John Locke V Thomas Hobbes Essay Example for Free

John Locke V Thomas Hobbes Essay Locke and Hobbes both had detailed accounts as to what the state of nature is. I will start with Hobbes and what he felt the state of nature is made up of. Hobbes believed in defining the state of nature as what it is instead of what it ought to be. So he focused in on the nature of people and came to a very descriptive conclusion as to how survive in this particular state of nature. He stated that man was equal in ambition, cruelty, and treachery, which in turn makes humans equal in the ability to kill each other. This is important because he believes that people can not live in peace in the state of nature because of those reasons. Also because of this he states that there are three principals of quarrels; competition, diffidence, and glory. Hobbes feels that because of human nature these three reasons to fight would take over and make the state of nature a state of war. Locke also has an opinion to the state of nature. He feels that men would respond to things and people around them with reason and rationality. Therefore he feels that a state of nature for the most part peaceful and pleasant. He also states that the natural law would guide humans in a state of nature. He thinks that people know right from wrong and are capable of doing both but it is upon the individual to carry out these values. In order to deal with the state of nature each of the two suggests a social contract. Whatever the contract is should be the obligations placed upon the people. They both believe in this particular agreement they just differ as to who it should be between. Hobbes speaks of the Leviathan and believes that the contract should be between the ruled and the ruler. He states that a strong ruler is the only way to enforce the social contract. He says that all me are born with three rights: the right to property, liberty, and life. He believes that the only important right is the right to life because without that right you cannot have a chance to enjoy the other two. So his contract consists of the subjects giving up the other two to the leviathan so that he can ensure the right to life. Lockes social contract differs in many ways. One of them is Locke does not believe that individuals should not give up liberty, but instead give up the right to punish people who commit wrongdoings and leave that up to a overwhelming force, in this case the popular sovereignty. His belief of the state of nature which is that man would use their reasoning and be rational when dealing with other people. So his contract is between the elected and the people. Locke and Hobbes social contract may be different but in ways they are similar. They both believe in revolt if the contract is broken, but they state it differently. Hobbes believes in the monarch so the revolt against him would be different then Lockes society of popular sovereignty, but in short it both of them called for persecution in such case. Still the case that called for persecution would naturally be different because of the different types of governments these men called for. For example Locke says it is time to revolt when a ruler tries to get absolute power of the people; but Hobbes states that the leviathan needs to have absolute power and the only time to revolt is if the monarch is not able to protect the people he rules over. Hobbes explains the relationship between the subjects and ruler as do what you told and you will not be killed. This means that these people could not say anything about the way the sovereign is running the kingdom or you are subject to death. This is so in the way Hobbes looked at it because the only way to control the people is a state strong enough to persecute someone for this particular reason. The monarch that Hobbes feels is the only way to govern should not be questioned by anyone as so long he is able to protect the people of the land. Lockes view of the relationship is really different. Based on the concept of popular sovereignty the sovereign are the people; so the relationship is more give and take or democratic. This is a very important concept to Lockes ideas because this is what differs him the most from Hobbes. His democracy is broken down into three branches; executive, legislative, and federal. The elected officials in these positions are an extension of the people so the people who make up the state serves the people until the people are tired of them. What Hobbes and Locke say about people moving into a political society from a state of nature is pretty similar and all most the same. Both say that contracts between people were necessary, but the dilemma in that is that in a state of nature there is no one to enforce the contracts between people. Both of them thought about this concept and figured that in order to move in to a political society someone was needed to enforce these contracts. Hobbes believes that the only one strong enough to force contracts is the monarch. Locke believes the same thing about someone being strong enough to force the contracts but he thinks it should be the elected doing so. Lockes two treatises limited sovereignty more so than it has before. Locke called for a separation of powers. He broke it down into three sections and combined it with the popular sovereignty; therefore the many limitations were in place. I believe Locke included this idea into is first and second treatise because he wanted to not allow the abuse of power that is so evident in a monarchy. This is important because this is what our American system of democracy is based upon. Hobbes system of government there is very little limitation. The only limitation I can see is when the monarch does not provide for the security of the people and they revolt. Though that limitation is called upon by Hobbes the rest of the terms of the monarch have no limitations. The monarch is the ruler and no one can go against him because he is the divine and going against him is going against god. So the limitations of a monarch are pretty much is inexistent in Hobbess the Leviathan. The rights of the subjects according to Hobbes are the right to live and that is it. The other rights now belong to the Leviathan; this is needed according to Hobbes to ensure security. A monarch that gives too many rights to the people is too weak to defend them. This is so because if the monarch is questioned a lot it takes away the fear of the ruler. Hobbes says that fear is needed to keep the people in check. Therefore a sovereign must practice a policy known as shock and awe. Without this strategy someone would feel that they might be able to challenge the monarch. So rights that the subjects hold on the sovereign are limited to the right to revolt if the monarch fails to protect them. Locke thinks that people should hold more rights to the elected. The subjects have the right to put people in the state and take them out. Locke gives people the right to liberty and property. This is different from Hobbes because Hobbes said to give those rights up. Locke says that you can have rights that Hobbes said would not work in transforming into a political society. Hobbes says that subjects cannot ensure that the sovereign roles for the greater good. Because if they are alive it is the greater good according to Hobbes; so what can they do to ensure that the ruler is operating for the greater good? According to Hobbes nothing because you can not go against the Leviathan on how he is ruling, and to do so can result in you getting killed. So once again the subject has very little to say in the Hobbes ideology. Locke also has a conflicting view with Hobbes on this ability to check the sovereign to make sure he is operating for the good of the people. The main thing that allows them to ensure what the government doing is right is the ability bring charges against any wrongdoings. This is powerful because it does not only kick those people out of office but also brings persecution to them. Another powerful way to make sure government is doing the right thing is the ability to vote or not to vote for people who make up the state. Both Locke and Hobbes are modern political philosophers with different ways of reaching the same objective. Their objective is to transform a state of nature into a political society. Though they disagree on what a state of nature is and they disagree on which is the better political society, but both were apparently right. This is so because both of the philosophies can be applied to life today, which is in a whole different context of their time.

Organic Food Research Essay Example for Free

Organic Food Research Essay When it comes to the food that you put on the dinner table, it is extremely important to understand how the food is grown and how nutritious it is. Some foods are grown using synthetic fertilizers, while others are grown using natural fertilizers. There are foods that are grown using chemical weed killers, while other foods are grown using crop rotation and mulch to help control weeds. You can buy meat that has been raised with antibiotics, growth hormones, and medications. On the other hand there is meat that has been raised using more humane methods. These animals are fed an organic diet as well as given access to the outdoors and raised in cleaner housing to help reduce disease. Organic foods are healthier because they use fewer preservatives and chemicals; therefore they are extremely important in the growth and development of your family. Every parent wants to put the best food on the table for their family. However, it takes an amazing amount of resources and is costly to our planet. The way that food is farmed has changed more over the past fifty years than it did in the previous ten thousand years (Kenner Kenner, 2008). The industrialization of our society has forever changed the way farmers grow crops and raise livestock. Farmers are using man-made chemical fertilizers and pesticides to control their crops. While you may think that the beautiful fruits and vegetables in the local supermarket’s produce section are impressive, it might surprise your what you are putting in your body. There are not seasonal fruits and vegetables any more in the supermarket. Tomatoes are picked green from half way around the world and ripened with ethylene gas during shipment (Kenner Kenner, 2008). It’s astonishing how many chemicals a farmer uses to grow their crop. The average apple has been subjected to twenty-seven chemicals and the average peach has twenty-two chemicals used throughout its growth cycle (Juad Juad, 2008). What is surprising is that when tested, a conventional piece of fruit or vegetable has positive results for lead and pesticides (Juad Juad, 2008). When it comes to the livestock that we are consuming, it used to take a farmer nearly three months to raise a chicken. Tyson has perfected this science with the help of growth hormones and antibiotics. They are now are able to raise a chicken that is three times as large in less than half of the time (Kenner Kenner, 2008). The cattle farmer is now raising their cattle on mainly corn feed and antibiotics (Kenner Kenner, 2008). According to Kenner Kenner (2008), farmers now have to use so many antibiotics mainly due to the fact that the livestock is being raised in a manner that was not intended. Cattle are not supposed to eat an all corn diet and chickens are not supposed to be raised in a chicken house without ever seeing daylight until they are on the truck to be processed (Kenner Kenner, 2008). There are more humane ways of raising livestock and it makes for a much healthier meal at the dinner table. It is simply amazing how far food travels to make it to your local supermarket. On average, food travels over fifteen hundred miles from the time it leaves the farm until it reaches its final destination (Kenner Kenner, 2008). Another amazing statistic is that the transportation of our nutrition accounts for nearly thirty percent of global warming (Juad Juad, 2008). This is because there are only a few multi-national organizations that actually control the industrial food chain. It might be surprising to find out that the largest purchaser of ground beef and potatoes in the United States is McDonald’s (Kenner Kenner, 2008). They are also one of the largest purchasers of pork, chicken, and apples as well (Kenner Kenner, 2008). The largest producer of chicken in the world is Tyson (Kenner Kenner, 2008). The side effects of these monopolies is that you, the consumer, get what the few powerhouse food corporations want you to have and you are left with very few choices. All of these amazing changes would not be possible without modern science. One of the biggest players behind the scenes and the supplier of the herbicides and pesticides is an organization by the name of Monsanto. Over the past few decades, Monsanto has had several groundbreaking developments in the area GMO’s or genetically modified organisms (Kenner Kenner, 2008). Over seventy percent of the items in the local supermarket contain one form of GMO (Kenner Kenner, 2008). There are several unintended side effects to all of these chemicals being used to grow our food. One is that the soil that farmers are using is literally being killed (Juad Juad, 2008). The outcome is that the farmers are becoming more and more dependent on the chemicals to produce food (Juad Juad, 2008). Another environmental issue is that a percentage of this chemical ends up in the water supply and it is simply impossible from preventing this from happening (Juad Juad, 2008). The amount of chemicals that are finding there way into our food is simply amazing. There are health side effects from all of the growth hormones, chemicals, and genetically modified organisms. Studies show that the current generation is the first in history that is predicted to live a shorter life than their parents (Kenner Kenner, 2008). Cases of obesity and diabetes have tripled in the past two decades (Juad Juad, 2008). Type-two diabetes used to be only found in adults in the previous generation and now we are seeing it in our children (Juad Juad, 2008). In Europe, seventy percent of cancers have been linked to the environment (Juad Juad, 2008). When that seventy percent is broken down, thirty percent is linked to pollution and forty percent are linked to the food (Juad Juad, 2008). Also, 100,000 children every year die from diseases caused by the environment (Juad Juad, 2008). If that is not amazing enough, cancer in males has increased ninety-three percent over the past twenty-five years and their sperm count has decreased fifty percent over the past fifty years (Juad Juad, 2008). Top that with the fact that cancer in children has increased one percent a year for the past twenty-five years (Juad Juad, 2008). There are studies that show that fifty percent of all cancers worldwide are linked to the environment and that in certain cancers that ninety percent of the cause is the environment (Juad Juad, 2008). It does not take a Doctor to figure out that all of these chemicals are making their way into our food and they are extremely bad for us. With all of these overwhelming statistics, there is hope for the food that we are eating. According to Duram (2008), â€Å"Agriculture is a highly effective means of converting solar energy into food and fiber. Given sufficient water, and properly managed, the system can operate provided with nothing more than sunshine. But modern agriculture technology has disrupted this efficient relationship. † Thankfully, there are still farmers out there that believe in the organic way of raising their crops and livestock. â€Å"Products must be at least 95 percent organic to use this term† (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2011). Organic farmers are supplying local restaurants and families through their local farmers market (Siegel Taylor, 2008). They control weeds and disease within their farm with crop rotation and treat their livestock in a humane manner. According to Danford (2010), â€Å"mainstreaming of eating locally and organically grown fresh food is almost complete. † The demand for organic food is growing at a rate of twenty percent annually and the major food organizations have taken notice (Danford, 2010). â€Å"For the past fifteen years large multinational food corporations have been buying up organic producers of food in an effort to enter the profitable niche market† (Hauter, 2012). The Demand is extremely obvious and that is why major food corporations are jumping on the bandwagon. In summary, there are two ways to put food on the table. A consumer can purchase conventionally grown food or they can purchase locally grown organic food. Organic foods use only natural fertilizers, mulch, and crop rotation while traditional foods use synthetic fertilizers and pesticides to control disease. There have been numerous studies that link multiple health issues to our food and the environment that it is grown in. As a consumer, society has a choice of how to put food on their dinner table and the smart choice is to choose organic. References: Danford, N. (2010). Vegetable vs. Meat, And Everything in Between. Publishers Weekly, 257(9), 19-26. Duram, L. A. (2005). Good Growing: Why Organic Farming Works. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. HAUTER, W. (2012). BIG ORGANIC. Boston Review, 37(6), 5. Juad, J. (Producer) Juad, J. (Director). (2008) Food Beware [Motion Picture]. France: CTV International Kenner, R. (Producer) Kenner, R. (Director). (2008). Food Inc. [Motion picture]. United States: Participant Media Mayo Clinic Staff (2011) Organic Foods: Are they Safer? More Nutritious? Retrieved on May 5, 2013 from http://www. mayoclinic. com/health/organic-food/NU00255 Siegel, A. , Taylor, C. (Producers), Taylor, C. (Director). (2008). Food Fight [Motion picture]. United States: Positively 25th Street.

Ethical Issues In Contractors Tendering Practices Construction Essay

Ethical Issues In Contractors Tendering Practices Construction Essay Ethics examine the morality of human conduct; it studies the basic principles of moral behaviour and is concern with the right or wrong of human behaviour. Every rational human being has an idea of what it is for something to be right or wrong, although sometimes it is difficult to evaluate what is wrong or right depending on the circumstance of such action (Etim, 1999). Business ethics is therefore a collection of moral principles or a set of values dealing with what is right or wrong, good or bad in business transactions. Such sets of values are being shared within the business community as well as the society as a whole. Moral ideas are considered to be inappropriate for everyday business dealings and some actions are disregarded due to the strong desire to make profit. Some have argued that ethics and business do not mix, and that the two are in direct conflict with each other. In fact, it has been said that companies that are truly ethical are going out of existence. Construction contracts can be obtained by negotiation or by competitive tendering (Shash, 1993; Ashworth, 2001). In competitive tendering, an owner invites a selected number of contractors to compete for the project. This method of tendering is considered as the most common means by which building and engineering contracting firms obtain works, and the dominant mechanism for allocating construction contracts (Ward, 1979; Yusif and Odeyinka, 2000; Ashworth, 2001; Hiyassat, 2001; Harris and McCaffer, 2001; Shen et al, 2004). The business of tendering for construction contracts has a large ethical component. Ethical principles in tendering are formally prescribed in the codes of conduct related to tendering process. The codes are designed to delegate responsibilities to both competing contractors and the client and to minimize the potentials for unethical practices. This work intends to examine cover pricing, collusive tendering and rate loading among other unethical practices which construction contractors sometimes engage in during tendering. Cover pricing in construction tendering Fu, Drew and Lo (2004) observe that contractors tendering behaviour is subject to their winning intent. It is however known that winning may not be the only objective in tendering. Although the tendering codes stipulates that tenderers shall only bid where they intend to carry out the work if successful, some contractors for some reasons sometime decide to submit tenders based on cover-price. Cover prices are tender prices which have been provided at rates specifically designed to lose the tender but which may appear to be competitive. Despite attempts to prevent this practice, several instances of cover pricing sometimes called non-serious tenders have been reported. When a contractor with a reasonable workload receives a set of tender documents from a reputable client and consulting organizations, the contractor has to decide what to do: first whether to do nothing, to return the tender documents or to submit a tender. A tender may be submitted in one of three ways: by obtaining a cover price, by preparing a tender based on accurate estimate, and by preparing a tender based on approximate estimate. The option to do nothing is not considered suitable due to the potential harm such a course of action might cause to the reputation of the contractor with the client, consultants and their business contacts. Also the option of returning the tender documents may be perceived by the contractor as unsatisfactory because it might mean exclusion from future tender list, although this should not be the case according to the code of procedure for tendering. Some reasons for the issuing of cover price by contractors to include: little interest in the contract; lack of resources to competently complete the work; shortage of time to compile tender; desire to remain considered for future contracts; and little chance of winning due to the large number competing contractors for the same contract. It is reported in Skitmore and Runeson (1999) that clients often give the perception that a failure to tender will prejudice a contracting firm in the future tendering exercise, and the consequence of this is the so called cover price which cannot easily be distinguished from a genuine competitive tender. Also, Runeson (1988) remarks that some tenders are based on cover prices not intended to win the contract and therefore above the expected price, and submitted to recover deposit moneys or to keep faith with the client or consultants. However, Lowe and Parvar (2004) provide a different perspective to cover pricing. They submit that tendering options available to a contractor are simply acceptance or rejection of the tendering opportunity, although, rejection does not mean that the contractor does not submit a tender. Unsatisfactory past experience with a particular client or consultants regarding personality or payment, high cost of tendering and inadequate information often resulted in inflation of the tender price (cover price) rather than a refusal to tender. Cover price can ruin the competitiveness of a tendering process and can also lead to collusion among tendering contractors. However, despite its unethical nature and illegality in some countries, there are some arguments in its favour. The shortage of time to compile a bona fide tender could compel a contractor to submit tenders based on cover price. The recognition of this fact may have prompted the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS) in its Code of Procedure for Competitive Tender to state that: time allowed for completion of tender should relate to the scope of project. Adequate tendering time allows tenderers to obtain competitive quotations and thus, ensure the return of most competitive prices with least mistakes (Clause 4.2.1) Lowe and Parvar (2004) believe that only few contractors will actually decline an invitation to tender. However, it appears that contractors react differently to the perceived fear that the option of returning tender documents might exclude them from clientsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ future tender process The report of a survey of some Nigerian building contractors indicate that when they receive a set of tender documents at a time their firms have a reasonable workload, they return the tender documents to the clients or their representatives with an apology for their firmsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ inability to tender. Only a few contractors admit to engaging in the practice of cover pricing. Contractors who admit to using cover pricing in tendering reveal that their action is mostly driven by little or no interest in the contract under consideration and the desire to remain considered for future contracts and tendering process. Some contractors cited other reasons such as the personality of the cl ient, risk and unpredictability of the construction period as well as heavy workload as some reasons why cover pricing may be an option for their firms. Whether or not a cover price is provided with good intention, the fact remains that it results in lessening real competition of tenders. Collusion in Tendering Chen et al (2005) submit that one purpose of the standard tendering procedures is to reduce potential for collusion and manipulation of pricing. According to Ray et al (1999), collusion is a method of pricing control by contractors to substantially lessen competition. Collusive tendering occurs where several contractors have been invited to tender and the contractors agree among themselves either not to tender, or to tender in such a manner as not to be competitive with the other contractors. It has the effect of substantially lessening competition. The main reasons for this practice among contractors are that it provides: an even distribution of construction work for all the contractors involved a means of entering what is an apparently bona fide tender a means for discussion and agreement over illicit profit making such as amounts for cover price, and unsuccessful tendering fee. The practice, or possibilities for the practice of collusion is a factor among several other issues related to ethical tendering, and it is contrary to the ideals of competition. It only benefits those parties to the agreement at the expense of those outside, including clients and other contractors. Sheldon cited in Ray et al (1999), while examining collusion in the UK, holds that collusion agreement are seen as an attractive means of maintaining a steady flow of work and achieving higher, risk-adjusted, discounted profit. The tender codes of some countries clearly prohibit unethical practices such as collusion on tenders, inflation of prices to compensate unsuccessful tenderers or any such secret arrangements. The very fact that tendering contractors communicate with each other can be taken to be a form of collusive behaviour under competitive tendering process. Though, little evidence of collusive tendering seems to be available in Nigeria construction industry, it is pertinent for industry practitioners and clients to be aware of the possibility of such unethical practice. Rate loading Usually, a construction tender is priced in such a way that the prices of each item comprise the cost of that item plus a uniform percentage allowed as profit and overheads. This is not always the case. Contractors may mark up the bill items by different percentages to create some element of rate-loading in order to create a favourable cash flow. Two aspects of rate loading are front-end loading and claims loading. Construction contracts only become self-financing towards the completion of the project. Therefore contractors are required to engage a considerable amount of their own capital in the execution of the work, at least in the early stage. In an attempt to minimize the involvement of their capital and make the project self-financing at an early stage, they resort to price manipulations. Items which the contractor expects to be executed early in the project have prices which contain a disproportionately large content of overheads and profits and items to be executed in the later stage of the project have their prices reduced accordingly to maintain competitiveness (Fellows et al, 2002). This pricing strategy in construction tenders is referred to as front-end loading. Due to the time-value of money, the situation further benefit contractors but place a cash flow burden and greater risk on clients. There is also the practice of claims loading where contractors insert higher profit margin into unit rates related to those work items which they expect to be increased through variation orders during the execution of the contract (Xu and Tiong, 2002). Conclusion Unethical tendering practices such as cover pricing, collusive tendering and rate loading have the potential of reducing real competition and eroding the benefits of competitive tendering. They can also place enormous financial burden on client. Construction consultants therefore have a duty to carefully examine tenders for construction contracts to identify any such practice and possibly caution or sanction contractors who may have engage in these practices.

The Pros and Cons of Abortion Essay -- Abortion Essays

The topic of abortion is one of the most controversial issues in today’s society. Thousands of abortions take place every single day, and yet public opinion remains at a standstill as to whether or not abortion is ethical or not. According to a poll in 2013, fifty-four percent of the American public believes that the practice of abortion should be legal in all or most cases (â€Å"Public Opinion on Abortion†) Abortion has been defined as â€Å"the act of removing a human embryo or fetus from the uterus of a pregnant woman prior to the completion of the full term of pregnancy†(Rich, Wagner, and Geraldine). There are very strong opinions for and against this issue, but no one can deny the vast gray area of abortion. A person’s stance on the situation is often determined by how he views the fetus: a part of the mother’s body or as a human being. Abortion continues to be a moral issue because people have various views on the rights of the fetus and mo ther, the circumstances of the pregnancy, and their own religious convictions concerning the issue. In the most recent study, 1.21 million abortions took place in the United States in the year 2008 (â€Å"About Abortion†). According to a study performed by the Guttmacher Institue, twenty-one percent of all pregnancies in the United States end in abortions (â€Å"Induced Abortion†). Fifty percent of pregnancies in the United States are unplanned (â€Å"Induced Abortion†). Of those unplanned pregnancies, four out of ten result in abortions (â€Å"Induced Abortion†). When analyzing the statistics of women who receive abortions, one must become aware that outside circumstances might contribute to a woman’s decision to have an abortion. For instance, women who are one hundred percent below the federal poverty level ac... ...rtion Federation: History of Abortion. National Abortion Federation, n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. "Public Opinion on Abortion." Public Opinion on Abortion. Pew Research Center, July 2013. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. Rich, Alex K. Wagner, Geraldine. "Abortion: An Overview." Points Of View: Abortion (2013): 1. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. Rubio, Marco. "Why Abortion is Bad for America." Human Life Review Winter 2012 2012: 19-26. ProQuest Health Management. Web. Voegeli Jr., William J. â€Å"A Critique of the Pro-Choice Argument† Review of Politics Vol. 43, no. 4 (Oct., 1981) , Pp. 560-571 Published by: Cambridge University Press for the University of Notre Dame Du Lac on Behalf of Review of Politics Stable Print. "World Abortion Laws 2009 Fact Sheet." Center for Reproductive Rights. Center for Reproductive Rights, 2013. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.

Alcohol and Drinking - Treatments for Alcoholism Essay -- Exploratory

Treatments for Alcoholism      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Where can alcoholics receive help? â€Å"Hospitals, psychiatric agencies, public-welfare departments, and social agencies, among others are often reluctant to provide care and treatment for problem drinkers† (Plaut, 53). Although it is difficult to help these problems drinkers, many people will give all they can to help these problem drinkers. â€Å"The provision of treatment to problem drinkers is complicated because they differ from one to another in so many ways† (Plaut, 33). Many different factors vary within problem drinkers. â€Å"Not only do their drinking patterns vary greatly, but also their physical health, psychological condition, and economic circumstances† (Plaut, 34). Problem drinkers have problems associated with alcohol and also many other difficulties in life not necessarily dealing with alcohol. â€Å"Therefore, in planning treatment services for problem drinkers, or in developing a treatment plan for an individual, it is n ecessary to take into account more than just the drinking; in fact, it may even be impossible to deal with the drinking behavior unless other problems are also tackled† (Plaut, 34). Since drinking can be related to other problems it is important to take everything into account when helping a problem drinker.    It is difficult to help problem drinkers with their alcohol problems and also their personal problems. â€Å"The goals of treatment for most conditions are the relief of symptoms and the restoration of health† (Plaut, 34). A complicated situation to understand is â€Å"the fact that few, if, any, problem drinkers will be able to return to â€Å"normal† social drinking† (Plaut, 34). Thus, â€Å"the term â€Å"cure† is usually avoided. Abstinence, or at least altering the patients drink... ...n the other hand,    the major weaknesses are the failure to provide real treatment for substantial proportion of patients having at least an initial contact with the clinic; the lack of experimentation to develop new approaches for working with the less verbal, lower-class patient; the continouing isolation from other agencies- particularly general psychiatric services, mental hospitals, and medical detoxification facilities; and the lack of relationships with basic professional training institutions (Plaut, 79).    Outpatient care, such as alcoholism clinics can help problem drinkers with their problems and help them to live a new lifestyle.       Works Cited: Plaut, Thomas, Alcohol Problems 1967, Oxford University Press Mendelson, Jack and Mello, Nancy, Alcohol Use and Abuse in America 1985 by Bio-Behavioral Reaserch Corporation

Tale Of Two Cities :: History

Tale Of Two Cities â€Å"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,† Dickens writes in the opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities as he paints a picture of life in England and France. The year is late 1775, and Jarvis Lorry travels from London to Paris on a secret mission for his employer, Tellson’s Bank. Joining him on his journey is Lucie Manette, a 17-year-old woman who is stunned to learn that her father, Doctor Alexandre Manette, is alive and has recently been released after having been secretly imprisoned in Paris for 18 years. When Mr. Lorry and Lucie arrive in Paris, they find the Doctor’s former servant, Ernest Defarge, caring for the him. Defarge now runs a wine-shop with his wife in the poverty-stricken quarter of Saint Antoine. Defarge takes Mr. Lorry and Lucie to the garret room where he is keeping Doctor Manette, warning them that the Doctor’s years in prison have greatly changed him. Thin and pale, Doctor Manette sits at a shoemaker’s bench intently making shoes. He barely responds to questions from Defarge and Mr. Lorry, but when Lucie approaches him, he remembers his wife and begins to weep. Lucie comforts him, and that night Mr. Lorry and Lucie take him to England. Five years later, the porter for Tellson’s Bank, Jerry Cruncher, takes a message to Mr. Lorry who is at a courthouse. Mr. Lorry has been called as a witness for the trial of Charles Darnay, a Frenchman accused of being a spy for France and the United States. Also at the trial are Doctor Manette and Lucie, who are witnesses for the prosecution. Doctor Manette has fully recovered and has formed a close bond with his daughter. If found guilty of treason, Darnay will suffer a gruesome death, and the testimony of an acquaintance, John Barsad, and a former servant, Roger Cly, seems sure to result in a guilty verdict. Questions from Darnay’s attorney, Mr. Stryver, indicate that Cly and Barsad are the real spies, but the turning point in the trial occurs when Sydney Carton, Stryver’s assistant, points out that Carton and Darnay look alike enough to be doubles. This revelation throws into doubt a positive identification of Darnay as the person seen passing secrets, and the court acquits Darnay. After the trial, Darnay, Carton, and Stryver begin spending time at the Manette home, obviously attracted to Lucie’s beauty and kind nature.

The Craft Era

The first major era is now referred to as ‘craft’ manufacturing and service ‘shop’ delivery. This system was European in origin and linked to the way in which skills were developed: the apprentice–journeyman– master progression, which led to the creation of guilds of skilled people who sought to control the supply of their speciality, and the consolidation of skill within a subsector of society (as, for example, skills were passed on from father to son). This was noted for low-volume, high-variety products, where workers tended to be highly skilled and quality was built into the very process of operations. It was also appropriate for largely national markets, supplied internally with minimal imports and exports. Some craft manufacturing still remains today, in markets where exotic products and services can control demands through some unique feature or high level of desirability. For instance, some house building, furniture making, clock and watch making are still carried out by skilled craftsmen/women working on a single or few items of output at a time. While the processes and techniques used by these craftsmen/women are highly inefficient, the unique quality of their products commands a premium price, as illustrated by the secondhand value of products such as a Daniels pocket watch or a Morgan car. In the case of Morgan, however, it is a mistake to conclude that the passenger car industry might still be able to employ craft production. Morgan is unashamedly part of a sector that is closer to specialist toys than that concerned with personal transportation. It is also the end of a very thin tail, other parts of which (AC, Aston Martin, Rolls Royce, etc. have already been absorbed by volume producers, keen to operate in exotic niches for purposes that are closer to corporate advertising than to income generation. In the clothing industry, one significant sector of the industry – haute couture – is based on the craft production approach. In services, the craft era has also continued – perhaps even more so than in manufacturing. The slower pace of change within services derives from the extent to which customer processing operations can adopt new technologies and new systems. Only services that require little skill at the operating level (such as FMCG or petrol retailing) or processing large amounts of information (such as financial services) are significantly different now from what they were like even 30 years ago. Many services such as hotels, schools, hospitals, hairdressers, vehicle repair and transportation have changed very little, despite new technologies. The mass production era The second major era is known as mass production, although once again its principles were by no means restricted to manufacturing. This system grew in North America to accommodate three principal requirements of the developing giant: the need to export, the need to provide employment for a massive, largely unskilled workforce, and the need to establish itself as a world player, which meant infiltrating other regions with ideas clearly associated with the USA. In short, the Americans could not play by the European rules, so they reinvented the game: innovating by destroying the competitive position of craft production. The system was massively successful and changed the working and buying practices of the world in the first three decades of the twentieth century. In order to sell the standardized products made by standardized operations practices, mass production had to standardize the market requirements too. Fortunately, the market was immature and would do what it was told to do. Thus, mass production reversed the paradigm of craft production: volume was high with little variety. The marketing ploy (and the resultant manufacturing strategy) was exemplified by Henry Ford’s famous declaration, from now on, ‘a customer can have a car painted any colour he likes, as long as it is black! ’ In mass production, workers were typically unskilled. This was the era owing much to the contribution of F. W. Taylor’s Scientific Management, whereby workers had very narrowly defined jobs, involving repetitive tasks, and quality was left to ‘quality experts’ at the final stage of the overall process rather than being an integral part of operations at each step (Taylor, 1912). Taylor enabled firms, for the first time, to control costs, times and resources, rather than rely on skilled craftsmen and women to decide what was appropriate. Coupled with the developments made in mechanization and employee co-ordination during the European industrial revolutions, Taylor’s ideas provided an entirely different way of operating. In 1926, Encyclopaedia Britannica asked Henry Ford to christen his system and he called it mass production. He meant ‘mass’ in the sense of large volume production. Perhaps he did not see the other meaning of mass as ‘heavy and cumbersome’, which is what the system turned out to be (in terms of management systems and superstructure), once the market no longer bought what it was told. These principles originating in the 1920s were slow to be adopted in services, but by the 1970s, Ted Levitt, from Harvard Business School, was able to identify the ‘production-lining’ (Levitt, 1972) of service and the ‘industrialization’ (Levitt, 1976) of service. He cited fast food, the automatic teller machine (ATM) outside banks and supermarket retailing as examples of this. Schmenner (1986) coined the phrase ‘mass service’ to exemplify this type of service operation. More recently, the aspects of working life that are typical in this mass production context have been extended to life in general by Ritzer (1993), who refers to it as the McDonaldization of society. The shift from ‘craft’ marketing to marketing in the mass production age is clearly demarcated by the publication of Levitt’s (1960) article in the Harvard Business Review entitled ‘Marketing myopia’. In mass production, customers bought what was supplied; producers concentrated on keeping costs, and hence prices, down, and focused on selling to customers through aggressive advertising and sales forces. As organizations were product-led, operations management was relatively straightforward. Mass producing goods at the lowest cost meant minimizing component and product variety, large production runs and scientific management. The success of Ford made this view highly persuasive. In 1909, the Model T automobiles were sold for $950, but by 1916, following the introduction of the assembly line, it had fallen to $345, and three-quarters of the cars on American roads were built by Ford (Bryson, 1994). However, as Levitt (1960) pointed out, Ford was eventually outstripped by General Motors, who were not product-led but market-led. They gave customers what they wanted – choice, model updates, a range of colours (not just black! ). The symbol of this age is the brand. Originally (in the craft era) the brand was a mark on the product, often a signature – for example, on a painting – or symbol, signifying its ownership or origin. But in mass production the brand took on far more significance. It became the means by which one product (or service) could differentiate itself from a competitor’s product (or service). Procter & Gamble set up brand managers in 1931 to sell their different soap products. Later the brand also became a guarantee of product/service quality. Kemmons Wilson’s motivation in 1952 to open the first Holiday Inn hotel was his own disappointment with the ariable standards and sleaziness of the motels he stayed in whilst on a family holiday. The success of delivering a consistently standard level of service resulted in Wilson opening one hotel every two and half days in the mid-1950s. But by the 1990s, brands had come under threat. Markets are highly fragmented, the proliferation of niches makes target marketing more difficult, product and service life cycles are shortening, and product/service innovation is quicker than ever before; increasing customer sophistication has reduced the power of advertising. As a result, a more holistic view of operations management is required, as Crainer (1998) suggests: Companies must add value throughout every single process they are involved in and then translate this into better value for customers. This is because the modern era has brought profound changes in operations management and operations has to be at the heart of successful strategic thinking.