Friday, August 21, 2020

Further Your Education On Your Own Time

Let’s be straightforward - leisure time is rare. Regardless of whether you’re in school and battling to complete your outstanding burden, or youre working a 9-5 and don’t have an additional moment to save, discovering time for yourself isn’t a simple activity. That’s where edX comes in. EdX is a not-for-profit web based learning goal established by Harvard and MIT. They will likely offer top notch training, so they’ve collaborated with a portion of the world’s top colleges and establishments to give online courses about an assortment of subjects. Since it began in 2012, edX has just aided more than 7 million students further their aptitudes through online courses. Some of edX’s most famous courses spread various themes. CS50x, Introduction to Computer Science, is offered by HarvardX as an incredible early on seminar on the essentials of programming. Prologue to Python for Data Scienceis offered by Microsoft and will give you the essential comprehension of an amazing programming language. In any case, edX’s courses don’t simply stop with software engineering. The stage offers classes equipped towards secondary school clients, understudies, and experts the same. For high schoolers, courses are promptly accessible, covering initial math classes right to AP Macroeconomics. Those keen on procuring school acknowledge can do as such for edX too through the Global Freshman Academyby Arizona State University. On the off chance that you’re stressed over falling behind in class or are hoping to advance an additional progression beyond in the working scene, edX has the classes to assist. Search through the database of coursesand discover the class that’s directly for you.

Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Ta-Da! The Longlists for the 2019 National Book Awards

Ta-Da! The Longlists for the 2019 National Book Awards Its that time of year again!!!! “What is your favorite season?” #NBAwards pic.twitter.com/FbOwojD1iv Anna Dobben (@annadobben) September 16, 2019 The National Book Foundation announced all longlists for the  2019 National Book Awards this week, and I could not be more excited. The NBAs are the Academy Awards for books. There are five categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature.  And this years nominees are AMAZING. Heres a rundown of the titles: Young People’s Literature View this post on Instagram Its the first day of #NBAwards Longlist announcements! We are beyond excited to announce the ten titles on the 2019 National Book Awards Longlist for Young Peoples Literature. Congratulations to all, and welcome to the family! . . #bookstagram #NBAwards #literature #reading #amreading #books #yabookstagram A post shared by National Book Foundation (@nationalbookfoundation) on Sep 16, 2019 at 7:36am PDT Kwame Alexander and Kadir Nelson, The Undefeated Versify / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Laurie Halse Anderson, Shout Viking Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House Akwaeke Emezi, Pet Make Me a World / Penguin Random House Cynthia Kadohata, A Place to Belong Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books / Simon Schuster Jason Reynolds, Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books / Simon Schuster Randy Ribay, Patron Saints of Nothing Kokila / Penguin Random House Laura Ruby, Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All Balzer + Bray / HarperCollins Publishers Martin W. Sandler, 1919: The Year That Changed America Bloomsbury Children’s Books / Bloomsbury Publishing Hal Schrieve, Out of Salem Triangle Square / Seven Stories Press Colleen AF Venable and Ellen T. Crenshaw, Kiss Number 8 First Second Books / Macmillan Publishers From the New Yorker announcement: The judges for the category this year are An Na, the author of four novels, including A Step from Heaven, a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award; Elana K. Arnold, whose novel What Girls Are Made Of  was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award; Kristen Gilligan, the co-owner of Tattered Cover Book Store, in Denver; Varian Johnson, the author of The Parker Inheritance  and a member of the faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts; and Deborah Taylor, a retired librarian and an adjunct professor of young-adult literature at the University of Maryland. Translated Literature View this post on Instagram We are so pleased to announce the Longlist for the #NBAwards   for Translated Literature, the fifth Awards category introduced just last year. A huge round of applause for these writers and translators! . . #bookstagram #books #literature #literaryawards #reading #amreading #translation #translator #translatedliterature A post shared by National Book Foundation (@nationalbookfoundation) on Sep 17, 2019 at 7:36am PDT Rioter Pierce Alquist, who is an expert on translated literature, also did a great round-up of the titles here. The ten titles on the longlist, originally written in ten different languages, include seven novels, two memoirs, and a collection of essays. Naja Marie Aidt, When Death Takes Something from You Give It Back: Carl’s Book Translated by Denise Newman Coffee House Press Eliane Brum, The Collector of Leftover Souls: Field Notes on Brazil’s Everyday Insurrections Translated by Diane Grosklaus Whitty Graywolf Press Nona Fernández, Space Invaders Translated by Natasha Wimmer Graywolf Press Vigdis Hjorth, Will and Testament Translated by Charlotte Barslund Verso Fiction / Verso Books Khaled Khalifa, Death Is Hard Work Translated by Leri Price Farrar, Straus Giroux / Macmillan Publishers László Krasznahorkai, Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming Translated by Ottilie Mulzet New Directions Scholastique Mukasonga, The Barefoot Woman Translated by Jordan Stump Archipelago Books Yoko Ogawa, The Memory Police Translated by Stephen Snyder Pantheon Books / Penguin Random House Pajtim Statovci, Crossing Translated by David Hackston Pantheon Books / Penguin Random House Olga Tokarczuk, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead Translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House From the New Yorker announcement: The judges for the category this year are Keith Gessen, a founding editor of n+1, and the author, most recently, of A Terrible Country; Elisabeth Jaquette, a translator and the executive director of the American Literary Translators Association; Katie Kitamura, whose most recent novel, A Separation, has been translated into sixteen languages; Idra Novey, the author of Those Who Knew, who teaches fiction at Princeton University; and Shuchi Saraswat, who has worked at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, GrubStreet, and an independent bookseller. Poetry View this post on Instagram Its day three of #NBAwards  Longlist announcements, and we have ten amazing collections to share with you. Announcing  the Longlist for the 2019 National Book Award for Poetry. . . #bookstagram #literature #books #reading #amreading #literaryawards #literaryaward #poetry #poetrycommunity A post shared by National Book Foundation (@nationalbookfoundation) on Sep 18, 2019 at 7:47am PDT Dan Beachy-Quick, Variations on Dawn and Dusk Omnidawn Publishing Jericho Brown, The Tradition Copper Canyon Press Toi Derricotte, ‘I’: New and Selected Poems University of Pittsburgh Press Camonghne Felix, Build Yourself a Boat Haymarket Books Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic Graywolf Press Ariana Reines, A Sand Book Tin House Books Mary Ruefle, Dunce Wave Books Carmen Giménez Smith, Be Recorder Graywolf Press Arthur Sze, Sight Lines Copper Canyon Press Brian Teare, Doomstead Days Nightboat Books From the New Yorker announcement: The judges for the category this year are Jos Charles, the author of feeld,  which was longlisted for the 2017 National Book Award for Poetry; John Evans, the owner of DIESEL, a bookstore in Los Angeles; Vievee Francis, who has written three books of poetry, including Forest Primeval; Cathy Park Hong, the poetry editor of  The New Republic  and the author of Engine Empire; and Mark Wunderlich, the director of the Bennington Writing Seminars graduate program, whose new book, God of Nothingness,  is forthcoming. Nonfiction View this post on Instagram It’s Nonfiction day! ?? ?The #NBAwards excitement continues with the fourth category of the weeks announcements. These are the ten titles longlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction.? . . #bookstagram #literature #literaryawards #literaryaward #books #reading #amreading #nonfiction #memoir A post shared by National Book Foundation (@nationalbookfoundation) on Sep 19, 2019 at 7:30am PDT Hanif Abdurraqib, Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest University of Texas Press Sarah M. Broom, The Yellow House Grove Press / Grove Atlantic Tressie McMillan Cottom, Thick: And Other Essays The New Press Carolyn Forché, What You Have Heard is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance Penguin Press / Penguin Random House Patrick Radden Keefe, Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland Doubleday / Penguin Random House David Treuer, The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House Greg Grandin, The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America Metropolitan Books / Macmillan Publishers Iliana Regan, Burn the Place: A Memoir Agate Midway / Agate Publishing, Inc. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership The University of North Carolina Press Albert Woodfox with Leslie George, Solitary Grove Press / Grove Atlantic From the New Yorker announcement: The judges for the category this year are Erica Armstrong Dunbar, a professor of history at Rutgers University and a finalist for a 2017 National Book Award; Carolyn Kellogg, an award-winning culture writer and former books editor of the Los Angeles  Times; Mark Laframboise, who has worked for more than twenty years at the Politics and Prose bookstore, in Washington, D.C.; Kiese Laymon, the author, most recently, of Heavy: An American Memoir,  and a professor of English at the University of Mississippi; and Jeff Sharlet, an editor-at-large for  Virginia Quarterly Review, a winner of a National Magazine Award, and an associate professor at Dartmouth College. Fiction View this post on Instagram ?? Its the final list! ? We are absolutely thrilled to announce the ten books on the Longlist for the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction. #NBAwards . . #bookstagram #books #literature #literaryawards #literaryaward #reading #amreading #fiction A post shared by National Book Foundation (@nationalbookfoundation) on Sep 20, 2019 at 7:30am PDT Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Fleishman Is in Trouble Random House / Penguin Random House Susan Choi, Trust Exercise Henry Holt Company / Macmillan Publishers Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Sabrina Corina: Stories One World / Penguin Random House Marlon James, Black Leopard, Red Wolf Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House Laila Lalami, The Other Americans Pantheon Books / Penguin Random House Kimberly King Parsons, Black Light: Stories Vintage / Penguin Random House Helen Phillips, The Need Simon Schuster Julia Phillips, Disappearing Earth Alfred A. Knopf / Penguin Random House Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous Penguin Press / Penguin Random House Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys Doubleday / Penguin Random House From the New Yorker announcement: This year’s judges for the category were Dorothy Allison, the author of Bastard out of Carolina,  a National Book Award finalist; Ruth Dickey, the executive director of Seattle Arts Lectures; Javier Ramirez, a longtime Chicago indie-book seller and the co-owner of Madison Street Books; Danzy Senna, a recipient of the Whiting Award and the author, most recently, of New People, a New York  Times  Notable Book; and Jeff VanderMeer, the best-selling author of the Southern Reach Trilogy, whose work has been translated into thirty-eight languages. Congratulations to all the nominees! Im so glad I dont have to pick, because my head would explode. The shortlists will be announced October 8, and the winners will be announced November 20 at the  70th National Book Awards Ceremony.

Thursday, May 21, 2020

Compare Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 on utopias

Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 are two novels, both set in the future, which have numerous similarities throughout them. Of all their common factors, those that stand out most would have to be: first, the outlawed reading of books; second, the superficial preservation of beauty and happiness; and third, the theme of the protagonist as being a loner or an outcast from society because of his differences in beliefs as opposed to the norm. Both Ray Bradbury and Aldous Huxley argue that when a society attempts to create a utopia through excessive control over its citizens, the result will be destructive behavior and the ultimate downfall of that society. Bradbury and Huxley warn society of a future where peoples lives are controlled by†¦show more content†¦The feelies are yet another concept of the Brave New World designed simply for the comfort and enjoyment of the people. The people experience the movies in not only the visual sense, but they also feel and smell what is goi ng on, almost as if it really exists in reality. The structure of their whole lifestyle is made in such a way that a person is never alone. Mond even says: But people never are alone...we make them hate solitude; and we arrange their lives so its almost impossible for them to ever have it (235). The different castes are also conditioned to like their jobs. This maintains stability because everyone does their job without complaint and remains happy. According to Mond: They like their work...Its light, its childishly simple. No strain on the mind or the muscles. Seven and a half hours of mild, unexhausting labour, and the Soma ration and games and unrestricted copulation and the feelies. What more can they ask for? (224). In Brave New World, Huxley argues the fact of a controlled utopia, in this case the use of Soma, replaces natural feelings and expressions for people. These drugs might appear to be good, but what the drug is actually doing is suppressing anger, sadness, annoyance, a nd other important feelings that make man human. As far as life being made easy for them, Mond says: There isnt any need for a civilized man to bear anything thats seriously unpleasant (236). Similarly, in

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Gender Inequality Within The Workplace - 1724 Words

What is the root of feminism? There are many things that will anger you in life and getting played less than a man for the same job is one of them. Women are capable of getting a job, but we still fall behind due to unequal wages between women and men for the same duties. Gender inequalities are a huge factor in the workplace. There is a lot of tension when it comes to women being over worked. The amount of responsibilities that women have, from work to home and everything in between, is ridiculous and it is all based on the gender roles that society has developed. Lastly, what really triggers feminism is the world expecting all women to portray themselves as sex objects and then to getting criticized for it. Understanding sex, gender, how they link together and the input of society clarifies why women a treated this way. A persons sex is a biological trait. A human being will contain this trait form birth. Society uses sex to categorize people. A human being will either belong in the female or the male categories; a decision that will be made based on chromosomes, genitalia or some other physical ascription. Furthermore, there needs to be a discussion of gender if there is going to be a discussion of sex . Gender depends on the roles of individual take based on their sex . The roles that a certain sex has depend on how society has shaped and defined sex . There are also cultural roles that are applied to male and female. GenderShow MoreRelatedGender Inequality Within The Workplace1379 Words   |  6 Pages  Gender inequality refers to unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on their gender. It arises from differences in socially constructed gender roles as well as biologically through chromosomes, brain structure, and hormonal differences. There is a natural difference also in the relative physical strengths of the sexes. In the workplace Income disparities linked to job stratification Wage discrimination exists when workers are equally qualified and perform the same work butRead MoreGender Inequality Within The Workplace Essay1502 Words   |  7 Pagesmovement of promoting gender equality is exponentially growing every year; however, gender inequality is still a persistent problem in today’s workforce. Each year, gender inequality, especially employment equity, the distinct barrier between genders in the workforce, has become a topic of contention as its affecting working individuals worldwide, especially women. Before examining this problem, we must further understand what gender inequality is in the workplace. Gender inequality is an ascriptive factorRead MoreGender Inequality Within The Workplace1323 Words   |  6 Pagesalways been praised for freedom and equality. However, there is a notable area of inequality in the workforce: the gender pay gap. In the Unites States, a woman makes, on average, a mere 78 cents to the dollar earned by a man. This statistic has remained steady and has only seen a small 18 cent increase in the past few decades. A majority of the wage gap is due to unsound social biases. Because gender inequality in the workforce is fueled by complex factors such as biases, it requires a complexRead MoreGender Inequality Within A Workplace2144 Words   |  9 PagesAlthough over time it is clear to see that gender inequality is becoming a smaller problem in today’s society, it must also be noted that it does still exist, even in the most developed parts of the world. The UNDP, 1997 in its Human Development report, stated that ‘no society treats its women as well as its men’ and to some extent this is true. However, in this essay I will be discussing different opinions and related studies in order to come to a conclusion regarding the truth behind this commentRead MoreGender Inequality Within The Workplace Essay1209 Words   |  5 PagesGender Inequality in the Workplace The generation now has made it easier to equalize men and women but there is still a substantial amount of places where gender inequality is still happening in the workplace and where females still face discrimination. Women are often discriminated in the workplace and are usually not promoted as quickly as men are and they also receive less pay. History shows that women have not always been defined as property and thought of as second class citizens. But inRead MoreGender Inequality Within The Workplace1469 Words   |  6 PagesGender inequality in the workplace has always existed, but I don t know that you could say it s getting worse, you could say that it is spreading to new fields as they are coming into existence. The STEM fields we have today such as, Cyber Security, Cyber Gaming, and Nanotechnology are still very young fields but gender inequality has still managed to take a foothold in these new fields. This is probably the best place to start the movement toward equality because many of these fields simply relyRead MoreAchieving Gender Inequality Within The American Workplace Essay1462 Words   |  6 Pagespercentages of women in leadership roles will help secure gender inequality within the American workplace which is currently not present. In the workplace it can be especially difficult for women to reach positions of great power because they’re often targets of discrimination and disrespect. In the essay Lean In: What Would You Do If You Weren’t Afraid? Sheryl Sandberg gave us her experience of her feeling this gender discrimination at her workplace. Sandberg that she was listening to a guest of honorRead MoreGender Inequality Within A Competitive Athletic Workplace870 Words   |  4 Pages101 December 9, 2015 Gender Inequality What are the types of gender inequality in this world? Inequality is when there are two things that are not the same. For example, antonyms, they are when two objects don t have similar qualities. This means there are differences between the two. It can be beneficial or very discriminating. The definition for gender inequality is the unequal treatment, or perceptions of individuals based on their gender. Gender inequality is between the male andRead MoreGender Discrimination And The Workplace1356 Words   |  6 Pages2.1 Introduction For many decades now it has been said that there has been inequality in the workplace, it has been a major issue in the workplace in terms of women not being allowed to have certain jobs as well as in terms of women not being promoted within the workplace which all contributes to women being paid less than men. According to Ryan and Branscombe (2013), gender discrimination has been defined as the differential treatment members of one group receive compared to another by many socialRead MoreGender Inequality In Australia Essay1622 Words   |  7 Pagesdominant partner, who belongs primarily to the public sphere. These historic gender norms have been deeply imbedded within Australia’s social foundation, and although society has gradually shifted away from these roles, evidence suggests that this gender inequality still riddles the modern day workplace. Liberal feminist groups have embraced this issue, and have classified it as being a true barrier to achieving the ultimate gend er equality goal. Consequently, these liberal feminists along with general

Foxconn Free Essays

string(24) " brand such as phone 5\." Just when positive news about Foxhound’s efforts in improving the working conditions of its Sheehan factories for the workers and increasing wages was heard this year, the worker’s riots in September 23, 2012 at the Foxhound’s Taiwan (Shania) factory sparked another global outcry (Roberts, 2012). Foxing is a multinational company based in Taiwan and is one of the world’s largest electronics manufacturing company. One of the major clients of Foxing is Apple; others include Sony and Hewlett Packard (Wisped, 012). We will write a custom essay sample on Foxconn or any similar topic only for you Order Now According to reports by China Labor Watch (201 2), some of the unfair treatment and exploitation carried out by Foxing factories in China include â€Å"excessive overtime hours, forcing workers to work ‘voluntary overtime, maintaining an extremely high level of work intensity by setting the daily production quotas, exercise discrimination by hiring only young and healthy workers, and creating a system in which official resignation is nearly impossible and the only way out is to ‘voluntarily/ resign hence forfeiting a significant amount of their final wages (China Labor Watch, 2012). Due to increasing pressures from the media coverage of the suicide cases of its workers and from its image-conscious client (Apple Inc), it was claimed that Foxing had made efforts to improve working conditions by increasing wages of workers and instituting a program called â€Å"Care-Love† (Northern, Culpa and Ghent, 2011). However, after Foxhound’s suicide incidents subsided, in 23 September 201 2, it was announced that Foxing Taiwan factory had to shut down production for the day due to rioting of the workers. The event involves around 2000 workers, with more than 40 hospitalized. It was reported that he riot was sparked off by a dispute between two workers, but most likely due to tensions between the guards and workers (Roberts, 2012). This was because the originally insignificant argument between the workers escalated into a riot involving the collective rebellion of thousands of workers only after the security guards of Foxing interfered aggressively with force, causing the situation to get out of hand to the point of requiring 5000 policemen to be dispatched to control the angry workers (Pilling, 2012). This riot has raised concerns about Foxhound’s harsh and heavy-handed ways in managing the errors as mentioned by Geoffrey Charcoal, Research Director at Hong Songs China Labor Bulletin. It was reported that the guards constantly monitored the workers closely and spoke fiercely to them in an authoritative manner. There were no communication between the workers and guards, whereby the workers were expected to follow orders and rules without knowing the reasons (Roberts, 2012). Also, the workers work long hours and sleep in dormitories with poor conditions (Ho and Culpa, 2012). It was suspected that the Foxing Taiwan factory workers were forced to work overtime hours to et up with the production due to the recent launch of Apple’s phones (Pilling 2012). According to a worker interviewed, it was known that Foxing has shifted its production of phones to the factory in Taiwan (Ho and Culpa, 201 2) and its Sheehan factories were now focused on product development (Roberts, 2012). Hence, it seems like though Foxing did improve the situation in its Sheehan factories, its efforts were only limited to the two factories in Sheehan and the other in Changed that were under inspection by Fair Labor Association and under extensive media coverage, hill neglecting its other factories distributed around China. Foxing has around a million workers working in its 13 factories in China (Yen, 2012) and has been expanding its factories into provinces located in the interior of China such as Taiwan, Squeezing, Human and Cocooning (Roberts, 2012). The shift in production may be because labor is about one-third cheaper in inner provinces of China (Northern, Culpa and Ghent, 2011 Sociological Interpretations for the Foxing Worker Riots The workers’ riots in Foxing Taiwan factory could be understood from many perspectives, however it all boils down to modernization and capitalism which gave rise to a complex division of labor with an exploitative nature. It all started the rise of a new international division of labor, one that was characterized by the relationship between post-industrial nations and newly industrialized nations, based on exploitation (Serene, 2006). In fact, according to Marxist theory, the underlying logic of capitalism is exploitation (Howard, 2002). While capitalists (owners of production) compete to stay competitive and to achieve the most profit, workers compete to offer the cheapest labor possible, often driven to the level of subsistence. This IS because in this global ere market economy, it is determined based on the survival of the fittest. When there are winners, there will always be losers. We can view this international division of labor as a cycle in which on one side post industrial nations continuously experience wealth accumulation through the services and investments they provide via products manufactured with minimum cost, while on the other side the newly industrialized nations are continuously being exploited through their provision of cheap labor and resources (Serene, 2006). However, nations are also interdependent based on modernization and dependency theories. Modernization theory states that â€Å"modernity is needed for the economy to prosper and thus nations need modern technology to break out of poverty† (Serene, 2006). Developing nations need to open up and welcome foreign capital into their market as they will bring in the needed expertise and necessary technology to prosper. Thus, newly industrialized nations compete to attract transnational companies to invest and set up factories in their nations. However, these means offering the cheapest labor possible. At the same time, dependency theory states that the poorer and newly industrialized nations were pendent on the post industrial nations, as they brought jobs needed for survival and capital to drive the economy, which also brought domination and exploitation (Serene, 2006). Hence, based on the case in the previous section, it can be interpreted from this international division of labor that Apple Inc seems to be the biggest winner, while Foxing is second to it and the major losers would be the China workers. Apple is the capitalist owner that owns and controls all the products under its brand such as phone 5. You read "Foxconn" in category "Papers" In order to achieve the greatest efficiency and lowest production cost, Apple adopts the dead of outsourcing based on the division of labor and national specialization, whereby every an phone is actually a global effort (Serene, 2006). E. G. The phones start out being developed and designed by Apple engineers in California, the sourcing of the components and materials stretch out to different parts of the world, using parts from nine major suppliers in five countries and then assembled by Foxing in China (The Straits Times, 2012). Thus, Foxhound’s role is simply just one of the manufacturers employed by Apple to assemble its products. Apple has the biggest share of the profits, to Foxing. Whereby Apple is the overarching power, dominating Foxing, in turn Foxing dominates the workers due to pressure from Apple to meet production demands and cost budget. In the case illustrated, the workers in Foxing Taiwan factories were rushing out the phones for Apple, due to increasing popularity leading to increasing demands since the launch of the phones. With the market mechanism driven by demand and supply, Apple had to keep up with the demands of their products by producing enough supply. Foxing had no choice but to exploit its workers by making them ark overtime hours of almost 80 hours per month, past the legal limit of 36 hours with hourly wage of around 1 Euro (Deutsche Well, 201 2), and workers were required to sign an overtime working agreement prior to employment that claims that Foxing is not responsible for their long hours of working. This voluntary agreement was actually used to overrule Chinese State regulation (Change, 2010). The reason was due to the competitive nature bred in the capitalist system and free market economy. Adam Smith mentioned that competition drives efficiency, but Marx also mentioned that capitalism reared a continual crisis of profit for owners (Serene, 2006). Indeed, due to increasing competition from competitors such as Samsung, rising up with its Samsung Galaxy SO, Apple felt the pressure to speed up its productivity’ and at the same time maintaining the affordability Of its products. Like all Other multinational corporations, Apple is constantly in search for manufacturers that would allow it to incur the lowest cost. Hence, if Foxing proved to be no longer competitive in offering the lowest manufacturing cost, it will soon be replaced. Driven by competition and desire for profit too, Foxing had to maintain business contacts with Apple and remain attractive to investors and outsourcing companies by constantly relocating its factories to cheaper venues once wages cost too high, even if it means exploiting the workers in order to stay viable. This is because it was either Foxing passing the cost of the products on to the customers like Apple which obviously will deter them away, resulting in loss of profits, or Foxing trying to reduce the cost of the product. Hence, since most production cost including distribution and physical materials are rather inelastic, the only way was to reduce manufacturing costs and this was passed on to the workers meaning lesser wages with more work done (China Labor Watch, 2012). Next, this brings us to the role of the newly industrialized countries (Nick) in this international division of labor, countries that actually compete to attract these capitalists like Apple and Foxing, to relocate their manufacturing plants in their countries with abundant cheap labor. One of the Nick would be China. We can try to understand this worldwide competition to be driven by the idea of comparative advantage introduced by David Richard (Serene, 2006). After China’s communist leader, Eden Ixia Ping launched the open door policy in China (Chance, 201 0), China obviously had a comparative advantage over the other countries with its huge supply of low cost and unrecognized peasant workers, due to the introduction Of the household based contract system (Stating Launch Changeable Zeroing) that allowed millions of peasant workers from the rural areas to work in urban factories set up by transnational companies (Chance, 2010). China joined in the global competition characterized by the phenomenon â€Å"race to the bottom† (Serene, 2006), gather with other countries to compete to offer the lowest labor cost possible. That was also the start of the widespread labor exploitation in China by the multinational corporations (Macs). Like the other Macs, Foxing saw China’s abundant cheap labor attractive. Foxing Taiwan factory is just one of the many factories Foxing has in China. According to dependency theory, China allowed Foxing to exploit its workers as the state depended on Foxing to create jobs. This can be understood with modernization theory too, whereby Foxing locating their factories in China ill bring in the technology needed to modernize, income to the state through taxation, and create jobs for their people who will help drive their economy. Modernization and dependency tend to happen side by side (Serene, 2006). Hence, the dependency between the state of China, Foxing and Apple in the division of labor as explained above and the competitive nature of the capitalist system adopted throughout the world, resulted in exploitation of the workers in Foxing Taiwan factory to be an inevitable consequence of the free market economy. Exploitation led to build up pressure in the workers causing them to riot. This can be understood from Marxist theory of rising class consciousness (Serene, 2006). Capitalism resulted in growing divide among the people between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless, the people that own and control production and those who could only obey orders silently. Hence, there was a class division in Foxing itself, a division between the exploited workers and the managers, supervisors, guards and all those who have control over the workers. These workers felt oppressed. Their every action was monitored closely by the guards who often use violence on them if they did not obey the ales and orders (Ho and Culpa, 2012). The manager criticized those that too slow and did a bad job, however good performance was never praised. Hence, workers knew they would never advance no matter how hard they work. There was no freedom of speech, only obedience. There was even a slogan hung on the factory walls, â€Å"Outside the laboratory, there is no high technology, there is only obedience and discipline† as a kind of corporate culture Foxing promote (Deutsche Well, 2012). However, the workers did not quit their jobs due to their position as vulnerable deskilled workers which an be understood from Marxist theory (Serene, 2006). They worked up to a minimum of 10 hours a day on their routine monotonous work at high intensity, only stopping to eat and sleep (Change, 2010). Overtime, their deskilling work makes them vulnerable as they were easily replaced. Thus, the workers were willing to get exploited rather than lose their jobs. The heavy staff turnover also makes long-lasting relationships impossible, their whole day were spent on nothing but working, left with no time to socialize at all. They came from rural parts of China and live in the on-site dormitories, far away from their families. With no social safety net, these workers have no place to turn to if they lose their jobs which makes them even more vulnerable and manipulative by the capitalists. The assembly-line work had slowly euthanized the workers (Ramey, 2010). Slowly, a sense of alienation was developed in the workers (Serene, 2006). While the cost of living had increased, their income only managed to increase slightly. The Foxing workers were working on parts of the phone that meant nothing to them as they could not afford them at all. Overtime, these alienated and oppressed workers felt greater solidarity as they belonged to the same exploited class. It was a sense of organic solidarity among the workers, according to Druthers (Serene, 2006). At the same time, with the increased influence of communication devices, social media and increased level of education, there was growing awareness of the better lifestyle richer people around China and other parts of the world led, causing a build-up of dissatisfaction and increased class consciousness. The young workers in Foxing were generally better educated; hence they were more aware and assertive of their rights and had higher expectations for work (Roberts, 2012). All these feelings within he workers had contributed to the riot on 23 September 2012. When the guards of Foxing Taiwan factory used force to attempt to control the workers’ dispute, it led to the outburst of the growing dissatisfaction of the workers with more than 2000 workers joining in to rebel (Ho and Culpa, 2012). Recently, there had been news that another 3,000 – 4,000 workers were involved in a strike in Foxing Squeezing factory on 5 October, 201 2, Friday afternoon. The reasons were suspected to be due to the unhappiness from the â€Å"over-exacting quality controls and demands to work through the week- Eng National Day holidays† (Reuters, 2012). Hence, it seems like it is evident that there is a growing class consciousness among the Foxing workers due to reasons as explained above. Also, probably due to uprising of riots in China that made them feel embolden and the need to rise up using collective efforts to make their rights known. Globalization and the Widespread Exploitation of Labor in China Globalization has allowed the boundaries of national borders to be broken down, it was no longer about individual states, and instead they have integrated into one single global economy (Chance, 2010). The resultant effect was that the global economy has divided the world into only TV classes. The powerful core, made up of wealthy nations, the state government, transnational companies that continuously experience wealth accumulation, and the neglected periphery, made up of struggling poor nations and the working class people who are exploited by the powerful core (Serene, 2006). With this phenomenon, the people could no longer find themselves being protected by the state, because in this global economy, there are only two choices: to be neglected at the periphery or to join the powerful core. Hence, with globalization and the widespread capitalism, the states have decided to join the powerful core with the other elites, helping the multinational companies fulfill their insatiable greed for profit, in turn helping themselves fulfill their own needs and wants, ultimately for profit too. The widespread exploitation of the China workers in Foxing all boils down to the state of China being in cahoots with Foxing to fulfill their greed for profits in this one big global economy. Hence, there is a high possibility that the problem lies in the ineffective enforcement of law by the authorities in China. The reason behind this conclusion is the question of why the state did nothing to stop the exploitation of its people, despite being aware of the situation and why no one had successfully filed a lawsuit against Foxing (Yen, 2012). China adopts a socio-political system incorporating ideas of the capitalist system, free market system and party-state authoritarianism; with different government branches integrated together to ensure the centralization of power. This is to enable easy penetration into the judicial system to undermine justice. Hence, it is not possible for checks and balances ender the centralized system China creates, which makes it very convenient for the authorities who have close relationship with Foxing to manipulate according to their benefits (Yen, 2012). Apteral, China would not hope to force Foxing to retreat from China with all its factories and investments, when Foxing is such a major taxpayer to China and that would mean that more than a million of its people working in these Foxing factories will be unemployed. However, there is the possibility that the exploited workers could harness the power of globalization, to effectively utilize the influence of he new media to let their situation and rights be known. How to cite Foxconn, Papers

Friday, April 24, 2020

Rising Major League Baseball Salaries, And The Essays -

Rising Major League Baseball Salaries, And The Rising Major League Baseball Salaries, and the Economic Effect it has on Competition and the Consumer. As long has there has been business, Management and Labor have warred against each other for a bigger piece of the pie. Major League Baseball is no different. In the early years of professional baseball the owners controlled the salaries of the players and decided where they could play and what they would be paid. The players were bound to their team by the Reserve Clause that stated, the services of a player will be reserved exclusively for that team for the next season. This resulted in keeping the players salaries artificially low because the players were not allowed to offer their services to any other team. The Reserve Clause was in effect for more than One Hundred years of baseball history. It was challenged several times but the owners had won every time, until in 1970 when the St. Louis Cardinals traded outfielder Curt Flood to the Philadelphia Phillies. Flood refused to play for the Phillies and sued to become a free-agent. Floods case was in court for several years going al l the way to the Supreme Court. He was never able to play in the Major League again. While he did not win his case, he laid the groundwork for a later case that involved two pitchers, Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally who filed a grievance against the league contending that, because they didn't sign contracts with their previous teams they were free agents. The owners and the Players Association agreed to submit to binding, impartial, arbitration in order to settle this case. On December 23, 1975 the arbitrator Peter Seitz ruled in favor of the players and the Reserve Clause was broken, and the era of free agency began in the Major Leagues. In 1976 when free agency began the average player salary was only $52 thousand dollars, but it has increased steadily ever since. By 1990 the average salary for a Major League Baseball player had risen to $589 thousand dollars. This Year baseball will start the 2001 season with an average player salary of more than $2 million, about 40 times high er than the typical wage in 1976 when free agency began. Average Major League Player Salaries 1976-2000 Year Average Increase/decrease Median1976 $52,300 --- *1977 74,000 41.49% *1978 97,800 32.16% *1979 121,900 24.64% *1980 146,500 20.18% *1981 196,500 34.13% *1982 245,000 24.68% *1983 289,000 17.96% 207,5001984 325,900 12.77% 229,7501985 368,998 13.22% 265,8331986 410,517 11.25% 275,0001987 402,579 -1.93% 235,0001988 430,688 6.98% 235,0001989 489,539 13.66% 280,0001990 589,483 20.42% 350,0001991 845,383 43.41% 412,0001992 1,012,424 19.76% 392,5001993 1,062,780 4.97% 371,5001994 1,154,486 8.63% 450,0001995 1,094,440 -5.20% 275,0001996 1,101,455 0.64% 300,0001997 1,314,420 19.33% 400,0001998 1,377,196 4.78% The constant rise in players salaries has created huge disparity in the overall, total payrolls of Major League teams, and it is getting bigger every year. In 1988 the New York Yankees had the highest team payroll at $21.5 million dollars and the Seattle Mariners payroll was the lowest at $6.5 million. The difference between the highest and the lowest was just $15 million dollars, but by the 2000 season the difference had increased to $97.6 million dollars. The Yankees again had the highest payroll at $113.4 million, and the Minnesota Twins payroll was the lowest at $15.8 million. Seventeen other teams had payrolls that were at least 50% less than the Yankees. This disparity has created a situation that has made it very hard for the poorer, small, market teams to compete for players and championships. In 1999 the eight teams that made the playoffs, the New York Yankees, Texas Rangers, Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Houston Astros, all ranked in the top ten in total payroll. Since the strike, in 1994, every playoff team except for the Houston Astros, in 1997, has been in the top half of the league in total payroll. The year 2000 was an exception to that rule. In 2000 the Chicago White Sox were able to win the American League Central Division with a payroll of just $36.98 million, and the Oakland Athletics won the A.L. West with a payroll of $32.17