. In the short run, a firm can raise output by increasing the amount of the variable factor(s), say labor through overtime. A generic firm already producing in an industry can make three changes in the short run as a response to reach a posited equilibrium: * increase production decrease production * shut down. In the short run, a profit-maximizing firm will: * increase production if marginal cost is less than marginal revenue (added revenue per additional unit of output); * decrease production if marginal cost is greater than marginal revenue; * continue producing if average variable cost is less than price per unit, even if average total cost is gre ater than price; * shut down if average variable cost is greater than price at each level of output. Transition from short run to long run The transition from the short run to the long run may be done by considering some short-run equilibrium that is also a long-run equilibrium as to supply and demand, then comparing that state against a new short-run and long-run equilibrium state from a change that disturbs equilibrium, say in the sales-tax rate, tracing out the short-run adjustment first, then the long-run adjustment. Each is an example of comparative statics. Alfred Marshall (1890) pioneered in comparative-static period analysis. [6] He istinguished between the temporary or market period (with output fixed), the short period, and the long period. Classic contemporary graphical and formal treatments include those of Jacob Viner (1931),[7] John Hicks (1939),[8] and Paul Samuelson (1947). [9] The law of diminishing marginal returns The law of diminishing marginal returns to a variable factor applies to the short run. [10] It posits an effect of decreased added or marginal product of from variable factors, which increas es the supply price of added output. [11] The law is related to a positive slope of the short-run marginal-cost curve. 12] Macroeconomic usages The usage of long run and short run in macroeconomics differs somewhat from the above microeconomic usage. J. M. Keynes (1936) emphasized fundamental factors of a market economy that might result in prolonged periods away from full-employment. [13] In later macro usage, the long run is the period in which the price level for the economy is completely flexible as to shifts in aggregate demand and aggregate supply. In addition there is full mobility of labor and capital between sectors of the economy and full capital mobility between nations. In the short run none of these conditions need fully hold. The price is sticky or fixed as to changes in aggregate demand or supply, capital is not fully mobile between sectors, and capital is not fully mobile to interest rate differences among countries amp; fixed exchange rates. [14] A famous critique of neglecting short-run analysis was by John Maynard Keynes, who wrote that In the long run, we are all dead, referring to the long-run proposition of the quantity theory of, for example, a doubling of the money supply doubling the price level. 15] Marginal  Analysis Thinking at the  Margin From Mike Moffatt, former About. com Guide From an economists perspective, making choices involves making decisions at the margin that is, making decisions based on small changes in resources: * How should I spend the next hour? * How should I spend the next dollar? On the surface, this seems like a strange way of considering the choices made by people and firms. It is rare that someone would consciously ask themselves How will I spend dollar number 24,387? , How will I spend dollar number 24,388? . Treating the problem in this matter does have some distinct advantages: * Doing so leads to the optimal decisions being made, subject to preferences, resources and informational constraints. * It makes the problem less messy from an analytic point of view, as we are not trying to analyze a million decisions at once. * While this does not exactly mimic conscious decision making processes, it does provide results similar to the decisions people actually make. That is, people may not think using this method, but the decisions they make are as if they do. Marginal Analysis An Example Consider the decision on how many hours to work, as given by the following chart: Hour Hourly Wage Value of Time Hour 1 $10 $2 Hour 2 $10 $2 Hour 3 $10 $3 Hour 4 $10 $3 Hour 5 $10 $4 Hour 6 $10 $5 Hour 7 $10 $6 Hour 8 $10 $8 Hour 9 $15 $9 Hour 10 $15 $12 Hour 11 $15 $18 Hour 12 $15 $20 The hourly wage represents what I earn for working an extra hour it is the marginal gain or the marginal benefit. The value of time is essentially an opportunity cost it is how much I value having that hour off. In this example it represents a marginal cost what it costs me by working an additional hour. The increase in marginal costs is a common phenomenon; I do not mind working a few hours since there are 24 hours in a day. I still have plenty of time to do other things. However, as I start to work more hours it reduces the number of hours I have for other activities. I have to start giving up more and more valuable opportunities to work those extra hours. It is clear that I should work the first hour, as I gain $10 in marginal benefits and lose only $2 in marginal costs, for a net gain of $8. By the same logic I should work the second and third hours as well. I will want to work until which time the marginal cost exceeds the marginal benefit. I will want to work the 10th hour as I receive a net benefit of #3 (marginal benefit of $15, marginal cost of $12). However, I will not want to work the 11th hour, as the marginal cost ($18) exceeds the marginal benefit ($15) by three dollars. Thus marginal analysis suggests that rational maximizing behavior is to work for 10 hours. Next Lesson: Market Distortions: Altering the Supply and Demand Equilibrium. Marginal Analysis * Marginal Revenue Glossary Dictionary Definition of Marginal Revenue * Marginal Significance Value Glossary Dictionary Definition of Marginal Si * Marginal Revenue and Marginal Cost Practice Question Related Articles * Running a Private Practice Working with Animals * Work Stress Long Work Hours Are Not the Culprit * Open for Business: Scheduling Your Week Being a Personal Trainer * Three Union Work Rules That Increase the Cost of Operating Transit * Hold On to Your Sanity Start Your Own Business AN INTRODUCTION TO COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS| * Background * Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) estimates and totals up the equivalent money value of the benefits and costs to the community of projects to establish whether they are worthwhile. These projects may be dams and highways or can be training programs and health care systems. * The idea of this economic accounting originated with Jules Dupuit, a French engineer whose 1848 article is still worth reading. The British economist, Alfred Marshall, formulated some of the formal concepts that are at the foundation of CBA. But the practical development of CBA came as a result of the impetus provided by the Federal Navigation Act of 1936. This act required that the U. S. Corps of Engineers carry out projects for the improvement of the waterway system when the total benefits of a project to whomsoever they accrue exceed the costs of that project. Thus, the Corps of Engineers had created systematic methods for measuring such benefits and costs. The engineers of the Corps did this without much, if any, assistance from the economics profession. It wasnt until about twenty years later in the 1950s that economists tried to provide a rigorous, consistent set of methods for measuring benefits and costs and deciding whether a project is worthwhile. Some technical issues of CBA have not been wholly resolved even now but the fundamental presented in the following are well established. * Principles of Cost Benefit Analysis * One of the problems of CBA is that the computation of many components of benefits and costs is intuitively obvious but that there are others for which intuition fails to suggest methods of measurement. Therefore some basic principles are needed as a guide. There Must Be a Common Unit of Measurement * In order to reach a conclusion as to the desirability of a project all aspects of the project, positive and negative, must be expressed in terms of a common unit; i. e. , there must be a bottom line. The most convenient common unit is money. This means that all benefits and costs of a project should be measured in terms of their equivalent money value. A program may provide benefits which are not directly expressed in terms of dollars but there is some amount of money the recipients of the benefits would consider just as good as the projects benefits. For example, a project may provide for the elderly in an area a free monthly visit to a doctor. The value of that benefit to an elderly recipient is the minimum amount of money that that recipient would take instead of the medical care. This could be less than the market value of the medical care provided. It is assumed that more esoteric benefits such as from preserving open space or historic sites have a finite equivalent money value to the public. * Not only do the benefits and costs of a project have to be expressed in terms of equivalent money value, but they have to be expressed in terms of dollars of a particular time. This is not just due to the differences in the value of dollars at different times because of inflation. A dollar available five years from now is not as good as a dollar available now. This is because a dollar available now can be invested and earn interest for five years and would be worth more than a dollar in five years. If the interest rate is r then a dollar invested for t years will grow to be (1+r)t. Therefore the amount of money that would have to be deposited now so that it would grow to be one dollar t years in the future is (1+r)-t. This called the discounted value or present value of a dollar available t years in the future. * When the dollar value of benefits at some time in the future is multiplied by the discounted value of one dollar at that time in the future the result is discounted present value of that benefit of the project. The same thing applies to costs. The net benefit of the projects is just the sum of the present value of the benefits less the present value of the costs. * The choice of the appropriate interest rate to use for the discounting is a separate issue that will be treated later in this paper. CBA Valuations Should Represent Consumers or Producers Valuations As Revealed by Their Actual Behavior * The valuation of benefits and costs should reflect preferences revealed by choices which have been made. For example, improvements in transportation frequently involve saving time. The question is how to measure the money value of that time saved. The value should not be merely what transportat ion planners think time should be worth or even what people say their time is worth. The value of time should be that which the public reveals their time is worth through choices involving tradeoffs between time and money. If people have a choice of parking close to their destination for a fee of 50 cents or parking farther away and spending 5 minutes more walking and they always choose to spend the money and save the time and effort then they have revealed that their time is more valuable to them than 10 cents per minute. If they were indifferent between the two choices they would have revealed that the value of their time to them was exactly 10 cents per minute. * The most challenging part of CBA is finding past choices which reveal the tradeoffs and equivalencies in preferences. For example, the valuation of the benefit of cleaner air could be established by finding how much less people paid for housing in more polluted areas which otherwise was identical in characteristics and location to housing in less polluted areas. Generally the value of cleaner air to people as revealed by the hard market choices seems to be less than their rhetorical valuation of clean air. * Benefits Are Usually Measured by Market Choices * When consumers make purchases at market prices they reveal that the things they buy are at least as beneficial to them as the money they relinquish. Consumers will increase their consumption of any commodity up to the point where the benefit of an additional unit (marginal benefit) is equal to the marginal cost to them of that unit, the market price. Therefore for any consumer buying some of a commodity, the marginal benefit is equal to the market price. The marginal benefit will decline with the amount consumed just as the market price has to decline to get consumers to consume a greater quantity of the commodity. The relationship between the market price and the quantity consumed is called the demand schedule. Thus the demand schedule provides the information about marginal benefit that is needed to place a money value on an increase in consumption. * Gross Benefits of an Increase in Consumption is an Area Under the Demand Curve * The increase in benefits resulting from an increase in consumption is the sum of the marginal benefit times each incremental increase in consumption. As the incremental increases considered are taken as smaller and smaller the sum goes to the area under the marginal benefit curve. But the marginal benefit curve is the same as the demand curve so the increase in benefits is the area under the demand curve. As shown in Figure 1 the area is over the range from the lower limit of consumption before the increase to consumption after the increase. * Figure 1 * When the increase in consumption is small compared to the total consumption the gross benefit is adequately approximated, as is shown in a welfare analysis, by the market value of the increased consumption; i. e. , market price times the increase in consumption. * Some Measurements of Benefits Require the Valuation of Human Life * It is sometimes necessary in CBA to evaluate the benefit of saving human lives. There is considerable antipathy in the general public to the idea of placing a dollar value on human life. Economists recognize that it is impossible to fund every project which promises to save a human life and that some rational basis is needed to select which projects are approved and which are turned down. The controversy is defused when it is recognized that the benefit of such projects is in reducing the risk of death. There are many cases in which people voluntarily accept increased risks in return for higher pay, such as in the oil fields or mining, or for time savings in higher speed in automobile travel. These choices can be used to estimate the personal cost people place on increased risk and thus the value to them of reduced risk. This computation is equivalent to placing an economic value on the expected number of lives saved. * The Analysis of a Project Should Involve a With Versus Without Comparison * The impact of a project is the difference between what the situation in the study area would be with and without the project. This that when a project is being evaluated the analysis must estimate not only what the situation would be with the project but also what it would be without the project. For example, in determining the impact of a fixed guideway rapid transit system such as the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) in the San Francisco Bay Area the number of rides that would have been taken on an expansion of the bus system should be deducted from the rides provided by BART and likewise the additional costs of such an expanded bus system would be deducted from the costs of BART. In other words, the alternative to the project must be explicitly specified and considered in the evaluation of the project. Note that the with-and-without comparison is not the same as a before-and-after comparison. Another example shows the importance of considering the impacts of a project and a with-and-without comparison. Suppose an irrigation project proposes to increase cotton production in Arizona. If the United States Department of Agriculture limits the cotton production in the U. S. by a system of quotas then expanded cotton production in Arizona might be offset by a reduction in the cotto n production quota for Mississippi. Thus the impact of the project on cotton production in the U. S. might be zero rather than being the amount of cotton produced by the project. * Cost Benefit Analysis Involves a Particular Study Area The impacts of a project are defined for a particular study area, be it a city, region, state, nation or the world. In the above example concerning cotton the impact of the project might be zero for the nation but still be a positive amount for Arizona. * The nature of the study area is usually specified by the organization sponsoring the analysis. Many effects of a project may net out over one study area but not over a smaller one. The specification of the study area may be arbitrary but it may significantly affect the conclusions of the analysis. * Double Counting of Benefits or Costs Must be Avoided Sometimes an impact of a project can be measured in two or more ways. For example, when an improved highway reduces travel time and the risk of injury the value of property in areas served by the highway will be enhanced. The increase in property values due to the project is a very good way, at least in principle, to measure the benefits of a project. But if the increased property values are included then it is unnecessary to include the value of the time and lives saved by the improvement in the highway. The property value went up because of the benefits of the time saving and the reduced risks. To include both the increase in property values and the time saving and risk reduction would involve double counting. * Decision Criteria for Projects * If the discounted present value of the benefits exceeds the discounted present value of the costs then the project is worthwhile. This is equivalent to the condition that the net benefit must be positive. Another equivalent condition is that the ratio of the present value of the benefits to the present value of the costs must be greater than one. * If there are more than one mutually exclusive project that have positive net present value then there has to be further analysis. From the set of mutually exclusive projects the one that should be selected is the one with the highest net present value. * If the funds required for carrying out all of the projects with positive net present value are less than the funds available this means the discount rate used in computing the present values is too low and does not reflect the true cost of capital. The present values must be recomputed using a higher discount rate. It may take some trial and error to find a discount rate such that the funds required for the projects with a positive net present value is no more than the funds available. Sometimes as an alternative to this procedure people try to select the best projects on the basis of some measure of goodness such as the internal rate of return or the benefit/cost ratio. This is not valid for several reasons. * The magnitude of the ratio of benefits to costs is to a degree arbitrary because some costs such as operating costs may be deducted from benefits and thus not be included in the cost figure. This is called netting out of operating costs. This netting out may be done for some projects and not for others. This manipulation of the benefits and costs will not affect the net benefits but it may change the benefit/cost ratio. However it will not raise the benefit cost ratio which is less than one to above one. For more on this topic see Benefit/ cost Ratio Magnitude. * An Example * To illustrate how CBA might be applied to a project, let us consider a highway improvement such as the extension of Highway 101 into San Jose. The local four-lane highway which carried the freeway and commuter traffic into San Jose did not have a median divider and its inordinate number of fatal head-on collisions led to the name Blood Alley. The improvement of the highway would lead to more capacity which produces time saving and lowers the risk. But inevitably there will be more traffic than was carried by the old highway. * The following is a highly abbreviated analysis using hypothetical data. TRIP DATA| No Extension, Blood Alley Only| 101 Extension and Blood Alley| Rush Hours|   |   | Passenger Trips ( per hour)| 3,000| 4,000| Trip Time (minutes)| 50| 30| Value of Time ($/minute)| $0. 10| $0. 10| Nonrush Hours|   |   | Passenger Trips (per hour)| 500| 555. 55| Trip Time (minutes)| 35| 25| Value of Time ($/minute)| $0. 08| $0. 08| Traffic Fatalities per year)| 12| 6| * The data indicates that for rush-hour trips the time cost of a trip is $5 without the project and $3 with it. It is assumed that the operating cost for a vehicle is unaffected by the project and is $4. * The project lowers the cost of a trip and the public responds by increasing the number of trips taken. There is an increase in consumer surplus both for the trips which would have been taken without the project and for the trips which are stimulated by the project. * For trips which would have been taken anyway the benefit of the project equals the value of the time saved times the number of trips. For the rush-hour trip the project saves $2 and for the nonrush-hour trip it saves $0. 80. For the trips generated by the project the benefit is equal to one half of the value of the time saved times the increase in the number of trips. * The benefits per hour are: TYPE| Trips Which Would Be Taken Anyway| Trips Generated By the Project| Total| Rush Hour| 6,000. 00| 1,000. 00| 7,000. 00| Nonrush Hour| 400. 00| 22. 22| 422. 22| * To convert the benefits to an annual basis one multiplies the hourly benefits of each type of trip times the number of hours per year for that type of trip. There are 260 week days per year and at six rush hours per weekday there are 1560 rush hours per year. This leaves 7200 nonrush hours per year. With these figures the annual benefits are: TYPE| Trips Which Would Be Taken Anyway| Trips Generated By the Project| Total| Rush Hour| $9,360,000| $1,560,000| $10,020,000| Nonrush Hour| $2,880,000| $160,000| $3,040,000| Total| $12,240,000| $1,720,000| $13,960,000| * The value of the reduced fatalities may be computed in terms of the equivalent economic value people place upon their lives when making choices concerning risk and money. If the labor market has wages for occupations of different risks such that people accept an increase in the risk of death of 1/1,000 per year in return for an increase in income of $400 per year then a project that reduces the risk of death in a year by 1/1000 gives a benefit to each person affected by it of $400 per year. The implicit valuation of a life in this case is $400,000. Thus benefit of the reduced risk project is the expected number of lives saved times the implicit value of a life. For the highway project this is 6x$400,000= $2,400,000 annually. * The annual benefits of the project are thus: TYPE OF BENEFIT| VALUE OF BENEFITS PER YEAR| Time Saving| $13,960,000| Reduced Risk| $2,400,000| * Let us assume that this level of benefits continues at a constant rate over a thirty-year lifetime of the project. * The cost of the highway consists of the costs for its right-of-way, its construction and its maintenance. The cost of the right-of-way is the cost of the land and any structures upon it which must be purchased before the construction of the highway can begin. For purposes of this example the cost of right-of-way is taken to be $100 million and it must be paid before any construction can begin. At least part of the right-of- way cost for a highway can be recovered at the end of the lifetime of the highway if it is not rebuilt. For the example it is assumed that all of the right-of-way cost is recoverable at the end of the thirty-year lifetime of the project. The construction cost is $200 million spread evenly over a four-year period. Maintenance cost is $1 million per year once the highway is completed. * The schedule of benefits and costs for the project are as follows: TIME (year)| BENEFITS ($millions)| RIGHT-OF -WAY ($millions)| CONSTRUCTION COSTS $millions)| MAINTENANCE ($millions)| 0| 0| 100| 0| 0| 1-4| 0| 0| 50| 0| 5-29| 16. 36| 0| 0| 1| 30| 16. 36| -100| 0| 1| * The benefits and costs are in constant value dollars; i. e. , there was no price increase included in the analysis. Therefore the discount rate used must be the real interest rate. If the interest rate on long term bonds is 8 percent and the rate of inflation is 6 percent then the real rate of interest is 2 p ercent. Present value of the streams of benefits and costs discounted at a 2 percent back to time zero are as follows:   | PRESENT VALUE $ millions)| Benefits| 304. 11| Costs|   | Right-of-Way| 44. 79| Construction| 190. 39| Maintenance| 18. 59| Total Costs| 253. 77| |   | | Net Benefits| 50. 35| | *independent rounding| * The positive net present value of $50. 35 million and benefit/cost ratio of 1. 2 indicate that the project is worthwhile if the cost of capital is 2 percent. When a discount rate of 3 percent is the benefit/cost ratio is slightly under 1. 0. This means that the internal rate of return is just under 3 percent. When the cost of capital is 3 percent the project is not worthwhile. It should be noted that the market value of the right-of-way understates the opportunity cost of having the land devoted to the highway. The land has a value of $100 million because of its income after property taxes. The economy is paying more for its alternate use but some of the pay ment is diverted for taxes. The discounted presented value of the payments for the alternate use might be more like $150 million instead of $100 million. Another way of making this point is that one of the costs of the highway is that the local governments lose the property tax on the land used. * Summary By reducing the positive and negative impacts of a project to their equivalent money value Cost-Benefit Analysis determines whether on balance the project is worthwhile. The equivalent money value are based upon information derived from consumer and producer market choices; i. e. , the demand and supply schedules for the goods and services affected by the project. Care must be taken to properly allow for such things as inflation. When all this has been considered a worthwhile project is one for which the discounted value of the benefits exceeds the discounted value of the costs; i. . , the net benefits are positive. This is equivalent to the benefit/cost ratio being greater than on e and the internal rate of return being greater than the cost of capital. * History of Cost-Benefit Analysis * CBA has its origins in the water development projects of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps of Engineers had its origins in the French engineers hired by George Washington in the American Revolution. For years the only school of engineering in the United States was the Military Academy at West Point, New York. In 1879, Congress created the Mississippi River Commission to prevent destructive floods. The Commission included civilians but the president had to be an Army engineer and the Corps of Engineers always had veto power over any decision by the Commission. * In 1936 Congress passed the Flood Control Act which contained the wording, the Federal Government should improve or participate in the improvement of navigable waters or their tributaries, including watersheds thereof, for flood-control purposes if the benefits to whomsoever they may accrue are in excess of the estimated costs. The phrase if the benefits to whomsoever they may accrue are in excess of the estimated costs established cost-benefit analysis. Initially the Corps of Engineers developed ad hoc methods for estimating benefits and costs. It wasnt until the 1950s that academic economists discovered that the Corps had developed a system for the economic analysis of public investments. Economists have influenced and improved the Corps methods since then and cost-benefit analysis has been adapted to most areas of public decision-making.

The Sound And The Fury By Faulkner | Analysis

The Sound And The Fury By Faulkner | Analysis William Faulkners modernist novel The Sound and the Fury is a challenge for the reader and actually it is one of the books you have to read twice in order to fully understand because it has no chronology and the use of the stream of consciousness makes it more difficult to read. The stream of consciousness refers to the recording of the flow of a characters thoughts in a fragmentary, nonlinear manner. Images and impressions suggest others through an associative process that ignores distinctions between past, present and future. (Anderson 12) Broadly, The Sound and the Fury is the story of the decline and fall of the Compson family. The novel is structured in four sections, Benjys section, Quentins section, Jasons section and an objective account which is considered by some critics to be Dilseys section. Benjy, Quentin and Jason are the Compson brothers and Dilsey is their black servant. In the first three sections the stream of consciousness is employed and the story is told in flashbacks. The fourth section has an omniscient narrator who is thought to be the author himself. Each section has a different date, the first, the third and the last sections are set around Easter in April 1928 in Jefferson and the second section in June 1910 in Harvard. After a close reading of the novel, the authors concern for the use of time and the passing of time becomes obvious. The purpose of this essay is to analyze how the time motif is employed and emphasized in William Faulkners The Sound and the Fury and how are the characters affected by time. Firstly, I will show the different ways in which the author uses time in the four sections. Secondly, I will analyze how the four main characters, namely Benjy, Quentin, Jason and Dilsey perceive time, how important time and especially the past is for them and what is their attitude towards the past. Faulkner mixes past and present in his novel and often shifts the time sequence back and forth without regard for chronological order. (Roberts 11) Faulkner uses numerous time levels in Benjys section and in fact, the reader is confused by the time shifts between present and past. However, the author in most of the cases uses italics to signal the time shifts and gives clues that point to a particular episode in the story. For instance, Luster takes care of Benjy in April 1928. Although Benjys section is dated April seventh 1928, little of the events and facts that make up the story really happen that day events of the past are constantly juxtaposed with various events in the present or some other time in the past. (Roberts 36) Faulkner has a particular style of writing and he uses linear time only in the last section. In the other three sections, the sense of time is broken and there is an emphasis on the past. This points to the fact that the author is often concerned about how muc h of the past intrudes upon the present. (Roberts 36) In Quentin and Jasons sections the reader is still confronted with the recurring time motif. If in Benjys part, clock time is almost totally disregarded (Roberts 36) in Quentins narrative clocks are very important. Quentin is obsessed with clocks and the past that haunts him. In Jasons section the flashbacks are used too, but unlike the first two sections, it combines thoughts and memories, with many indicators of objective time and space reality. (P. Anderson 199) The last section is written as a third person narrative and it is focused mainly on Dilsey, the Compsons family servant. It sheds light on the events narrated in the previous sections. In order to indicate that the past and the present are both equally important for Dilsey, the author chooses to end the novel with a linear narrative making no use of the stream of consciousness technique or flashbacks. In The Sound and the Fury, each character has a different approach to time. Benjy is a 33 years old man, but with the mental age of a 3 years old child. He is incapable to speak and to distinguish between the past, the present, and the future. His section, which opens the book, is the most intriguing because he is completely oblivious of time (Roberts 36) and he perceives things only through his senses. According to Roberts, for Benjy all time blends into one sensuous experience. He makes no distinction between an event that happened only hours ago and one that occurred years ago. (36) For instance, he waits for Caddy, his sister, to return from school in 1928 even if she left home in 1910. Benjy perceives the past only by making associations Whenever something reminds Benjy of the past, his narration jumps to that past moment. With little understanding of time, Benjy narrates his memories of the past as if they are happening in the present. (Anderson 35) For the mentally disables Be njy the concept of time does not exist. He lives in a world of his own. Quentin, whose narrative is the only one not anchored in April 1928, but in June 1910 expends all his energy trying to understand time. (Roberts 36) His section begins with the memory of his fathers comments about time When the shadow of the sash appeared on the curtains it was between seven and eight oclock and then I was in time again, hearing the watch. It was Grandfathers and when Father gave it to me he said I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire; its rather excruciatingly apt that you will use it to gain the reducto absurdum of all human experience which can fit your individual needs no better than it fitted his or his fathers. I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all your breath trying to conquer it. Because no battle is ever won he said. (Faulkner 89) Throughout his entire narrative he feels haunted by the past and he tries to escape from time. (Roberts 25) In a desperate try to free himself from time he breaks his watch, but it ironically continues to tick proving him that whatever he does the passing of time is unstoppable I went to the dresser and took up the watch, with the face still down. I tapped the crystal on the corner of the dresser and caught the fragments of glass in my hand and put them into the ashtray and twisted the hands off and put them in the tray. The watch ticked on. I turned the face up, the blank dial with little wheels clicking and click ing behind it, not knowing any better. (Faulkner 91) At the end of his section, Quentin committs suicide in the final attempt to escape the clicking of the clock and symbolically time. His last gesture is not made with regret, but rather with joy and a sense of freedom a quarter hour yet. And then Ill not be. The peacefullest words. The peacefullest words. (Faulkner 142) Jasons section precedes Benjys section and it is set in 6 April 1928. According to Roberts he completely denies the past; he functions only in the present. (27) Unlike Quentin, he thinks that the present is more important. However, there are moments when the past signifies something to him. For example, the moments when he remembers that he lost a position in a bank because of his sister Caddy. He is in contrast with Quentin because he does not care about his familys reputation and history therefore the past. Time is important to him, but he is the man of the present at last I found a pad on a Saint Louis bank. And of course shed pick this one time to look at it close. Well, it would have to do. I couldnt waste any more time now. (Faulkner 201) The last section is dated 8 April 1928 and it is narrated in the third person. Dilsey is the main character of this section and the only one who brings the past and the present into a proper balance. (Roberts 24) She is the only one that acknowledges the boundaries between past and present a cabinet clock ticked, then with a preliminary sound as if it had cleared its throat, struck five times. Eight oclock, Dilsey said. She ceased and tilted her head upward, listening. (Faulkner 264) She is both aware of the past and the present. She witnessed both the prosperous past of the Compson family and its fall in the present I seed the beginning, en now I sees de endin. (Faulkner 284) Dilsey is not afraid of the passing of time and she does not regard the past as a menace for her present or even for her future. In conclusion, the aim of this essay has been to analyze how William Faulkner employed the time motif and what impact has time upon the characters in his novel The Sound and the Fury. The analysis of the four sections revealed that in the first three time is not linear and there are always time shifts between the past and the present. Thus, chronology of events is totally disregarded in the first three sections and the stream of consciousness technique and flashbacks are used. On the other hand, in the last section time is linear with focus mainly on the present of the story that is April 1928. The characters Benjy, Quentin, Jason, and Dilsey are all affected by time and especially by the past but some more and others less. Benjy is unaware of the concepts of time and past and he lives in a continuous present. For Quentin the past is very important and he puts the present on a second plan. In contrast with him is his other brother, Jason, who sees the present important and gives no i mportance to the past. Unlike Quentin and Jason, Dilsey is focused both on the past and on the present.