Macroeconomics. The financial elements Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Macroeconomics. The financial elements - Essay Example If everybody in the population starts saving the money, then ideally that should result in an overall higher levels of savings. But John Maynard Keynes, the famous economist, studied this very aspect of thrift and pointed out an interesting paradox. Keynes inferred that if everyone starts saving during times of recession then that would result in falling of the aggregate demand, which in turn will result in lowering the value of total savings in the population and leads to fall in economic growth. He meant to say that thrift is virtuous only up to a limit. The paradox is that an increase in saving, which is a recommended microeconomic strategy when individuals encounter problems, is not the best macroeconomic course of action for the aggregate economy1. Therefore, when people try to increase their savings, it may lead to decrease in the levels of autonomous consumption which in turn will decrease the equilibrium income, thus decreasing the induced savings. This way the two components of the savings tend to cancel out each other, implying that even though people tried to increase their savings, the result happened to be a drop in equilibrium income and a 'no change' in savings. That means trying to save more doesn't necessarily result in more saving. It results, instead, in less income out of which to save. Some of the steps involved in this situation and the effects that a chain reaction sets out after such a paradox are; Everybody starts saving his money without spending any of their income. The markets remain idle, as there are no customers and nothing is being sold. Since nothing is being sold, the shop owner starts feeling the pinch and fires his sales-boys and sales-girls. Gradually everyone loses their job. Similarly the production of goods also comes to a halt, and there too employees start loosing their jobs. There is no income as such And since there's no income there is no saving as well. That effectively results in zero savings. This is what John Maynard Keynes studied and objected to. This can further be demonstrated with the help of the Injections-Leakages Model diagrams as shown in the following figures; Fig: The Injections-Leakages Model The two figures shown here depict the paradox of thrift in a convincing manner. For example, if to start with the saving line indicated by 'S' has a positive slope showing gradual increase in savings from a negative saving figure (i.e. expenditure) to a positive saving figure, then the equilibrium of production is achieved by a production of $12 trillion i.e. at the intersection of S and I. Now, anticipating an impending recession, the community (or group of consumers) start increasing their levels of saving i.e. they are now little more on the thrifty side, by curtailing their expenditure plans. Therefore, the community is able to save an amount of $1 trillion more (see fig-2). The saving line is shifted upward and so the point of equilibrium is also shifted. The new saving line intersects original investment line at $8 trillion of aggregate production. This new equilibrium is therefore $4 trillion less than the original equilibrium. As compared to an increase in net saving by $1 tr illion, there is a

LAN & WAN Design Essay Example for Free

LAN WAN Design Essay A little bit of background follows. Crystal Limited is an award winning design consultancy with many years experience in creating hotel, leisure and retail environments for design led clients worldwide. The company is currently experiencing growth and is opening new offices in major UK locations. Funding has been released for improvements to its network services. A key requirement is the network design should provide a high level of reliability and scalability to meet the needs of future growth. Ethernet hubs are typically used to connect workstations to the network, and the Nottingham, Liverpool, Leeds and Derby offices are equipped with a modern cabling infrastructure which is adequate for supporting a modern campus network. However the Manchester headquarters uses a legacy category 3 cabling infrastructure which was pre-installed in the building. Employees at the Manchester site report frequent problems with performance and network failures. Each site has a single flat IP address space. Currently, Crystal Limited has a contract with a single ISP. The current link is a 2 Mbps circuit provisioned to the Manchester headquarters. The ISP has assigned a subnet of 201. 19. 0. 0/29 for the internet connection. The Crystal router should be configured with the highest usable address within the subnet. The ISP router has been configured with the lowest usable address. Crystal uses the Internet connection for web browsing and corporate e-mail. The corporate e-mail server should be situated inside a separate subnet attached to the Crystal perimeter router. It should be reachable from the Internet at a fixed address. 2. Proposed Approach Crystal Limited requires a design for a major network upgrade. The solution should support current levels of staff and a projected increase of 25% over the next year. High availability is a key requirement, so it is expected that redundancy will be factored into the design of the solution. The design should include both LAN and WAN infrastructures, a network addressing scheme which covers the entire solution and routing protocols. There are some specific additional requirements which must be incorporated into the proposal. Crystal Limited are requesting you provide a Network Design Document for a solution which meets the requirements below. A good response like the one below not just say what or how, but it also states why. In other words it attempts to: fully explain and justify important design and implementation decisions; look at alternatives; and even explain why something does not work, and in a commercial context often, it is asked, why us? The element of explaining â€Å"why† implicitly provides one with a vehicle to demonstrate one’s expertise and knowledge. The response below will also set out important assumptions that have been made, identification of important limitations with the following solutions (e. g. requirements not met), and even unique features and additional advantages should be examined which are offered by these proposed solutions. The following is a narrative that provides easy traceability to customer requirements. †¢ The ability to: conceal the details of the customers’ addressing scheme from the internet, allow web browsing; allow for the corporate e-mail server to be reachable on the Internet. This will be achieved by making sure an effective plan is put in place so that customers’ information can be protected. The addressing scheme can be placed on a server on the Internet so that any information is password-protected. In this way, many people will be able to use the system without fear of retribution or having to worry that someone else will access their information. Many times what is necessary in order to protect a network is the ability to make sure that it is secure in every sense of the word. Firewalls should be used in order to ensure that there are no malicious malwares or annoying pop-ups on the server. This would allow for a decent amount of web browsing in a safe manner for all users who would be employed at Crystal. Safe web browsing is important in any kind of company structure. In order to proffer web browsing that is safe for the entire company, it is important to lay groundwork or rules as to how company Internet usage can be utilized. First of all, employees should be made aware of the fact that certain web sites are banned from being viewed, such as any web site which has pornographic or otherwise inappropriate content. Secondly, employees should be made aware of the dangers of opening attachments from any outside third parties. Many a computer virus or worm has been spread through one person’s opening of attachments. That is why it is important to stress to employees the necessity of not opening attachments. The corporate e-mail server will also be able to be available on the Internet through creating a LAN network that would be for the various corporate offices individually. Then, a WAN network would be created in order to unite all the LAN’s that would be created for the company’s individual offices. The corporate e-mail would be on a main server at some remote location. This would be so that if there were ever any type of problem, the server could be easily accessed. The difference between LAN’s and WAN’s will be discussed later on in the paper. †¢ A resilient wide area infrastructure which will allow each site to connect to the Manchester headquarters should there be a failure in the leased line network shown above. In the event of a link failure the network should be able to begin using an alternate link within 10 seconds. There should definitely be a link that the server could revert to should the main site being maintained should fail. †¢ A design for a cabling infrastructure which will solve the current problems within the Manchester office. A cabling infrastructure would have to be designed which would not be very invasive and addressed all the problems corollary to this type of set-up. †¢ The network addressing scheme should be based upon a class B network address which will not clash with existing addresses already used by organizations connected to the Internet. The addressing scheme should be adequate to provide addressing for the projected staff numbers mentioned above – however the customer would like the remainder of the address space to be conserved for future use. Please note that the addressing scheme must cover all local area segments and wide area links. The addressing scheme should be varied enough not to clash with other networks, but should be distinct enough so that the company’s addressing scheme is separate from the others. †¢ Traffic from each department should be logically separated from other departments. Your LAN solution should allow the movement of users from one physical location to another within their building. Such a move should not require IP settings to be reconfigured on the users’ workstation. IP settings should be discretely separated and used as needed. Web traffic should be encouraged but each office’s traffic should be separated. The LAN should be set up in such a way so that users are not confined to one place in the computer lab, but can actually move around without fear that their information will be compromised. †¢ Network diagrams which show the layer 3 topology of the WAN and LANs, (including active networking devices).

Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management

Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management Compare and contrast the key features of the academic fields Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management (HRM) respectively. The fields of Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management have been subjects of intense academic study since the time of their inception. Management literature is rich with varied definitions and diverse range of opinions that exist regarding the focus and the scope of these two academic fields. Industrial relations focuses primarily on the regulation, control and governance of the employment relationship. (BUIRA, 2008). The field has more of a pluralistic stance and focuses not just on the workers and the management but also on the state and other institutions influencing the employment relationship. Human Resource Management is A distinctive approach to employment management which seeks to achieve competitive advantage through the strategic deployment of a highly structured and capable workforce using an array of cultural, structural and personnel techniques. (Storey 1995:5). Although originally HRM was considered as one of the branches of IR, it is now recognized as a separ ate field of study. Many argue that HRM being rooted just in psychology and organizational sociology has a much narrower focus in contrast to IR which is a multi-disciplinary field of study.HRM is seen as concerned with just one aspect of industrial relations, that is regulation of employment relationship. It does not take into consideration the dynamics of this relationship nor does it account for the institutional and outside forces that have a determining effect on this relationship. (Rubery and Grimshaw 2003, Blyton and Turnbull 2004, Rubery, Earnshaw and Marchington 2005).Rather its marriage with just the welfare of the firm has come under severe criticism. The field of industrial relations is seen as being better empowered in addressing this problem. The primary objective of human resource management is to achieve viability and maximization of profits. The management seeks to establish a cost-effective system of labour management. (Geare 1977, Osterman 1987, Godard 2001). It tries to attain competitive advantage and flexibility such that the management gains enough power to function autonomously. It thus seeks to promote better organizational performance. Whereas the field of industrial relations is also concerned with enhancing the performance of the organization it also gives due weightage to maximizing the welfare of the employees, recognizing that labour is not a commodity but a valued asset of production. This however does not mean that HRM is not concerned with employee betterment. On the contrary it sees a direct link between organizational growth and employee welfare with the former leading to the latter. Hence it focuses on the former, thinking that the latter will automatically be taken care of. Both the fields of HRM and Industrial Relations while recognizing the value of human potential to contribute to the efficiency of the organization, have different pathways of achieving their goal. With a single-minded goal of better organizational performance, HRM may at times neglect or may even exploit these resources. In contrast the industrial relations system recognizing the existence of inherent conflicts between the organizations goals and workers welfare is based upon trade union representation and collective bargaining giving the employees a platform to voice their grievances. (BUIRA, 2008). HRM downplays these conflicts and instead focuses its attention on recruitment, selection, training and other parameters vital to organizational success. The field of industrial relations relies heavily on the rules and procedures laid down by the state to address any issues associated with the employment relationship. HRM, on the other hand does not follow any said rules. Instead it focuses on the best way to use human resources through effective recruitment, selection, training, appraisal, motivation and cooperation. (Silva, ). For HRM, managing culture is more important than just restricting itself to rules and regulations. (Storey, 2001) The field of industrial relations says power is inherent in the employment relationship.(BUIRA 2008:3)Thus employees are usually at the receiving end in terms of wage differentials and inequalities prevalent in the workplace. For this reason a number of laws and regulations are in place in many countries to undermine managerial authority. However the notion of power varies from organization to organization. HRM also recognizes the existence of this power relationship. However its treatment of it is rather different. The management of work and people in the firm involves strategic tensions including trade-offs between employer and employee interests. (Boxall and Purcell, 2008). HRM tries to use this power in ways that enables the organization to function more effectively. The management shares knowledge which results in high level of trust and commitment among the employees. HRM has more of an individualistic orientation and links rewards and pay to performance, a feature which is abs ent in industrial relations. HRM sees conflicts as an infrequent part of the employment relationship between the management and the workers and precisely so, because both the management and workers have the same interests. It is left to the management to provide a reasonable solution to these problems in case they arise and this is done by providing higher wages or training which may result in employment security.HRM does not rely on mediation or any sort of third-party intervention. It is more concerned with employee commitment rather than compliance. (Marchington and Wilkinson,2008).On the other hand the field of industrial relations emphasizes on the role of collective bargaining and trade unions to address these conflicts. Management is not looked upon for solutions as they are seen to be biased and more concerned with curbing workers voice. HRM gives management the most dominating role, considering it to be the be all and end all of all decisions while governments and trade unions only play a limited role. It is the management that is solely seen as being responsible for organization efficiency or inefficiency. Whereas, industrial relations sees the management, government and trade unions as being equal partners in shaping the direction of the firm. Thus, it just does not restrict itself to workers and management but all those who are affected by the employment relationship. The academic field of industrial relations encourages students to think out of the box and to engage in critical and reflective thinking. (BUIRA, 2008). The complexities involved in the employment relationship and the factors outside the workplace shaping this are looked at, to form an intelligent and well-informed decision to tackle with irregularities in the workplace. The issues of ethnicity, gender inequality, power are all taken into account which are issues not generally included in the HRM domain. The field of industrial relations inculcates a sense of enquiry into the student to question and seek answers to those questions. Although the fields of industrial relations and human resource management have differing interests, there are many areas where their interests coincide. Ultimately both the fields are concerned with achieving organizational efficiency and we should seek to attain a symbiotic relationship between the two with the two completing rather than competing with each other. The debate surrounding the field of industrial relations that it is now outdated and that the problems of human factor at work are better addressed by novel new approaches such as Human Resource Management is redundant. (Colling and Terry, 2010). The collectivistic nature of the field of industrial relations should supplement the individualistic outlook of HRM. It is essential to treat the employment relationship as complex and study it within a particular social context. A thorough understanding of both would facilitate a better understanding of the theoretical and practical problems that underpin relationships at workpla ce. (Marchington and Wilkinson, 2008)

Essay on Benefits and Dangers of Virtual Reality :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Benefits and Dangers of Virtual Reality Although still in its, infancy, virtual reality will have a substantial effect on our future way of life. Virtual reality already has made astounding progress in the world of commercial design, and it is predicted to have a tremendous impact on everyday life as well. Virtual reality, when more available, will have various uses ranging from recreation to basic communication. The applications of virtual reality into different fields of occupations and research will have both positive and negative effects on our society. Virtual reality can be defined as a, "technology that enables users to enter computer generated worlds and interface with them three dimensionally through sight, sound, and touch" (Newquist 93). Virtual reality combines computer simulation and visualization into a single, coherent whole (Peterson 8). Researchers say it embodies an attempt to eliminate the traditional distinction between the user and the machine. Virtual reality is intended to provide a means of naturally and intelligently interacting with information (8). Virtual reality is contending to be the interface of the future, allowing ordinary users to use their senses to interact with complex data. Virtual reality is a new exploration in science and technology using advanced and complex mechanics. Virtual reality allows for users to go far beyond simply looking at a computer screen. Instead, the user puts on a special suit or gloves equipped with fiber-optic sensors. These fiber-optic sensors are able to interpret body positions. The user also wears special goggles that have video screens and audio attachments. This equipment allows for the user's complete immersion into a 3-D, computer generated, model of reality (Carr 37). The use of a two-way data transfer is what enables this interaction with an alternate reality to occur. Fiber-optic and electronic cables are attached to the virtual reality equipment in order to record the user's movements (Newquist 93). These cables then send this information, called motion data, to workstations which modifies the graphics in the model. The new information is then sent back to the users headset, displaying a graphic and audio world that i s time with his or her movements. It is because of this cabling process that the action/reaction information is continually updated (93). In order to effectively create a 3-D environment for the user, virtual reality combines the elements of immersion and interactivity. Immersion is the user's contact with the virtual reality with as many senses as possible including; sight, hearing, and touch.

Introduction to Sociology Essay

Essay Questions 1. Develop the differences among the three theoretical approaches by applying each to the family. In each case, how do we understand a family and its operation? 2.Imagine that you were asked by another student, â€Å"What would be the benefits of taking a course in sociology?† Explain how and why sociology can transform the way someone sees the world. 3. The sociological perspective helps us recognize that the lives of individuals are shaped by the forces of society. Explain, in a short essay, how the sociological perspective reveals â€Å"the general in the particular.† To illustrate, explain how society plays a part in your own decision to attend college. 4. Outline the ten steps in the process of carrying out sociological investigation. You may use the format presented in the text; that is, what specific questions must be answered as a researcher moves along? 5. How and why is gender important in research? What are some of the problems in research that involve gender? How about race and ethnicity? Why might a researcher need to take race and ethnicity into account when planning research with a specific category of people? 6. How does ideal culture differ from real culture? Illustrate your essay using three examples of how ideal and real culture differ in Saudi society. 7. Drawing on the ideas of Lenski, Marx, Weber, and Durkheim, cite ways in which one might claim modern society is better than societies in the past. In what ways might any of these thinkers see modern society as getting worse? 8. What would Marx propose as a solution to the problem of alienation? What would Weber propose as a solution to the same problem as he understood it? What would Durkheim propose as a solution to the problem of anomie? Which of these three problems do you think is the most serious in today’s world? Why? How might you address these three issues? 9.Explain the nature-nurture debate. How did Sigmund Freud and George Herbert Mead take different position in this debate? 10.Based on everything you have read in this chapter, write an essay in which you state your own position on the degree to which human beings can claim to have freedom. Provide specific references to chapter material in your essay.

Clash of titans: East vs. West

Europe includes an immense diversity of cultures and languages that developed side by side; Asia on the other hand had been developing on its own for centuries before Europe began to evolve. So how did the â€Å"peninsula of Asia†, become not only a strong force in the West, but a global power. Through the different articles we read, Illustrated History of Europe, Roberts' A History of Europe, Davies' Europe: A History, Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel, Landes' The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, and Hanson's Carnage and Culture one can understand how and why the later developing Europe became the dominate power over the already powerful Asia. The Illustrated History of Europe calls Europe a divided continent, but one civilization. Europe's wide plains, for example the Great Northern Plain, only aid to an easy invasion from the east which happened numerous times throughout Europe's history. Europe also has a high diversity of languages, 43 in total, that were originated from Sanskrit. Because of this, Europe's language, in written from, is based on a consonantal system rather than that of an ideographic system such as the Chinese use. This article broke down Europe's civilization into three different bases: democracy originating from the Greeks, law coming from the Romans, and finally, the value of individualism and liberty derived from the Christians. Roberts and Davies mainly describe Europe's geography and how it affected the development of the people within. Roberts described Europe as a â€Å"peninsula of Asia†, being surrounded on its boundaries, primarily by water. This was why Europe was able to develop on its own. The bodies of water, plus the plains and heavily forested inner regions, caused people to become very isolated from one another thus letting them make their own decisions and also forming their own languages. Western Europe's temperate climate aided by the Gulf Stream kept its environment mild year round, plus with the addition of a good amount of rain made it easy to farm without irrigation. Central and Eastern Europe were not as lucky, however, because they experienced fluctuations in temperature and rainfall. Diamond discussed how the â€Å"creation† of the farmer through the domestication of plants and animals led to the development of guns, germs, and steel. He compared the â€Å"hunter/gather† peoples with the â€Å"food producing† peoples, to demonstrate the benefit of the farmer. With a farming group, one could devote one's time to other jobs, and thus become â€Å"specialists†. These specialists could master an art or trade instead of spending time searching for food, and eventually evolved to become the kings, bureaucrats, soldiers, priests, and artisans. The domestications of plants and animals was an integral part of the development of the farming culture over that of the hunting culture. For example, the peapod when it is ripe will â€Å"explode† and drop its seeds onto the ground. The only thing left on the plant after this occurs are the pea pods that did not explode. Thus those were the ones which we were able to eat because they were the only ones we were able to gather. We would therefore only disperse the seeds of the â€Å"non-exploding† pea pods through our excrement or our garbage dumps. In the end the hunter/gatherers will eventually die out because they do not have the steel to make tools as well as the weapons that the farmers have and thus will, in time, be destroyed. Latitude played a huge role in the rise of farmers in Europe. Due to the similar latitude throughout Europe the growing season is relatively the same, along with a relatively equal climate. The easy spread of germs came about because people lived in crowded villages where a disease could simply pass from one household to another. Plus with the domestication of animals, the animals now lived in close quarters to the people and thus contributed to the spread of diseases. When the European explorers introduced germs to the Native Americans, many Native Americas were killed because they didn't have the built up resistance because of the lack of domesticated animals. Because of Europe's close proximity to animals many of the world's diseases have originated there. The Fertile Crescent was a very ecologically fragile area. It ended up being destroyed due to deforestation, and erosion, as well as other factors and now is mainly desert. The Great Man theory said that a few great men can influence the events of history. One of the main reasons Europe â€Å"outdid† China was because of Europe was fragmented, whereas China was totally united, this basically meant that competition could flourish while in China what was said was unquestioned. Landes covered some of what was in the Roberts article as well as what was in the Davies article. He discussed the Gulf Stream and the immense forests, but he also pointed out facts about riverside civilizations. People gathered around rivers because they not only provided water, but also a mode of transportation. Riverside civilizations, because of their strategic importance were, however, more likely to have a ruler. In riverside civilizations if the ruler needed money or more land then he would just take what they wanted from the people. As far as property goes in the West, where there was no need for riverside civilizations due to the temperate climate and abundant rainfall, there was a deep commitment to private property; so much so that even kings did not take their subjects property. During the period of 1000 – 1500 AD, five â€Å"great† inventions were made. These inventions were deemed the â€Å"inventions of inventions†. The inventions were the mechanical clock, gunpowder, eyeglasses, printing, and the water wheel. Gunpowder, in China was used as a defense, but in the European's hands it became an offensive weapon. Eyeglasses â€Å"created† an additional work force from the many people who had poor eyesight but were in overall good physical condition. Printing was used to spread knowledge, so ideas no longer had to be passed by word of mouth. The water wheel became an addition source of power. The mechanical clock, in my opinion the most important, kept people task oriented, and because people always want the most accurate time we kept improving upon it and it turn improved upon all inventions. This was the economic revolution, which was only comparable to when humans went from hunter/gatherers to food producers. Hanson stated that the reason the West fought so well was because Europeans fought for their own land. Peoples in the West had a voice in what happened, militarily and politically, whereas peoples in the east had none. An example of this would be the battle of Salamis, the Greek soldiers got together only hours before the battle to decide if fighting this fight was really worth it. On the Persian side, however, the soldiers had no say in it, and fought that battle not necessarily wanting to fight for the cause. Due to the West's freedom, private property, domestication of plants and animals and the movement from hunter/gatherers to food producers were all factors why the less developed Europe came to overpower the already strong Asia. If Asia had had a these â€Å"fundamentals† as did the West think how different the world would be.