Taxation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Taxation - Essay Example Countries have long been striving to introduce a better tax regime in order to get out from economic depression. Accordingly, they are designing the reform agenda aimed at implementing a better tax mechanism in the country. Global experiences regarding the tax administration suggest that the core reason behind the failure of the tax mechanism in not addressing the issues of tax regime effectively is the imbalances of fiscal policies of the country. In preparing the paper, intensive efforts have been made to closely scrutinize the taxation system in America with particular emphasis on sales tax. While conducting its study, the paper has found the following two articles being much relevant to the paper as they discuss about the taxation of a particular good. rate prevailed in different states of America. The writer has opined that the sales tax in America is not same; rather it is of different rate in different states. In some states, sales tax is applied in case of buying the goods over Internet. The writer has also given the message that there is also an option of purchasing some goods that are free from paying tax. This article examines the imposition of tax on VMT (Vehicle Mileage Tax) basis in particular context to Oregon states. Under this, the motorists would be subject to pay tax on the range of driving per miles. Critics point out that it is an instrument of infringing personal liberty and a record in our democratic history for interfering the personal liberty. Every goods or products purchased are subject to sales tax. Of course, there are some exceptions in this regard as it has been quoted: â€Å"Sales of taxable tangible personal property to nonprofit hospitals, nonprofit educational institutions, churches, orphanages, other nonprofit charitable or religious institutions and organizations, and homes for the aged, sick, or infirm whose property is excluded

Successful interview with SABIC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Successful interview with SABIC - Essay Example The interviewers included four managers, the supervisor, the superintendent and an officer responsible for analyzing interviewees’ personalities. In one word, I would term the entire experience, a magnificent one. The incident was marked with a lot of challenges, but I managed to get the best out of the opportunity at hand. With the help of my brother, I faced the panel with a lot of confidence. At one moment, my patience was tried with some of their questions. However, as my brother advised, it was my role to ensure that I maintain calm at all times, as that was the onset of the journey towards my career. The panel asked me of the color of the wall behind me, which was quite puzzling. It was clear that the paint of the wall behind me was the same as the one in front of me, and I simply played with their minds by answering that it is the same as the one in front of me. The day was actually good despite the challenges since I had prepared well for the interview. This preparatio n gave me the confidence I needed to face the panel and present my abilities and skills. Prior to the interview, I had the information that 20 people were already set for the day. This would cause some discomfort for any normal human. Worse still, the company only had the place for only 3 individuals. This means that one’s efforts would save them. I thank my brother for his contribution to my success, as he had information on companies and advised me on how to answer the panel’s questions. Specifically, he advised that I do not fret to say that I did not have information on some questions asked. I actually applied his rule to the Chemistry and the general questions asked. Even with the threat that they would post me to another city to work, I agreed with the panel and said I was prepared for any encounter. The interview ended well as the company accepted me for the job.

Abortion Poems Essay Example for Free

Abortion Poems Essay Gewndolyn Brooks and Anne Sexton both wrote poems about the controversial subject of abortion. Brooks wrote a poem titled â€Å"The Mother† which stressed the physiological and ethical consequence of her choice. While in Sextons poem â€Å"The Abortion† the focus is more on the emotions felt before and after the actual process of aborting the baby. Yet both poems posses similar use of words to get a point across. The main way the authors did this is through the use of tone. The tone of these poems easily allow the reader to see just how easy it is to know something is wrong, but do it anyway. In Brooks poem â€Å"The Mother† she selects words and expressions that give the poem an air of sadness. By saying things such as â€Å"You will never neglect or beat Them, or silence or buy with a sweet.† it shows her longing to do things that mothers are generally thought to be good at. At the same time this also shows she is aware that she has essentially taken life and its experiences away from not only her unborn child but herself as well because she never gets the chance to do the things she speaks of. The title of the poem demonstrates this trough a paradox, she never actually got to be a â€Å"Mother† because she aborted her baby. The line in which she states, â€Å"you will never end up sucking thumb† reinforces all this as well as demonstrates her use of imagery thought the entire poem. By creating such vivid images of things she and her child would have done it connects the reader on a more personal level because it gives them a chance to really imagine everything Brooks is saying. Having the connection and the images in their mind while knowing that the baby was aborted makes it all the more real, allowing the reader to feel similar emotions that the mother herself had felt such as sorrow and remorse. The remorseful feeling is really expressed towards the ending of the poem when there is a change in whom she is addressing. Brooks now begins to address the actual child that was aborted and ask for forgiveness while acknowledging she has done wrong by saying â€Å"the crime was other than mine†. She also tells the child that she loves them and that â€Å" even in my deliberateness I was not deliberate.† showing that she is sorry for what she has done even though she knew what she was getting into when she did it. All of these things together give Brook s poem a remorseful tone that perfectly expresses how someone can so easily do something they know deep down is wrong. In Sextons poem â€Å"The Abortion† the emotions she is feeling are expressed to the reader through the change setting. It begins while she still has the baby inside her and she uses words that make the world sound as though it is full of life such as puckering and puffing. She describes the landscape hilly mountainous and green, which is a color that symbolizes new life. Towards the end of the poem when returning from her abortion the setting is described in a more gloomy empty way. The sky had grown thin and the roads were flat. This shows the change in her emotions, just like the land she used to be full of life as well and afterwards she was empty and flat without a child in her womb. The first line of the poem â€Å" Somebody who should have been born is gone.† is an expression of her feelings on abortion. The statement itself lets the reader know right off the bat that she thinks abortion is wrong, yet she goes along and does it anyway. She does not even describe the actual process of aborting the baby as badly as one would imagine someone with that view on the subject would have. She makes an allusion to Rumplestilksen saying that the man who performed the abortion for her was nothing like him at all, basically meaning that she didn’t feel the experience was horrible and as though he was forcing her to give up her first born child like Rumplestilksen had done in a fairy tale. The repetition of the first line thought the entire poem expresses the regret she is feeling thought the entire experience of her abortion. She even calls herself a coward at the very end for doing such a thing. But none of that stopped her from getting the abortion done. The tone of regret Sexton set for this poem once again shows that it’s not at all hard to go ahead and do something they you are sure is wrong. Both of these women were well aware that getting an abortion, in their opinion, was wrong. They each expressed their regret and remorse through the wording of their poems and both poems were quite simple and soothing, something a child would understand. The poems described different aspects of abortion but stress the idea that having an abortion comes with the emotions of sadness, sorrow, and guilt. The reader is easily able to connect to the pome and understand the emotions that are being felt through the imagery used and tone set by the authors. But even with all of that both women still chose to abort their baby. Doing something you know is wrong is something every reader can easily relate to and understand.

Impact of foreign aid on the economic growth of Nigeria

Impact of foreign aid on the economic growth of Nigeria Foreign aid can be simply put to be a flow of assistance which can take the form of funds, infrastructure, trade openness from high income countries to low income countries. The debate till date has been centred around the significance of this aid on the economic growth of these countries. To a large extent, several researches have shown a positive impact of foreign aid on the economic growth of LDCs with the exception of a few factors which may affect this positive impact on growth, while some others have shown a negative impact on economic growth of these LDCs. According to Burnside and Dollar (1997), the positive impact of foreign aid on growth in LDCs is subject to the country having good fiscal, monetary and trade policies, thus, the introduction of economic policies into their economic equation. This was included, to see if aid was allocated to these countries in favour of good policies. Durbarry et al (1998) argue that an important limitation of much of this literature is the incompleteness of the underlying growth models, according to them, irrespective of the fact that Burnside and Dollar were among the first to take into account economic policies, they have not been able to examine the impact of aid in general including only aggregate savings and investment variables. Most of these researches have based the framework of their research on the neoclassical growth model such as the Solow growth model and the Ramsey-cass-koopmans growth model which suggests that poor countries should have a high return to capital and a fast growth rate in transition to the steady state ( Burnside and Dollar, 1997). According to Chenery and Strout (1966), in the case of a country seeking a transformation of its existing economy and hoping not to rely on more advanced countries (i.e. foreign aid), such a country must be able to meet the necessary demands for her rapid growth from either her own resources or from her net exports. The case of foreign aid and economic growth has proven to be a continuous learning process, in that, while some studies base their findings on macroeconomic factors such as economic policies, others have recommended the use of human well being factors such as infant mortality, literacy, life expectancy and employment level ( Burnside and Dollar 1997; Fayissa and El-Kaissy 1999). While the results of Durbarry et al (1998) supports the results of Burnside and Dollar (1997) which shows foreign aid to have a positive impact on growth where there is a good macroeconomic policy environment, but with some exceptions which were based on income level, levels of aid allocation and geographical location. According to him, aid has been tested econometrically based on a macro and micro level, the results of some these tests by some researchers show that aid works at the micro level while at the macro level the results as ambiguous ( Durbarry et al, 1998). So far, most research have dwelt on macroeconomic factors as well as physical factors which in their opinions either shows that growth is fostered positively by aid or negatively by aid. One interesting contribution to the subject matter in question is the contribution by Douglas C. Dacy, which looked at foreign aid and economic growth from a totally different point of view, his paper aimed showing the possibility of an aid receiving country having its post-aid growth rate to be lower than it would have been in a situation of not receiving aid under certain conditions. According to Dacy (1975), his paper viewed the subject of foreign aid and economic growth with respect to consumption on the side of the government as well as domestic savings. Contrary to other researches, Dacy in his paper viewed foreign aid as a substitute for domestic savings, saying that there would not be an increase in total savings by the full amount of foreign savings. Thus, LDCs will increase consumption as well as investment if foreign aid is made available. Papanek (1973) in his paper, studied the relationship between aid, savings, foreign investment and growth in thirty-four LDCs for the 1950s and fifty-one LDCs for the 1960s, applying cross-country regression analysis. Treating each of these components as separate explanatory variables, he found out that over a third of GDP growth is explained b y domestic savings and foreign inflows. Also the effect foreign aid has relative to other variables is considerably higher, his results also suggests no inverse relationship between aid and foreign private investment as well as showing a non-correlation between growth and factors such as; exports, education, country size or per capita income. Unlike Chenery and Strouts result which showed that Countrys size and per capita income has a positive relationship with growth, Papaneks result did not show such positive relationship as said earlier. This is because Papaneks work had savings as one of the independent variables and this was seen to be si gnificantly correlated with per capita income. Concluding his paper, Papanek (1973), suggests from his results that foreign aid is distributed disproportionately to LDCs experiencing low savings rates as well as severe balance of payments problems. And that this disproportionate aid has a more positive effect on growth than domestic savings and other sources of foreign inflows. Chenery and Strouts results are criticised by Papanek as not being very stable and also in his results, foreign source of inflows are not disaggregated compared to the results of Papanek. Papanek (1973) and Burnside Dollar (2000) share similar opinions on the allocation of foreign aid to low income countries. As Papanek is of the view that foreign aid is disproportionately distributed to low income countries who are experiencing low savings rate. While Burnside and Dollar is of the view that though this is allocated to low income countries, it is also influenced by population, i.e. aid donors tend to allocate more aid to smaller countries in size within the Low Income Countries, and also there are variables that reflect their own strategies. Generally speaking, from researches done so far, it is evident that foreign aid has a positive relationship (or impact) on economic growth in LDCs. But this could show a different result when the countries are sampled individually, such that, though aid may be positively related to economic growth based on some macroeconomic factors, it may also a negative relationship influenced by some other factors. According to Levy (1988), his paper aimed at showing some level of quantitative evidence on the impact of foreign aid on economic growth. This he showed using a sample of 22 Low Income Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa with the exception of a few African countries which to him had their level of development similar to that of middle income countries. Using time series data for his analysis, Levy found two important things; which is a positively significant relationship between aid, investment and economic growth in Africa. The second important finding is that there is a significant contribution by fixed capital formation to the rate of economic growth. Although the exclusion of some African countries which he classified as similar to middle income countries from his analysis seems questionable, Levys contribution to the subject matter is very significant. According to Burnside and Dollar (1997), most researches such as that of Levy (1988) and a few others who made an attempt to measure the impact of aid on domestic savings, investment and growth in developing countries, have had results which faced several econometric difficulties. Taking another close look at the work of Dacy (1975) which questioned the desirability of aid, according to him, even if aid is used in a way that contributes to a decline in the long term growth rate, it will almost always be true that the capital stock income and consumption will be higher at the end of the period of aid, and for a number of years afterward, than it would have been without aid. To this end he agrees with Papanek (1973) view which argues that the inverse relationship shown in most statistical research between domestic savings and foreign aid might be greatly misleading. This view is due to Papaneks objections from his observations from previous studies, thus, Papaneks results which show that there is a positive relationship between aid and economic growth as well as aid having an inverse relationship with domestic savings is largely accepted by Dacy. Durbarry et al (1998) in their paper made reference to the work of Hadjimicheal et al (1995) as being a more advanced piece of research compared to most of the researches before it. This is because of their effort to show the potential secondary effect of foreign aid such as the Dutch Disease as well as other policy related variables that are speculated to have an effect on growth. Ekanayake and chatrna (2010) in their paper, criticised the work of Karras (2006) which concluded that there is a positive statistically significant and permanent impact of foreign aid on economic growth. In which they gave a statistical analysis by per person result as well as the growth rate of real GDP per capita, but in all this, they did not take into consideration the effect of policies. According to the research carried out by Ekanayake and Chatrna (2010), their results showed mixed effects of foreign aid on economic growth in LDCs, their research was carried out using annual data on a group of 85 developing countries cutting across continents. The models that were specified in their work were estimated using panel least squares estimation method. Malik (2008) described the poverty of people in the poorest African Countries to be on the increase despite the many years of development assistance. According to him, there has remained a stagnant or declining real per capita income since the 1960s, thus the disturbing question is why could these countries not break the poverty trap despite receiving large inflows of foreign aid?. This question he sought to answer using the co-integration analysis for six poorest African Countries, the results from this analysis showed the existence of a long run relationship between real GDP, aid and investment as a percentage of GP and trade openness. But showing the effect of foreign aid on growth, the result indicated a long run negative relationship for most of these countries. Easterly (2003) went ahead in his paper to discuss the historical research on the relationship between foreign aid and Economic growth. This he did, citing the work of Burnside and Dollar as being an early research that was widely accepted by the World Bank and economies of the world, and thus, created the platform for further research. According to Easterly (2003), data availability was one of the main limitations to having a conclusive and reasonable literature on the subject matter i.e. foreign aid and economic growth in the 1960s and onwards, as well as the reasonable arguments on the specific factors and ways through which foreign aid can affect growth. In his paper, Easterly (2003) cited the paper by Boone (1996) as being noted for its aim to address the issues of reverse causality through the introduction of political factors that determine aid, and thus, using them as instruments in addressing these problems. He also discussed the paper by Burnside and Dollar (2000) as being well known for addressing the disbelief shown by Boone and also the lack of agreement from previous studies. In another paper by Papanek (1972) titled The Effect of Aid and other Resource Transfers on Savings and Growth in Less Developed Countries, he analysed the recent challenge to past assumptions with respect to aid, savings and growth, where he termed some past literatures as Revisionists. His concern is based on their argument that the contribution to economic growth by foreign aid is little or insignificant, in which a number of factors were taken into consideration to support this claim. He went further to expand their argument saying Aid may ease the lot of the recipient countrys citizens by permitting higher consumption which is considered desirable if the analysts humanitarian instincts outweigh his Calvinist conviction that people should struggle for their economic salvation, but does little for growth (Papanek, 1972). Amongst these, are other literatures done by several researchers in which different methods were implemented such as the Autoregressive Distributed lag (ARDL) model used by Gounder (2001), in which his results showed a positive relationship between foreign aid and economic growth in Fiji. There has been other literatures that have also tried to show this relationship in individual countries, some have found a positive relationship but a long- run negative relationship using the Co-integration and error correction analysis, while others found a co-integration between saving rate, real gross domestic product and aid therefore showing a long-run positive effects (Murty et al, 1994; Nyoni, 1998). Taking a closer look at the problem of causality which Boone tried to address, Dacy (1975) concurs that the issue of causality is a tough knot to tie. He also suggests that the debate on if foreign aid contributes largely to economic growth is one that cannot be fully decided, as there would be a need to take into consideration the response of individuals as well as groups. Such consideration includes checking if these individuals or groups behave in a certain way where there is an increase in aid compared to where there is no aid. From the above literatures and many more, it is obvious that the issue of foreign aid and its impact on economic growth is inconclusive and is also a continuous learning process. Depending on the different types of data and methodology used in previous studies, several results have been achieved; some depict positive and significant relationship while others indicate negative long-run relationships based on different factors. This paper in the next section would be using time series data and applying the Ordinary Least Squares method (OLS) as well as the co-integration method to see what impact foreign aid has on the economic growth of Nigeria. Section 3. Data and Methodology In testing for the impact of foreign aid on the economic growth of Nigeria, I am using annual time series data which has its period from 1960 2009 and which is gotten from World Bank World Development Indicators. Thus, the focus of this analysis is on Nigeria as a developing country and a recipient of aid from advanced countries which are known as donors. Due to the limited availability of data with respect to the proposed variables, the observations are 49 running from 1960-2009. The table below shows the variables that are included in this study as well as the source they were gotten from: Table 1: Variable Unit source Gross Domestic product Growth Rate World Bank Foreign Direct Investment Percentage of GDP World Bank Trade(Openness; exports plus imports as a percentage of GDP Percentage of GDP World Bank Population Growth Per Cent (%) World Bank Net ODA per capita Current US$ World Bank Most of my variables were gotten from the work of Ekanayake and Chatrna (2010), where he used things like investment as proxy for growth rate of capital stock and also population growth as proxy for labour force. This study also uses population growth as a proxy for labour force as well as including trade to represent openness which as shown in the table above is made up of exports plus imports as a percentage of GDP. Net ODA per capita is a proxy for aid alongside Foreign Direct Investment, as earlier said, this study would be adopting the use of Ordinary Least Squares method (OLS) for its analysis. To ensure that the study is academically robust, I will also be employing the use of co-integration tests, to check the long run relationship between Foreign aid and Economic growth in Nigeria.

Overwhelmed by Marigolds :: Marigolds

Overwhelmed by Marigolds [ADM1]  Ã‚  Ã‚      I'll be honest; I picked this short story first because of the bright, blooming title, "Marigolds."   But when I read the story, I felt torn, like the marigolds that were when destroyed by Lizabeth[ADM2].   Throughout this story I felt overwhelmed with reality;[ADM3] I was showered with confusion, contradictions, and it seems as though I read this story of harsh truth in a dream.   Lizabeth's character is so close to myself, yet so far away, that I detest her, especially for her furious outrage taken out on a sliver of hope surrounded by despondency, yet I feel compassionate towards her.[ADM4]   I leaped furiously into the mounds of marigolds and pulled madly, trampling and pulling and destroying the perfect yellow blooms.[ADM5]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   When she madly demolished the beautiful marigolds, I wanted to scream;[ADM6] she had ruined the only things ravishing[ADM7] and worthwhile, taking her anger and confusion out on something that seemed so perfect.   I felt like the marigolds because far too often I have been in a similar situation.   For example, I play the saxophone well, making it into Wind Ensemble (the highest[ADM8] band) as a freshman.   Many call me "perfect,"[ADM9] and because I can play better than they can, they hate me.   They treat me rudely,[ADM10] and they don't even know me except for my ability to play an instrument.   I feel dejected and trampled over socially because [ADM11]I happen to be able to be gifted in an area.   Some also detest me because of my grades, making assumptions before knowing me [ADM12]that because I get decent grades, I am perfect and too good for everyone.   Instead of seeing past me[ADM13], they make fun of me and put me down for achieving my highest goals.   So when Lizabeth tore at the flowers, smoldering[ADM14] them and killing them because they were full of hope and bloom, which she had none of[ADM15], I felt angry with her for handling her situation in this way.   She killed innocent life that thrived and stood out, because it possessed things that she wanted and that she was being deprived of[ADM16].   Because of this terrible reaction to this scene, I think that it is safe to assume [ADM17]I am not sympathetic towards anyone who hurts others, physically or mentally, for being happier or full of hope or more talented than them because they feel hopeless, fearful, or even feel confused and overwhelmed.

An Analysis of the First Two Stanzas of Edgar Allan Poes The Raven Ess

An Analysis of the First Two Stanzas of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven Picture yourself alone one night. You are sitting up in bed, your legs buried underneath your comforter while you read for what seems like the hundredth time that same paragraph from Franklin for your American Literature class, and trying to ignore the storm that is only getting stronger outside. Suddenly, the power goes out, and you only have candlelight to read by. The silence becomes deafening, and you watch the shadows play across the wall. Unexpectedly, you hear this scratching on the door to your bedroom, but you are alone in the house. You tell yourself it is only the wind, or it's only your imagination running away with you. After all, there are no such things as ghosts. If you can picture this, you then can have a good idea of Poe's The Raven. The first two stanzas of The Raven introduce you to the narrator, and his beloved maiden Lenore. You find him sitting on a "dreary" and dark evening with a book opened in front of him, though he is dozing more than reading. Suddenly, he hears knocking on his door, but only believes it to be a visitor nothing more. He remembers another night, like this one, where he had sought the solace of his library to forget his sorrows of his long lost beloved, and to wait for dawn. Meanwhile the tapping on his door continues . Poe's most famous poem begins with an imagery that immediately brings the reader into a dark, cold, and stormy night. Poe does not wish for his readers to stand on the sidelines and watch the goings on, but actually be in the library with the narrator, hearing what he hears and seeing what he sees. Using words and phrases such as "midnight dre... ...ile the rural areas were filled with crops growing up again on the torn land, and people progressed closer and closer to the edges of the Mississippi River. They needed a release of everyday life, something they could read by the fire at night that would take them away into another world. Poe was a master at this. In the first two stanzas of Poe's The Raven, we learn of the setting for the narrator's psychological breakdown. The tone and mood is set from the opening line, "Once upon a midnight dreary," which captures the reader and holds tight. Through his use of imagery and rhythm of the tapping on the door, and his moaning of his lost Lenore the reader knows that is no ordinary poem about a man haunted by his beloved. It is a perfect beginning to one of the world's most famous poems, from one of the most infamous writers of our American heritage.

Foreign Literature

CHAPTER –II Foreign Literature Eugene F. Brigman, Fundamentals of Financial Management, 5th ed. , (Hinsdale: Holt, Richard and Winston Sounders College Publishing, 2000), pp. 840-841. Companies are increasingly employing Inventory System. A computer start with an inventory counts in memory. Withdrawals are recorded by the computer as they are made, and the inventory balance is constantly revised. When the recorded point is reached, the computer automatically places an order, when this new order is received, the recorded balance is increased.Retail stores have carried this system quite far, each item has a magnetic codes, and as on item is checked out, it passes over an electronic reader, which then adjusts the computers inventory balance, at the same time the price is fed to cash register tape. When the balance drops to the recorder point, an order is place. Foreign Literature Joe N. of gather. com, they attract the buyers by selling what they want, non-stop on a channel that' s dedicated for buyers.This is a good technique if you are trying selling something, and gaining a good audience of buyers, because you are putting the product up for advertisement, on a channel those buyers watch. You don't have to completely analyze a commercial to come to this conclusion, or to categorize a commercial under a specific technique, but just pay some attention to the main details. In Channels of Desire (1982), the Ewens trace the emergence of the consumer society through the rise of mass images and new advertising, fashion, and entertainment industries.They explore some of the ways in which desire was channeled into consumption and into desire for ever new and ever more consumer goods. In The Culture of Consumption (1983), Editors Richard Wightman Fox and T. J. Jackson Lears document how capitalism develops a culture appropriate for a society organized around the principle of profit maximization via the production and consumption of commodities.