Communism/Capitalism

“Capitalism and communism stand at opposite poles. Their essential difference is this: The communist, seeing the rich man and his fine home, says: 'No man should have so much.' The capitalist, seeing the same thing, says: 'All men should have so much.'” – Unknown (Braude 89)

The U.S. democracy, which functions under the political philosophy of Capitalism, and the U.S.S.R., which was a communist “republic”, are two almost completely opposite systems of government. The two were in constant contention with each other for their differences, and their differences are so great that each system demands that they contest each other in one way or another at all times. Their differences stem from one basic concept: as the quote above demonstrates, American democracy, at its heart, is based on the welfare and promotion of its people, while communism is based on complete conformity, which in essence is tyranny.

“Communism is the death of the soul. It is the organization of total conformity - in short, of tyranny - and it is committed to making tyranny universal.” – Adlai E. Stevenson (Communism Quotes)

Communist Russia was founded by a very ambitious and power – hungry revolution leader, Vladimir Lenin. He expanded on Marxist theories to create a state of ultra conformism and tyranny. No matter what he preached to the poor sect of Russia, the proletariat, Lenin, like all dictators, was primarily concerned with the consolidation of his own power, as evidenced by his lack of actions of concern toward the constantly suffering proletariat under his rule. The communist leaders that followed him were little different. Conformism promotes tyranny in all cases, as the people gather under one law – maker in order to stifle their own disagreements with the law – maker. Communism, therefore, is ultimately completely centered around a power – hungry tyrant who basic wish is to expand his own domain of power and cares little to none for his peasants.

American democracy was founded on the idea that the government serves its citizens. The constitution, along with the declaration of independence and many other founding documents, stresses the importance of a government for the people, which promotes the people’s welfare. American democracy is about the will of the people, and the general consensus toward what will work. It is as much an opposite to Communism as has ever been formulated.

“Capitalism is what people do if you leave them alone” – Kenneth Minogue (Boehm 157)

Part of promoting the welfare of the people is in accepting a philosophy of economics that best allows the people to obtain riches and all comforts they desires. Capitalism, by nature, is an unrestricting philosophy. At its core, it preaches limited government that does not interfere so much in the business of private citizens. It says that if you leave people alone and not restrict their abilities, they will obviously achieve more.

It is difficult to compare American democracy and communism of the U.S.S.R. They almost always stand in contrast. The only similarities they ever had came in form, not practice, as the communist leaders, in the later part of the existence of the U.S.S.R. attempted to form a congress and broaden the responsibilities of the formerly limited judicial system (Politics of the Soviet Union). The two were, in practice, opposites of one another, one promoting the good of the people, and the other the interests of the tyrant.

Boehm, Jim. The Handbook for Exploding the Economic Myths of the Political Sound Bite. Infinity Publishing, 2006.

Braude, Jacob. Lifetime Speaker’s Encyclopedia. Prentice Hall, 1962.

“Communism Quotes.” ThinkExist. 22 September, 2007.

< http://thinkexist.com/quotations/communism/>

“Politics of the Soviet Union.” Wikipedia. 22 September, 2007.

< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_the_Soviet_Union>

Monopolies

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Letter

The business proposition that I would like to present is an Italian eatery that offers high quality pasta and Italian dishes at fast food price, quickness, and convenience. There is a growing market within today’s society for a healthy alternative to the conventional burger and fries offered by the majority of fast food firms. There is no better answer than the Italian Kitchen, which would utilize the production of high quality, authentic Italian cuisine at both a price and quickness that rivals many fast food businesses. Within the economic setting of the High Desert, many people are looking for something in the food industry that is new, innovative, and convenient amongst the run of the mill restaurants. I would suggest that you need not look any further because the solution is Italian Kitchen.
The most distinct difference between Italian Kitchen and every other fast food business is that it will incorporate the efficiency and competitive prices while also providing high quality Italian pastas, pizzas, and salads; thereby offering the consumer a much healthier alternative to greasy fried and processed food. The signature style of Italian Kitchen will be characterized by an authentic variety of traditional sauces made from homemade recipes, optional wheat dough for pizzas as well as whole wheat pasta, and vegetarian sauces along with a variety of freshly prepared salads. The menu offered will be quite extensive so that even the most specific customers will be satisfied in choosing a meal. Even more so, it will be the chief business mindset to embody the phrase, “The customer is always right”, which would provide much better customer service.
Aside from an alluring menu, a very aggressive advertising campaign will also be utilized. Italian Kitchen will avidly participate in local events and seek out sponsorships of local teams, to generate a solid bond within the community as well as to promote the business and gain recognition. Mass mailing strategies will be used to send out promotional fliers with information including a complete menu, prices, deals, phone number, address, and a refrigerator magnet. By reaching out to the community, less effort will have to be made by the customer because the information will be sent to them, along with subtle reminders of the high quality, healthy, and competitively priced food offered at Italian Kitchen.
The location of Italian Kitchen would be in the business park where the new Super Target is at. The Super Target will continue to draw in customers that desire to shop; however upon arriving they will notice a new food establishment and decide to try it out. After enjoying their first meal at Italian Kitchen, the customer will then spread the word throughout the High Desert and before too long; people will be planning their trip out to the Super Target just to eat at Italian Kitchen. The prime location will enable the business to feed off of one another, in which both will draw in customers looking to purchase goods and eat a healthy, quick, and competitively priced meal.
The management would be equally divided between Adam Blackner, who would function as the finance manager, Evan Frawley, who would be in charge of sponsorships, local events, and advertising, and Max Thornley, who would be the on site store manager ensuring that the business is being run smoothly. The salaries of the first year would be set relatively low to provide greater capital and profits that the business could use to make improvements and cover any unanticipated costs that may arise. After functioning as a business for a good amount of time, profits will be identified and new salaries will be set to ensure both sufficient payment and capital from which the business can continue to work with.
Therefore, the economic setting of the High Desert is well-suited for the emergence of a new, innovative take on fast food that offers healthy restaurant quality meals at a fast food quickness and price. As a group, we are confident that Italian Kitchen will gain recognition for its high quality cuisine, business integrity, and personal connection with the local community.

AVCS Attendance

Obviously, Apple Valley Christian does not have impressive attendance numbers. In an area that is growing at a fairly good rate, and an area that has a fairly wealthy populace, attendance at a private school that offers contrast to the public system should be more popular. Some things could be changed to create, or some things added, to encourage new enrollment.

First of all, it is important to note the major issue in the current low attendance. I don’t think it has so much to do so much with current management as it does with past actions of the school. When AVC decided to turn away many students, and deny re-enrollment to others, it committed a very obvious worst error of the century. Increased attendance is – and this is why we are writing the paper – a good thing. If you want to keep classes small, you don’t turn people away; you increase tuition to hire more teachers. If so many people wanted to be at AVC, they were willing to pay more money.

That said, if I was part of the current management, I would change some things. The best thing to do is to increase output to the community. Speaking through churches, newspaper and radio ads, and even holding conferences to introduce the material at the school would be important. Any way to inform people about the product at the school, which is probably unique from most private schools, is a good idea.

The idea that equipping and funding the elementary school more than middle school and high school will produce better long term attendance is really one of the worst and most flawed management decisions to come out of this school. Unless the school wants to become an exclusively elementary school, it cannot take this approach. People are going to judge a school like AVCS by its high school’s quality, and a lot more people will come to the school in their high school years than the school thinks. A balanced approach should be taken, but equipping and funding the lower levels of schooling and lowering the levels of attention for the higher levels within the school will make AVCS into an elementary – only school in the future, which wouldn’t last long on its own anyways.

Apart from that, the school just needs to wait and hope that its past poor management decisions don’t stick with it forever. Bankruptcy and the disbanding of most of the structure of the school is possible, however, so steps should be taken to increase enrolment. The main approach now, though, should be a patient but aggressive one.

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is an interesting approach to completing a paper. It is taught in most every class since you begin writing essays, and is the standard for any “complete” paper. Teachers think it is a brilliant idea to use the ideas of another person to form your paper…as long as you credit the author in the accepted format. But the idea behind paraphrasing is flawed in a major way, at least for some people.

Students are taught to paraphrase because teachers believe that the authors of the books and articles are going to be more intelligent and better gifted at forming ideas on a subject. And the teachers are right, for the vast, vast majority of students. There are, however, people who are more intelligent and more naturally – gifted thinkers then these authors. These people would not need to paraphrase the ideas of the authors, of course, because their ideas are going to be more novel in most cases.

Now, citing information you did not previously know to support your argument is an entirely different thing, and is not in the context of the question. The question asks whether you would take the ideas and opinions of an author and use them as your own, not whether you would cite facts to support your ideas. Someone who is more intelligent then an author might not be more informed on a subject.

The question is great, because it is very relevant in any institute of learning, especially the ones we are about to join for the next four years. I just think that some people would not even need to paraphrase, even if they had very little time. If they were novel enough, and gifted enough, they could formulate their own genius ideas.

I didn’t focus on would it be okay or not to steal ideas, because everyone knows it wouldn’t. I wanted to introduce the idea that paraphrasing isn’t even an issue in that situation for a very gifted person. Why steal ideas when you can formulate ones that are so much better? No one who owns a Ferrari steals a Hyundai.

Service

A business with very good service is going to provide that good service because it is necessary for their success. Certain kinds of companies must provide better service than their competitors to succeed. While some businesses can be very successful without worrying very much about service, most industries rely on it for its obvious ability to attract customers.

High – end restaurants must have the absolute greatest service they can possibly manage. A large part of the experience of going to an expensive, fancy restaurant is to be treated like a very important person; like you actually belong in a place with $300 meals, where everyone around you is wearing $4000 suits. A restaurant like Four Seasons in New York could not survive on its food alone; it depends on the atmosphere created by elegant presentation and service. McDonalds’ mission, on the other hand, is to get as much food out to people as quickly as possible at the lowest quality sellable, and good service is not too important for that mission. A high end restaurant’s mission depends on great service.

Everyone knows a car salesman will do practically anything to sell a car and make a profit. This is because one people do not buy cars often, they stick with one for a long time, and two, it is tradition to try have better service than everyone else in that industry. Tradition of service in an industry can be a strong determinant to how service – oriented certain businesses are.

All competing businesses must rely on service to an extent. As opposed to businesses with monopolies, or government operations, businesses with competition must make sure their service is at least at par with its competition. Even McDonalds cannot survive if they have terrible service compared to their competition (even if their service is terrible compared to a nice restaurant’s). Competition makes people bring out their best, or at least as much as it takes to win. The Department of Motor Vehicles has no competition, and look at its service.

The fact is, a businesses service is only as good as it needs to be. Businesses with great service have it because they must to succeed. Their central goal is not to make you happy, but to make money. The people driving the best service could be the worst, most senile, make – money – at – any – cost type of people. The business industries with the best service are always those that require it the most to succeed.

Success and Ethics

Ethics and success differ mainly in that one, ethics, deals with the intrinsic state of a person, while success is an extrinsic measure of achievement in the world. The person is first in line before the effects that person has on society. What the person is decides what the person does, in other words. Ethics is first, success is second, but that does not mean ethics is more important; is the door more important than the house just because it comes first in line in the function of the house?

Firstly, I will elaborate on the nature of ethics and success. Ethics deals with the soul of a person, their conscience, the state of their thinking, and their actions. Ethics is intrinsic to the person, in other words. Success is extrinsic to the person, in that it is something judged and determined by society.

What ethics a person chooses to follow determines the nature of their success, to a large extent. Bill Gates and Adolph Hitler were both very successful in life. Adolph Hitler’s success was dominated by a code of ethics that made his success a terrible thing. Bill Gates’ success was determined by a code of ethics that said make as much money as you can and give to the poor and afflicted, which made his success a good thing for both him and the poor and afflicted.

Ethics is important because it makes a person either good or bad, and success is important because it makes the world either good or bad. No one is more important than the other. A good code of ethics combined with success is the ideal thing, because then the person and the rest of the world benefit. The opposite is true of the combination of a bad code of ethics and success.

It is not right to say that ethics is the most important. Ethics only effects one person. A good code of ethics is not very useful if it only effects one person. It is much better to effect the whole world in a positive way, and that only comes through success. You see, Machiavelli was not wrong because he emphasized success over ethics. He was wrong because he emphasized success with bad ethics. On the other hand, Socrates was good for the world because he was successful in getting the message of his good ethics out into the intellectual circles of ancient Greece. The initial reaction to the question his to say that of course ethics is more important than success, but without success ethics doesn’t really mean a whole lot.

Microsoft

It doesn’t matter if this is cliché or an overused prediction; Microsoft is going to make a good deal of money this year. People have been saying it over and over, and they keep failing to come up with anything, but now we have fairly bullet proof reasons to believe that Microsoft is going to see a substantial incline in the next year. I think they are going to have some advances that are going to shock a lot of people who have paid way too much attention to an Apple company that is old news.

First off, the summer Olympics are of course going to be a enormous event, and Microsoft has the television coverage covered like no one else. They will be offering, online, every event, even badminton and archery. This is unprecedented and no one else is doing it. People will swarm the internet for this, and then Microsoft will implant in them a deep desire to once again only trust Microsoft for everything electronic. It’s going to be an advertising extravaganza for Microsoft, and countless mindless consumers will once again be converted to Microsoftism.

Secondly, the Xbox360 will become the ultimate gaming system later this year as Microsoft expands its download capability to include countless more TV shows and movies, music files, and video games. All of these things will be available right from your bedroom Xbox360. Even itunes feels compelled to jump on board. Revenues from such a boost in online downloading, straight to the system, will be massive.

In addition, Microsoft is planning several other future – tech advancements, as will as an ongoing attempt to get people to move on to Windows Vista. In technology advancement, Microsoft is developing a “Smart Table” that will be implemented at chain restaurants. The Smart Table allows customers to order their food by interacting with the table, through touch – screen technology, instead of with a waiter. Although the success of such a system is questionable, it could lead to bigger things in the future. And although Windows Vista experienced a very negative welcoming, eventually the vast majority of issues will be worked out and people will have no choice but to switch.

Microsoft has been in the dark for too long. But that just means that it is about time they experienced a resurgence, and their Olympics coverage and Xbox360 online store are bulletproof advancements that will yield good – sized revenues for the electronics giant, and will furthermore encourage people to put their faith back into the company. I’m not saying we will see any kind of explosion like we did with Apple a while back, but I think Microsoft is on the rise again.

Economy

No matter what choice we make in life, we are making one that effect the economy of the planet. Economics is everywhere, and is a part of every occupation and organization from the non – profit to the most successful corporation. Every philosophy and idea thought of contains economics. All of life is economics.

Any activity, and any inactivity, has economic consequences. If you choose to get up in the morning and go to your computer to start the next big .com business, you are effecting the economy by causing jobs to be created and money to flow. Likewise, if you choose to get up in the morning and you go to your computer to buy itunes, you are making an economic choice to spend. Even if you choose in the morning to stay in bed and do nothing, you are making an economic choice – one that will cause poverty and the next great depression.

Every choice you can make career – wise effects economics. Doctors and lawyers provide necessary services that you pour your money into. Businessman are the pioneers of economics. Even if you chose to work for a non – profit organization, you would be effecting the economy, and cash would still flow.

Whether you are a pacifist or a power – hungry dictator, a hedonist or a Buddhist Monk, your philosophy has some form of economic theory in it. Dictators force economic improvement, pacifists hope for it. Hedonists support cash flow and Buddhist monks deny it. All philosophies have some sort of economic consequences.

Every choice we make is an economic one. Every career we choose effects the entire world’s economy. All of life is economics.