Business Financing and the Capital Structure Essay Example for Free

Business Financing and the Capital Structure Essay The financial marketplace is the area where companies engaged in financial trading are able to get capital to run. The financial market can also be referred to as capital markets. Stock markets are the place where companies come to trade among themselves; they represent individual investors or corporate investors. Trade in stocks has been deemed among the most lucrative areas a person can trade in; the returns are good. Stocks can simply be defined as shares bought for trading purposes and profits gained are ploughed back into the U. S. economy. (Saccomani and Chambers, 2008) Trade in U.S. financial markets offer various benefits; an organization can get loans to fund their activities through floating of bonds. When organizations are able to run efficiently then everybody gets to benefit, the government benefits through increased tax collection and more people get employed. The stock market offer individuals an avenue to put their money in lucrative stock instruments where the funds are managed by financial experts. Individuals do not have to worry about their limited financial expertise because at the stock markets well informed brokers or their employees will help them. Individuals are offered a variety of trading avenues which involves minimal labor and less capital intensive. (Saccomani and Chambers, 2008) The Federal Reserve is a name that is used to define the Central Bank in America. The bank was a creation of U.S. Congress for purpose of offering a safer and easier trading environment in America. The Fed is tasked with the management of the American monetary policy. They also regulate banks as well as monitoring risks at the stock markets. The Fed is comprised of seven members; who constitute the board of governors. Members of the board also constitute the F.O.M.C. (Federal Open Markets Committee); this committee decides on what interest rates to be charged by banks as well as purchase of treasuries. The Fed`s primary role is that of regulation. (Ltaifa et al, 2009) The Fed chairman`s role is that of a supervisor; he is tasked with the role of bringing the board to consensus of various monetary issues. The chairman is a presidential appointee hence he reports to the president from time to time on the country`s financial matters. The chairman also has the responsibility of steering the committee on interest rates. (Ltaifa et al, 2009) Departments or components of the Fed Reserve need to play their respective roles effectively so as to take the country in to financial success. The chairman should always maintain a steady control of all fiscal policies. The board should not enact self-centered policies that may endanger the banking sector or stock markets. The board and the chairman have to make prudent assessments of U.S. financial performance before taking any steps meant at changing any monetary policy. Interest rates affect the economy; particularly the spending power of individuals. The rates charged on bank loans lays a heavy burden on citizens; the net effect is loans become expensive hence doing business becomes harder. Higher interest rates on returns at the stock markets offer a reversed effect to the citizen; this brings about more disposable income because the return on investment is higher. (Batten and Szilagvi, 2011) The world suffers when markets get affected by whatever elements; this happens because the various economies around the world are interconnected hence any financial downfall of one will weaken the other. The Euro zone crisis is one such example where a problem begins in one country but after sometime affects a number of countries within same geographical location; countries that trade together. In the U.S. such a crisis occurred between 2007-2010, individuals found themselves not being able to finance their loans and other credit obligations. Care and keenness is needed when one wishes to traverse this terrain. References Saccomanni, F., Chambers, A. (2008).  Managing international financial instability: National tamers versus global tigers. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. Ltaifa, Navil Ben, Kaendera, Stella, Dixit, S. V. S. (2009).  Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on Exchange Rates and Policies in Sub-saharan Africa. Intl Monetary Fund. Batten, J., Szilagyi, P. G. (2011).  The impact of the global financial crisis on emerging financial markets. Bingley, U.K: Emerald. Source document

Geotechnical Engineering And Physical Properties Engineering Essay

Geotechnical Engineering And Physical Properties Engineering Essay Burj Al Arab is the worlds tallest iconic and most luxurious hotel. This building has received numerous recognitions around the world, and is mainly known by its design which resembles the shape of a sail boats mast. This 321 meter high building was built on a man-made island only 280 meters from the coast, giving all visitors a 360o view of the bay. Construction began in 1993. Engineers created a surface with a layer of rocks, which is circled with a honey-comb pattern which protects the surface and foundation from erosion. The building contains more than 70Â  000 m2 of concrete and 9Â  000 tons of steel. It took only two years to construct the building and three years to construct the foundation on beach sand, making this a geotechnical wonder.8 Introduction Geotechnical Engineering entails to obtain information of the physical properties of the soil and rock on a proposed site known as site exploration. This information combined with the mechanics of soil can assess the risks presented by the site conditions that must be concluded in the design process of foundations, earthworks and retaining walls. Burj Al Arab has one of the rarest and most interesting foundations, earthworks and retaining wall phenomenas. This include building an island 280 meter off coast as a foundation for this 321 meter high sea shore wonder.1 Throughout this report we will look at which soils are found in Dubai, as well as the properties thereof including the construction of this hotel foundation. Constructing the Burj Al Arab hotel The design of the Burj Al Arab has been constructed with a specific geometry which supports the sail boat like design by protecting the building from changing wind loads. The outermost wall of the building has been constructed by the use of PTFE coated fibreglass which contains air gaps at regular intervals. This double curve membrane design is able to withstand wind pressures easily.3 Additional cables have been provided onto the structure to prevent any deflection in materials. On the full height of the building expansion joints were provided on the right side of the building to ensure the building can withstand the wind load pressures as well as the horizontal stresses that may occur during construction and operation. The material that was used for this sail boat like structure is not only robust but it also protects the buildings interior from the sun by using light defusion.3 After seventy thousand cubic meters of concrete and ninety thousand tons of steel, this great engineering wonder is noted as the heart of Dubai. This spectacular feature of the Burj Al Arabhotel, with its two hundred and two rooms, is located 280 meter off shore from the coast of Dubai and recognised as the best in the world. 2 Concept Architect: Tom Willis-WrightimagesCAHJ41BO.jpg Construction Engineer: WS Atkins and Partners Overseas Multidisciplinary Consultancy. Interior designers: Khuan Chew, Design Principal of KCA International (London). Location: Jumeirah Beach Road, Jumeirah, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Date: 1994-1999 Style: Postmodern Type/Structure: Luxury 7 stars*Â  rating hotel/resort Size: 321m x 280m (1,053 ft) Medium: steel, glass, cement, steel cables, piles From: Antonino Terranova. The Great Skyscrapers of the World. Special gatefold edition, page 269-279. Figure 1: Burj Al Arab hotel Dubais Soil Profile The topography of Dubai (which lies within the Arabian Desert) is different from the southern portion of the UAE. Its landscape consists of sandy desert patterns consisting mostly out of crushed shell and coral and is clean and white, whereas gravel dominates in the southern regions of the country. 2 When looking at the soil properties of Dubai, its weak and will most probably move outwards in the case of any construction on it. See figure 1 Dubai soil map. 3 Studies also show that Dubais possibility of a tsunami is minimal, due to the Persian Gulf water that is not deep enough to trigger a tsunami. Thus Dubai is classified as a stable zone, whereas the nearest seismic fault line is 120 km from the UAE, making it unlikely for Dubai to be hit by a seismic impact.2 http://www.gisdevelopment.net/proceedings/mapmiddleeast/2006/natural%20resource%20management/images/mme06138_3.jpg Figure 2: Dubai soil map. Foundation Problems The moment when Dubai laid focus on the development of this world wonder, they knew it would be an engineering challenge. Many elements must be taken in consideration in geotechnical engineering to build the worlds 15th tallest building on seabed, where its properties are known as a collapsible soil due to a lack of silt and clay. The collapse phenomenon can be defined as a soil which can withstand somewhat large stresses, with little settlement at low in situ moisture content which will show signs of a decrease in volume and associated settlement with no increase of load if the moisture content rises. Therefore the change in volume goes hand in hand with the change in the soil structure. It is thus evident that a number of conditions need to be met before collapsing begins: 6 The soil must have a collapsible fabric in its structure. This is where the specified soil has a high void ratio and yet has relatively high shear strength at low moisture content due to a coating (Colloidal) around each grain. Partial saturation is essential. This is where collapse settlement will not occur in soils which are located under the water table. Increase of moisture content. This could be seen as the cause for the collapse to take place. With the increase of moisture the colloidal coating loses its strength and thus forces the grains to a denser state with reduction in void ratio. Subjected to an imposed load greater than their overburden pressure before collapse can take place. This is only applied to certain collapsible soils. The typical problem associated with a collapsible soil to a building is that although it is dependent on the increase of the moisture content, collapse can take place years after construction has taken place. 6 Large magnitude settlements can occur beneath lightly loaded structures as well as collapse settlement is regularly localised due to defects in foundation, drainpipe leakage and where ponding occur during rainfall. The engineering properties which most affect the cost of a construction are strengthening compressibility. Both can be enhanced by reducing the voids in the soil. Water must be displaced from the saturated soils in order to reduce the void volume. This can take months if the permeability of the type of soil present is low. The following engineering solutions to the mitigation of the collapse problem are listed below: 6 Avoidance by stopping the triggering mechanism (increase in moisture). This can be made possible by ensuring that water does not penetrate the collapsing soil horizons. Design for collapse. This could be possible in certain scenarios to design a structure which could withstand the predicted collapse settlement. Chemical stabilisation. This is to make use of a stabilising agent which could reduce the settlement. Piled or pier foundation. This is used only when the soil comes from a transported origin which means that the bedrock is covered with a shallow layer, making it possible to rather build on piers or piles. Removal and compaction. This could be done by removing the collapsible soil to a certain depth and replace it through compacting the removed soil in layers. In situ densification by surface rolling. Surface rolling can be done by making use of an impact or vibrating roller for compaction. Soil Properties Beach sand is one of many soils that have a collapsible grain structure, where its surface contains large quantities of calcium carbonate which in more defined terms are remains of microscopic plants and animals that thrive on nutrients in the water surface, where it ultimately settles to the floor. The strength and the behaviour of this soil are thus dependent on the calcareous particles which it contains. These grain particles is well rounded due to it being rotated and shaped by the waves and is poorly graded (i.e. having a narrow particle distribution). This contributes to the high void ratio, meaning that the soil is very loose and can be seen as not a good bonding material. 6 Table 1: Transported soil and possible engineering problem. Soil Type Transported Soil Type Agency of transportation Source Problem to anticipate Beach Sand Littoral deposit Waves Mixed Collapsible grain structure Tests to be performed on beach sand A large amount of data can be generated from soil, but it can all be wasted if the most important step of sampling is not carried out properly. Thus, in order for an analysis to be of significance to a proposed project, it should represent the bulk material of the site. Additionally, soil samples must be taken in abundance and at random, to ensure that the overall characteristics of the soil are effectively represented. See table 2 for properties beach sand. The following tests were used in classifying beach sand (collapsing soil structure):3 Particle size distribution. This test is performed to measure the particle size distribution of the soil sample by passing it through a set of sieves. This is in order to produce a grading curve for the soil, which is used to find out its classification. The solid particles in a soil can have different shapes and sizes, and these characteristics thus have a significant effect on its engineering behavior. By making use of this test one can clearly note whether the soil is well or poorly graded. As for beach sand it is known to be a collapsible soil due to it having a poorly graded grain structure and affected by an increase in moisture. Atterburg limits. This test makes use of three separate tests namely Liquid limit test, Plastic limit test and Shrinkage limit test. This test is used to determine a relationship between the soils consistency and its moisture content. If the soil has low moisture content, it would aim to break before deformation takes place, whereas if the moisture content is too high, the soil will deform more easily. This test is of great importance due to it having an impact on settlement underneath a proposed structure. The test can be used to distinguish between the presence of silts and clays. This is important as silt has much less cohesion than clay. Dry density. This can easily be determined in a laboratory by measuring its physical dimensions and by weighing them. The dry density of a collapsible soil lies between 900-1600 kg/m3. Oedometer test. When a structure is build on a soil it produces settlement due to compression within the soil profile, which depends on the soils properties such as self-weight and also the type of load the soil is experiencing. This test makes use of a series of loads in order to measure the corresponding settlement of the soil. By knowing the soils stress and strain properties will allow the prediction in settlement and swelling of the soil. Collapse Potential test. This test is used to determine the collapse parameters in order to design accordingly. The CP (Collapse Parameters) is given in percentage, to determine the level of severity. Triaxial test. This test is similar to the unconfined compression test, except that the sample is surrounded by a waterproof membrane and installed in a pressure chamber (cell). This test is thus performed to estimate the stress and strain parameters of the specific soil. Permeability. This test is used to determine the ease of which water can flow through a soil profile, which is important for geotechnical engineers in projects. Table 2: Soil properties of silt sand.9 Soil Properties Beach Sand Specific Gravity 2.64-2.66 Bulk Density (Mg/ M3) 1.82-2.15 Dry Density (Mg/ m3) 1.45-1.95 Void ratio 0.35-0.85 Liquid limit (%) 24-35 Plastic limit (%) 14-25 Effective cohesion (kPa) 75 Angle of friction (deg) 32-36 Construction of Burj Al Arab Foundation Constructing a building on sea, an artificial island is needed to design and build the foundations. As many elements need to be taken into account to build an off shore structure, it is therefore important to ensure the protection of the foundation. This can only be done by evaluating all apposed loads to a structure. Seafloor stability regards to the bearing capacity and the sliding resistance thereof must be evaluated for static and combined static, operational and environmental (Like horizontal, vertical loading and overturning moments of the environment which have a return period of up to 15 seconds) loads. Structures with more or less a 150 meter depth could experience horizontal loads of 15-35% of the vertical loading, whereas the overturning moment can be ranging from 100 to 500 million kN/m.8 The change in vertical load during a storm can range from 10 40 % of the static vertical load. This means that the foundation needs to be strong to be able to obtain these loadings. Luc kily these loadings were much less when Burj Al Arab was constructed, due to it only being 7 meters in depth.8IslandConstruction1.jpg Figure 3: Piling of the Burj Al Arab hotel The first step in constructing the island was to place 230 concrete piles (see Figure 3), each one 40 meter in length, which was drilled into the sea bed. The foundation is therefore held in place by the friction of the sand and silts along the length of the piles, rather than the conventional bedrock. The surface was then made by using large rocks that were put together in a specific concrete pattern (honey-comb pattern) which serves as a shield to minimise erosion to the foundation. Making the platform on which the building would be constructed, tube files and sheet files were drilled deep into the sea to support various boundary rocks. Once this was completed the sea water was displaced to fill the inside with concrete slabs as seen on table 3. IslandConstruction2.jpg The structure was then surrounded with a temporary concrete structure to protect the island and the base of the structure, which was filled with a concrete plug slab. Lastly the concrete walls was made where the main basement floor of the building was build (See Figure 4).3 Figure 4: Burj Al Arab Excavated Basement Table 3: Foundation of the Burj Al Arab Conclusion The Burj Al Arab being a geotechnical wonder is due to its size as well as its ability to withstand the environment and the impacts thereof. This building is only carried by a sandy soil which contains broken shells. Its ability under shear strength and pressure is very low, especially since it is located 280 meters of shore. Thus the building stands only on piles which are held into place by just the friction between the soil and the piles, making this project one of the most remarkable foundation types in history. The design of this foundation on this type of soil is breaking barriers in the building industry, making Dubai a leading country in development. Due to South Africa not being a first world country it is impossible for us to be compared to a city which encourages ultimate engineering in structural, hydraulic and geotechnical engineering. Therefore we cannot compare the infrastructures of their country with ours. South Africa could always strive to be a first world country by focusing on infrastructure as well as the inequality of societies. This would encourage tourism and affect the economy positively.

Nozicks Wilt Chamberlain argument

Nozicks Wilt Chamberlain argument Explain and evaluate Nozicks Wilt Chamberlain argument. In Robert Nozicks famed Anarchy,State, and Utopia Nozick uses the example of a basketball player who becomes considerably richer than the rest of the population to demonstrate that liberty is incompatible with any patterned theory of distributive justice. This argument, if successful, would be a considerable challenge for Rawls because his theory prioritises liberty in his conception of justice but also requires some redistribution of wealth (as determined by the difference principle). If Nozick is right that a patterned theory (of which the difference principle is one) is incompatible with liberty then the Rawlsian project collapses into a libertarian theory because the first principle (liberty) must be favoured over the second redistributive principle. First I will argue that the Wilt Chamberlain argument is not question-begging because it assumes self-ownership and not absolute property rights (the latter is what the patterned theory must deny) and attempts to derive the latter fr om the former. Second I will argue that interpreting liberty as self-ownership does entail the incompatibility of liberty and a patterned theory as long as we do away with a Lockean proviso on initial acquisition. Nozick categorises theories of distributive justice by two classifications. The first classification is whether a theory is historical or ahistorical which is the distinction between whether a theory takes into account past actions/events/circumstances (historical) or not (ahistorical). The more important distinction that Nozick makes between varying theories of distributive justice is between patterned and unpatterned theories. A patterned theory of justice is one in which distributive shares are determined or correlated with some variable. For example a utilitarian theory of justice would be a patterned theory of justice because it would distribute social goods according to how much utility they promote. An unpatterned theory would not determine who is to get what by reference to some variable in the world. The best (and seemingly the only) way to interpret an unpatterned theory of justice is to not determine who is to get what but by what means who can get what; we may call this a procedural theory of justice. Nozicks argument against patterned theories of justice is that they are incompatible with liberty and uses the example of Wilt Chamberlain to argue for this point. In an imaginary world we assume a patterned theory of justice. Although it doesnt (and shouldnt as the example is meant to show that all patterned theories of justice are incompatible with liberty) matter which patterned theory we choose we will assume an egalitarian theory. So in the initial situation (from here on D1) we assume that the social goods in society have been distributed equally. In D1 Wilt Chamberlain, a famous basketball player, strikes an agreement with his club that for every ticket sold he will receive 25 cents (Nozick 1997:208). As a result of this Wilt Chamberlain becomes very wealthy and so upsets the patterned theory because society becomes more unequal (from here on D2). About this case Nozick can be interpreted as arguing the following: Ex hypothesi in D1 each person is justly entitled to their share of goods. This entails that no person in D1 has a claim of injustice against any other person(Nozick 1997:208-9). If everyone is entitled to their goods then they are to be at liberty to do with them whatever they want i.e. they have absolute property rights. An egalitarian principle denies that each is to be at liberty to do as they wish with their goods because it upsets the patterned theory of equality (as it does in D2). Therefore an egalitarian principle of distributive justice is incompatible with liberty. As there is no good reason to think that any other patterned theory of justice cannot be upset by liberty then any patterned theory of justice is incompatible with liberty. The essential point that Nozick is trying to make is that if each person is entitled to their goods in D1 then how can it be possible for an unjust situation to occur in D2 after each person voluntarily gives money to Wilt Chamberlain in order to see him play? As Nozick puts it, how can an unjust situation arise from people transferring their money to Wilt when each customer had no claim of justice on any holding of the others before the transfer ?(Nozick 1997:209). An initial objection may be that in society people will always freely trade (i.e. not have their property taken coercively in order to maintain a distributive principle) in accordance with that distributive principle. This objection misses the point because all Nozick is trying to show is that a patterned theory of justice is in principle incompatible with liberty. That is, any patterned theory of justice doesnt necessitate a respect for liberty. A more serious problem for Nozick arises in trying to establish (2) because it seems to beg the question against the patterned theorist. For exactly what the patterned theorist denies is that each individual has absolute property rights over the goods that have been distributed to him. When goods are redistributed after D2 in order to correct the unpatterned distribution that Wilt and his customers caused then this is not a violation of Wilts liberty because he had no absolute rights over his goods. If he had no absolute rights over his goods then when his goods are taken from him then Wilt cannot complain that his liberty has been violated. His liberty to do with his goods as he wishes is only his right to do with his goods as he pleases and if he has no absolute rights over his goods (which is exactly what the patterned theorist denies) then his liberty has not been violated under any circumstance in which it is taken e.g. not violated when in accordance with the patterned theory. In order to establish the incompatibility of liberty and any patterned theory non-question-beggingly then Nozick must give independent support for absolute property rights. Nozick does give independent reasons for absolute property rights and these are not reasons that the patterned theorist necessarily denies. Whilst the patterned theorist necessarily denies absolute property rights they dont necessarily deny the principle that each person is the owner of their own bodies i.e. the principle of self-ownership. Even if Nozick fails in his attempt at this he has not begged the question against the patterned theorist because the denial of self-ownership is not what the patterned theorist has denied in the Wilt Chamberlain argument, rather, what he has denied are absolute property rights. If self-ownership does entail absolute property rights then the patterned theorist must, by modus tollens, deny self-ownership as they necessarily deny absolute property rights. But you dont beg the qu estion against an opponent by asserting a conditional that entails the denial of your opponents point otherwise all of philosophy would be question-begging! Rather Nozick has provided a new argument and it is for the patterned theorist to deny this in order to deny the Wilt Chamberlain argument. If Nozick is to demonstrate that liberty is incompatible with any patterned theory then in order to avoid begging the question Nozick must give independent support to the idea of absolute property rights. If people are forbidden from exercising their right to property (e.g. their right to keep their property despite it being incompatible with a pattern) then we may say their liberty has been violated just as we say that a person whose right to speech has been violated has also had their liberty violated. So conceived liberty is just a collection of rights;we are at liberty to do something so long as we have a right to do that thing and no-one prevents us from exercising that right. An example that supports this conception of liberty is given by Ryan (Wolff 1992:93) where we would think it absurd to say that a professors liberty has been violated by him being prevented from transferring his tenure to his children. We think that his liberty hasnt been violated because he had no right t o transfer his tenure in the first place. Therefore our liberties are dependent on our rights. Liberty is violated when a right is violated and if peoples right to property is absolute then taking it from them without their consent violates their right to that property and so their liberty too. When we say that property rights are absolute we do not mean that people have the right to use their property literally however they want for that would give people a right to throw their spears at somebody without provocation. Rather we mean that people may use their property however they wish as long as they dont interfere with others using their property as they wish and crucially that they may use their property despite it not maintaining a patterned distribution. Can Nozick give independent support for absolute property rights (and not merely postulate them)? His attempt at this starts with the thesis of self-ownership (Kymlicka 2002:107): 6. Persons have the right to decide how they use their bodies as long as they dont interfere with anybody else using their body. Self-ownership is essentially an absolute property right to your own body; we are to be at liberty to use our bodies in any way we wish as long as we respect the like rights of others. Self-ownership seems intuitively a very plausible starting place for any normative theory. If it is denied then either other people have a claim on our bodies or nobody has a claim on our bodies or their own bodies. If people dont have the right to decide what they should do with their bodies then in what sense is slavery wrong (slavery that is better than no slavery, to cut short the utilitarian response)? Self-ownership seems to have enormous explanatory power for our moral intuitions as it explains why slavery, murder, rape, kidnapping and almost any other use of force is seen as wrong. An initial implication of this is that it would be wrong in a world where people are born with different numbers of eyes to take, without consent, peoples eyes in order to achieve a more equal distribution of eyes (C ohen 1995:70). This is one way in which a patterned theory would violate rights and thus liberty but Nozick wants to take aim at all patterned theories not just some. For example Rawls patterned theory would guarantee the right to freedom of speech and freedom of thought which are both guaranteed by self-ownership. Nozick wants to attack the Rawlsian redistribution of private property (i.e. property that is not identical to your own body) and show that violations of these private property rights (and thus liberty) is tantamount to denying self-ownership.The point is as follows: 7. If (6) is true then anyone can gain an absolute property right to any part of the world as long as they dont worsen the condition of others. (7) follows from (6) because (6) implies that we may do anything we wish as long as we dont interfere with others doing what they wish. It doesnt matter exactly how we acquire a piece of property only that it seems we must use our bodies. For how else could something that was not originally ours become ours? If this is the case then we may acquire property because we acquire property through the use of our bodies and we have the right to use our bodies as we want. The clause in (7) is introduced in order to try and stop the acquisition of property which deprives another of that right to it. For when we acquire a piece of land then it comes ours and it is up to us if others are to be able to use it and thus no-one else can have a say over how that piece of land is to be used. Nozick thinks this is acceptable as long as we hold a proviso on exactly when we may acquire a piece of land. We may only acquire a piece of land if the acquisition of that piece of land materially worsens the co nditions of anybody else who would use that piece of land. We only worsen the condition of others if they have less of what they need than if we had not acquired the piece of land that we did. For example we may not take the only full water hole in an area and deprive others of the water in it because we are clearly worsening the conditions of others. He doesnt specify exactly what happens to someones property once the Lockean proviso is violated just saying that there become stringent limitsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦on what he may do with his property(Nozick 1974:180). He seems to doubt that we could even call it that persons property. If the argument is successful it will show that people can gain absolute property rights and thus that patterned theories are unjust because they involve violating those property rights and thus liberty in order to maintain a pattern. The problem with the above argument is that the self-ownership thesis does not entail (7). Specifically it doesnt entail the Lockean proviso and the proviso seems completely ad-hoc. If Nozick admits that our ability to acquire property is dependent on how it affects the materials that others can have access (and thus their welfare) to then how is this different to weakening the property rights in order to achieve greater utility via a patterned theory? Nozicks proviso seems arbitrary in that he gives no reason why we should select his Lockean proviso over another. If we should limit the acquisition of property because of its harmful effects on others then why shouldnt we accept another Lockean proviso such as one that maximises the welfare of others? I believe that Nozick specifically selects that principle because of his interpretation of interfering in (6). For he wants to forbid acquiring property when that interferes with others acquiring property. This seems to be a mistaken int erpretation of the interfering which seems to be essentially depriving another of a negative liberty rather than a positive liberty. The distinction between positive and negative rights is essentially the distinction between what others have a duty to do and what they have a duty not to do. For example my right to not be killed is a duty that others have to not murder me and so is a negative duty whilst my right to an education is generally conceived as a duty that my lecturers have to come and lecture me about distributive justice. So I have a negative right if I have a right that people dont do something to me whilst if I have a positive right I have a right that someone provide something to me. Interfering is naturally construed as violating negative rights such as when we say that people have a right not to be interfered with. So we should interpret the self-ownership thesis as saying that we may do as we want with our bodies (including using them to acquire property) as long as we dont stop others using their bodies as they wish (including them acquiring property). So our negative right to use our body as we wish is somebody elses duty to not stop us from using it as we wish. We do not have a positive right to use our body as we wish and thus nobody has a duty to help or assist us in someway of using our bodies as we wish. This means that we have the negative right to acquire property and so everybody has a duty to restrain from stopping me acquiring property unless in doing so I am violating the negative right of someone else to acquire or maintain property. When I acquire property it does stop others acquiring property but this is nothing to the point, since you had no right to that plot (Narveson 1987:62). For nobody had a right to that piece of land until I got there and it became mine and when it becomes mine then nobody may violate my right to that property. So Nozick makes the mistake of assuming that by acquiring a piece of land I am interfering w ith somebody elses right to that piece of land. But in actual fact I am not violating anybodys right to that piece of land because I only have the duty of not violating anybody elses right to property but nobody had a negative right to that piece of property because it was me who first acquired it. So self-ownership guarantees that I may acquire property using my body and that I may acquire property as long as I dont interfere with the property rights that others already have and as interfere is violating a negative right we dont interfere with someone else acquiring property by acquiring that property because they had no positive right to a piece of land rather only the negative right that someone else not stop them acquiring a piece of land. Thus self-ownership does not require a Lockean proviso in order to acquire property because the mere depriving someone of a piece of land doesnt constitute interference. The implications for the Wilt Chamberlain case is that each person acquir es a right to that piece of property and that we may use our property in anyway that we wish as long as we dont violate the negative rights of someone else to their property. In the Wilt Chamberlain case nobody is violating anybody elses right to property by buying tickers because nobody is stopping anybody else using their property as they wish and therefore the redistribution to maintain the pattern violates the negative rights of Wilt to his property. As we have identified the violation of a right as correspondingly the violation of a liberty then it can be said that redistribution violates the liberty of Wilt by violating his liberty to do with his property as he wishes. In conclusion it seems that the Wilt Chamberlain argument does provide a good argument to show why patterned theories of justice are incompatible with liberty. We first identified that the violation of a right to do something is best described as the violation of a liberty to do something. Then we argued that in order for Nozick to avoid begging the question against the patterned theorist he must give independent support to the idea of absolute property rights which give somebody the right to use their property even if it upsets a distributive pattern. Nozick tries to argue for absolute property right from the basis of self-ownership which is the idea that each person is to have the right to use their body as they wish (which includes using it to acquire property rights) as long as they dont interfere with others using their bodies as they wish. Nozicks Lockean proviso on acquisition is not entailed by self-ownership because interference is defined only as the negative right to acqui re property and we are not violating somebody elses right to that piece of property by acquiring it because they only had the negative right of the opportunity to acquire it and not the positive right to somebody else not taking it for themselves. As self-ownership guarantees that people may acquire and use property as they want as long as they dont violate the negative rights of others to their property then the taking of Wilts property (his money) is a violation of his absolute property rights and is therefore a violation of his liberty. Bibliography Nozick,R., Anarchy,State, and Utopia 1974 Wolf,J., Robert Nozick: Robert Nozick: Property, Justice and the Minimal State 1991 Cohen,G.A., Self-ownership,freedom and equality 1995 Narveson,J., The libertarian idea 1987 Kymlicka,W., Contemporary political philosophy 1990

Essay --

While raining, your child walks six blocks to the bus stop with no shelter. When the bus finally arrives, it is in need of thirty minutes to get to school. Eventhough, there is a school a couple blocks down from their house, it is not even a thought in the eyes of the law due to the mere color of their skin. This is not just the story of Oliver Brown and his family, but many other families experiencing discrimination throughout the world. Brown was ready for a change, so he and the NAACP gathered evidence to take on the courts. Through the process of many getting denied the acceptance of their children in school, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People gathered evidence for a lawsuit against the courts. Oliver Brown and many others were tired of the saying seperate but equal and the inferiority they were given through out their lives. Instead of just accepting the opinions of others and sitting around wanting a change, they stood for what they believed in, beco ming the turning point in America. Judith Conaway was the author of the book Brown vs. Board of Education. In this book, Conaway describes in detail, the discrimination and experiences our ancestors had to go through. Through the triumphs they experienced, laws changed where segregation was abolished and everyone is equal. She says that the "supreme court had ruled that racial segregation in public schools denied African Americans equal protection under the law." She also said that the courts agreed that seperate schools harmed black children both academically and psychologically. For example, African American children would choose white dolls over black dolls because the black dolls were considered ugly with their heads down. This decision of the c... ...aiting for. We are the change that we seek. All in all, just like Oliver Brown and the NAACP , do not live life waiting for things to happen, take control of today and be the future of yet to come. If you live life in fear and accept what is handed to you, you can never succeed. The decision of Brown vs. Board of Education did not just effect our ancestors, if effected us today and future generations. It accomplished more than the abolishment of segregation in school, it abolished segregation laws throughout the world. I am able to go to school everyday knowing I am not being discriminated against because the color of my skin. Not only that, I am able to go to a restaurant, movie theater, and even a water fountain without a sign saying white or black people only. In my oppinion they constituted the future for my education, all those before me, and those to follow.

AT&T Essay -- essays research papers

The dominant economic traits of this industry start with having an enormous amount of capital required for staying competitive. One is also required to spend lots of money on research and development, as the telecommunications industry seems to be the vision of the future. More and more companies like AT&T are trying very hard to combine their network services of phone line, video and data transfer, high speed internet access, and television cable via one line in the consumers homes. With a successful combination of the above stated services AT&T is hoping to be the industry leader in the near future.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In today’s telecommunication market there is a lot of competition by industry giants such as Sprint, MCI, and AOL, but simultaneously the very high cost involved with entering and competing in this industry also makes it very unattractive for new entrants. These are just some of the big names who are planning to and are presently providing parts of the pipe dream that AT&T seems to seek. In this industry it is very important to have customer awareness of the line of products you carry. Most of the public hears the name AT&T or Sprint or MCI and they think telephone bills but many consumers do not realize that these companies have expanded their field of services from cellular phones to wireless web services. The reason mainly being the lack of marketing, and direct consumer advertising provided by these firms on the other line of p...

My Childhood Fear Essay

Why do people have fears? Why do we let fears control our lives? I never thought I would ever get over my own fears. These fears made my childhood very difficult and hard to deal with. When I was a kid, I was scared of spiders. As great as my parents were about letting their kids explore the world and letting us develop our own opinions about the organisms we encountered, I think my fear of spiders was largely my dad’s fault. He still tells me stories about how our house would have been â€Å"overrun with black widows – overrun!!† if he hadn’t hauled a can of Raid out into the backyard and sprayed the heck out of every black widow he found once a week. He talked about the sun spider (not a true spider, but still an arachnid) in the laundry closet with a hint of fear and has told me the story with a spider several times. It goes like this. One night, I called out to my dad, telling him that there was a spider in my crib. He looked around and didn’t see anything, so he told me I was dreaming and should go back to sleep. A few minutes later, I called out again, saying that there was a spider in my bed. He looked again and still didn’t see anything. I kept insisting there was a spider, so he eventually started pulling off blankets to prove that there was no spider. Of course there was a spider, THE BIGGEST BLACK WIDOW OF ALL TIME! Or at least that’s how my dad tells it. You’d think this spider was about to devour his beloved firstborn, that I was lucky he was there to save me and vanquish the black widow foe. He wouldn’t ever admit it, but these sorts of stories have led me to believe that my dad migh t have a touch of arachnophobia. When my dad, who is rather fearless and tells stories of brave encounters with rattlesnakes and an angry swarm of yellow jackets, actually showed any sort of fear, it sort of rubbed off on you. So, I was scared of spiders too. I remember growing up thinking that most spiders were dangerous, that killing a spider was better than risking being bitten. I used to be so scared of spiders that I’d have nightmares about them lurking under my blankets. I would wake up in a panic and start ripping off the covers to prove to myself that there wasn’t actually a spider in my bed. I knew there wasn’t a spider in my bed, but then again†¦ My dad had told me that story about the black widow in my crib, so maybe my subconscious mind was trying to tell me something†¦ As I became more and more interested in insects, I learned that the vast majority of spiders really weren’t going to hurt me. I knew that the wolf spider crawling up the wall or the little harmless brown spiders in the basement weren’t going to do anything to me, but the fear persisted. I felt a little stupid for being scared of spiders. But I couldn’t help it. They bothered me. When I was going to school, in the city of my birth, I was imagining that black widows lurked in every corner and I would have daily encounters with all manner of huge spider. Every now and again I would envision a spider crawling up the back of my couch while I was doing homework or something and it would make me shiver just a little. So, how did I get over my fear of spiders? I don’t know how or why it worked, but I told myself to ignore the spiders and suddenly they stopped bothering me. No more spider nightmares! They can crawl all over me and I don’t care. Black widows are beautiful spiders and I love to watch them. I enjoy seeing the big orb weaver spiders when I’m in the sorts of habitats where they’re found. Sun spiders – spectacular animals! And who doesn’t love a good jumping spider? I might not pick spiders up, just in case I misidentify one I shouldn’t handle or have a strange reaction to tarantula hairs (those things make me itch like mad!), but I’m perfectly okay with spiders living in and around my house. Sometimes I knock their webs down as I dust, but otherwise they’ve got a pretty good thing going living with me. I just don’t care that they’re there. All in all, I am happy I went on that field trip. Forcing myself to walk through the spiders to get to the pond seems to have done me a world of good. Now, if only I could get over my fear of centipedes†¦

Relationship between society and education Essay

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIETY AND EDUCATION Introduction Many sociologists have observed that there is a strong relationship between education and society. This observation is borne out of the fact that it is not possible to separate or draw any line of demarcation between the two concepts. This is because of the fact that what happens to the educational system undoubtedly affects the society, the young in its own image. The components of the educational system that constitute perfectly defined facts and which have the same reality as another social fact are inter-related. They are inter-related internally, so that a given education system has unity and consistency, and also externally so that the education system reflects a society’s moral and intellectual values. Ottaway (1980) defined society as the whole range of social relationships of people living in a certain geographical territory and having a feeling of belonging to the same kind of group. In every society, whether developing or developed, complex or primitive, there is always an education system. Education systems are not the same, as no two societies are identical. Therefore, education systems differ from society to society and their aims, contents and techniques also differ from one society to another. From the foregoing, one might postulate that educational institutions are micro-societies, which mirror the entire society. This is one of the reasons why societies try to evolve education systems and  policies that would meet the needs, beliefs, attitudes and the aspirations of their people. Havighurst (1968) observed that the way to understand a society’s education system is to understand how it is related to the other basic institutions of that society, in particular the family, the church, mosque,the state, the polity and the economy. Relationship between Education and Society We have seen education in particular as a means of cultural transmission from one generation to another. The parents are the first teachers of the child and they still maintain an educative function throughout the early and formative years of a child. In most of the developing nations of the world, including Nigeria, parents are responsible for sending their children or wards to school. Since these nations are undergoing rapid socioeconomic and political changes, they witness special problems involving the appropriate education system, which will be able to produce the adequate manpower needs in all the segments of the society. . Schools are established in many societies of the world so as to instill in the pupils those skill’s which will afford them the opportunity of taking their rightful positions in the society; but this function cannot be adequately accomplished without the assistance of the home because both the home and the school perform complimentary functions in the moral and intellectual development of the child. This means that the child cannot be educated in a vacuum or in isolation. Therefore, for a child to be educated there must be interaction between him and his physical and social environment. By this we mean that education is the development of personality. It is something which goes on both inside and outside the home and in the school. In other words, education is an activity of the whole community. This means that education is used in the transmission of the cultural values. One important implication of looking at education as the transmitter of cultural values is the fact that education can be influenced by the culture of the society in which it takes place. For this reason, one may infer that for a child to be educated, he must be influenced by his environment and, in turn, be capable of influencing it. And it is only by the concept of the continuous interaction of the individual and his society that the development of personality can be properly understood. We have noted above  that education is a means through which the cultural values of a particular society are transmitted from one generation to another. Through this process, the society is able to achieve basic social conformity and ensure that its traditional values, beliefs, attitudes and aspirations are maintained and preserved. Clarks (1948) observed that a general knowledge and acceptance of the ideals and aims of our society is essential for all its citizens, and it must be achieved throug h education but in a form, which makes it compatible with freedom. So he reconciles the double purpose by saying that admittedly, the purpose of the educative society may be to make men conformable. But overmastering that must be the purpose to make men free. A society needs a stable and dynamic set of values and a ,unified purpose. It is when this is ascertained that meaningful economic, political and social programmes can be embarked upon for the overall benefits of the citizens. To be a fully developed a person in such a society, implies full and creative membership of it with powers to change it. Ottaway (1980) contended that the transmission of culture still remains a vital function, and is not to be dismissed as merely conservative in the sense of being old-fashioned. He further observed that our children are potentially the society of the future, which still belongs to the non-social community, and education in this respect can be regarded as a socialization of the young. Education depends on the total way of life of a people in a society. This suggests that the type of education provided will differ from society to society. Besides, each society has her own norms, values and her own ideal persons who stand out clearly for the youn ger generations to emulate. Since all these societies are not the same, then it means that a man is regarded as a hero in one society because of his contributions to educational development of the society may not be regarded as such in another society where education is not given priority in the scheme of their daily activities. It, therefore, implies that children have different people to emulate in different societies. It is logical to expect that the type education given in each society will change from time to time as the society changes. Many writers have argued that education is one of the causes of social change in the society, but another school of thought is of the opinion, that educational change tends to follow other social  changes, rather than initiate them. Ottaway (1980) observed that ideas of change originate in the minds of men; often in the mind of a single man. Exceptional individuals invent new techniques and propound new values for their society. These ideas arise from the impact of man o n his culture, but do not change the culture until they are shared and transmitted by a social group. In his own submission, Boocock (1972) noted that societies undergoing rapid social change or modernization have special problems in adapting the educational system to the manpower needs of the world. They often suffer shortages of persons with special kind of education in engineering and other technical fields and may have difficulty in keeping persons with valuable skills once they have completed their education. Another area of the relationship between education and society is through the arrangement of the entire society into a hierarchical order that is, through the social structure in which education plays a prominent and significant role in fixing educated individuals into social classes. Ottaway (1980) observed that education is the process of preparing people to fit into this complex social structure and to play particular social roles as members of more than one institutional group. Individuals have to learn to be fathers or mothers, school teachers or civil servants, shopkeepers or priests. They have to learn to keep the law, to understand how they are governed and to be prepared to try and change the social moves when they see that they can be improved. Education as a social phenomenon is also concerned with the preparation of the child for his future occupation in life. This is one of the main economic functions of education and this is in the interest of both the nation and the individual. Through education an individual knows the structure of the society and the different types of relationships that exist among those structures in the society. The child is taught how to perform different roles within the social structure in the society. These roles are inter-r elated. For example, the role of a father is a relational role; a father could be a son to another person. So education allows the child to perform his role adequately within the social structure in the society. In addition, the child is able to understand the network of inter-relationships among the different social institutions that make up the society. . Also of importance are the different functions that are performed by each social institution in the society. Like an individual, each institution has definite functions to perform in the society and the functions of each institution differ from one to another even though they are complimentary. Another aspect of the relationship between education and society is in the area of social interaction. Social interaction may be defined as any relation between people and groups, which changes the behaviour of the people in the group. There is a need for social interaction by the child before he could acquire the culture of his society. This interaction in the society is therefore part of the child’s education, provided that, that type of interaction brings about positive changes in the child’s behaviour in the right direction as required by the educational system. One important point here is that the child has been taking part in group interaction long before he starts to attend school and the most common among these group interactions are within the family and the peer group. These groups in which the child interact, gives him the opportunity to learn from the wider circles in the society. From his social contacts, he learns his roles in different groups and this influences his personality development. Conclusion Many sociologists have appreciated the relationship between education and society and have concluded that the two are so interrelated. That one cannot draw any line of demarcation between them. It has been observed that the educational system of any nation must be based on the needs and demands of the society, and that any educational system that fails to meet the needs, aspirations and ambitions of the society is not relevant and is bound to fail. The educational system of any nation is concerned with, the transmission of the cultural values of today to those who will live in the world of tomorrow, and contents of education must somehow strike a balance. Dubey et. al. (1984) observed that a good educational system, in all its full substance and ramifications, is related to the level of culture, industrial development, rate of urbanization, political organization, religious climate, family structure, stratification and other institutions of the total social system. Finally, education has to fulfil both the individual’s needs and those of the society and must keep pace with other sub-systems in the society, as both variables are inter-related. REFERENCES Blakemore, K. and Cooksey, B. (1981). A Sociology of Education for Africa. London: George Allen & Unwin. Boocock, S. (1972). An Introduction to the Sociology of Learning. New York: Houghton Mifflin. Clarke, F. (1948). Freedom in the Educative Society London: University Press. Dubey, D.L. et.al (1984). An Introduction to the Sociology of Nigerian