The Problem and its Origin Essay Example for Free

The Problem and its Origin Essay There was a time in the 20th century when the primary source of income of the people in the United States was farming. It was also during that time when the government provided economic security to the extended families. This lasted for years until they experienced Great Depression which diminished the lifetime savings of the aged and at the same time reduced the gainful employment opportunities. This was the reason why they experienced national crisis and it was because of this issue that the Social Security develop programs to address the issue. (http://waysandmeans. house. gov/media/pdf/greenbook2003/Section1. pdf) To address this problem, the Federal government granted loans to the state people and the loans were paid through direct relief or work relief. With this, the government came up with programs for emergency relief and public works. The president of the state submitted a proposal to the congress about an insurance program. This law included the establishment of two insurance programs – the Federal System of old age which was intended to help the retirees who had once been employed in the industry and commerce and the Federal State System which intended to address unemployment insurance issues. The law which was enacted by the federal government served as a supplement to the incomes of the state people who were not eligible for Social Security Survival Insurance. There was a time in the past when over 33 million people were covered by the Social Security system. Though coverage was obligatory for most of the workers, there were still about 6. 5 million workers who did not enjoy the coverage under Social Security in 2002. It was not until 1990 when the credit was replaced with a newer system which was intended to be fair between the employed and the self-employed individuals. Under this new system, there was an adjustment of the SECA tax to reflect that employees do not pay FICA taxes on the employer’s portion. Additionally, it was also specified in the system that self-employed workers were given the chance to deduct half of their SECA taxes for income tax purposes. The outline below shows those workers who were exempted from FICA and SECA taxes: (http://waysandmeans. house. gov/media/pdf/greenbook2003/Section1. pdf) o State and local government workers o Election workers o Ministers o Federal workers o College students o Household workers o Self-employed workers. The congress had required long-term estimates of the balance of the program and they had also set tax rates to ensure that the income of the program was sufficient enough to cover its outgo. The long-range projections of the system were affected by three factors – demographic factors, economic factors and factors related to Social Security programs. In their 1988 report, the trustees used an alternative method to determine their actuarial balance. This method computed the actuarial balance as the difference between the present value of income and costs for the period, which is then divided by the present value of the taxable payroll for the period. Normally, the trustees based their conclusion on the on the â€Å"closeness† of the income and cost-rates. In the long run, the projections of the trustees started troubling. For quite a number of years, the report have always projected long-term financing problems and this report had continued to show a near-term buildup of trust fund reserves and the forecast for the next 75 years. The interest which was paid to the trust funds was a way to make the fund increase until it reaches $7. 5 trillion in 2027. However, the trustees had estimated that by 2028, the fund would be insufficient to pay all benefits when all is due. It had been observed that the social security system had continuously come to a worse situation. The congress even attempted to help eliminate the long-run problem. Projections were made and that showed that Congress had stemmed the red ink for the next 75 years. However, this situation did not represent the condition of the entire period. Since 1983, the averaging period had continually deficit one (1) year at the back end and at the front end continued to drop a surplus. This had caused the condition to worsen even more. The evaluation of the income and the outgo was based on measuring the period in reaching a conclusion of whether close actuarial balance existed, in which there was a deviation from the amount. In order to meet the test of financial adequacy, the balance at the first 10-year segment must be at least 100% of the annual expenditure. This condition must be consistent with the 10-year segment of close actuarial balance. However, under these measures, the trustees made a conclusion in 2003 that the system was not as close as the actuarial balance over the long-run. There had been a deficit in between the summarized income and cost rates for about 1. 92% of the total taxable payroll. The chart below shows the social security trust funds’ end of year balances from 2003 to 2042. The projections was not based on a pessimistic assumptions but this hinge on the demographic factors which were based on the post-WWII baby boom and the general aging society. Social Welfare Policy To address this issue, Social Security implemented policies for the members to enjoy. The benefits given by the Social Security were paid to workers and to their dependents should the worker worked long enough to cover employment to be insured. There was a certain measurement used for insured status. The social security uses lifetime record of earnings which was reported under the worker’s social security number and then counting the number of quarters which were considered as covered credits. There was a time when one credit was earned for each calendar quarter. In which, the worker was paid %50 in wages for covered employment, or just received $100 for self-employed individuals. However, a worker also received a credit for each multiple of $100 in an annual earning; the total number of credits must not exceed by four though. There are two types of insured status – fully insured and currently insured. For fully insured workers, they must have a total credits which is equal to one credit for each year after dependents reach the age of 21 up to the year before they reach 62; became disabled or died, whichever came first. The fully insured status is required for the eligibility for all types of benefits. Regardless of the age of the worker, he must have a total of at least 6 credits to be fully insured. If the total number of credits of the workers reaches 40, he is insured for life. For disability insurance, workers must have a total of at least 20 credits during the 40-quarter period in which they became disabled. However, if workers are insured before the age of 31, they are immediately covered by disability insurance. In general, disability is defined to be incapable of gaining substantial activity. The impairment must be medically proven and is expected to last for not less than 12 months so workers can avail the benefits. For workers who are at least 62 years old, they are now eligible for retirement benefits. For the family of the workers, they also get to enjoy other benefits. The following summarizes the benefits that each member of the family can get: (http://waysandmeans. house. gov/media/pdf/greenbook2003/Section1. pdf) †¢ Spouse benefits – the spouse can get monthly benefit which is paid to him/her under the following conditions: (1) a currently-married spouse must be at least 62 and who is caring for more than one of the worker’s entitled children who are disabled or who have not reach the age of 16 and (2) a divorced, not married spouse of at least 62 years old. The marriage of the divorced spouse should have lasted for 10 years. The divorced spouse was entitled of the worker’s retirement. †¢ Widow(er) benefits – a monthly pay is given to a widow(er) should the widow(er) had not been married and must either be 60 years old or older or the age range is between 50 and 59 and is disabled throughout the waiting period of 5 consecutive months. †¢ Child’s benefit – the child receives a monthly benefit should the child had not been married, the child is biological or adopted and a step child or grandchild of a retiree. The child must be below 18 years old and must be a full-time elementary or secondary student who is below 19 years old. †¢ Mother’s/Father’s benefit – the mother/father of the retiree or survivor gets monthly benefit if: (1) the worker’s benefit was fully or currently insured at time of death and (2) neither the father nor the mother of the deceased worker was not married and must have one or more entitled children of the worker under his/her care. This benefit continues until the youngest child of the worker is below 16 years old and/or disabled. †¢ Parent’s benefit – a monthly survivor benefit is given to the parents of the worker should the parent have not been married or is 62 years old or older. The parents must have received half of the support from the worker at the time of the worker’s death. †¢ Lump-sum death benefit – an amount of $255 is payable upon the death of a fully- or currently-insured worker to the surviving spouse who was living with the deceased worker. If the worker has no spouse, the lump-sum benefit is paid to the child of the worker. In cases where the worker had neither spouse nor children, the lump-sum amount is not given. When beneficiaries whose income is above a certain threshold, they are then required to include a portion of their benefit to the Social Security Benefits in their federally taxable income.

The Great Gatsby: Morality And Gatsby :: essays research papers fc

The Great Gatsby: Morality and Gatsby Morality is a very controversial issue. That is one of the reasons what people are interested in reading about it. Morality can lead to many questions essentially it can lead to the question between right and wrong. In The Great Gatsby Nick Carraway is faced with a constant struggle between right and wrong. Truth is an issue of morality. "It all happened in a minute but it seemed to me that she wanted to speak to us, thought we were somebody she knew." (Fitzgerald 151) Daisy and Gatsby tried to hide the fact that they hit and killed Myrtle Wilson while driving home from New York. Nick Carraway, however, knew the truth and had to decide if he was going to help hide the truth or let Daisy and Gatsby suffer the consequences. â€Å"I don't think that anybody saw us but of course I can't be sure.† (Fitzgerald 151). Gatsby felt that he could hide the car and with it he could hide the truth. The truth is that Myrtle Wilson was killed and Daisy and Gatsby are the ones to blame. They cannot hide that truth. The friendship between Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway is a questionable one and full of doubt. "He had seen me several times and had intended to call on me long before but a peculiar combination of circumstances had prevented it- signed Jay Gatsby." (Fitzgerald 45-46) The two had lived next door to each other for awhile however, they had never associated. Therefore, along with the invitation to the party there was some suspicion. Jay Gatsby is a very wealthy man. Nick Carraway, although he lives in West Egg, is not wealthy nor elegant. The two are certainly opposites. Gatsby and Carraway are bound to take

Chapter 25 the Grapes of Wrath

THE SPRING IS BEAUTIFUL in California. Valleys in which the fruit blossoms are fragrant pink and white waters in a shallow sea. Then the first tendrils of the grapes swelling from the old gnarled vines, cascade down to cover the trunks. The full green hills are round and soft as breasts. And on the level vegetable lands are the mile-long rows of pale green lettuce and the spindly little cauliflowers, the gray-green unearthly artichoke plants. And then the leaves break out on the trees, and the petals drop from the fruit trees and carpet the earth with pink and white.The centers of the blossoms swell and grow and color: cherries and apples, peaches and pears, figs which close the flower in the fruit. All California quickens with produce, and the fruit grows heavy, and the limbs bend gradually under the fruit so that little crutches must be placed under them to support the weight. Behind the fruitfulness are men of understanding and knowledge, and skill, men who experiment with seed, e ndlessly developing the techniques for greater crops of plants whose roots will resist the million enemies of the earth: the molds, the insects, the rusts, the blights.These men work carefully and endlessly to perfect the seed, theroots. And there are the men of chemistry who spray the trees against pests, who sulphur the grapes, who cut out disease and rots, mildews and sicknesses. Doctors of preventive medicine, men at the borders who look for fruit flies, for Japanese beetle, men who quarantine the sick trees and root them out and burn them, men of knowledge.The men who graft the young trees, the little vines, are the cleverest of all, for theirs is a surgeon's job, as tender and delicate; and these men must have surgeons' hands and surgeons' hearts to slit the bark, to place the grafts, to bind the wounds and cover them from the air. These are great men. Along the rows, the cultivators move, tearing the spring grass and turning it under to make a fertile earth, breaking the grou nd to hold the water up near the surface, ridging the ground in little pools for the irrigation, destroying the weed roots that may drink the water away from the trees.And all the time the fruit swells and the flowers break out in long clusters on the vines. And in the growing year the warmth grows and the leaves turn dark green. The prunes lengthen like little green bird's eggs, and the limbs sag down against the crutches under the weight. And the hard little pears take shape, and the beginning of the fuzz comes out on the peaches. Grape blossoms shed their tiny petals and the hard little beads become green buttons, and the buttons grow heavy. The men who work in the fields, the owners of the little orchards, watch and calculate.The year is heavy with produce. And the men are proud, for of their knowledge they can make the year heavy. They have transformed the world with their knowledge. The short, lean wheat has been made big and productive. Little sour apples have grown large and sweet, and that old grape that grew among the trees and fed the birds its tiny fruit has mothered a thousand varieties, red and black, green and pale pink, purple and yellow; and each variety with its own flavor. The men who work in the experimental farms have made new fruits: nectarines and forty kinds of plums, walnuts with paper shells.And always they work, selecting, grafting, changing, driving themselves, driving the earth to produce. And first the cherries ripen. Cent and a half a pound. Hell, we can't pick 'em for that. Black cherries and red cherries, full and sweet, and the birds eat half of each cherry and the yellowjackets buzz into the holes the birds made. And on the ground the seeds drop and dry with black shreds hanging from them. The purple prunes soften and sweeten. My God, we can't pick them and dry and sulphur them. We can't pay wages, no matter what wages. And the purple prunes carpet the ground.And first the skins wrinkle a little and swarms of flies come to fe ast, and the valley is filled with the odor of sweet decay. The meat turns dark and the crop shrivels on the ground. And the pears grow yellow and soft. Five dollars a ton. Five dollars for forty fiftypound boxes; trees pruned and sprayed, orchards cultivated—pick the fruit, put it in boxes, load the trucks, deliver the fruit to the cannery—forty boxes for five dollars. We can't do it. And the yellow fruit falls heavily to the ground and splashes on the ground. The yellowjackets dig into the soft meat, and there is a smell of ferment and rot.Then the grapes—we can't make good wine. People can't buy good wine. Rip the grapes from the vines, good grapes, rotten grapes, wasp-stung grapes. Press stems, press dirt and rot. But there's mildew and formic acid in the vats. Add sulphur and tannic acid. The smell from the ferment is not the rich odor of wine, but the smell of decay and chemicals. Oh, well. It has alcohol in it, anyway. They can get drunk. The little farme rs watched debt creep up on them like the tide. They sprayed the trees and sold no crop, they pruned and grafted and could not pick the crop.And the men of knowledge have worked, have considered, and the fruit is rotting on the ground, and the decaying mash in the wine vat is poisoning the air. And taste the wine—no grape flavor at all, just sulphur and tannic acid and alcohol. This little orchard will be a part of a great holding next year, for the debt will have choked the owner. This vineyard will belong to the bank. Only the great owners can survive, for they own the canneries, too. And four pears peeled and cut in half, cooked and canned, still cost fifteen cents. And the canned pears do not spoil.They will last for years. The decay spreads over the State, and the sweet smell is a great sorrow on the land. Men who can graft the trees and make the seed fertile and big can find no way to let the hungry people eat their produce. Men who have created new fruits in the world cannot create a system whereby their fruits may be eaten. And the failure hangs over the State like a great sorrow. The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground.The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit—and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out.Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into th e earth. There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate—died of malnutrition—because the food must rot, must be forced to rot.The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath a re filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage. Chapter 25 the Grapes of Wrath THE SPRING IS BEAUTIFUL in California. Valleys in which the fruit blossoms are fragrant pink and white waters in a shallow sea. Then the first tendrils of the grapes swelling from the old gnarled vines, cascade down to cover the trunks. The full green hills are round and soft as breasts. And on the level vegetable lands are the mile-long rows of pale green lettuce and the spindly little cauliflowers, the gray-green unearthly artichoke plants. And then the leaves break out on the trees, and the petals drop from the fruit trees and carpet the earth with pink and white.The centers of the blossoms swell and grow and color: cherries and apples, peaches and pears, figs which close the flower in the fruit. All California quickens with produce, and the fruit grows heavy, and the limbs bend gradually under the fruit so that little crutches must be placed under them to support the weight. Behind the fruitfulness are men of understanding and knowledge, and skill, men who experiment with seed, e ndlessly developing the techniques for greater crops of plants whose roots will resist the million enemies of the earth: the molds, the insects, the rusts, the blights.These men work carefully and endlessly to perfect the seed, theroots. And there are the men of chemistry who spray the trees against pests, who sulphur the grapes, who cut out disease and rots, mildews and sicknesses. Doctors of preventive medicine, men at the borders who look for fruit flies, for Japanese beetle, men who quarantine the sick trees and root them out and burn them, men of knowledge.The men who graft the young trees, the little vines, are the cleverest of all, for theirs is a surgeon's job, as tender and delicate; and these men must have surgeons' hands and surgeons' hearts to slit the bark, to place the grafts, to bind the wounds and cover them from the air. These are great men. Along the rows, the cultivators move, tearing the spring grass and turning it under to make a fertile earth, breaking the grou nd to hold the water up near the surface, ridging the ground in little pools for the irrigation, destroying the weed roots that may drink the water away from the trees.And all the time the fruit swells and the flowers break out in long clusters on the vines. And in the growing year the warmth grows and the leaves turn dark green. The prunes lengthen like little green bird's eggs, and the limbs sag down against the crutches under the weight. And the hard little pears take shape, and the beginning of the fuzz comes out on the peaches. Grape blossoms shed their tiny petals and the hard little beads become green buttons, and the buttons grow heavy. The men who work in the fields, the owners of the little orchards, watch and calculate.The year is heavy with produce. And the men are proud, for of their knowledge they can make the year heavy. They have transformed the world with their knowledge. The short, lean wheat has been made big and productive. Little sour apples have grown large and sweet, and that old grape that grew among the trees and fed the birds its tiny fruit has mothered a thousand varieties, red and black, green and pale pink, purple and yellow; and each variety with its own flavor. The men who work in the experimental farms have made new fruits: nectarines and forty kinds of plums, walnuts with paper shells.And always they work, selecting, grafting, changing, driving themselves, driving the earth to produce. And first the cherries ripen. Cent and a half a pound. Hell, we can't pick 'em for that. Black cherries and red cherries, full and sweet, and the birds eat half of each cherry and the yellowjackets buzz into the holes the birds made. And on the ground the seeds drop and dry with black shreds hanging from them. The purple prunes soften and sweeten. My God, we can't pick them and dry and sulphur them. We can't pay wages, no matter what wages. And the purple prunes carpet the ground.And first the skins wrinkle a little and swarms of flies come to fe ast, and the valley is filled with the odor of sweet decay. The meat turns dark and the crop shrivels on the ground. And the pears grow yellow and soft. Five dollars a ton. Five dollars for forty fiftypound boxes; trees pruned and sprayed, orchards cultivated—pick the fruit, put it in boxes, load the trucks, deliver the fruit to the cannery—forty boxes for five dollars. We can't do it. And the yellow fruit falls heavily to the ground and splashes on the ground. The yellowjackets dig into the soft meat, and there is a smell of ferment and rot.Then the grapes—we can't make good wine. People can't buy good wine. Rip the grapes from the vines, good grapes, rotten grapes, wasp-stung grapes. Press stems, press dirt and rot. But there's mildew and formic acid in the vats. Add sulphur and tannic acid. The smell from the ferment is not the rich odor of wine, but the smell of decay and chemicals. Oh, well. It has alcohol in it, anyway. They can get drunk. The little farme rs watched debt creep up on them like the tide. They sprayed the trees and sold no crop, they pruned and grafted and could not pick the crop.And the men of knowledge have worked, have considered, and the fruit is rotting on the ground, and the decaying mash in the wine vat is poisoning the air. And taste the wine—no grape flavor at all, just sulphur and tannic acid and alcohol. This little orchard will be a part of a great holding next year, for the debt will have choked the owner. This vineyard will belong to the bank. Only the great owners can survive, for they own the canneries, too. And four pears peeled and cut in half, cooked and canned, still cost fifteen cents. And the canned pears do not spoil.They will last for years. The decay spreads over the State, and the sweet smell is a great sorrow on the land. Men who can graft the trees and make the seed fertile and big can find no way to let the hungry people eat their produce. Men who have created new fruits in the world cannot create a system whereby their fruits may be eaten. And the failure hangs over the State like a great sorrow. The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground.The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit—and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out.Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into th e earth. There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate—died of malnutrition—because the food must rot, must be forced to rot.The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath a re filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.

Importance Of Meditation And The Kind Of Mindset Yoda

Basing one’s understanding of meditation from the terms mentioned above, one can see the resemblance and connection between meditation and the kind of mindset Yoda asks Luke Skywalker to emulate. In Star Wars, concentration is essential to the life of a Jedi Knight, because through its practice, a Jedi is able to let the force flow through them, to guide his actions, instead of suffering and failing from clinging to the notion of control. Buddhist Meditation allows for one to be fully present, to take in everything that the present moment has to offer, instead of clinging to the past that is long gone, and the future that has yet to come. Correspondingly, Jedi Knights are asked to focus on the present because every emotion that disrupts their mission to protect the galaxies, lies in clinging to emotions that surround the past and the future. To further understand the concept of being fully present, according to author Matthew Bortolin: We become caught in the memories of our past mistakes and lost in fantasies about future triumphs, and in so doing we lose the joy available in the present. In the time of the Buddha his disciples were known to be exceptionally joyful and even radiant. It was a striking sight: simple monks, residing in the wilderness and eating very little, yet so luminous and serene. When asked how this came to be, the Buddha said, ‘They do not repent the past, nor do they brood for the future. They live in the present. Therefore they are radiant. ByShow MoreRelatedStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesChange and Stress Management 577 Appendix A Research in Organizational Behavior Comprehensive Cases Indexes Glindex 637 663 616 623 Contents Preface xxii 1 1 Introduction What Is Organizational Behavior? 3 The Importance of Interpersonal Skills 4 What Managers Do 5 Management Functions 6 †¢ Management Roles 6 †¢ Management Skills 8 †¢ Effective versus Successful Managerial Activities 8 †¢ A Review of the Manager’s Job 9 Enter Organizational Behavior 10 Complementing