Mass Spectrometer

Research Task On Mass Spectrometer When was the first mass spectrometer made and by who? Find an example of a mass spectrogram for an element and explain how it is used to find the relative atomic mass of that element. A solid disk of unknown mass ad known radius R is used as a pulley in a lab experiment, as shown. A small block of mass m is attached to a a lab experiment, as shown. A small block of mass m is attached to a string, the other end of which is attached to the pulley and wrapped around it several times. The block of mass m is released from rest and takes a time t to fall the distance D to the floor. econds before the plane is directly overhead? 14) Johnny Rockabilly has just finished recording his latest CD. The company can produce the CD with no fixed cost and a variable cost of company can produce the CD with no fixed cost and a variable cost of $5 per CD. A) Find total revenue for quantity equal to 10,000, 20,000, and so on. What is the marginal revenue for each 10,000 increase in the quantity sold? B) What quantity of CDs would maximize profit? What would the price be? What would the profit be? C) If you were Johnny†s agent, what recording fee would you advise Johnny to demand from the record company?Why? 15) A pop singer has a monopoly over a scarce†¦ if a nation's real GDP increases from 100 billion to 106 billion and its population jumps from 200 million to 212 million, its real GDP per its population jumps from 200 million to 212 million, its real GDP per capita will†¦ 2. What were the risks associated with outsourcing to Flextronics? Did Microsoft mitigate these risks? Do you think Microsoft would have Did Microsoft mitigate these risks? Do you think Microsoft would have been better off making the Xbox itself?

Should Countries Encourage Tourism?

Nowadays, it is almost a routine, that people every year go to holydays. Often they travel to the places abroad. These places are often very popular and well-known. Even though these places are popular, the countries still promote them and want more people to come. This is because tourism is very important for the economy but not in all cases for the citizens. If so, should countries encourage tourism? Firstly, tourism leads to the development of the country. The desire to attract tourists to a certain area often encourages governments to improve local facilities which is beneficial for both, citizens and tourists. On the other hand, the development of the country must be somehow controlled and planned in such a way, it does not destroy the natural beauty of the country. Over-development leads to ugly, crowded tourist spots and environmental damage. Consequently, the development if necessary but is has to be done thoroughfully. Secondly, tourism has some positive and negative effects on a country’s economy. Many people claim that tourism is an important source of income. This is illustrated by the fact that in the touristic countries are very few possibilities to find a job not connected with tourism. Nevertheless, country’s economy may become so dependent on tourism that it is weakened and when something unexpected happens, for example a natural disaster, that tourist do not arrive for a long time, the country is helpless because of lack of resources. Thirdly, tourism greatly influences the citizens’ culture. Tourism allows people to experience other cultures. They may see how foreigners behave, what clothes they wear or what are their customs. However, this impact of tourism may destroy the local way of life. For instance the customs of the local people may simply disappear and be displaced by those brought by the foreigners and the local uniqueness changes into cultural mixture. To conclude, there are arguments to both, that countries should and should not encourage tourism. On the one hand, we have economic advantages and possibilities to experience other cultures. On the other hand, tourism overused may lead to the economic weakness of a country and to permanent changes of the local culture.

American Temperance Society

The American Temperance Society (ATS), first known as the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance, was established in Boston, Massachusetts on February 13, 1826. The organization was co-founded by two Presbyterian ministers, Dr. Justin Edwards and the better-known Lyman Beecher. * Formation of the American Temperance Society marked the beginning of the first formal national temperance movement in the US. * The Temperance Movement was an organized effort during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to limit or outlaw the consumption and production of alcoholic beverages in the United States. By the mid 1830s, more than 200,000 people belonged to this organization. The American Temperance Society published tracts and hired speakers to depict the negative effects of alcohol upon people. Lyman Beecher was a prominent theologian, educator and reformer in the years before the American Civil War. * Lyman Beecher was a prominent theologian, educator and reformer in the years before the American Civil War. Beecher was born in 1775, in New Haven, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale College in 1797 and was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in 1799. He became a minister in Long Island, New York. In 1810, he accepted a position as minister in Litchfield, Connecticut. He became well known for his fiery sermons against intemperance and slavery. In 1826, he resigned his position in Litchfield and accepted a new one in Boston, Massachusetts. By this point, his reputation had spread across the United States. The church in Boston had more money to pay a minister of his standing. It also had a much larger congregation. In 1830, Beecher's church caught fire. A merchant who rented some rooms in the church stored whiskey in the basement. The whiskey somehow ignited. Beecher took this as a personal affront considering the sermons he delivered in the church's sanctuary against the evils of liquor. Neal Dow, temperance reformer, born in Portland, Maine, 20 March 1804. He is of Quaker parentage, attended the Friends' academy in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and was trained in mercantile and manufacturing pursuits. He was chief engineer of the Portland fire department in 1839, and in 1851 and again in 1854 was elected mayor of the City. He became the champion of the project for the prohibition of the liquor traffic, which was first advocated y James Appleton in his report to the Maine legislature in 1837, and in various speeches while a member of that body. * Through Mr. Dow's efforts, while he was mayor, the Maine liquor law, prohibiting under severe penalties the sale of intoxicating beverages, was passed in 1851. After drafting the bill, which he called â€Å"A bill for the suppression of drinking houses and tippling shops,† he submitted it to the principal friends of temperance in the City, but they all objected to its radical character, as certain to insure its defeat. It provided for the search of places where it was suspected that liquors intended for sale were kept, for the seizure, condemnation, and confiscation of such liquors, if found; and for the punishment of the persons keeping them by fine and imprisonment. Maine Law of 1851, The law was forced into existence by the mayor of Portland, Neal S. Dow. Its passage prohibited the sale of alcohol except for medical or manufacturing purposes. By 1855, there were 12 states in the U. S who joined Maine in what became known as the â€Å"dry† states. And the states which allowed alcohol were dubbed â€Å"wet† states. – The act was very unpopular among many working class people and many immigrants. That is when opposition to the law turned deadly by June 2, 1855 in Portland, Maine. It was rumored that Neal S. Dow was keeping a vast supply of alcohol within the city while denying it to the citizens of Portland. He was then called the â€Å"Napoleon of Temperance,† and to others, an unadulterated hypocrite. The alcohol which was allowed into Portland was supposed to be used for medicinal and mechanical reasons were valued at about $1,600. It was distributed to doctors and pharmacists as authorized by the Maine law. – The Irish immigrant population of Portland, Maine was vocal critics of the Maine Law. They saw it as a thinly disguised attack on their culture based on stereotypes. The Irish community already distrusted Neal S. Dow. The Maine law that Dow sponsored had a mechanism whereby any three voters could apply for a search warrant based on suspicion of someone illegally selling liquor. † The Father of American Education†,† Horace Mann, was born in Franklin, Massachusetts, in 1796. Mann's schooling consisted only of brief and erratic periods of eight to ten weeks a year. Mann educated himself by reading ponderous volumes from the Franklin Town Library. This self education, combined with the fruits of a brief period of study with an intinerant school master, was sufficient to gain him admission to the sophomore class of Brown University in 1816†³ (4, Cremin). He went on to study law at Litchfield Law School and finally received admission to the bar in 1823 (15, Filler). In the year 1827 Mann won a seat in the state legislature and in 1833 ran for State Senate and won. Horace Mann felt that a common school would be the â€Å"great equalizer. † Poverty would most assuredly disappear as a broadened popular intelligence tapped new treasures of natural and material wealth. He felt that through education crime would decline sharply as would a host of moral vices like violence and fraud. In sum, there was no end to the social good which might be derived from a common school -In 1848 Mann resigned as Secretary of Education and went on to the U. S. House of Representatives and then took the post of President of Antioch College in 1852. He stayed at the college until his death in August 27, 1859. Two months before that he had given his own valedictory in a final address to the graduating class; † I beseech you to treasure up in your hearts these my parting words: Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for Humanity† (27, Cremin). – Mann had won his victory as the public school soon stood as one of the characteristic features of American life – A â€Å"wellspring† of freedom and a â€Å"ladder of opportunity† for millions. William McGuffey, U. S. educator remembered chiefly for his series of elementary readers. McGuffey taught in the Ohio frontier schools and then at Miami University (1826 – 36). His elementary school series, starting with The Eclectic First Reader, was published between 1836 and 1857. Collections of didactic tales, aphorisms, and excerpts from great books, the readers reflect McGuffey's view that the proper education of young people required their introduction to a wide variety of topics and practical matters. They became standard texts in nearly all states for the next 50 years and sold more than 125 million copies. In these years McGuffey also served as president of Cincinnati College (1836 – 39) and of Ohio University, Athens (1839 – 43). He was a founder of the common school system of Ohio. In 1845 he was elected to the chair of mental and moral philosophy at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, a position he held until his death. Noah Webster published his first dictionary of the English language in 1806, and in 1828 published the first edition of his An American Dictionary of the English Language. The work came out in 1828 in two volumes. It contained 12,000 words and from 30,000 to 40,000 definitions that had not appeared in any earlier dictionary. In 1840 the second edition, corrected and enlarged, came out, in two volumes. He completed the revision of an appendix a few days before his death, which occurred in New Haven on the 28th of May 1843. * Webster changed the spelling of many words in his dictionaries in an attempt to make them more phonetic. Many of the differences between American English and other English variants evident today originated this way. The modern convention of having only one acceptable and correct spelling for a word is due mostly to the efforts of Webster, in standardizing spelling. Prior to this, the popular sentiment toward spelling might have best been summed up by Benjamin Franklin who said that he â€Å"had no use for a man with but one spelling for a word. † * produced his own modern English translation of the Bible in 1833. Though an excellent and highly accurate translation, Webster’s Bible was not widely accepted, due to the continued popularity of the ancient King James version. It was, however, was the most significant English language translation of the scriptures to be done since the King James version of more than 200 years earlier. Mary Lyon, American educator, founder of Mt. Holyoke College, b. Buckland, Mass. She attended three academies in Massachusetts; later she taught at Ashfield, Mass. , Londonderry, N. H. , and Ipswich, Mass. Interested in promoting the higher education of women, she won the aid of several influential men and succeeded (1837) in establishing Mt.  Holyoke Female Seminary (later Mt. Holyoke College) at South Hadley, Mass. She served as principal for 12 years, directing the development of a well-rounded college program and emphasizing the principle of service to others. Emma Willard, Educator. Born Emma Hart on February 23, 1787, in Berlin, Connecticut. Emma Willard is remembered for her trailblazing efforts on behalf of women’s education. Raised by a father who, while a farmer, encouraged her to read and think for herself, she attended a local academy rom 1802 to 1804 and then began teaching. – In 1807 Emma Willard went to Middlebury, Vermont to head a female academy there. Two years later she married a local doctor named John Willard. She opened her own school, the Middlebury Female Seminary, in 1814 to provide advanced education that young women were denied by colleges. Her Address†¦ Proposing a Plan for Improving Female Education (1819) was a much admired and influential proposal to get public support for advanced education for young women. Emma Willard moved to Troy, New York, in 1821, where she opened the Troy Female Seminary. (It was renamed the Emma Willard School in 1895. ) With both boarding and day students, in some respects it was the first U. S. institution of serious learning for young women, though even it recognized that most of its graduates would be housewives, not professionals, and most of its students came from families of means. The school actually made a profit, and she also earned money from the textbooks she wrote.

Assignment 10 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Assignment 10 - Essay Example The users feel the sense of owning the products since their emotional attachment is taken into consideration. According to Norman, positive reception of nature induces affirmative response from the public as love for nature is considered preponderance in product design. Norman argues that the beauty of nature brings delight in people thus greatly changing their moods. Closer observation of nature harmonizes an individual’s emotion (Norman 2004). Visceral or aesthetical appreciation should not be separated due to their importance in people’s lives. Beauty and excellence is very important as it strengthens the sense of belonging. There is therefore a great need of appreciating attractiveness and brilliance in products. Attachment of nature’s gorgeousness in designing products for the most part creates a center of attention. Most people, especially women are profoundly attracted to the beauty. Inclusion of beauty and excellence in designing products intensely touche s women’s emotions thus providing an excellent rationale for buying the magnificently designed products. I very much think that addition of exciting connection in products forms a key base in product design. ... I significantly agree with Don Norman’s scheme as it boosts the products’ attractiveness (Norman 2004). . Occasionally, nearly all product firms have a roll of prerequisite to meet up, and, further characteristically, they have a number of aspects to extend. Scheming and mounting to requisite and quality lists guides to not up to scratch occurrence, for the reason that an individual is no longer oriented to the perception of the customer. While making judgment on designation, anxiety for characteristics, facts, and expertise trumps customer service. This is in large since the experimental part of the design is not taken into consideration. By starting with an idea of making something, there is an automatic way in which someone unnaturally confines what he can possibly deliver. Scores of archetypes’ progressive product designers accomplish something overtly for the reason that they do not devise products. Products are regarded as necessary work of art to take in h and purchaser requirements. Critical link between the designer and the user of the products is very necessary in the modern globalization because it makes businesses gain competitive advantage thus increasing their profits and boosting the businesses that had earlier failed. Moreover, past experiences need to be appreciated, embraced, and positive action taken to shape them in order to fit the acceptable and user-friendly target. Ways in which persuasion is used differs greatly and helps in attracting people in using products. Persuasion involves personal character of the individual speaker, positioning the addressees into a definite frame of mind and confirmation. The listeners may also influence people into believing in some

Business communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 2

Business communication - Essay Example The nature of its core business that facilitates outstanding service provision has enabled it to make major achievements in the airline industry. The Malaysian airline company sets its primary objectives that were to provide the Malaysian people with a proficient and profit generating air transport system. Such an airline would enhance the economic growth of Malaysia and improve its global image. The Airline has fulfilled its objectives by enhancing economic integration as well social integration in Malaysia. In conclusion, the company has maximized on market penetration with its wide range of aircraft resources (Fickling, 2012). The Malaysian airline is an international airline company that serves as a transport system for the middle class, upper middle class as well as the business class .In general, the company serves all customers who have a strong preference for comfort and reliability. The company enjoys a strong backing of the Malaysian government as well as its extensive services in the Middle East, Australia, South Asia and other destinations all over the world. Malaysian airlines system is one of the widely known airways across the world. In addition to its exemplary advertising and marketing that has ensured good brand visibility, the company boasts of a strong workforce with more than 20,000 employees. In conclusion, the company plies more than 85 routes with its enormous fleet size.   For the company to lead the global airlines, it has to increase its global presence and transport customers to internationally recognized destinations. Malaysian airlines system also has to provide more services to its customers at the airport facilities. The existence of the Malaysian Airlines has been constantly affected by the escalating fuel costs, the unreliable government policies and the regulatory bodies’ regulations that are unnecessary. The rising competition has posed a great threat to the company in the global air transport. Malaysian Airline system

Biography of Joaquin Murieta Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Biography of Joaquin Murieta - Essay Example Not much is mentioned about his upbringing. His history shifts to his marriage to Rosa Feliz of Vayoreca. Together with his wife and her three brothers they moved to California for the gold rush. He and his wife settled in Niles Canyon where he toiled as a vaquero and a mustang catcher. After this point the legend of Joaquin Murrieta begins controversy. The first legend depicts Joaquin Murrieta as a bandit while the other one makes him a hero (Ridge, John, 17). In the first legend, Joaquin Murrieta joins his brother-in -laws bandit (Burns, Noble, 11). The bandit kills and steals from white people. After the death of his brother-in-law, Joaquin takes over the bandit’s leadership. He continues to lead the men to crime, and specializes on killing and stealing from the Chinese people. Joaquin and his bandit do not have reservations on killing fellow Hispanics and countrymen. The state of California puts a bounty of 5000 dollars on his head due to the endless menace. After the shooting of General Joshua Bean, Joaquin and Reyes (also his brother-in-law) are implicated. Joaquin fled leaving Reyes to be punished by hanging due to the murder of bean. Overwhelming evidence pointed to Joaquin as the killer (Burns, Noble, 13). Hence a team commandeered by Harry Love was created to hunt him down. Harry Love captured and killed Joaquin. He cut off his head and preserved it in a bottle of alcohol. He later went round the mines to confirm his identity and assure the people that Joaquin would not harm them again. The term bandit is a widely applied in this version of the legend. Joaquin is referred to as a racist, outlaw, murderer, robber and gang leader. Law enforcement and afflicted individuals mainly applied this term. The appropriateness of the term varies depending on the validity of the information. It is hard too tell if the cruelty of Joaquin is exaggerated or not. However, in the context of law enforcers and victims of Joaquin, it is hard to find

Performance appraisal memo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Performance appraisal memo - Essay Example Most of the blenderized mixtures depend on fresh or frozen fruit, complemented with wheat grass, bee pollen, brewer’s yeast and ginseng that are optional boosters. Additionally, Jamba Juice Company also sells bread, gourmet soft pretzels and soups. During its tenure, the group was hard working and completed projects on time. In fact, it was the first group to deliver their proposal and this was because the group and its members were determined in meeting the deadlines they set. These accomplishments made the group build a Jamba Juice in the San Antonio Airport in time, efficiently and effectively. Still, there were some problems within the group that need some improvements. For instance, one of its members was not willing to work as a team. On the other hand, the individual was greedy, he wanted good grades for himself, and hence taking too much than he needed. To achieve more in their activities, the group member should be willing to work with others and also consider others in the activities involved. In the end, there was no cohesion between group members and the individual, therefore helping them to accomplish their projects. This led to the group’s successful completion in building a Jamba Juice Company in the San Antonio Airport (Perron & Dembecki,

Poverty reduction in Brazil Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Poverty reduction in Brazil - Essay Example It is essential to adopt development strategy in order to achieve global prosperity, freedom, dignity, peace and equity along with sustaining progress already achieved. In order to carry out the study Bolsa Familia program, an initiative to combat poverty has been selected as the case. This case has been chosen for the further study as it is the major social program in the Social Protection System in Brazil. Moreover, Brazil has been selected as the country in concern for the study because Brazil by the end of the first decade of 21st century has emerged as one of the rapidly growing economies in the world. Moreover, Brazil has over the years engaged in conducting researches on poverty and inequality, thus there has been certain prominent changes witnessed by the country in the last decade that have drawn significant attention (Soares, Ribas and Osorio, â€Å"Evaluating the Impact of Brazil’s Bolsa Familia: Cash Transfer Programs in Comparative Perspective †). (ii) THES IS STATEMENT The local adoption of the Bolsa Familia program failed to promote the desired outcome. ... offers monthly transfer to poor families with children to extent of 15 years of age and/or pregnant woman as well as the program provides monthly transfer to extremely poor households irrespective of their composition. The Bolsa Familia program was launched on October 2003 by the government of President Lula da Silva under the Provisory Rule n.132 which was transformed in the law n. 10.836 in January 2004. The program is primarily a unified form of four major programs including Bolsa Escola, related with minimum income grant for primary education; Fome Zero and Bolsa Alimentacao, two major income subsidies associated with food security; and Vale Gas, a grant to help poor families buy cooking gas. The primary reason behind the implementation of the program was to achieve the objectives towards effectively combating hunger, poverty and inequalities through monetary transfer related with meeting the basic needs of household comprising health, education, food security and social aid. The program also aimed at promoting social inclusion for emancipation of the beneficiary household by assisting them to overcome vulnerable situations in which they are living (Soares, Ribas and Osorio, â€Å"Evaluating the Impact of Brazil’s Bolsa Familia: Cash Transfer Programmes in Comparative Perspective†). The program is implemented in a decentralized manner in almost all the Brazilian Municipalities. It implements unverified method of testing that is conducted at the municipal level to select its beneficiaries. The program is firmly directed towards poor and indigent families who have per-capita income R$ 60 (US$ 33) and R$120 (US$66) (Souza, â€Å"Poverty, Inequality and Social Policies In Brazil, 1995-2009†). Correspondingly, those households with per-capita income of R$ 60 (US$ 33)

Hate Crimes Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Hate Crimes - Research Paper Example t acts against other individuals have always been prevalent in society throughout history, the socially-constructed notion of referring to this as hate crimes is a fairly new notion (McPhail and DiNitto, 2005). This paper will discuss hate crimes in general and place an emphasis on why it seems like hate crimes are on the rise. It is undoubtedly true that hate crimes are reported in the news more frequently than in the past. A good example of this is a comparison of the number of newspaper coverage given. In the 1980s, over the course of 8 years, the Washington Post published 49 articles on hate crimes. In comparison, in the 1990s, there were 1,100articles published on hate crime in 8 years (Nolan et al, 2002).one main reason for this is possibly due to the ‘Hate Crimes Statistics Act’ which was passed in 1990 (Nolan et al,2002). 5) There appears to be no relationship between hate crimes and index crimes. Index crimes refer to the eight criminal acts that are used by the FBI to predict the amount of crime in the USA. These include murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny-theft, vehicle theft and arson (Nolan et al, 2002). To make the decision as to whether a crime should be treated as a hate crime, the police follow a two step approach (FBI, 1999 from Macmahon et al, 2004). The officer who is first on the scene decided whether there is any evidence the offender’s motivation was bias. In the second step, a trained officer makes a solid decision as to whether the incident is in fact a hate crime using a set of criteria. These criteria are all victim-orientated and are ‘membership in the targeted group, active role or advocacy in community group, representation of victim’s group in the community, previous record of victimization, or the victim’s visitation to a high-tension community’ (Macmahon et al,2004). Four other criteria that are usually used that are offender based include ‘the presence of comments, gestures, or written

Online dating services Essay Example for Free

Online dating services Essay Online Dating Services, once a haven for the desperate and lonely are starting to attract a significant user and revenue base and are growing at an increasing rate. These services now attract over 30 million users a year in the U. S. and soon will be the highest revenue subscription content service on the Internet. The growth of online personals and many of the industrys characteristics are similar to those of products such as fax machines, DVD players, and the Internet itself. The main similarity is that the value of these services for each user increases with each additional user. However, many other characteristics hold true as well. It has significant economies of scale, requires highly complimentary products, and displays some semblance of standards and compatibility between its competitors. Since online dating services have proven to be so similar to other networked goods, much of the knowledge gained by examining these other services can be applied. This means that one can expect these services to continue to grow rapidly, gain mainstream acceptance and that subscription prices will remain low as long as the major services remain incompatible. Further, they likely will remain incompatible for a variety of technical and strategic reasons. Online dating services have been around since 19951. Computer dating services date (no pun intended) back as far as the 1960s2. However over the last three years these services have seen explosive growth. While other dotcoms reached their peak in 2000 and have since crashed, dating sites have seen explosive growth since 1999 both in users and revenue. The industry generated over $50 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2002, 550% year over year growth3. This growth has been so fast and successful that many of the Internet companies that survived the crash have turned to dating services for additional revenue and profitability4. This explosive growth and several of the industrys other characteristics are reminiscent of other technologies or innovations. The fax machine, VCR, and the Internet itself have all followed similar growth curves5. What online dating has in common with these sites is that they are all examples of networked products or services where each additional user increases the overall value of the good to all the other users. The following report provides an overview of the online dating industry and its recent growth. It then examines the characteristics of networks and whether these apply to the online dating. Based on these characteristics, it models an explanation for its recent growth and attempts to explain any potential shift in attitudes towards online dating. Finally, this report looks at the competition between services and the likely affect this will have on consumers utility, prices, the services themselves and societal welfare as a whole. The following section provides an overview of what online dating sites are, the major players, industry size and business models to establish a basis for comparing this industry to the characteristics of networked industries. Online dating services are simply websites that carry a database of singles for other singles to search. Typically users can visit the site and search based on sex, age and often certain characteristics of their profile, for example: I am a male seeking a female aged 18 to 24 in Toronto, ON. Only show ads with pictures. [insert screen shots here] From here visitors view a list of matching profiles and can click through on any of these to view the full profile. The full profile can contain one or multiple pictures, various stats on the user (age, sex, body type, sexual or religious orientation) as well as an opening headline, description and clever answers to profile questions. Registered users can then make contact with the user, usually through a messaging or chat system within the site and if the match is successful the relationship moves off of the site into the real world. Online dating services are big business. The online personals industry generated $53. 1 million in revenue in the first quarter of this year. That number is over 5 1/2 times the $8. 1 million total for that period in 2001. That number will likely continue to grow substantially this year once industry wide figures are available. Revenue at the leading service Match. com more than doubled in the third quarter of 2002 to $33. 4 million and this is a company with less than one third of the market. Nearly 34 million people visit personals sites each year6. The industry is dominated by two major players. Match. com is the biggest site with nearly 6 million visitors per month while Yahoo, at 3. 4 million, is the second most popular site, leveraging its large population of web directory and email users7. Following well behind these two are a dozen or so fairly evenly trafficked sites (see chart: Major Players in Online Dating). The business models for most of these sites are some combination of free and paid access. For all the sites browsing the ads is free. However users have to register and pay between $20 and $25 in order to post ads or respond to ads or both. Over 93% of online dating subscription prices are in the $5-50 range8. Both Match. com and Yahoo charge to post an ad and respond to ads. Lavalife (the 10th most trafficked site) is free to post ads but requires users buy credits in order to contact other users. Overall 98% of purchases at online dating sites are subscriptions. 54% of those subscriptions are monthly, 22% annual. The user population of online dating sites is about 60% male, 40% female9. The ages of users range from 18 to 80 with the largest percentage (32%) between 35 and 44 years of age. Followed by 24% for 25-35 year olds, 22% for 45-54 year olds and 11% each amongst 18 to 24 year olds and those 55 and over (see graph: age distribution)10. The fastest growing segment appears to be the 18-30 space. In the first quarter of 2002, fully half of the new users of Match. com have been under 3011. This suggests that dating sites are no longer just for the desperate, those over 35 and still single, but have become another source for those with time and looks on their side to accelerate their dating or improve their dating efficiency. 5 Online Dating Growth While spending on online content as a whole has increased, no category has increased more than online dating (see graph: Quarterly Growth of Consumer Spending by Category of Online Content). While the other categories such as business content and research have experienced steady linear growth, the growth curve for online dating is an exponential curve. Not only is it growing but the rate of growth quarter over quarter is also increasing. At its current rate by the time numbers are available for the rest of 2002 it will exceed business spending as the largest category of online spending. It is also the only category of online content that has significant consumption externalities. When purchasing any of business content, research, single player games, news, credit help, sports or online greeting cards, the number of other users of the product does not play more than a minor role in the purchasing decision. There is also plenty of room for the industry to grow in both revenue and users. Soon these services will have video chat capabilities12. People will overcome a lot of their negative perceptions of the practice as the number of users increase and many of these primarily US-based services will begin to expand internationally. Many products are not useful without a complementary product. Portable CD players are useless without headphones, and DVD players require DVDs to play. This is one of the factors that separate network goods from goods such as an apple which can be consumed by itself. Arguably online dating services could be the required complementary product to the Internet. With an Internet connection one needs content to look at, and certainly users of online dating services are required to have an Internet connection, so there is some complementarity here but this connection is somewhat weak. While CDs are needed for a CD player to be useful at all, dating services are not a requirement for the Internet to be useful. Further, even with the rapid growth in online personals, it still lags Internet growth and coverage so significantly that for at least the next little while the overall growth of the Internet will have a negligible effect on online dating when compared to the growth it will experience from existing Internet users. With the requirement many networked goods have for complementary products comes the need for compatibility and standards. The benefits of making goods compatible with others are clear. Consumers can benefit by being able to choose from a number of headphone choices knowing that for the most part (except on airplanes) these headphones will plug into their CD player, stereo, and computer. From a headphone manufacturers perspective it is far cheaper to build for a standard jack than specifically for every device. While there is not a single standard that all online dating services are based on to the point where a profile or other stored information from one service can be seamlessly transferred to any other, several competing platforms are starting to emerge. Nerve. com, after the rapid growth of the personals section of its website, spun the service off into a separate company, Springstreet Networks, which provides a standardized shared match making service for other content providers such as salon. com, bust, boston. com and others14. Match. coms database is shared with licensees including msn. com, nytimes. com and villagevoice. com to name a few. Relationship Exchange is another network that powers the personals services behind. cupidjunction. com, and personals. canada. com amongst others. Even some of the smaller dating sites like people2people. com are licensing their databases to online newspaper sites like sfgate. com. The competition is not necessarily amongst the dating sites themselves but the networks they supply and pull from. However, Yahoo Personals is independent and not licensed to other parties. It is banking on its existing position as the top website on the Internet15 and its large pool of users of its other tools to provide a large enough pool of users. Lavalife also has its own proprietary system and is banking on its unique features and credit based rather than subscription based system. While Yahoo and Lavalife are staunchly independent, the advantages to smaller sites are obvious. A personals site is only as valuable as its pool of profiles that match the user. If the user is unable to find people with the same interests, geography and whatever other characteristics determine a match, the user will not subscribe to the site for very long, nor be enticed to subscribe in order to contact a matching user. The larger the pool of people, the better the selection of people that may match, the more likely the user is to subscribe or purchase credits. 6. 3 Consumption Externalities The increase in value with an increase in users is the fourth characteristic of networked industries: consumption externalities. If there is one heterosexual person of each gender on one of these sites the possible number of connections is only one. However with five people of each gender the number of possible connections is 25. With 100 males and 100 females the number of possible connections is 10,000. Thus the total value of the network, as measured by the number of possible connections, increases by Vn = nm x nf where n is the number of users and m and f indicate male and female respectively.

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.

Discipline-Based Art Education Curriculum

Discipline-Based Art Education Curriculum The discipline-based art education program relies on several different curriculum theories. At times, the theories overlap and contradict each other, which is a reason why the DBAE has endured much criticism, as well as praise since its inception. The focus of this paper is to connect the theories to the four disciplines of DBAE by using the readings from EDU-707, Curriculum Theory, and Research. Introduction The aims of the discipline-based art education are to provide art educators with a curriculum that is equal in vigor as the core curriculum subjects. Noddings (2003) would conclude that the DBAE curriculum, which parallels with core subjects, is rationalized through planned objectives and goals. Constructing a school curriculum, or a set of courses, must begin with a purpose or at least knowing the answer to why is this important to teach and learn? Eisner (1967) states, if one is to build curriculum in a rational way, the clarity of premise, end or starting point, would appear paramount (p. 250). In the early 1900s, school curriculum was questioned and mainly because of the changes that were taking place in society. There was a tremendous growth in popular journalism, the rapid advancement of railroads, and the migration of people from a predominately rural base moving into more urban locations (Kliebard, 2004). The industrial revolution was replacing the farm-based way of life and students needed a different type of education to help society in the future. The purpose of education is summed up neatly by Bobbitt who states, [Education is] the function of training every citizen, man or woman, not for knowledge about citizenship, but for proficiency in citizenship (Flinders Thornton, 2004a, p. 11). Additionally, Eisner (2001), DBAE founder and Stanford University Professor of Education and Art, offers, the function of schooling is not to enable students to do better in school. The function of schooling is to enable students to do better in life (p. 369). The DBAE curriculum is shaped by connecting different and at times conflicting beliefs. Few can argue that the main purpose of DBAE is to offer teachers a theoretical framework for learning and teaching the arts (Patchen, 1996). However, the foundations of DBAE have been under constant scrutiny since its inception. The criticism focused around being too prescriptive, eliminating individual creativity, and not representing all cultures. The differing analysis from academic experts is likely because the arts require a novel or creative response. Therefore, developing the particular behaviors needed for students to be successful it is hard to identify (Eisner). Another factor in the construction of the DBAE is how the world viewed art education in the 1960s. During prior decades art was influenced by national and political issues reflecting on post-war thinking. The approach was a belief of independence and democratic personality, which shaped art activities (Freedman, 1987). Therefore, the DBAE creators found a necessity for a disciplined approach. By definition, the term discipline means a field of study, as well as gaining control by enforcing the order. Both descriptions of discipline imply a set of parameters. Setting restrictions on instruction is designed to help teachers uniformly teach art education, which includes a responsibility of providing foundational knowledge. Art teaching in DBAE focuses on four disciplines: art production, art history, art criticism, and art aesthetics. Art Production Art production is students learning skills and techniques to produce personal, original artwork. This change signifies a different model from one of creative self-expression which had controlled art education throughout the previous decades and one in which Greene (1995) would contend that to be yourself is to be in process of creating a self, an identity (p. 20). Greene is certainly an advocate for individualism, creativity, and an awareness of oneself. However, the creators of the DBAE saw creativity through the lens of an essentialist. The orientation of an essentialist classroom should revolve around the teacher. The teacher should also be the model to which students should try to emulate. If the teacher is the focus of an essentialist classroom, Counts (Flinders Thornton, 2004c) believes that they should take the next step and reach for the power and help construct the curriculum. The DBAE founders value the art product by using known exemplary works of art and treat art as a p rocess moving from the outside inward. The founders contend that students view aspects of the exemplary as a process of discovery about responding, understanding, and thus creating. There is a flaw in this methodology because which of the many different societies have excellent pieces of art for students to follow? Kliebard (2004) suggests that what a society values and incorporates it into the curriculum is tough because it cannot take into account the different segments of society and what they feel is worthy of study. The emphasis of DBAE art production is for students to create art physically. The problem for teachers lies with assessing students levels of achievement in their art creation. Eisner (2001) proposes that creating standards and the measures of performance help teachers and school administrators to be accountable. Dweck (2000) offers that there are two different types of goals to assess; one is a performance goal or how well students completed the assignment and the second is a learning goal, which assesses what the student learned while creating. In an ideal setting, educators should strive to evaluate both performance and learning goals. An assessable performance goal in a DBAE classroom is the students demonstration of proper techniques used in the exemplary pieces to create a new work of art. Because art instruction uses exemplary work, teachers can assess the performance of a student who is developing intuition and reasoning behind why a piece is considered exemplary. Assessing a learning goal is more difficult because of individual experiences. Sumara and Davis (1999) suggest learning is an act of (re) cognition, meaning that people who see things for the first time helps them make meaning to what they already know. Conversely, Greene (1995) offers that students have to develop their imagination for learning to take place. Depending on a students previous experiences, an art teacher using the DBAE approach would need to create individualized rubrics to assess learning. Furthermore, a student self-reflection would be of great benefit to the assessment process. Art History Art history is studying the artistic accomplishments based on culture and history. Students educated through DBAE instruction begin with observing exemplars. The choices of exemplars have received the most criticisms because of the lack of representation in different societies, gender, and minorities. The section of curriculum devoted to art history has roots with Perennialism qualities. From a Perennialist perspective the exemplars are mainly chosen from Western European artists; predominately individuals who are white and male. The program meritoriously excluded other genres and narrowed students ability to think critically by telling them the exemplars were the only necessary or worthy pieces of work to study. Taliaferro Basziles (2008) statement regarding the lack of diversity is powerful as she writes, Cartesian rationality, which à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡attens out the role ones racial history plays in considering a rational line of thought (p. 381). What she is offering is without diver sity and representation of multiple the points of view, the consumer is knowledge is incomplete, and they forced to take the perspective provided. In effect the lack of representation oppresses, even eliminates many cultures and genders from history. bell hooks (Darder, Baltodano, Torres, 2009) reminds us of the importance of hearing each others voices, individual thoughts, and sometimes associating these voices with personal experience makes us more acutely aware of each other (p.138). Unfortunately, the designers of the DBAE rely heavily on the great works specifically within Western European art history, in essence taking the status quo route of it was good for previous generations, so it must be good for the next generation. The Perennialist teacher is supposed to focus on personal development, but it appears that the art history framers of the DBAE approach are interested in developing one point of view, one level of emotion, and providing one genre of great work. Wang (2008) would argue this narrow focus further perpetuates the social hierarchy that exists in a predominantly privileged white society. She would advocate for a teacher to use caution, but to introduce other great works by minorities, females, and other marginalized individuals to provide students with a broader intellect. Additionally, if we look at Freires idea of an educational banking system, the DBAE is in full compliance. Freire (2003) describes the banking concept as education that regards men as adaptable, manageable beings (p.73). The use of exemplars, solely based on one society, provides students with the knowledge they may or may not need or use. The teacher deposits the notion that exemplary x IS a piece of great work and the student accepts and memorizes it and later regurgitates it back to the teacher. There is a complete lack of variety and opinions given toward the exemplars. Freire (2003) believes the students have to work at storing the deposits delivered to them not to d evelop an awareness which may result in transforming the opinion. Certainly, the teacher engages students in a dialogue, but the conversation revolves around what the teacher believes is important and offers no other alternatives. The criticism of the art history strand using the DBAE approach is justified. The lack of women, people of color, and modern artists exemplars gives students a disproportionate view of art history. The heteronormative thinking of art history in DBAE, as Sumara and Davis (1999) remind us, does not broaden a viewers perception or increase their understanding of what makes a piece of work worthy of being an exemplary. Students need to be able to develop various frameworks; this could occur through the study of designated, restricted art examples. Maybe even more than the advancement of multiple lenses, students need the capability to be instinctive regarding artistic choices and develop relations among those choices to help shape his or her reality. Art Criticism The goal of art criticism is to be able to interpret and evaluate for the purpose of understanding and appreciating works of art. To be able to interpret and assess art, students must be able to experience and process the art; additionally, teachers need to place a high level of importance on student perception and decision making. Therefore, art criticism relies on Existentialist and Constructionist theories. An existentialist teacher encourages student responses and desires student self-awareness, and hooks (Darder, Baltodano, Torres, 2009) reflects these traits when she describes her classroom as a place where everyone has a voice and students continually practice self-awareness to reinforce their position on a topic. Baszile (2008) offers that literature suggests reflection is a racially neutral practice. However, she would strongly disagree because of her experiences while attending a predominately White campus for preservice teachers. Her reflection experiences demonstrate a d ismissal of race and background, which left a void in her growth process. As a DBAE teacher, it is imperative that their voice and reflection be neutral to encourage honest and open dialogue between the students. The more students review and discuss art the more they build their knowledge base to think critically about art. Largely based on interest and critical thinking, it is the DBAE teachers responsibility to foster an environment where students can question ideas and have the flexibility ability to develop competencies in areas that interest them. Doll (1993) uses the term recursion to describe developing competence through reflective practices and building upon previous knowledge, in essence, he is suggesting that students are critically thinking. Dewey is an advocate for building on prior learning which involves experiential, hands-on learning. He would appreciate students in a DBAE classroom would have ample opportunities to connect art to other subjects during their experimentation and analysis. Dewey offers that school departmentalizes subjects and nothing could be worse for students as they quickly pass from one subject to the next, often with no conscious isolation. For students t o effectively interpret and analyze art, they have to be able to draw from many experiences. The experiences must repeatedly occur, because the childs present experience is in no way self-explanatory. It is not final, but transitional (Dewey, p. 279). Greene (1995) calls the experiences bringing the unknown to consciousness, which can provide pure enjoyment for students. Students who revel in the learning process are far more likely to find success with Blooms upper levels of critical thinking skills of creating, analyzing, and evaluating art. Art Aesthetics Art aesthetics is defining, making judgments, and exploring the relationships between art and ideology and morality. The existential properties of students working toward finding personal meaning and value in art is a basic foundation of art aesthetics. Students are responsible for determining if the art is beautiful or ugly and if the art is an accurate or poor example of the period it was intended to represent. Doll (1993) proposes that thoughts on thoughts is the way we make meaning. He continues by suggesting for one to have a sense of self they must interact with the environment, with others, and with culture. Addams (Flinders Thornton, 2004b) defines culture as things that are passed through generations and have value and meaning. For a student to appreciate and be able to provide an appropriate aesthetic point of view they have to develop a deep understanding of themselves and their culture. Students who have not developed the skills can often base their opinions on preconcep tions and biases when they are engaging in objective criticism of art. According to hooks (Darder, Baltodano, Torres, 2009), biases shape the way knowledge is given and received. An incorrect belief on a piece of art does not help a student achieve an understanding of a culture or how that culture fits within the world. Furthermore, ideas based on falsehoods often transfer to next generations that further perpetuate the bias and the need for future correction. The preservation of untruths can be dangerous because as Baszile (2008) offers the false self-system works from within and often convinces people that it is normal or fact. In the world of art, DBAE teachers have a responsibility to their students to help them understand falsehoods and how to break the cycle of biases and ignorance. In essence, DBAE teachers are Social Reconstructionists in that they are contributing to reshaping society by providing students with necessary skills to make qualified judgments and finding relationships between the art world and real world. Counts (Flinders Thornton, 2004c) states that if teachers could locate the courage, intelligence, and vision, they could become societal change-makers. At the very least, teachers touch the future each day and have the ability to help students view culture and society in different ways. Counts is adamant about teachers making a stand, making a difference. His statement, If the schools are to be really effective, they must become centers for the building, and not merely for the contemplation (Flinders Thornton, p. 32) should resonate with DBAE teachers. As their students find new relat ionships between art and society, and art and their thinking, they are also building a capacity for intellect and appreciation of different cultures. Freire (2003) saw teaching and learning as a method of examination in which the child conceives and reinvents the world. Furthermore, he stresses education consists in acts of cognition, not transferals of information (p. 79), which is precisely what DBAE art aesthetics strand aims to achieve. Conclusion Viewing discipline-based art education from the perspective of different curriculum theories offers the reader a chance to make connections to what and why the founding writers of the DBAE saw to be important. The origins of the DBAE stem from previous decades of art instruction being a break for regular classroom teachers, and an arts and craft slice of the students educational day. By creating an art curriculum that includes rigorous standards, art education benefits art instructors by focusing their efforts, and more importantly all students because of the critical thinking. While there are still flaws within the DBAE approach, the successes require schools to provide the necessary, valuable time for art instruction and learning in mainstream education. References Baszile, D. T. (2008). The oppressor within: A counterstory of race, repression, and teacher reflection. Urban Rev, 40, 371-385. doi:10.1007/s11256-008-0090-1 Darder, A., Baltodano, M., Torres, R. (2009). 7 Confronting Class in the Classroom. In The critical pedagogy reader bell hooks (2nd ed.). New York and London: Routledge. Dewey, J. (1976). The Middle Works, 1899-1924. In The child and the curriculum. London and Amsterdam: Southern Illinois University Press. Doll, W. E. (1993). A post-modern perspective on curriculum. New York and London: Teachers College, Columbia University. Dweck, C. S. (2000). 3 Achievement Goals: Looking Smart Versus Learning. In Self-theories and goals: Their role in motivation, personality, and development. New York and London: Psychology Press. Eisner, E. W. (1967). Help or hindrance? The School Review, 75(3), 250-260. Eisner, E. W. (2001). What does it mean to say a school is doing well? The Phi Delta Kappan, 82(5), 367-372. Flinders, D. J., Thornton, S. J. (2004a). 1 Scientific Method in Curriculum-Making by Franklin Bobbitt. In The curriculum studies reader (2nd ed.). New York and London: RoutledgeFalmer. Flinders, D. J., Thornton, S. J. (2004b). 3 The Public School and the Child Immigrant by Jane Addams. In The curriculum studies reader (2nd ed.). New York and London: RoutledgeFalmer. Flinders, D. J., Thornton, S. J. (2004c). 4 Dare the School Build a New Social Order by George S. Counts. In The curriculum studies reader (2nd ed.). New York and London: RoutledgeFalmer. Freedman, K. (1987). Art education and changing political agendas: An analysis of curriculum concerns of the 1940s and 1950s. Studies in Art Education, 29(1), 17-29. Freire, P. (2003). 2. In Pedagogy of the oppressed (30th Anniversary ed.). New York and London: Continuum International Publishing Group Inc. Greene, M. (1995). 2 Imagination, Breakthroughs, and the Unexpected. In Releasing the imagination: Essays on education, the arts, and social change. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Kliebard, H. M. (2004). 1 Curriculum Ferment in the 1890s. In The struggle for the American curriculum, 1893-1958 (3rd ed.). New York and London: RoutledgeFalmer. Noddings, N. (2003). 4 The Aims of Education. In Happiness and education. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Patchen, J. (1996). Overview of discipline based music education. Music Educators Journal, 83(2), 19-27. Sumara, D., Davis, B. (1999). Interrupting heteronormativity: Toward a queer curriculum theory. Curriculum Theory, 29(2), 191-208. Wang, H. (2008). Red eyes: Engaging emotions in multicultural education. Multicultural Perspectives, 10(1), 10-16. doi:10.1080/15210960701869330

Social Stratification and The Movie Sweet Home Alabama Essay -- essays

Social stratification as defined by Brinkerhoff et al. is â€Å"an institutionalized pattern of inequality in which social statuses are ranked on the basis of their access to scarce resources† (Brinkerhoff et al. 152). By scarce resources, many people have to deal with poverty and having a lack of money to buy the things they need in their lives. Social class is defined as â€Å"a category of people who share roughly the same class, status, and power and who have a sense of identification with each other† (Brinkerhoff et al. 155). Your social class has to do with your socioeconomic status along with the power and connections you have. Social mobility on the other hand is â€Å"the process of changing one’s social class† (Brinkerhoff et al. 153). The change in a social class is something that is shown in every day life and the media. It is the American Dream to move upward in society. The movie Sweet Home Alabama is a prime example of social mobility in the main character. The main character Melanie Carmichael left her small town Alabama home and achieved an impressive upward social mobility. She began her life as a daughter of a respectful working class family to become a world famous fashion designer in New York City. At the beginning of the movie, Andrew, the mayor’s son, proposes to Melanie. She says yes, but before she can marry him, she has to clear up a not so final divorce with Jake, her high school sweetheart she left behind. Melanie is now caught between two classes and two cultures, the working class that she grew up in and the upper class she has now placed herself in. As the film continues, her dilemma will require her to acknowledge and reconnect with her mother who lives in a trailer park while sti ll trying to impress h... ...ust they be bigger and stronger to fulfill the requirements of this job? A structural functionalist would believe that woman are dependent on men. That Melanie should have had to marry Andrew in order to survive and be upper class. The fact that Melanie was able to move upward in society all on her own as a woman is something that a structural functional theorist would completely disagree with. Sweet Home Alabama is a Cinderella story line with a little twist. I believe that once you look into things sociology can be found everywhere. Social movement and social mobility is found in everyday life. Melanie is just one example of how people move up in class. Gender inequalities and sexism are another hot topic that this movie not so openly shows. Sexism in this movie is more behind the scenes but once brought up is rather evident just as it is in everyday life. Social Stratification and The Movie Sweet Home Alabama Essay -- essays Social stratification as defined by Brinkerhoff et al. is â€Å"an institutionalized pattern of inequality in which social statuses are ranked on the basis of their access to scarce resources† (Brinkerhoff et al. 152). By scarce resources, many people have to deal with poverty and having a lack of money to buy the things they need in their lives. Social class is defined as â€Å"a category of people who share roughly the same class, status, and power and who have a sense of identification with each other† (Brinkerhoff et al. 155). Your social class has to do with your socioeconomic status along with the power and connections you have. Social mobility on the other hand is â€Å"the process of changing one’s social class† (Brinkerhoff et al. 153). The change in a social class is something that is shown in every day life and the media. It is the American Dream to move upward in society. The movie Sweet Home Alabama is a prime example of social mobility in the main character. The main character Melanie Carmichael left her small town Alabama home and achieved an impressive upward social mobility. She began her life as a daughter of a respectful working class family to become a world famous fashion designer in New York City. At the beginning of the movie, Andrew, the mayor’s son, proposes to Melanie. She says yes, but before she can marry him, she has to clear up a not so final divorce with Jake, her high school sweetheart she left behind. Melanie is now caught between two classes and two cultures, the working class that she grew up in and the upper class she has now placed herself in. As the film continues, her dilemma will require her to acknowledge and reconnect with her mother who lives in a trailer park while sti ll trying to impress h... ...ust they be bigger and stronger to fulfill the requirements of this job? A structural functionalist would believe that woman are dependent on men. That Melanie should have had to marry Andrew in order to survive and be upper class. The fact that Melanie was able to move upward in society all on her own as a woman is something that a structural functional theorist would completely disagree with. Sweet Home Alabama is a Cinderella story line with a little twist. I believe that once you look into things sociology can be found everywhere. Social movement and social mobility is found in everyday life. Melanie is just one example of how people move up in class. Gender inequalities and sexism are another hot topic that this movie not so openly shows. Sexism in this movie is more behind the scenes but once brought up is rather evident just as it is in everyday life.

Unequal But Not Separate :: Essays Papers

Unequal But Not Separate Enemy fire whizzes by, hitting the walls around behind me. The spent shells are scattered at my feet. The smell of death and gunpowder tantalizes my nose. In the distance I can hear the chopper hovering. All I can do is pray that it reaches us in time. Enemy fire begins again. I am lost in the smoke and confusion. Then Private Jackson falls to the ground behind me. He has been hit. Now his life is entrusted to me. The chopper is now hovering across the field about 100 yards away. I tuck my gun away and reach down to grab him. I try to put him over my shoulder, but I can’t lift him. I start to drag him toward the chopper. I struggle for about 25 yards. The pilot is waving me on, motioning me to hurry. I don’t have the strength. I can’t go any farther. The chopper has to go, it can’t wait any longer. I am alone with Private Jackson looking up at me in disbelief, knowing it is my fault we will both be dead in a matter of minutes. The military, the nation an d Private Jackson all had trusted me to make it and I had failed. Trust. It is the bond that holds our great military together. When this trust is broken our nation, as a whole will suffer the consequences. A soldier must have complete faith that his fellow soldiers, both male and female, will do their job so that he can focus on his. But what happens when double standards are employed for female soldiers? Can one expect a male soldier to completely trust her ability to complete her tasks as a soldier? The soldier knows full well that his female comrade didn’t have to perform the necessary physical tasks to the same standards that he did. How can one have confidence in her abilities if her performance would have been unacceptable had she been a male? The thread of trust begins to unwind once a soldier question another’s abilities. That is why one uniform standard had been in place throughout history. A soldier knew that the every other soldier could perform tasks to the same standard that he had. They had a common trust that held the m together. Now, with gender norming, the double standards used to ensure women pass the physical tests, we put the trust that held our military together in jeopardy.

Coase(1972) †durable and monopoly[2] Essay

R. H. COASE Universityof ChicagoLaw School that A SSUME a supplier owns the total stock of a completely durable good. At what price will he sell it? To take a concrete example, assume that one person owns all the land in the United States and, to simplify the analysis, that all land is of uniform quality. Assume also that the landowner is not able to work the land himself, that ownership of land yields no utility and that there are no costs involved in disposing of the land. If there were a large number of landownersand the price were competitively determined, the price would be that at which the amount demandedwas equal to the amount of land in the United States. If we imagine this fixed supply of land to be various amounts either greater or smaller, and then discover what the competitively determinedprice would be, we can trace out the demand schedule for American land. Assume that this demand schedule is DD and that from this a marginal revenue schedule, MR, has been derived. Both schedules are shown in Figure I. Let the total amount of land in existence be OQ. Then, if the price were competitively determined,the price would be OB (see Figure I). We now have to determine the price which the monopolistic landowner would charge for a unit of land in the assumed conditions. The diagramwould seem to suggest (and has, I believe, suggested to some) that such a monopolistic landownerwould charge the price OA, would sell the quantity of land OM, thus maximising his receipts, and would hold off the market the quantity of land, MQ. But suppose that he did this. MQ land and money equal to OA X OM would be in the possession of the original landowner while OM land would be owned by others. In these circumstances, why should the original landownercontinue to hold MQ off the market? The original landownercould obviously improve his position by selling more land since he could by this means acquire more money. It is true that this would reduce the value of the land OM owned by those who had previously bought land from him-but the loss would fall on them, not on him. If the same assumption about his behaviour was made as before, he would then sell part of MQ. But this is not the end of the story, since some of MQ would still remain unsold. The process would continue as long as the original landowner retained any land, that is, until OQ had been sold. And if there were no costs of disposing of the land, the whole process would take place in the twinkling of an eye. 143 144 THE JOURNAL OF LAW AND ECONOMICS Figure D I z mj A † _ o Q : D 0 M Q QUANTITY MR It might be objected to this supposedbehaviourunder which land is sold in separate transactions involving blocks of land, probably of diminishing size, that it would be even better if the landowner sold the land by infinitesimal units, thus maximising his total revenue. But this is neither here nor there. Whatever the intermediatesteps are assumed to be, OQ land will be sold. And given that OQ is going to be sold, the value of a unit of land is going to be OB and given this, no buyer of land will pay more than OB for it. Although the demand schedule may be correctly drawn in that, if the quantity of land is OM, the price would be OA, the landownerwould find himself in the position that, if he were charged more than OB, he would sell nothing. The demand schedule facing the original landowner would be infinitely elastic at the competitive price and this even though he was the sole supplier. With complete durability, the price becomes independent of the number of suppliers and is thus always equal to the competitive price. DURABILITYAND MONOPOLY 145 How could the landowner avoid this result? He could do this and obtain the price OA from the sale of OM land by making special contractual arrangements with the purchasersof land by which, as a condition of sale, he agreed to hold unsold in perpetuity the quantity of land MQ. Alternatively, he could agree to buy back any land that was offered to him in the future at a price just under OA, thus making it against his interest to sell more than OM land. Another way in which essentially the same result could be obtained would be for the landowner not to sell the land but to lease it for relatively short periods of time. It would then be comparatively easy for him to assure lessees that no increasein supply will occur during the lease period either by entering into all leases at the same point in time, or by announcing that he would not change the rental price during the lease period or by agreeing to adjust the prices charged to existing lessees if a lower charge is made to others during the lease period. In any case, even if such contractual arrangementscannot be made, lessees have some reason to believe that the landownerwill not, in fact, lease more than OM land by charging lower prices for some of the unutilised land (after having entered into contracts at OA) because it would not be in his self-interest to do so. With this kind of leasing, the total earnings of the landowner depend largely on the rents at which land can be leased in future periods and the yield from these rents will tend to be higher the greater the confidence the lessees have that the amount of land leased during the lease period will not be more than OM. That confidence would obviously be weakened and the rent that could be charged in future reduced, if extra land above OM is leased during the current lease period. It is this which would tend to give lessees confidence that such extra land will not be leased. Of course, the negotiating of such rental contracts for short periods for each piece of land might be extremely costly and indeed might be so costly as to offset the gain in revenue from the limitation in the amount of land utilised. But, if not too costly, leasing would tend to ensure that only OM land was utilised. Another alternative would be for the landowner to give MQ land to someone who is less concernedabout money-makingthan he is. For example, the landowner might donate MQ land to the government to be used â€Å"in the public interest†. Some such contractual or institutional arrangementsas these would enable the landowner to charge the monopoly price. But in the absence of such arrangements,the price charged will be the competitive price. It may be thought that this argument does not apply if the permanently durable good is produced by a monopolist supplier rather than being part of nature. But this is not so. Assume that the demand schedule for this good is DD, representingthe present value of its future services for various quantities of the good. Assume that it is produced by a single firm and that marginal costs are constant. MR representsthe marginal revenue schedule and MC the 146 THE JOURNAL OF LAW AND ECONOMICS marginalcost schedule. All schedulesare shown in Figure II. Cost and demand conditions are assumed to remain the same in the future. In effect, this means that if the competitive output, OQ, is produced originally, nothing will be producedin later periods. A similar argument to that used in the case of the landowner will demonstrate that the price that this producer will charge (assuming outright sale) will not be OA, the apparentmonopolyprice, but will be OB, since the demand for his output of this good is infinitely elastic at this price up to the output OQ. Again, it is possible to introduce conditions into the contract for sale which would avoid this. An agreement not to produce any more of the good afterOM has been produced,an offer to buy back the good at any time in the future at a price just under OB, or the use of leasing rather than outright sale, would all have the effect of making it possible to charge OA (just as similararrangementswould enable the monopolist landowner to achieve the monopoly price). Figure 1T A QB CL MC 0 /l M IA ! Q M-r-rvMR ~U-lM 11 I DURABILITYAND MONOPOLY 147 Some of these arrangementsmay not be legally enforceableand, in any case, are likely to involve additional costs as against those incurredin outright sale. There is, however, an alternative which was not available to the hypothetical landownerand that is to make the good less durable. This may raise the costs of providing the stream of services affordedby the durable good, may result in charges over the future which have a present value greater than OA and a supply of services less than that affordedby OM of the durable good. Profits will also be less than they would be if this firm could sell OM at price OA. But this is not a real alternative in the absence of the various contractual arrangementsmentioned. If the durable good is produced, the output will be OQ at price OB. If a less durable good is produced, a higher price can be charged because consumers do not have to fear an increase in supply if they buy at the monopoly price. The productionof a less durable good as against a more durable good is very similar to a policy of leasing since, by making the good less durable,the producersells the services providedby the good for short periods of time (because the good wears out) whereas in leasing the same result is achieved by selling the services of a given durable good in short period segments. The reason why making a good less durable enables a producer to charge higher prices than he could if the good were extremely durable is that it makes it in his self-interest not to increase supply since, if he did this, it would tend to lead consumers to believe that he might do this again in the future, a belief which would make it impossible for him to charge the monopoly price (as was explained in the case of land for leasing). Another circumstance reinforces the conclusion that making a good less durable will enable the monopolist producer to charge a higher price. What a consumer has to fear is an increasein supply during the period in which he (or someone to whom he transfers the good) is deriving services from the good. The less durable the good, the shorter is this period. But the shorter the period that the supplierhas in which to increase supply, the greater will be the additional costs of increasing supply. Lessened durability reduces the gain from an increase in supply and thus reduces the likelihood that it will occur. The analysis up to this point has proceededon the assumption that marginal costs were constant for the durable good. It needs modification if marginal costs rise with increases in the rate of output. With constant marginal costs, production would take place in the first period and would then cease. With rising marginalcosts, productionwould extend over a period of time, although, since price would fall as the stock of the durable good increased, the rate of production would decrease as time passed. Since sales occur sequentially, in setting the price in later periods, the producer will not take into account the fall in the value of the existing stock (which is, of course, owned by others). To this extent the behaviourof the producerwill inevitably be com- 148 THE JOURNAL OF LAW AND ECONOMICS petitive in character and the stock (and price) will move towards the competitive level. Because of this, consumers will pay less (and the producer’s profits will be less), than they would if, throughan agreementas to the total quantity that could be produced or an agreement on a re-purchaseprice or through the use of leasing, production were limited to the monopoly output. Reducing the durability of the good is an alternative policy which might be more profitable (as was argued in the case of constant marginal costs). There is an additional element introduced by the fact that production will continue over a period of time. The producerwill have to consider the effect his actions have on the expectations of consumersabout his actions in future periods. He can in general be counted upon to refrain from expanding output when any gain that he might make through disappointingconsumers’expectations (if they thought he would restrict production) would be less than the loss he would suffer in future from not fulfilling them. However, there is no reason why conditions should not be such that it would always pay to disappoint consumers’expectations of a restrictionin output (if they held such expectations) and in such circumstances,output in all periods would be such as to make marginalcost equal to price (if some of the arrangementsmentioned earlierwere not used). This result is particularly likely since, in the assumed conditions of rising marginal costs, prices and production will decline over time. Even in conditions in which the producer would not wish to disappoint consumers’expectations of a restrictionin production, it is by no means easy to say how things would work out in practice since neither the producer nor the consumers would necessarily have clear, or the same, ideas about the future. A full analysis of this situation would be very complicated but could not affect the main contention of this note, that with durability some contractualor institutional arrangementof the type mentioned earlier may be a less costly and perhaps the only way of achieving a monopoly price or that reduceddurability may prove to be a better way out of the difficulty. Oneother qualification should be mentioned. The analysis up to this point has assumed that demand and cost conditions remained unchanged, in effect, that the economy was in a stationary state. The present value of any given amountof the durablegood will always take into account future demands,but if demand remains the same, the present value of its future services (for any givenamount of the durablegood) will remain the same as time passes. However,with increasing demands present values will rise and future production will be greater than has been assumed (with constant marginal costs there willbe some future productionas against none). This enhances the importance ofthe considerationsdiscussed in the previous paragraph,since the future loss fromnot restricting output will tend to be greater. Whether the expected increasein demand would be sufficient to lead the producer to restrict output DURABILITYAND MONOPOLY 149 in earlier periods depends on its extent, on the rate of discount, on the nature of the cost schedule, on whether costs are expected to increase in the meantime (and by how much) and on the confidencewith which these views about the future are held. An expected increase in demand may or may not obviate the need for the contractual arrangementsmentioned earlier (or a reduction in durability) if the monopolist producer of a durable good is to secure the monopoly price. The business practices which I have suggested as devices which a monopolist supplier might use to cope with the problem of durability may, of course, be adopted for reasons which have nothing to do with my argument. A land developer, in selling land on which houses are to be built, may agree to hold neighbouringland off the market to improve the amenities; the supplier of a durable good may agree to buy it back at some specified price in the future because consumers are willing to pay for this reduction in risk; leasing is often a less costly way for the consumer to obtain the services of a durable good; a reduction in durability may enable a supplier to provide a given stream of services at lower cost. Even when these practices are adopted to avoid the consequencesof durability on demand, they are not necessarily undesirable-an agreementnot to produce more than a certain quantity may be a necessary condition in the competitive supply of a durable good for which marginalcost is less than average cost. Nevertheless, these business practices, including reduced durability, may be essential elements in securing a monopolistic price. However, these practices have their costs and they may not, in fact, always be feasible. Furthermore,some of the contractual arrangements will not be enforceable over a long period. In such circumstances, the competitive outcome may be achieved even if there is but a single supplier.