The Birthday Party, a comedy of menace

â€Å"Comedy of menace† was a term first used to describe Harold Pinter's plays by the drama critic Irving Wardle. He borrowed the term from the subtitle of one of David Campton's plays, The Lunatic View: A Comedy of Menace. A comedy is a humorous play which contains variations on the elements of surprise, incongruity, conflict, repetitiveness, and the effect of opposite expectations and so on in order to amuse and make the audience laugh. A menace is something which threatens to cause harm, evil or injury which seems quite incompatible with the idea of a comedy. However, as The Birthday Party shows, it is quite possible for a playwright to create both humour and menace in the same play, and even at the same time, in order to produce certain effects and to transmit ideas to the audience. Comedy is present in The Birthday Party from the very first scene; it is a way of gently introducing the audience to the world which Pinter is trying to create. The humour is quite subtle at first, for example the exchange between Petey and Meg about whether Stanley is up or not plays on the words up and down: â€Å"Meg: â€Å"Is Stanley up yet? Petey: I don't know. Is he? Meg: I don't know. I haven't seen him down. Petey: Well then, he can't be up. Meg: Haven't you seen him down? â€Å". Although the repetitions in this short exchange will not make the audience burst out with laughter they can make them smile and the humour also lulls them into a sense of comfort. A joke with a similar effect is made through another short dialogue between Meg and Petey in which Meg continually asks who is having a baby with Petey insisting that she won't know her until finally saying it's â€Å"Lady Mary Splatt†, to which Meg replies anticlimactically â€Å"I don't know her†. This anticlimax as well as the incongruous name of the woman (we do not imagine a â€Å"Lady† having the surname â€Å"Splatt†) creates humour and again lulls the audience into a sense of peace and normality. As well as this we get a sense of Meg's stupidity, Petey's resignation to it and their relationship being unfruitful and routine from their humorous yet uninteresting dialogue. Indeed, half the reason what they say seems funny is because of how pointless it is. Thus, Pinter highlights the uselessness of Meg and Petey's conversation and in extension the uselessness of everyday small talk. The worrying thing for the audience about this comedy is that it evidences a kind of futility: Meg does notseem to have much of a life beyond these pointless conversations. Thus, while the humour of the dialogue lightens the tone of the scene it also poses a question on the passivity and futility of the lives of the characters and the lives of many people in general. Humour also serves to draw attention to the strangeness of Meg and Stanley's relationship. Indeed, Meg treats him like a child despite his being a man of thirty. We are made aware of the fact that Stanley is not a child when he comes on stage for the first time. Before this Meg's calling him â€Å"that boy† and trying to get him out of bed by calling â€Å"Stan! Stanny! Stan! I'm coming up to fetch you if you don't come down! I'm coming up! I'm going to count to three! One! Two! Three! † makes the audience think he must be a child. Thus when we see him for the first time the incompatibility between the reality and what we have been lead to believe creates humour. The inappropriateness of Meg's treatment of Stanley and his being a fully grown man also creates humour at other moments of the play, for example when she asks him if he â€Å"pa[id] a visit this morning† (went to the toilet). While Meg and Stanley's conversation has some comedic value it could also make the audience feel slightly uneasy, perhaps they will ask themselves why this woman of sixty treats a man of thirty like a boy and why he plays along with her at times. Their exchanges, for example, the dialogue revolving around Stanley calling Meg a â€Å"succulent old washing bag† and Meg's reaction to it, seeming to believe that it's a rude word is quite funny for the audience as again it highlights her silliness but makes their relationship even stranger as she speaks â€Å"coyly†: she does not only play a maternal role but is also somewhat flirtatious. Thus humour, while seeming quite light can have a deeper meaning and cover up something a lot more serious about a character and problems they may have. Likewise, Stanley's attempts at humour when talking to Lulu are a kind of proof of his social inadequacy. When she says that it's stuffy he replies â€Å"Stuffy? I disinfected the place this morning. † And when she talks about his getting under Meg's feet he says he â€Å"always stand[s] on the table when she sweeps the floor†. These two lines are both untrue and when saying them Stanley's aim seems to be to make a joke. However, they both fall flat with Lulu and we could also imagine with the audience. Consequently, comedy, or rather attempts at it, evidence Stanley's lack of social skills. Therefore humour can be a way to introduce the audience to characters and their relationships with each other, and also make the audience think about these characters and perhaps their problems while keeping them interested in the play itself. The parody of small talk also allows Pinter to pose questions to the audience about the futility of many of our lives. Comedy does not just appear alone in this play, humour often appears during a somewhat frightening scene in which characters menace another. Some of these scenes are power struggles between characters or scenes where one character asserts themselves over another. For example, in the scene where Stanley tells Meg about the wheelbarrow he is obviously trying to menace her with his repeated questions (â€Å"Do you know what? â€Å", â€Å"Have you heard the latest? â€Å", â€Å"And do you know what they've got in that van? † etc), the anonymous â€Å"they†, the imminence of â€Å"today† and his actions as he â€Å"advance[s] upon her†. Despite the menacing aspect of this scene the fact that what he is threatening her with is a wheelbarrow adds a slightly bizarre and humorous tone. Indeed, the audience could laugh at Meg, thinking only she could be afraid of a wheelbarrow. However, her reaction to the threats is quite strong as she becomes â€Å"breathless† and cries out â€Å"hoarsely†. She seems to be afraid of it because it's new and different, an example of human fear of the unknown, and also perhaps of being â€Å"taken away† as Stanley repeats twice â€Å"They're looking for someone†. Either way the humorous aspect of someone being afraid of a wheelbarrow heightens the menacing atmosphere for the audience as we don't understand her fear; if she was afraid of something more normal we would not feel so ill at ease. Thus in this scene, Pinter makes use of a comedic aspect with a menacing atmosphere in order to make the audience aware of our own fears of what we do not understand. Comedy and menace also appear together in both the first music hall scene and just before it. In the â€Å"sitting down scene†, a certain amount of humour can be derived from the fact that three grown men are playing a childish game about who will sit down first, but what this game represents is a power struggle. As with the wheelbarrow, this silly game is symbolic of something much more serious; here, the person who sits will lose power. This menacing part of the scene is shown by the insistence of Goldberg and McCann that Stanley sit down and McCann's yelling â€Å"That's a dirty trick! I'll kick the shite out of him†. Interestingly, Stanley seems to try to lighten the atmosphere with the joke (â€Å"Now you've both had a rest you can get out! ) which causes McCann to say this, but he only succeeds in heightening the tense and menacing atmosphere of the scene. Again, humour does not take away from the threat but adds to it, making it worse. The fact that Stanley's joke doesn't lighten the scene as he hoped can also show the inadequacies of language. Indeed, o ne would not expect a joke to create more threats and menace. Thus, through the pairing of humour with menace Pinter shows the audience how words do not always achieve the desired effects and therefore is evidence of our own shortfalls as we do not always accomplish what we would like to through our speech. However, Goldberg does achieve what he wants to with his use of comedy and threats. This is because he wants to create a more menacing scene in order to completely destroy Stanley. His humour comes from the common expressions that he sometimes modifies, such as â€Å"You're beginning to get on my breasts†, and the different registers of these expressions, for example he says â€Å"Why are you driving that old lady off her conk? † which seems very colloquial compared to his normal speech. He also makes an ironic joke when he says that McCann is â€Å"the life and soul of any party†, which is evidently false as the audience can tell that he isn't from how little he speaks. Goldberg's jokes contrast with the serious and controlling man who makes Stanley sit down simply by saying quietly â€Å"Webber. SIT DOWN†. Indeed, we feel more menaced by Goldberg than by McCann because as McCann has already yelled at Stanley we feel as though we know what he is capable of but we don't really know how much Goldberg can do with his power of speech. The power which comes from the paradoxical pairing of humour with menace can be seen in the first music hall scene and in the scene with Lulu. In the music hall scene, the fast pace of the short, nonsensical questions creates a sense of urgency and fear as we do not know what the point of all these questions is. While some of the questions and accusations seem serious, such as â€Å"Why did you leave the organisation? â€Å", others create humour such as, â€Å"When did you last have a bath† or â€Å"McCann: You throttled her. Goldberg: With arsenic†. At the end of the scene the question they are asking him is the well known joke: â€Å"Why did the chicken cross the road? â€Å". It is this question, one of the most unanswerable of all the ones they ask him that finally makes him break down; he can no longer answer. The fact that a joke question is one of the causes of Stanley's destruction shows the strength of humour. Indeed, Freud theorised that â€Å"[in] addition to the one who makes the joke, there must be a second [person] who is taken as the object of the hostile aggressiveness, and a third in whom the joke's aim of producing pleasure is fulfilled†. In this scene, Goldberg and McCann make the jokes to amuse the audience while Stanley is the victim. However, the audience does not really laugh at these jokes, in fact they serve more to make us uneasy, but we still recognise the humour in them and perhaps even appreciate it. The same three person structure is found in the scene where McCann menaces Lulu. In that scene, Lulu is the victim while McCann tells her â€Å"savagely† to confess while Goldberg creates humour by picking up everything she says and turning it against her. For example she says â€Å"You taught me things a girl shouldn't know before she's been married at least three times! , to which Goldberg replies â€Å"Now you're a jump ahead! What are you complaining about? â€Å". The audience will appreciate Goldberg's humour while also finding what Lulu herself says funny despite the fact that she is evidently upset and angry, as it says in the stage directions. This humour followed so quickly by McCann's threats will again make the audience uneasy. This uneasiness of the audience is partly caused by our finding Goldberg, and perhaps even McCann, funny when we feel perhaps that we shouldn't. By being amused by them we ally ourselves with them, the two characters who we know to be manipulative and controlling. Indeed, through their (Goldberg's especially) humour we are manipulated by them to laugh at the other characters. Thus, Pinter shows by placing comedic elements with menacing ones that humour can be powerful and creates relationships between us: relationships which have a strong element of control to them, as our feelings and reactions are manipulated by Goldberg, just like the other relationships which we see in the play. Therefore, we can say that Pinter's â€Å"comedy of menace† is a way to show us how he believes that all relationships revolve around one person asserting their power over another. The atmosphere of menace which is present in this play does not only appear in conjunction with humour. Instead it often relies on the unknown or things not being fully explained. For example, when Goldberg and McCann first arrive, they come through the back door without knocking, which is in itself quite odd, then Goldberg says he wasn't looking for a number when McCann asks him how he knows it's the right house. This is quite an eerie thing to say as the audience can ask themselves what he was looking for as normally you recognise a house by the number. Indeed, it is this abnormality and not knowing how Goldberg knew which house he wanted which creates a sense of a threat or that something bad will happen. This can show the audience how we feel a need for things to be â€Å"normal†, we fear things that we don't understand or that are new. Likewise, McCann's refusal to join Stanley in conversation at the beginning of the second act, giving short answers and asking little in return is really a refusal to make normal conversation. These short responses seem quite menacing because they contrast against Stanley's seemingly open discussion. The audience could believe that Stanley's trying to tempt McCann into conversing with him properly is not only to get information about why he is there but to also make McCann seem more normal and thus less menacing. Like the opening scene with its pointless dialogue this scene shows the human need for speech in order to keep the fear of a threat, in this case represented by McCann, at bay. Language is not the only menacing thing, there are also several small actions or events which add to the menacing atmosphere of the play: the synchronised whistling, McCann's tearing the newspaper into strips and the lights during the birthday party. None of these things should seem that menacing by themselves but the context in which they are placed makes them seem so. Two â€Å"strangers† whistling the same tune together while talking, a grown man sitting at a table tearing paper, a light being shone on a man at his own birthday party as though he is a police suspect and finally a blackout which makes Stanley become violent all seem abnormal and strange for the audience: we do not understand why they happen (except for the blackout, and then we only find out later). It is this not understanding and abnormality of the events which adds to the menacing atmosphere of the play. Therefore we can say that the threatening ambiance of the play is created through language, in particular humour and the unknown, but also through certain eerie and strange events or deeds. The reason Pinter uses these things to make the audience afraid is to show us our fear of what we do not know and the abnormal. However, Pinter makes sure that some of the menacing atmosphere is elevated at times, which actually emphasises how strong this atmosphere is. The threatening ambiance is lessened by the use of humour. This humour can be found in the first dialogue between Goldberg and McCann, for example, when McCann says that Goldberg, who is obviously a Jew, is a â€Å"true Christian†. There is also humour with the dialogue between Goldberg and Meg, after the first music hall scene, when he is admiring her dress and slaps her bottom, as well as before when he calls her a tulip and she asks â€Å"What colour? â€Å". Pinter uses comedy at these moments in the play in order to reassure the audience and to keep some suspense: if the whole length of the play was filled with a menacing atmosphere we would know that Stanley will lose the power struggle from the beginning. The humour also brings a certain level of normality back to the proceedings of the play so that the menacing atmosphere can increase slowly, again creating more suspense. Thus, I agree completely with the description of The Birthday Party as a â€Å"comedy of menace†. While comedy and menace both appear separately in the play it is together that they affect the audience most. The association of two seemingly opposing themes in one play allows the audience to realise some of Pinter's preoccupations concerning the inadequacy of language but also its power, how we have some irrational fears concerning the unknown and the abnormal, how relationships work through manipulation and power struggles and the passivity of so many people throughout their lives. As well as this, the fact that we can associate these two terms, finding something menacing yet humorous at the same time, could also be a way for Pinter to show the paradoxical nature of human beings.

Ethics and Business Practice

One of the many challenges facing businesses today is how to harmonize their organization, work and professional ethics in line with the prevailing business practices and environment. Beckton Dickinson lies between a rock and a hard place. They would want to carryout their business activities strictly adhering to not only their organization’s policies and ethics but also the stipulations by the US government that vehemently outlaw any form of corruption or bribery.The US laws on international trade made it illegal for any multinational operating both at home or in foreign territories, to engage in any malpractice that seeks to influence a decision by any government, institution or individual. Many multinationals especially in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa where there no stringent laws on tendering, have been known to give kickbacks to influence the process. The individuals and the key decision makers behind tendering are also known to ask for gifts and kickbacks so that they would favor a specific company. These gifts or commissions may range from a small gift to a colossal amount of money.Beckton Dickinson management team strives to maintain high standards that embrace fairness and honesty, and have designed a guide advocating for the same. They have issued clear guidelines to their employees detailing the company’s expectations on the proper conduct and business practice both within the United States and globally. This guide touches on the issues ranging from political contribution to what is considered to be a gift. The employees have raised their reservations on these guidelines and would wish the amount in regard to what is acceptable in terms of gifts to be defined according to the regions involved.Kickbacks and bribery as indicated in this report is not only a problem limited to any specific corporation, industry or government. It is a universal problem that equally requires global attention. It has permeated every aspect of business life and practice. An analyses of the problem would reveal that almost all the parties involved play a role in perpetrating the vice. The big corporations are in business and would want to under all cost secure the most profitable deals. Beckton Dickinson would in no doubt wish to expand its sales and maintain its market leadership position in supplying health sector appliances.To keep its competitor a bay it might be forced to engage in malpractices to secure the contracts. The tendering individuals also may be asking for bribes as well as the government officials. This problem hence is not perpetrated by a single party but by almost all the players. World opinion of late seem to be tilting towards unanimity in the need to establish strict anti-corruption laws in the procurement departments. Bribery is a vice that leads to morals and societal degeneration. In condoning this vice the perpetrators are threatening the social good.The principle of integrity, fairness and honesty are being threatened. It is imperative that steps be taken to curb this menace to ensure that fairness thrives. Small businesses are being threatened, as some of them cannot afford the bribes and kickbacks. There should be strict adherence to business ethics to level the playing field and ensure fair competition. Performance expectations gap is the gap that exists between what the society and shareholders expect the company to deliver in terms of performance and what it (company) actually delivers (www. abrema. net).The shareholder and the state have insisted on the adherence to the stipulated laws as far as proper business ethics is concerned. The accountants and auditors of Beckton Dickinson are having it rough and are in a dilemma as far as accounting fro the gifts and the kickbacks is concerned. The company has issued clear guidelines on the require business ethics. It is advocating for mandatory compliances on the side of the employees. The employees especially the personnel on the groun d claim the situation is hostile and tends to lean more on bribery and kickbacks.If you don’t pay for the gifts, the rival companies will do it and clinch the tender. The company has not been able to harmonize its ethics to encompass all levels of its operations. There should be distinct guidelines in the different regions. Whereas some gifts may be considered ethical in for example the United States, in Japan it is a different story altogether. The company should not abet bribery in some countries while being strict in others. However the recent steps taken by the company is a positive indicator that even though the problem is serious, the organization is taking bold steps to curb it.The top management has flown into the regional branches to train the personnel and emphasis on the companies stand as far as business ethics are concerned. The trend is not expected to change overnight. Gradually the company will achieve its key objective and instill discipline in this workforce . The situation though in the internationals scene will take long to change. The remedy to curbing this unethical practice requires a multifaceted approach, an approach that will encompass all the players involved. There are different approaches that can be taken in this.Some scholars claim that the big corporations are to blame, having recognized a weakness especially in the developing countries systems of governance; they have been known to use all manners of strategies ranging from intimidation to bribery. Hence in ending those unethical practices, corporations have to be at the forefront. Self-regulation of these companies has to be emphasized, change must come from within rather than without (www. newstarget. com) compliance with the ethical guidelines by Beckton Dickinson is a step in the right direction and should be emulated by other players in the industry.The key to unlocking this ethical deadlock however, many will agree, lies in the government structures and policies the mselves. The United States for example issued the stipulations on business practices and ethics as far as bribery and kickbacks are concerned. This greatly reduced the cases as bribery as corporations can now be faced with legal actions upon contravention of the rules. It is upon the governments as the key decision makers, to streamline their procurement rules to ensure fairness, transparency and accountability. Legal redress should be provided to the aggrieved parties.Although the corporations and the society have a role to play the governments hold the key and should be the one to initiate this change and ensure stiff penalties to the defaulters. Reference Dani Veracity, Bribery in medicine: how drug authorities, Big pharmapushers and other medical racket operations forfeit ethics for powers and profits. Last updated on January 10,2006. Retrieved in 23/09/07 from http://www. newstarget. com/016676. html ABREMA. Activity based risk evaluation model of auditing. Retrieved on 23/09/0 7 from http://www. abrema. net/abrema/expec-gap-ag. html

Is there a pay differential between whites and blacks? Essay

Forty-five years ago, President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law, by pronouncing it unauthorized and illegal to pay African Americans and whites employed in the same work place different wages for the same exact equal work. The ratio of whites to African Americans average pay was 58 percent on an annually income. According to the Lexicon Universal Encyclopedia, wage differential is the difference in wage rates between two types of workers. Wage differential is very common in our society today. Researchers have concluded that wage differential only exists in certain demographic areas, based on race and gender. There is a common prophecy that men earn more earnings than women, and whites earn more earnings than African Americans. According to MSN. com, discrimination is different treatments of others based solely on their membership in a socially distinct group or category, such as race, ethnicity, religion, age or disability. Also, discrimination is an unfair act with compelling force, which is commonly known throughout society. Unlawful discrimination is related to the mistreatment of others. Due to discrimination occurring in the work place, African American employees are being shortchanged on their wages for doing the same job that whites are doing and are earning more earnings than African Americans. Researchers have found out that this has happened and is still occurring in jobs today, and therefore the government will have to make an intervention to displace discriminatory acts in businesses. Using data from a 2006 Survey of Income and Discrimination Participation, researchers were able to come up with the fact that there is a 62 percent difference in the wages that are offered to African Americans. Labor curves are sloping upwards and this means that wage discrimination against African Americans sometimes reduce not just their percentage wage but also their percentage of employment rates. The difference in average pay between African Americans and whites are a result of the labor market. The characteristics that African Americans and whites bring are totally different resulting in different wages. Some jobs discriminate against African Americans by employers and co-workers who would rather prefer whites. There are jobs that prefer white males only to do manual and physical labor, but you have African Americans in a white male only field ready to take on the work and try and do a better job at it. II. IDENTIFYING THE ISSUES According to the BlackCommentator Magazine, it says that there are two common excuses for wage racial inequality and that is age and geographic location. Racial wage plays a part in inequality due to the fact that African Americans are younger than whites. So therefore younger African American will take a lower pay than older whites. Dealing with the geographic area of African Americans; African Americans mostly reside in the South. The South is known for its low paying jobs and whites have acquired this knowledge and decided to move North in an effort to find better jobs and better knowledge. African Americans are obtaining the skills that whites have acquired and are really becoming similar, the only problem is that whites are getting paid more and this is a result of a significant gender wage gap. Public policy in the United States has aimed at improving and equalizing opportunities for African Americans. According to â€Å"Explaining Trends in the Gender Wage Gap† a report by The Council of Economic Advisors, it estimates that whites were over paid and that African Americans were under paid by at least 60 percent in the mid 1950s. In the 1970s, the ratio began to rise, and in the mid 1990s, the gender wage pay began to rise even more again reaching more than 75 percent. The gender wage gap can be revisited to an unexplained part in society that may be due to African Americans low labor market skills. Reduced gender wage gap for African Americans has contaminated our society today. If African Americans would invest in more labor skills and education, then the gender wage gap will make an increasing hike. Researchers have attempted to retrieve evidence on the gender wage gap. Economists have known that African Americans and whites wages are determined on the combining of the employer and employee status. Needless to mention on the two interact with one another. Understanding the establishment of wage differentials is determined by how important the labor market theories are of the environment. The magnitude of how this affects the labor market is tremendously understated. According to www. clinton4. nara. gov, the U. S. Census Bureau Standard Statistical Establishments lists that the gender wage gap must decompose as a result of African Americans in a substantially proportioned rate of pay wage gap. There still remains a wage differential in the gender wage gap of about 75 percent of what whites earns. There has been a decline in the gender wage gap in recent decades about 25 percent over the last 20 years. The Occupational Employment Statistics program for the Bureau of Labor Statistics is allowed to calculate occupational wage differentials to the highest degree of occupational setting across sectors of the economy. The empirical difference of wage differential among African Americans and whites estimates how wages are influenced by individual works. The decomposition of wages between a worker and their job is the regulation that the workforce supposedly provides stable establishments in the economy. The Gender Wage Gap (Median annual earnings of African Americans and Whites). YearWhite menBlack menWhite womenBlack women 1970100%69. 0%58. 7%48. 2% 197510074. 357. 555. 4 198010070. 758. 955. 7 198510069. 763. 057. 1 199010073. 169. 462. 5 199210072. 670. 064. 0 199410075. 171. 663. 0 199510075. 971. 264. 2 199610080. 073. 365. 1 199710075. 171. 962. 6 199810074. 972. 662. 6 199910080. 671. 665. 0 200010078. 272. 264. 6 200310078. 275. 665. 4 200410074. 576. 768. 4 The average African American has only one-ninth of net worth or asset of the average white person. The wealth gap among African Americans and whites is just not based on income. Wealth gaps came about in the 1960s and hit the African American society really hard. Earning gaps respond at all levels of education; even when the levels of education and work experience are the same between African Americans and whites. The racial gap consistently remains between 10 to 20 percent, and the racial gap does not necessarily reflect discrimination, but mostly it observes the labor market that has segmented into two races. The whites are continuing to receive an advantage in the segmented markets over equally qualified blacks. The wealth gap is at the core of many socioeconomic differences that have persisted during the post dramatic era. Closing the racial wealth gap will be an extreme challenge to face in the years to come. According to Kenneth Crouch, an Associate Professor of Economics says that the distribution of African Americans wages have become more like that of white, yet the considerable process has yet to be made before there can be such a word called equal among African Americans and whites. There is a visibility between African Americans and whites in fringe benefits due to the total compensation with a percentage of nearly 40 percent. The benefit level depends on the income of African Americans and whites for adequate health pensions and a successful retirement. Fringe benefits are a big part of life and will come in handy when needed most. During the recent years, African Americans and whites non-wage compensation had increased more than wages and salaries. It was also contemplated that fringe benefits had no serious biases which resulted from the neglect of salaries and wages. Human capital is the attributes of a person that is productive in some economic context such as a stock of productive skills and or technical knowledge embodied in labor. Many early economic theories refer to it simply as labor, one of three factors of production, and consider it to be a tangible resource — homogeneous and easily interchangeable. It often refers to formal educational attainment, with the implication that education is investment whose returns are in the form of wage, salary, or other compensation. These are normally measured and conceived of, as private returns to the individual but can also be social returns. Human capital is often viewed as the most important determinant of wages. Human capital may come in different forms such as, schooling, training courses, honesty, and lectures therefore human capital like this will most likely raise earnings in today’ society. People cannot be separated from knowledge, health, or values that they may have acquired through human capital. According to Harvard economists, Richard Freeman, he wrote The Overeducated American, and this caused a huge downfall to investments in human capital. This made people come to a realization that maybe education, training, and investments really did not raise productivity or raise earnings. The economy of human capital has brought about a dramatic change in the lives of African Americans. III. DATA (TRENDS IN THE BLACK-WHITE WAGE GAP) The wage gaps between African Americans and whites are largely determined by educational disparities and occupational differences. There is evidence that African Americans fall short on wages due to the relative wage median. A government study finds that the African American wage gap in employment and earnings reduces when educational achievement levels are advanced. There are some mere facts that go along with the wage differential of African Americans and whites: †¢Whites continue to receive substantial privileges and preferences than African Americans †¢The argument that racial wage gap merely reflects different levels of qualifications and experience between African Americans and whites is simply unattainable. †¢African Americans test scores and other academic achievements is different and the whites test scores account for at least 17 percent of the wage gaps †¢African Americans median incomes are presented in every region and are lower than median incomes for whites †¢African Americans lack the natural resources that are need in order to better themselves and receive an attainable education. On average African American workers also have less education than white workers and are more likely to work in lower paying occupations. Depending if African American employees have the same education as white workers, African Americans relative wages would only improve by only a few cents on every dollar. The growing disparities of wage gaps are likely to be persistent, educated, and well skilled workers. Education and training are the most important investments in human capital. Education and work experience play a major part in expanding the career percentage. Education and work experience can account for about one half of the racial wage gap. Education is a very distinctive part of what your income is based on. It depends on your educational level and how far you chose to go in your education process. It is highly important to grace your presence with some kind of college degree, so that you will have something to fall back on. A higher education is a positive for human capital. Opening up access to education and reducing the barriers to therefore formalize reconstruction among the most liberal policy-problem solvers are becoming available to improve wages for African Americans across the country. According to â€Å"The Effect of a College Degree on Wages: The Different Experiences of African Americans and Whites by Sylvia Jones, the labor market experiences after graduation is useful to a variety of entities. It includes observing the effects of education of an individual earning a high-indulged wage figure, in addition to other factors such as age, gender, and experience. There is a major difference in the earnings between college graduates and high school graduates. There is about a 65 percent difference in this correlation. There are so many African American men and women with high school diplomas who are displaced in the same jobs that have work experience but lack a college degree. Do African American men and women that acquire a college degree make more money than those with work experience? Studies have revealed that other aspects of discrimination in the labor market are due to the enormous jump in the number of African Americans and white workers who finish high school. The trend in African Americans is a remarkable downgrade because the relatively larger share does not have a high school diploma. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicated that white men and women with a higher education have higher earnings and are less likely to be unemployed. Jobs that require a higher education account for about 71 percent of all jobs and it is rapidly growing to increase the economy. The United States still has that thrive to produce high paying jobs that are requiring advanced education. IV. WAGES AND OBSERVABLE CHARACTERISTICS The wages for African Americans and whites are substantially different because of the educational process, which we all fail to realize that we need. African Americans as people need to realize that the world is changing and that technology is also changing. Some African American men and women lack the knowledge to know when it’s okay to come up and outshine others because you want more in life than the next person. There has been a vast improvement since the 1980s in African Americans attending college to advance their career to get the same career wage percentage as whites. African Americans tend to sideline to other occupations that may fit into their perspective and that lets others realize, who may be afraid to come up and that’s basically called occupational segregation. Occupational segregation is the concentration of men and women in different kinds of job, as where the workforce of a particular industry or sector is mostly made up of one particular gender. Occupational segregation is one of the main reasons for the gender gap wage gap between men and women. For African American men and women working full-time it is currently 45% of that group receiving unfair wages compared to whites. According to â€Å"Gender Inequality and Difference,† occupational segregation has been concluded into many debates about gender. The causes of occupational segregation are gender bias based on stereotypical, biological and social differences between men and women. Occupational segregation problems arise when these stereotypes are used subconsciously to prejudge a person’s ability and competence such as a woman is emotional and caring, and a man is aggressive and competitive. Levels of occupational segregation are held responsible for the discrepancy between African Americans and whites among wage differential. Occupational segregation is basically another form of discrimination. The analysis of the changes that has influenced the occupational segregation on African Americans earning’s should clarify the mechanisms that maintain the gender inequality in the labor market. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the relationship between African Americans and whites in the educational progression varies in different economic outcomes. The black-white educational gap differed in size dependent on the consistency of demonstrating necessarily the widening of the gap or the narrowing of the gap in African American cases. The occupational segregation is due to the empirical approach estimating the function of the earnings for African American to combine demographic and socioeconomic characteristics to accumulate wage determination. African Americans historically worked disproportionately some of the lowest paying occupations known to man. The most important factor in explaining this continuous trend is a reduction in the concentration of lower pay in industries for African Americans. Studies have also shown that in the 1960s, wage inequality in the United States has sharply declined following the passage of the Civil Rights Act and other anti-discriminatory measures that happened historically to try and help African Americans receive the equality of what is right. Wage contingency in the 1960s may have been some sort of aide by a set of unique forces. Post 1968 wage convergence has been imputed into racial growth in the quantity and quality of schooling, and the immense impact of anti-discrimination enacted, resulting to the Great Compression. This may have produced some un-marked erosion of wage differentials between skilled and unskilled in order to form the labor of the Great Compression. The Great Compression followed the Great Depression and produced a wage differential that structured more than that ever has been experience. Wage compression’s contribution to racial discrimination throughout the wage factor has a greater impact on whites than African Americans. Between half and one-thirds of whites and African Americans wage discriminations can be attributed to the utmost changes in wage structures induced by the Great Compression. Wage structure changes are similar through wage distribution, differences in wage convergence due to movements of African Americans is primarily due to observable quantities (X’s) and the amount of wage distribution. The Great Compression only increased the relative wages of African Americans in the short term, but may have also helped in the long run. The Great Compression led to a greater racial wage convergence in the 1960s among African Americans by the narrowing differences between skilled workers and unskilled workers, and by the divulgence of wages within occupational orientation and other labor market groups. The Great Compression produced a substantial narrow amount of wage differentials in the United States. The Great Compression was solely a narrowing of mean wage discrimination between occupational grouping, education, and the color of ones skin. The effect of change in wage differential – the prices and residual terms are evidence that throughout wage distribution only occurs in African Americans. Compression is considered observation in prices was about thirty to fifty percent times the residual rate. This is a fairly high rate in dealing with compression of African Americans. Groshen’s methodology and basic finding has been replicated according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics acknowledging that 40-45 percent of individual wage varies in the establishment of wage differentials. Groshen offers three main reasons in explanation for why there is no sole source in the establishment of wage differentials. The first explanation talks about labor quality and how employers sort workers by the ability of prediction that systematically produce team models. Industry wage differentials are estimated longitudinal which proxies’ information for the standard human capital variables. The second explanation is the existence of wage differentials for that of differentials with are compensated. Compensating differentials is defined as wage premiums paid to workers to compensate them for undesirable working conditions. The relationship between the wage rate and compensating differentials is used to analyze relations of risk and undesirable attributes. Therefore this puts salaries and wage on the back burner because some of the employees know that they are not being treated equal but never say a word because they are compensated. The idea of compensating differentials has been used to annihilate issues such as the loss of income and the risk of future unemployment. The third and final explanation results in negotiating and bargaining. Employers offer to share profits of the company as an act of bargaining. Some show a positive relationship between the individual’s wage and the industry’s profit, resulting in the employee to have taken a loss. V. CONCLUSION Using the wage decomposition by Groshen, it has been documented that the wage structural program paid to certain occupational standards such as African Americans being paid less and not being treated as equals compared to whites is becoming above the wage premium predicted. Forty-five percent of wage variation is explained by merely knowing the individuals standards that he or she has established. Today’s characteristics are being observed for their accountability is being reduced by more than half which was less than a century ago. There is the written authorization to act in the place of another known as proxy to determine the unobserved characteristics of the establishment that are correlated with today’s wages. This is because our method controls observed and unobserved characteristics in the workforce therefore restricting an extension on the possibility of further investigations. This paper examines that there was the existence of wage differentials back in the 1940s through to the 1980s. There is also a recent analysis that shows that matched employer-employee workers are breaking the barriers of treating one person of different ethnicity with the same amount work experience and the same amount of education that another person of a different ethnicity has. There has been a significant change in wage differential since the resources are available to African Americans as well as other ethnic groups. The paper follows the wage gap and its factors throughout using cross-sectional data. There is bias information being imputed from earnings in the section of the wage differentials which characterizes the classification exhaustive. An ignored implication concludes that researchers in the future need to pay closer attention on how wage differentials are estimated differently according to the presence of imputed earnings. 1. James P. Smith and Michael P. Ward, â€Å"Women’s Wages and Work in the Twentieth Century,† RAND Corporation, October 1984. 2. Frank Levi and Richard J. Murnane, â€Å"U. S. Earnings Levels and Earnings Inequality: A Review of Recent Trends and Proposed Explanations,† Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XXX (September 1992), pp. 1333-1381. 3. Elaine Sorensen, â€Å"Gender and Racial Pay Gaps in the 1980’s: Accounting for Different Trends,† Urban Institute, Washington, D. C. , 1991. 4. Anil Bamezai, â€Å"Rising Earnings Disparity and Technological Change,† RAND Corporation, 1989 dissertation. 5. Joseph R. Meisenheimer II, â€Å"How do immigrants fare in the U. S. labor market? ,† Monthly Labor Review, December 1992. 6. U. S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, Bureau of the Census, â€Å"Monthly News from the U. S. Bureau of the Census, Census and You,† Vol. 28, No. 2. , February 1993. 7. Nabanita Datta Gupta, â€Å"Probabilities of Job Choice and Employer Selection and Male-Female Occupational Differences,† American Economic Review, Vol. 83, No. 2, May 1993. 8. Robert Topel, â€Å"Specific Capital, Mobility and Wages: Wages Rise with Job Seniority,† National bureau of Economic Research, Inc. , 1990. U. S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Series P-70, No. 10, Male-Female Differences in Work Experience, Occupation, and Earnings: 1984, U. S. 9. The Council of Economic Advisers, â€Å"Explaining Trends In the Gender Wage Gap,† June1998 10. http://maloney. house. gov/documents/olddocs/womenscaucus/2003EarningsReport. pdf 11. http://clinton4. nara. gov/WH/EOP/CEA/html/gendergap. html 12. http://permanent. access. gpo. gov/lps49666/wagegap2. htm 13. http://www. umbc. edu/economics/grad_699_abstracts/y_guo_proposal. pdf 14. http://www. highbeam. com/doc/1P2-733774. html 15. http://www. ilo. org/public/english/employment/strat/download/getw07. pdf 16. http://wydoe. state. wy. us/lmi/1001/a1. htm.

Bad Survey Questions

EXAMPLES OF BAD QUESTIONS & SUGGESTIONS OF HOW TO FIX THEM! Double Barreled question: Please indicate how much you agree or disagree with each of the following statements about the childcare program. Incorrect: I feel welcomed by staff and other youth at the center Correction: I feel welcomed by staff at the center I feel welcomed by other youth at the center Biased/leading question Incorrect: Community organizing is hard. Do leadership trainings help you feel prepared for community organizing? Much more prepared Slightly more prepared Somewhat more prepared Not more preparedCorrect: The leadership trainings prepare me for community organizing. Strongly agree Double Negative Incorrect Does it seem possible or does it seem impossible to you that the Nazi extermination of the Jews never happened? (22%) Very possible Impossible Correct Do you doubt that the Holocaust actually happened or not? (9%) Very possible Impossible Possible Very impossible Possible Very impossible Agree Disagree Strongly disagree EVALUATING SURVEYS The following are additional examples of bad survey questions. As a group, apply our class discussion, evaluating each question and its response choices to identify one error in each question (ie. ouble barreled). Explain the problem that your group identifies in each question and propose an alternative that solves the problem. 1. More people have attended the movie, Gone with the Wind, than any other motion picture produced this century. Have you seen this movie? Yes No 2. In your opinion, how would you rate the speed and accuracy of your work? Excellent Good Fair Poor 3. Did you first hear about the bombing: ______ from a friend or relative ______ from your spouse ______ from a newspaper ______ at work ______ from the television or radio or other electronic media 4.How do you feel about the following statement? We should not reduce military spending. Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly disagree 5. People grow up in all different types of fam ilies. What type of family did you grow up in? ______Mom as single parent ______Dad as a single parent ______Both Mom and Dad 6. Where do you get most or all of your information about current events in the nation and the world? __radio __Newspapers __Magazines __internet 7. Higher than single-family density is acceptable in order to make housing affordable. Strongly Undecided Disagree Strongly Disagree Agree Agree 1 2 3 4 5CORRECTING SURVEYS The following are some suggestions of how to fix the problems of the survey questions found on the prior page. 1. Problem: Biased/Leading Solution: Have you seen the movie Gone with the Wind? Yes No 2. Problem: Double Barreled Solution: In your opinion, how would you rate the speed of your work? Excellent Good Fair Poor In your opinion, how would you rate the accuracy of your work? Excellent Good Fair Poor 3. Problem: Categories are not Mutually exclusive Solution: Did you first hear about the bombing: ____ from a friend ____ from a relative ___ _ from a media source 4.Problem: Double Negative Solution: How do you feel about the following statement? We should reduce military spending. Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree 5. Problem: Categories are not Exhaustive Solution: People grow up in all types of families. What type of family did you grow up in? ____two biological parents ____one biological parent & a step parent ____ mom as a single parent ____ dad as a single parent ____ with a relative other than my biological parents ____ in foster care ____ with adoptive parent(s) 6.Problem: Double Barreled Solution: Which media source do you rely on most to get information about current events involving the nation? ___radio ___ Newspapers __Magazines ___ Internet Which media source do you rely on most to get information about current events involving the world? ___radio ___ Newspapers __Magazines ___ Internet 7. Problem: Ambiguous Solution: In order to make housing affordable, is it acceptable to build housing whose b uildings hold more than one family? Strongly agree Agree Undecided Disagree Strongly Disagree

Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 7

Marketing - Essay Example In accordance with the above, for the needs of the particular marketing campaign, the geographic segmentation of the Australian market should be developed as follows: a) emphasis should be given on the urban areas – where the population is significant and where more perspectives exist for new products entering the particular markets, b) as noted in the map of Australia, the urban life is mainly developed in the country’s Eastern regions – where more of the cities are sited; therefore, a priority should be given to the promotion of the particular product in the Eastern regions of Australia; the promotion of the product in the country’s other regions could follow. ... his point of view, the particular product is expected to be welcomed in the Australian market, b) the socioeconomic status of the people in the country’s urban areas – main places of destination for the particular product – could not affect the performance of the product in the Australian market, since the price of the product is rather low, being accessible to people with different levels of income; in any case, the high percentage of people in Australia are of average and high financial status, which means they could easily afford to buy the specific product. The above view is in accordance with that of Wedel and Kamakura (2000) who noted that demographic and lifestyle information can have similar roles in market segmentation (Wedel and Kamakura 2000, 242). 3.3 Psychographic Segmentation In the context of the psychographic segmentation, the Australian market would be reviewed as of the criteria used by locals in order to buy specific products. These criteria wi ll be developed under the influence of the local cultures and ethics but also the average socioeconomic status, which, in the case of Australians, can be characterized as satisfactory. Indeed, most people in Australia have a satisfactory income – the average net wealth of a household in Australia has been estimated to $348,000 – which means, they could easily afford to buy the specific product. Moreover, the involvement in a wide range of activities is a common practice for people in Australia; therefore, their social life is likely to be significant; thus, their look should be good, in the context of the common social patterns. Consumers in Australia would welcome the particular product as it could help them to improve the quality/ health of their hair. At this point, the following issue should be

Product Offering Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Product Offering - Essay Example Additionally, there are a variety of local muffin suppliers through bakeries and coffee shops. Still, the most prominent forms of competition remain in the entrenched multinational firms. These corporations have established strong footholds not only in the muffin market, but also in a variety of confectionary goods. One of the industry leaders in these regards is Otis Spunkmeyer. This company is most prominently positioned in the American market, but will remain a strong competitor. Additionally General Mills, Nestle, and the Rich Products Corporation constitute prominent multinational competition ("Otis spunkmeyer industry," 2012). Because of the challenge of competing with local bakeries and the large-scale multinational corporations, the organization must develop a unique product offering. While muffins remain the dominant product there is a specific recognition related to the production of these muffins. In this way the company seeks to gain competitive advantage through innovating supply chain processes that allow them to offer products with similar quality of the local bakeries, at the price of the larger multinational companies. Additionally, the company will focus on innovating a small array of products, namely a variety of muffins. One considers that Apple, Inc. adopted a similar minimalist strategy in terms of technological innovation ("The 6 pillars," 2011). Through shifting the product offering to only muffin varieties the company will be able to gain a competitive advantage over other corporations that spread their focus over a variety of

Types and Characteristics of Muscles Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Types and Characteristics of Muscles - Lab Report Example The muscle tissue has the capability of relaxing and contracting hence; bringing about movement in various parts of the body. These movements include the heart beat and movements within the abdominal region. Muscle tissues also help the veins and lymph system to enable the circulation of blood in the body. This is normally achieved by the cardiac muscle tissue. The skeletal muscle tissue is involved in respiration (Marieb & Hoehn, 2008). These muscles also enhance the movement of tissues which allow an individual to make various facial expressions. In this category, there are three types of muscle tissue, which include the smooth muscle tissue, cardiac muscle tissue and the skeletal muscle tissue. There are several similarities and differences which are considered when comparing smooth and skeletal muscles. In both muscles, the reactions are mainly caused by impulses in the membrane and the augmenting of intracellular calcium ions. They also gain their energy from adenosine triphosphate (ATP) (Marieb & Hoehn, 2008). On the other hand, the smooth muscles relax and contract slowly as compared to the skeletal muscles. It is also observed that the smooth muscles have the ability to change their length without any change in tautness. However, this is not the case in the skeletal muscles. The contraction of a muscle usually takes place in a strategic manner. This is explained in the sliding filament theory. When an electrical impulse moves to the sarcolemma through the motor neurone, the neurotransmitters diffuse across the neuromuscular junction and bind the receptors in the muscle cell membrane. This facilitates depolarization hence; the calcium ions move out of the sarcoplasmic reticulum and bond with troponin on the actin filaments. This also facilitates the movement of tropomyosin and the myosin head binds to the actin filament. This facilitates contraction of the muscle. The neuromuscular junction is the region where the axons of motor nerves meet the muscle