The Trend Towards Longer Work Days: No End in Sight :: Business Management Human Resources

The Trend Towards Longer Work Days: No End in Sight One of the most common conceptions of the East Asian people and the East Asian way of life is their undeniably strong work ethic. Many people in the West believe that Asians are probably the most hardworking people on Earth . Many facts, including most of the available official statistics, support the view that Asians do indeed work longer weeks than Europeans. A Singaporean, working for a private company with at least 25 employees, worked 47.1 hours on average in 1995, plus 4.6 hours of overtime (Department of Statistics, Singapore). Compare that to the average working time for a Swede, who works 34.1 hours per week (SCB Statistics Sweden). The average Japanese factory worker worked for a total of 2124 hours in 1990, compared to 1683 hours for a French worker (Japan External Trade Organisation, JETRO). The most obvious answer to this question is Confucianism. Confucian-based societies in Asia have during the recent decades been characterized by rapid economic growth. "[Confucian] values permeate all of Asia, not just the Chinese part of it" (Rohwer). Diligence is one of the basic values of Confucianism, together with perseverance, moderation and education. In the Confucian model, the society is based on authority and unequal relationships between people: father and son, master and servant, husband and wife, etc. In this society, someone always has authority over someone else's life. Confucianism is also very elitist - a person does not have to understand it, but he does have to follow it in order to maintain the stability in society (more about Confucianism can be learnt from Encyclopedia Britannica). Because of this, hard work has always been a virtue in a Confucian society. If a person living in a Confucian society did not consider work being a virtue, the model made sure t hat someone else, the "top-half" of the unequal relationship, reminded the "lazy" person and made sure he or she would return to the right path. This top-down style is further strengthened by the strong role the family has in the system. A person is to a greater extent considered being a part of a family, rather than an individual. All this fortifies the incentives to work hard. The Confucian system, when applied to the extreme, does not give anyone a choice of choosing another way of life.

Compare and contrast the ways Essay

Compare and contrast the ways in which language expresses the feelings of anger and frustration felt, by Hamlet and Claudius. Shakespeare uses very strong and powerful language in both of the speeches to express to the audience the strong feelings of anger and guilt felt by Hamlet and Claudius at this point in the play. The speeches are both commenced with a sorrowful expression, `O’, I think this demonstrates their pain and grief about what they both feel is their fault. I think Claudius feels he perhaps shouldn’t have murdered his brother, but is still trapped inindecisiveness and his thoughts conflict each other, through guiltabout being a murderer, and where he would be and what he would not have if he hadn’t taken action to try and lift his place in society. Hamlet feels he should have already taken action to avenge his father’s murder, so feels guilty about his inert efforts and decisions. The `o’s are then followed by degradation, Hamlet says `What a rogue and peasant slave am I’, and Claudius says `My offence is rank it smells to heaven’. The way in which these lines are similar that they are both degradations, but they are in different in their nature. Hamlet degrades himself by calling himself the lowest most worthless criminal, whilst Claudius degrades the crime he has committed and says it’s the worst crime he could have committed. Their feelings of anger and frustration are demonstrated with the use of powerful adjectives in his self condemnations, such as `monstrous’, `horrid’ and `damned’. They enable the audience to build vivid mental images of powerful items, which brings the feelings of self hatred experienced by the characters to  life, enabling the audience to feel the character’s pain and grief. A difference in Shakespeare’s portrayal of the character’s similar feelings, is that the language used in Hamlet’s speech explicitly shows his deep feelings, as he forcefully explains his grief and sorrow about the situation, `I am pigeon livered and lack gall to make oppression bitter,’ Hamlet clearly shows that he feels he is lacking courage and confidence. But in Claudius’ speech he explains how he feels bad about what he has done, but he doesn’t use such dramatic and descriptive language, whilst quietly explaining how he feels. ` It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t. ‘ I think this explains that Claudius feels angry at what he has done, but I don’t think it’s as harsh as the way Hamlet degrades and insults himself. I think Hamlet’s speech can be separated into sections, each describing his stages of emotion and the three mental phases he goes through, first he feels guilty about not taking action to avenge his father’s murder, then he feels angry at himself for wasting time feeling guilty instead of making a plan and finally he decides to take action and form a plan. I think this helps to show the levels of Hamlet’s grief and frustration and puts across to the audience that Hamlet’s feelings are a complex mixture or reasons and emotions and not just one like Claudius. I think Claudius’ anger and frustration is about killing his brother and throughout his speech he concentrates the whole speech to this unlike Hamlet who has mixed feelings and goes through different states of mind during his speech. I think on the surface Hamlet and Claudius have different feelings about the murder of the king, but deep inside they share similar emotions. Hamlet describes his father’s murder as a `damned defeat’, meaning a defeat as an act of destruction, which I think is a powerful way of expressing the anger and grief he feels about it, because he is saying that Claudius hasn’t only destroyed a part of him, he has irreparably removed part of his life because what has been destroyed cannot be replaced. Similarly in Claudius’ speech. References Visible links Hidden links: 1. http://www. coursework. info/.

Finance Interest and Risk-free Rate - 1017 Words

Question 1 ( 5 points) In a world with no frictions (taxes, etc.), value is created by how you finance a project. True. False. Question 2 (5) The return of equity is equal to the return on debt of a project/firm Always true. Never true. Sometimes true. Question 3 (10 points) Moogle, Inc. is in the same business as Google, Inc., but has recently retired all its debt to become an all-equity firm. Its return on equity has dropped from 12.25% to 10.60% as a result of this. Google, Inc. continues to have debt in its capital structure, and its debt-to-equity ratio is 30%. What is the return on assets of Google, Inc.(No more than two decimals in the percentage interest rate, but do not enter the % sign.) Answer for Question 3†¦show more content†¦[Transportation of the electricity will be outsourced.] Your CEO and you are arguing about whether projects that emerge in the two units should have the same cost of capital (WACC), or whether the discount rates should be different. If different, what should be the relative magnitudes of the discount rates, that is, which unit Production or Sales should have the higher discount rate. Assume the discount rates of the two units are labeled as P and S, for the production and Sales units, respectively. What do you think? Sgt;P. Pgt;S. Same discount rates for both divisions/units (P=S). Question 10 (15 points) NorthSouth Airlines has been granted permission to fly passengers between major U.S. cities. The new company faces competition from four airlines that operate between the major cities. The betas of the equity of the four major competitors (A, B, C, D) are 2.25, 2.50, 2.75, and 3.00; and the debt-to-equity ratios of these four companies (in the same order: A, B, C, D) are 0.21, 0.42, 0.63, 0.83. Although these D/E ratios vary, all airline debt is rated the same. 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