Mr. Ben Essay Example

Mr. Ben Essay Theoretical Economics Letters, 2012, 2, 109-113 doi:10. 4236/tel. 2012. 21020 Published Online February 2012 (http://www. SciRP. org/journal/tel) The Effects of Income Inequality on Education Policy and Economic Growth Katsuyuki Naito, Keigo Nishida Graduate School of Economics, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan Email: k. naito. [emailprotected] com, k. [emailprotected] ecs. kyoto-u. ac. jp Received November 30, 2011; revised December 20, 2011; accepted December 28, 2011 ABSTRACT This paper presents a simple model to investigate the relationship among initial income inequality, education and economic growth. Public expenditure on education is determined through majority voting. Although preferences of individuals are not single-peaked, the individual with the median income becomes the decisive voter. Our model predicts that high initial inequality has a negative impact on education expenditure and therefore retards economic growth. Keywords: Income Inequality; Majority Voting; Human Capital Accumulation; Economic Growth 1. Introduction The relationship between initial levels of income inequality and economic growth is a central question in growth and development literature. Many political economists have addressed this question by analyzing how income inequality affects the size of redistribution. Standard politico-economic theories predict that, under majority voting, high income inequality is associated with a large scale of redistribution policies as the poor majority favors it. Persson and Tabellini [1] argue that income redistribution creates adverse incentive for investments and therefore high income inequality is harmful for growth. However, redistribution policies may promote economic growth if they are practiced through the provision of public goods that can enhance future productivity. We will write a custom essay sample on Mr. Ben specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Mr. Ben specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Mr. Ben specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer SaintPaul and Verdier [2] construct a model in which public education is the channel of redistribution. In their model, high income inequality implies strong support for public education, which facilitates human capital accumulation and economic growth. In contrast to these theories, the hypothesis that high inequality is associated with redistribution is not supported by data. For example, crosscountry regressions by Easterly [3,4] show that higher inequality leads to lower levels of public goods, education, per capita income and growth rates. This suggests the necessity for further investigations on how income inequality affects public policies and growth. This paper proposes a simple model to reconcile the theory and evidence, and analyzes the relationship among income inequality, human capital accumulation 1 and economic growth in a politico-economic framework. In the model, the heterogeneity of human capital across individuals is the only source of income inequality. We focus on two features of education. The first one is a fixed cost of education. We consider a situation in which individuals must pay tuition fees to have access to education services although they are provided by the government. This aspect of education is particularly relevant to post-compulsory education, such as high school and university education. The second feature is that the return from education is positively correlated with the level of human capital inherited from parents. 1 These two features play a key role in the determination of the size of education services under majority voting. The main result of this paper is that high initial levels of inequality cause less publicly provided education services, or lower tax rates. In our model, the individual with median income is the decisive voter although preferences for tax rates are not single-peaked. When inequality is high and the income of the median voter is low, he or she does not prefer a high tax rate to enhance education. This is because the median voter cannot cover the fixed cost of education or the private return from education is too low due to his or her low level of inherited human capital. High inequality is therefore harmful for human capital accumulation and growth, which is in contrast to the result of Saint-Paul and Verdier [2]. 2. The Model We consider an overlapping generations economy in which individuals live for two periods. They are heterogeneous only with respect to their human capital within TEL Many empirical studies such as Hanushek [5] find a positive effect of parental human capital on the return from education. Copyright  © 2012 SciRes. 110 K. NAITO ET AL. each generation. Each individual has one parent and one child, and the size of each generation is normalized to one. In the first period, individuals make no economic and political decisions, but receive education if their parents decide to invest in human capital of their children. In the second period, individuals inelastically supply their human capital to a final good sector and decide whether to invest in education for their children. Using human capital, h, the final good sector produces according to a linear production function, y = h, where y is the output. The final good market is perfectly competitive, and therefore, the wage for one unit of human capital is one. Individuals derive utility from consumption in their second period and human capital of their children. The preference of individual i born in period t are represented by a linear utility function, U ? cit ? 1 , hit ? 1 ? ? cit ? 1 ? hit ? 1 , government must hire teachers in the public education system. On the condition that the wage per teacher is equal to the average wage in the economy, the ratio Gt ? 1 ht represents the number of teachers in the public education system. From (3) and (4), human capital of individual i born in period t+1 who receives education is given by hit ? 1 ? ? t 1ht ? ht . 5) In contrast, individuals just inherit their parental human capital if their parents do not invest in education: hit ? 1 ? hit . (6) (1) where cit ? 1 and hit ? 1 are consumption in the period t + 1 and human capital of his/her child, respectively. The investment in education requires one unit of the final good as a fixed cost. Individuals must self-finance the cost because human capita l of their children is not valid collateral to lenders. The consumption of individual i born in period t is given by ? ?1 ? ? t ? 1 ? hit ? 1 if investing in education, cit ? 1 ? ? otherwise, ? ?1 ? ? t ? 1 ? hit Individuals with hit ? 1 ? ? ? t ? 1 ? ? H1 t ? 1 ? cannot afford to invest in education. The threshold H1 is increasing in ? t ? 1 . A high level of ? t ? 1 reduces disposable income of individuals and makes more individuals unable to invest in education. In contrast, individuals with hit ? H1 t ? 1 ? are able to invest in education. From (1), (2) and (5), the welfare of an individual with hit who chooses to have their children receive education is given by V E t ? 1 , hit ? ? ? 1 ? ? t ? 1 ? hit ? 1 ? ? t 1hit ? hit . (7) On the other hand, the welfare of an individual with hit who chooses not to invest in education is given by V N ? 1 , hit ? ? ? 1 ? ? t ? 1 ? hit ? hit . N (2) (8) where ? t ? 1 is the proportional labor income tax rate at period t+1. Remember that h it is the human capital of individual i born in period t, which is supplied to the final good sector at period t + 1. The government manages an education sector. By levying a labor income tax on parental individuals, the government finances public expenditure which raises the productivity of the education sector. Let the distribution of hit be denoted by Ft . The average human capital, ht , is then given by ht ? ? hit d Ft ? hit ? , and the tax revenue is ? ? 1ht . Assuming that the government budget is balanced in each period, we obtain Gt ? 1 ? ? t ? 1ht , The welfare function V is decreasing in ? t ? 1 since higher tax rates reduce the consumption in the second period. It is easy to see that individuals with hit ? 1 ? t 1 ? H 2 t ? 1 ? are willing to invest in education, while individuals with hit ? H 2 t ? 1 ? are not. Notice that the threshold H2 is decreasing in ? t ? 1 . An increase in ? t ? 1 raises the return on education, and thus, makes more individuals willing to inves t in education. 3. Preferred Tax Rates We proceed to analyze the characteristics of a politicoeconomic equilibrium in which the level of labor income tax rate is determined under majority voting. Since schoolage individuals do not participate in voting in many countries, we assume that only individuals in the second period have voting rights. To characterize the politicoeconomic equilibrium, we need to identify the tax rate that each individual prefers the most. Let us define ? ? and H by H1 ? ? H 2 ? and H ? H1 ? . ? and ? ? ? 0,1? , First of all, for any hit ? H t ? 1 hit ? max ? H1 t ? 1 ? , H 2 t ? (see Figure 1). Any indi? viduals with hit ? H are unwilling or unable to have their children receive education and therefore prefer ? t ? 1 ? 0 . We then investigate preferences of individuals with ? hit ? H . It is useful to define ? 1 ? hit ? and ? 2 ? hit ? by TEL (3) where Gt ? 1 is the public expenditure on the education sector. Individual i whose parent pays the fixed cost of education can have access to educa tion services and accumulate human capital according to the following human capital production function: ? G ? hit ? 1 ? ? t ? 1 ? hit ? hit , ? ? ? 0,1? . (4) ? ht ? Notice that the human capital production function depends on the ratio of public education expenditure to average human capital. The interpretation is as follows. The Copyright  © 2012 SciRes. ? K. NAITO ET AL. 111 Figure 1. The features of H1 and H2. ? 1 ? hit ? ? ? H1 ? ?1 ? hit ? ? 1 ? ? 1 , hit 1 ? 2 ? hit ? ? ? H 2 ? ?1 ? hit ? ? hit ? . For 0 ? ? t ? 1 ? ? 2 ? hit ? , an individual with hit is unwilling to invest in education because the return from education is too low. For ? 2 ? hit ? ? ? t ? 1 ? ? 1 ? hit ? , the individual is willing and able to invest in education. For ? 1 ? hit ? ? ? t ? 1 ? , the individual cannot afford to invest in education because of the high labor income tax rate. The ? welfare of individual i with hit ? H is summarized as ? V N t ? 1 , hit ? if ? W t ? 1 , hit ? ? ? V E t ? 1 , hit ? if ? V N , h ? if t ? 1 it ? Hence, these individuals prefer ? t ? 1 ? ? * if ? hit ? 1 ? ? * ? ? * ? and prefer ? t ? 1 ? 0 otherwise. ? ? ? ? ? In case (ii), i ndividuals with hit ? ? H , H1 ? * are ? * not able to invest in education at ? t ? 1 ? ? since ? 1 ? hit ? ? ? * . The welfare of these individuals is drawn in Figure 3(a). By simple calculations, we can see that ? V E 1 ? hit ? , hit ? ? V N ? 0, hit ? for any hit ? ? H , H1 ? * . ? ? ? Hence, such individuals always prefer ? t ? 1 ? 0 . Individuals with hit ? H1 ? * have their children receive education at ? t ? 1 ? ? * , and the welfare of such individuals are depicted in Figure 3(b). Similarly to case (i), these ? individuals prefer ? t ? 1 ? ? * if hit ? 1 ? ? * ? ? * ? and ? ? ? ? prefer ? t ? 1 ? 0 otherwise. We summarize the results of this section in Proposition 1. Proposition 1 Individual i with hit prefers ? t ? 1 ? ? * ? if hit ? 1 ? ? * ? ? * ? , and prefers ? t ? 1 ? 0 otherwise. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 4. Majority Voting Equilibrium This section shows that the individual with median income is the decisive voter although the welfare of individuals over tax rates is not single-peaked as shown in Figures 2 and 3. The logic shares similarity with that of Glomm and Ravikumar [6]. Let hmt denote the human capital level of the individual with median income. If ? hmt ? 1 ? ? * ? ? * ? , then the individual with median in? ? ? ? come prefers ? t ? 1 ? 0 . Since individuals with hit ? hmt , who comprise of fifty percent of the total population, ? 2 ? hit ? ? ? t ? 1 ? ? 1 ? hit ? , ? 1 ? hit ? ? ? ? 1 ? 1. (9) 0 ? ? t ? 1 ? ? 2 ? hit ? , We define ? * by ? ? ?V E * ? , hit ? 0 ? ? * ? ? 1 ? ? 0,1? t ? 1 ? ? 1 in order to fully describe the preferred tax rate of individual i with hit . It is clearly evident that ? 1 ? hit ? , ? 2 ? hit ? and ? * satisfy the following relations: ? 2 ? hit ? ? ? * ? hit ? H 2 * ? , ? 1 ? hit ? ? ? * ? hit ? H1 * ? . There are two cases that need to be considered: (i) H1 ? * ? H 2 (? * ) and (ii) H 2 ? * ? H1 ? * . We start ? are with case (i). Individuals with hit ? ? H , H 2 ? * ? * unwilling to invest in education at ? t ? 1 ? ? since ? * ? ? 2 ? hit ? The welfare of such individuals is drawn in Figure 2(a). They prefer ? t ? 1 ? 0 . Individuals with hit ? H 2 ? * are willing to invest in education at ? t ? 1 ? ? * since ? 2 ? hit ? ? ? * . The welfare of such individuals is depicted in Figure 2(b). Simple calculations show 1 V E ? * , hit ? V N ? 0, hit ? ? hit ? . * ? ? * ? ? ? ? ? ? ? (a) ? ? ? ? ? ? (b) Figure 2. The welfare in case (i). TEL Copyright  © 2012 SciRes. 112 K. NAITO ET AL. human capital according to (5) with ? t ? ? * . In contrast, all individuals in lineage i such that hi 0 ? max H1 ? * , H 2 ? * ? ? ? ? ? ? just inherit their parental a) human capital in all periods, i. e. , hit ? hi 0 for all t ? 1 . ? If hm 0 ? 1 ? ? * ? ? * ? , then government expenditure ? ? ? ? on education is zero and no one can obtain education provided by the government. This situation continues and hit ? hi 0 for all t ? 1 and i. Proposition 3 summarizes these results. ? Proposition 3 If hm 0 ? 1 ? ? * ? ? * ? , then ? t ? ? * ? ? ? ? for all t ? 1 . All individuals in lineage i such that ? ? hi 0 ? max H1 ? * , H 2 ? * accumulate their human capital according to (5), while all individuals in lineage i ? ? ? ? such that hi 0 ? max H1 ? * , H 2 ? * (b) Figure 3. The welfare in case (ii). also prefer ? t ? 1 ? 0 , there exists no tax rate that obtains more than fifty p ercent votes to beat ? t ? 1 ? 0 . If ? hmt ? 1 ? ? * ? ? * ? , then the individual with median ? ? ? ? income prefers ? t ? 1 ? ? *. Since individuals with hit ? hmt , who constitute fifty percent of the total population, also prefer ? t ? 1 ? ? * , no tax rate gains a majority vote to beat ? t ? 1 ? ? * . Hence, the individual with median income is the decisive voter. Proposition 2 Under majority voting, ? t ? 1 ? ? * if hmt ? ? 1 ? ? * ? ? * ? , and ? t ? 1 ? 0 otherwise. ? ? ? ? ? ? never enhance ? heir inherited human capital. If hm 0 ? 1 ? ? * ? ? * ? , ? ? ? ? then hit ? hi 0 and ? t ? 0 for all t ? 1 and i. ? When hm 0 ? 1 ? ? * ? ? * ? , politically implemented ? ? ? ? public education accumulates the human capital of individuals in lineages whose initial human capital is greater ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? than max H1 ? * , H 2 ? * growth. In ? ? ? ? , and it stimulates economi c contrast, when h ? 1 ? ? ? ? , public ? ? ? ? * ? * m0 ? ? 5. The Result As described in Introduction, empirical evidence shows that high income inequality is associated with lower levels of education, public good provision and per capita income. In contrast to the results of Saint-Paul and Verdier [2], our model predicts that high inequality leads to less government expenditure on education. In the model, whether human capital is accumulated and the economy grows over time depends on the initial distribution of human capital, or income distribution. To understand this point, it should be noted that the child of the median voter is the median voter in the next period because human capital evolves according to (5) and (6). ? ? I f hm 0 ? 1 ? ? * ? ? * ? , t h e n hmt ? 1 ? ? * ? ? * ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? for all t ? 1 since human capital does not depreciate. Hence, ? t ? ? * for all t ? . All individuals in lineage i education is not implemented, and there is no human capital accumulation. These results imply that high initial inequality retards economic growth. This paper has analyzed the relationship among income inequality, education and economic growth by focusing on two features of education, fixed costs and positive correlat ion between the return from education and the level of inherited human capital. Fixed costs of education are particularly relevant for post-compulsory education. The analysis on situations in which compulsory and post-compulsory education coexist would be a fruitful direction for further research. REFERENCES [1] T. Persson and G. Tabellini, â€Å"Is Inequality Harmful for Growth? † American Economic Review, Vol. 84, No. 3, 1994, pp. 600-621. G. Saint-Paul and T. Verdier, â€Å"Education, Democracy and Growth,† Journal of Development Economics, Vol. 42, No. 2, 1993, pp. 399-407. doi:10. 1016/0304-3878(93)90027-K W. Easterly, â€Å"The Middle Class Consensus and Economic Development,† Journal of Economic Growth, Vol. 6, No. 4, 2001, pp. 317-335. doi:10. 1023/A:1012786330095 ? ? ? ? [2] such that hi 0 ? max H1 ? * , H 2 ? * Copyright  © 2012 SciRes. ? ? ? ? [3] accumulate their TEL K. NAITO [4] W. Easterly, â€Å"Inequality Does Cause Underdevelopment: Insights from a New Instrument,† Journal of Development Economics, Vol. 84, No. 2, 2007, pp. 755-776. doi:10. 1016/j. jdeveco. 2006. 11. 002 E. Hanushek, â€Å"The Economics of Schooling: Production and Efficiency in Public Schools,† Journal of Economic ET AL. Literature, Vol. 24, No. 3, 1986, pp. 1141-1177. [6] 113 [5] G. Glomm and B. Ravikumar, â€Å"Opting out of Publicly Provided Services: A Majority Voting Result,† Social Choice and Welfare, Vol. 15, No. 4, 1998, pp. 187-199. doi:10. 1007/s003550050099 Copyright  © 2012 SciRes. TEL

immigration speech essays

immigration speech essays Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience that illegal immigration is too high in our country and changes need to be made. Central Idea: Illegal immigration is out of control on our southern border and all Americans are suffering. I. Imagine you step out of your car to fill it with gas; you hear a pop up in the hills and then look down to find a loved one lying in a puddle of blood with a hole through their head. A. Or living in fear of your life every second of your life, this was the situation during the killing spree which should have been prevented by the sniper John Lee Malvo. B. Malvo like so many others was able to just slip through the cracks of our ineffective INS policy. He was apprehended near Seattle in January of 2002 by the border patrol and handed over to the INS with an immediate deportation recommendation. But the INS overruled the Border Patrol and released Malvo into the wind. II. American spend billions of dollars every year on illegal immigrants, thousands of tons of drugs are smuggled into the US and millions of undocumented aliens pour in from Mexico, while Washington stands by and does nothing to alleviate the problem. A. Illegal immigration undermines legal immigration, harms the American workforce, fills our prisons, and cost Americans and estimated 20 billion a year, and why is nothing be done you might ask? Politics B. With the huge numbers of Hispanic voters, any politician wanting to crack down on our southern borders can kiss their vote away hence pretty much costing him his position in any elected position. I. Many people believe that illegal immigration is a victimless crime that is not the case. A. Illegal immigration causes substantial harm to American citizens and legal immigrants, particularly those in the most vulnerable sectors of our population, the poor, minorities and children. ...

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American Government - Research Paper Example History of same sex marriages is young. In 1993, the Supreme Court of Hawaii ruled in favor of same sex marriages, as their rights were denied to them on the basis of their sex and not sexual orientation (NYT 2012). Though Hawaii defined by law that marriage is to be between a man and a woman only, conservatives across the country lobbied (NYT 2012). In 1996, Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act, which denied federal benefits to married people of the same sex and authorized states to neglect gay marriages sanctioned in other states (NYT 2012). Same sex marriage is still illegal at the federal level, though practiced by several states. The Massachusetts Supreme Court in 2004 ruled that the same sex marriage is legal in the State of Massachusetts (NYT 2012). Since then, a few other states followed the suit: New York, Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C. (NYT 2012). It was not until 2012 when Vice President Biden publicly stated that he supported same sex marriages that President Obama decided to push for same sex marriages to be legalized in the USA (NYT 2012). In 2011, President Obama â€Å"directed the Justice Department to  stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act† (NYT 2012).    Though some states legalized same sex marriages, the refusal to acknowledge these marriages is not a violation in other states. According to the Article IV of the US Constitution, the Full Faith and Credit Clause, states must respect each other’s laws (Sachs 1203). However, under the Defense of Marriage Act this is no longer true. This act excuses states from being in compliance with laws of other states with regard to same sex marriages. According to Sachs, states can do so as long as the laws of other states conflict with their own, important national interests (1205). Since Congress did not clearly state under what conditions states must comply with other’s states’ laws, the Full Faith and

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The Life Of Working Mothers In Pakistan Social Work Essay

The Life Of Working Mothers In Pakistan Social Work Essay Purpose: This study explored the experiences of mid-career professional working mothers exercising integration between work, family and selves in the context of the city of Faisalabad, Pakistan. It has been examined that how the family systems included joint and nuclear, affected them and their careers. Findings: The study showed that the professional working mothers are responsible for performing their domestic and professional roles, besides self-care. The proper incorporation of both roles is plausible with the stipulation of flexibility from both, work and family system, both, joint and nuclear family system. All women had intense feeling of motherhood; their career was also of high importance for them as they find their values and purpose. They wanted to achieve the objectives of their lives and self-fulfillment. Now they were better able to balance their family, work and individual self in comparative to start of their careers. Research Limitations: The response rate from the audience was low, but, through in-depth, rich and contextual information, which was received during interviews, tried to overcome these flaws. The females from the targeted population became very anxious and some were refused to give audiotaped interviews. Originality/Value: This paper contributes in the work-life integration for professional working mothers. The study explored that what type of hindrance or support a working mother living acquired form the family system and from the workplace and how they integrate the both. Kaleidoscope career model was used for this purpose. Keywords: Professional working mothers, mid-career, joint family system, nuclear family system, work, Faisalabad Paper Type: Research Paper The proportions of women make up an increase in full-time workforce (Metz, 2005), especially in the professional and managerial fields around the world (Cabrera, 2007). Pakistan is in the phase of transition (Raza Murad, 2010), since July 2009 women employment is increased by 1.7% (Labour Force Survey, 2010). The increased proportion of women in labor force creates bigger challenges for women in the incorporation of roles and responsibilities and managing time accompanied with child bearing and child rearing years (Grady McCarthy, 2008). These challenges stimulated scientists to create a link between work, family and self (Valimaki, Lamsa Hiillos, 2009). As a result pressure on organizations to respond towards employees family responsibilities has been increasing (Goodstein, 1994). Additionally the challenge for the organization to find out the adequately integration between domestic and work life by work -family (WF) arrangements (Peeters, Wattez, Demerouti Regt, 2009), by provi ding equality policies, statutory entitlement, maternity leave, carers leave, parental leave, and non statutory arrangements like flextime, e-working, job sharing, term-time working (Glass Estes, 1997, Grady McCarthy, 2008). The increasing number of working mothers, over past years, has increased pressures for them as they confront meaning in work, family and personal life (Grady McCarthy, 2008). Work-life integration seems to be difficult for professional mothers due to increased pressures. They not only need to create meaning in their work, family, personal life by selves but they also need support at work place by the employer. The support by the employer at work place towards integration of work, family and self leads towards self-fulfillment and satisfaction which have positive outcome for them and ultimately for employer (Auster, 2001). The absence of the support by the employer may lead to the difficulties for the professional mothers. The work intensification and long hours, coupled with child rearing demands result in stress and labor turn over (Jones McKenna, 2002). The purpose of this study is to explore the issues, problems and experiences of mid-career professional mothers regarding work-life integration in Faisalabad, Pakistan. How the most prevailing family systems in Pakistan, joint and nuclear (Ahamad, 2002), affect them. The study examines what type of hindrance they face and what type of support they need at work place as well as from the family. Now in Pakistan, vast segment of the society based on women cannot be denied the womens status, autonomy and equality in playing a role in social, economic opportunities and nation building (Amir, 2004, conference paper). Concerns about the economy and as well due to the changes occurred in womans aspirations has increased the women as work force as never before (Ahamad, 2002). According to labor force survey 2010, womens employment rate increased by 1.7% as mentioned above. The focus is on mid-career professional working mothers because they are in the stage of career when a lot of attention i s required by their family and as well for building their professional career. Professional working mothers are defined as those mothers, who manage, develop and invest their professional career throughout the period of rearing their family (Grady McCarthy, 2008). Work-life integration Work and non-work are interdependent and the individuals have to play roles simultaneously or to switch frequently from one role to the other (Wilson et al., 2004). Work role is the professional duties assigned by the organization and non work includes family or domestic duties have to perform for family. Central idea of this research paper is work life integration. Work-life integration is defined that how professional workers incorporate the duties at work place accompanied with the domestic duties along self demands. This belief gained a lot of attraction in the past decade (Metz, 2005, Grady McCarthy, 2008, Valimaki, Lamsa Hiillos, 2009, Peeters, Wattez, Demerouti Regt, 2009, Goodstein, 1994, Glass Estes, 1997, Auster, 2001, Jones McKenna, 2002, Karatepe, 2009, Wilson et al., 2004 Burke, 2004). With rise of industrialization, the agrarian model is now replaced, the conventional role of women expected to take care of the children and men as bread winner is going to be change d (Valimaki, Lamsa Hiillos, 2009, Grady McCarthy). Employees need to confront the work and non-work roles corresponding. Dissolution, interference and conflict between the roles may lead to disorder, burn out, emotional exhaustion (Grady McCarthy, 2008 Peeters, Wattez, Demerouti Regt, 2009), negative health outcome dissatisfaction and emotional dissonance (Karatepe, 2009). The work-family conflict is considered bi-directional (Cohen, 2009, p. 814). Managing multiple tasks at a time may lead towards conflicts from work to family life and from family to work life (Kirrane Monks, 2004). Sense of equilibrium may create by positive spillover, enrichment and facilitation (Glass Estes, 1997, Valimaki, Lamsa Hiillos, 2009). On the other hand women entrance in workforce in last two decades at an precedent pace (Auster,2001), resulted dual-earner and in low gap between male and female (Ahamad, 2002). Females need support from family system and spouse to make an appropriate assimilatio n (Valimaki, Lamsa Hiillos, 2009). The family system and work-life integration for mid-career women It has been proposed that a professional womens career is difficult to be examined without examining her non-work life family system and spouse (Powell Mainiero, 1992). Family, a smallest unit of a society composed of two or more people who are interconnected by marriage, blood or adoption, live together from an economic unit, has basic features of sharing and togetherness (Ahamad, 2002). Two types of household systems, dominant in Pakistan, joint family system, in which women with her husband and children lives with in-laws, and the nuclear family system, in which a woman separately lives with her husband and children (Amir, 2004). A newly married working woman prefers to live in nuclear family system but in child bearing stage this system jeopardizes her life (Aamir, 2004). Due to the lack of day care centers and unreliable servants and maids may make it difficult for the working professional mothers to take care of their dependent children particular in mid-career. In such case joint family system becomes the heart favorite of working professional mothers (Aamir, 2004), which may facilitate and may take care of their children, in their working hours. Woman marries the whole family and she is answerable to other family members(Ahamad,2004), tough responsibilities are on her shoulders, specifically in joint system, leads towards heavy burden when woman is working as professional and as well as an economic hand of her partner. In such case woman may feel dissonance and may prefer nuclear system where number of dependents are less, she needs support from her spouse and work place to continue her professional career. Modern life is leading towards change in roles of women and men due to continuous changes in economic and demographic trends (Ahamad, 2002) The percentage of married couples increased in previous decades, in which both spouses worked full time, a spouse or a partner can provide basic support, include sharing home, parenting responsibilities, encouraging career development, interpersonal support needed by working women (Gordon Whelan-Berrry, 2004). After passing day long activity at workplace may make a working women exhausted and make it thorny for her to take care of children along household duties. In such case professional working women particular in mid-career, where family demands with child rearing are increasing accompanied with career growth. It may become difficult to incorporate both without support from family and work place. In some cases, family and spouse do not facilitate working women but sometimes do really support (Karatepe, 2009). Working professional mother may b e from Joint family system or nuclear family system, necessitate ample support. It may affect in work-life integration. By sharing common interests a flexible spouse enables working woman to manage their career and integrate work and family lives successfully (Valimaki, Lamsa Hiillos, 2009), especially in mid-career where career has already established and women are beyond the parenting of infants and toddlers, finding new challenges in work and personal interest (Gordon Whelan-Berrry, 2004 Grady McCarthy, 2008). Thus, literature indicates when women are in their mid-career, face challenges regarding work-life integration while experiencing new opportunities in advancement of their career, they need to be supported by work place and family system, either joint or nuclear family system. Professional working mothers strive to integrate across the domains and to minimize the gap. This research paper aims to explore the gap that how professional working mothers create balance concerning work, family and individual selves; and how family system affects this integration? The following section indicates research methods used in the current study to address these research questions. Method Qualitative in-depth interviews were carried out with 22 professional working mid-career mothers. The criteria determination for the participants was Professional mid-career working mothers, who joint parenting role along with career advancement Age between 33 to 48, most agreed aged for mid-career in Pakistan With children, at least one dependent child, less than 18 years The sample was chosen by considering convenience and snow-ball sampling. The professional working mothers to whom authors met were asked for further contacts. The sample size of 22 professional working mothers is adequate representation of population of working professional mothers particular in mid-career in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Interviews were based upon 90 to 120 minutes and were audio-taped. Authors transliterated interviews. Table1 presents the sample questions which were asked for exploration. Sector Subject matter Sample questions 1 Responsibilities/dependent care you and your family Tell about yourself, your responsibilities at work place and self demand? How does every day job look like? 2 Amalgamating work and family life Do you find it easy or difficult to manage work, family, school etc at morning? Did you ever feel frustration and think to stay at home full time? 3 The work place-flextime, support, enrichment Is your work place family-friendly for you? Have you availability of any flextime? 4 Career development and promotion-support or barrier Are you on the right path of your career, you ever thought? How did you manage during child rearing? 5 Self-fulfillment and satisfaction Did you approach your value or purpose of mid-career? Do you consider satisfied yourself? 6 Family system Who does take care of your dependents while your working hours? What type of family system may support more mid-career women? Opt out from child day care center, house maid or relatives for your child-care? 7 Other issues Has the study enabled you to think in a different way about your? 8 Demographic data Source: Work-life integration: Experiences of mid career professional working mothers (Grady McCarthy, 2008) The content analysis was the approach used to analyze the data (Bryman Bell, 2003). The qualitative responses were collected, grouped and the concept was examined through the organized analysis of the record. The figure below presents the content analysis framework that was derived. Framework led four subject matters along with four research questions. Further integration of work is illustrated by incorporating values and essence of balance. Final column indicates the responses of the participants towards questions Sphere Themes Description Construct of work-life integration Respondents reference to theme 1. Self-perception in relation to work and family roles Children are a working mothers number one priority. When there was a clear conflict between work and children, participants made choices and children became the priority. Sense of self (assess values, beliefs and purposes) 100% Work and career is very important Career is important for participant they seem stimulation, challenges and enrichment 80% 2. Work-related factors Flexibility is two-way When flexibility is experienced at work it supports commitment and increased productivity in the in the work place in addition to integrating work and family life 60% Changing attitudinal, and social context The changing attitudes and culture in the work place and the social and legislative changes have improved the situation for working mothers Work itself (paid and unpaid) 75% Responsible for ones own career Working mothers took responsibility for their own career at all stages and more particularly now as mature members of the workforce and at mid-career they assess that it is up to them to create their own future direction 93% 3. Merge work Family system Whether joint system help professional mothers for working? Joint family including husbands parents,sisters and brothers are helpful for working mother Sense of balance Choices about time in each sphere 72% Whether Nuclear system help professional mothers for working? Nuclear system excludes members of family except husband,wife and their children is more beneficial or provide support to working woman. 28% 4. Proper Integration Self suffers when work and family become dominant Integrating work and family was a key priority throughout the years with little time for self, but participants found significance in this integration. Integration and balance across work, family and self= work-life integration 80% Paradigm is shifting and needs are changing Merging work and family is getting easier, children are getting older, seaking more time for self- meaning of integration is changing 80% Findings Demographic information and career profile The participants in this study were 22 women in number aged from 33 to 48, fall in mid-career, who endured full time job accompanied with family rearing years. All infatuated nationality of Pakistan. All participants in this paper were interviewed, indicated their marital status as married, with at least one dependent child. Three of the participants had four children; nine of the females accompanied three kids and eight of the respondents possessed two children and two females had 1 child. Seven of the females were living in joint-family system, three of which lived with just mother-in law and father-in law, and other four were living with other relatives as well. Fifteen of the participants lived in nuclear system. One of the females had infants and the children of other women were school-aged or above but at least had one independent child. The women possessed work experience between 8 to 22 years. The targeted sectors were medical, education, makeup industry, telecommunication, nursing and research officers including both public, private and semi-government organizations along with self-employment. Four targeted interviewees were doctors had specialization in different fields, work experience fall from 9 to 20 years. Two of the participants were Ph.D. doctors, fell under the category of research offi cers; eight of the respondents were from education field were working as teachers, generally owned masters degree, as well had some completed short-courses relevant to the fields. Three of the contestants were selected from telecommuting, two from banks and one from beauty salon, preserved 10 to 18 years experience and possessed different relevant short courses. Nine of the women included, were form private organizations, five were from government or public organizations, five were from semi-government and three were the self-employed. One of the respondents, had the nationality of Pakistan but lived 10 years in Madinah, Saudi Arabia and worked as lecturer in the Madinah University, Saudi Arabia for ten years, and shifted to Faisalabad for last five years and running her own school. Self-perception in relation to work and family roles The findings point out that when the family roles as well as work roles spill over each other, the number one priority professional working mothers gave to their children. It is evident from the interviews that females were very disturbed and stressed at their work, regarding their children. Women miss their children at workplace. All women became very emotional when they talked about their children. They are not ready to do compromise over their children. The working mothers focused on giving a quality time to their children. The following statements are the evident of the way of thinking of mothers: Being a mother, my children are my number one priority. I will never let my children neglected due to my career. I have a wish to pursue my career along with performing the duties related to my children as a mother. As a mother, my kids were my main concern. I always tried to give them a quality time rather than a quantity time. Self employed respondents were flexible in their working conditions. They were not bound for any ones order. Such women indicated that the reason for their being self employed was their children. They said that it was difficult for them to give an appropriate time to their children. I am self-employed and running my own school. I rare feel to make an adjustment difficult between children and my career. In case of any accident or sickness of child it is easy for me to take a leave. All women had intense feeling of motherhood. But some women responded that their work as a stimulating factor for them. Females pointed out themselves much active due to their jobs and considered them as idle without job. They had more challenges in their lives so they worked hard and struggled more to accomplish. They identified them as more creative in contrast to non-professional women. In the start of my career, I found it hard to create a balance between work and family. But now I feel myself incomplete without my job. In off days I feel myself very lazy and idle. I even dont wash my face and take bath as I dont have to go at work. My work creates charm in my life. Work related factors: Two-way flexibility is very crucial issue in business organizations. If employers give flexibility to the employees working in an organization, the employees also put more commitment over there. Parental leaves, maternity leaves, flexible working hours, carers leave, job-sharing, may fall under the category of flexible related factors. Flexibility is very important. I am here; the reason is the cooperation from my colleagues at workplace. As yesterday, I had to attend mothers meeting of my younger child. My employer let me to go. As a result, today I am putting my maximum contribution. I am a doctor but instead of doing practice I am teaching at medical college and I got flexibility from the organization to pick my children from their school. My children are quite happy and I am also contented due to that flexibility. Some women pointed out that they had to suffer a lot because of inflexibility of the organization; sometimes it became so difficult for them to run their career during child bearing period. I am an employee of a private organization. During my career I thought many times to leave the job due to inflexibility from my organization specifically during my child bearing stage, I ever got unpaid maternity leaves for only one month. At that stage I became so frustrated due to my child care and had wished to shoot the employer. From previous decade the working trend of the women is increasing and as a result, social, behavioral and attitudinal changes are also emerging. In Pakistan, it was considered strange for the women to go out of their homes for the sake of earning beside their husbands. Now-a-days male colleagues share the responsibilities and contribute to the work with their female colleagues instead of competing with them. I have been working from eighteen years. At start of my career, my neighbors, relatives, and my male colleagues watched me in an unsophisticated way, but now at the stage of my mid-career my peer group specifically included men are very cooperative towards me. Without participation of women, its not easy to bear financial expenses only by male. Now society is more civilized and it is accepting this reality. Women only considered them responsible for their career. They often had to ignore many opportunities just due to their family and child related problems. Women were not willing to leave the city due to their family and spouse. I received much flexibility from my previous organization at Lahore. I was at the promotional stage in that unit of organization. But in case of my husbands promotion in Faisalabad I had to compromise and to leave that unit of organization and made it possible my transfer in other unit of that specific organization in Faisalabad. Now I have to deviate from my smooth career path. I have left many opportunities offered by organization. I dont want to become as part of top management because I dont want to bear burden of work more it may cause to disturb my family. Merging work and family system: As research evidence showed that professional working mothers have much feelings of motherhood and as well they had identified the need to come in professional fields. Women have to leave the job due to negative spillover of work and family roles; they have to leave their jobs (Glass Estes, 1997). There is high importance for them to merge work within their family systems. As indicated before that two most prevalent family systems are joint and nuclear. Professional working females, as part of joint system, pointed that this type of family system showed cooperation with them in their career path. I have been working from fourteen years. I have never felt any type of problem regarding my child care. I leave my children at home and their grandmother takes care of them in a best manner. My children are more confident and bold as compared to my relatives whose mothers are not working. Whenever I go home after completion of job, the happy faces of my children make me fresh. All credit goes to my mother-in-law. I love her. I dont have any problem regarding my children care. I never felt any need of child care center here because our joint family system is the best alternative of such day care centers. I may never feel confidence over the servants and maids as I have trust in my in-laws. Some women indicated that they had to suffer due to joint family system because of the burden of extra responsibilities and domestic duties. Joint family system hinders smooth career path of professional working women. Due to a large amount of domestic responsibilities I lost many opportunities. Financial expenses also increases and I have to give a big portion of my salary to my in-laws. Respondents who lived in nuclear family system mentioned a lot of problems regarding their work and family integration. They mentioned problems regarding their child care and to perform a lot of domestic duties by selves. Working women needed a cooperative spouse. I have to ignore my children when I come to work. I forget work when I reach at home. I wish to have a joint family system at least my children may be in a position to get safety and security because I cant rely on maids. My husbands career is very important and he cannot take leave for children. It is also evident that the working mothers, who lived in a nuclear system, didnt compromise on their careers. They didnt have any responsibilities and bounding from other family members. They indicated much satisfaction because they didnt need to answer anybody. I am thankful to God that I live in nuclear family system, I am very happy in my paradise where there is no interference from typical mother, father, sister and brother in-laws. I am not answerable in front of anybody regarding my actions except my cooperative husband. Support from partner/ spouses were identified as a key element for professional working mothers. A researcher woman pointed that she was nothing without the support from her husband because a supportive husband shared the domestic roles as well. Today I am here due to my husbands support. During my child bearing period I did my Ph.D. related to my field. I did work at home and my husband made it possible to examine my work from my supervisor consecutively. My husband is very cooperative in building my career. Even he does cooking if I am not there. It was reported by all participants that they may only continue their career if support from their families were there. Joint family system was supportive for family emergency time and children care. Research indicated those women who fell under the category of nuclear family system, pointed that they were nothing without their husbands support. Because there was no one at home, work as helping hand in spite of their spouses. Integration of work, family and personal self: Increasing trend of working mothers from the last decade indicated that women were in their mid-career. There felt a need to manage work family and personal selves. But respondent showed that this stage of mid-career they fully focused towards family and work and had forgotten themselves, which is supported by following statement of a gynecologist; Work and family come at first. My profession does not let me to ignore it. I have to remain alert at all times. In such case I find no time for myself. Last day I came to workplace and my coworkers pointed that I was wearing shirt from the wrong side. The participant women showed that they are trying for their values in their lives because at this time of mid-career the financial issues were almost solved and compensation plans are not enough. Their children have also grown up and care for children become easier. The women at their mid-career seek purpose of their lives, their needs are changing. They mentioned that they had past a lot of time with their work and family now they feel need for self care. The following statement proves these views: In the start, my husbands salary was very low, unable to fulfill our financial expenses; I pursued myself towards my career as right hand of my husband. That was tough time when my children required time from my side. But now I have no problem regarding children care or any financial issue. Its now time to focus on me. In summarized form, it is proved from the findings of the whole study that working professional mothers interplay the roles of work and family along with individual selves. Family balance is achieved through the potential, appropriate plan, family system, and workplace flexibility and a network of support. Large proportion of respondents perceived that joint family system helped them for fulfilling career and a sense of achievement. In the start career the most portion of the time, they devoted for work and family. But now in mid-career, self-balance gained a lot of importance. Discussion and conclusion This study explored the experiences of mid-career professional working mothers constructing integration between work, family and selves in the context of Faisalabad, Pakistan. It is examined that how family systems included joint and nuclear, affect them and their career. How these professional working mothers made integration in spite of lot of challenges and what support they require from family system. The lives of professional working mothers are very crucial. They need to run their family and children as number one priority along with significant concern for their career. Mid-career professional working mothers experienced a long time period of time for their work. They created quality in their work, which motivated them for the self-fulfillment. According to Warner and Hausdorf (2009) work-family support negatively affects the individuals stress and leads to satisfaction in different aspects of life, family as well as the job while enhancing more commitment towards their workpl ace. Thats why working professional mothers leads towards the sense of achievement. Now organizations are struggling to better understand the factors, affect the fulfillment of this ever-growing demographic type of mid-career who is filled with intelligence and experience (Ellen R. Auster and Karen L. Ekstein, 2004). The existence of flexible working conditions and flexible working hours are reported as favorable for the working mothers. Schedule flexibility is a boundary-spanning resource that helps workers accomplish both their work and family responsibilities (Carlson, Grzywacz Kacmar, 2010, p. 331). Organizational policies are required to include flex options, for professional working mothers. Women and men particularly who are married, as c

A Little Mistake - Original Writing :: Papers

A Little Mistake - Original Writing â€Å"Alex please report to the office, Alex to the office please,† blared over the loudspeaker into the English classroom. â€Å"Ooooooooohhhhhh!!!† the class replied in standard form, implying I must be in trouble. But I was in trouble and I knew it. I walked to the office and waited in a chair for the assistant principal to come and lecture me about how what I did was wrong. However, I wasn’t wrong, at least I didn’t think so. Tick-tock, tick-tock, seconds seemed like hours as I waited for my dreaded sentence. (What would it be? Detention for a week? A month? A year?) From one of the back offices, a big dark shadow moved closer to me. Suddenly, the shadow became Mr. Schuler, standing in front of me. â€Å"Alex, come in my office, please,† he said in his stern tone. Following him into the office, I felt like a midget next to his giant stature and was intimidated from all of the rumors that he was as strict as Miss. Trunchbell from Maltilda with his punishments. Mr. Schuler sat down shuffled through the disciplinary form that had been filed for me. â€Å"It says here that you left class without the teachers permission.† â€Å"Yes, that’s†¦part†¦of†¦what†¦happened,† I stuttered, while trying to hold back the tears from running down my face. It was my first time ever really getting in trouble at school and I feared my parents would kill me, plus sitting across from the beast we referred to as Mr. Schuler was a pretty intimidating situation of its own. â€Å"You know that was wrong, don’t you?† he replied. â€Å"Yeah,† I said, composing myself, â€Å"but there is an explanation for it. You see, I was working on this project and someone thought I was being mean to them, so they ripped up the paper that I had written all my notes on and I started yelling so the sub hollered at me to go to the office and I left the classroom and was going to come to the office

Child Abortion Essay

Pregnancy is the common we always see as a result of marriage and love. For some people, it is a good news to be pregnant, but it is also a very bad and unexpected thing. There are many reasons to says that it is appropriate to have a baby.There are many difficulties to have an abortion in the past; nowadays, couples can do that legally. As the abortion become a common thing, many people abuse and see it in an improper perspective, which results in loosening their aborting decisions. Abortion comes in many forms because of different reasons causes it. The biggest reason which causes abortion is sex-selection. Sex-selection has been practiced in the past; but in the modern world, they reduced much but some are still doing it silently. A very clear example of how abortion is practicing nowadays is from the article of Artemisia Ng., when she mentioned a story refers to the abortion that happens in China. In â€Å"Protecting women and girls in China, where one child per family is the rule – and a boy the preference†, Chai was a protester who was being wanted in China. Artemisia Ng. included Chai’s thought in the article: â€Å"Chai was referring to China’s one-child policy, in which officials force pregnant women to abort their babies. In place since 1979, the â€Å"one child† rule has prompted many Chinese to practice sex selection, using ultrasound screenings to determine whether the fetus is a boy or girl and then aborting females or abandoning them after birth to orphanages. More than 35,000 forced abortions were performed in China each day in 2009.†( Ng.) This information is really shocking; just in China, that is an average of over ten millions of babies is being killed each year. Since the Chinese refer to male babies, the ratio between boy and girls will increase dramatically. The effect of this abortion affect the geography factors; but more importantly, it is breaking the society morals. New technologies may be the cure to end abortion in developed countries. As in the essays by Rajani Bhatia, United States has discovered the new method to have a baby without a wife or husband. This is the solution to eliminate the issue which stated above, society morals. In â€Å"Constructing Gender from the Inside Out: Sex-Selection Practices in the United States†, Rajani Bhatia states factors that makes the sex-selection in United States become normal. According to the author, one of the factor is: â€Å"They are the emergence of a second generation of medicalized sex-selection technologies performed prior to pregnancy, the increasing publicity about these technologies in the popular media, and the formation of active Internet support groups for individuals who desire to preselect the sex of their children† (Bhatia). The other factor that would result couples to have an abortion is the disease or disability of the future baby. Parents often decide not to have the baby if they get bad results from the analyzing of their baby’s health. Sometimes, in analyzing, if there are posibilities that the baby have disease or disability, the couples may also abort the baby instead of taking the risk. The immoral here is that if the baby is healthy, then they have killed one innocent life. Analyzing and screening the baby before giving birth has became a trend all over the world; that makes the possibilities of abortion quickly increase. This factor might be the reason for people to use to justify their abortion action, make it become less significant. But the truth is that it is still an abortion; every child deserve to live. Work Cited Bhatia Rajani. â€Å"Constructing Gender from the Inside Out: Sex-Selection Practices in the United States.† Feminist Studies Summer 2010, Vol. 36, Iss. 2; pg. 260, ProQuest. Web 21 Nov. 2010. Artemisia Ng. â€Å"Protecting women and girls in China, where one child per family is the rule – and a boy the preference. † The Christian Science Monitor 16 Aug. 2010, ProQuest National Newspapers Expanded, ProQuest. Web. 21 Nov. 2010.

Definition of Reliability in Research

Definition of Reliability in Research Reliability is the degree to which a measurement instrument gives the same results each time that it is used, assuming that the underlying thing being measured does not change. Key Takeaways: Reliability If a measurement instrument provides similar results each time it is used (assuming that whatever is being measured stays the same over time), it is said to have high reliability.Good measurement instruments should have both high reliability and high accuracy.Four methods sociologists can use to assess reliability are the test-retest procedure, the alternate forms procedure, the split-halves procedure, and the internal consistency procedure. An Example Imagine that you’re trying to assess the reliability of a thermometer in your home. If the temperature in a room stays the same, a reliable thermometer will always give the same reading. A thermometer that lacks reliability would change even when the temperature does not. Note, however, that the thermometer does not have to be accurate in order to be reliable. It might always register three degrees too high, for example. Its degree of reliability has to do instead with the predictability of its relationship with whatever is being tested. Methods to Assess Reliability In order to assess reliability, the thing being measured must  be measured more than once. For example, if you wanted to measure the length of a sofa to make sure it would fit through a door, you might measure it twice. If you get an identical measurement twice, you can be confident you measured reliably. There are four procedures for assessing the reliability of a test. (Here, the term test refers to a group of statements on a questionnaire, an observers quantitative or qualitative  evaluation, or a combination of the two.) The Test-Retest Procedure Here, the same test is given two or more times. For example, you might create a questionnaire with a set of ten statements to assess confidence. These ten statements are then given to a subject twice at two different times. If the respondent gives similar answers both times, you can assume the questions assessed the subjects answers reliably. One advantage of this method is that only one test needs to be developed for this procedure. However, there are a few downsides of the test-retest procedure. Events might occur between testing times that affect the respondents answers; answers might change over time simply because people change and grow over time; and the subject might adjust to the test the second time around, think more deeply about the questions, and reevaluate their answers. For instance, in the example above, some respondents might have become more confident between the first and second testing session, which would make it more difficult to interpret the results of the test-retest procedure. The Alternate Forms Procedure In the alternate forms procedure (also called parallel forms reliability), two tests are given. For example, you might create two sets of five statements measuring confidence. Subjects would be asked to take each of the five-statement questionnaires. If the person gives similar answers for both tests, you can assume you measured the concept reliably. One advantage is that cueing will be less of a factor because the two tests are different. However, its important to ensure that both alternate versions of the test are indeed measuring the same thing. The Split-Halves Procedure In this procedure, a single test is given once. A grade is assigned to each half separately and grades are compared from each half. For example, you might have one set of ten statements on a questionnaire to assess confidence. Respondents take the test and the questions are then split into two sub-tests of five items each. If the score on the first half mirrors the score on the second half, you can presume that the test measured the concept reliably. On the plus side, history, maturation, and cueing arent at play. However, scores can vary greatly depending on the way in which the test is divided into halves. The Internal Consistency Procedure Here, the same test is administered once, and the score is based upon average similarity of responses. For example, in a ten-statement questionnaire to measure confidence, each response can be seen as a one-statement sub-test. The similarity in responses to each of the ten statements is used to assess reliability. If the respondent doesnt answer all ten statements in a similar way, then one can assume that the test is not reliable. One way that researchers can assess internal consistency is by using statistical software to calculate Cronbach’s alpha. With the internal consistency procedure, history, maturation, and cueing arent a consideration. However, the number of statements in the test can affect the assessment of reliability when assessing it internally.

Indentured Servanthood in the Colonies essays

Indentured Servanthood in the Colonies essays During the Colonial period many people from Europe arrived in America to live as indentured servants. There were many reasons why immigrants made their way to the colonies, but the most prominent reason was a simple one - a chance at a better life. Documented accounts give us various perspectives of the men and women who took the risk of travelling the dangerous ocean (in a questionable vessel), to live a life of servitude in America. Most indentured servants were treated with disdain, and when we look at the written accounts of these individuals, it's evident that those who left their homeland in search of a new beginning often got more than they bargained for. Physical, mental and sexual abuse, starvation, extreme neglect, violence and corrupted land-owners awaited them. Those who came to America for the purpose of service believed that working for the Master of a home would give them a life of opportunity. Many European immigrants financed their migration by signing a contract that obligated them to a certain amount of time or a fixed term of service. After completion of their commitment, they were told that they'd receive freedom, a foot in the door of independence and the success that comes from living as a free man or woman in America. Unfortunately, these promises were empty and misleading. Mittelberger stated that those who had no formal contracts were auctioned off to the highest bidder upon arrival. The immigrant became property, losing the affects and respect that should be given to every human being. Personal accounts of indentured servants give us a grim view of their quality of life with their problems and hardships beginning well before they arrived in America. Once they boarded the ship that would take them to their new life, troubles began. Many became sick and died on the six month journey. Those who lost a loved one at sea were indentured not only for themselves, but also for the one...

Literature Review of Alimony Reform Research Paper

Literature Review of Alimony Reform - Research Paper Example It is apparent that alimony fees can be paid for a lifetime. This mainly takes place when one is at retirement period, and their level of income reduces significantly. For this reason, it is evident that there is need for amendment of the policies. A few changes will result in lower alimony payments. The reduction and more flexible distribution of matrimonial resources will see both parties benefit from the same while at the same time limiting the judge’s and magistrate’s situation of favoring the other party. Clearer stipulations and regulations put in place will enable the jury to come up with appropriate decisions. Literature review Alimony laws emerged in England as a part of divorce laws in around 1857. The objective of the alimony laws is to ensure continuous provision and care for the divorced parties (Jackson, 2012, February). Research shows that there is need to come up with a law that takes center stage in dealing with the divorce issues (May, 2012, November). This is in actual fact helpful in maintaining an equal ruling in couples pushing for divorce. In the recent past there is no division of matrimonial property and the payments are periodical. This according to most observers is not fair, as it give an upper advantage to some parties while it disadvantaged the other parties. Informed by this, there is a significant need to review the Alimony law in Florida. Statistics indicate that Florida ranks as 8thhighest in divorce rates in the United States of America (May, 2012, November).In the year 2010, 4.3 divorces occurred per 1000 people. In 2011, it rose to 4.5 divorces, demonstrating a 2.7% increase. The majority of those involved in divorce fall around the age of 20-24 years. Those getting married at older ages, especially between ages 35-39, indicate fewer divorces (Worell 2002). It is legal that after divorce,50% of the spouse’s income remains with the other divorced party, according to the jury’s decision (Morgan, 201 2). According to Jackson (2012) in the Alimony arithmetic. ABA Journal, dissolution of marriage in Florida can happen under many circumstances. However, enough proof and evidence that warrants a divorce requires significant consideration. This ensures that one does not just file a case, but has a solid evidence to seek for the divorce. Therefore, the once established family does not suffer in vain. One has to prove that he or she has been in marriage, he or she is a resident in the country, and whether either of the spouse is or has been incompetent for the last three years. Proof of mental incapacitation of one spouse is also enough to warrant a divorce (Jackson, 2012). One can file a petition in the attorney’s office. The partner has to answer the petition in twenty days’ time. Submission of financial documents and affidavits occurs within 45 days before an official hearing. Couples may also sign an agreement on who is to look after the children and the property mana gement schedule (Wardle & Nolan, 2011). The court also receives a written agreement. The situation is a traumatic one as the two parties to discuss the way forward until they agree. Sometimes couples dissolve their marriage in an unofficial method, and therefore the attorney’s services is contraindicated (Starnes, 2011). Division of the marital assets becomes the significant factor in divorce. It is usually the hardest part when settling divorce. Florida laws provide an aspect of equitable distribution of the resources. The two

Trial of Galileo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Trial of Galileo - Essay Example He started studying for priesthood, but the scientific inkling in him did not allow him to become a priest. He left the course and instead joined a medical degree course at the University of Pisa. But he could never complete the degree and instead started studying mathematics with Ostilio Ricci, the mathematician of the Tuscan court. The genius in him kept bubbling with enthusiasm and at the age of nineteen Galileo had discovered isochronism principle of the pendulum. He got the inspiration while watching the oscillations of a lamp in the cathedral of Pisa. He propounded that pendulums of equal length had constant oscillation periods, i.e. the oscillations are isochronous regardless of the amplitude of the oscillation. He also visited the mathematician Christopher Clavius in Rome and started a correspondence with Guildobaldo del Monte. At the age of he invented the hydrostatic balance, which he described as an accurate balance for weighing things in air and water, which was a common method for weighing precious metals like gold during those days. He was offered a lectureship, at the University of Pisa when he was barely 25 yrs and subsequently Galileo successfully earned a name for himself as a renowned scientist and an excellent lecturer. He also obtained the chair of mathematics at the University of Padua in 1592. ... the heliocentric, or Sun-centered, system theory stating that the 'Sun is at the center of the universe, and that the Earth, spinning on its axis once daily, revolves yearly around the Sun'. Before this, astronomers believed in Ptolemy's geocentric universe theory, in which the Earth was told to be motionless at the center of several rotating spheres. Therefore there was widespread condemnation of Copernicus theory. But Galileo was the most vociferous supporter of Copernicus. Galileo became an ardent supporter of Copernicus theory when he discovered the Telescope and himself observed the sky. In 1609, Galileo set the telescope in his garden to see the Milky Way, the sky, the mountains and the valleys on the moon. In fact he was the first one to observe the moons of Jupiter and discuss the mountains on the moon. Galileo is also credited with determining the parabolic path of projectiles and calculated the law of free fall on the basis of experiments. And he started believing firmly in the theory put forward by Copernicus. He called upon people to come forward and see it themselves the composition of the celestial system around earth, but he was quite disappointed by the way people reacted to the theory of Copernicus. He expressed his anguish in a letter sent to Kepler in 1610. He wrote1, "My dear Kepler, what would you say of the learned here, who, replete with the pertinacity of the asp, have steadfastly refused to cast a glance through the telescope What shall we make of this Shall we laugh, or shall we cry" It became clear that the Copernican theory had its enemies." Based on his encounters with stars through telescope, in 1610 he published 'The Starry Messenger; and thereafter accepted a position as Mathematician and Philosopher to the Grand Duke of Tuscany