(Book Review) Social policy and practice in Canada Essay

(Book Review) Social policy and practice in Canada - Essay Example This book is truly the first of its kind in regards to this subject matter that has been able to provide an insightful and critical perspective on the entire evolutionary process of social policy in the country. Furthermore, Alvin Finkel proves himself as being an extraordinary author, as he divulges into issues that have never been discussed - or even thought of, in some cases - before. In order to be able to understand this book better, the entire work must be thoroughly examined and discussed, and by doing this we will not only be able to gain a more informed and understanding viewpoint on the literary work itself, but as well on the author and on what his purpose was for writing this book. This is what will be dissertated in the following. Social Policy and Practice is a book which starts off by giving a historical point of view in regards to the history of the social policies that have taken place within Canada, and one of the first issues in particular that he discusses is that of how "Canada's constitutional development reflects the history of Canada itself, its maturation into a self-governing democracy, and the steady advent of new ideas and conditions" (22). It is pointed out that the Constitution has changed considerably over the years and that this has made a strong impact on the country of Canada overall, and that these changes have greatly influenced the different social policies and practices that have come about. Finkel then begins to discuss the actual history of constitutional antecedents, and he makes particular note of the fact that Canada's political and constitutional development actually did not begin with the arrival of the first European settlers, contrary to the majority of the world's beliefs, but rather "Formal constitutional development in Canada began with the Edict creating the Sovereign Council of Quebec in 1663, whereby the French established New France as a royal province and made provision for civil government" (26). He continues for several chapters discussing the actual origin of Canada and the onset of the most basic and most intermediate social policies and practices of the countries, and uses analogies and comparisons between Canada and other industrialized countries in order to show the striking and significant differences that exist here. We can see from this alone that Canada is a country which is really in crisis in this regards, as there are a number of large and imperative issues that are facing the country as a whole. Finkel makes very clear in the very beginning of the book the fact of how important and dire it is to have proper and efficient social policies and practices in any country, and that however there are more problems in this regards with Canada than basically any other industrialized nations. He then begins on the issue of the current social policy review process in Canada, and he states that there is a setting for this current debate on the social policies in Canada which truly parallels that of most other industrialized countries in the world, and that "Common features include a secular growth slowdown topped by a recession in the early 1990s, an aging population requiring higher transfer and health-care expenditures, rising needs and costs associated with the increasing prevalence of the single-parent family, and

Handgun control laws Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Handgun control laws - Research Paper Example Strict laws have brought differing outcomes; in Japan and United Kingdom, it has reduced violence rates but in Mexico and Brazil, it has led to extreme or substantial violence (Miron 1). Stricter handgun controls laws and licensing are necessary to save lives. Since the year 1934, there have been a number of gun control laws such as The Federal Firearms Act (1938), The National Firearms Act (1934), The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (1972), The Firearms Owner Protection Act (1986), and National Instant Criminal Background Check System (2007) (Schwartz 1). In 2011, the Obama Administration began a number of modifications designed to tighten penalties and regulations under the present laws. The changes will entail strengthening of the national electronic system through the collection of new information. This is an effort to make the background checks for buyers of handgun fast and simple. The checks under James Brady law will leave an electronic paper. The law is named after James Brady who was Ronald Reagan’s press secretary; in 1981, he was wounded after an assassination attempt on President Reagan. Other changes include tougher sentencing guidelines for the straw buyers (Solomon and Stone 1). However, in the past few months, the Obama Administration seems to have gone mum on gun control. In the courts, it remains alive despite the fact that it has gone dead politically. Gun control is generally seen as bad politics. In 1993, Bill Clinton passed the Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act, however, after Republicans ended Democrats reign in 1994, Clinton blamed gun control. Since the 1980s, state legislatures have not fared well concerning gun control, for instance, more than 30 states have endorsed laws that make it easy for an individual without a criminal record to receive a permit to possess a concealed weapon (Winkler 1). A number of states have implemented laws that let individuals carry

Germany and the Germans Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Germany and the Germans - Essay Example What initiated the project were the bad incidents that happened in the history of Germany before 1988 and thus some Germans, under the supervision of Lea Rosh the journalist, wanted a public visualization of the history in the form of a sculpture. Eisenman was nominated by the Chancellor Halmet Kohl after much hunt, and the project continued even after Kohl lost the elections. The project was funded by the Parliament. The theme behind the creation of this memorial was to officially acknowledge the fact that the German government in the past had committed genocide against the Europian Jews; that the Jews were made to go through hard times through victimization; and, that the coming generations may be able to remember the violence that was seen during the Hitler’s era. The center of Berlin was also chosen with the same objective that it should be remembered as the Nazis had planned to commit genocide against the Jews at that place. Serra had left in the middle of the sculptureâ €™s creation due to some conflicts about the development of the project. Eisenman successfully completed the project and very efficiently dealt with the conflicts and controversies that arose during the project.

Enhancement of Photocatalytic Overall Water Splitting

Enhancement of Photocatalytic Overall Water Splitting Enhancement of photocatalytic overall water splitting on H1.9K0.3La0.5Bi0.1Ta2O7 by loading Pt, Rh(oxide) as co-catalysts Wei Chen, Hui Wang, Liqun Mao, Xiaoping Chen, Wenfeng Shangguan Abstract: Pt and Rh were loaded on protonated layered pervoskite H1.9K0.3La0.5Bi0.1Ta2O7 by an in suit photodeposition method. The Rh loading facilitates the O2 evolution and the H2/O2 is close to stoichiometric ratio (≈ 2). Yet the Pt loading is unable to improve the O2 evolution, although the photocatalytic activity for H2 evolution was enhanced apparently. The different effect of Pt and Rh on phtocatalytic activity for H2 or O2 evolution is due to the chemical states of Pt and Rh on HKLBT. The Pt particles loaded on HKLBT by photodepositon are Pt0, functioning as activity sites for H2 evolution. However, the Rh particles loaded on HKLBT are not only Rh0, but also RhO2, which provide the activity sites for O2 evolution by means of reducing the overpotential of O2 evolution. 1 Introduction Photocatalytic water splitting has attracted much attention in the past decades for producing clean and renewable hydrogen energy[1-3]. The photocatalytic water splitting contains both water reduction process(for H2) and water oxidation(for O2) process. Currently, the water oxidation process is consider as a key bottleneck in photocatalytic reaction[4]. The difficulty of water oxidation is due to the high overpotential of O2 evolution, which is attributed to charge trapping by surface states and slow oxygen evolution kinetics[5-7]. This is also explaining why some photocatalytic reactions in pure water only produce H2 without O2 (or H2/O2>2). Therefore, providing the activity sites for oxygen evolution to reduce the overprotential is a key task on overall water splitting. It has reported that co-catalysts such as NiO[8], RuO2[9], Mn2O3[10] loading on photocatalysts play an very important role on achieving overall water splitting by mean of providing the activity sites or inhibiting t he occurrence of backward reaction. However, almost all of metal oxides loading on photocatalytic materials need heat-treatment, which is harmful to some materials with less heat-resistant, such as protonated layered materials[11], metal (oxy)sulfide[12] and metal (oxy)nitride[13], etc. Recently, Kudo et al[14] loaded PbO2 from Pb2+ by a photodeposition method without heat-treatment, indicating that oxides also are loaded by oxidation of photogenerated holes, which will provide us with a feasible way to load metal oxides on photocataytic materials by a photodeposition method. In our previous study, we found that, although protonated layered perovskite H1.9K0.3La0.5Bi0.1Ta2O7 showed high activity for overall water splitting, the ratio of H2/O2 was stoichiometric[15,16]. In addition, H1.9K0.3La0.5Bi0.1Ta2O7 (HKLBT) possesses weak heat endurance and the heat-treatment would result the collapse of layer structure. Herein, we report Rh oxide loading on HKLBT by in suit photodepositon to provide the activity sites for Oxygen evolution and enhance photocatalytic water splitting. The chemical sates of Pt, Rh loading on HKLBT are investigated. The effects of co-catalysts on water splitting, especially for oxygen evolution, are also discussed. 2 Experimental 2.1 Preparation of materials The protonated layered perovskite oxides H1.9K0.3La0.5Bi0.1Ta2O7was prepared according to the method presented in our previous papers[15]. The detail processes are as follows: (1)The layered compound K0.5La0.5Bi2Ta2O9 were prepared by the polymerized complex method as follows. 60 mL methanol was used as a solvent to dissolve 0.006 mol of TaCl5. A large excess of citric acid (CA, 0.09 mol) was added into the methanol solution with continuous stirring. After achieving complete dissolution, 0.006 mol Bi(NO3)3 ·5H2O, 0.0015 mol La(NO3)3 ·nH2O, and 0.00825 mol K2CO3 were added to the solution. The mixture was then magnetically stirred for 1 h to afford a transparent solution and 0.36 mol of ethylene glycol (EG) was added to this solution. Then, the solution was heated at 130  ºC to promote esterification between EG and CA, yielding brown resin. The resin was then calcined at 350 oC for 1 h to form black solid mass. The resulting black powder was calcined on an Al2O3 plate at 650  ºC for 2 h in air, then calcined at 900  ºC for 6 h to obtain K0.5La0.5Bi2Ta2O9 (denoted as KLBT). (2) Proton exchange reaction: KLBT (0.8g) was performed in 250 mL of 3 M HCl solution for 72 h at room temperature with replacement of the acid every 24 h, and then the product was washed with deionized water and dried at 60  ºC for 3 h to remove the water on the surface of potocatalysts to obtain HKLBT. 2.2 Characterizations The UV-vis diffuse reflection spectra (DRS) were determined by a UV-vis spectrophotometer UV-2450 (Shimadzu, Japan) and were converted to absorbance by the Kulbelka-Munk method. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements were conducted using a JEM-2100F (Japan). The surface electronic state was analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS, Shimadzu-Kratos, Axis Ultra DLD, Japan). All the binding energy (BE) values were calibrated by using the standard BE value of contaminant carbon (C1s =284.6 eV) as a reference. 2.3 In suit photodeposition and photocataltyic reaction The in suit photodeposition and photocatalytic reactions were carried out in a 350 ml top irradiation reaction Quartz cell at room temperature and a 250 W high-press Hg lamp was used as the light source. The catalyst powder (50 mg) was suspended in 60 ml aqueous solution containing a certain amount of (NH3)4PtCl2 and Rh(NO3)2 solution by magnetic stirring. At initial stage (about 2 h), Pt or Rh species were gradually deposited on the surface of HKLBT. After 2 h, generated gases were analyzed by an on-line GC with TCD detector (Huaai, GC9160, China, MS-5A, argon Argon as carrier gas). 3 Results and discussion 3.1 UV-vis DRS The UV-vis diffuse reflection spectra (DRS) of naked HKLBT and Pt (Rh)/HKLBT photocatalyts are shown in Fig 1. The absorption edges of HKLBT loading Pt or Rh have no notable change. However, after in suit photodeposition, the spectrum longer than 320nm exhibit new weak absorptions, which are ascribe to the adsorption of Pt or Rh(oxides) on the surface of HKLBT. The result indicates co-catalysts loaded on photocatalyst successfully as well. 3.2 TEM and XPS analysis The representative HRTEM images of Rh/HKLBT and Pt/HKLBT are shown in Fig 2. Fig 2a shows that the size of the Rh on HKLBT is about 5-10 nm. The lattice fringes of Rh and HKLBT can be observed clearly, suggesting the well-defined crystal structure. The lattice fringes with d spacing of ca. 0.251 nm and 0.184 nm can be assigned to the (101) lattice plane of RhO2 and (002) lattice plane of Rh0, respectively. The result is indicatinged that Rh particles photodeposited on HKLBT contain two different Rh species. The fig 2b shows the lattice fringe with d value of ca. 0.197 nm corresponds to the (200) lattice plane of Pt0, suggesting that Pt2+ was photo-reduced to Pt metal by photogenerated electrons instead of being oxideted by holes. The chemical states of Rh and Pt species on HKLBT photocatalysts were investigated by the XPS. Fig 3 shows the Rh 3d (a) and Pt 4f (b) binding energy spectra of Pt/HKLBT and Rh/HKLBT. As shown in Fig 3a, the Rh 3d5/2 XPS spectrum displays broad peaks and has been fitted to two overlapped peaks at ca 307.2 eV and 309.2 eV. The low binding energy at 307.2 eV is attributed to the Rh0[17], and the high binding energy at 309.2 eV is ascribed to RhO2[18], demonstrating further Rh photodeposited on HKLBT possesses two chemical states. The result is good agreement with the HRTEM result. The spectrum for the Pt7/2 (Fig 3b) exhibits two major peaks with binding energies of ca. 70.8 and 72.3 eV, which are assigned to Pt0 and Pt0 with adsorbed oxygen(Pt0-Oads) based on the previous report by kimi et al[19]. Photocatalytic water splitting activities of Pt/HKLB and Rh/HKLBT(à ¥Ã‚ ¤Ã‚ §Ãƒ ¤Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ®) Table 1 lists the rates of H2 and O2 on HKLBT loaded with different amounts of Pt-cocatalyst and Rh-catalyst by photodepositon method. As shown in table1, the photocataytic activity of HKLBT was improved by Pt or Rh loading. The highest hydrogen evolution rate was obtained when the amount of cocatalytsts was 0.3wt%, which reached the 2.0 times (Pt) and 1.2 times(Rh) of naked photocatalyst, indicating cocatalysts provide catalytic active sites for water splitting. Excess loading of cocatalysts caused a decrease of photocatalytic activityà ¯Ã‚ ¼Ã…’because the excessive Pt or Rh loaded on HKLBT would not only block the absorption to light photon but become the recombination centers of carriers as well[20]. Moreover, it is noteworthy that Pt loading enhanced remarkably the photocatalytic activity of H2 evolution instead of O2 evolution, and the H2/O2 is also deviating from the stoichiometric ratio. Instead, the photocataytic O2 production is considerably promoted by Rh loading and the ratio of H2 to O2 is close to 2, when the amount of Rh loading is 0.3 wt%. If photocatalytic reaction occurred, the photocatalytic materials not only need to meet requirement of energy, but also have enough activity sites for H2 and O2 evolution. Generally, during an overall water splitting reaction, active sites of O2 evolution are more important than that of hydrogen evolution, due to high overpotential of O2 evolution of photocatalyst[4]. It has been reported, some metal oxides cocatalysts, such as RuO2, IrO2, are good candidates as cocatalysts for enhancing O2 evolution by reducing the overpotential of O2 evolution[9,21]. Valdà ©s er al[22]also reported that the overpotentials of O2 evolution on RuO2, IrO2 and RhO2 were relative low (2 evolution from the surface of the photocatalysts. In our study, Pt0 particles photocdeposited on HKLBT only function as activity sites for H2 evolution, while the activity sites for O2 evolution are insufficiency as well. In contrast, Rh species loaded on HKLBT was not only reduced by electrons to Rh0, but oxidated by ho les to RhO2, which is benefit to O2 evolution. To further demonstrate the effect of RhO2 on O2 evolution, the photocatalytic O2 evolution of HKLBT, Pt/HKLBT and Rh/HKLBT in FeCl3 aqueous solution was carried out(Fig 4). As shown in Fig4, It can be clearly observed that the photocatalytic O2 evolution of Rh/HKLBT is higher than that of both Pt/HKLBT and naked HKLBT, indicting that RhO2 functions as an O2 evolution promoter indeed[23]. Conclusion The Rh oxide (RhO2) was loaded on HKBT by in suit photodeposition method without heat-treatment. Compared to Pt, the Rh oxide on the surface of the HKLBT is able to enhance the photocatalytic O2 evolution, and the ratio of H2 to O2 is stoichiometric ratio (H2/O2=2). The enhancement of O2 is due to the decrease of overpotential of O2 evolution by means of RhO2. The present work is also providing a possibility without heat-treatment to load metal oxides on photocatalyst with low heat stability for overall water splitting. Acknowledgements This work was supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (2012AA051501), the National Key Basic Research and Development Program (2009CB220000)à ¯Ã‚ ¼Ã…’the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51072116) and the International Cooperation Project of Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission (12160705700). Reference [1] A Kudo , Y Miseki. Chemical Society Reviews 38 (2009) 253-278 [2] X Chen, S Shen, L Guo, S Mao, Chemical review 110 (2010) 6503-6570 [3] K Maeda, Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology C: Photochemistry Reviews 12 (2011) 237-268 [4] M Kanan, D Nocera, Science 321 (2008) 1072-1075 [5] Z Fang, D Dixon, Journal of Physical Chemistry C 117( 2013) 3539-3555 [6] A Vojvodic, J Nà ¸rskov, Science 334 (2011) 1355-1356 [7] Y Li, Z Liu, L Liu, W Gao, Journal of American Chemical Society 132 (2010) 13008-13015 [8] T Townsend, N Browning, F Osterloh. ACS NANO 6 (2012) 7420-7426 [9] LM Martà ­nez, R Gà ³mez, V Cuchillo, J Ramà ­rez, A Cruz-Là ³pez, FJ Alejandre-Sandoval, Catalysis Communications 12 (2010) 268-272 [10] K Maeda, A Xiong, T Yoshinaga, T Ikeda, N Sakamoto, T Hisatomi, M Takashima, D Lu, M Kanehara, T Setoyama, T Teranishi, K Domen, Angewandte International Edition Chemie 49 (2010) 4096-4099 [11] Y Tsunoda, M Shirata, W Sugimoto, Z Liu, O Terasaki, K Kuroda, Y Sugahara, Inorganic Chemistry 40 (2001) 5768-5771 [12] X Chen, W Chen, P Lin, Y Yang, H Gao, J Yuan, W Shangguan. Catalysis Communications 36 (2013) 104-108 [13] A Kasahara, K Nukumizu, G Hitoki, T Takata, J Kondo, M Hara, H Kobayshi, K Domen, Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 106 (2002) 6750-6753 [14] Y Miseki, H Kato, A Kudo, Energy Environmental Science 2 (2009) 306-314 [15] W Chen, C Li, H Gao, J Yuan, W Shangguan, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 37 (2012) 12846-12851 [16] W Chen, H Gao, Y Yang, P Lin, J Yuan, W Shangguan, J Su, S Zhou, Acta Physico-Chimica Sinica 28 (2012) 2911-2916 [17] C Yu, K Yang, W Zhou, Q Fan, L Wei, J Yu, Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids 74 (2013) 1714-1720 [18] Z Weng-Sieh, R Gronsky, A Bell, Journal of Catalysis 170 (1997) 62-74 [19] K Kim, N Winograd, R Davis, Journal of the American Chemical society 17 (1971) 6278-6279 [20] X Zong, J Han, G Ma, H Yan, G Wu, C Li, Journal of Physical Chemistry C 115 (2011) 12202-12208 [21] E Sabio, R Chamousis, N Browning, F Osterloh. Journal of Physical Chemistry C 116 (2012) 3161-3170 [22] à  Valdà ©s, J Brillet, M Grà ¤tzel, H Gudmundsdà ³ttir, H Hansen, H Jà ³nsson, P Klà ¼pfel, G Kroes, F Formal, I Man, R Martins, J Nà ¸rskov, J Rossmeisl, K Sivula, A Vojvodic, M Zà ¤ch, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 14 (2012) 49-70 [23] A Iwase, H Kato, A Kudo, Applied Catalyisi B: Environmental 136-137 (2013) 89-93 Fig 1 UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra of naked HKLBT, Pt/HKLBT and Rh/HKLBT Fig 2 TEM images of Rh/HKLBT (a) and Pt/HKLBT (b) Fig 3 XPS spectra for Rh 3d and Pt 4f of 0.3wt%Rh/HKLBT and 0.2wt%Pt/HKLBT Table 1 Photocatalytic overall water splitting on Pt/HKLBT and Rh/HKLBT Co-catalyst Loading content(wt%) Gas evolution (ÃŽ ¼mol ·h-1)a H2 O2 H2/O2 ratio none 122.8 33.7 3.6 Pt 0.1 163.40 51.9 3.2 Pt 0.3 242.7 72.5 3.3 Pt 0.5 210.8 72.9 2.9 Rh 0.1 133.5 39.0 3.4 Rh 0.3 146.1 67.9 2.1 Rh 0.5 65.3 31.2 2.1 Photocatlaytic reaction conditions: 50 mg catalyst, 250 W high pressure Hg lamp (ÃŽ »>200 nm), 60 ml pure water a Average rate of H2 and O2 in 4 h Fig 5 Photocatalytic O2 evolution from FeCl3 aqueous solution over naked HKLBT, Pt/HKLBT and Rh/HKLBT (30 mg catalytst, 250 W high pressure Hg lamp, 60 ml 0.05 mol/L FeCl3 )

Zeitoun Essay

Despite warnings of evacuation, Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian-American owner of a painting and contracting company in New Orleans, chose to stay when hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. During his canoe trip journey after Katrina, Zeitoun encountered many people who were trapped in their homes and in need of his help. Risking his life to save others, Zeitoun was falsely accused of stealing and dealing drugs because of his race. In Zeitoun, Dave Eggers portrays the view that America has towards Muslim people and how people are treated unjustly simply because of how they look.A few days after Katrina hit, the levees broke, leaving the trapped civilians in shock and poverty. People who remained in the city had little resources, causing many people to break into other homes and stores to find whatever they can to survive. Zeitoun sailed on his canoe around the city and helped people who were trapped in their homes, including two dogs that were left behind by their owners. He felt that he was unable to leave his business because he felt responsible for the damaged houses throughout the duration of the storm.Also, Zeitoun felt that his home was â€Å"worth fighting for† (70) Zeitoun believed that by staying in New Orleans, he felt as if this opportunity was given to him by God to help the people who were still trapped in the city. The National Guards showed up at Zeitoun’s house with guns, assuming that Zeitoun and his friends were part of the Al Qaeda. The guards forcefully tackled them to the ground and arrested them. The National Guards did not inform them why they were being arrested and taken into custody.Zeitoun was taken to an interrogation room where he was stripped naked and his rectum searched for imported goods. They were forced to sleep on the ground and could not touch the jail bars or there would be consequences. Zeitoun was accused of terrorist activity, thus he and his friends were treated inhumanly. During the brutal treatment in jail, Z eitoun had splinters on his foot and asked for medical attention, but his request was denied without consideration due to his status. Eventually, his splinter got worse and he had to perform a medical procedure by cutting the splinter out himself.The soldiers and police in charge of the city after the hurricane arrested anyone who looked remotely suspicious and even those who did not. Instead of serving the public by helping them in the days following the hurricane, they took the civilians to the Greyhound bus station where they dispensed people into cages. Zeitoun and his companions were denied their rights, including the right to make a phone call. Knowing his constitutional rights, Zeitoun makes desperate pleas to the guards to have the opportunity to call his wife, Kathy, in Arizona. However, Zeitoun is repeatedly met with answers such as, â€Å"Phone's don't work.You guys are terrorists. You're Taliban. † (222) Based on how they looked, they were treated as terrorists an d the law seemingly did not apply to them. When Zeitoun’s wife, Kathy, finds out that he was arrested, she did not give up fighting until he was out of jail. Kathy did everything she could to get her husband out of jail. Kathy found a lawyer and found out exactly where Zeitoun was. When Kathy came to see Zeitoun, Raleigh, Zeitoun’s lawyer told her that it would cost $75,000 to bail her husband out. The price would have been lower if Zeitoun was not charged of being a terrorist.Zeitoun was wrongly treated because he seemed to be different from everyone else, due to his ethnicity, heritage, and beliefs. The National Security were afraid that Zeitoun was a terrorists that would put the country into turmoil. The soldiers and police abused their powers and treated people that are different with brutality. Dave Eggers was trying to show the reader how people can be wrongly punished based on their background, race, culture, and religions even if they mean no harm. Dave Eggerà ¢â‚¬â„¢s book illustrates how people tend to jump into conclusions and make fast assumptions of others without getting to know them.

Development of American economic system

Economics is defined as the way the services to produce goods are allocated among alternative uses to satisfy human wants. In short, economics is the output of goods and services that society needs and wants. The history of the United States economy is one of growth. The amount of goods and services that the United States produces annually has grown significantly in the last 100 years. The American economic system, including modern developments and trends, are important to American society. The American economic system follows an outline for it to be successful.An economic system must determine what and how much product society is producing and how each service and good is to be produce. It must also determine how the services and goods are to be distributed to members of society and what â€Å"the rate of growth per capita income† will be. (Mansfield and Behravesh, 1998, p 24) The economic system must find out what its factories are putting into stores, how much is being put into stores, how much it will cost to get these products and services into the hands of Americans, and how much money society will make as a whole because of these products and services.This is a simple system of what goes out must be replaced by something equally as valuable. The United States will gladly give Americans what they need, however, those Americans need to trade cash for it so the workers who made those products can do the same for themselves and their families. In essence, it could be considered a barter system, but instead of trading goods for other goods, Americans trade cash for goods. Modern developments have become extremely important in the American economic system. For example, international trade is a modern development that plays a very important role.Many American industries depend on other countries for raw materials such as coffee, tin, or tea. American exports account for ten percent of its gross domestic product. American society and way of life would hav e to change drastically if trading with other countries was not an option. (Mansfield and Behravesh, 1998) Financial transactions in the form of revolving credit cards is another important modern development. Although the use of credit began during the time of the Pilgrims, the use of revolving credit cards is a modern development. Credit, as Americans know it today, began in the late 1800s with the advent of credit tokens.This made it faster and easier to extend credit instead of looking up individual information. In the 1950's, the revolving credit card came into use. People could now borrow money, repay it, and borrow again without having to be approved for a line of credit each time. Today, these credit cards are an easy way to pay for goods and services, and it is used more often than cash. Americans buy everything on credit, including clothing, food, and entertainment. Take away American's use of credit, and the economy would come to a grinding halt. (â€Å"The History of Cre dit & Debit: History of Credit Cards.†, 2009)In conclusion, America's economic system is a simple one, however, modern developments have complicated it somewhat. International trade and the use of credit in general and revolving credit cards are extremely important because these developments keep the country growing and moving forward. Many Americans drive foreign cars and drink foreign coffee, a result of international trade. Many Americans use credit to buy houses and food, a result of the advent of credit. Without these developments, American society as the Americans know it would change drastically, creating unnecessary hardship.

Free Essays on Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton began his impressive career in March of 1777 after meeting General George Washington. He joined Washington’s’ personal staff, as his personal secretary and confidential aide. Hamilton proved his loyalty to Washington on more then one occasion, but as the need for the military diminished so did Hamilton. On December 14, 1780, he married Elizabeth Schuyler and established a life with eight children. After studying law for three months in Albany he opened a law office on 57 Wall Street. He also served congress from 1782 to 1783. He also founded the bank of New York in February of 1784. During George Washington’s presidency, Hamilton became the first secretary of the Treasury. He was now responsible for establishing credit of the United States. Hamilton sometimes overstepped the limits of his office interfering with other departments. For example, a difference in opinion with Jefferson during the French Revolution. Hamilton advocated neutrality, wh ich Washington accepted and on April 22, 1793 announced that they would remain neutral during the conflict overseas. On January 31, 1795 Hamilton resigned from his position as the Secretary of Treasury and went back to his law firm in New York. On July 25, 1798 at the age of forty-three he returned to active duty in the military under the supervision of Washington. He served in the army until June 2, 1800. After Washington’s death the Federalist Party became divided between John Adams and Alexander Hamilton. After Adams became President Hamilton wrote a personal attack on the president that contained much confidential cabinet information. Although this pamphlet was only intended for private usage the pamphlet was obtained by Aaron Burr and published, Hamiltons’ political and legal rival. Hamilton had done a few things to make Burr upset with him, first he demolished burrs hopes of completing a foreign mission. He ended Burrs hopes of becoming pres... Free Essays on Alexander Hamilton Free Essays on Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton was brilliant businessman who came into the Treasury department with many ideas on how to stabilize the struggling American economy. He was a thirty-four year old native of the West Indies, who was a crucial part of President Washington's cabinet. His ideas and philosophies helped to pave th4e way for the Bank of America and the Treasury. As one of his first acts as Secretary of Treasury, Hamilton was determined to reverse the financial problems that plagued the government and country under the recently revised Articles of Confederation. His plan involved favoring the wealthier members of society, who would in turn give money and moral support to the government. The government would then prosper and the benefits would be reaped by all. Hamilton was also dead set on sustaining the national credit. He needed the support of the masses in order to advance his economic plans. His plan of action in this case was "funding at par," which involved the federal government paying off its debts at face value, plus accumulated interest, which came to a total of fifty-four million dollars, a very substantial amount of money at that time. While still backing his national debt plans, Hamilton also suggested that Congress pay the debts of the individual states, equaling some twenty-one million dollars. This idea of "assumption" was believed by Hamilton to be an obligation of Congress because the debts occurred during the country's fight for independence. Hamilton also believed that paying off the State's debts would create more unity in among the States. With the government trying to pay both national, and local state debts, they shortly fell into a seventy-five million dollar overall debt. Hamilton did not see this as a problem, but more of an advantage to the growing American economy. His philosophy was that the more countries that America owed money, the more people who h... Free Essays on Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton began his impressive career in March of 1777 after meeting General George Washington. He joined Washington’s’ personal staff, as his personal secretary and confidential aide. Hamilton proved his loyalty to Washington on more then one occasion, but as the need for the military diminished so did Hamilton. On December 14, 1780, he married Elizabeth Schuyler and established a life with eight children. After studying law for three months in Albany he opened a law office on 57 Wall Street. He also served congress from 1782 to 1783. He also founded the bank of New York in February of 1784. During George Washington’s presidency, Hamilton became the first secretary of the Treasury. He was now responsible for establishing credit of the United States. Hamilton sometimes overstepped the limits of his office interfering with other departments. For example, a difference in opinion with Jefferson during the French Revolution. Hamilton advocated neutrality, w hich Washington accepted and on April 22, 1793 announced that they would remain neutral during the conflict overseas. On January 31, 1795 Hamilton resigned from his position as the Secretary of Treasury and went back to his law firm in New York. On July 25, 1798 at the age of forty-three he returned to active duty in the military under the supervision of Washington. He served in the army until June 2, 1800. After Washington’s death the Federalist Party became divided between John Adams and Alexander Hamilton. After Adams became President Hamilton wrote a personal attack on the president that contained much confidential cabinet information. Although this pamphlet was only intended for private usage the pamphlet was obtained by Aaron Burr and published, Hamiltons’ political and legal rival. Hamilton had done a few things to make Burr upset with him, first he demolished burrs hopes of completing a foreign mission. He ended Burrs hopes of becoming pres...