520R journal#5

Unit 5 Economics


Benefits for Whom?

Nowadays, especially since ‘the economic crisis in the U.S,’ restructuring of companies have been usual all over the world. Day by day, enormous people are losing their work places. As a result, many blaming voices also have risen. Not only about reconstructions, but also when we talk about other negative issues that companies make,-fraud, pollutions, or absurd happenings- there are some common phrases people say. Such as, “Because companies are being in order to produce benefits,” “To survive,” or “Profit is the most important thing for companies.” Moreover, and also unreasonably, many people seem to just easily accept these perspectives. Even in one class that I took in the university, a student answered similar to the phases mentioned above. In the other hand, whenever I think about this topic, I question to my self: “benefits for whom”? For example, when people talk about ‘the benefits,’ I raise a question like ‘what benefits’? In addition, ‘who are going take advantages from those benefits?’ For example, Samsung- Korean multi-branched company- is a good example. Especially in Korea, Samsung doesn’t allow any labor unions. The boards of Samsung announced this policy is to increase the company’s profit and for the future of the company. In addition, Samsung’s welfares-benefits- for their employees are horrible to compare the company’s annual income. In this case, what would be the profit of not non-labor union policy? Of course without arguing with labor unions, the profits on the accounting paper would increase. However, they forgot about the people in the company: employees. Company means not only CEO or the board. They don’t know, or even ignoring, that the marrow of the company is people. For instance, even though, there are many strategies, theories, and products in company, whom actually make these things to work or move, are people. Therefore, when if employees are not happy, can we say this situation as ‘a profit-creating situation?’

'It appears we've accidentally laid off all the people who 'do' things.'



Some people might argue that reducing medical insurance or laying-off actually increase the earnings of company. However, when we see many CEOs in the U.S are still making enormous money-especially after the collapse of economic- while about 51,621,000 of Americans don’t have proper health insurance(The Bureau of U.S Census website,2007), this fact force us to think about company’s reason for being: to feed some exclusive people up there in penthouses or the top of skyscrapers? A few months ago, I read an article of one Korean CEO. He said company should produce profits by reducing social cost, but not cutting down employees’ benefits. I strongly agree with and also I think many CEOs should serious consider that making people upset worth the opportunity cost of it. In sum, long story short, I am not saying that every company should worship people who work for them. However, managers – or at least us- must think about what are the real benefits and where- for whom- those benefits go: don’t just be naïve, and know your rights.

-Kohlberg's stage theory-

Sources= cartoon- http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/for/lowres/forn718l.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/s/staffing.asp&usg=__fuslMzgQXh2nUOvb9k6J_0i-HYk=&h=328&w=400&sz=31&hl=ko&start=1&um=1&tbnid=ONkrl0LqMmBixM:&tbnh=102&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmoral%2Bmanagement%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dko%26sa%3DN

Table of Moral management= Kohlberg's stage theory,Wikipedia

statistical data= The Bureau of U.S Census website

A Super Cool Canadian Band Eh~?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN-7dpAzNPg==> the link to their promo video on youtube

"Delhi 2 Dublin is the perfect mix of bhangra(ic)-celtic synchronicity, it only happens onceand you are hearing it"- Cheb i Sabbah

Vancouver-based Delhi 2 Dublin is a group of five musicians who mash up electronica and world music, keeping it heavy on the Bhangra, Celtic and Dub flavours. Fusing tabla, fiddle, dhol, Punjabi vocals, and electric sitar with scorching electronic beats, the crew takes listeners on a wild ride through global sounds and synchronicities.

Originally formed for a one-shot performance during Vancouver's Celtic Fest in March of 2006, word of their foot stomping, high energy live set started to spread, and the project took on a life of its own. Since then, D2D has been busy gigging constantly, touring Eastern Canada and California, playing some of Canada's largest festivals (including the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, Shambhala, Salmon Arm Roots and Blues) as well as being invited to open the massive Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in 2007. They've shared the bill with names like De La Soul, Cheb i Sabbah, and Metric, and have found a cult following in many of British Columbia's smaller communities and towns. Their debut album "Delhi 2 Dublin" reached #3 on the Canadian world music charts and receives consistent airplay from Japan to Eastern Europe to the UK.

Recently, the crew finished putting together their second album "Delhi 2 Dublin Remixed",, choosing some of their favorite producers from around the globe to remix their first album with more bass, more energy, and more funk...

Source: http://www.delhi2dublin.com/

Reading-520 #4journal-

It’s More Than Just Meat

Many people would surprise when they hear that about 50% of human beings are starving. (FAO, 2006) In contrast, at the same time, people live in the developed worlds are suffering from the “Diseases of affluence,” such as diabetes, heart strokes, obesity, and cancer. Irrationally, at the same time, one-third of grains are being consumed to raise live stocks. (Jeremy Rifkin, Beyond Beef) Many people think eating is a way of living; however, it is more related to politic nowdays. Therefore, many vegetarians and organizations are claiming that we should change are eating habits: reducing consume of meat. Also for several reasons, they believe it will help to make our world a better place. First factor is environment. People who against “factory meat system,” which is not ethical since companies have started to raise live stocks with a huge number,claim that this factory farms ignore even minimum of ethics and ruin environment critically. For example, a herd of cattle emit a large amount of CO2 which is speeding up global warming. Moreover, enormous amount of dirt from huge factory-like farms pollute lands and underground water. In addition, these situations accelerate desertification around the earth. Many companies are cutting down forests and plains to build huge factory-like farms in order to feed their livestocks. Desertification of southern Texas and the rain forest in Amazon are good examples. To be specific, according to the research from the Department of Agriculture of U.S, 16Kg of grains are necessary in order to produce 1Kg of beef. (Jeremy Rifkin, beyond beef) consequently, it means when you eat a hamburger, you are destroying the rain forests. Another factor that leads us to consider about current “beef system” is ethical issues. The “factory meat” is being produced by “factory farms” which is the practice of raising farm animals in confinement at high stocking density, where a farm operates as a factory. (Wikipedia, factory farming) one of the problems of this method is the enviromental issue that I mentioned above. Another issue is related with ethics. Factory farms have been criticized for more than decades from moral philosopher and PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. They argue that these factory farms are not following ethical principles and PETA believes it is very creul and savage. Well, some people might raise questions such as why human should rerally care about animals' sake. Some people even say that human is very different from the other animals and we humanbeings have rights to do anything to animals if we need. I am not a scientist, nor a moral philosopher, nor a business person. However, it is true that this “factory farms” have produced many problems such as excessive use of antibiotic and growth hormone. For instance, Jane Goodall pointed a girl from Mexico experienced her secondary sex character since five, due to taking too much growth hormones in meat. (Jane Goodall, Harvest for hope: A guide to Mindful Eating) Also, in ethical back ground, Peter Singer also stated eating meat in modern society is related with politics. Moreover, he believes a person who thinks human can kill and use any other animals is another form of discrimination such as sexual and racial discrimination. (The Ethics of What We Eat, Peter singer, Jim Mason) In sum, still enormous argues are going on this topic. As a non-technical individual, I can’t decide what is absolutely right or wrong. However, it is very obvious that the current system and the situations have shown us a lot of problems. Therefore, I firmly believe we should reconsider about eating meat and try to make these situations better. Consequently, that would leads us to a better world.

References: -FAO,Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

-Jeremy Rifkin, Beyond Beef.

-Jane Goodall, Harvest for hope: A guide to Mindful Eating.

- The Ethics of What We Eat, Peter singer, Jim Mason.

520R journal #3 -The Dark Side of Charming Red

-Body Science-

The Dark Side of Charming Red


In the past, ingesting food was generally considered as a good way to improve our well being. However, currently, food is not all ways as safe as the old time. As contemporary grocery technologies and business developed, people have faced a lot of new kind food. A positive fact is that people are able to taste and enjoy variety of food that they like, and many companies are able to produce them easily also in low-price. And the dark side of this phenomenon is our health or even lives are being threatened by new chemical food additives that have produced by manufactures, in order to boost their profits. A good example is cochineal colored products. Have you ever considered about drinking bloods of bugs? Of course, everyone would think it is disgusting. However, unfortunately, it is highly possible that you are drinking, chewing, or even put bugs’ bloods on your face. Cochineal extract is a product from bugs named “cocas cacti.” These parasites harbor in cactus and their blood’s color is thick-red, that changes its color depends on the level of acid, it helps producers to get many different colors. This cochineal extract is using for enormous kinds of products such as drinks, gums, snacks, hams and sausages, clothes and even cosmetics. The problem of using this cochineal extract is that actually people don’t know about the origin of the colors they ingest every day. In addition, there is still a debatable problem remains: cochineal color is not 100% safe. During a few decades, widespread damages have reported about this extracted color. For instance, the most common casualties are “allergic anaphylactic shock,” which could lead one to death. In my opinion, this “cochineal case” shows that we have to be aware of what we actually eat. In sum, to live healthy-or at least normally-among this fanatical food industrial and consuming-without question- society, we must be conscious and curious.

President Barack Obama

This is one small step for Americans, one giant leap for mankind.

A quote

"The World is a Book,
and those who do not travel read only a page."
- St.Augustine-

Quotes

Although I am not very familiar with using quotes, I really love them. They are short but deep, easy but keen, and thoughtful but sharp. This is one of George Orwell’s quotes.

Liberal: a power worshipper without power.