The Transcontinental Railroad Essay -- Transportation, Railroad Compa

The Transcontinental railroad could be defined as the most monumental change in America in the 19th century. The railroad played a significant role in westward expansion and on the growth and development of the American economy (Gillon p.653). However, the construction of the transcontinental railroad may not have occurred if not for the generous support of the federal government. The federal government provided land grants and financial subsidies to railroad companies to ensure the construction. The transcontinental railroad contributed to the formation of industry and the market economy in America and forever altered the American lifestyle. The Pacific Railroad bill of 1862 launched the transcontinental railroad construction project. The Pacific Railroad bill granted 6,400 acres of public lands and government loans ranging from $16,000 to $48,000 per mile of track completed to the Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad companies. (Pacific Railroad Bill) Following the Pacific Railroad bill a series of federal and state acts between 1862 and 1871 granted more than 130 million acres of public land and supplied additional monetary loans of approximately $150 million dollars to the expansion of the railroads. (Gillon p.652) There is no refuting that the railroad companies transformed business operations and encouraged industrial expansion. The raw materials required for construction of the transcontinental railroad directly resulted in the expansion of the steel, lumber and stone industries. (Gillon p.652) The railroad stimulated growth in manufacturing and agriculture providing an efficient manner to ship raw materials and products throughout the country. Which in turn, increased consumerism and introduced t... ...ich developed new corporations. (Gillon p.652) Many in the railroad industry and these newly developed corporations were accused of price fixing, providing illegal kick- backs and challenging government regulations. (Gillon p.652-657) Thus, one could argue that the railroad industry and the titans it produced had a monopolistic approach to business that actually challenged the free market system. In the end, the transcontinental railroad changed the American landscape both physically and culturally. It formed the foundation for the industrial economy, it produced new business practices and management style of large workforces. It helped established government regulations, taxation and support of public transportation. Above all it drastically changed the American lifestyle, changed where people lived, how they shopped, how they ate, and how they worked.

The Scarlet Sharer :: essays research papers

The Secret Sharer written by Joseph Conrad, centers around a character of a sea captain. Its title and opening paragraphs forecast a story of mystery, isolation, duality, darkness and silence. The novel proves true these predictions reveling thematic and image patterns directly proportional to them. The opening of the novel further reveals dialectics in the novel. The clash between the private and the public world or man versus society, in other words is the primary dialectic. The journey theme or the rite of passage theme also reveal themselves. We see a young and inexperienced captain grow and explore himself and the world around him, and in the process becoming a functional member of a society. The novella may be only fifty pages long but its words speak volumes.The first indication of a course that a novel may take is its title. The three little words contained in the title give rise to many interpretations. An image generated by the title could be that of a gossip. Since a gossip is someone who tells people's secrets, or in other words is a secret sharer if the word secret is taken for a noun, it is a possibility that this image might come to mind. Another image is that of a person who shares in secrecy, therefore becoming a secret sharer, if the word secret is taken for an adjective. This could be an image of a miser, who generally does not share his wealth, but does so only in secrecy. A secret sharer could also be an imaginary friend. It would be a person who is secretive, and you share your thoughts with them. A Biblical interpretation of the secret sharer could be that of the snake in the garden of Eden. Since the snake shares the ultimate secret of knowledge with Adam and Eve, it could be considered a secret sharer.The connotations of the two main words in the title show a contradiction. A secret has a mysterious somewhat evil connotation, while a sharer has a benevolent and good connotation. This gives rise to a possibility of a good and evil dialectic. The denotation of secret is something kept private, sharing is, however, a public act. This brings to light the dialectic of the public versus the private world.The opening paragraphs bring to life the world of the work. The place where the characters move and have their being is a sail ship in this novel.

The Process of an Earthquake

Have you ever wondered what has to happen to make the Earth quake? British engineer John Michell did. He was one of the first fathers of seismology and was also the first to correctly state what the cause of earthquakes was. In 1960, Michell noted that â€Å"earthquakes and the waves of energy that they make are caused by shifting masses of rock, miles below the surface† in a scientific memoir (USGS, 32). In order for you to completely understand the process of an earthquake you must first understand the process of how an earthquake is measured.An earthquake may not be able to be predicted at the moment but the intensity and magnitude of the earthquake can be measured and categorized. This is done using the Richter magnitude scale. The Richter magnitude scale was developed as a mathematical instrument to compare the size of earthquakes in 1935 by Charles Francis Richter. He was able to recognize that the seismic waves radiated by all earthquakes can provide good estimates of t heir magnitude (Richter). A seismograph is what is used to measure the amount of energy that an earthquake releases as well as the magnitude of the earthquake.It is a logarithmic scale, which means that the numbers on the scale measures factors of 10, so each whole number unit represents a tenfold increase in amplitude. The energy that is measure is about 32 times greater than the next smaller whole number. Using this scale, a magnitude 5 earthquake would result in ten times the level of ground shaking as magnitude 4 earthquakes. Think of it in relation to the energy that is released by explosives. A magnitude 1 seismic wave releases as much energy as blowing up 1 ounce of TNT, which is the equivalent of slamming a large rock onto a table.A magnitude 8 earthquake releases as much energy as detonating 1 million tons of TNT (Richter). An earthquake measuring more than 6. 0 can cause detrimental damage (see fig. 1). The biggest quake in the world since 1900 scored a 9. 5 on the Richter scale in May of 1960. More than 2,000 people were killed, 3,000 injured, 2,000,000 were left homeless, and there was over $500 million worth of damages to southern Chili (Pararas). Whenever there is an earthquake, the layers of the earth grind past one another causing the ground all around to rumble and shake, resulting in severe damage.The Earth is forged of four main layers: the inner core, the outer core, the mantle and the crust. The crust and the mantle are merely the skin to the earth’s surface. This skin is unlike our skin, though. It consists of many pieces that can slowly move past one another. These puzzle-like pieces are called tectonic plates. The edges of the tectonic plates are known as plate boundaries. Plate boundaries have many faults with very rough and jagged edges that can get stuck together. The majority of the world’s earthquakes occur on these faults.When the plates continue to try to move, the edges of the plate boundaries violently unstick, re sulting in the sudden release of energy in all directions. This energy becomes seismic waves, which act like ripples on a pond. The Earth shakes as these seismic waves move through it, and when the waves rip through the earth’s surface, the ground and anything on it shakes terribly (USGS, Science). This can be felt for miles away. The longest earthquake ever recorded originated from the center of the Indian Ocean in December of 2004.It was reported as a 9. 5 on the Richter scale after 3 months, and was measured at a whopping 800 miles, which is about the distance from Houston, Texas to Atlanta, Georgia (Longest). It created the biggest gash in the Earth’s seabed ever. That same earthquake also created horrible conditions such as the Tsunami at Sumatra which caused 61 deaths, and $75 million in damages in Hawaii. There are three different types of plate boundaries; impact zones, spreading zones, and slipping zones.Furthermore, there are two different kinds of impact zon es. One type is when oceanic crust hits continental crust causing a boundary deduction to happen. With the oceanic crust being denser than the continental crust, it withdraws beneath the continental crust. The oceanic crust then melts as it goes under the continental crusts due to the friction of the crusts rubbing against one another. The pressure of the heat causes the melted rock to rise up through faults in the continental crust. This is what causes a volcano to erupt.Another type of impact zone is where one crust is pushed upwards when two continental crusts collide. Mountain ranges are formed this way. The world’s greatest land mountain range, the Himalaya-Karakorum in Asia is the spawn of two continental crusts colliding (USGS, 11). When two plates are moving apart along mid-ocean ridges, a spreading zone occurs. This is when two tectonic plates are moving away from each other and is forming a new crust from the rising magma that is released from the Earth’s cor e.An oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Seattle lab, Edward T Baker says, â€Å"A spreading zone can be considered as a â€Å"linear volcano† with vent holes occurring at various points along its meandering crest†. (Raloff). Earth's mid-ocean ridge is one near-continuous zone of spreading seafloor. When one plate grinds past another plate it is known as a slipping zone. Slips along the faults in the crust allow stress from the grinding to be released. These fault slips are what cause earthquakes. Just when you might believe that an earthquake is over, you could be mistaken.Earthquakes are capable of having aftershocks that can last several years. The New Madrid fault quake of December 16, 1811 in the United States had reported ground shaking for 24 hours. Occasional severe shaking and disruptions lasted for weeks and aftershocks were felt up until 1817 (USGS, Historic). An aftershock is a smaller earthquake that happens in the same a rea of the original earthquake. As the crust around the displaced fault plane adjusts to the changes that occurred, aftershocks will follow, until the Earth has settled back in place.The final piece of the process of an earthquake is the aftermath. The aftermath is the devastation that an earthquake or any other type of disaster can leave in its wake. When the ground ruptures from the shaking caused by an earthquake, it can result in damage to bridges, dams, roads, railroad tracks, and the foundation of buildings. They can also cause landslides and avalanches as well. Another major cause of damage is when power lines are ripped down and gas lines rupture; this can most likely cause fires.Also, soil liquefaction is very common in earthquakes. It occurs when water-saturated granular material, like sand, momentarily loses its strength and turns from a solid to a liquid. In the 1964 Alaskan earthquake soil liquefaction was the cause of many buildings and bridges sinking to the ground, g radually collapsing upon one another (Dubner). Even undersea earthquakes can create tsunamis that have the possibility to cause extreme damage along the coast. 75 million Americans are in significant danger of being a victim to an earthquake.According to the United States Geological Survey, there have been over 2 million deaths attributed to earthquakes since 1900. The USGS pinpoints 20,000 earthquakes a year; that is about 50 earthquakes a day (USGS, Earthquakes). In conclusion, the movement of the earth’s crust has shaped the earth for hundreds of millions of years, moving the sharp and stony edges over, under, and past one another. Sometimes the movements and the release of energy caused by an earthquake are smooth and gradual; other times, the plates stay locked together.That is when the stockpiled energy that has been storing in between the plates grows strong enough to break apart. That is what makes the earthquake. The Richter scale can tell us the intensity and magnit ude of an earthquake but cannot predict one. Works Cited â€Å"The Longest EarthQuake Ever Recorded. † World Most RSS. N. p. , 6 Sept. 2011. Web. 11 Apr. 2013. Pararas-Caryannis, George. â€Å"Index. html. † Index. html. N. p. , n. d. Web. 11 Apr. 2013. â€Å"Richter Scale. † Science in the Early Twentieth Century: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2005. Credo Reference. 0 June 2008. Web. 11 Apr. 2013. Raloff, Janet. â€Å"Pearson – Science News. † Pearson – Science News. N. p. , n. d. Web. 21 Mar. 2013. United States Geological Survey. Earthquake Facts. N. p. , 24 July 2012. Web. 11 Apr. 2013. Line 32 United States Geological Survey. Earthquakes with 1,000 or More Deaths since 1900. N. p. , 30 Nov. 2012. Web. 11 Apr. 2013. United States Geological Survey. Historic Earthquakes. N. p. , 01 Nov. 2012. Web. 11 Apr. 2013. United States Geological Survey. The Science of Earthquakes. By Lisa Wald. N. p. , 24 July 2012. Web. 09 Apr. 2013.

Cause and effect early pregnancy Essay

Early Pregnancy is one of the problems in today’s society. Many teenagers today don’t know how big responsibility to raise a child when they are young too. Becoming a parent is a big responsibility that should give priority, but how can teenagers can handle this big responsibility if she was too young too? To raise a child involves a lot of patient and sacrifices which lot teens don’t have. The risk of pregnancy among teenagers is largely increasing. Some teenagers who get pregnant early may experience anxiety, depression and other emotional problem. We know that teenager’s ages of 15-19 are still young so emotion and other feelings of being teenagers might occur. Some of the causes of early pregnancy among teenagers are lack of education especially sexual education, poverty, undergraduate, or problem with their family. Lack of Education among teenagers should be given priority; I am agreeing that sexual education should be learned in school. To aware them from the effect that may occur. Problem with family is another issue, some of the teenagers are not provided with their own family, and most of the teenagers get rebelled. These are some of the cause why they are so many teenagers’ gets pregnant early, which I think the government should look in to it. Government should look forward on how to resolve this issue. Teenagers should be educated with this kind of problem, especially those teenagers who are already sexually active. If the Government should not give chances to these issues, teenage pregnancy will increase rapidly. This can cause a lot of endless problems in the life of the teen and the newborn child. There are a lot of things that can cause an unplanned teen pregnancy, such as teens experimenting with sexual encounters at a young age. Another major cause is the lack of guidance due to guardians that are blind or do not want to believe in such activities. These causes can have devastating effects on the teen and the newborn in the household. Some effects of early pregnancy will include an unexpected rise of responsibility for the teen and can cause many health concerns for both teen and newborn child. Teens experimenting are the leading cause in the unplanned pregnancies. As a teenager in high school ages there are a lot of peer pressures. Such as experimenting with alcohol and unprotected sexual intercourse. Drinking and the use of narcotics also largely have an impact on the judgment of the teen before the pre-pregnancy comes about. Experimenting can cause many effects on the teen and the relationships at hand, including the relationships with the baby’s mom or dad and also the parents of the teens. Another way of experimenting is the pregnancy caused in the sequel of either a long-time dating of the boyfriend or the other case of those random one night stands or hook-ups. Experimenting can be well avoided which can cause less of a chance of the unplanned pregnancy. Another very important concern for preventing teen pregnancy is having a good guidance throughout the teenager’s teen years. The guardians of the teens play a crucial role in guiding the teen to making the right choices in his/her life. The teenager then is faced with obstacles that would normally happen to a 20-30 year old woman. Not having the proper guidance will cause the teen to find the alternatives. For example, finding someone to be with to be cared for by in replace of a strong guidance, by the guardians in the teenager’s life. For not having the proper guidance the teenager has a higher chance of dropping out or failing out of a school, such as being a high school dropout to have time to give birth and time to raise the young child. So by becoming pregnant at a young age and not finishing your education. It definitely doesn’t sound like too much fun, now does it? The guidance in life is the most important thing throughout so this can be less of an issue. It is then caused, in effect, to put a lot of responsibility in the teenager’s life once they find out that they are pregnant. There is 100% more responsibility in the teenager’s life. The early responsibility causes changes the teenagers overall personality. Going from being in school full time getting your education to having the responsibility to bringing a child into the world, then being alone able to possibly finish your high school education. Finishing your education in a regular 4 years of your high school years will be hard. Not even to mention the financial costs it has to have a newborn. What makes it hard is when you need money for the simple things for the child, but you don’t have the time to get a job because you’re nursing and getting ready to bring a child into the world. So as a teenager you need a support system so that a newborn is taken care of in the safest, best place for the child. A lot of this early responsibility can be unbearable for some teens, expesically the ones that choose to get pregnant while they are still in high school. With all of this going on in their lives it’s affecting the health risks and medical negatives a teenage pregnancy can cause. For example, there is an increased chance of mothers from ages 15-19 of birthing a child that is underweight at birth. A low birth weight will increase the chance of the newborn to have health risks. It is definitely not a great thing to have the chance of health risks in you or the child. Another way that the health problems can start is because teens might not have all the knowledge of proper behavior in knowing how to nurse the child or the proper ways during the growth of the child. Teenage adolescents tend to develop poor eating habits during pregnancy, they tend not to take the proper vitamins, and in the worst scenario the teen drinking and/ to doing drugs during the pregnancy. That is the worst that can be done; it will increase the chance greatly of the baby being born with some type of birth defect or a weak part of the baby. Now that can be t he worst you can possibly do to an unborn child. To wrap it all up, teen pregnancy is a major issue that should try to be prevented as much as it can. It causes countless, dodge able problems if the right choices are made and you have a good support system around you. It would be in the best advice to not take the chances to get pregnant as a teenager. It is not the age to get pregnant. Teens are not fully ready to become adults like the stress that follows during the pregnancy.

The Need for Gun Control

Shortly after dusk, a sixteen-year-old boy stands on the street corner talking with a friend about what happened at school today between himself and another student. He nonchalantly stands there sipping his Pepsi when all of a sudden a black Honda with tinted windows drives up to the corner. The window rolls down, a voice calls out, and the boy walks up to the car. He bends down to peer into the car to see who it is when three rounds from a .38 caliber pistol rip through his chest and neck. The other boy frantically runs off into the distance. He stumbles backwards and trips on the curb behind him and falls to the sidewalk the car speeds off into the dark alleyway across the street. The young boy struggles to breathe as he coughs up blood. He chokes to death with every effort to breathe. He dies a minute or two later. These kinds of events are all too familiar to us and perturb us as we see an increasing number of handguns fall into the hands of the young. I am shocked at the sight o f these events where innocent children are being gunned down on the street because of petty little arguments over something so minuscule as a pair of shoes, a particular type of jacket, or simply just a misinterpreted look. I believe that more strict handgun regulations are a must in today's society. I'm not saying that we have to ban handguns, but we have to take legislative measures in order to limit the possibility of handguns falling into the hands or youths. Peter Annin and Tom Morganthau state that according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Report, murders committed by persons under the age of eighteen who were arrested jumped from 1,193 in 1985 to 2982 in 1994. [1] This report shows a substantial increase in the number of killings by people who are under the age of eighteen. Most of these people are often participants in gangs and involved with drugs. Many of these people find that guns are a much easier method to defeat his or her opponent in a quarrel. This problem is made worse by the increasing availability of guns. Residents of gang-ridden areas are afraid to leave their homes for fear that their children or themselves might fall victim to a gunshot. I believe that many people feel we need tighter control over the sale of handguns while many others believe that we shouldn't. Many people say that it is a right to own firearms and handguns in this country because it is guaranteed by the second amendment of the United States Constitution. The second amendment states, â€Å"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.† First of all, very few states today in the U. S. have militias because we have the five branches of the U.S. Military, the Army, Navy, Marines, Airforce, and Coast Guard. The military provides this country with enough support to fend off any war levying or belligerent nations. That is the military's obligatory purpose today. There is no necessity for a state-run military. The U.S. Military's purpose is to keep this land free. Second, the Bill of Rights was designed to protect the people from our government should it transcend to tyranny. These laws and rights were established in the period of colonial times when monarchies and dictatorships were commonplace in society. Today, they're just about non-existent except for subtle hints of them in communist governments which exist in areas such as the People's Republic of China. We have no need to protect ourselves from the possibility of a dictatorial government materializing from our democracy because it is highly unlikely that this would occur. The United Nations, which the United States is a member of, would not allow this because their main function is to stop the spread of communism. We are not living in that era anymore and that is why I believe that guns aren't really needed that much by civilians.As I mentioned before, I'm not suggest ing that we, the people, totally ban guns. Firearms and handguns still have their recreational purpose in society. For a lot of people, the sport of hunting wild game is an enjoyable pastime and tradition that has been passed down through the ages. People have always hunted. From Paleolithic man to the Middle Ages and to the present, hunting has and provides us with food even though that same food can be purchased at the local supermarket. Other activities such as target shooting and enrollment in gun clubs are also enjoyable. They are sports, just like any other sports, that give men and women a sense of pride and satisfaction that fulfills the primitive instinct of competition in our minds.Another important argument among civilians of the country is that if more restrictions on firearms and handguns are passed, this would gradually lead to a total ban on all guns sometime in the future. In an article written by Robert J. Blendon, John T. Young, and David Hemenway, they include a G allup/CNN/USA Today poll which shows how gun owners, non-owners, and the nation as a whole were surveyed. Sixty-five percent of all people, including owners of guns and non-owners, believe that stricter legislation would gradually lead to a total ban on all guns. In addition, a majority of gun owners, approximately fifty-five percent, believe that these laws would violate the second amendment of the U. S. Constitution while non-owners don not believe this. The survey was asking about how stricter laws would reduce certain aspects related to guns. The national figure is sixty-nine percent for those who believe that stricter laws would reduce the number of people killed by guns in arguments. Sixty-eight percent of the nation believe that laws would reduce the number of accidental deaths and suicides attributed to guns. Fifty-eight percent of the nation agrees that more laws would reduce violent crime. However, in both cases of owners and non-owners, the difference of agreement is over twenty percentage points in favor of non-gun owners. [2] I certainly agree that stricter legislation would definitely reduce the number of gun-related deaths and that if handguns were restricted from the hands of minors and criminals, the rate and recidivism rate, the rate of repeat offenders, of violent crime would be reduced. I believe that we need more strict laws to curb some of the violent crime that is being committed by America's youth. I also believe that the National Rifle Association of America (NRA) will not let the government ban all firearms since the NRA is the biggest lobbyist in the gun control debate today because it has so many active members. Finally, most people feel that they need handguns for protection of their property and themselves. I believe that protection of your own property, such as you home, is perfectly fine, but if you carry a gun around for protection, that can become dangerous. For example, gang members who carry guns are an enormous threat to ot hers. If someone should irritate or annoy them, they might possibly resort to using his or her gun on that person. Innocent children and bystanders could fall victim to a stray bullet. Minor arguments could erupt into bloodshed on the street corner or in a dark alleyway. Other people are also a possible threat, especially to police officers. If for some reason, a gun-toting civilian was pulled over for a traffic violation, that person could decide to shoot that police officer in an attempt to get away. This would cause major problems in society. Another thing is that people under the influence of drugs or alcohol might use their guns on somebody without reason because of impaired reasoning and judgment associated with inebriation. Now I'm not saying every person would be and is like that, but there are some people that are. I believe that this presents a danger to society and why handgun access and sales should be restricted. I believe that we need tougher legislation on handguns. C itizens should be registered for each and every gun he or she owns and that they should be obligated to pay a high fee for that registration. Also, juveniles and convicted felons that have already served time should not be permitted to purchase or possess and handgun. I believe that if someone who has purchased a handgun, should be required by federal law to take a safety and training course in order to lawfully possess a handgun. This course would be directed by the federal government and would ensure that a handgun purchaser's record would be checked out. This country should have tougher laws in order to restrict handgun access and sale. I'm not saying this will work, but it will be a step forward in the direction of effective gun control. If we and the government can work together on it, we can slowly minimize the problem and keep guns out of the wrong hands. Bibliography [1] Annin, Peter; Morganthau, Tom. â€Å"The lull before the storm?† Newsweek 4 December 1995 [2] Blendon, Robert J.; Hemenway, David; Young, John T. â€Å"The American public and the gun control debate† The Journal of the American Medical Association 12 June 1996 [3]  Historical Perspective:  http://essaylab.com/blog/gun-control

General motors, accounting theory and receivership Essay

Accounting theory is a wide ranging and comprehensive analysis and practice of management accounting and modern financial accounting. This function is accomplished through provision of a theoretical framework that assists in appreciating and understanding the purpose of various accounting practices. Business wise, the theory provides its linkage with modern accounting processes and the impacts of the procedures on business performance or operations. The theory is preferred because it goes beyond the theory, idea and thought analysis to incorporate holistic views of the influence of cultural and historical regulations and impacts on real world business environment (Madsen, 1999, p. 12). Receivership is a scenario under which gives an order to place a property under receivers control so that preservations for affected fellows can be done through it. In a case where a company is failing, actions brought forth by its creditors can place the business under receivership. The business does not cease to operate but is subjected to receiver’s management. In several cases, the court appoints a person to liquidate, rehabilitate, conserve or administer assets belonging to the insolvent corporation, in efforts made ultimately to relief or protect creditors. It therefore doesn’t lead to termination of corporate charter, but serves as a solution to financial difficulty. The dominion controller of the property subject to legal action is known as the receiver. In most cases, receivership is valued as an extraordinary remedy (Dubin, 1947, p. 10). This is because it is us4d to take care of a property when it is required for prosecution of lawsuit. This is especially when a danger is perceived that the property may be removed or dissipated form the courts jurisdiction in a failure to appoint a receiver. It is a process that only takes place through a court order, utilization only in exceptional circumstances. It may involve of not the consent of the owner of the property. General Motors is a company in the United States of America, dealing with motor based accessories, facilities and equipments. It is a company that is recognized as an economy mover not only in US but also in the global economy. However of late, the future of the company is hard to tell because it is subjected to several challenges of receivership, a process that is not only affecting its financial stability but also shaking its social fabric. United States uses a basic form of financial information in assessing the viability of corporations (Gordon, 2005, p. 17). In its capital markets, the general purpose financial statements used include profit and loss statements, balance sheets, statements of cash flows and statements of changes in equity. The nation also obtains extra information from footnotes. The extra information may include accounting procedures and policies utilized in preparing the financial statements, composition and the nature of balances reflected in the financial documents and other disclosure and matters that may be considered relevant for fairness to be upheld in the financial documentation process. US securities registrants also make periodic, quarterly and annual fillings (Belkaoui, 1991, p. 34). These fillings provide supplemental and additional information concerning statistical analysis, descriptions of significant risk factors, major operation locations and units, properties and plants, services and products and company’s business. The legal framework also requires operations to do with management’s discussion and analysis, assessment of liquidity risks and liquidities and certain supplementary schedules. Critical consideration and analysis of the above information gives a corporations financial status and its ability to serve the creditors and satisfy the requirements by the law (Cheffins, 1997, p. 15). The question on whether General Motors is in full consideration of ethical aspects in the process of receivership is subject to various influences. To some point, it may be ethical and fail at some points. This is because the receivership process has got some benefits to both the company itself and the shareholders, meaning that the process may lead to ethical grounds of treatment. On the other hand, the process has its own disadvantages to itself and stakeholders, this representing the degree of ethical deviation. For the time being, the company has received a mounting pressure to convince Washington that the bankruptcy of the company does not turn out catastrophically to the national economy. It is anticipated that if this happens, millions of job opportunities will be lost, tax payers will have to pay more than $100 billion and therefore lead the economy into a severe depression. Because of this threat, Barrack Obama, Harry Reed and Nancy Pelosi have called for an auto bailout of the company (Rae, 1959, p. 16). The decision to get into a receivership supports the argument that the company is ethical to some extend. This is because receivership is the alternative of bankruptcy which is worse. Bankruptcy paralyses every thing in a company and soils the continuity of the company, stakeholders and the national economy as a whole. Surrendering to receivership deal is showing the concern of the company towards their stakeholders, national economy and the global economy. In one special consideration, if the company failed to engage in a receivership deal, all dealers and suppliers from all over the globe would be jobless (Bonbright, 1982, p. 19). To escape from employee assaults, receivership make sure all employees are not pay off and the operations of the company continue running though under courts monitory. The control by court gives hope and protects the rights of the stakeholders. Reflecting unemployment as a worldwide challenge, it cloud be bad for companies to advocate and engage in business strategies that increase unemployment. Again, the business ethics are tied to respect and compensation of employees as a major priority, because it is believed they form the production propellers. Without employees, an organization can hardly run and this is the reason as to why General Motors has been regarded as ethical for giving employees the best treat the company could afford during this financial challenge (Gordon, 2005, p. 17). If General Motors could not strike this deal, it is a possibility that it would have broken up and sold to other companies that may be foreign or domestic. In this case, stakeholders would have lost everything, workers would have lost and management fired. This is a clear indication that receivership is attributed to less stigma. The decision of rushing to this line of management has been seen to release the stigma of the management, country and the clients in question. This is because the operations are still on and under strict surveillance by court administration (Gordon, 2005, p. 16). Therefore, America as a nation, its citizens and stakeholders still have hopes that the company will reinstall its functioning. According to the accounting theory, it is always advisable to be a risk taker but to certain limits. Once the balancing of the accounting section fails, it is also provided that accountants or administration should surrender and allow advanced cross data analysis. This is a measure made to minimize the exposure to risks that may render an organization non functional. Business receivership increases chances of a troubled business survival. To revive the proceedings of the business almost to normalcy level, it is essential to put in place new management to help discover the errors of the old management. This increases the probability of the business survival (Bonbright, 1982, p. 19). The reason as to why many people may believe that GM is not serving its function and failing is because the American economy itself is under its steepest drop in 20 years time, recording foreclosures at highest levels, stock market performing the poorest for five years and a decaying consumer confidence. It should be understood that the cause of the GMs challenge is also contributed to by the economic environment of the country and also the global economy, which is in a recession. It is said that General Motors is in the verge of bankruptcy. In December 2008, the consumer confidence in the company has dropped to its lowest levels possible. Because of these difficulties, the federal government announced that the economy has been in a recession as from December 2007. This company applied for this protection from creditors because according to how the situation was, a red ink had mounted an issue which was realized through a cash flow collapse and amid falling sales. The company made the unavoidable choice in efforts of filing court intervention in dealing with urgent liquidity crisis and therefore seeks for transformation towards sustainability. According to the stock market, the company’s shares had dropped with nearly 85 percent and were in turn suspended. The company was unable to meet its payroll in December 2008. GM is observed to have small domestic rivals but its state is closely being watched to face amid turmoil in auto industry. The failure of this company has also been ignited by the global financial crisis that has plunged the demand for vehicles (Rae, 1959, p. 17). According to the nature of accounting, it is described as a process of communicating, measuring and identifying economic information to facilitate decisions by the information users and permit informed judgments to take place. This has been taken as a statement of basic accounting theory, supporting the ideology that economy or entrepreneurial progress is a concern of stakeholders, and information should be exposed with a lot of freedom and accuracy. In regards to the General Motors, the move to receivership is a strategy to allow access to documents and pave way for new judgments to be made but separate entities. This is highly appreciated in the theory of accounting because it improves the creativity of the company in management activities and help reconstruction of the company. Failure to communicate information is not ethical. This is because if GM was not ethical it could only give up at times of complete insolvency or bankruptcy. Under the accounting theory, measuring and communicating information involves observation of events and transactions of the firm and measuring the transactions as well. Financial report is then released, which serves as a message to help the healing process. After the interpretation of the message, an image of the firm is obtained and then used as a basis of decision making. The adjustments that are possible in case of the above company will be based on accounting discoveries and recommendations. The allowance of experts into the scrutiny process is a show of responsiveness to the reform process and the willingness to be corrected (Rae, 1959, p. 17). As the above takes place, the receiver has acted as the referee of the proceedings, playing a trustee duty to the court. This receiver has maximized the value of General Motors Company and its assets. The receiver is also taking the best ways possible to protect shareholders and creditors involved in the saga of this company. With time, the receiver may often liquidate the assets and shut it down but this is not the case in the united stases of America. The fate of the company therefore rests on the possibility of the company coming back operation, the amount of remaining money and the causes of the business problems. If events prove that there is no hope for the company in the long run, the acting receiver would make sure that every partner involved benefits from the scrape value of the venture. If it is finally ruled the company should be sold as a going concern, the price tag can improved because for the value added by the receiver. This description makes receivership of its concern more sensitive to its creditors, clients and creditors (Bonbright, 1982, p. 18). With all the above arguments describing General Motors as ethical, the path that the company followed to this far is on the other hand questionable both in human resource management and financial accounting. If the company was so ethical, such difficulties could be detected earlier and protected. It will be then very accurate that the company should have participated in financial fraud. Fraudulence and material misstatement is believed to have led the company to this saga, completely going against accounting ethics of transparency, accuracy and accountability. At international levels, the company is said to have defied from accounting theory by either overstating revenues, understating expenses, omitting some liabilities, overstating assets, failure in transactions, disclosure and accounting events, mischaracterization, disclosures that may be misleading in concerns of MD&A, products and services, liquidity and liquidity risks or in supplemental information. Inclusively, the country may also have created fictitious assets, omitted actual liabilities or improper reflect of transactional timing. The above frauds are all outlawed in the financial accounting theory, which the above company may not have adhered to, leading to the present massacre (Rae, 1959, p. 16). Still to show discontentment of the company as far as accounting theory is concerned, receivables and revenues recognized prematurely should be given a special treatment in the accounting process, an error that General Motor sis believed to have committed and thus failed to meet its payroll in December 2008. The cost of production of the company has been observed to increase before the fall magnified and collapsed the functioning of the company. Through accounting theory, this may have been caused by deferring the reconnection of costs or purchases, improperly overstating the value of inventories or improper treatment of overhead or indirect expenses. According to the outcry of the General Motor employees, there must have been a delayed recognition of associated provision expenses before this downfall. Contingencies have been detected in form of litigation reserves, product and warranty liability reserves sales return allowances and doubtful accounts allowances. According to the nature of the controversy in the company’s financial statements, creation of fictitious probably took place. It involved recording of associated fictitious receivables, fictitious revenues, fictitious inventory and therefore underestimation of cost of goods sold (Madsen, 1999, p. 13). Accounting theory and practice of accountants firmly argue against exclusive frauds, which definitely drive corporations and businesses to the situations comparable to the ones of General Motors. The exclusion concerns liabilities and other obligations such as contingencies, guarantees and commitments, all of which affect the balance sheet status. The effect of such exclusions is understatement of expenses such as environment cleanup expenses, litigation expense provisions, judgment liabilities, litigation reserves debt losses such as undisclosed commitments, guarantees and debt related contingencies. This category also incorporates direct charge off reserves and impairment of unconsolidated assets like partnerships, joint ventures and equity investments. All the above exclusive frauds lead to overstatement of liquidity measures and understatement of company’s total liabilities and interest expense (Dubin, 1947, p. 11). As far as accounting theory is concerned, the company is believed to have defied the provisions of the theory with big margins. This is because if the company had carefully taken into concern the above errors, the turmoil could not have resulted. Again, even if it could occur, the margin could not be alarming. The accounting discrepancies that many leaders in America have felt brought the company down are pushing them to propose a complete turmoil of the company. The above fraud description illustrates that receivership of the company was not the best precautionary measure to take, but instead accounting theory prescriptions should consistently have been upheld by the company and thus prevent this fall. This means that the company is not as ethical as people may be thinking. Ethics are attributes in which every member of a certain setting performs or delivers his or her responsibility with all affordable sincerity and fairness. This involves consideration of the cultural expectations when in such environment, social aspects and the particular work ethics. If frauds comparable to the ones above take place, this means that a section of the staff is not sincere and so non ethical. Therefore it may also make sense to say the company is not so ethical (Belkaoui, 1991, p. 35). To add on this, an ethical institution is always the interest of the public because of the confidence they attach to them. The subsequent and rapid drop in the confidence of this company is an indication that it wasn’t an ethical organization which citizens could understand the scenario as a normal challenge and therefore continue supporting it. Because receivership is a lame way of solving the problem, the structural framework has to be strengthened if the company happens to revive as a going concern. If efforts to revive the company fail, it would also be wise to go for the bankruptcy option. Together with the disadvantages of this option, it may ultimately emerge as stronger form with lower cost structure. To supplement this, the government can undertake a bailout to add new capital, replace management, write down the debt and preserve most of the jobs. To conclude, receivership of General Motors can not be seen as a solution as per now but it is time to tell, especially according the economic trends. Still, it is hard to tell whether the company is ethical, since it posses both weak and strong elements of ethical practices (Cheffins, 1997, p. 15). Bibliography Belkaoui Ahmed (1991). Accounting in the dual economy. Westport, CT: Quorum Books; pp. 34,35. Bonbright James (1982). The holding company: Its public significance and its regulation. New York: McGraw Hill Books; pp. 18,19. Cheffins Brian (1997). Company law: Theory, structure and operation. New York: Clarendon Press, Clarendon; pp. 15. Dubin Robert (1947). United automobile (CIO), general motors and Studebaker. Science Research Associates; United States, pp. 10, 11. Gordon Robert (2005). Business leadership in the large corporation. New York: Brookings Institution; pp. 16,17. Madsen Axel (1999). The deal maker: How William C. Durant made general motors. New York: John Wiley & sons; pp. 12, 13. Rae John (1959). American automobile manufacturers: The first forty years. Chilton, Washington; pp. 16, 17.

Moral Values Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Moral Values - Assignment Example I tried to convince him of the seriousness of the issue but all in vain. The more I persuaded him the more he became indifferent to me; and further explained that his choice would not cause any negative impact on the organization. I knew that his act was against the moral perception of the organization and it would spoil the reputation of the firm. The logical reasoning suggested me that he had his right to make his choices on his life. Furthermore, if I tried to discourage him it would also break our friendship. On the other hand, if I did not report the matter to the management, as an employee I would also be violating my moral responsibility. I analyzed all possible alternatives that can deal with the issue for I needed his friendship as well as the organization’s status. Finally I told him that I would inform the management if he did not abstain from the unethical relation. Lori smiled and said that I could do that because he did not bother the consequences. Therefore in h is presence I rang to our manager and informed him the situation that we both had been facing. I left the decision to his reasoning and said that Lori has his own reasons but (only) if it is a moral violation he could take some actions against him. Lori was given a punishment transfer and that put an end to his affair. The real value of my decision came to light later as Lori told me that he was grateful to me because I saved his personal integrity and future with my good decision. If I had taken any other move I would have lost my friend for ever; and if I did not report his mistake, I would have cheated my