Critical Analysis of Pharm.D in India Essay

SUMMARY Critical Analysis of Pharm.D. in India: Exploring the Way Ahead INTRODUCTION: Pharmacy education in India was mainly focused on pharmaceutical science courses rather than clinical/pharmacotherapeutic courses until 2008, when Pharm.D. was introduced and began to be offered in India, to focus towards clinical and community aspects. The study was conducted to analyse the current scenario of Pharm.D. in India and look at possible issues & options. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of the study is to find out the current status of Pharm.D. from students’ perspective and to identify the need of Pharm.D. as a part of Pharmacy Education System in India. Addressing the possible shortcomings and give probable suggestions to improve the scope of the same. EXPERIMENTAL METHOD: The study comprises of an extensive secondary research and also a primary research to understand the current scenario of Pharm.D. from students’ point of view. A literature survey was done to study the introduction and status of Pharm.D. curriculum in India and the achievement of Pharm.D. in western countries. Various journals and publications from the database engines of Ebsco, Emerald & Google Scholar were studied and referred to analyse the evolution and future of Pharm.D. Also, a primary research was conducted in Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manipal University, Karnataka. The selection of survey location (MCOPS) was done on the basis of a combined list from ‘India’s Best Pharma Colleges’ (Careers 360 July 2011 Edition) and ‘Institutes offering Pharm.D. and Pharm.D. (Post Baccalaureate) Courses’ (Published by Pharmacy Council of India). A questionnaire was made on a 5 point Likert Scale and circulated online amongst the students of MCOPS. The responses were analysed by using the online softwares of Survey Monkey survey portal. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS: Out of 130 respondents to the survey, a total of 109(83.83%) respondents said that the curriculum of Pharm.D in India is justifiable for healthcare sector and 97 (74.61%) said that the internship of Pharm.D students meets the requirements of the hospitals/Clinical Research Organisation. 24 responses (18.46%) opposed the opinion of providing the prescribing rights to the Pharm.D. graduates and 69(37.69%) voiced that such a right, if provided, will not be accepted by the doctor community. Figure 1 is indicative of the above stated data. FIGURE 1 Closed ended questions were put to investigate the probable reason(s) for Pharm.D. lagging in India from the west. 115 responders (n=130) said that the Pharm.D. graduates will not be accepted by the Doctors’ Community. 112 responders said that the exposure to clinical pharmacy was less and 117 were pessimistic about the awareness on pharmacy profession in India. The interpretation of the survey results shows that one of the probable reasons of selection of Pharm.D. course by students was the alluring tag of a ‘Doctor’. However, the critical analyses lead to a consensus of lack of required clinical exposure and knowledge of the field of diagnosis and therapeutics. If the Pharm.D. program can incorporate a few alterations in the curriculum and develop a practice-based academic unit bridging the pharmacy practice with academia, there is great hope for the Pharm.D. program in India. CONCLUSION: The findings of the survey revealed that the exposure of the Pharm.D. students to the clinical and diagnostic aspect of the therapeutic system needs to be increased. Efforts need to be put in to increase the awareness of Pharm.D., and also the Pharmacy profession in India on the whole. BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Subal C Basak, Dondeti Sathyanarayana. Pharmacy Education in India. Am J Pharm Educ. 2010 May 12; 74(4): 68. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2879119/ (Accessed on-September 8, 2012) 2. Patil JS, Kulkarni RV, Marapur SC, Dalavi VV. Introducing Pharm.D. Programme in India: A Need of the Day. Indian J. of Pharm. Pract. 2(3), Jul-Sep, 2009. Available from: http://www.ijopp.org/pdf/ijopp_vol_2_3_Jul-Sep2009.pdf#page=13 (Accessed on-September 5, 2012) 3. Claire Anderson, Billy Futter. Pharm.D. or Needs Based Education: Which Comes First?. Am J Pharm Educ. 2009 August 28; 73(5): 92. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2739075/ (Accessed on-September 12, 2012)

Reflective cycle Essay

I will reflect on an incident that occurred during my shift to develop positive attitude towards nursing informatics. In this reflection, I am going to use Gibbs (1988) Reflective cycle. This model is a recognized framework for my reflection. Gibbs (1988) consist of six stages to complete one cycle which is able to improve my nursing informatics and learning from the experience for better practice in future. The cycle starts with description of the situation, analysis of the feelings, evaluation of experience, analysis to make sense of experience, and conclusion of what else I could have done and also action plan to prepare if the situation arose again. However, Siviter (2004) explains that reflection is about gaining self confidence ,identify when to improve, learning from own mistakes and behavior, looking at other people perspectives, being self aware and improving the future by learning from the past. In my context with the patients, it is important that the nurse incorporates nursing informatics to improve health care delivery. However Hebda and Czar (2009) defines nursing informatics as the use of information and computer technology to support all aspects of nursing practice, including direct delivery of care ,administration, education and research. Nursing informatics involves the use of computer based information system which according to Stair and Reynolds (2008,pg 4) is defined as a set of interrelated components that collect ,manipulate, store and disseminate data and information and provide a feedback mechanism to meet an objective. Description I had just reported from the four months maternity leave and during the shift changeover, I was informed by my colleagues of the new method of requesting for investigations online and that I was to see the team leader to take me through the process. I heard my colleagues discuss a lot on how the new system was consuming their time and since it had been made a hospital policy they had no choice than to adhere to it. This did not sound interesting to me as I did not even have computer literacy and wondered why the institution had changed the system. I shied off from seeking help from my team leader since I did not want to be embarrassed for not being a computer literate. I decided that I am going to use the old method and when I am asked,I will defend myself and say that I did not know about it. Unfortunately, the team leader did not realize that I had just reported from long leave and needed updates or maybe she waited for me to take an initiative to seek for updates from her as it always happens when one comes back from long leave which did not happen. During the doctor’s rounds, one of my patients had some request for investigations and because the phlebotomy rounds had already taken place, one of the doctors obtained the blood from the patient and left for me to charge and send it to the laboratory. I decided to give the health care assistant the specimen to take to the laboratory hoping that the laboratory technicians would charge it as they had always done before the introduction of the new system. During the exit round, the doctor inquired on the report and when I called the lab they said that I was supposed to check from the computer. Since I did not have any computer literacy, I pretended that I was checking but the doctor got impatient and decided to check by himself. On checking, the doctor found that the specimen was never charged and so could not access the report. On calling the laboratory technician, it was reported to the doctor that the specimen was discarded because it was assumed to be a reject since they had not found the details online. The doctor got so upset with me and insisted that I should explain to the patient what happened so that he could obtain more specimen. I got so confused because I didn’t have the exact words to tell to the patient. I then gathered courage and told the patient that the specimen obtained earlier was not enough for the investigations requested and that we needed to obtain more specimen.at first, the patient could not understand but after a second thought, she gave the consent and the specimen was obtained. This time round the doctor lost trust in me and decided to charge by himself and gave a health care assistant to take the specimen to the laboratory. Feelings On reflection of the incident, I felt so embarrassed because such things are not supposed to happen to a senior nurse who is supposed to be giving guidance to the junior nurses. I also felt irresponsible for not seeking help from my colleques on charging the patient’s specimen and that I had not taken the initiative to see the team leader to give me the updates that occurred while I was away. I felt empathetic for the patient and blamed myself for not taking the proper action. I also felt at my level I needed to have computer literacy because that is what hindered me from seeking help. The American Nurses Association (2007) states that the experienced nurse builds up on the competencies required for practitioners using basic computer skills to information regarding the patient and has to be proficient in her/his area of specialization. The doctors, and other nurses felt upset for my action. Evaluation Good points. After the incident, it made me think of how I would have handled the situation and how important computer & information literacy is to me and other healthcare practitioners. Selvasekaran (2008) defines computer literate health care provider as that who has basic understanding of the computer hardware, common types of software and different ways in which software application can be used in patient care environment. Association of college and research libraries (2002) defines information literacy as the ability to recognize when information is needed as well as the skills to find, evaluate and use needed information effectively. Bad points. It was a shame that my negligence of seeking information led to the waste of patient’s specimen leading to waste of time in obtaining the results. It also caused more pain to the patient since the patient needed to be pricked again and this added extra stressors to the patient who was already stressed by her illness. The other bad point is that the laboratory technician discarded patient’s specimen instead of calling the ward for it to be charged. Analysis I wondered why the institution had changed from the old system of requesting for investigations, I then remembered that earlier I had read from a book on the importance/benefits of nursing informatics in a healthcare setup which included: †¢Improved access to information. †¢Error reduction & improved communication. †¢Decreased redundancy on data entry. †¢Convenience. †¢Decreased time spent in medication administration & documentation †¢Increased time for client care †¢Facilitation of data collection for research †¢Improved record security †¢Improved quality of care and patient satisfaction (Hebda and Czar 2009 pg 37). I then realized that the old method did not have the above qualities and so the institution opted for the new system. In this case there was ignorance of seeking information due to lack of computer and information literacy. Maybe I would have given the sample to my colleagues who were well informed to charge. I also could have called the laboratory technician and inform that the specimen had not been charged. It is good that I finally learnt from my my mistake and that the second sample drawn was charged and results acquired. However, having no computer literacy & information literacy does not make my action acceptable. Conclusion. My reflection of this event explores how important nursing informatics is in a healthcare set up and that all the healthcare providers should have knowledge on nursing informatics. The whole issue was embarrassing and I felt that instead of just sending the specimen and assuming that the lab technicians will charge, I would have given it to my colleagues to charge or inform the laboratory technician that I was not able to charge the specimen & hence helping them to take an appropriate decision instead of discarding it. Also instead of shying off from seeking the information on the new system from the team leader, I would have gained a little knowledge from my colleagues on how to operate the computer and then boldly proceed to the team leader for more information. This showed that I was not wise enough. According to American Nurses Association (2007) wisdom occurs when knowledge is used appropriately to manage and solve problems. Results from understanding and requires human effort. However, If I had availed myself for the information, this mess would not have happened. Action plan. In order to prevent the incident from happening again, it is important that when I come back from a long leave, I should take the initiative to seek for updates from my colleagues and also the team leader taking in account the sensitive issues like this one.I should also seek help from my colleagues of things that am not certain of so as to prevent unpleasant incidences from happening. The action I took after the incidence was to write an incident form so that others could learn from my mistake. I also sought the information on online investigation request from my colleagues and team leader and also enrolled in computer classes so that I could have enough knowledge on computer literacy since the information I got from my colleagues and team leader was so particular and only concerned requesting of investigations and obtaining reports.i also called laboratory technicians and informed them to always call the ward before discarding patients specimens. I have learnt that there can be many positive learning opportunities from the mistakes we make. Reflection can sometimes show your shortcomings and this can be an excuse not to reflect, but by taking negative incidences positively you can turn around & change yourself for the better. I am now computer and information literate. References: American Nurses Association. (2007). Scope and standards of nursing informatics practice.Washington: American Nurses. Association of College and Research Libraries. (2002). Information literacy competencestandards for higher education. Retrieved in November 18, 2002, fromhttp://www.ala.org/acrl/ilintro.html#ildef. Gibbs (1998). Learning by doing. A guide to teaching and learning methods. Further educatingunit. Oxford: Oxford polytechnic. Hebda, T., Czar, P. (2009). Handbook on informatics for nurses and healthcare professionals.(4th ed.) . Pearson: New Jersey. Selvasekaran, J. (2008). Essentials of computer for nurses. (2nd ed.). Mumbai: Jaypee brothers. Siviter, B. (2004). The student nurse handbook. Philadelphia: Baillere Tindall. Stair, R., Reynolds. (2008). Principles of information systems. (8th ed.).Boston: Thompsoncourse technology.

The Tragedy of Eritrean Refugees Caught Up in Libyan and Sinai desert, Essay

The Tragedy of Eritrean Refugees Caught Up in Libyan and Sinai desert, Egypt - Essay Example The direct cause of the current abysmal situation that is often summarised as the â€Å"Eritrean Refugee Crisis† might be traced to the turbulent events of the second half of the 20th century. At the end of the 19th century, Eritrea was colonized by Italians and was eventually turned into the base for the former’s colonial expansion into neighbouring Ethiopia and Sudan. After WWII, the United Nations decided to establish a union between Eritrea and Ethiopia, which came into being in 1952. However, virtual refusal of Ethiopian government to take the interests of Eritrean population into consideration brought about the beginning of a large-scale Liberation War, which lasted for almost thirty years. It is widely believed among Eritreans and non-Eritreans alike that these events and the failure of the international community to prevent Ethiopia from its abuse proved to be a root of the current suffering in Eritrea. In 1974, the Soviet Union became aligned with Ethiopia when a military junta overthrew the traditionalist autocratic regime of Emperor Haile Selassie. Soon, the war escalated when $11 billion in new arms from Moscow were delivered to Ethiopia’s government.

How Decisions on Customer Service will Impact on Influencing the Level Essay

How Decisions on Customer Service will Impact on Influencing the Level of Sales - Essay Example The research conducted will be quantitative and will additionally adopt quantitative methodologies. The research will be conducted at the headquarters of the Commercial Bank in Venice. Data will be collected from the first one hundred customers who visit the organization for the purposes of making purchases within a period of two months. This sample is appropriate since the organization receives about five hundred customers on a daily basis. It is also appropriate since it will enable the management to collect diverse opinions from many of their customers. The collection of data will be done through the use of interviews along with the issuing of questionnaires to the customers. The existing relationships between the causes and effects will then have to be established from the customer replies and the trends on the organization's sales and profitability. To determine how the management decision-making methods can affect the quality of customer service and whether or not a good custom er service leads to customer loyalty, a primary research survey study will be conducted on the customers and the books of accounts to test the hypothesis. Â  The dependent variables in the research are the organizations level of sales along with their profitability. The independent variable, in this case, will be the decisions made concerning customer service. The organization will recruit personnel from within the organization to analyze the effects of their decision-making methods on their sales volume and profitability.

Business Financial Analysis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Business Financial Analysis - Research Paper Example There are currently 1,396 IHOP restaurants in competition with restaurants like Denny's offering children menus and discounts for senior citizens serving low to moderate prices. Dine Equity Mission and core value is to become the number one franchiser in the restaurant industry while providing and exceptional customer service by committing to reducing overheads and optimizing on Applebee's and IHOP business. According to their last annual report their 1st quarter stock showed the highest closing price for 2008 and the 4th quarter stock showed the lowest closing price of 2008 compared to 2007 fiscal year highest closing price shown in the 3rd quarter and lowest closing price for 2007 shown in the 1st quarter. Also according to their 2008 annual report there are 5,300 registered holders as of February 17, 2009. In analyzing this company's profitability we will look at the company's return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), Gross profit margin, price earning ratio (PE), divided yield and divided payout ratio. The gross profit margin has declined from a high of 0.403636 in 2006 to 0.26885 in 2008, this indicates that the profitability of the company is declining over the years, this shows that in the next period the gross profit margin may decline. From the above table it is evident that the return on assets has been declining over the years, the value is negative for the year 2007 and ... cost of sales 1179811 303891 208465 gross profit 433817 180668 141095 gross profit margin 0.268845731 0.37285 0.403636 The gross profit margin has declined from a high of 0.403636 in 2006 to 0.26885 in 2008, this indicates that the profitability of the company is declining over the years, this shows that in the next period the gross profit margin may decline. b. Return on assets: Return on assets indicates the amount of profit generated for each dollar of assets. It is calculated by dividing net income by total assets: Return on assets = net income / total assets The following table summarizes the results: return on assets 2008 2007 2006 total income -154459 -480 44553 assets 3361217 3831162 768870 return on assets -0.045953296 -0.00013 0.057946 From the above table it is evident that the return on assets has been declining over the years, the value is negative for the year 2007 and 2008 meaning that the firm's profitability has declined and therefore expected to decline in the future. c. Return on equity: The return on equity ratio indicates the rate of return on shareholders equity. It is calculated by dividing net income by the value of share holder's equity. Return on equity= net income / equity The table below summarizes the results: return on equity 2008 2007 2006 total income -154459 -480 44553 equity 42767 209373 289213 return on equity -3.611639816 -0.00229 0.154049 From the above table it is evident that the return on equity has been declining over the years, the value is negative for the year 2007 and 2008 meaning that the returns on shareholders equity has declined and is expected to decline in future. d. Price earning ratio: This is another ratio that indicates the profitability of a company, it is a ratio that indicates the price paid by

Analysis of the American Cancer Society and General Motor Company Ltd Essay

Analysis of the American Cancer Society and General Motor Company Ltd - Essay Example   The American Cancer Society is mainly funded by donors, including the World Bank and various support groups. The World Bank is the society’s largest funder. The society also receives funds from the services that they offer to the cancer patients (Epstein, 2011). Other sources of funding for ACS include investment income, grants, and contributions from well-wishers. The operations of the organization are mainly run through volunteers drawn from all over the United States of America (American Cancer Society, 2011). The ACS is exempt from the taxpayer status, Form 990 of the year 2009 that the Society is a 501 (c) (3) organization which exempt from any tax obligations to the state. This status was granted in 2009 (American Cancer Society, 2011). Ethical issue The ACS, like all other organizations faces various challenges. One of the greatest challenges affecting ACS is self-interest. Investigations conducted on the ACS reveal that the Society has previously shown more interes t in profits than on cancer prevention. In 2005 the ACS estimated that at least 1.37 million new cases of cancer were diagnosed. However, it is alleged that instead of intensifying research on new methods for preventing and combating cancer, the Society focused more on profiting from cancer grants (Isaacs, 2010). For example, an Occupy Wall Street report alleges that the ACS has put a greater financial emphasis on radiation and chemotherapy research than on life-saving prevention methods. ACS faces allegations citing that has focused largely on conventional medication techniques for treating cancer instead of preventive techniques. The accusations also include discrediting physician research on cancer preventive techniques. As such the society is unethical for trying to make money out of the large numbers of cancer patients through chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which are considered unhealthy (Epstein, 2011). Causes One of the greatest causes of this situation stems from the ACSâ₠¬â„¢s culture of working with various stakeholders and particularly giving greater consideration to the views of the organization’s financial supporters (Epstein, 2011). The Society’s financial ties with the drug industry have skewed its policies regarding the environmental causes of cancer and the best approaches to managing it. This interest makes the fight against cancer difficult and has been linked to the increase in cancer deaths and incidences as sufficient preventive strategies have not been put in place because many drug companies discourage it (Isaacs, 2010). While the drug industry wants to make money selling therapeutic drugs and equipment, the ACS wishes to continue benefitting from the considerable financial support it gets from the organizations as well as profits from patient treatments. The other likely cause for the American Cancer Society’s preference for therapeutic methods is that cancer research is quite costly, especially research for prev entive techniques. The organization seems to endorse both chemotherapy and radiotherapy techniques because they are a cheaper alternative in terms of research costs. A lot of research findings justifying the methods have already been provided both by the ACS and many drug companies.  Ã‚  

Keynesian economists Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Keynesian economists - Essay Example The paper also considers the negative impact of government interference in business as per the suggestions of Keynesian economists. Keynesian economics is based on aggregate demand and government intervention. The theory was created by John Maynard Keyes to explain the Great Depression in the 1930s (Samuelson & Nordhaus, 2010). At the time, the classical economics theories assumed that the free market would automatically self-regulate by providing employment and sustain the economy. Goods and services’ total demand in the economy at a specified time is aggregate demand. Prior to Keynesian economics, the assumption was that a decrease in aggregate demand in the economy would result in fewer goods and job opportunities. This would translate to reduced wages and inflation, which would enable employers to invest and create more jobs. However, the great depression disapproved the theory. Many factors influence aggregate demand. During a recession, the decisions made by the private sector may reduce consumer spending (Higgins, 2013). Similarly, prices and wages gradually respond to the fluctuations of demand an d supply causing shortages or surpluses in employment opportunities. Keynesian economists hold that government intervention plays a key role in solving the problem of insufficient aggregate demand. Aggregate demand represents the spending of the government, public and private sector. Insufficiency in aggregate demand comes about when the spending of all these sectors reduces. The government is in a position to solve the problem of insufficient aggregate demand through active policies like fiscal stimulus package and job creation, which increases spending and restores aggregate demand. Many theories against government interference with business find unbalanced government budgets disturbing for the economy (Higgins, 2013). Nonetheless, Keynesian economists find that government intervention

The predictions of corporate failures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The predictions of corporate failures - Essay Example Corporate failures gained higher rates in last two decades. There are lots of factors that lead businesses to fail. Those factors attributed by different economists are high interest rates, heavy debt burdens and recession-squeezed profits. There are lots of industry-specific factors such as government regulation and the nature of operations, can results into to a firm’s financial failures. Studies have found that small, private and newly opened companies with poor cash flow planning and ineffective controlling systems are more exposed to financial crisis than the large and well-established firms. It is very important to have robust and reliable models that predict corporate failure accurately and promptly. It is very important for the management to take either preventive or corrective measure to secure the interest of all the stakeholders. This study would go to discuss about different models for preventing corporate failures and the study would assess the strengths and weakn esses of those models. Financial satiability is very important for any corporate house. Corporate houses are having lots of stakeholders attached with it. It is also an important duty of Government and Financial regulating authorities to keep a close look on the financial health of firm. There are lots of models are there to take preventive actions but it is very important to chose the right one for the right problem. Every model has its own strength and weaknesses. Identification of the proper model for the specific crisis is very important things to follow for any corporate house to avoid corporate failures. Failure of one firm can cause for a serious disaster for all those stake holders related with that firm. According to Beaver (1966), who used classification test to identify different financial ratios for corporate failure predictions. Author used 30 financial ratios and 79 pairs of companies for test

Homework Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 29

Homework - Essay Example The affected age group being mostly children, the analysis is that OM generates indirect costs owing to lost time from school and work creating a significant social burden. A good nurse protocol for otitis media in children aged six to twelve years old should clearly define OM; identify its natural history without antibacterial treatment, measure relative effectiveness of these antibacterial regimens in prevention of clinical failure (Forgie and Zhanel et al., 2009, p. 457). Otitis media is the presence of purulent fluid inside the middle ear, which is associated with symptoms and signs of systemic or acute local illness. It is most prevalent during winter months in children especially six to seven years old and below. Otitis media is commonly seen after a viral infection of the upper respiratory tract. It has been especially noted to result from dysfunction of the Eustachian tube preventing the effective drainage of middle ear fluid. The clinician or nurse should be aware that the client has an antecedent event, either an allergy or infection that results in congestion and edema of the mucosa of the middle ear, Eustachian tube, as well as the nasopharynx. Flow of the middle ear secretions is impeded following the Eustachian tubes congestion. This often increases negative pressure further causing fluid to be pulled into the middle ear. Increase in middle ear secretions causes growth of microbial pathogens resulting in otitis media. Treatment protocol in diagnosis and prescription establishes common pathogens as Streptococcus pyrogenes, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Staphylococcus aureus, Moraxella catarrhalis, as well as viral infection. Recent studies show that in 6 – 12 year olds infections have increased because of organisms that produce beta-lactamase and bacterial resistance to drugs (Barnett and Klein,

Obama or Romney Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Obama or Romney - Essay Example Firstly, this brief essay will consider Romney. Romney claims to have a very different view from the President with regards to the Affordable Health Care Act of 2009. However, the fact of the matter is that while governor of Massachusetts, Romney instituted a healthcare plan statewide that served as the very inspiration for the later adoption of the Affordable Health Care Act. As such, Romney continues to attempt to distance himself from this and claim that if he is elected president he will do all in his power to overturn the legislation. Obviously, such a disconnect from action/practice and actuality does not help Romney to appear as a steadfast candidate with regards to this particular issue. Similarly, much the same is true with regards to Romney’s stance on abortion. While campaigning for the gubernatorial race of Massachusetts, Romney went out of his way to emphasize that he was a pro-choice candidate. Similarly, most of the issues that involved abortion he masterfully d odged without coming down too hard in either direction. Yet, as he is running for a nationwide audience now and not merely for the gubernatorial candidacy of a small moderately liberal northeastern state, Romney has tracked to the right significantly and now claims that he will make it a policy directive to use his power to enforce the â€Å"sanctity of life†. Such a disconnect from his prior positions begs the question to what degree Romney is merely playing to the base of the Republican/conservative movement and what degree he actually espouses such a newfound believe in the sanctity of life. The case with Obama is somewhat different. Due to the fact that Obama is a sitting president, it is much easier to measure his actions against the words that he spoke back in the 2008 presidential election cycle. Although like any politician, Obama has embellished a bit and claimed to be able to perform feats that no president be reasonably expected to perform, the fact of the matter i s that in regards to the main issues, Obama has remained decidedly issue oriented and issue focused. With respect to his campaign promise to engage with Congress to create a lasting and historic solution to the issues that face many Americans in regards to healthcare, Obama, with the help of a Democratic controlled Congress, enacted the Affordable Health Care Act of 2009. Additionally, Obama has also made good on his campaign promise to cease military operations within Iraq and bring the majority of combat troops stationed there back home. This campaign promise and its ultimate implementation was an important step due to the fact that it allowed him to take an increased role of tracking al Qaeda and in helping the United States to locate and kill Osama bin Laden; the mastermind of the September 11th attacks that killed over 3,000 United States citizens. It should be noted though that this author does have a strong issue with the President’s foreign policy. Whereas he campaign ed on a platform of military non-aggression and sought to bring the majority of US combat troops home as a function of ending the pointless Iraq war, he entirely failed to keep the

The Eruption of Mount Saint Helens Essay Example for Free

The Eruption of Mount Saint Helens Essay â€Å"The Eruption of Mount St. Helens† On May 18th, 1980, in Washington State, the volcano, Mount St. Helens erupted. This eruption caused widespread terror throughout the towns surrounding the mountain. The magma from the volcano burned up the forest and killed most of the animals in the area. It affected the wildlife greatly because, after the eruption, the ecosystem was burned and smoldered thus killing thousands of animals in the region. This eruption was the deadliest of all the volcanic activity in the United States, and the people who live near the mountain are still affected by what the eruption did to this day. There were many warning signs that preceded the nine-hour eruption of Mount St. Helens. After being dormant for 123 years, the volcano showed her first sign of life on Thursday, March 20th. There was a 4. 1 magnitude earthquake that centered directly underneath of the volcano. A week later, the snow on the mountain smudged because of the ash. On March 30th, 79 earthquakes were recorded on the mountain! A few days later, on April 3rd, tremors were recorded signaling movement of magma deep within the volcano. By that time, ash, rocks, and ice chunks were daily occurrences and the slopes were ash-covered. A few days before the eruption, it all stopped. But on May 18th, it all went wrong †¦ On May 18th, 1980, the worse volcanic eruption in United States history occurred. Mount St. Helens, in Washington States, violently erupted. At 8:32 A. M. a 5. 1 magnitude earthquake struck about one mile below the mountain, causing the largest landslide in history. The snow and ice moved at speeds of more than 175 miles per hour and removed over 1300 feet from the summit, sweeping away almost the entire North side of the mountain. The landslide raised temperatures about 60 degrees higher than usual. There was a lot of ash that came out of the volcano when it erupted as well. The ash caused a major problem to the townspeople because it contaminated the oil systems, clogged air filters, and scratched any moving surfaces, like cars and other vehicles. Particularly small, finer ash particles caused electrical shorts in transformers. This caused town wide blackouts. Also, the elevation of the mountain dropped from 9677 feet to 8363 feet. It decreased more than 1300 feet! This famous eruption had many affects on the wildlife and the people in the region. Thousands of small game, fish, insects and birds were killed along with black-tailed deer, elk, bears, and goats. All life in Spirit Lake was slain as well. The residents and visiting tourist of the area were affected too. There were a lot of architectural damages. For example, about 250 houses were obliterated. Roads and railways were destroyed. Also, 27 bridges were demolished. 57 people died and 36 more were rescued from being trapped underneath of debris or in their cars. There was significant crop loss in the area, about $100 million. The logging industry was hit hardest. About 25% of the forest had been wiped out, enough to build 300,000 two-bedroom homes! This eruption did not take it easy on the area. Despite how much damage it did, people still came together to try to help out. Their efforts have really paid off. Most of the houses have been rebuilt. But some still suffer from the flood damage. A significant number of trees have grown back, too. However, the timber industry isn’t back to the rate it was before the eruption, but it is still recovering steadily. It has been a pretty long time since this occurrence, but Spirit Lake still is inhabitable for fish. Only small creatures and bacteria can survive. Many people wonder â€Å"When can we expect it erupt again? † No one can really tell for sure. The eruption of 1980 wasn’t predicted, and future eruptions will probably also be unpredictable. But before the eruption of 1980, the volcano had been dormant for well over 100 years. The volcano can erupt whenever it wishes, whether it be tomorrow or another hundred years from now! Well then when will it erupt? Only time will tell.

GST system: Hurdles to implementation

GST system: Hurdles to implementation Executive Summary The differences between the current Sales and Services tax structure and the proposed GST system is also analysed. The current single stage sales and services tax is from 5% to 10% while the proposed broad based GST is 4%. This report also determines the importance of GST to the governments fiscal policies and the potential negative impacts of the proposed GST system to business entities and the people. The main purpose for introducing GST is to make the current taxation system more comprehensive, efficient, effective, transparent and business friendly. The potential negative impact is the problem of price hike as a result of inefficient price control and the additional compliance costs for businesses to have additional work to track input taxes paid. The possible hurdle Malaysia government faces in the process of implementing this new system is also being discussed. The significant informal sector makes the tax system inequitable. Besides, lack of transparency bred uncertainty among the business community. The huge maintenance cost each year of RM8.5 million is burdensome. Moreover, choosing the most suitable tax rate and determine the goods that should exempt take long time. Finally, because exports are generally zero-rated, this is often where GST fraud occurs. This report also critically discusses the tax issues that have arisen as a result of implementing GST/VAT in certain developing countries. The major reason for the decline in Ukraines VAT to GDP ratio lies in the Ukraines tax administration. On the other hand, the VAT evasion, hidden economy size and corruption in Ukraine are closely related. In doing this reports, we conducted our researches through books, journals, online materials, government websites and electronic newspapers. However, there were several limitations while conducting the study. There were only limited numbers of countries which have implemented GST successfully until today. In addition to that, most countries that adopted GST were developed countries such as Australia, Singapore and etc. There were limited numbers of Asian developing countries which has implemented GST. In conclusion, GST can be an effective indirect tax. To make it a success, effective educational programmes and private and public sector partnering is necessary. In planning and implementing the GST, countries like United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore can be used as learning examples for Malaysia. The contributions of our tax systems, especially the consumption taxes to the development of our countrys socio-economic system Accoding to OECD (n.d.), the main purpose for the introduction of tax is to finance the public expenditures as well as addressing socioeconomic concerns. In the globalized market today, most of the companies and individuals are required to pay taxes. Malaysia has adopted a fiscal-like system for the past few decades. Malaysia taxation system comprises of direct and indirect taxation. Examples of direct taxation income and corporate tax whereas indirect taxation includes sales and services tax and also others. Refering to the table 1 below, in 2008, direct taxes accounted for about 51.4% of total taxes and 19.1% comes from indirect taxes (Zakariah and Sulaiman, n.d.). Out of this 19.1%, sales and services tax (consumption tax) accounted for 7.3% of the indirect taxes. Therefore, consumption tax does plays a vital role in total revenue in the country. Table 1: The breakdown of Indirect Tax Revenue in 2008 Table 1: The Gross National Product in Malaysia from 2005 to 2009 Source: http://www.tradechakra.com/economy/malaysia/gnp-of-malaysia-152.php Table 2: Gross National Income expressed in Purchasing Power Parity Dollars Source: http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdimet=ny_gnp_mktp_pp_cdidim=country:MYSdl=enhl=enq=gnp+malaysia Table 2: Gross National Income expressed in US dollars Source:http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdimet=ny_gdp_mktp_cdidim=country:MYSdl=enhl=enq=gdp+malaysia Correction of Market Failures Consumption tax in our country provides a way of changing the pattern of consumers demand by differentiating the prices of goods, this in turn affect their spending decisions. For example, demand for different types of transports will get affected by the total amount of duties charges. From this point, we can see that consumption tax in Malaysia is considered as an instrument in correcting related market failures, for example, externalities. Moreover, in this context, consumption tax is used as a tool in making the polluter pay as well as internalizing the costs of consumption. Increase Overall Productivity Consumption tax in Malaysia is said to have a lower negative impact on the work incentives. This is because sales and service tax leave the choices to the people and is unlikely to distort the alternatives that consumers have to between work and leisure. People tend to work harder when they are allowed to keep more of what they earn. This will then impact on the economic positively and increase the overall productivity of the country. As shown in the figure above, Malaysia GNP and GDP has been increasing over the past 20 years. Improve economic and social overheads Malaysian economy experienced the rapid growth on the GDP from US100Billion in 2002 to US221Billion in 2008. In addition, according to governments data, our country also sees the drop in budget deficit from 7.4% in 2009 to 5.6% in 2010. It is believed that the decrease in budget deficit mainly due to the revenue collection from tax and it is able to stimulate the economic growth by financing investment, which in turn generates higher income and employment through the multiplier effects. Thus, government is able to gain access to immediate rise in money and invest them in the economic and social overheads. In a developing country like Malaysia, consumption tax can be an important instrument of growth as it promotes capital formation, especially in the promotion of social overheads as well as infrastructure. The diagram below shows the importance of sales and service tax in contributing their part to the economy in the indirect tax form. The importance of GST to the governments fiscal policies and our countrys economy Despite the average surpluses of 2% during 1993-1997, Malaysia is brought back to deficit after financial crisis in 1997 (Mahbob Zakariah, nd). Year 2009 saw the biggest fiscal deficit. In responding to the fiscal pressures, Malaysia government focuses on importance of tax rates, an important element under fiscal policies, to alleviate the recession effects. Many developed countries such as US and UK often raise their taxes to overcome fiscal deficits. Often than not, fiscal imbalance tends to lower national savings, thus cause slower economic growth. In order to overcome the problem, government will need to reduce government expenditures and/or raising tax revenues. In fact, the International Monetary Fund reported that it is important for Malaysia to introduce Goods and Services Tax (The Star, 2010). The government managed to lower the fiscal deficit from 7.4% in 2009 to 5.6% in 2010 (The Star, 2010). Besides that, to avoid the middle-income trap, the introduction of GST would help with the socio economic development. An additional estimated RM1billion revenue collected from GST can be well spent and further improve the Malaysias development initiatives, such as transportation, healthcare, education and targeted added value activities. With this, the way GST is utilized will determine whether our country can achieve develped country status by year 2020. Fiscal Policies Create an effective management of tax system GST is imposed at the stages of production and distribution; therefore incorporate a self policing mechanism that lowers the possibility of revenue loss through tax evasion. The proposed GST model will not involve cascading/pyramiding affect (Mahbob Zakariah, nd). This is because tax levied on any goods is determined based on its final value, but not the total number of distribution channels that a particular good passes through. Moreover, in order to avoid the double taxation effect, the output tax to be paid will be offset against the input tax. Widen Malaysias tax base The introduction of GST alleviates the heavy reliance on direct taxes (for example, income tax) and petroleum tax, thus widen Malaysias tax base. Petroleum revenue is reported to be unsustainable in the long run as it is depleting (Mahbob Zakariah, nd).. However, the main issue here is that government has increased its dependence on petroleum revenue as shown in the diagram. When comparing against income tax, GST would be a much stable source of revenue as it is less vulnerable to economic uncertainties. GST is a consumption-based tax, an individuals concumption will determine the amount of tax ones pay. Economic Growth Attract foreign direct investments According to Zainal (2007), Malaysia has been engaging in activities that attract foreign direct investments but it is not fast enough. Koong (2010) reported that proposed GST in Malaysia would be able to allow for a further reduction in the current corporate and indirect tax rate, thus draw in more foreign direct investment to the country. This is because proposed GST would be able to provide a more broad-based tax collection and revenues. Currently, Malaysias corporate tax rate is relatively high compared to other neighbouring countries (Amin, 2009). This is one important key to achieve high-income developed status by year 2020. The introduction of GST assertively realizes high value added economic paradigm. In addition to this, with effective in reduction in corruption, Malaysias GDP will be improved. According to Datuk Akbar Ali (2010), a study showed that an increase of one point in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) will attract FDI which is equivalent to 0.5percent of the G DP and pushed up the average income by 4 percent. Boost the growth of SMEs (Small Medium Enterprises) GST is not a progressive income tax and it is flat at the determined rate. Therefore, GST preserve the incentive to work and encourage the growth of small medium enterprises. According to Khoo (2010), in line with the proposed GST, it is also important to consider the broadening of tax allowances to include shopping malls, conventions and office buildings will help in reducing corporations burdens. This is especially for those SMEs which incurred high costs and risks in doing business with limited funds. Tax allowances will be able to allow them grow more quickly. Differences between Sales and Services tax structure and the proposed GST system The current sales and services tax is from 5% to 10% while the proposed GST is 4%. 1. Single versus multiple stage GST is charged on the consumption of goods and services at every stage of the supply chain while the current sales tax and service tax is levied at only one stage of the supply chain. 2. Goods and services subject to tax Both GST and Sales Tax operate on a negative concept all goods and services are subject to GST unless specifically exempted. Service tax, on the other hand, operates on a positive concept where only services that are specifically prescribed are taxable. The wider tax base of GST provides more revenue for government and simplifies the task of identifying taxable services under the service tax system. 3. Tax payment and accounting periods In existing structure, sales tax becomes due and payable when there is a sale. On the other hand, service tax is only due when payment is received, and where payment is not received, the tax is accounted for at the end of the 12-month period from the date of invoice issued. Time of supply determines when one should account for GST in the GST returns. The approach used by many countries when adopting GST is that a supply is considered to have taken place at the earliest of the following three events: the time an invoice is issued; or the time any payment is received by the supplier; or the time a taxable supply is made. The GST concept of time of supply is therefore generally wider and there will potentially be changes to the enterprises cash flows under the new tax. 4. Imported services and intangibles Presently, imported services are not subject to service tax. In many GST regimes, imported services are subject to GST through the concept of a reverse charge whereby a supply received from overseas is treated as being made by the recipient of the service rather than by the provider of the service overseas. The recipient of the supply is responsible for the output GST on the imported services. 5. Group registration Company can file consolidated GST returns via group registration to reduce their GST administration costs, where supplies made within a group would be disregarded for GST purposes. This resulted in better cash flow management for the group if goods and services are regularly supplied between group companies. On the other hand, the existing tax structures do not allow consolidated tax filings. In service tax, group relief is available for certain professional services when provided to companies within the same group and subject to certain limitations. The negative impacts of the proposed GST system to business entities and people Timing Problem The present climate of the Malaysian economy is not conducive for the implementation of new tax system. The impact will be contractionary as GDP drop 139% in 2010 compared to 2005 while inflation has been increasing from 2% in 2008 to 5.4% in 2009 due to increases of prices of major inputs like oil prices (CIA World Factbook). Negative impacts to people Currently only 1.8 million individuals from total of 12 million in the workforce paid tax for their salary, but with GST, the entire workforce will be required to pay tax (Malaysian Digest.com, 2010). People earning below average salary will be forced to spend extra annual expenditure in the midst of inflation due to the regressive nature of GST. It is predicted that a slight increase in the prices of goods and services is unavoidable. Although the GST will probably be 4%, the scope of goods and services affected by GST will be very much wider. Moreover, inefficient price control by government results in price hike by unscrupulous traders. This phenomenon is shown in the multiple-fold escalation in prices in almost all products as a result of slight increase in oil prices. Negative impacts to business Economy of Collection indirect and direct compliance cost: GST imposes additional compliance costs for businesses to have additional work to account for the tax, tracking of the input taxes paid, undertaking reconciliations and filings of GST returns (Zaid,2010). In addition, where a business has short credit periods from its suppliers, business need extra finances to purchase supplies when GST is first introduced, result in cash flow burden. Therefore GST is less effective according to Adam Smiths cannon of effective tax system in relation to economy of collection. Neutrality Altered consumer behaviour: One of G.W. Normans qualities of taxation depends on non-interference, i.e. a tax should not impact on the price or volume of commodities traded. Norman argued that value added tax are interferent, as they create imperfections in the market for goods, and in particular for preferences between imported and domestic produce. 90% of Malaysian is not in taxed category and this group of people have to pay taxes for their daily consumption if GST is implemented, which will dampen their spending mood. This would affect SMEs who depend on this group of customer base. Higher bank charges for credit card transactions as a result of GST implementation will raise prices in certain products, adversely affecting SMEs. Experiences in other countries have shown that customers generally go on a shopping spree shortly before the introduction of the tax, followed by a period of relative inactivity after the tax is introduced. Companies may seek extra financing to build up stock to cater for a pre-GST rush. However stock in hand may not be entitled to any input tax credit. Cash Flow issues: GST will hit the cash flow of SMEs, especially businesses with significant funds tied up in unpaid invoices. Businesses need to meet their immediate liabilities to suppliers, staff and the IRA, particularly around tax time. Some businesses were forced to adopt unfavourable ways such as higher deposits or stiffer terms of trade which make small businesses less competitive (Zaid,2010). This condition worsens if tax refund mechanism is not efficient. To register or not to register: Business not subject to the GST would not be entitled to claim the input tax credits on purchases. In a situation where the customers of the business are other GST registered businesses, the supplier may be obligated to license itself as it is likely that the customer would insist on buying from another registered person to enable him to claim the input tax credit (Zaid,2010). Consequently, these SMEs will have to charge higher prices to the customers, eroding their price competitiveness (Zaid,2010). A Supply-Demand Analysis of a GST-Taxed Market Deadweight loss happens if the income lost by the economy is greater than the governments income; the tax is inefficient. While distortions occur, GST are often considered superior because they distort incentives to invest, save and work less than most other types of taxation in other words, a GST discourages consumption rather than production (Zaid,2010). Hurdles to implement GST faced by government Government need to balance the conflict between simplicity and to cater for social needs. However, the more social needs are catered for, the more complex the tax becomes and the more costly it is for the Government to administer and for businesses to comply with it (Trade Chakra, 2010). Informal economy Emran and Stiglitz (2005) argue that VAT is likely to reduce rather than improve social welfare because informal economy like agriculture sector and unregistered business are able to escape commodity tax coverage dominates DTE (Developing and Transitional Economies). According to World Bank, informal economy constitutes 31% of Malaysian economy, almost double the percentage in other Asian countries such as Vietnam (15.6%) and Singapore (13%). The producers of close substitute of the formal VAT-liable commodity will get high profit without bearing tax while formal sector producer may get lower profit and bearing tax. As a result, resources will be channelled more into informal economy, causing inefficiency in resource allocation. Thus the potential tax base is rather narrow which reduce the growth and development. Therefore, achieving equity as proposed by Adam Smith in order to have an effective tax system is difficult through the implementation of VAT in a country that has significa nt informal sector. Lack of transparency PricewaterhouseCoopers Taxation Services Sdn Bhd senior executive director Wan Heng Choon said the lack of transparency bred uncertainty among the business community. The industry guides that will provide guidance of how the GST law will affect various industry sectors have not provided the certainty that was promised. Cost BN government aims to gain RM1 billion through GST, but within the implementation process, a sum of RM222 million has been allocated as initial cost to ensure the smooth and effective implementation of GST system in Malaysia. The allocation will cover the cost of developing the GST computerisation system at RM139 million and the additional operations cost of RM83 million for the agency implementing the system, Malaysian Customs Department. The maintenance cost each year is estimated at RM8.5 million (Office of the Prime Minister, 2010). Rate of tax and exemption The government should carefully choose the most suitable tax rate so that the tax will not burden the poor. If the government offers lower tax rate on necessities with the intention to help the poor, in fact this will benefit the rich more because they will spend relatively less of their income. But high rate in luxury goods trigger the intention to lower tax liability either legally or illegally. Choosing the most suitable tax rate and determine the goods that should exempt are not easy for government and may take long time. Fraud Because exports are generally zero-rated, this is often where GST fraud occurs. In Europe, the main source of problems is called carousel fraud. Large quantities of valuable goods (often microchips or mobile phones) are transported from one member state to another. During these transactions, some companies owe GST, others acquire a right to reclaim GST. The first companies, called missing traders go bankrupt without paying. The second group of companies can pump money straight out of the national treasuries. Reasons of initial failure in GST implementation in two countries example Value Added Tax (VAT) works better than other general sales tax in many of the developed and developing countries. This does not mean that VAT always works well. There are many different reasons for the above conclusion, however only two main issues will be highlighted in the following examples. They are problems with VAT design which were left behind by the policy process and how VAT plays its roles particularly in the low-income countries. Is the country capable enough to administer VAT? The case study below will discuss the problems faced by Ukraine when implementing VAT. A case study in Ukraine Like many other developing countries, VAT has been the workhorse in generating revenue in Ukraine. The way of VAT works will determine the performance of Ukraines entire fiscal system. However, table below shows that Ukraines VAT was in trouble since the tax fully came into effect in late 1990s. The collection inefficiency of VAT lead to the decrease in revenue with respect to the countrys GDP, thus widen the gap between actual revenue and potential revenue (Bird, 2005). In general, as GDP grows, VAT yield should also rises, with at least at the same rate as GDP. However, when Ukraines real GDP rose by 49% from 1998 to 2004, the VAT to GDP ratio was decreased by 33%. Moreover, the increasing dependence of VAT on imports caused the collection of VAT on domestic consumption fell markedly by 4.3% to 1.4% of GDP in 2004 (Bird and Gendron, 2006). It is very clear that VAT system in Ukraine is less efficient in generating revenue for the government. According to Bird and Gendron (2006), the decline in VAT to GDP ratio before 2002 could be explained by the ineffectiveness in the Ukraines tax administration, for example the erosion of tax base in the form of increased exemptions which started immediately once the VAT was introduced. There were just too many exemptions in the VAT. For example, many food processing were taxed at a special rate while later on were allowed to claim the refund. The VAT system later became more complicated as it seemed to give ways for possible evasions and corruptions. However, there was no base changes occurred during 2003-2004 that could possibly explain the decline. There were many Ukraine taxpayers tend to evade when they were trapped within the VAT system. They could possibly hide in the hidden economy. Meanwhile, the VAT evasion, hidden economy size and corruption in Ukraine are closely related. Recently, there was a study found that there was a positive correlation between evasion level and Transparency International (TI) index of perception of corruption (Bird, 2005). Additionally, the evasion in Ukraine was twice the corruption index, which was about 38%. This not only reflects the weak administration but also weak management in structural problems such as the prevalence of underground economy. For example, just two years after the introduction of GST, there were over 83% of the Ukraine VAT registrants filing tax returns annually. In addition, there were also problems with tax administration that related to the application of VAT at the border. A country like Ukraine which is unable to apply VAT on imports properly is said to be facing higher level of difficulties in applying the system to domestic economy. Most of the time, the initial legislation of VAT was closely related to standard international model with participation of international experts. It may look simple at the initial stage, however, as time goes; many countries found that VAT tends to become much complex and difficult to manage. The case study below will discuss the problems faced by Pakistan when implementing VAT. A case study in Pakistan In 1990, Pakistan introduced the GST for the country to replace its Sales Tax Act. As a developing country, Pakistan decided to take the initiative and move a big step forward to introduce GST as GST was said to have futuristic dimensions and political recognition. However, several issues were addressed in relation to the introduction of GST, which remain part of continuously reform process. Undeniably, the introduction of GST in the country has brought about significant improvement in the revenue collection (as shown in the table below). Despite the good performance in revenue collection, there were several shortcomings that were addressed. Multiple Tax Rates In 1992, Pakistan introduced VAT at the rate of 12.5%. In 1995, the rate was then raised to 18% in order reduce the budget deficit by meeting the need for extra revenue. However, there was great pressure from taxpayers in 1998, thus the rate was again reduced to 15%. While on the other hand, industrial raw materials were imposed with a higher rate of 20% (Shahid, n.d.). Moreover, in 1999, a penalty system was established in which a 3% tax was imposed on the supplies made by the registered body to unregistered body. Nevertheless, all these decisions have made the VAT system much complicated with multiple tax rates and create many difficulties for the tax administrative. Additionally, cost of compliance has also increased respectively for the taxpayers (Ehtisham, 2010). The rate was then stabilized at 15% in 2004 (Shahid, n.d.). Registration When GST was first introduced in Pakistan, taxpayers were all required to submit a large amount of documents needed for VAT registration purposes. This then cause unnecessary delays during the physical verification process by the VAT staff as there were just too many documents (Ehtisham, 2010). However, a centralized Registration system was introduced in July 2004 in which it utilized Risk Based Registration Module to handle the paper based registration problems (Shahid, n.d.). Tax Compliance Low tax compliance in Pakistan is another issue that has to be looked into. There were only about half of the tax registrants file their monthly returns. This is mainly due to the negative relationship between the tax administration and tax registrants as mentioned earlier under the registration section (Ehtisham, 2010). The facilitation strategy was then designed and the taxpayers were educated on the related strategy in order to overcome the problem. Adjudication There were numbers of adjudication after the introduction of GST in Pakistan due to unaffordable rate. There was a markedly increase in the number of appeals when the appellate foras were introduced (Shahid, n.d.).. The costs involved were time and revenues. The cost of doing business for taxpayers has been significantly increased due to the involvement in the settlement of the cases. The issue has been addressed and discussed for a couple of years before any action was taken. According to Shahid (n.d.), tax administration finally came up with Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism in which consists of an independent judicial committee to deal with the cases. Conclusion The main purpose for introducing GST is to make the current taxation system more comprehensive, efficient, effective, transparent and business friendly. GST is expected to increase government income and dependence on oil revenues is hoped to be lessen. Besides, GST is aimed to reduce public administration deficit which hit a more than 20-year high of 7.4 per cent of gross domestic product in 2009 (Zaid). Additional RM1bil in revenue will be received for the first year, while the business sector would save RM4.1bil and export sectors would save RM1.4bil (Zaid). The potential negative impact of the proposed GST system is the problem of price hike as a result of inefficient price control by government. GST also imposes additional compliance costs for businesses to have additional work to track input taxes paid, and undertaking reconciliations and filings of GST returns. Malaysians who are not in taxed category have to start paying taxes for their daily consumption, which will dampen their spending mood. As a developing country, it is important for Malaysia to review its fiscal policy continuously. To enhance the competitiveness in the international market, Malaysia must always prepare itself for any possible economic uncertainties. Malaysian government should always make sure sufficient revenues are raised for the country with minimum impacts on its people and resources, while at the same time improve the living standards of the poors. Moreover, government should always seek for ways to lower poverty level in the country, thus a more equitable society can be achieved. In conclusion, Malaysia govenrment and the people in the country have not get themselves ready for the tax reform. There should be continuously review of the policy and the tax reform should only be implemented once the impacts on the country and people is minimized.

The Python Programming Language Computer Science Essay

The Python Programming Language Computer Science Essay Wikipedia definition of Python programming language is as followed; Python is a general-purpose high level programming language. Its design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to combine remarkable power with very clear syntax, and its standard library is large and comprehensive. Its use of indentation for block delimiters is unusual among popular programming languages. Python supports multiple programming paradigms (primarily object oriented, imperative, and functional) and features a fully dynamic type system and automatic memory management. Python is often used as a scripting language.and Python is a programming language that lets you work quickly, it also integrate your systems more successfully. Python is a powerful programming language that is used in a wide variety of application domains. Python is often compared to Perl, Ruby or Java. Some of its key features are: Fans of Python use the phrase batteries included to describe the standard library, which covers everything from asynchronous processing to zip files. The language itself is a flexible powerhouse that can handle practically any problem domain. Build your own web server in three lines of code. Build flexible data-driven code using Pythons powerful and dynamic introspection capabilities and advanced language features such as meta-classes, duck typing and decorators. Python lets you write the code you need quickly. And, thanks to a highly optimized byte compiler and support libraries, Python code runs more than fast enough for most applications. Python also comes with complete documentation, both integrated into the language and as separated web pages. Online tutorials target both the seasoned programmer and the newcomer. All are designed to make you productive quickly. The availability of first-rate book completes the learning package.and[2]and The programme I have chosen to compare against Python is Cobra. In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting between the two programming software. On comparison, I have found Cobra has a more compile-time in regards to the error checking time. I believe Cobra saves time when it comes to reporting more than one error at one time. Cobra allows simple local variable assignment, which is very similar to Python; however with Cobra they give you a warning if they are never used. In Cobra these errors are caught at a compile-time and hardly take place during execution, like Python. Cobra believes getting them out of the way early, which will increase productivity time. Contracts have numerous benefits: They become part of the document interface to a method, showing what is expected to invoke the method and what can be relied on when the methods returns. They are technically enforced because they are executable. They catch run-time errors early when errors are still easy to diagnose. They are inherited by subclass methods so they do not need to be re-implemented (less coding). They may encourage developers to do more upfront thinking about how their classes will be used.and[3]and The problem is that Python defaults to a binary floating point type even though most numbers that people input are base 10. To help address this Python offers an additional Decimal type that computes the correct numbers, but it must be used explicitly end, some would say, awkwardly: So Cobra does the inverse, defaulting to an accurate decimal type and offering the floating point type as an option. A simple f suffix on a number such as 0.1f gives the 64-bit point value. The types are built in with the names decimal, float, float64 and float32. The type float is an alias for float64. Note that in both languages, float math operations are faster than decimal. However, most applications should prefer accuracy over speed that may not be noticeable or needed. For the other applications that really require more speed or compatibility with floating point based libraries, Cobra offers a command line option number:float64 which changes the types of literals like 1.0 and 0.5 to float64. Furthermore, Cobra provides a built-in number type which defaults to decimal but changes to float64 with this option. You can also specify -number: decimal although the letter is redundant.and[4]and Cobra complies down to machine code right out of the box. And Cobra favours static types for local variables by inferring them from their assignment. This promotes more compile-time error checking, especially when invoking library methods. But it also promotes speed. Python has solutions for improving speed for its developers: you can write some of your Python modules in C and wrap them in SWIG. You can use Pyrex. Or you can stay in Python and bring in C or C++ via Inline or Weave. But with Cobra the speed is built in from the beginning. You do not get kicked out to another language or get forced to assimilate another tool. Cobras performance is close or equal to that of C# and Java, and is therefore significantly faster than Python. Iron Python claims to be around 1.8X faster than Python, but this is still far slower than Cobra. Also, some users have found Iron Python can significantly slower than CPython and Jython.and[5]and Some applications including financial analysis, simulation, search, neural networks, games, and more require numerous CPU cycles which can cause Step2 to become a bottleneck during development. Cobra enables a tighter development cycle by offering high level coding and fast execution simultaneously. Because Cobra has no Global Interpreter Lock (GIL), it can run threads in parallel up to the number of cores available. Combined with its inherent speed, you can pack a lot of computation in one process on one computer.and[6]and In regards to the syntactic improvements, Cobra shares much in common with Python: Indentation denotes code blocks List literals Dictionary literals Print statement Assert statement For foo in bar Slicing And more But Cobra does not strive to be backwards compatible with Python. This opens the door to some improvements. Cobra allows embedding expressions in string literals-often called interpolated strings in other languages. This turns every string literal into a mini-templating language.and[7]and The Cobra compiler is implemented in Cobra. This means that the entire time the implementers are maintaining Cobra, they are using Cobra. This really tightens up the feedback loop on usability and bugs. This is in contrast to most other languages that are typically implemented in some other language. That practice greatly reduces the time that the language maintainers spend using their own language.and[8]and These disadvantages to using Cobra are: Documentation needs expansion. Cobra classes are not malleable at runtime like Python classes are. Like all budding languages, some people will pass over Cobra because it is new and, therefore, not yet popular. Fortunately, many people do not balk at newness as evidenced by the fact that many new languages of the past have gained popularity after their introduction, including Python and C#. The same will happen for Cobra, in time. Cobra is not yet available for JVM.and[9]and My overall thoughts of both Python and Cobra programming language, after researching for hours, I came to the conclusion that although Cobra is the better programming language it is not as established as Python, as of yet. Cobra offers a lot more for the user compared to Python. However saying that, I have only used the Python programming language software, so I can not give an answer as a user. Although from all the research I had come across, I still believe that Cobra would be a better programming language to use.

Its Raining in Mango :: Free Essay Writer

It's Raining in Mango Thea Astley’s It’s Raining in Mango (1987) is a story of Australian history told through five generations of the Laffey family. Astley introduces several issues to the reader that were and still are part of Australian society. Through the use of narrative techniques including characterisation, narrative point of view and naming, Astley is able to position the reader to challenge such societal ideologies, and instead support the thoughts and ideas expressed by the strong and dominant characters in the text. Two issues developed in the text are race and gender. Throughout the text, the white colonists are very racist towards the Aboriginals. Even cattle, horses and white women are placed hierarchically higher in society than the black people. In response to this, Astley constructs all narrations to be written through the eyes of the Laffey family, who are respectful towards Aboriginals, hence not racist, and despise societal ideologies. By making the narration of the text show a biased point of view, readers are provoked to think and feel the same way, foregrounding racism shown in the ideologies of early Australian society, and showing that Aboriginals are real people and should receive the same treatment to that given to white people. â€Å"They looked human, they had all your features.† (pg 27) There was, however, one section in the text whose narrative point of view was not given by a character in the Laffey family. This instead was given by a voice of an Aboriginal woman, when the Aboriginal children were being taken away from t heir families. By giving voice to the Aboriginal society, the reader is able to get a glimpse of their point of view on the matter, which once again shows that society was racist, and Aboriginals were treated harshly. Another narrative technique used to bring forward the issue of race is naming. By using harsh names to describe racist white people, it made Aboriginals seem a far ‘softer’ race. An example of this is Block, the white concreter who began a brawl in a pub in Mango. By using a name such as this, Thea Astley positions the reader to see Block as a hard, cold, strong male, and is also seen as an object instead of a person. Also by showing that Block is a concreter, this reinforces the thought of him being a ‘bad’ person, as he is ‘cold and hard as concrete’.

On The Beach At Night Alone By Walt Whitman :: essays research papers

In â€Å"On the Beach at Night Alone,† Walt Whitman develops the idea that everyone has a connection with everything else, including nature. Whitman uses a variety of writing techniques to get his point across. First, the repetition and parallel structure that his poems contain reinforce the connection between everything in nature. The usage of â€Å"All† 11 times emphasizes the inclusion of everything in the universe. The sentence structure remains the same throughout the poem, without any drastic change; however, the length of the lines in the poem vary. In addition, Whitman’s’ extravagance with his words further illustrates his idea of the Over-Soul. For example, â€Å"A vast similitude interlocks all† (4) shows his verbose nature. Whitman does not do directly to the point, but gives every little detail. Most importantly, Whitman’s’ use of catalogues stands as the most recognizable Whitman characteristic that illustrates his beliefs . These long lists that he uses set the mood of the poem. â€Å"All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets,† (5) shows the idea that everything is connected in nature. Similarly, â€Å"All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations languages.† (10) furthermore emphasize Whitman’s belief in the Over-Soul. Although Whitman uses a great deal of structural ways to stress his ideas, he also uses many other ways of delivering his ideas. First of all, Whitman portrays himself as a public spokesman of the masses. The tone of the poem is a very loud, informative tone that grabs ones attention. The emphasis placed on the word â€Å"all† adds to the characterization of Whitman as a powerful speaker. Furthermore, Whitman takes part in his own poem. Participating in his own poem, Whitman moreover illustrates the connection between everything in life. Lastly, Whitman, most of all, celebrates universal brotherhood and democracy.

Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann’s Excavation at Troy :: Anthropology

Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann’s Excavation at Troy Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann’s ability to challenge academic establishment make him an appealing yet dubious character. The German’s late nineteenth century excavations of Truva are often considered to have shed new light on ancient history or ‘undoubtedly destroyed a great deal of archaeological data that will forever be lost[1]. Despite the praise and glorification that surrounds the romantic stems of Schliemann’s work; his excavations have proved limited to the evolution of archaeology and ancient history. However some of Schliemann’s methodologies have often been considered significant in context to the evolution of both fields. His ‘great desire to affirm his hypotheses[2]’ has lead to important ancient historical data such as demonstrating Greek civilisation had commenced approximately one thousand years earlier then previous scholars estimated. Yet Schliemann’s excavations of Hissarlik are not completely revolutionary to the development of ancient history despite the modernisation of his primitive archaeological techniques and his ability to incorporate mythology in interpreting and formulating ancient history, while several contemporaries dismissed its credibility. Firstly Schliemann’s crude methodical techniques are not definitive in comparison to the works of other archaeologists such as, General Pitt Rivers. Secondly Schliemann’s discovery of an unknown civilization contributed to the broadening of ancient history. Moreover, Schliemann’s ability to see the great value of oral history and mythology has brought significant development to historical methodologies. Finally Schliemann’s flawed yet revealing archaeological techniques has allowed archaeology to improve, in learning from its mistakes. Firstly Schliemann’s contribution to the development of ancient history is limited in comparison to that of archaeological pioneers such as Pitt Rivers. Rivers, like Schliemann both avoided the stigma as ‘treasure hunters’ in their pursuit for knowledge of the antiquities. However Schliemann’s failure to seek perfection and accuracy questions his place in true archaeological circles. Historian Geoffrey Arnott comments, ‘the accuracy of his excavation reports can†¦be questioned, most seriously with regard to Troy.’ Schliemann’s primitive and simplistic techniques involving the destruction of various ruins do not deserve monumental credit. Historian Wellington King comments on the problematic nature of Schliemann’s excavations, Schliemann’s’ great desire to affirm his hypotheses to provide the evidence for the answers he created, is also his greatest weakness and shortcoming†¦he often conducted his archaeological work in a highly unethical manner, and a manner that could even compromise the archaeological integrity of his finds. In contrast, Rivers practised methods of perfection by comparing organic evolution to cultural development and developing future archaeological generic fundamentals such as ‘typology.’ ‘His purpose, therefore, was not concentrated on collecting artefacts solely for display, but in order to create a complex scheme of evidence to outline history.’[3] By contrast, men such as Pitt Rivers can be

Information System in Global Business Today Essay

1. What are the inputs, processing, and outputs of UPS’s package tracking system? Inputs: firstly, the scannable bar-coded should be pasted to the package, there are some information on the scannable bar-coded, like the sender, the destination, and the time of the package arrive. And then, customer could get own labels by UPS. For example, people could go to the UPS web site and use special software to download this information. The data off labels would be delivered to the UPS’s computer centre that nearest final destination, before the package pick up. Furthermore, workers should download these labels information by using UPS software and establish some special delivery route for every driver; people should consider some factors that affect package transmission, like traffic, weather conditions, and the location of every stop. Processing: there are some points that through from the sender and the receiver. Bar code equipment could scan labels to get some package information and send these data to the centre computer. By this way, customer also could check package information from web site, customer could check the data that extreme detailed, it contains delivery routes, calculates hipping route, determining time in transit, and so on. Outputs: first of all, the data that collected from web site are transported to the centre computer and back to the customers. Moreover, UPS also provides some tools that convenient customer to visit own web site, like Cisco system, it can be embed UPS function.

Existence of God Essay

Descartes applies the ‘Cogito ergo sum’ (‘I think therefore I am’) argument from the second meditation to prove another foundational truth, which is the existence of God. He uses his personal Christian belief and definition of God to build upon this proposition and tries to prove that something besides him exists by contemplating his idea of God. This essay will explain and assess Descartes’ aetiological and cause of existence arguments for the existence of God by identifying the meaning of existence in this context and the clear and distinct rule, as well as examining each premise and conclusion of the proofs. Finally, this essay shall attempt to evaluate Descartes’ arguments. The Third Meditation begins with Descartes’ affirmation of his own existence. He is a thinking thing which exists by clear and distinct perception, and it is therefore impossible to be doubtful of knowledge that he completely understands. Certainty and truth are equated. In order to establish the clear and distinct rule, Descartes must prove the existence of a perfect and undeceiving God: â€Å"Since I am a thinking thing, and have in me an idea of God, whatever finally the cause may be to which my nature is attributed, it must necessarily be admitted that the cause must equally be a thinking thing, and possess within it the idea of all the perfections that I attribute to the divine nature.† Descartes has an idea of God and perceives that God would not deceive him since deception would mean imperfection, and God is infinite and perfect. Descartes also presents the idea that with God’s perfection comes His existence. This can be summarised as: |(P1) |Descartes exists because he thinks. | |(P2) |He exists by clear and distinct perception of things. | |(C1) |Descartes exists as a thinking thing. | |(P3) |As a thinking thing, he has an idea of an infinite and perfect God (which is clear and distinct). | |(C2) |God is infinite and perfect in his idea. | |(P4) |Existence is perfection. | |(C3) |An infinite and perfect God exists in his idea. | This is an argument considering the idea of God alone and does not rely on experience to prove his point. This relies on the ‘Casual Adequacy Principle’[1]. Descartes argues: â€Å"There must be at least as much reality in the efficient and total cause as in its effect.† He claims that his idea of a perfect God must itself be caused by something perfect. Descartes also defends this argument by insisting that: â€Å"†¦.certainly not nothing, and so it cannot come from nothing.† For example, the existence of a stone (which previously did not exist) must be produced by something which contains the components of a stone. The cause must have more reality than its effect. The flaw here is that there is no definite connection between the cause of an object (something perfect) and its effect (idea of a perfect God). If there were, then it would follow that perfection created God, and that perfection must have been caused and created by something else, and so o n and so forth, which would lead to an infinite regress. This idea therefore, does not have a straightforward cause and is false. Hume argues that we can conceive of something perfect without any bearing on its actual and immediate existence. It is logically possible that some ideas have no cause. If the idea of God has no cause, Descartes’ proposition is false and the argument fails. Another variation of this argument is that the idea that God cannot exist in Descartes’ mind unless God Himself put that idea there, and that God must have brought about Descartes’ existence; not himself, his parents or something else less than God, which does not have a power and perfection to cause this, neither could an infinite series of events, each causing the other but not able to cause the idea of God: â€Å"Altogether then, it must be concluded that the mere fact that I exist and I have within me the idea of the most perfect being, that is, God, provides a very clear proof that God indeed exists.† This can be summarised as: |(P5) |If the cause of Descartes’ idea of God must not come from himself, his parents, something else or infinite series of | | |events. | |(C4) |Then the cause of Descartes’ idea of God is God. | |(C3) |An infinite and perfect God exists in his idea. | |(P6) |Neither himself, his parents, something else, nor an infinite series of events causes Descartes’ existence. | |(C5) |Descartes’ existence is caused by God. | |(P7) |If God created Descartes. | |(C6) |Then God exists. | This argument depends more on assertion than logical progression, but Descartes goes on to try and prove through the ‘aetiological’ or ‘trademark argument’ that the presence of the idea of God in our mind means that God has stamped it there. It is innate and cannot be explained by experience. Descartes’ idea of God is clear and distinct, and by God he means infinity and perfection. This can be summarised as: |(P3) |Descartes has a clear and distinct idea of God. | |(P8) |Only something infinite and perfect can create something infinite and perfect. | |(P9) |The only infinite and perfect being is God. | |(C7) |The idea of God must be created by God (the same as C4 but reworded) | |(P3) |Descartes has a clear and distinct idea of God. | |(C8) |God exists clearly and distinctly in his idea (the same as C3 but reworded) | If both P3 and C8 are true, Descartes is guilty of circular reasoning (begging the question fallacy). This argument relies upon its conclusion. It also follows God exists only as an idea. However, Descartes claims that there are different kinds of clear and distinct perceptions; one that could be subjected to doubt, for instance: 1 + 1 = 2 is a judgement (which corresponds to things that exist independently of him) and can be doubted unless God confirms it, and, therefore, potentially doubtful. The other is that his clear and distinct perception that God exists is an idea with no judgement attached and somehow immune from doubt (he cannot be wrong about the contents of his own thoughts/ideas). This makes me think that Descartes awards himself the prerogative of distinguishing ideas that can be clearly and distinctly perceived from those which cannot. In this essay, and in Descartes’ meditation, the word ‘idea’ has come up numerous times. This leads me to conclude that the only proof that Descartes manages to establish is that God exists as an idea. He does not have to build the reality of God’s empirical existence into an idea that is already clear and distinct. However, it does not follow that anything represented by such an idea actually exists, except, of course, in the case of God (again, probably one of Descartes’ prerogatives). For example, within my reasoning, I possess the concept of God but do not have to believe that He exists; but as a believer, I may argue that God exists for reasons which our intellect cannot grasp. This requires a ‘leap of faith’ rather than hard evidence. Similarly, someone may argue that they can conceive of there being dragons. We all understand what dragons are, but do not necessarily believe they exist. It is probably therefore necessary to build empirical, actual existence into the argument to prove that anything exists in a concrete and meaningful way. Apart from the flaws identified in Descartes’ arguments, much of his reasoning seems sound and valid. He has established two fundamental truths: ‘I exist’ and ‘God exists’ to be logically necessary, clear and distinct ideas. So, as a matter of logic, it does not make sense to doubt the existence of the idea of God. However, Descartes’ argument does little to endorse my residual belief in God, which results from a convent education. The idea of God made in man’s image is comprehensible to most people. Indeed, â€Å"The idea of God is central to religion, and without it, religion would not exist.† (Mary Warnock). This is a perfectly valid argument but no proof of God’s existence outside the mind. Bibliography Burns, E. and Law, S. 2004. Philosophy for AS and A2. Oxon: Routledge Cottingham, C. 1996. Descartes Meditations of First Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Thornes, N. 2008. AQA Philosophy. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Ltd Vardy, P. 1999. The Puzzle of God. London: HarperCollins Publisher Warnock, M. 2010. Dishonest to God. London: Continuum International Publishing Group Online Textbook Pecorino, A (MD). 2001. Philosophy of Religion. Queensborough Community College, CUNY Website http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-meditations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causal_adequacy_principle Word Count 1,346 ———————– [1] CAP is a philosophical claim made by Descartes that the cause of an object must contain at least as much reality as the object itself, whether formally or eminently.

Hobbes vs. Thoreau

Thomas Hobbes’ book, Leviathan and Henry David Thoreau’s essay, Resistance to Civil Government could not be more opposed when it comes to looking at the social contract from a political philosophy viewpoint. On the one hand, Hobbes maintains that humanity’s utmost obligation is to submit oneself to the authority of the sovereign state. Thoreau, on the other hand, argues that under specific circumstances, it is humanity’s duty is to resist the state. This paper will argue that Hobbes does not succeed in establishing our obligation to submit to the sovereign’s authority.Instead it is Thoreau whom is correct that in certain circumstances we are obliged to resist the State. The two main issues with Hobbes’ reasoning in Leviathan regarding the sovereign authority stem from his explanations of the Laws of Nature and the power of the government. In Thoreau’s Resistance to Civil Government, these two issues are more adequately addressed. Befor e establishing the reasons why Thoreau’s views on the obligations of the citizen to the state are more correct than Hobbes’, it should be noted that Thoreau’s essay, Resistance to Civil Government was published 198 years after Leviathan.While Hobbes wrote Leviathan during the English Civil War, Thoreau wrote Resistance to Civil Government as an abolitionist during the time of the slavery crisis in New England and the Mexican-American war. Therefore the differences in social context of the two works are drastic. Not only was Leviathan regarded as one of the earliest works containing social contract theory, Hobbes himself is regarded as one of the key figures in the English Enlightenment, otherwise known as the Age of Reason.This context within which Hobbes thrived, and within which Leviathan was published is significant, because the philosophical method upon which Hobbes based Leviathan is modelled after a geometric proof, founded upon first principles and establ ished definitions. In this model, each argument makes conclusions based upon the previous argument. Hobbes wanted to produce irrefutable political philosophy in Leviathan by creating a model based on geometry because conclusions that are derived by geometry are supposed to be indisputable.However Hobbes’ book is far from indisputable, and much of its logic is not entirely sound. This is evident in a number of examples, but most prominent are the Laws of Nature and the power of the government. In order to better explain why Hobbes does not completely succeed in establishing the obligation people have to submit to the sovereign’s authority, a brief summary of Leviathan is necessary. In Leviathan, Hobbes sets out on an exploration of human nature, which eventually leads him to the conclusion that an absolutist state, where all power lies within the hands of the sovereign authority, is necessary.The reason that Hobbes feels absolutism is necessary is what he refers to as t he ‘state of nature’. The state of nature is used to explain the inherent qualities in man that makes him behave the way he does, outside of the boundaries and limits imposed by social law. For Hobbes, the state of nature consists of selfish men who will inevitably turn to violence in their quest to satisfy their own selfish needs. Therefore, because all people are inherently violent in the state of nature, all are also equal because no person is above or less capable of violence than anyone else.To the argument that some are physically stronger than others, Hobbes retorts that even those who are stronger are still vulnerable when sleeping. In this way, though all are equally violent, all are also equally vulnerable. However, man is also rational, and so in response to this vulnerability, man’s selfish desire to ensure his own life above all else, will lead them to put their faith into the social contract. The basis upon which the social contract is made necessar y, in other words, the state of nature, is what ultimately produces the Leviathan.Hobbes believes that in order to secure their own lives, people will automatically submit all of their freedom into the hands of the sovereign’s authority. One of the first aspects of Hobbes’ work that undermines his, mostly logically-sound Leviathan, concerns the Laws of Nature. Hobbes seems to take it for granted that all the people in a single state would agree with one another to submit all of their power to one authoritative entity, on the basis that they will realize it is in the best interest of their security.As professor Ian Johnston says, â€Å"If human beings are like sheep, I don't see why they need a ruler; if human beings are like wolves, I don't see how they will tolerate a ruler. † If, as Hobbes suggests, the state of nature is anarchy, then what aspect of nature drives all people to form a commonwealth? In this respect, it appears that Hobbes contradicts himself, f or he proclaims that man is brutish, violent, and only concerned with self-interest, however he is also reasonable enough to form a social ontract in which his own ease and commodious living is secured. In light of the latter characteristics of man that Hobbes describes, where man is rational enough to participate in such a social contract, the necessity of submitting oneself entirely to the sovereign authority is unfounded and too extreme. The second main issue with Leviathan concerns the power of the government. Hobbes fails to explain why people would trust an authority made up of other people, no different from themselves.If every person knows that their own inherent violence and selfishness is what necessitates total rule by an authoritative figure, would they not doubt the authority, assuming that the corruptness inside of them extends to said authority as well? Hobbes does not seem to consider this issue worth much in-depth consideration, for he does not believe that the sove reign authority would ever put the people in a situation where they need to defend themselves from the governing powers. According to Hobbes, the state will remain efficient because it recognizes its dependence upon the work of the citizens.In Hobbes’ words, â€Å"the private interest is the same with the public. The riches, power, and honour of a monarch arise only from the riches, strength and reputation of his subjects. For no king can be rich, nor glorious, nor secure, whose subjects are either poor, or contemptible, or too weak through want, or dissention, to maintain a war against their enemies. †Ã‚  However, the consequences on a person’s ability to produce wealth for a country is not the only concern for a state in which all the power rests within the hands of a sovereign authority.Hobbes answer does not reach any further into the moral or human rights of the citizens, which are much more vulnerable to being infringed upon in an absolutist state. Hobbes neglects to address this because he believes that the state would not attack these rights based on the fact that it would potentially produce chaos, which is the exact opposite of what the sovereign authority is meant to do. It is clear that for Hobbes, the dangers of a tyrannical sovereign are more appealing than the absence of any sovereign, or in other words, a society left to the state of nature.While having some form of government, as opposed to rampant violence, is preferable, it is unnecessary for the citizens to relinquish all freedom to the authority of the sovereign, as Hobbes suggests. It would have been impossible for Hobbes to predict the political evolution of modern states. However his description of the benefits of the absolutist state hint at modern examples of states where all the power has been concentrated into a single, sovereign authority, leading to the extreme corruption that Hobbes believed it would eradicate.The 20th century is full of examples of this; how ever one that particularly exemplifies the dangers of total submission to the state is Fascist Italy, ruled absolutely by Benito Mussolini from the early 1920s to the mid 1940s. Instead of aiding the state and its people, Mussolini created an illusion of what the common good really was, in order to enforce his own, absolute power. This lead to a significant decrease in security and loss of many human lives, which seems to indicate that submitting all power to the state, can lead people back into Hobbes’ ‘state of nature’, instead of out of it.While Hobbes’ endorsement of absolutism may have noble aims for humanity, when looked at from its primal and organic intentions, often absolutism results in the violent enforcing of rules or ideologies upon people, which is in itself a loss of security, and form of inhumane chaos. In a reaction to the rampant slavery in America during the 19th century and the Mexican-American war, Thoreau wrote the essay Resistance to Civil Government, hoping to encourage people to trust their own consciences over the rule of the law enforced by the government.Thoreau believes that mans best service to one’s own country paradoxically takes the form of resistance against it, if one feels that the government is supporting unjust or immoral laws. Subverting to the government, no matter what, or out of the necessity of obligation is to the detriment of the state and society, according to Thoreau. Instead, it is better to work to build a better one in the long term, even if that means chaos or anarchy in the form of revolution n the short-term.Though Thoreau’s views seem much more modern than Hobbes, Thoreau does doubt the effectiveness of democracy, or rather the reform of a government from within the government. Believing that voting and petitioning for change to be inefficient, Thoreau feels that one cannot truly see the government for what it is when one is working with it, and therefore one also ca nnot effect change when working with the government. In sharp contrast to Hobbes’ views on the role of the government, Thoreau not only proclaims, â€Å"that government is best which governs least†, but even going so far as to say, â€Å"that government is best which governs not at all. This is an example of where finding the middle ground between Hobbes and Thoreau is useful. While Hobbes may be correct that some form of government is necessary to a level of order within the state, Thoreau’s reasoning for why the government can be interfering can be found in modern example of politics. According to Thoreau, the government is used by a certain group of people to impose on others for their own personal gains. In this way, the government aids the success of those who control the state while impeding the success of those who are imposed upon.This view on the government can find itself exemplified in specific aspects of the American government. Though the role of t he government is to secure the safety and rights of all its citizens equally, many had dubbed the 20th century as an era of ‘corporatism’ for America, securing only the interests of companies. Corporatism, in terms of politics, is when wealth is used as a tool by corporations to sway the government in the direction of their own private interests. The overwhelming dominance of corporations can spread beyond politics, into many aspects of society.There are a number of negative effects of corporatism for the ‘common man’, such as pervasiveness on works unions, the increase in taxes coming out of citizens pockets in order to provide direct outlays, the subsidizing of unsubsidized jobs, the erosion of virtue within commerce, etc. Thoreau would have agreed with this notion of ‘corporate America’ for he believed the government to be like a machine, in which injustice is an inevitable component. Thoreau did not intend to ‘demonize’ the Ame rican government, but rather to shed light on what he felt was a total lack of agency or usefulness.This example establishes a modern framework for Thoreau’s argument that the government is not infallible, and how the role of the government sometimes necessitates resistance. As Hobbes would state, it is a natural part of being human to look out for one’s best interest. However, like his views on the role of the government, Thoreau’s view on the nature of men appears to also be more correct, in light of current or historical politics. In other words, chaos is not always best dealt with by being replaced by subservience, but by resistance and a change in ideological structure.Another current example of the validity behind Thoreau’s argument can be found in the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring refers to the movement of uprisings that arose and spread across the Arab world in 2011. It led to many revolutionary outcomes, such as the first free Tunisian election in October; the Egyptian president Mubarak being displaced by a pro-democracy movement; the toppling of dictator Gadhafi, liberation of Libya, and the removal of the ban on Libyan political parties; and the authoritarian leader of Jordan being forced to replace his government.None of these movements would have been possible without people’s willingness to fight to bring some of the power away from the government, and into their own hands. As if often the case with political philosophy, both Hobbes’ and Thoreau’s views are best when aspects of both theorists are taken and combined. When the absolutist nature of the government Hobbes’ argues for is taken away, his belief that a governing entity is required for maintaining a certain, and desirable, level of order becomes more valid.However in order to ensure that the rights and of citizens are protected, Thoreau is correct in arguing that resistance to an unjust government is the only way to ensure a just gove rnment. However, between Hobbes’ Leviathan, and Thoreau’s Resistance to Civil Government, the latter is more successful in establishing a sound view on the social contract. Thoreau’s advocates the evolution, and not destruction of the government.Therefore his argument that the government should be one that is capable of improvement based on the needs of the people, and his argument that people should embrace chaos if it means a just and moral reform of the government succeeds more than the arguments of Hobbes. Bibliography Bird, Alexander. â€Å"Squaring the Circle: Hobbes on Philosophy and Geometry. † Journal of the History of Ideas. 10. 1 (1996): 217-231. Germino, Dante. â€Å"Italian Fascism in the History of Political Thought. † Midwest Journal of Political Science. 8. 2 (1964): 109-126. Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. London: Penguin Books, 1968/1651. Johnston, Ian. â€Å"Four Problems in Theory. On Hobbes Leviathon. Created December 2002. Accesse d November 2012. Keller, Ever. â€Å"In the service of â€Å"truth† and victory†: Geometry and rhetoric in the political works of Thomas Hobbes. † Prose Studies: History, Theory Criticism. 15. 2 (2008): 129-152. May, Larry. Ethics in the History of Western Philosophy. New York: MacMillan/St. Martin’s Press, 1990. Owen, Judd J. â€Å"The Tolerant Leviathan: Hobbes and the Paradox of Liberalism. † Polity. 37. 1 (2005): 130-148. Schmitter, Philippe C. â€Å"Still the Century of Corporatism? † The Review of Politics. 36. 1 (1974): 85-131.Thoreau, Henry David. â€Å"Resistance to Civil Government. † The Picket Line. Work written 1894. Accessed October 2012. Turner, Jack. â€Å"Performing Conscience: Thoreau, Political Action, and the Plea for John Brown. † Sage Publications, Inc. 33. 4 (2005): 448-471 Woods, Thomas E. â€Å"The Cultural Costs of Corporatism: How Government-Business Collusion Denigrates the Entrepreneur and Rewards the Sycophant. † First Principles: ISI Web Journal. Accessed November 2012.