Income Distribution Essay Example for Free

Income Distribution Essay The total wage of a private sector worker is of US$137, 9 dollars per month; as it is considered that in each family has other income, and the minimum income per family will be of 224 dollars per month. This wage allows family to buy 67% of the basic basket, it is to say a little more than half of all necessary articles, and a restriction of 33% in the consumption of basic articles exists. The dolarization did not mean a revaluation of the wage as the government raised, it rather constituted a cut of the income, since the prices of goods and services were internationalized, while the wages stay depressed, in relation to the life cost. The concentration of wealth and work in Ecuador is acute; 1. The 2 % belonging to the poorest receive 0,015% of the national entrance, and they gain 1270 times less than the wealthier 2% of the population. 2. The 20% belonging to the wealthier receive 58,7% of the national entrance. Poverty: The accumulation of wealth in the hands of the monopolistic groups has like counterpart the poverty and the extreme poverty for the majority of Ecuadorians. In Ecuador the poverty borders 80% of the population and from these, 20% are in extreme poverty. Poverty in Ecuador has a structural character and a massive incidence. It is structural because historically the economic conditions have been created, socially and politically to consign to a great number of the population of its participation in the production and wealth of the country. That is to say, in Ecuador the poverty is not a consequence of the lack of resources or natural wealth but to the form in which the Earth property and other resources have been, and in the relations of dependency with the central capitalist countries. From year 2002 the situation has been more difficult still, the inflation rate (91%), the percentage of the General Budget that the government destined for the payment of the external debt (51%) caused greater poverty. In 2003 the amount that the state will destine for the payment of the external debt, will be of 2. 200 million dollars. CONCLUSION The present essay has studied the historical evolution, present situation and perspective to medium term of the Ecuadorian external debt. We can make a synthesis of the most important aspects of the mentioned analysis, which will allow us to verify the validity of the question posed. The use of external resources with aims of current consumption, mainly on the part of the governmental sector, has been one of the main causes so that the productivity of the outer finance is limited. The loans produce little or no finance and it causes economic yield in the increase of current expenses, which has given rise to the countries finances consumption on the basis of the external saving, and the weight of the debt for the following years was loaded. On the other hand, the elevated rate of triggered internal inflation as of 1990, took place partly due to the funding of the originating resources of the outside by concept of external loans that, through the global budget of the state, entered circulating means. In addition, the high cost of the loans, by the majority including banking credits, in the last years has determined the rate of yield of the capital for the projects financed with external contribution, must be sufficiently high, so that it reaches a greater level than the cost of the external indebtedness. The increase of the imports, mainly as of 1990, has also been a factor affecting the trade balance; therefore it has been necessary to obtain free currencies to pay these external obligations. This growth of imports has been due to a great extent in dependency of the national manufacturing industry, of the capital assets and foreign raw materials. The country has been unable to obtain adequate levels of resource surplus, as a percentage of exports, given the prevailing conditions of export growth and was required to decrease the growth rate of its external debt over time. Even though credit from multilateral is the only source of financing available, it is clear that there is a lack of planning of investment projects. The United States eliminated government funds due to problems of political nature, principally due to the fact that the country has an income per capita of US $ 360 annual. The debt of the private sector has a determining incidence in the deterioration of the balance of payments, although it does not cause a financial load when one is originating currencies of exports, in order to cancel the service of this debt, in 1995 the service of the same one will represent approximately, 8. 5 % of exports of goods and services, whereas for 1998, that relation will raise 12%, level that we considered alarming if it is taken into account that this index, for service of the debt in the public sector, will be, of 20% in 1998. It is evident that the existing legislation in Ecuador, on the administration of the indebtedness, has been a very important factor in the decisions that have been adopted in matter of policy of external financing, although the cases have not been few in which the government has made decisions from economic order moving away of the effective legal procedures, reason why the control problem of the Ecuadorian outer debt is deduced, as a lack of exact fulfillment of the law. The policy of the external indebtedness, from the economic and legal point of view, has had faults as much in its application as in its fulfillment, cause of which the external resources entered the country to finance their way, they do not have an optimal use, specific and productive, and on the contrary they have meant at certain moment a serious limiting economic growth for the country. Therefore we can firmly say: that the external debt has had an impact In Ecuadors Economic development.

Cyber Culture: The Future of Print Essay -- Technology Literature Essa

When we think of technology, what often comes to mind are televisions, communications devices such as cell phones and satellites, computers, and different modes of transportation. However, there are other ways in which technology is applied, one of those being the Internet and its various components including email, chat rooms, and search engines. The list of uses for the Internet is innumerable and many corporations and universities are forcing people to make use of it. But no matter how much this new technology is forced on us, people are still resistant to it. As George Landow, Professor of English and Art History at Brown University, states, "Technology, in the lexicon of many humanists, generally means 'only that technology of which I am frightened'" (Landow 218). Such resistance is unfortunate because the generation of online technology is here. Whether we have accepted it or not we are "twenty minutes into the future" (Landow 214). Books are no longer the sole resource for inf ormation gathering and communicating. A whole new system for conveying information has taken place. "In many ways, we have, for better or worse, already moved beyond the book. Even on the crudest, most materialist standard involving financial returns, we no longer find it at the center of our culture as the primary means of recording and disseminating information and entertainment" (Landow 215). Cyber culture, particularly Internet phenomenons such as online journals and email, have enhanced the way we work with writing and changed the way we write. For instance, references such as online journals and magazines have facilitated researchers in numerous ways. EMU's online database alone contains a library of information on topics ranging from busines... ...w technology called cyber culture, Landow makes a very good point when he says â€Å"Digital technology may be new, but technology, particularly information technology, has permeated all known culture since the beginnings of human history (218). Cyber culture is here to stay and can be very effective in communication, research, and writing; the challenge now, is to close the generational gap between those who have embraced cyber culture and those who still resist it. Works Cited Landow, George. â€Å"Twenty Minutes into the Future, or How Are We Moving Beyond the Book?† Writing Material: Readings from Plato to the Digital Age.† Comp. Evelyn B. Tribble & Anne Trubek. New York: Longman, 2003. 214-226. Lesser, Wendy. â€Å"The Conversation.† Writing Material: Readings from Plato to the Digital Age.† Comp. Evelyn B. Tribble & Anne Trubek. New York: Longman, 2003. 227-223.

Explain Augustine’s temporal paradox

Augustine’s temporal paradox can be explained by starting with our typical beliefs about time, to wit: the past does not exist, the future is yet to exist and only the present actually exists.   However the actual existence of the present has no duration because it immediately becomes the past or the future the moment we try to isolate it. In the words of St. Augustine, â€Å"The present hath no space†.   The temporal paradox refers to the existence only of the present which however does not have a â€Å"duration†.Following this temporal paradox and Augustine treated time in ontological terms, i.e. in relation to the nature of being and existence.   We derive the notion of time by perceiving something that has passed, something that exists and something that will exist in the future.   Time is embodied and manifested through the duration of things that come into being to the present that passed away in an incessant continuum of past and future.   Conseq uently, material things move from none existence to existence to non existence (past, present and future).The perpetuation of the time continuum entails that â€Å"the mind expects, and attends, and remembers, so that what it expects passes by way of what it attends to into what it remembers.† (Augustine, 2002, p236) What the mind expects is the future, what is remembers is the past and what it attends to at the moment is the present, which is what exists.   Attending to the present does not refer to our location or inhabitance in this time continuum but one’s capturing of the immediate past in the memory. This is precisely because the present has no duration or no space and it is only through memory that we can attend to it.For St. Augustine, even â€Å"time† is created by God and therefore he is beyond the continuum of the time series to which people and all other things are bound.   God is in a state of â€Å"Eternal Now†, where the present, past a nd future are at all once.   However, while St. Augustine’s idea of time is very revolutionary, it nevertheless has critical repercussions that run inconsistent which Christian principles which he originally wanted to justify and defend.With the past and future all happening in the present for God, people therefore are already predestined to what will happen to them. People were not really given the gift of choice or freewill but are doomed to end up to how God have designed their world. What seemed to be a series of choices for people in this space of time is actually a finished or done design for God.   (Von Martelsand Schmidt, V, 2003, p79-102)2-Imagine that Russell and Berkeley are sitting across from each other at table. Write a short dialogue (about 500 words) that captures each philosopher’s views with respect to the ontological status of the table. Be sure to bring out areas of agreement and disagreementIn order to appreciate Bishop Berkeley, one must first fully understand that ontology focuses on the nature of essence and meaning of being. Berkeley is a major proponent of subjective idealism in which ultimately argues that the world including all the material objects are not real but are mere collections of perceptions of human experience, which is what is real.   It highlights that significance of mind before matter and the preordained connection of mind and body.Thinking is function that people constantly do, consciously, unconsciously or subconsciously in relating to their environment.   The mind is essential to be considered in understanding the nature of the universe because everything entailed the consciousness of the mind.   Thus, the universe is the product of the mind. (Bourgeois, 2003, 162-163)Berkeley will not deny that the table being observed is definitely real but it needs to be subjected to one’s consciousness before we know it is real.   Moreover, the real essence of the table or that which makes a tab le what it is resides in the â€Å"idea† of the table which is in the mind of God.   It does not rest on the â€Å"physical table† which we perceived because our experiences of the table vary.   While we see the table is brown, solid and smooth, our experience of the brownness, solidness or smoothness of the table differs. There is a disparity between what at we perceive† and â€Å"what is real†.Russell agrees with Berkeley’s idea that the act of perception is dependent on the mind but the mind is only the mental functioning of the brain hence, the perceptions therefore do not actually exist in the mind.   We only get to have a mental idea of what a table is through our perception of the physical table.   Perception is the prime source of knowledge (Engel, S., 2001, p 250-260).Knowledge is mainly based on the acquisition, interpretation, selection and organization of information what we perceive.   In Bertrand Russell’s own words, à ¢â‚¬Å"our ideas are derived from two sources, sensation, and perception of the operation of our own mind, which may be called internal sense†. (Russell, 2004, p556) Hence, we form our idea of table from the perception.This approximation of what reality through our senses, despite differences in the intensity of what brownness, solidness and smoothness of the table is real knowledge we can establish by observation and generalization. Incidentally, this is the underlying philosophy of science. In the end, we gain our knowledge about the â€Å"table† not from an innate idea of a table but through an observation of the table.We know that a table is brown, solid and smooth, irregardless of the intensity of these descriptions from different people. â€Å"Perception is the first step and degree towards knowledge and the inlet of all the materials in it†. (Russel, 2004, p556) And that is what is real regardless of the ideal table that we can conceive.ReferencesAugustine and Outler, A. (2002). The Confessions of St. Augustine. Translated by Albert Cook Outler. Courier Dover PublicationsBourgeois, W. (2003). Persons: What Philosophers Say about You. 2nd edition. Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press.Engel, S. (2001). The Study of Philosophy. Rowman & Littlefield,Russell, B. (2004). History of Western Philosophy. 2nd edition. RoutledgeVon Martels, Z. R. W. M. and Schmidt, VM. Antiquity Renewed: Late Classical and Early Modern Themes. PREDESTINATION AND THE LOSS OF DRAMA FROM AUGUSTINE TO CALVIN by MB Pranger. Peeters Publishers   

Compulsive Gambling Is The Presence Of Withdrawal - 777 Words

One aspect common in most addictions and not in compulsive gambling is the presence of withdrawal. Some gamblers do claim they experience withdrawal symptoms. Rosenthal and Lesieur (1992) conducted a study on self-reported withdrawal symptoms of gambling. The study consisted of 222 participants. Sixty-five percent of participants reported experiencing at least one of the following: insomnia, headaches, upset stomach, loss of appetite, physical weakness, palpitations, shaking, cramps, difficulty breathing, sweats, and a chill or fever. Along with, 91% of participants claiming they experienced cravings (Rosenthal Lesieur, 1992). Despite previous expectations none of the symptoms reported in the study corresponded with gender, type of gambling, extent of alcohol or drug use while gambling, of self-described alcoholism or drug addiction (Rosenthal Lesieur, 1992). Orford, Morison, and Somers (1996) did a study which compared 16 problem drinkers and16 problem gamblers. The results of the study showed alcoholics and gamblers were equally attached to their habit. The study found gambling was maintained as a result of recurring processes involving prominent, negative feelings associated with gambling losses, shortage of money, and the need to keep gambling a secret (Orford et. al, 1996). However, the study also found alcoholics scored higher on the severity of dependence scale. These showed gamblers have lower levels of withdrawal of both physical and psychologicalShow MoreRelatedAddiction : The Problem Of Addiction Essay1198 Words   |  5 Pagesso if they could just get a hold of themselves, set their mind to it and quit cold turkey, their addiction would suddenly disappear. Studies have shown however, that â€Å"addiction is a complex condition, a chronic brain disease that is manifested by compulsive substance use despite harmful consequence† (American Psychiatric Association). 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