The Strategic Issue of Newspaper Paywalls Essay

The Strategic Issue of Newspaper Paywalls - Essay Example The Guardian’s lead media blogger Cory Doctorow led the critical analysis in asking three main questions about the dataset as presented by Murdoch’s company. (Doctorow, 2010) â€Å"What sort of purchases are the paid subscribers making?† â€Å"How much do advertisers value the additional information the Times can supply about paying users?† â€Å"What does it cost to get a subscriber?† These questions are important in determining what the paywall and subscriber numbers mean to News Corp’s bottom line profit figures. This experiment with the online subscriber model for news is important to the sector due to the declining revenues and bankruptcy of many traditional newspapers. If News Corp is successful in attracting consumers to its online subscription models, iPad only newspaper, and financial industry news, then it represents a business possibility or even necessity for other newspapers in the sector like the Guardian to follow. Looking at t he actual numbers released by News Corp in their Nov. 2nd, 2010 press release: â€Å"News International today announces that the new digital products for The Times and The Sunday Times have achieved more than 105,000 paid-for customer sales to date. Around half of these are monthly subscribers. These include subscribers to the digital sites as well as subscribers to The Times iPad app and Kindle edition. Many of the rest are either single copy or pay-as-you-go customers. In addition to the digital-only subscribers, there are 100,000 joint digital/print subscribers who have activated their digital accounts to the websites and/or iPad app since launch. As a result, the total paid audience for digital products on The Times and The Sunday Times is close to 200,000 (allowing for some duplication in the digital customer sales number).† (Paid Content, 2010) Felix Salmon adds another aspect of the paywall that may not be immediately evident from this news release, reporting that â₠¬Å"traffic has fallen off a cliff, from 21 million to 2.7 million pageviews per month† for these same sites. (Reuters, 2010) From these statistics, the 200,000 paid subscribers are only viewing on average 10 pages or news articles per month. This does not indicate a strong pattern of readership, but more of the average daily or single-setting news content of a site browser. In analyzing the effect of this, for example, as it relates to the Guardian business plan, it should be noted that by page volume this is approximately a 90% reduction in the number of advertisements served by the website per month. Thus, looking at the issue of paywalls and online newspapers from a strictly profit and loss perspective, the GMG can calculate whether a 90% reduction in advertising revenue would be offset by the savings on server infrastructure with reduced site traffic and the revenues generated by the subscription fees. To put this in context with what the News Corp numbers mean, Dan Sabbag ah of the Guardian reviewed the three different subscription plans represented in the statistics and came up with an estimate: â€Å"the total is ?5.5m a year, gross.† (Sabbagah, 2010) This includes the 1-day subscriptions, the monthly subscriptions, and iPad newspaper subscriptions. In this manner, it could be related that loss of 90% of site traffic and viewership for the newspapers was not worth the minimal

Globalization and the State. Discuss Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Globalization and the State. Discuss - Essay Example Companies which grew their subsidiaries in different countries and continents found themselves in a unique situation of transcending those states where they had a presence. As globalisation become more prevalent, states find themselves unable to enforce sovereign power that is supposed to be absolute, supreme and unlimited; instead, in the name of economic progress, states have learnt to negotiate, compromise, and in some extreme cases, capitulate before the large MNCs. Globalisation challenges the traditional link between constitutionalism and the state, and elevates constitutionalism to a transnational context (Anderson 2012). The purpose of this brief discussion is to cursorily explore the various issues posed by globalisation and how in response to them the nation-state has evolved, as embodied in the academic literature existing to date. The topic will cover the political, economic and legal implications of globalisation upon the state, and how the concept of statehood is being reinvented and redefined to adjust to the recent phenomenon of modern globalisation. Dimensions of Globalisation Ewoh, Matei and Matei (2013) distinguished among three dimensions of globalisation: economic, political and social globalisation. ... Of particular interest in the investigation was the link between corruption and globalisation. In this empirical study, a direct correlation was found to exist between political globalisation, stability and impact of the anti-corruption strategies put to effect in states. The most powerful influences on political globalisation are related primarily to political stability, and secondarily to anti-corruption strategies. These findings indicate that the greater the degree of political globalisation of the state, the less likely it is subject to corruption. Globalisation and the Perfect Market Globalisation requires deregulation, but deregulation of the markets is premised on the condition that perfect market opportunities are present – this means complete transparency, complete information available to all players, transaction costs are zero, and the market is therefore efficient. It is well known, however, that markets are in reality inefficient, so deregulating the markets will be done without the assurance of free market conditions. The study by Prentis (2012) proved empirically that deregulating stock markets (and it assumed any auction market), particularly as a measure leading to globalisation, can actually hinder rather than help in returning stability to the markets. The findings of this study relate political ideology of the state to the level of its globalisation. The implication of a national economy that participates more fully in globalisation is that it tends to be more competitive, with greater openness to the free market forces; conversely, the less globalised a nation’s economy is, the more likely it is to be a

Black Identity In Bamboozled

Black Identity In Bamboozled African Americans have for a long time been represented in American cinema in discourses of white realism. With the emergence of black directors, there has been a struggle to detach the black community from the traditional, negative stereotypes attached to them. Bamboozled (Spike Lee, 2000) is a dark satire on race representation and assimilation and the ways in which the dominant hegemonic power structure is able to divide and rule those it subjugates. This paper will first explore the history of cinematic representation of African Americans, which will be discussed in line with the issue of misrepresentation in Bamboozled (2000). This paper will also explore African-American identity dilemma as presented in Bamboozled (2000). Introduction I want people to think about the power of images, not just in terms of race, but how imagery is used and what sort of social impact it has- how it influences how we talk, how we think, how we view one another. In particular, I want them to see how film and television have historically, from the birth of both mediums, produced and perpetuated distorted images. Film and television started out that way, and here we are, at the dawn of a new century, and a lot of that madness is still with us today. Spike Lee. The debates over race and representation of African Americans in films have been highly contentious for over a century. Blacks have generally been perceived and stigmatized, throughout history, as trouble makers, incapables, intellectually limited, inferior, lazy and irrational, amongst the many other demeaning labels attached to them. These labels are connected not only to the history of colonization but also, importantly, to the exploitation, perpetuation, and careful maintenance of stereotypes through cinematic clichà ©s which have imposed themselves easily and significantly on the popular imagination. As rightly stated by Wijdan Ali, the projection of harmful and negative stereotypes onto marginal or ineffectual groups within a society has always been an easy and useful method for making scapegoats.Effectively, films form the ideal space to circularize and preserve the labels which the mainstream audience desires to attach to the black community. Five decades of the Civil Rights Movement have gone by, and the degree of change in the black community, though undeniably real and noticeable, remains perplexingly complex and inadequate. Although the fact that we now live in a time in history where Americans have voted in a black President, where blacks now occupy positions of power and are ostensibly less subject to institutional discrimination than in the past, the black community nevertheless remains inadequately poor, unemployed, undereducated and negatively labeled. Adding to these, portrayals of African Americans in cinema are still, to a great extent, marked by buffoonery. Therefore, adopting a writing-back style in Bamboozled (2000), Spike Lee satirically attacks the way in which African Americans have historically been misused and misrepresented on screen. Through Bamboozled (2000), the director attempts both to entertain and to educate his audience about the history of African American representation within popular culture, with the word bamboozled itself indicating the state of having been cheated or conned. Bamboozled (2000) presents American mass entertainments history of racial discrimination through abasing minstrel stereotypes, which first started to be performed in musical theatres and which were later brought to cinema with films such as The Wooing and Wedding of a Coon (1905), The Sambo Series (1909- 1911) and D.W Griffiths controversial The Birth of a Nation( 1915). Consequently, the purpose of this study is to explore African American evolution in the American film industry and to analyze the effects of stereotypes and misrepresentation o n African American identity using Cornel Wests theory of Alienation (1993) and Du Boiss theory of double consciousness (1903). These will hopefully in turn help to understand why the integration of African Americans is considered as a problematic issue even in a sophisticated era where racism seems to be a thing of the past, and where people are supposedly no longer judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. But before getting to what Bamboozled (2000) actually brings to the table of African-American films, it is important to look at the history and evolution of black representation in Hollywood cinema, which the following paragraphs are going to deal with. II. African Americans in American Films: A Brief Retrospective African Americans first started to be represented in minstrel shows in the late 1820s and later on television in the early 20th century. Through blackface minstrelsy, a performance style where white males parodied the songs, dances, clothing and speech patterns of Southern blacks using blackface makeup and exaggerated lips, Americas conceptions of blackness and whiteness were shaped by these mocking caricatures, for, as pointed out by bell hooks, there is power in looking. While whiteness was posited as the norm, every black face was a statement of social imperfection, inferiority, and mimicry that [was] placed in isolation with an absent whiteness as its ideal opposite. Consequently, for over a century, the notion that colored people were racially and socially inferior to whites was ingrained, internalized and accepted both by white and black minstrel performers and audiences. The caricatures took such a strong hold on the American imagination that audiences naturally came to expect any person with dark skin, irrespective of his/ her background, to fit in one or more of the following stereotypes; Jim Crow, a dull-witted and subservient plantation slave; Zip Coon, a lazy, gaudily-dressed man from the city representing the proud newly- freed slave; Mammy, the contended, happy, loyal and ever-smiling female slave (as evidence of the supposed humanity of the institution of slavery,); Uncle Tom, the good Negro; submissive, hearty, faithful no matter what, stoic, selfless, and oh-so-very-kind, Buck, the proud and menacing Black man always fascinated by white women; Jezebel the temptress; the mixed race Mulatto, and Pickaninnies, who have bulging eyes, unkempt hair, red lips and wide mouths into which they stuff huge slices of watermelon. As time moved on, black appearance in mainstream films became more and more frequent, as well as the increase in the number of independent black directors, from Oscar Micheaux to Daniels Lee and Spike Lee. Since The Birth of a Nation, which marked a change in emphasis from the pretentious but harmless Jim Crow to the threatening savage Nigger, black filmmakers have responded by creating race movies and blaxploitation films which were tailored to black audiences . The 1970s witnessed a resurgence of the blaxploitation genre with films such as Sweet Sweetbacks Baadassss Song (1971), Shaft (1971), Black Caesar (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974). Since such films were themselves in turn accused of using the negative to hyperbolize issues pertaining to blacks, this genre saw its end in the late 1970s to give way to a new wave of black directors, such as S. Lee and John Singleton, who focused on black urban life. However, we cannot afford to simply celebrate the achievements of black filmmakers for the so-called ethnic arts. And as Stuart Hall remarks, we have come out of the age of innocence, which says that its good if its there. The mere fact that such films have had a considerable increase does not mean that the status of and opportunities for black people have dramatically improved although it may be true that the level of clear-cut racism has known an important decrease, or even a disappearance. This can be backed up by Appiahs statement that changes in the representation of blacks do not ipso facto lead to changes in their treatment. III. The Issue of Misrepresentation in Bamboozled (2000) In Bamboozled (2000), Spike Lee directly addresses this issue of African American representability as being a discourse of white essentialism. Through Bamboozled (2000) the director invites his audience to realize that although nobody goes around in blackface anymore,it does not entail that Hollywood has altogether abandoned/given up essentialist discourse. The director satirically uses very symbolic icons and elements throughout the film in order to highlight racism and misrepresentation. The beginning of Bamboozled (2000) itself generates the intended theme; Stevie Wonders Misrepresented People, a song which encapsulates the historical, political and social adversities faced by blacks, is carefully and cleverly set as the background music, which powerfully and heavily impacts upon the content of the film as well as upon the audience. Spike Lee makes it blatantly clear that Bamboozled (2000) sets out to illustrate White American ideology and discourse within contemporary public sphere. Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans), the protagonist of the film, is a network executive working in a company which is specialized in black matters. Ironically though, during the meeting in which Delacroix is reproached for his lateness and reminded of CP time, it can be noticed that the only Black person present is Pierre himself. His boss, Dunwitty, clearly does not want to see Negroes on television unless they are buffoons. He even cancelled one of Pierres brilliant shows because it starred blacks as dignified people and goes on to complain that the latters written materials are too clean, too white, too antiseptic, which according to him merely portray white people with blackfaces. He urges Delacroix to keep it real, that is, he reminds him of the humiliating position of blacks in cinema; blacks are only entertainers. The depiction of the struggle endemic to the African American experience of representation, which Lee throws to the audience in a very obvious yet complex way, can be seen in Extract 1. It can be observed in this scene that Delacroix has no other option than to portray blacks as entertainers if he is to respect his contract. This scene is also important because it does two things; first, it shows Delacroixs struggle to promote the black community by attempting to fight misrepresentation, and second, it shows a well-educated Delacroixs willingness to dissociate himself from other African Americans. The name of the blackface show in Bamboozled (2000) is in itself very symbolic; Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show. Here, Lee suggests that minstrelsy has not disappeared in the new millennium. In his-own words therefore, it has only gotten more sophisticated. Gangsta rap videos, a lot of the TV shows on UPN and WB- a lot of us are still acting as buffoons and coons. The issue of black-white relations resurfaces in Bamboozled (2000) and the role of the Other is made explicit through Lees intended message. Black stereotyping and Otherisation becomes the necessary evil in the construction of white identity and is needed to reassure white audiences of the stability of their identity. With this comes the implication that black films are successfully marketed only if they appeal to mainstream audiences. Clearly, Spike Lees aim in this provocative film is to show that even today, the American film industry is still concealing essentialist discourses within contemporary films. Consequ ently, as essentialism involves ongoing human and social interaction as well as limitation, identity regulation and enforcement takes place within this kind of racist discourse, whereby blacks have to undergo identity dilemma while trying to seek approval. As we have seen, cinema has an important role to play in the construction of identity. History, cinema and black identity are intricately intertwined. The association of these three in Bamboozled (2000) communicates to the audience how blacks are identified and how they in turn identify themselves. As a marginalized group, most of the black characters in Spike Lees film forsake their identity so as to gain approval, to be successful, or to get out of black poverty and the result is shown to be a disastrous one for the black soul and community. The next section is therefore going to be an exploration of identity dilemma in Bamboozled (2000). IV. Identity Dilemma in Bamboozled (2000) I have heard all my life that White people dont have to change who they are, how they talk, or how they behave. Therefore, I was left with the impression that it was everyone elses responsibility to attempt to adopt the cultural and social personalities of White people. Ronald, L Jackson. In order to tackle this issue of identity in Bamboozled (2000) Cornel Wests theory of alienation(1993) will be used in parallel to DuBois theory of double-consciousness (1903) .Wests theory of alienation (1993) explores the identity crisis faced by the black diasporan community in modern day America. Natal alienation, which has been created by the history of colonization, is an irretrievable damage to black identity. Since the Black is rendered into an inferior being through history and representation, and this inferiority further reinforced by both descriptive and prescriptive stereotypes in cinema, blacks as a result experience a severe identity dilemma, a double consciousness. Alienation in Wests theory exists on two intricately related levels: firstly as an ideological system of oppression and discrimination and secondly as a black existentialist struggle. In Bamboozled (2000), this powerful system of oppression forces the black characters to forsake their black soul and identities. Unlike Delacroix, Womack (Tommy Davidson) and Manray (Savion Glover), two homeless street performers, are forced by their unfavorable economic conditions to become de-rooted and senseless performing dolls. Both are stripped of their names and imposed with the abasing and stereotypically racist names of SleepnEat and Mantan respectively. Alienation here produces the modern black diasporan problematic of invisibility and namelessness, whereby Womack and Manray are forced to look at themselves through the eyes of others, of measuring [their] soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. Impelled by societal and survival pressures, both of them are forced to assimilate in order to be accepted by the white community as well as by the assimilated black people. It becomes clear that David Llorenss (1968) two types of blacks are present in Bamboozled (2000). Delacroix and Sloan represent the chosen ones while Manray and Womack represent the fellah. The former is familiar with the streets and the black vernacular, while the latter is culturally refined has assimilated into the white community. Alienation and white essentialist discourse creates such a situation where the chosen one feels embarrassed by the fellah and seeks at all times to show that they are two different kinds, and to please the Guardian, that is, the white man. Manray and Womack are, through the eyes of Sloan ( Jada Pinkett Smith) and Pierre, African Americans who share similar traits to the primitive African. Delacroix points this out by looking down on them and recommending that they be given deodorant s, toothbrushes, toothpastes and underwear. He also attempts without success to dissociate himself from the fellah black category by desperately explaining to Dunwitty that blacks are not a monolithic group, and that middle class black does exist. These words are representative of the African American communitys desire not to be identified only through blackness. For Dunwitty, Delacroix is only trying to wear a whiteface, which is not a mere fabrication or a mere racist comment. Dunwittys words carry an important truth. We see from the beginning of the film, that Delacroix eagerly and desperately seeks recognition and visibility from his white co-workers when he walks his way to his office. He also rejects the black vernacular for Standard English so as to make a clear cut difference between the educated and the uneducated black. This, to an important extent, reifies the superiority of whites and serves to alienate blacks in American society, as, according to West (1993), alienation is part of a whole system of language. Once a cultures language is alienated from the mainstream populations language, the cultures identity is similarly taken away and starts to dissipate. Delacroix himself unconsciously embodies several of the blackface stereotypes, although he tries to portray blacks in a positive light. He can be viewed as a Zip Coon, with his pretentiousness and his implicit disregard for the fellah blacks during the auditioning for the Alabama Porch Monkeys, and his dissociation from the black vernacular. Furthermore, he embodies the Uncle Tom stereotype several times in the film, especially in the scene where he acts as the loyal, faithful and subservient black while insisting on handing off an award to Mathhew Modine (playing himself.) Delacroix is therefore himself caught in this whirlwind of Europeanization. In his relentless effort to assimilate into white culture, he gets himself a Harvard education and a penthouse, dresses professionally, and speaks the right language. Even when he sets out on his mission to deconstruct stereotypes and raise public awareness on modern day racism, he is himself unable to resist the misrepresentation and cari cature of the terms set by uncontested nonblack norms and models. Delacroix therefore also contributes both consciously and unconsciously to the dominant discourse of alienation of blacks from the white community by setting up a Coon show which idealizes a simpler time, a time when men were men, women were women, and Negroes knew their place. Some black folks are consequently outraged by his racist show and accuse him of selling out his own community. But what has actually happened to Pierre Delacroix is that he has been experiencing the split-self- disease, what Du Bois calls a twoness an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body. Aware of the fact that the popular American view has consistently dehumanized African Americans through negative representation, Delacroix does not want to be among those blacks who are despised by the European American population. He does not want to be invisible and formless. Therefore h e aspires to be both Negro and American, two identities, which, according to Du Bois (1903) are often in conflict. Delacroixs wearing of the blackface by the end of the film iterates the inescapability of the imposed mask of blackness. Realizing that he is unable to appear as anything but black in the eyes of others, he compromises with his black self and resigns himself to the mask. What Lee is actually showing is that in modern day America, and even for sophisticated and well- off black Americans, the merging of the American and the African is one very difficult (if not impossible) thing to happen. The impact of stereotypes and alienation on black identity causes one to have a keen sense of awareness about his or her various selves and how they are perceived. Often, blacks in Bamboozled (2000) have to negotiate their identity. Through this act, they inevitably reach a self-realization of twoness. Womack for instance realizes that he will always be looked down upon as a second-class American citizen, no matter how famous and successful he has become. He becomes conscious of the fact the he had been bamboozled insofar as believing that he could be an equal citizen. His success lies only in the fact that he is able to entertain white America, to always keep em laughing, a quality which Delacroixs father Junebug (Paul Mooney) believes is essential for the black American to achieve success. As shown in Extract 2 therefore, when Womack experiences double consciousness, he decides to stop acting in the minstrel show. This scene is significant in that it highlights the self-realization which is made possible only through a double-consciousness. Womack at this particular moment realizes that outside of the character of Sleepn Eat, he is simply invisible, a nobody. Through the eyes of others there is no other possible identity for him. Mantans own identity grows in conflict with that of Womack following this conversation; clearly he is still unaware of the complexities of the disjointed nature of identity in this scene. A few scenes later however, he also becomes afflicted by the same double consciousness experienced by his friend. In Extract 3, after discovering that he has been hoodwinked and led astray, Manray refuses to be further associated to Mantan. He realizes that it is fundamentally wrong to negotiate his identity through the medium of blackface. Although Lee might be suggesting that Manrays realization occurs at too late a time, his message clearly goes in line with Du Boiss (1903) argument that double consciousness is the realization that identity is mu ltifaceted. According to him, at one point or the other, black Americans develop a conflict with the different identities that they need to embody in order to be accepted by the mainstream, a conflict which is inexistent among white Americans. On the other hand, Sloans brother, Julius, who forms part of the Mau Mau revolutionary underground gang and who does not go through double consciousness because of his refusal to be seen through white Americas eyes, is juxtaposed to the blacks who try to assimilate white culture, thereby denying their own roots, language, people, and culture. Julius constantly affirms his black identity, unlike the other blacks we encounter in the film. Extract 4 shows how he refuses to be a representative of de-rooted, disenfranchised blacks. In the perspective of revolutionary blacks such as the Mau Maus therefore, Manray needs to be executed because he is a nuisance to the black community; he is a Judas, an Uncle Tom, one who contributes to the demise of his own race. The murders of Manray and Delacroix show to what extent alienation and double-consciousness can be detrimental to African Americans. They create inter-ethnic conflict and a heavy malaise in the black community. Alienation as an ideol ogical racist discourse therefore divides and rules those who are marginalized in a society that looks on in amused contempt and pity. Through the Mau Mau gang, it can be seen that those who accept and affirm their black identities are ineffective in society. They are in no way in a better state of being than those who experience double-consciousness. Since they do not master the mainstream language and do not believe in the ideological discourses of the inferiority of their race, they are forced to retire to the underground world. The fact that the imposition of history and alienation results in double consciousness in many cases in Bamboozled (2000) is destructive to all. Accepting white essentialism as culturally representable not only creates a fatal division between assimilated and un- assimilated blacks; it also kills the spirit of the black man. V. Conclusion Although the situations and the characters in Lees Bamboozled (2000) are all fictitious, and although the director does not choose the medium of docudrama to convey his important messages, he manages to successfully reconstruct blackface minstrelsy. African Americans have been freed, but only physically. There has been neither a consistent attempt to make up for the mistakes of humanity of the past nor to reshape identities. His argument in Bamboozled (2000) is that the identity dilemmas faced by the characters in the film are no different from the identity issues faced by African Americans in post-racial America. Although blacks do not find themselves as being represented in blackface or as victims of blatant segregation anymore, they are nevertheless always reminded of their blackness, and of what it implies to be a black in America. Whether Lee is genuinely successful in renegotiating a stigmatized identity or in deconstructing stereotypes by dismantling the false normativity of w hite authority remains highly debatable. On the one side, his use of satire and his engagement with the history of racism and representation impact heavily on the audience. However, the frustrating ending of Bamboozled (2000), as well as the inter- ethnic conflict between the revolutionary and the assimilated blacks, display a contaminating and intense sense of helplessness and hopelessness in regards to humanitys chances to ever get rid of the veil which separates whites and blacks in America, as well as in any other parts of the world. Lees message, considering his role as an auteur, seems to reflect Du Boiss words that the black man must not bleach his soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that [his] blood has a message for the world.

Olivopontocerebellar Atrophy Essay -- Health Medicine Medical Essays

Olivopontocerebellar Atrophy Abstract Olivopontocerebellar Atrophy(OPCA), is characterized by neuronal degeneration of the cerebellar cortex, the inferior olive, and the pons. The symptoms associated with it are primarily cerebellar ataxia with disturbances in equilibrium and gait. However, broader symptomology is usually seen with OPCA. Current research is focusing on three primary systems thought to be responsible for the etiology of OPCA. They are excitatory amino acid disturbances, oligodendroglial microtubular tangles, and phospholipid metabolism disorders. The only treatment for OPCA is therapy focusing on improving the dysphagia associated with the disorder. Olivopontocerebellar Atrophy Olivopontocerebellar Atrophy (OPCA) is a disease characterized primarily by the degeneration of neurons in the cerebellar cortex, pons, and inferior olive. It is a genetic disease, being either autosomal dominant or autosomal recessive in nature. This disorder, which usually occurs in the middle years of life, presents symptoms of cerebellar ataxia, equilibrium disturbance, nystagmus, dysphasia, dysarthria, and possibly intellectual deficits. According to Merritt, the pathology of OPCA includes loss of Purkinje cells, reduction of the number of neurons in the molecular and granular layers of the cerebellum, degeneration of the folia and white matter of the cerebellum, atrophy of the inferior olives and of the olivo-cerebellar connections, and atrophy of the pontine nuclei, arcuate nuclei, and brachium pontis (15). In addition to this, degeneration of the spinocerebellar tracts, corticospinal tracts, and frontal and temporal lobes has been reported (15). Biopsies on living OPCA patients have suggested that there are n... ...cerebellar atrophy. Annals of Neurology, 26:362-367, 1989. 12. Kish, S., Robitaille, Y., El-Awar, M. et. al. Brain amino acid reductions in one family with chromosome 6p-linked dominantly inherited olivopontocerebellar atrophy. Annals of Neurology, 30:780-784, 1991. 13.Landis, D., Rosenburg, R., Landis, S. et. al. Olivopontocerebellar degeneration. Archives of Neurology, 31:295--307, 1974. 14. Makowiec, R., Albin, R., Cha, J-H. et. al. Two types of quisqualate receptors are decreased in human olivopontocerebellar atrophy cerebellar cortex. Brain Research, 523:309-312, 1990. 15. Merritt, Houston. A Textbook of Neurology. Lea and Febiger, Philadelphia. 1967 16. Nakazato, Y., Yamazaki, H., Hirato, J. et. al. Oligodendroglial microtubular tangles in olivopontocerebellar atrophy. Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology, 49:521-530, 1990. Olivopontocerebellar Atrophy Essay -- Health Medicine Medical Essays Olivopontocerebellar Atrophy Abstract Olivopontocerebellar Atrophy(OPCA), is characterized by neuronal degeneration of the cerebellar cortex, the inferior olive, and the pons. The symptoms associated with it are primarily cerebellar ataxia with disturbances in equilibrium and gait. However, broader symptomology is usually seen with OPCA. Current research is focusing on three primary systems thought to be responsible for the etiology of OPCA. They are excitatory amino acid disturbances, oligodendroglial microtubular tangles, and phospholipid metabolism disorders. The only treatment for OPCA is therapy focusing on improving the dysphagia associated with the disorder. Olivopontocerebellar Atrophy Olivopontocerebellar Atrophy (OPCA) is a disease characterized primarily by the degeneration of neurons in the cerebellar cortex, pons, and inferior olive. It is a genetic disease, being either autosomal dominant or autosomal recessive in nature. This disorder, which usually occurs in the middle years of life, presents symptoms of cerebellar ataxia, equilibrium disturbance, nystagmus, dysphasia, dysarthria, and possibly intellectual deficits. According to Merritt, the pathology of OPCA includes loss of Purkinje cells, reduction of the number of neurons in the molecular and granular layers of the cerebellum, degeneration of the folia and white matter of the cerebellum, atrophy of the inferior olives and of the olivo-cerebellar connections, and atrophy of the pontine nuclei, arcuate nuclei, and brachium pontis (15). In addition to this, degeneration of the spinocerebellar tracts, corticospinal tracts, and frontal and temporal lobes has been reported (15). Biopsies on living OPCA patients have suggested that there are n... ...cerebellar atrophy. Annals of Neurology, 26:362-367, 1989. 12. Kish, S., Robitaille, Y., El-Awar, M. et. al. Brain amino acid reductions in one family with chromosome 6p-linked dominantly inherited olivopontocerebellar atrophy. Annals of Neurology, 30:780-784, 1991. 13.Landis, D., Rosenburg, R., Landis, S. et. al. Olivopontocerebellar degeneration. Archives of Neurology, 31:295--307, 1974. 14. Makowiec, R., Albin, R., Cha, J-H. et. al. Two types of quisqualate receptors are decreased in human olivopontocerebellar atrophy cerebellar cortex. Brain Research, 523:309-312, 1990. 15. Merritt, Houston. A Textbook of Neurology. Lea and Febiger, Philadelphia. 1967 16. Nakazato, Y., Yamazaki, H., Hirato, J. et. al. Oligodendroglial microtubular tangles in olivopontocerebellar atrophy. Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology, 49:521-530, 1990.

Principles of Economics Essay

Suggest how an economist would approach the problem of alcohol abuse. Economics is about scarcity and choice. It is assumed that all human beings are rational thinkers hence would always choose to consume products that would give them maximum satisfaction or utility. Mankiw (2011, p. 6) argues that rational people ‘systematically and purposefully do the best to achieve objectives given available opportunity.’ Given a choice among alternatives and with scarce resources, one would evaluate the benefits and costs of consuming an extra unit of a product and would only take a decision only if marginal benefit is greater than marginal cost. In this case, to solve the alcohol abuse problem, one has to consider marginal benefits and marginal costs derived from consuming an extra unit of alcohol and since excessive drinking has more costs than benefits, one would refrain from alcohol. The opportunity cost foregone by choosing to abuse alcohol is too high compared to satisfaction derived; money spent on alcohol can do many other things such as feeding the family, education for children, and investments among others. Besides, the person may have health problems thus adding to the costs. By considering all these factors, a rational person would refrain from alcohol abuse. Heyne (2000) acknowledges the role played by incentives in directing behavior. For him, rational people usually respond to incentives or are induced to act by them. Assuming alcohol abusers are rational, imposing taxes on alcohol substances would eliminate the problem. This would follow the law of demand which states that other things being constant, if the price of a good increase, the quantity demanded of the good decreases. Taxes have the effect of increasing alcohol prices and this would automatically mean that the abusers would desist from alcohol consumption or cut their consumption. Analyze how prescription drugs affect the demand and supply of other products  and services in this country. Prescription drugs are drugs prescribed by a medical officer to a patient and are regulated by legislation unlike the over-the-counter drugs which can be old to anyone. If a patient is under prescription drugs, he/she buys the drugs despite the price of the drugs. An increase or decrease in price of the drugs therefore has little or no effect on the quantity demanded by an individual (McCarthy & Schafermeyer, 2007). The drugs are provided by the National Health Insurance and have no close substitutes. The increase in price of the drugs thus affects all the sectors of healthcare industry such as patients and private insurers. Due to increased costs, the private insurers are forced to increase the cost of their services in case they have to offer such drugs and this may lead to low demand for their services. The patients are also required to get medical prescriptions before obtaining the drugs thus the demand for the medicine may be low compared to over-the-counter drugs. Use of prescription drugs also has an effect on demand for other healthcare services such as hospitalization. The prescription drugs also affect supply of generic products as manufacturers have patents to supply the new drugs for some years. Formulate a reason why elasticity of demand is an important consideration when analyzing the impact of a shift in supply and why the elasticity of supply is an important consideration when analyzing the impact of shift in demand. The price elasticity of demanded which is percentage change in quantity demanded over percentage change in price shows consumers responsiveness to price changes. (McKenzie & Lee, 2006). It is an important consideration when analyzing the impact of a shift in supply and in determining if the firm should raise or lower its price. The supply curve is upward sloping showing a positive relationship between price and quantity supplied other things held constant. However, in long-run, those factors do change causing a shift in supply curve. Such factors include; input prices, technology, expectations and number of sellers in the market. For example, an increase in input prices such as labor would lead to a decrease in supply thus shifting the supply curve to the left. This results in low output which is  not able to satisfy the market demand thus pushing the prices up. An increase in prices according to the law of demand would lead to a fall in demand leading to excess supply and consequently fall in prices until an equilibrium is reached (Mankiw, 2011). However, the fall in quantity demanded will be determined by elasticity of demand. If the product has inelastic demand, an increase in price as a result of shift in supply would have no effect on demand thus suppliers would get more revenue. If demand for the product is elastic, an increase in price would lead to a massive reduction in quantity demanded and consequently lowering of prices and revenue. Shifts in demand curve are caused by other factors that affect demand except price. These include; income, price of related goods, tastes and preferences, expectations and number of buyers (Mankiw, 2011). Elasticity of supply shows the producers’ responsiveness to changes in price and is important in evaluating the impact of a shift in demand. For example, an increase in income would lead to an increase in demand depending on the type of the good thereby shifting the demand curve to the right. If it is an inferior good, an increase in income would lead to decrease in demand shifting the curve to the left. In this case, the good is normal. A shift in demand curve to the right would lead to an increase in price and quantity supplied. However, this is determined by elasticity of supply. If the good is elastic, a small increase in price would lead to a large increase in quantity supplied. This would in effect lead to excess supply forcing the prices to fall thus inducing an increase in quantity demanded but if the supply is inelastic, an increase in price would lead to a small increase in quantity supplied not enough to offset costs hence fall in revenue. Provide two examples of increasing-cost industries in your state and propose why they would have a positively sloped supply curve. According to McEachern (2010) increasing-cost industries occur as a result of entry of new firms due to increase in demand. An increase in demand results in high production costs and the average long-run average cost curve of each firm to shift upwards. The market is competitive and thus new firms enter the industry to share in the abnormal profits made by existing firms. However, as new firms enter, they compete thereby pushing up the production costs leading to low  profit or some firms are forced out of the market. This depends on how far the market supply curve shifts to interact with demand curve. The industry would have a positively sloped supply curve as an indication of the increasing costs. Examples of increasing-cost industries are housing construction and mobile companies which bid up prices for labor and raw materials. Suggest how, under certain conditions, a perfectly competitive market is economically efficient. A perfectly competitive market can’t innovate, because all products are homogeneous and can’t take advantage of cooperation. But if you define efficiency in a particularly useless way and choose only one definition of â€Å"economic efficiency† as well then there are certain conditions under which a perfectly competitive market is â€Å"economically efficient†.

Gary Becker’s Contribution to Family Economics

Gary Becker’s research on economics has also been his life’s work and garnered him the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1992 for â€Å"having extended the domain of the microeconomic Analysis to a wide range of human behavior and interactions, including non-market behavior. † (Federal, p. 1).Becker’s entire life has been spent taking the typical economic approach and extending it to a wider range of social issues. In addition to sheer monetary issues, Becker goes further and shows that individuals, contrary to widely held belief do not operate solely under financial gain and, in fact can show great acts of altruism as well.It has been said that Becker’s analysis should perhaps be known as the theory of rational choice, or purposeful behavior rather than simply as the straight economic approach generally seen. (The Prize p. 1). Becker himself notes that economic analysis can be applied to many issues in our daily social lives, other than the ones we tradi tionally believe to be strictly â€Å"economic. † He further states that â€Å"the horizons of economics need to be expanded. Economists can talk not only about the demand for cars, but also about matters such as the family, discrimination, and religion, and about prejudice, guilt and love.† (Religion p. 1). He very staunchly states that economic imperialism is not the same thing at all as crude materialism and that the idea that the total of a person’s value lies in their material worth has more in common with Marxist analysis than his own. (Religion p. 1). Robert Pollack, a self-stated critic of Becker’s concedes that he is really more of a follower of Becker’s than a critic, and that in all reality Becker put the family on the economic professions research agenda. (Pollack p. 5). The economics of the family is a creation of Gary Becker, and exhibits incredible significance in our lives today. B.Objectives/Hypotheses/Position Becker calls the for m of interdependent preferences within the family â€Å"altruism. † These preferences are introduced by supposing that one spouse is egoistic, while the other is altruistic, or cares both about his or her own consumption as well as the spouse’s utility. Pollack argues that rather than altruistic, the word should be known as â€Å"deferential,† as it is much more descriptive, denoting that, for instance the husband defers to his wife’s preferences regarding her consumption pattern. (Pollack pg. 12). Regardless of the terminology used, we can take Pollack’s model for explanation.Family members often have non-deferential preferences wherein each spouse cares about each other’s consumption habits either instead of or in addition to caring about their own. For the laymen, Pollack lays out Becker’s theory even simpler: A wife may have non-deferential preferences in that she wants her husband to spend more time jogging â€Å"because it†™s good for him,† and less time watching TV. In other words, non-deferential preferences tend to mean that each spouse prefers a different consumption patter for the other spouse, than the other spouse would choose for him/herself. (Pollack p. 14).Becker would state that the altruist, or deferential partner does not give anymore weight to his own well-being or self-interests than he gives to any other family member. Becker typically allows that the head of the household is regarded as an altruistic agent of the interests of all family members. (Pollack p. 14). Martha Nussbaum, a philosopher, finds this theory to be full of holes. Because the typical head of the household is male, Nussbaum feels that Becker’s theory becomes flawed as â€Å"males are often neglectful of the interests of females, whether wives or children, and makes decisions inimical to those interests.† (Pollack p. 14). Whether or not you agree with Nussbaum that the typical male head of househo ld is far from altruistic, or deferential, I think we can all agree that in theory there is generally one altruistic or deferential spouse in a relationship, along with the other who is the non-deferential spouse, or is more concerned with their own financial issues than of those of their spouse. Becker’s deferential preferences as related to parents and children would state that parents were not only concerned with their children’s utilities, but with their consumption patterns as well.In other words, while parents might be willing to pay for college, or perhaps a down payment on their children’s first house, they will be much less inclined to pay for a Hummer, or a trip to Europe. (Pollack p. 16). So the deferential model has parents willing to fund the â€Å"necessities† of life, such as education or a roof over their children’s heads, but are much less likely to want to pay for the frills. C. Methodology Becker’s household production mod el theorizes that households â€Å"combine both time and market goods to produce more basic commodities that directly enter their utility functions.† (Pollack p. 16). This is, of course, based on the assumed absence of joint production in the family as well as the assumed observability and measurability of commodities. Becker denotes â€Å"commodity shadow prices† in his household production model, which is the ratio at which a household can transform one commodity into another. All time and market goods that produce more basic commodities means treating all household functions as commodities. Therefore, time spent cooking, time spent cleaning, time spent helping children with homework all become commodities.Please note, that Becker defines commodities as anything that is observable or measurable, therefore in his model, time spent watching a pay with the children, sleeping, or listening to music is measurable, while stating these same things differently, such as †Å"music appreciation,† makes them unable to be measured or observed. So, the same activity, stated differently might or might not be a commodity. (Pollack p. 19). Becker’s altruistic model in the context of family consisted of a â€Å"brood of egoistic but rational â€Å"kids† and one deferential or altruistic parent.In his â€Å"Rotten Kid Theorem,† Becker notes that â€Å"Each beneficiary, no matter how selfish, maximizes the family income of his benefactor and thereby internalizes all effects of his actions on other beneficiaries. † (Pollack p. 21). Becker frequently uses the wife in the family model as the Rotten Kid, and Pollack’s example is that an altruist (or his selfish beneficiary) would eat with his fingers only when its value to him exceeds the value of the disgust suffered by another family member, or the altruist would read in bed late at night only when its value to him far exceeds the loss of sleep suffered by his spouse.(Pol lack p. 21). D. Innovating Aspects of Paper Becker basically looked upon the family, or the household as a miniature factory which produced services for the members of the household, â€Å"with an input of time and purchased consumer goods, the latter being regarded as intermediate inputs in the production process taking place in the household. † (The Prize p. 1). In this particular context, then, a wage rise can lead to less time-consuming production of services within the household.In other words, the father’s increase in pay might well enable the mother to hire a maid to help with the household chores, thereby freeing up more of her own time for the children or for leisure activities. In a really innovative step, Becker also applied his economic family theories to the area of crime and punishment, making the assumption that except for a certain number of true psychopaths, â€Å"individuals who behave criminally react in predictable ways to different stimuli in the form of benefits and the costs of criminal activities.† (The Prize p. 2). This theory would then offer fairly solid predictions about which groups of citizens could reasonably be expected to commit which types of crime. Studies on this subject have shown that an increase in the probability of being convicted at all is more a deterrent to the would-be criminal than the expectation of a certain level of harshness of punishment. (The Prize, pg. 2). D. Brief Critical Literature Survey Another famous book of Gary Becker’s is entitled â€Å"The Economics ofDiscrimination. † The theory of this book is that discrimination carries certain costs. For example, let’s assume that a certain businessman doesn’t like hiring women, or blacks, or any specific group, for that matter. In our present day highly competitive marketplace this businessman must then bear the cost of his particular discrimination. If he hires a high-wage white worker as opposed to an equally productive but lower-wage female worker, he has then foregone profits that could accrue to his firm.Although he may still decide to discriminate based on his strong feelings about one group or another, essentially the stronger his prejudices, the higher the cost. Although in some situations these costs might be hidden, and even though a competitive market will never completely eliminate discrimination, the market will, in itself, tend to reduce discrimination purely because the company that discriminates must pay the monetary costs associated with discrimination. (Economic p. 3).Becker also discusses Richard Epstein’s book, â€Å"Forbidden Grounds,† calling it a very â€Å"thoughtful book, which raises good questions. † (Economic p. 3). Epstein stresses the difficulties in implementing civil rights legislation, stressing the huge gap between the promise and the practice; Becker agrees with Epstein’s conclusion that there should be no civil rights legislat ion. (Economic p. 4). II. Analysis A. Hypotheses/Model Becker believes his model of household production puts economics into a simpler form that can be more easily understood by the general public.In fact, the American people as a whole tend to be frightened by economics, to the point, Becker says, that when you mention you are an economist, the typical response is that people say they took an economics class in college and either hated it or were terrible at it, or both. Becker believes that we should relax over the whole issue of economics, and that economists should attempt to express economic concepts in simple language, and detail the solving of economics in a straightforward, simple way. (Federal, p. 6).Becker continues by saying that many intellectuals and economists use big words and obscure language when they are writing about economics. â€Å"Sometimes it is a way of disguising that they are not saying a heck of a lot. Of course, some propositions are tougher to express. † (Federal p. 6). The challenge to a writer of economics, or any subject considered by the average person to be difficult, is to give a reasonably intelligent person a feel for the basics, and let their own intellect take it from that point. B. Analytical Discussion of Topic/Model In an interview with Gary Becker, he was asked if it was a true story that the initialInspiration for his work on the economics of crime was found while searching for a parking spot, and he agrees, â€Å"True story. † As he tells the story, he was coming down to Columbus University for an oral exam. He was to ask students a half-hour’s worth of questions on price theory. Becker was living in the suburbs at the time and drove to Columbia. He was running a bit late—never a good thing in New York City with parking spaces at such a premium. Because in those days Columbia had no designated parking for their faculty members, the choice was to either park illegally or go into a parking lot.Realizing how late he was, Becker pondered on the two choices, mentally calculating his chances of getting caught if he parked illegally versus parking a couple of blocks away which would entail a longer walk, as well as costing money. As Becker walked to the exam—a walk that took about ten minutes—he suddenly realized that if he was thinking about his chances of getting caught while parked illegally, that in all likelihood, the police were thinking about the same thing. They must, if they were rational human beings, be thinking about the likelihood of catching someone who was illegally parked.When Becker reached his student’s oral exam, the first question he presented was the one he had been pondering, and while he remembers the student didn’t do to well with an answer, Becker realized what an interesting topic it was, and started working seriously on it from that point out. Becker states that â€Å"I set it up so that society was trying to minimize the expected loss from criminals, taking account of the damage done by the crime, cost of policing, cost of taking somebody to trial, cost of punishment, how much deterrence there would be if criminals expected greater punishment or lesser punishment and so on.† (Federal p. 2). In the end, Becker was grateful to his parking problem, as it led him to one of his most â€Å"famous† theories of crime and economics. C. Theoretical Analysis Gary Becker was a great believer that family law would be a good area in which to do more law and economics work. He notes that family law is often looked down on in law school, not being a field that â€Å"top† people should consider going into, yet the family is such an important institution in society, that family law should certainly garner more respect from the legal industry.Families have been ever-changing, particularly in the last few decades, and now there are more and more areas of family law such as divorce, fertility, c hild care, homosexual marriages, homosexual parenting, marriage contracts, custody provision†¦the list goes on and on. Therefore Becker finds family law an area of great interest, ready to have more law students making it their specialty. Becker feels that family law is clearly one area that can have much more done with it using the tools of laws and economics. (Federal p. 3). D. Experts’ Insights and FindingsPollack finds Becker’s earlier talked about altruistic model as an â€Å"ultimatum game. † Pollack’s example is that the first player, or the proposer, offers a division of a fixed sum of money between himself and the second player. The second player, or the responder, is informed of the proposed division, and must then choose between two alternatives which are: †¢ She can accept the proposed division, in which case both players receive the proposed payoffs, or †¢ She can reject the proposed division, in which case both players receive exactly nothing.Therefore, Pollack reasons, the ultimatum game is a one-shot non-cooperative game in which the â€Å"proposer moves first and confronts the potential recipient with a take it or leave it offer. Commitment is essential to ultimatum games—if the responder rejects the offer, the game ends; the proposer cannot improve his offer. † (Pollack p. 24). E. Regressions/Correlation Analysis/data/tables To relate the above ultimatum game to Becker’s altruistic model, consider the game in which the proposer and the responder divide a fixed sum of money. Further consider that the proposer has egoistic tendencies.Therefore, the proposer offers a division in which he gets the entire sum, and the responder accepts, because she can do no better. If, on the other hand the proposer cares about the responder’s utility, then the proposer is going to offer a division that benefits the responder above himself. F. Findings/Arguments/Evidence The take it or leave i t family ultimatum game provides â€Å"a model in which all Becker’s claims about efficiency, distribution, and family demand functions hold. The altruist attains his most preferred feasible point, subject to the constraint that others receive enough to remain in the family. † (Pollack p. 25).G. Statistical Data/Tables â€Å"Empirical work on pooling began with articles by Duncan Thomas and T. Paul Schultz. † (Pollack p. 33). Thomas showed that kids do better in terms of mortality and morbidity when their mothers control a larger fraction of the family resources. Beck’s alternative theory to this assumption is the â€Å"better mothers† story, or the fact that mothers with more energy and ability are more likely to control a larger fraction of family nonlabor resources, and thus to have kids who do better. Thomas and Shultz, however, do not observe energy or ability. III. Policy Findings and Conclusions A. Basic Findings/SummaryAccording to Pollack, Becker’s economic approach to the family is often believed to imply that certain types of government policies cannot and do not affect allocation within families because they â€Å"will be fully neutralized by individuals’ responses. † (Pollack, p. 39). Both Becker’s altruist model and Rotten Kid Theorem imply that which parent receives the child benefit must be irrelevant, however Pollack feels that the conclusion that parents will neutralize the child benefit â€Å"depends on the assumption that family collective choice is determined by the altruist model, and that preferences exhibit transferable utility.† (Pollack p. 40). B. Policy Recommendations from your findings The role of technology and its place in facilitating the ability of human capital is both critical and important in today’s world. Becker felt that modern economies depend on modern technology, and you can’t have one without the other. Additionally, these various tech nologies are generally produced by people who have lots of human capital. Without that human capital there would not be the opportunity to build and make effective use of technology.Lastly, according to Becker, these new technologies are going to significantly impact the acquiring of this capital. People are beginning to use the various forms of technology to work at home, or earn degrees at home, thereby reducing the cost of gathering many people under one roof. (Manville, p. 3). The possibilities of the new technologies, along with the specific economics of these same technologies offer incredible opportunities for our future. C. Limitations of your study The limitations of the study on Gary Becker’s contributions to Family Economicsexist only in the capacity to devote enough information to each subject in the required amount of space. D. Suggestions for Future Research Reading Gary Becker’s â€Å"Human Capital and Poverty Alleviation† would be my number one s uggestion for future research. Becker believes that the main purpose of economics is to both understand and help alleviate poverty and this issue seems to be one that requires further investigation and study. IV. References: A. Scholarly Books/Journal Articles Pollak, Robert A. 2002. Gary Becker’s Contributions to Family and Household Economics.National Bureau of Economic Research. Cambridge, MA 02138, October 2002. B. WWW. References Becker, Gary S. December 16, 1994. Human Capital and Poverty Alleviation. http://www. worldbank. org/html/extdr/hnp/hddflash/workp/wp_00052. (Accessed June 17, 2006). Becker Honored with Phoenix Prize. April 23, 2001. Economist Wins Prize for Contributions to Social Sciences. http://www. chibus. com/media/storage/paper408/news/2001/04/23/GsbNe ws/Becker. Honor (Accessed June 13, 2006). Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. June, 2002. Interview with Gary Becker. http://minneapolisfed.org/pubs/region/02-06/becker. cfm (Accessed June 15, 2006). Man ville, Brook. 1994. Talking Human Capital with Professor Gary S. Becker, Nobel Laureate. http://www. linezine. com/7. 1/interviews/gbbmthc. htm (Accessed June 12, 2006). Religion and Liberty. March and April 1993. Economic Imperialism. http://www. acton. org/publicat/randl/print_interview. php? id=76 (Accessed June 13, 2006). The Prize in Economic Sciences 1992. The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1992. http://www. nobelprize. org/economics/laureates/1992/presentation-speech(Accessed June 12, 2006). V. Appendix A. Mathematical/statistical elaboration There was little mathematical elaboration in the sources I used, although Pollack used a specific mathematical equation to explain Becker’s household production model. B. Data Data used consisted of both Gary Becker’s writings and interviews as well as the views of other professionals regarding his conclusions. C. Results The results of this paper are to explore Becker’s theories of economics and present the results in a format that is hopefully more easily read by the laymen.