Macroeconomics - power of the federal reserve in monetary policy Term Paper

Macroeconomics - power of the federal reserve in monetary policy - Term Paper Example The paper provides a brief overview of some recent actions that are taken by Federal Reserve. Federal Reserve is one of the most powerful institutes in terms of its capability of significantly influencing the monetary policy of United States of America. The primary mission of Fed is to make sure that sufficient money as well as credit is available and a sustainable economic growth is maintained without inflation. The organization has the power of slowing down the growth of money supply into the financial system when the inflation is likely to threaten the purchasing power of the common mass. The Fed has three tools to influence the monetary system and these are ‘discount rate’, ‘open market operations’ and ‘reserve requirements’ (Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, n.d.). Among these ‘open market operations’ can be considered as the Fed’s main tool for influencing the monetary policy. There is a committee named Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) that is responsible for developing monetary policies that are based on â⠂¬Ëœopen market operations’ (Federal Reserve, n.d.). In open market operations, US government securities are bought and sold in the open market. The primary objective of such buying and selling is to influence the short-term interest rate and the growth of credit and money. Once the policy is developed by FOMC, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York takes the responsibility of implementing it. The second most important tool is the ‘discount rate’ which is nothing but the interest rate that is charged by the Fed from different financial institutions against short-term loans. The third one i.e. the reserve requirement is the amount that the financial institutions have to keep aside as ‘reserve’. If the ‘reserve requirement’ is raised by the Fed then the banks are likely to have less money for lending and as a result the growth of money

The Parable of the Old Man and the Young Essay Example for Free

The Parable of the Old Man and the Young Essay The Parable of the Old Man and the Young is a short poem written by Wilfred Owen in 1920, As the title mentions, the poem is a parable. It is generally accepted that the old man, Abram, represents the European nations or more probably their governments, the first view of the poem is that it is heavily based on the story Abram (Genesis 22:1-18), where Abram is told to sacrifice his son. In the story, as he was about to sacrifice his son as an offering to God, an angel comes down and tells him to stop and to sacrifice a lamb instead. He does as hes told and makes a covenant with God saying that Abram will be the Father of a new nation. But the twist in this poem is that when Abram is told by the angel to stop, he doesnt and kills his son. But the old man would not so, but slew his son,/And half the seed of Europe, one by one. The author also manages to include metaphors and symbolisms referring to a war. Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps, /and builded parapets and trenches there. This quote is clearly depicting an image of Isaac going unwillingly to war with the parapets and trenches. When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,/ Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,/ Neither do anything to him. Behold,/ A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns;/ Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him. The quote symbolizes that all that all Abram has to do is give up his pride and not send his son Isaac to the gruesome war. But the old man would not so, but slew his son,/ And half the seed of Europe, one by one. I believe that Abram represents the government of Europe, drafting the people (Isaac) to go to their doom in war. Along with the rest of the population of Europe to die at war, heartlessly and without any regret all the government had to do was give up their pride. Probably Europe lost the war. The last two lines are the only ones that rhyme, and the image they paint is chilling: an old man methodically killing the seed of Europe. It is mainly the power of this image, set out in the poem and culminating in the last two lines, that makes it haunting. Recruiting Recruiting is a poem written by E. A. Mackintosh, who served in World War 1 until 1917 were he was killed at the Somme. Mackintosh’s poem is very bitter, heavily sarcastic and he aims to send a message to the people back in England who pressure young men to go to war. The first word in the poem is â€Å"Lads† suggests youth and innocence, which contrasts how Mackintosh sees the people who set up the campaign as the â€Å"fat civilians† which shows emphasises of how these people could not fight the war themselves. The second stanza the poet supports how the â€Å"fat civilians† could not fight by quoting them saying â€Å"Could go and fight the Hun† Knowing they will never be in danger of doing anything of the sort as they â€Å"thank God they are over fourty one† The poet also attacks the shallow girls who are often seen as the reasons why men went off to die, to please them. The girls are said to have feathers because they would give them to men who hadn’t joined up as a sign of cowardice. The songs are â€Å"vulgar songs† meaning they have little real emotion, they are shallow and crude. After the third stanza Mackintosh speaks of what the recruiting posters should say if they are honest: â€Å"the real picture of â€Å"shivering in the morning dew† and killing people â€Å"like yourselves. † Which is a frequent theme that the Mackintosh wants the reader to know that the German soldiers were ordinary men just like them. Mackibtosh also attacks the journalists as he belives that they like the war because the casualties give them something to talk about, this is shown in the line â€Å"Help o keep them nicee and safe† which is really bitter aimed at those who would send young men to die to protect their own comfort but who would do nothing about it themselves. The last line â€Å"Lad’s you’re wanted – out you go. † Ends with a dismissive phrase after the dash to show how eagerly the civilians wanted the soldiers to go.

Comparing Theories Of Veblen And Bourdieu Sociology Essay

Comparing Theories Of Veblen And Bourdieu Sociology Essay In Turkey or in the world, we generally come across with the news about shopping line in front of the stores to buy the brand new model of a kind of good. Mostly, report people go to these lines and make interview with the persons waiting on line. For example, again in such a line for the opening day to be first to buy iPhone, a man was interviewed. He was in line to buy the new iPhone. He looked like he was in his 60s and had had a few facelifts. When he was asked, he said this was his second day of waiting in line: The day before he had waited 12 hours and finally got a phone for his daughter. He had returned and spent nine hours to get a phone for him. He said he had the 3G, and wanted to upgrade to a 4G. In society, one establishes a status, not only by what one does or says, but also by purchasing and being seen to possess certain types of car, house, or clothes, or by being seen to live in a certain neighborhood or suburb, shopping in certain stores, going to certain theaters, decorating ones apartment in a certain way, taking certain vacations etc.   All of these are social symbols to which society has attached certain connotations of a superior, different, or normal  status. Conspicuous consumption makes individuals desire to compete to buy the symbolic advantages. Thus, I want to compare Veblens conspicuous consumption concept with Bourdieus cultural capital, habitus and taste concepts. First, I will try to examine Veblens theory of leisure class. Then I will try to examine Bourdieus theory of capitals, taste and habitus. Finally, I compare both thinkers to understand the role of consumption in stratification in society. Veblens Theory of Leisure Class and Conspicuous Consumption: In The Theory of the Leisure Class  (1899), Thorsten Veblen thought up the phrase conspicuous consumption to designate the act of purchasing and using certain goods and services, not in order to survive, but rather to identify oneself to others as having superior wealth and social standing.   These possessions and services are extras that are to some extent wasteful as showed in the example above. They symbolize ones ability to waste whatever one wants. Veblen starts his examination by first demonstrating the pre-historical progression from savage to barbarian culture, and then claiming that the latter stages after barbarian culture to modern cultures characteristics were still seen in the modern capitalist society. Veblens Account of the Development of Society: Peaceable Æ’Â  Predatory Æ’Â  Quasi-Peaceable Industry Æ’Â  Modern Savages Æ’Â   BarbariansÆ’Â   Moderns Changes in society are generated by changes in the material facts of life. The change from peaceable society to predatory society requires enough accumulated stuff to be worth fighting for (tools, weapons, etc). Barbarian civilizations are different from the earlier stages of savage society. With their tendencies to martial and aggressiveness, it results in the appearance of a dominant leisure class. Thus, a new order occurs and that is made possible a new class which can produce beyond the minimum subsistence level. When this happens, a group of people redistribute the outcomes of other group of peoples productive labor in their own sake. Thus, this new class has the ownership of private property. According to Veblen, this creates envy that middle and lower classes desire to the same un-industrious lives. That allows the leisure class to form. Thus the accumulation of possessions is priority number one for the leisure class. The emergence of leisure class coincides with ownership. The motivation behind ownership is emulation. In The Theory of the Leisure Class, he wrote: The motive is emulation-the stimulus of an invidious comparison especially in any community in which class distinctions are quite vague, all canons and reputability and decency and all standards of consumption are traced back by insensible gradations to the usages and thoughts of the highest social and pecuniary class, the wealthy leisure class (p.81). In that sense, it can be claimed that men are led to accumulation of wealth because of pecuniary emulation. Veblen claims that the pecuniary struggle is the driving force behind the development of culture and society. The struggle for wealth (private property) is due to pecuniary emulation. It can be said that it is not a struggle for subsistence. If it were a struggle for subsistence, there would come a definite point after which the reason to gather goods would stop. But there is no such point. Veblen held that consumption is motivated by a desire for social standing as well as for the enjoyment of the goods and services per se: The proximate ground for expenditure in excess of what is required for physical comfort is a desire to live up to the conventional standard of decency (p.81) People compare consumption but not leisure, and that they refer upwards, choosing their work and spending activities in order to be more like a higher income group. He indicates that a major source of this conduct is due to the pressures of invidious comparison, a process of valuation of persons in respect of worth. Veblen defines as a comparison of persons with a view to rating and grading them in respect of relative worth or value (1899: 34). Under modern conditions consumption is a more visible form of display. Individuals should find the ways to show off their wealth in order for invidious comparisons. Veblen pointed out two main ways to do this, conspicuous leisure and conspicuous consumption. He argues that wasteful conspicuous leisure and consumption were most effective ways of displaying wealth. As a result, strategies of conspicuous leisure and conspicuous consumption affected the class structure, and soon penetrated among non-leisure classes, leading to lower class people t o engage in conspicuous leisure and consumption. The exigencies of the modern industrial system frequently place individuals and households in juxtaposition between whom there is little contact in any other sense than juxtaposition. Ones neighbors, mechanically speaking, often are socially not ones neighbors, or even acquaintances; and still their transient good opinion has a high degree of utility. The only practicable means of impressing ones pecuniary ability on these unsympathetic observers of ones everyday life is an unremitting demonstration of the ability to pay. (p.71) Conspicuous consumption emphasis pecuniary emulation even more so than leisure, because the working classes engage in wasteful expenditures in an attempt to appear wealthy, even when their employments are not of the leisurely point of view. Overgenerous dress, gluttonous banquets, grand mansions, and iPhones, etc are all examples of conspicuous consumption. Any item that is without a productive function, or that has a price well above what is indicated by its practical utility alone, constitutes a good that is valued predominantly for the social capital that it brings. Take foie gras as an example. Suppose a group of people likes the taste of beef more than the taste of foie gras. Of course, foie gras is much more expensive than beef. It is not that people eat foie gras despite the fact it provides less utility than beef; rather, foie gras provides more utility, because utility is not based on taste alone. So what is providing the utility? The money was spent by this class with little regard for utility. Veblens theory was that people want to buy things because they want to signal wealth, power and taste to others in other words, signals about social status. People would not want to buy something which gave signals of a lower social status; they always want to aim higher. The idea is that you consume like the upper classes in order to be the upper classes, consciously or not. It can be stretched to apply to almost any example of consumption. I agree with the idea that people buy things as a display to others. I think it is also true that people buy things to identify with a particular idea of class or culture. Another aspect of leisure class is that it loses its contact with labor and its characteristic becomes conspicuous exemption from all useful employment. Leisure connotes non-productive consumption of time. Having the information about the past, antiques, ancient languages and sciences to know, horses, dogs, home decoration, these are all indicative of the industry that you do not do a job. Conspicuous leisure has the greatest vogue as a mark of reputability. The consumption of the more desirable things becomes honorable. Luxuries and the comforts of life belong to leisure class. Industrious class should consume only what may be necessary to their subsistence. The consumption of luxuries is a consumption directed to the comfort of the consumer himself and is a mark of the master. Women should consume only for the benefit of their masters. Master man consumes of the best food, drink, weapons, narcotics, shelter, ornaments. This kind of consumption is an evidence of wealth and it becomes honorific. As wealth accumulates the leisure class develops further in function and structure and there arises a differentiation within the class. This differentiation is furthered by the inheritance of wealth and the consequent inheritance of gentility. Veblens explanation of emulation has the root of ownership; in other words once our immediate material needs are met, we buy items for their conspicuous nature, to emulate those in higher earning strata, status. Veblen conceives of status among humans as a stratification system. Ownership became associated to power and dominance, and originated a new sort of social division: that separating owners from non-owners. Veblen asserts Wealth is now itself intrinsically honorable and confers honor on its possessor (Veblen, 1899: 18). Thus the struggle for survival became a struggle for pecuniary respect. In other words, competition for the accumulation of goods envisaged gaining the esteem of the community and enhancing ones reputation. Veblen established an objective relationship between social structure and class lifestyles, cultural values and ultimately, consumption practices. The acquisition of social repute and honour depended upon primarily by the ability to waste economic resources that had been acquired without effort. Some eighty years later, Pierre Bourdieu ([1979] 1984) a French sociologist also examined the relationship between social structure and economic and cultural dimensions of social life. Bourdieu analyzed consumption practices and taste to show how social position and lifestyles are related. In this account, instead of a dominant class culture, one finds class cultures. P. Bourdieu: Habitus, Field, Capital and Taste: Max Weber (1978) discussed the term social class to grasp the idea that, in addition to the economic conditions discussed by Marx, hierarchical social structure are also established and reproduced through styles of life. In that sense, it can be said that societies separate into different groupings based not only on economic conditions, but also on non economic criteria such as morals, culture, and lifestyle, etc. In that sense, it was  ¬Ã‚ rst analyzed in Veblens (1899) theory about the leisure class and Simmels theory of trickle-down status imitation (Coleman, 1983). In Distinction (Bourdieu, 1984), Bourdieu describes how these various capitals operate in the social  ¬Ã‚ elds of consumption. In Distinction, (Bourdieu, 1984) consumption practices and taste engender and maintain social relationships of dominance and submission (Campbell, 2005). Bourdieus views on taste and preferences are more complex than those of Veblens (Guimaras et all, 2010: 8). Despite bearing some similarities with Veblen (1899), Bourdieu built a broader and more complex theory secured with three primary concepts: habitus, capital, and field. The concept that Bourdieu proposed in order to connect his depiction of systemic structuration and his accounts of individual action is habitus (King, 2000). Thus, the habitus may be defined as the mental or cognitive structures through which people deal with the social world; a system of dispositions. The dispositions, produced by the habitus, are passed on through the generations, inculcated from an early age and socially reinforced through education and culture. Habitus refers, in Bourdieus own words, an acquired system of generative schemes objectively adjusted to the particular conditions in which it is constituted. In other words, habitus is thinking and acting in an innate way; is not a set of rules one consciously learns. Therefore, Bourdieu claims that habitus helps to transmit distinct culture of a class and reproduce that culture. It constitutes a component of a field of objective relations, which is independent of the individuals consciousness and will. The objectivity of fields is provided by the distribution of different species of power, which Bourdieu characterizes as economic, cultural, and social capital. Each field corresponds a tacit struggle over these resources. Fields determine relational positions which impose present and future situations on their more or less powerful occupants. A given population may occupy positions in multiple fields. Multiple fields may impose more or less consolidated relations of domination and subordination. (The Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology, 2006). It reflects divisions in the class structure, age groups, genders and social classes. A habitus is required a long term occupation of a position within the social world. People who occupy the same position within the social world tend to have similar habitus. Habitus is both produced by the social life and also produces it. It is a structured structure; it involves both the internalization of external structures, and also the externalization of things internal to individual. It is because regularities are inherent in an arbitrary condition; tend to appear as necessary and natural. Bourdieu (1984: 170) states: The habitus is both the generative principle of objectively classifiable judgments and the system of classification (principium divisionis) of these practices. It is in the relationship between the two capacities which define the habitus, the capacity to produce classifiable practices and works, and the capacity to differentiate and appreciate these practices and products (taste), that the represented social world, i.e. the space of life styles, is constituted. Habitus is the way society becomes deposited in persons in the form of lasting dispositions, or trained capacities and structured propensities to think, feel and act in determinant ways, which then guide them (Wacquant, 2005: 316, cited in Navarro 2006: 16). In this sense, life styles are defined as the products of habitus and, perceived in their mutual relations to the systems of the habitus, they become sign systems which are socially considered such as distinguished, vulgar and alike (Bourdieu, 1984: 172). Habitus is not a direct reflection of the conditions of existence of a class, but a sensibility acquired through a life-time and an upbringing in those conditions and the possibilities they include or exclude. Different from Veblen, Bourdieu claims that people acquired a culture of habitus based on both economic and cultural capital instead of Veblens concept of emulation. Thus, whether a person actually has money, skills, education or family, in practice turns out to be secondary to the habitus they have acquired, which may be at odds with the life-style and attitudes, the way of using the body, command of language, friends and contacts, preferences in art and aspirations, etc., which are normally associated with those conditions. Action, in Bourdieus perspective, is a product of class dispositions intersecting with the dynamics and structures of particular fields (Swartz, 1997: 141). To have economic capital is not enough as it does in Veblen, in Bourdieus theory, you should also have the cultural capital for it. Bourdieu attempted to explain the relationship between peoples practices and the context that is institutions, values and rules, in which these practices occur. This attempt led him to the idea of the field, which is a series of contexts which constitute an objective hierarchy and which produce and authorize certain discourses and activities (Webb, 2002: 21-22). Bourdieu classifies two aspects of a field: first of all that people in a specific field have its specific dispositions imposed upon them; and secondly fields can be characterized as area of struggle through which agents and institutions seek to preserve or overturn the existing distribution of capital (Wacquant, 2008: 268). Through capital Bourdieu understands both the material things and the symbolic and culturally significant attributes such as prestige, honour and status, in other words anything that is considered by an agent valuable enough to attempt to obtain it. Bourdieus field theory describes the field as a domain where specific activities are produced. This is to say that each field entails a specific game and specific interests, which are not reducible to the interests and to the game of other fields. Thus, to enter a field is to accept the rules of the game and to share the fields main goals. The notion of field is even more powerful when equated with capitals and habitus. In other words, the habitus is strongly related to ones position in the social structure. Across different studies, Pierre Bourdieu has synthesized Weberian, Marxist, Durkheimian to argue for a theory of social status, and that for which is competition for various types of capital within social  ¬Ã‚ elds. With Weber, Bourdieu based his theory on the idea that culture is a field like the economic world, in which some actors compete to get various types of resources or capital. While in the economic level actors fight over economic capital, in cultural level they contend to apt cultural capital goods and practices that are socially defined as distinctive and hence let individuals an impression of superiority. But Bourdieu points out that the cultural struggle for distinction is connected to the economic distribution of material goods, which it both legitimates and reproduces. An individuals material conditions of subsistence, determined by her economic capital, establish a habitus o r set of dispositions, which in turn produces cultural tastes. Gartman (2002) claims that the right tastes make possible the accumulation of cultural capital, which makes the individual look distinctive and hence justifies the economic capital that determined her cultural tastes to begin with. Consequently, culture is closely related with the economy that Bourdieu considers society as a social field that is the intersection of the economic and cultural fields. The positions in the social field are classes, each defined by its relative balance of economic and cultural capital and its overall volume of the two kinds of capital combined (Bourdieu, 1984: 169-75). Taste is a component of the habitus, thus, given the relationship between tastes and social structure. Bourdieu examines the taste and life-style in relation to social classes and class fractions and he analyses the economic and social determinants of tastes (1984: 101). In this sense, taste is a marker of social class or of class position, because tastes place individuals in relation to other tastes which express social divisions. Such divisions also express social distinction and reflect the struggle for social distinction. Moreover, Taste is an acquired disposition to differentiate and appreciate à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ to establish and mark differences by a process of distinctionBourdieu (1984: 466). Taste is therefore a way of ensuring social recognition and status. Different from emulation, taste is, nonetheless, also linked to necessity. The existence of an upper class culture and upper class taste does not supersede lower class values and tastes. Instead, he argued that while material need is dominant to the definition of higher-class taste, lower-class taste is born because of necessity. This is to say that lower class taste has restrictions caused by material deprivation. Such restrictions have limited access to cultural objects and practices that are highly valued and constitute the very realm of upper-class taste. As such, Bourdieu stresses that taste is the practical affirmation of difference; it is materialized class culture that unites all those who are the product of similar conditions. What is more, Bourdieu observed that the rich justified and naturalized their economic advantage over others not only by pointing to their bank accounts, but by being the arbiters of taste.   Bourdieu shows us that taste is not stable and peaceful, b ut a means of strategy and competition. Discuss: Comparing Veblen and Bourdieu: When we examine the concept of conspicuous consumption, Veblen stresses the function of it as the status symbols in order to show off ones social standing in the society. He focused on upper and unproductive classes which are not directly involved in economic production activities. Thus, Veblen talked about valued practices of upper classes and emulation by the other classes. To spend lots of money on wasteful products is the result of the conspicuous consumption as being a member of the leisure class. On the other hand, Bourdieu discussed about not only conspicuous consumption but also all kind of consumption. As it is discussed above, according to him, both economic and cultural capitals reinforce the class positions. In that sense, tastes and practices are determined by the position of somebody in social structure. Tastes are related to ones habitus which is related with ones social class. Another issue related to both thinkers is the trickle down and trickle up effect. Trickle down effect is, in its simplest way, emulation of upper class culture or taste by lower class. For example, many lower class people in Turkey have the brand new model of cellular phones although their monthly salary does not afford this kind of consumption. On the other hand, tickle up effect means that there can also be impression from bottom to up. For example, some women from upper class started to wear yemeni or Ã…Å ¸alvar which are signs of lower class culture. However, in Veblen theory, leisure classes use consumption in order to distinguish themselves from both lower classes and new money people. In that sense, they have accumulated culture which upper class people inherent it from the family that they belong to as a way of distinction like taste in Bourdieus theory. Bourdieu claims that lower classes also have taste. However, this taste is different from the upper classes since lower class taste is born out of necessity. Because of this necessity, lower class people, for Bourdieu, do not pay attention some cultural practices such as going to opera or museum, buying books, etc. Different from Veblen wasteful conspicuous consumption, for Bourdieu, lower class people avoid consuming because of necessity. Moreover, as it is in the example of Yemeni, upper classes can move down to popular taste. Another point should be mentioned. In Bourdieus theory, upper classes try to maintain their status as a distinction from the tastes of lower classes. Thus, they turn the popular taste. The artist agrees with the bourgeois in one respect: he prefers naivety to pretentiousness. The essentialist merit of the common people is that they have none of the pretensions to art (or power) which inspire the ambitions of the petit bourgeois. Their indifference tacitly acknowledges the monopoly. That is why, in the mythology of artists and intellectuals, whose outflanking and double-negating strategies sometimes lead them back to popular tastes and opinions, the people so often play a role not unlike that of the peasantry in the conservative ideologies of the declining aristocracy. (Bourdieu, 1984: 62) Thus, in Bourdieu theory, there is a struggle for good taste and bad taste which make people distinct from each other through cultural consumption. In Veblens theory, emulation is the possession of the certain goods but does not lead them to have the knowledge of the goods such as a work of art. On the other hand, upper classes have developed this kind of knowledge. In that point, for Bourdieu, key concept is cultural capital. The positions of individuals in the field are determined by the amount of and relative weight of the capital they posses. Bourdieu discusses 4 types of capitals. Economic capital: the economic resources possessed by an actor. Cultural capital: the various kinds of legitimate knowledge possessed by an actor. Social capital: the extend of the valued social relations possessed by an actor. Symbolic capital: the amount of honor and prestige possessed by an actor. According to Trigg (2001), cultural capital is the accumulated knowledge which is learned trough education and social upbringing. Through the practical applications and implications of taste, people classify objects and also classify themselves. In this frame, culture is a kind of economy, a marketplace that utilizes cultural rather than economic capital. This capital is usually peoples social class origin and educational experience. Thus, cultural capital is correlated to high-status class positions and makes them distinct from other classes. Thus, distinction is a broader notion than Veblens conspicuous consumption. Consequently, instead of a single dominant upper class lifestyle that lower classes try to emulate, in Bourdieu we find different class tastes and lifestyles. To sum up, according to Bourdieu, different consumption practices and the taste behind of them make distinction among classes and create hierarchical social relations. On the other hand, Veblen pointed on wealth and emulation of wealth as a source of distinction. Bourdieu did not concern on wealth as much as Veblen. He emphasized on cultural capital. Veblen used wealth as a source of social stratification with the display of wealth. In Bourdieu, however, the competition for status takes place within the fields. Conclusion: In this paper, my main aim is to compare and contrast the theory of Veblen and Bourdieu by examining of their main concepts such as conspicuous consumption, leisure class, emulation, habitus, field, cultural capital and taste. In that sense, first of all, I discussed Veblens theory which he concerns that consumption is a way of displaying wealth. He uses conspicuous consumption as a way of stratification. He describes emulation to examine the stratification among upper classes and lower classes. Secondly, I try to examine Bourdieus theory by focusing on the book of Distinction. Different from Veblen, he deals with all kinds of consumption and does not focus on wealth as much as Veblen does. He emphasizes the concept of taste in different classes. He uses cultural capital to distinct different classes. Finally, in the last part, I compare both thinkers. Briefly, I found the following ones: When we examine the concept of conspicuous consumption, Veblen stresses the function of it as the status symbols in order to show off ones social standing in the society. Bourdieu discussed about not only conspicuous consumption but also all kind of consumption. In Veblen, emulation moves down words. In Bourdieu, taste moves up and down words. Veblen discussed that accumulated culture is a way of social prestige which distinct upper classes from lower classes and new money. In his theory, he focused on individuals who caused the distinction by conspicuous consumption and social hierarchy. In Bourdieus theory, consumption and taste are involved which they help the reproduction of class structure. Bourdieu studied beyond the individual and pointed out that the habitus creates the class position with the help of accumulated knowledge, aka cultural capital. Taste is a marker of social class in Bourdieu and not just of wealth as Veblen thought. Veblens focused on the significance of economic capital. On the other hand, Bourdieu highlighted on the cultural capital.

Brave New World :: essays research papers

Title: Brave New World Significance of Title: In Shakespeare’s The Tempest, in act 5 scene 1, on line 204, Mira states: â€Å"How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in’t!† To say the least, this book has quite a few references to Shakespeare. This segment in particular is used, because the setting of the book is of a ‘brave new world’ where almost everything is different from our current situation, and outwardly, every member of the society seems content in their position. It is likely that Huxley thought this was slightly ironic, as what appears to be a perfect government is in reality ultimately oppressive of the most basic personal freedoms, infringing even upon the opinions of its constituents. Author: Aldous Huxley Significant facts about the author: Aldous Huxley was born in Surrey, England on July 26, 1894 to a family deeply rooted in England's literary and scientific tradition. Huxley's father, Leonard Huxley, was the son of Thomas Henry Huxley, a well-known biologist who gained the nickname "Darwin's bulldog" for supporting Charles Darwin's evolutionary ideas. His mother, Julia Arnold, was related to the important nineteenth-century poet and essayist Matthew Arnold. Brought up by a family of teachers and scientists, Huxley had an exceptional education. His intelligence was very well balanced between English writing and science, making him a very good science fiction writer. Huxley was very eager to believe new theories and ideas in the science world, and quickly incorporated them into his novels, which, although unscientific, produced extremely entertaining results. Huxley’s writing has also been affected by a partial blindness that he contracted at an early age. First of all, it forced him out of his preferred career as a doctor, and it also show up in quite a few of his novels as a theme. After graduating from Oxford in 1916, Huxley began to make a name for himself writing satirical pieces about the British upper class. Though these writings were skillful and gained Huxley an audience and literary name, they were generally considered to be somewhat vapid and meaningless. Huxley continued to write prolifically, working as an essayist and journalist, and publishing four volumes of poetry before beginning to work on novels. Without giving up his other writing, beginning in 1921, Huxley produced a series of novels at an astonishing rate: Crome Yellow was published in 1921, followed by Antic Hay in 1923, Those Barren Leaves in 1925, and Point Counter Point in 1928.

Creative thinking process Essay

A. Case 5.1 1. How did the creative thinking process work in the development of this product? Describe what took place in each of the four steps. Phase 1: Background or knowledge accumulation—The 3M manager wanted something that could mark the hymnal pages in order for him to be able find them fast, but did not know what could. Phase 2: The incubation process— The 3M manager knew bookmark is not the solution because it could fall out. Phase 3: The idea experience—He realized he needed something that could adhere to the paper, but would not rip it, so he asked if there was an adhesive that’s been made that could do that. Phase 4: Evaluation and implementation—He had his members find the not-yet-marketed adhesive and had the glue applied to paper, and later show other people like secretaries on his new â€Å"attachable† notes. 2. Why did the manager have the Post-it notes sent to secretaries throughout the company? What was his objective in doing this? He knew the secretaries would be able to use them throughout their work, and he wanted to create a word of mouth buzz to get people talking about the newly made products. 3. What type of innovation was this—invention, extension, duplication, or synthesis? Defend your answer. This innovation was an extension to the bookmark. Bookmarks basically started as pieces of paper saving a spot for future reading. So, by adding adhesive to the paper, it is clearly an extension of a product that has already been made because it created a new use for bookmarks technically. 4. Which of the sources of innovative ideas discussed in the chapter help account for this product’s success? Explain in detail. It is a process source because the post-it notes are basically bookmarks, but have been innovated to be a better, more useful alternative for a variety of situations and jobs. Post-its are more dependable and therefore easier to use than bookmarks because it is harder to lose them. B. Case 7.1 1. Is anything unique about Chris’s idea? Explain. The washable vinyl, the house bigger larger, and the house representing the owner’s actual home are basically the only few unique aspects of the doghouse. All other aspects, like the dog’s name, insulation, and shingles are kind of givens when it comes to having a doghouse especially if the dog  is usually kept outside most of the time, especially in places where the weather is mildly unpredictable. 2. What is the first thing he should do to follow up on his idea? Explain. I feel like Chris should definitely look up the success of personal construction businesses, especially ones for animals like this doghouse venture. Sure, it seems like a simple and logical business venture, but I think he needs to think about whether or not this is something potential consumers really want to buy. Hence Chris needs to figure out his target market and do research on them. 3. When this is done, what else should Chris do? Outline a general course of action of him. Once he hopefully finds an effective target market, he should find an individual or small company that would be interested in building the doghouses for his new venture. How much would he be paying the contractor per house? How is he going to market the new venture? Will he have an online website in addition to newspaper and word of mouth marketing? If the business does end up being successful, Chris could also be thinking about other similar products that could be built like dog or cat beds, fish tanks, and doghouse accessories/ideas (e.g. porches or making portable doghouses).

The Five Different Approaches to Motivation

The first being instincts which are the patterns of behavior that are biologically determined rather than learned. Fact: people and animals are born preprogrammed with sets of behavior's essential to survive. The second being the drive-reduction approach. It suggests that a lack of some basic biological requirement such as water produces the drive to obtain the water. The third being the arousal approach in which each person tries to maintain a certain level of stimulation and activity. The forth would be the incentive approach which it suggests that motivation stems from the desire to obtain valued external goals, or incentive. The fifth would be the cognitive approach and it suggests that motivation is a product of a person's thoughts, expectations, and goals-their cognitions. The one approach i chose would be the incentive approach. I feel that i am more motivated when there is some incentive involved because i know at the end of the day i am going to be rewarded for my assistance. For example: My boss wants me to do some work for him that might take two hours. The two hours would be over-time at twenty for dollars an hour. Fortunetly he say for the work, off the clock he would give me two sixty-five dollar tickets to the season opener for The Pistons at The Palace of Auburn Hills. The offer of the tickets gave me incentive to do the work and it only took me an hour and fifteen minutes to finish it.