Monday, May 25, 2020

The Wage Gap Between Men And Women - 1552 Words

In 2013, full-time female employee s made only seventy-eight cents of every dollar earned by men, which means a wage gap of twenty-two percent. Women are nearly half of the labor pool and are equal if not main, jobholder s in four out of ten households. Not to mention, women receive more college and graduate degrees than men. Women still coninue to bring in less than men. On average, women earn less than men in basically every profession that there is adequate income data for both women and men to estimate an earnings percentage (IWPR, 2014). The Institution for Women s Policy Research studies the wage gap between men and women over time with a succession of fact sheets that are updated two times a year. Taking the IWPR into†¦show more content†¦April 14, 2015 marked Equal Pay Day this year, which shows how far into the new year the average American woman would have to be employeed to earn what the average American man did last year. Both genders see the lack of balance in the workplace. A lot of men and women believe America needs to continue making changes to achieve eqaulity in the workplace. Accorging to the White House, women working full-time have to work nearly sixty more additional days, in order to earn what men did at the end of last year. In 1980, the average woman would have had to work nearly three extra months into May, just to catch up with men s earning s from the previous year (Patten, 2015). The pay gap between men and women continues possibly because women put their careers on hold to care for their families. Research shows that these types of choices can have a negative affect on long-term earnings. Approximately, four of ten mothers have taken a lot of time from work, which is thirty-nine percent. Approximately, forty-two percent have reduced their work hours to care for a family member or child. Also, twenty-seven percent have quit work completely to care for family responsibilities and even less men say the same. There is approximately twenty-four percent of fathers that have taken a lot of time off from work to care for family or children (Patten, 2015). Women have

Friday, May 15, 2020

Are Smart Cars Safe and Economical or Just Small

Originally the brainchild of Lebanese-born entrepreneur/inventor Nicolas Hayek (1928–2010) of Swatch watch fame, Smart cars are designed to be small, fuel-efficient, environmentally responsible, and easy to park—the ultimate in-city vehicle. Back in 1994, Hayek and Swatch signed on with Daimler-Benz (the German maker of the venerable Mercedes line of cars, now Daimler AG) to develop the unique vehicle. The company name Smart is derived from a combination of the words Swatch, Mercedes, and â€Å"art.† High Fuel Prices Drive Demand for Smart Cars When initial sales were slower than hoped for, Hayek and Swatch pulled out of the venture, leaving Daimler-Benz as full owner (today, Smart is part of the Mercedes car division). Meanwhile, rising oil prices drove up demand for Smart vehicles, and the company began selling them in the U.S. in 2008. Smart Cars’ Small Size More Impressive Than Their Fuel Efficiency Measuring just a hair over eight feet long and less than five feet wide, the company’s flagship â€Å"ForTwo† model (named for its human carrying capacity) is about half the size of a traditional car. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rates the car’s fuel efficiency at 32 miles per gallon (mpg) for city driving and 39 mpg on the highway for the 2016 model year. Many gasoline-operated compact cars now easily reach and surpass those numbers. Unique to them, however, is their size: three ForTwos with bumpers to the curb can fit in a single parallel parking spot. U.S. Distributors Could Not Meet Initial Demand With soaring gas prices in 2008 and 2009, Smart cars sold quickly in the United States. The company’s U.S. distributor imported an additional 15,000 cars before the end of 2008, as its initial order of 25,000 vehicles was almost depleted. Mercedes Benz dealers across the country had long waiting lists for new Smart vehicles, which sold for upwards of $12,000. That initial enthusiasm was not sustained, and sales leveled lower, with only 7,484 units sold in the United States in 2015, and in 2018, according to Automotive News, Mercedes sold just 1,276 Smart EQ Fortwo models. Smart Cars Earn Highest Safety Rating As for safety, the ForTwo did well enough in crash tests by the independent Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) to earn the group’s highest rating—five stars—thanks to the car’s steel race-car style frame and liberal use of high-tech front and side airbags. Despite such good safety performance for such a tiny car, IIHS testers caution that larger, heavier cars are inherently safer than smaller ones. Do Smart Car Benefits Justify the Cost? Beyond safety concerns, some analysts bemoan the ForTwo price tag as unnecessarily high given what you get. The cars are not known for their handling or acceleration, although they can go 80 miles per hour if necessary. The website Treehugger.com suggests that eco-conscious consumers might do better spending their money on a conventional subcompact or compact car, many of which get equivalent if not better gas mileage and are likely to fare better in a crash. Better yet, green-minded consumers should consider a hybrid or fully electric car. Finally Some Real Energy Efficiency For those who need a great in-city car for short errands and commutes, today’s ForTwo might be just the ticket—in its all-electric version. Available in the U.S. through a lease program, the latest electric ForTwo can travel 68 miles (highway/city combined) on a charge, putting it in direct competition with more expensive offers like the Toyota Prius  and Nissan Leaf.

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

The Medicalization of Deviance and Overview of Mental...

Medicalization of deviance in the United States (U.S.) over the years has expanded as medicine has become the main response to deviance through the use of therapeutic social control. Medicalization is referenced to in criminal justice as one of the ways of explaining deviance and is used to determine the responsibility of an offender. Deviance characterizes behaviors and actions that violate social norms and is seen as having an illness or a disease needing treatment. Therapeutic social control uses medicine and science as a treatment of deviance. Medicalization of deviance as stated by Horwitz (1981) is primarily used as a tool to identify the causes of deviance within an individual rather than in the faults of society (p. 750).†¦show more content†¦It means that medical physicians can evaluate them to see if treatment rather punishment is necessary. Mental Health Courts Mental health courts provide the opportunities to eligible adult and juvenile mentally ill offenders to obtain: treatment (including psychiatric medication), counseling, substance abuse treatment, etc. instead of being incarcerated. To be eligible to participate, offenders must go through some mental screening, assessments, and participate in supervised treatment plans developed by the courts and mental health professionals. The goals of mental health courts are to provide offenders with mental illness treatment so they can be prevented from committing any repeated or future crimes. (Justice Center (Council of State Governments) the United States Bureau of Justice Assistance, 2008, p.8) The courts seek to improve public safety in communities, increase the number mentally ill offenders receiving treatment, and improve the quality of life for offenders by providing housing and employment opportunities. (Justice Center (Council of State Governments) the United States Bureau of Justi ce Assistance, 2008, p. 8). The use of mental health courts has been growing in the U.S., which has led to the discussion about how the mental health courts further promote medicalization of deviance; this is true. As outlined by Tammy Seltzer (2005), mental health courts have only been successful due to failures in theShow MoreRelatedThe Dsm And The Systems Of Psychotherapy2633 Words   |  11 PagesIntroduction The American Psychiatric Association published the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) in 2013. There have been eight publications of the manual (APA, 2013). Regardless of theoretical background clinicians need to understand the DSM. It is now the industry standard for evaluation and diagnosis. The DSM-5 comprehensively covers most behavioral mental and emotional concerns. Expertise and knowledge of the DSM-5 is necessary to obtain reimbursement from insurance

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Product Pricing and Demo Relationship †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Product Pricing and Demo Relationship. Answer: Introduction Product costing is a method used to determine the cost of production per unit or service by use of every resource that was engaged in the process while product pricing is the method by which the business owner or a manufacturer determines the value at a customer is to buy a given a product or service (Mat Smith,2014 ). Cost, therefore is the expense met to by a manufacturer to bring a product to the market for the buyer and price is the amount paid by the customer for a product or service, and the difference between the amount paid for products and total expenses incurred during production is the profit. When determining cost, a business must sum all the costs of inputs that are essential to produce a given item. When setting the price, an entrepreneur must consider all the costs that were involved in a given production but customer finally limits the price by way of boycotting buying the product until the value drops to meet customers value going by the standard of living (Luna-Rey es, Zhang, Whitmore, Jarman, Picazo Andersen Andersen, 2014). Product costing and pricing have evolved since from the inception of industrialization when mass production was the order of doing business and taken effect toward the second half of 20th century (Racz-Akacosi, 2017). Corporate profitability is only possible if all the inputs are keenly tracked from the beginning to the end of a production. From this perspective, entrepreneurs started assigning certain appropriate percentages to the expenses and other additional expenses like transportation, packaging, branding warehousing and advertisements till when customer is reached to buy the product. In-depth data from such analytical sources have prompted manufacturers to adopt routine product costing that provides feedbacks (Prasad, Venkatesh Mahajan, 2015). The management is, therefore, enabled to focus on perfect workflow for purchasing tools which in turn is instrumental in setting exact prices for the produce. Today, in modern business, product costing and pricing is so important that it greatly affects the survival of business in the market. Without product costing and pricing, no business can stand the dynamics of production and get its products to the customers at a profit. In short, it is indispensable if any business is to make profit from a given production. For instance, in Japan, manufacturers have embraced different modern styles of costing and pricing so as to fit in the market as evaluated below; A state of deflation coupled with almost no rules and regulations, and stiff competition h had serious market impact on the Japanese manufacturing companies. The old-style of reducing prices by Japanese companies so as to gain the lions share in the market is long forgotten moreover, the usual practice of having additional mark-up to cater for manufacturing cost no longer functions for the companies (Entrop, Fischer, McKenzie, Wilkens Winkler, 2016). Home prices however, are getting determined by customer demand i.e. what the customer is able and willing to buy at going price depends on what the market has. Economic stand-still witnessed in Japan and the numerous aging populace with low income have greatly reduced a common Japanese consumers income. According to Fullerton, Kennedy Widener (2014), posits that technology has also worked against the Japanese manufacturers; development of online market platforms has propelled online purchases leading to price sensitivity and awareness among the consumers e.g. Amazon and Rakutenchi The above economic and technological challenges has driven the Japanese manufacturers away from the traditional costing and pricing of products. In order to attract customers to their products, the manufacturers have had to look for other ways of doing it like making their products more appealing to the customers through packaging and branding. Offering after-sales services like extended warranties exited customers to buy their products thereby the products sold are able to price themselves (Hartley, 2017). Consumers have implicitly developed taste for such products causing even the US exporters to consider packaging first before exportation. The exporters evaluate charge in the Japanese market so that more accurate price can be reached by way of comparison. In Japan, currently pricing has taken another shape whereby competition for used and durable goods can be used to set price of a commodity for example video gaming. Video game products are bought and used however due to satiation, the consumtion value wears away easily but the product itself does not easily depreciate. Therefore, this market behavior gives rise to change of demand and supply elasticity (Jiang Guo, 2015). Disposing of used video game significantly affects new video game consequently, the revenue on new video game is reduced if the publisher of new video game does not amend prices. This occurs because if used market is eliminated, then future selling prospect is also lost due to reduction in demand for new video games. Similarly, if price for new video game is substantially reduced compared to the normal flat price, the effect is that profitability is still realized. This therefore an instrument of setting prices in the Japanese market. It is important because it enha nces value in used products that have not depreciated in value and even helps to reduce the rush of running into overproduction of new products before the already produced products are to completion, however, it kills the spirit of insatiability in business which is vital if invention of new product is to be realized. According to Pongwasit, Chompu-Inwai (2016), determining cost and price in a manufacturing company can also be evaluated as follows; a real example can be used in this case is manufacturing of wooden toys. In this example determining price of producing a given unit of wooden toys is challenging especially when traditional methods of price determination is used. To fix cost and price for the above commodity this model becomes profitable. Time-Driven Activity-Based Cost. This requires approximation of supplying capacity per unit cost and time employed for such an activity or transaction. TDABC is then critically analyzed and compared to the present production cost of the highest selling products. If this is done, TDABC proves to be more cost-effective in producing a given unit of wooden toys than when traditional costing methods are employed. Furthermore, if TDABC is used then the manufacturing company can with great accuracy determining the price of a wooden toy. It enables the produ ce to identify its supplying capacity for production the period of time spent on producing a given unit of product, therefore, it can always be timely in its production schedule. Cost on what market will bear. This system is completely from other views of what cost is all about. The Japans plan and design goods at lowest cost then quickly introduce them into the market while focus remains on getting cost out of the product during the designing stage. The product engineer considers the effect of design on cost. The price at which the good is likely to prosper in the market is defined first and cost determination later. The target cost is pinned on the market is likely to bear rather than determining the cost of the product first. Then the product is introduced into the market whereby price is set that is most probably appealing to the potential buyers. From this point judgment is made on the cost to be adopted from manufacturing to customers expenditure on the product. That is, cost = appealing product price in the market the expected profit. For example the new Japanese Toyota cars are assembled, introduced into the market at certain price to test the consumers taste and willingness. When the demand is positive then negotiation is done between the company and suppliers to determine estimated costs (Hartley, 2017). Designers establish approximate costs on every element that make up the car and the departments are further divided to find out cost of every component parts that go into the finished car. This could be helpful in gaining confidence by suppliers. When suppliers gain confidence on a company, it would be easy doing trade with them even on fair trade credit terms since the supplier is convinced that the company is ready to go out of its way even without benefits. Also, it can ensure customer satisfaction through the process of engaging suppliers who are contact with consumers thereby giving immediate feedback because the designers seem to be at the front when the product is being introduced in the market. Conclusion Japanese products are not the best in the world though, have accessed world market easily through its modern product costing and pricing styles. Through the aforementioned product costing and pricing styles and despite the desperate hard work by European countries, Japanese goods have been dominating the market for example in electronics and automobiles. Today, market has become so competitive and dynamic such that without employing strategic modern costing and pricing, a manufacturing company can easily be kicked out the competitive market. Therefore, product costing and pricing is of great business import to the manufacturing community (Nuhu, Baird, Bala, 2017). It enables a company to decipher how far it can go and still remain with a profit. It is also important to any given company in knowing the performance, doing financial reporting of the company as well as making important decision of whether to sell or further process the products. References Entrop, O., Fischer, G., McKenzie, M., Wilkens, M., Winkler, C. (2016). How does pricing affect investors product choice? Evidence from the market for discount certificates. Journal of Banking Finance, 68, 195-215. Fullerton, R. R., Kennedy, F. A., Widener, S. K. (2014). Lean manufacturing and firm performance: The incremental contribution of lean management accounting practices. Journal of Operations Management, 32(7), 414-428. Hartley, J. R. (2017). Concurrent engineering: shortening lead times, raising quality, and lowering costs. Routledge. Jarrar, N. S., Smith, M. (2014). Innovation in entrepreneurial organizations: A platform for contemporary management change and a value creator. The British Accounting Review, 46(1), 60-76. Jiang, Y., Guo, H. (2015). Design of consumer review systems and product pricing. Information Systems Research, 26(4), 714-730. Luna-Reyes, L. F., Zhang, J., Whitmore, A., Jarman, H., Picazo-Vela, S., Andersen, D. L., Andersen, D. F. (2014). Full Information Product Pricing: An Information Strategy for Harnessing Consumer Choice to Create a More Sustainable World. CAIS, 34, 32. Mat, T. Z. T., Smith, M. (2014). The impact of changes in environment and AMT on management accounting practices and organizational strategy, structure and performance. Journal of Applied Management Accounting Research, 12(1), 55. Nuhu, N. A., Baird, K., Baird, Bala Appuhamilage, A. (2017). The adoption and success of contemporary management accounting practices in the public sector. Asian Review of Accounting, 25(1), 106-126. Pongwasit, R., Chompu-Inwai, R. (2016). Analysis of Wooden Toy Manufacturing Costs Through the Application of a Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing System (The Papers Presented at the Symposium on Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, and Robotics 2015 (MIER2015) held at Muroran, Hokkaido, Japan on 29-30 May 2015). Prasad, A., Venkatesh, R., Mahajan, V. (2015). Product bundling or reserved product pricing? Price discrimination with myopic and strategic consumers. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 32(1), 1-8. Racz-Akacosi, A. (2017). Product Pricing and Demo Relationship. Small.