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E-commerce sites and the swiftness change on the internet has had a huge impression on civilization. Specific products now select to be unrestricted online before they are unconfined on the highstreet, so they can be pre-ordered on sites like amazon and ebay. These sites likewise subsidise to how speed change can amend prices due to delivery speed. Next day or selected day delivery can be very exclusive, however the consumer can profit from the online service if they are not apprehensive about the delivery time because it is normally free. Speed of change can also influence demand and in turn upshot prices, on an airline for example, if lots of seas have been booked they can hike pries because they know the cost of the flight is covered.

Brick and click associations are corporations that have and an operational occurrence as well as a physical market place. These can also embrace companies that have a “flip”, this means that they have a directory, for example Argos has all of these elements including click and collect. Often the reason for the accomplishment of brick organisations turning into brick and click organisations is that the knowledge in e-commerce has taking steps forward which means people who may have been cynical about the sanctuary of their payment technique online now trust that it is secure. This means that they will be more motivated to buy items from the relief of their own home and either use the establishment’s distribution service, which is frequently free, or choose to assemble it when they want meaning that they don’t have to walk around the store which reduces traffic in the walkways and makes it easier for the consumer.

The noticeable advantage for clienteles is that they can buy items as they would do on the high street from the relief of their own home. Convincingly clients could spend all their time in one house for the rest of their life as they are able to command food or water, luxuries like television, movies, furniture, technology ect. They could even demand matters to other people’s houses, so they wouldn’t need to leave the house to deliver present cards ect. Additional advantage is the 24/7 service you have existing as the websites for stores are always open, unlike the brick equivalent, and you can search the web for discount code, promo codes or price comparison websites in order to save money.

Compensating online is not safe 100% of the time, and some websites will take money from your justification with no intent of sending back any items and, for this reason, customers can be dubious when observing to shop online. There is no component before you buy online as the item is not in the customers corporal attendance, meaning that they can’t be sure of the size or quality will unavoidably put some possible shoppers off. Delivery times can put off latent customs as they may want their order for a precise time, and ordering online means that although they might have paid for next day or selected delivery they are efficiently out of control of when the package will arrive. This can collapse birthdays or Christmas, so this will put possible customers off and ruin the reputability of the e-commerce business. Turing from a brick and click business will mean that a commercial has to make terminations which will mislay a associations good status and put off likely customers. In my estimation the major influence of e-commerce is the non-existence of social communication which means that people will drop their social skills which are a life essential.

Standing by the busy streets of Irvine Spectrum, California, I used to observe the variety of people who pass through the fast-moving crowd; some were shoppers, a freelancer looking for a coffee shop, or a businessman pacing to get to their job on time.

From cheerful hot dog vendors, exchanging invigorating conversations with his daily customers, to those who pass carelessly, gazing only at the small screens of their smartphones, each and everyone, regardless of their diversity in occupation, ethnicity, or religion, showed one of the two reactions to the rapidly changing environment; there were those who could not hide their excitement for the “new,” whereas there were also those who ponder upon the “old.” Stepping onto the plane bound for South Korea, these conflicting ideas of “change” became the basis of the many questions that have arisen throughout my high school career.South Korea, currently one of the most economically productive yet cut-throat competitive countries in the world, is where the warm smiles of waiters and customers transformed into the pressing of cold metal buttons on the panel of an ordering machine created for the sake of expediency.

From the dusty air, rudely buzzing cars, and human interaction that have ceased to exist offline, my encounter with my native country was more foreign than ever. I searched for the kind of familiarities I had grown to expect only to realize that even in the midst of such agonizing changes, I need only to strive to answer an age-old question posed by some of the great minds, such as Henry David Thoreau: “How shall we live (and produce)?” The world as we know it is drastically changing. The first industrial revolution developed the use of water and steam power in order to mechanize production. The second industrial revolution utilized electricity to enhance rapid production. The third employed manifold technologies to efficiently automate production. Through the first three industrial revolutions, the value of human labor has understandably diminished; however, mankind has done a fine job of adapting to these changes and has somehow maintained the value of human labor at a respectable level. Now, we’re in the midst of a fourth industrial revolution where an amalgamation of distinct technologies allows us to produce results in virtually all spheres of industry with unprecedented precision and efficiency. Economically speaking, this rapid development in technology enhanced productivity, the amount of economic output created from a limited unit of input especially in terms of labor hour, and could possibly fuel more economic progression in the future. Indeed, the fourth industrial revolution has the potential to raise aggregate global income levels to an unforeseen level, however, the rising issue lays in the fact that the increase in economic growth is not parallel to job creation.

As a result of this decoupling of the parallel structure between productivity and jobs, most human laborers positioned near the bottom of the industrial hierarchy will seldom be the ones who benefit from this surge of technology; rather, the beneficiaries are going to be whoever “funds and owns” these technologies. As evidenced in the case of Google’s AlphaGo phenomenon, this new breed of technology has already invaded countless domains that have hitherto been considered “sacrosanct” to mankind—and is threatening to reduce humans to the status of nuts and bolts in a giant machine that is indifferent to the human touch. This process makes it ominous for workers as these adoption of rapid developing technologies, that takes place in manufacturing, retail works, and even in professions such as education and financing, are eliminating the need for workers or jobs, not to mention the significantly lower median income level that contrasts with the soaring gross domestic product. This revolution is very likely to yield greater income inequality—undermining the value of labor, which has been the solid foundation of human advancement. I question not the necessity of technology, but the ethical dilemma that occur from its rapid developments; whether we choose productivity or loss of jobs. It is in my belief that there are some values that must not change regardless of circumstances; the very qualities which define humanity: love, sympathy, forbearance, and ethics. However, with the continuation of income inequality and the undermining labor value, a common ground of “dos” and “don’ts” that suggests the possibilities of an ethical economy, start to disintegrate.

Proved by Hardin’s theory, the sharing of common resources will result in depletion and abusion of the resource due to one’s will to fulfill self-interest. As it is not an overstatement to say that people fear losses more than they hope to gain, it is only natural that there are more inequality and competition in order to satisfy one’s need despite the further limited resources. This eventually results in people taking advantage of natural resources that surrounds them without cost and create excess negative externalities such as water and air pollution. Despite how painful the inevitable changes can be, there are no historical patterns that precedes the net decrease of jobs over a long-term trend. As startling as the situation is, no historical precedents can be used to find a solution to the predicaments that we currently face. Workers from around the world are caught up in fear from the uncertainty: the meandering between the temporary disruption of jobs and the fictional scenario where robots and artificial intelligence completely replace humans. This is what leads me to earnestly believe that the role of economics is more important than ever to make this world livable again. This new world requires a new standard, a new concept of labor, and a new equilibrium between humanity and productivity to prevent further chaos and deterioration. Equipped with proper perspectives and values, people would be able to exploit the change as an opportunity to excel, rather than an abnormality to fear.

“Economics” is a word that once meant very little to me, and is now at the center of my endless curiosity. It is the thought of providing guidance and hope for many people that kindles my desire to explore the field of economics, because I believe it holds the key to the ability of individuals like me to make small but significant changes.Japan, the epitome of rapid technological development, had an earlier encounter with the problems that we currently face. Conceivably, this was not only due to its fundamentally different economic structure, but Japanese society’s ingrained belief in artisanship; the generations of meticulous work dedicated to a single business, a study, or even a single ramen recipe in a small Harukiya Ramen shop, which some might deem insignificant, to me are evidence of immeasurable effort in creating perfection. Despite its rapid technological developments that continue until today, the coexistence of both labor and physical capital in creating an apt and equal appropriation of income based on one’s work and effort become evident based on the progress of the japanese economy ever since its economic depression. Although my experience with Japan is very brief, I sincerely believe that Japan’s experience might hold a key to finding a new blend of labor in the upcoming era. I am fully convinced that the unfamiliar aspects of Japan should not prevent me, but rather enhance my motives to absorb its admirable qualities, especially the role of the country’s uniqueness in confronting the predicaments it has faced.And there is Keio University.

The studious environments of the six amazing different campuses positioned in different parts of Tokyo, the well-known infrastructure of post-graduation career options, and the superior language and cultural education offered to international students are, for me, only bits of the story. The most critical factor in my confidently choosing Keio University as my number one choice is its ability to expand the vision of its students, especially in regard to the most practical theories and applications of economic studies, handed down from the creator Fukuzawa Yukichi, the father of a cultural revolution. I am determined to fully immerse myself by venturing into the different fields of economic education in this hospitable environment.Henry David Thoreau judiciously said, centuries ago, “Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.”

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Just as the trend of the world has started to change, I have outgrown my longing for the familiarities of the past; rather, I now embrace forthcoming challenges. There are enough past laws and economic theories that only reiterate the mere existence of changes, but we are left with no fundamental solutions to the current predicament. While my ambition to discover is strong, I am educated only with the most rudimentary concepts of economics. Therefore, I believe that it will be pivotal for me to specialize in the fields of economics and seek mentors in Keio University to expand my knowledge and construct my future as an economist.

Works Cited

1. Ford, M. (2015). Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future. Basic Books.
2. Frey, C. B., & Osborne, M. A. (2017). The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation? Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 114, 254-280.
3. Fukuyama, F. (2019). Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
4. Harari, Y. N. (2017). Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. Harper.
5. Harris, J. (2019). Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions. Bloomsbury Publishing.
6. Mazzucato, M. (2018). The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy. PublicAffairs.
7. Rifkin, J. (2017). The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism. St. Martin's Griffin.
8. Susskind, R., & Susskind, D. (2015). The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts. Oxford University Press.
9. The World Bank. (2019). The Changing Nature of Work. World Bank.
10. World Economic Forum. (2018). The Future of Jobs Report 2018. World Economic Forum.

Table of contents

1. Introduction
Uses of artificial intelligence Technology:Application use and payoff:Application development and deployment:ConclusionAcknowledgement

The occupation of ergonomics in the manufacturing workplace and on the Assembly line flow is a unfavorable issues which needs to be addressed in order to the avoid workplace injuries and prevent work action which leads to long term medical problem for the workers. In 1990 the Ford motor company established or implemented the application in which they handle artificial intelligence Technology for inspection of potential ergonomics issues have to do before the work instructions into the Assembly plant the manufacture of motor vehicles is a complicated and high powered problem and the worth related to be workplace irrecoverable productiveness because of bad ergonomics design will be very sententious. We added to different ergonomics analysis system that has been integrated into the process planning for manufacturing system at Ford and global study and process allocation system. GSPAS became the Global depot for standardized engineering process and data for assembling all for vehicles including part tools and standard labor time. Another complicated benefit of GSPAS as is the use of control language which is also known as the standard language. Standard language is a Ford specific restricted exercise of English that is used to describe the vehicle assembly process at Ford Motor Company this language is used as the input to the artificial intelligence component of the Global study process allocation system. Potential ergonomics is written in standard language which was read by the artificial intelligence system and used to generate work assembly instructions which was introduced in North America. The work report here allow how we assemble upon preceding outcome with artificial intelligence to elaborate the technology into the new region of Economics analysis.

Introduction

At the 6th annual applied economics conference held in Dallas TX in March of 2003, The Institute of Industrial engineers IIE awarded the ERGO CUP training education to Ford motor company. We have been beneficially implement Artificial Intelligence and other intelligence techniques with Ford vehicles operation since 1990. In this application it is mostly with the planning and configuring of vehicle assembly process planning. In this process sheets are written in free form text which caused major problems because of ambiguity and lack of consistency. The use of control language has disqualify almost all ambiguity in process sheet instruction and has created as standard format for writing process sheet across the Corporation which create work allocations for the plant fruit and to estimate level time accurately. This system is also known as the Direct labor management system that is the system is based on Knowledge that occupied semantic network knowledge representation schemes DLMS using techniques from control Language Processing instructions logics and classified based reasoning to generate detailed plan through assembly instruction from high level processes destruction this system is also provide us detailed estimate of the labor content that is required from this process description. This involved in the progress and preservation of large-scale knowledge bases on ontology has made us to apply this technology to other complicated areas within manufacturing.

Uses of artificial intelligence Technology:

The economics investigation tool is used at fault makes use of the following artificial Technologies description logics natural language processing and rule based processing

The height of our artificial intelligence system is knowledge base that occupy are semantic network model to represent all of the automobile assembly planning information the use of First 70 network as a part of knowledge representation system is also known as the description logics description logic implementation known as the Classic has been successfully used to develop telecommunication equipment configurator.

Application use and payoff:

The ergonomics determination tool has been occupied at Port for approximately 2 years. The Smash up of this system can be sum up as follows:

• The industrialization of the ergonomics red Converting interrupted over 1100 process sheets with potential ergonomic trouble from reaching the assembling plant
• The industrialization of the ergonomics warning processing reduce the work conditions of the ergonomics engineers by 20%.
• The engineer that would be wrote the process sheet became aware of Economics occupation and started writing their process sheets to address this occupation before they were flagged by the system
• Ergonomics is a necessary occupation to both ford and the UAW.

They give us the quantifiable benefits of the system that include the cost saving over 17th million dollars in term of avoiding injuries was associated with the red triggers as well as reduce the number of warning triggers that premier Rebel to been manually inspected by 20%. The scope of the artificial intelligence for the ergonomics engineer is that can make their job easier and improve the efficiency of the plant. The benefit of the system both quantifiable and indirect, were primeval higher than the development cost and system has been a very successful mechanical application of artificial intelligence.

Application development and deployment:

The artificial intelligence development for our applications here at what manufacturing engineering system is based on the platform utilizing the less work and knowledge work tools. We have found that this tool provide a flexible and powerful development environment while providing access to all Oracle database tool and SQL, flight then we can say that this tool provides the capability to create a graphical user interface through the CLIM package and easy communication to other systems and platforms. Our artificial intelligence system makes thousands of database transaction every day and this is all accomplished with an average response time of about 8 seconds for each artificial intelligence process sheet validation.

The development of the economic analysis system for process validation took about two month with our team of to developers as well as additional time provided by the ergonomics specialist. The artificial intelligence system range the required information from an Oracle database does the required processing and write the result back into the Oracle database.

Maintenance of the system is made much easier and simpler by the use of knowledge base that uses a description logic framework. We also develop a suite of regression. In addition we can say that the knowledge based content based in added checking functionality that validates the entire that are being edited to specific slot and attributes for different classes of concepts.

Conclusion

In conclusion it can be said that we defined two different applications of ergonomics analysis that are associate within the ford. There is no query that Ergonomics is a complicated factor in manufacturing and essential to be addressed at the primeval period available. We described this application of ergonomics analysis within the process planning region at fort where it available to evaluate the Assembly work before it grasp the Assembly floor for potential is ergonomics abuse. This ergonomic investigation of process sheet determinate doubt involvement in the area of repetition insistent issues, extreme tool revolution and vanish of heavy parts without some form of mechanized vanish collabration. In the future we project to raise the achievement of the current system with further division comparable and diffuse the economic analysis to snap other types of potential trouble.

Acknowledgement

It gives me great ecstasy my pleasure to convey my Deep and sincere thanks to my teacher Sir Dawood Idrees for his kind support which help to complete the research paper successfully.

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I would like to thank the following people for their knowledge and expertise in developing this system.

Table of contents

1. Economic Recession
2. Foreign Direct Investment
Innovation in Technologies

The number of graduates in Malaysia has increased tremendously every year and the real challenge they need to face after they are graduating are the competition to get job especially in this economy situation. There are too many graduates either from public, private and foreign institutions but the job creation and the demand for labor are very low which and it made the graduates mostly cannot get job placement and remained unemployed in duration of 6 months to a year after they graduated. Therefore, being a university graduates does not guarantee a job and it causes many youths unemployed in Malaysia. Based on some statistics facts there are about 250 000 graduates annually but one in five of them will remain unemployed 6 months after graduating and 24% from the labor force that are unemployed are a degree holder.

However, youths’ unemployment is not caused by the number of the graduates. Economically, the amount of jobs creation is depending on the economic performance of the country. According to Okun’s law, it explains the relationship between the employment and the economic growth. Dally and Hobijin (2010) said, "Economists have long known that the overall performance of the economy as measured by GDP has a direct bearing on unemployment"(p.1). So it clearly said that the economic instability of a country may influence the unemployment rates to increase. Unemployment rates is the rates to indicates how much the percentage of the labor force in the country that remain jobless and still finding for job placement in the recent year. Labor force are the group of people who are demanding for job to get income in return and also can commit for the minimum hour of working. The issues that arise here is how the economic situation give an impact to the unemployment rates in Malaysia.

Unemployment rates are very important for the developing countries to indicate the efficiency of the labor resource. According to Omar and Rajoo (2016):

Growth of a country can be found if unemployment is low. Conversely, a country with a high unemployment rate, the use of human resources do not fully utilize .For every 1% increase in the unemployment rate to fall significantly over the potential GDP of 2%.The unemployment is interrelated economic development that should be addressed in the labor market(p.367).

This means that high unemployment indicates that the country are not very efficient in managing their labor resource. The main factors are from the economic wellbeing of the country, if the country are not doing well in the economy, it might cause the issues of increasing rates of unemployment. Thus, it is believed that economic instability may increase the unemployment rates due to economic recession, foreign direct investment and income inequality.

Economic Recession

Volatile rates of economic growth have important implications on economic stability. When an economy going through a recession, there is a rise in unemployment, poverty and a rise in government borrowing. According to Katz (2010) “Labor market conditions have deteriorated dramatically since the start of the Great Recession in late 2007 making this the severest labor market downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The unemployment rate more than doubled from 4.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007 to 10.0 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 and remains at 9.7 percent in early 2010.” This shows that great recession causes the unemployment rate increase dramatically than the great recession during 1930s.

Other than that, Elsby, Hobjin, and Sahin (2010) mentioned that “The unemployment rate today is even higher than the 10.8 percent post-war unemployment peak in the 1982-83 recession once one adjusts for changes in the age-structure of the labor force. (p.10)” Thus it means that the unemployment rate in this era is much higher compared to the unemployment rate during post-war where the rate of unemployment is higher than the unemployment peak in 1982-1983.

As defined by Kartz (2010), “Unemployment increases in the Great Recession have disproportionately affected men, workers from goods producing industries, young workers, and non-college workers. But this downturn has been so severe that it has had adverse impacts on almost every group of workers and all regions of the country in terms of both substantial unemployment and stagnant wages. (p.2)”

Recessions can cause firms to leave the business industry, so they become more risk averse about investing. When a firm goes out of business, it will lead to rise in unemployment as they do not need to hire more employees. When an economy is facing recession, business sales and revenues decrease, which cause businesses to stop expanding. When demand is not high enough, businesses start to report losses and try to reduce their costs by lowering wages or keeping wages where they are and ceasing to hire new workers, which increases the unemployment rate.

During recession, young adults suffer the most than adults as the unemployment rate among young adults increased. This is because young adults are lack of experience and lack of skill that can convince the employer to hire them. As highlighted by Bell and Blanchflower (2009, 2010, 2011) “Unemployment rates increased generally during the recession. Therefore, it is reasonable to question whether the young have suffered disproportionately. We have previously argued that young workers are consistently more likely to be unemployed than adults. (p.15)”

Lastly, there are two types of policies that can overcome recession and unemployment. The first policy is monetary policy. Under monetary policy, increase in money supply can lowered the rate of interest which will encourage in private investment. When private investment increase, it will open many job opportunities to the labor market thus the aggregate demand will increase which will raise the equilibrium level of employment where recession and unemployment reduced. The second policy is fiscal policy which cause increase in government expenditure. Increase in government expenditure will increase employment and output. Thus, recession and unemployment will be cut off.

Foreign Direct Investment

Besides, the decreasing foreign direct investment affects unemployment rates significantly. Malaysia as a developing country needs support from foreign country to boost up their economic performance. This can be done by attracting the foreign investors to invest in those country where there will be and exchange of new technology and expertise. However, when instability in economic happened, the foreign direct investment will be affected and will cause rise in the unemployment rates. The decreasing in foreign direct investment may be cause by the instable situation in the economy. According to Ifpan, Saad,Nor, Noor and Ibrahim (2016):

This is affected by the economic recession and 911 incident of the US World Trade Centre which affect the Malaysian unemployment rate with the lower level of exports to the US and lower IFDI resulted in slow growth in the economy as well as increasing in unemployment rate (p.2).

Therefore it is believed that Malaysia has a high dependency in the foreign investment whether inwards FDI or outwards FDI and it has caused Malaysia to face a great impact on the unemployment rate especially during the economic recession. Foreign investment has open up a greater job opportunity for skilled and unskilled labor in the country especially developing country thus reduces the unemployment rates of the country (Irpan et al, 2016). It is agreed that FDI plays a significant role in order to reduce the unemployment rates in the country by provide a better job opportunity. Larger FDI creates a better country with high with gross domestic product or GDP thus creating more job opportunity. A high income country leads to a low unemployment rates. Therefore, all the factors are related to the unemployment rate which are GDP, job opportunity and also economic recession.

The studies of Balcerzak and Zurek (2011) mentioned that even though the FDI can play its roles to reduce unemployment rates, in long run government still need to implement policies to increase the investment. This is because every country need to have a better and stable economy in the long term, fluctuation in the economic situation can cause a huge impact in the FDI. Government policies are one of the stable tools to help the economy.

For example when the government implement policies that allows more foreign investors to invest in the country, it will create more job market for the fresh graduates and it will reduce the unemployed worker in the labour market. Eventually it will reduce the rates of unemployment, however fresh graduates need to go out and seeking for job also and stop being too demanding in order to get a job placement. It is important to get the experience first in order to secure a better job in the future. However, economic instability also play a significant role in order to keep the investors in the sectors as investors decisions are influence by the stability of the county. Investors will not invest in the country that has a poor economic performance and instable political issues. Therefore the government need to take action in order to secure those investors and the foreign capital inflows in the country. In short, FDI really have a significant impact in relation to unemployment rates.

Innovation in Technologies

Innovation in technologies can cause unemployment rate to increase. This is because technologies not only reshaping the labor markets but also improvements in technology have changed the nature of work and destroyed some types of jobs in the process. Forbes magazine January 2018 edition mentioned that technology has already taken over 90 percent of the jobs humans used to do. For example, in local transportation, before the innovation of technology, horse-drawn carriages were use as the main mode of local transportation which created jobs in building carriages, manufacturing buggy whips and raising horses but then with innovation of technologies, human no longer use horse-drawn carriages as they using cars as the main mode of transportation and this lead to job destruction of previous local transportation.

Other than that, due to advance in technologies, demand for labor will decrease. For example, an artificial robot that can replace human in a workplace. According Pham et. al (2018) “The number of robots in factories has been rising quickly, and robotics technologies have been introduced into many sectors beyond manufacturing, e.g., surgical or rehabilitation robots in hospitals, service robots, self-driving cars, and so on.” (p.12). This means that the author agree that there are factories using robots to replace human and it is increasing tremendously which will lead to job destruction. Others argue that technological innovations will lead to more middle-skill jobs that combine routine technical tasks and nonroutine tasks that require interpersonal interaction, problem solving, and adaptability, as they replace the traditional labor-intensive, solely routine tasks (Autor 2015). Because of the artificial robots that can replace human being in a workplace, demand for labor started to decrease and unemployment rate started to increase.

Furthermore, rise in labor wages especially in Asian cause the employers shift to advanced technologies as it is much cheaper and efficient which will lead to efficient productivity compared to hiring labor. World Economic Forum (June,2015) stated that “as Asian wages rise, factory managers are already looking for opportunities to replace employees with robots, even in China. (p.3)” The author believes that rise in wages is one of the factors why employers switch to use advanced technologies instead of labor as it helps to minimize production cost, maximize the production profit and increase in efficiency.

To conclude, the past few years has been rich with new technological breakthroughs. One of the most prominent examples is the development of autonomous vehicles. A stream of companies including Uber and Google has attained their permits to test autonomous vehicles on public roads. It is projected that by 2020, there will be 10 million self-driving cars on the road, replacing the traditional human-driving cars to be the new norm (Garret 2017). Advanced in technologies have impact on unemployment which were cause instability in economic.

All in all, instability in economy cause increase in unemployment rate. Unemployment is the second major macroeconomic problem. When unemployment occurs, it shows that there is no efficiency and the resources is not fully utilized. Natural unemployment exists when output is at full employment. It results from rigidities in the structure of the labour market. Cyclical unemployment is unemployment in the excess of natural unemployment. It occurs when output is below its full-employment level. Based on the teaching taken from quranic verse Surah Al Ju’muah verse 10, Allay says

Then when the prayer is ended, you may desperse through the land and seek the bounty of Allah (by working) and remember Allah much, that you may be successful

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In this ayah, Allah wants us to seek for job and get the earning to live, thus Muslim should do as Allah has command and need to find job. Allah does not like people without job or being unemployed. Indirectly human should believe that by working for their live hood, they can reduce the unemployment. In an Islamic economy, moderate fluctuations can exist in the output level, so that cyclical unemployment will be negligible. Furthermore, there exist no labor market rigidities due to the social organization of work where power relations are substituted by principles of mutual backing and the principle of charity replaces the institutional unemployment benefits. Natural unemployment is therefore also non-existent. Unemployment in Islamic economies is due to external shocks like war, immigration or natural calamities.

The three fiscal policies in the European Union are: Institutional Arrangements, Excessive Deficit Procedure and the Stability and Growth Pact. For the institutional arrangements these are put in place in order for EU member states to establish sound fiscal policies and has been agreed upon by the member states. These are the institutional arrangements which are under the Articles 121-126 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union: prohibition of monetary financing, prohibition of privileged access to financial institutions, no-bail out clause, fiscal provisions to avoid excessive deficits and the Stability and Growth Pact. These institutional arrangements are put in place, so member states can achieve a balance budget and to strengthen the procedures for excessive deficits (ECB, 2018).

For the EU’s budgetary policies, it is included in the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union that its member states should avoid excessive government deficits. The base reference for member states are a general government deficit of 3% and a gross debt of 60% in relation to their GDP, however, there is an exemption if a member state’s deficit is temporary and if it remains close to the reference value. The ECOFIN Council is the one who decides if a member state has excessive deficits and they act If there’s a proposal coming from the European Commission. The Council also lays the term to lessen the excessive deficits which sometimes lead to the imposition of sanctions to the concerned member state (ECB, 2018).

The Stability and Growth Pact provides the operational clarification of the EU’s budgetary rules. The Pact contains the procedures for multilateral budgetary surveillance (preventive arm) and the conditions where to apply the excessive deficit procedures (corrective arm). The Pact is considered a vital part of the macroeconomic framework of the European Monetary and Economic Union. It urges the member states to harmonize their budgetary policies and to avoid excessive deficits as a means to achieve macroeconomic stability in the EU. The rationale behind the Pact is to gain sound budgetary policies permanently and for the member states to adhere to the medium-term objectives for their budgetary positions that is ‘close to balance or in surplus’ under the EU’s country-specific considerations (ECB, 2018).

However, according to Larry Elliot (2015) the reason behind why Greece and the other EU countries are experiencing economic difficulties is the lack of fiscal policy within the union. The union also lacks a common mechanism to transfer resources from a member state to another; taxes from the EU’s best performing members cannot be transmuted to higher spending for EU countries that performs poorly. Yes, there is a single currency and interest rate, but it lacks a fiscal union that should be established along with the monetary union. Aside from that, the EU’s obsession in reducing deficit has hindered growth in the Eurozone.

Even though some countries wanted to leave the union (e.g. Italy) they realized that leaving it will plunge their country into a financial crisis even more as unemployment rates will further go up and its banking system will collapse. The membership to the Eurozone is compared to a curse, Italy is put in a bind to follow through with the Eurozone’s absurd fiscal rules and it was not allowed to attain more budget deficits since the EU rules clearly state that in order to bring their country back to competitiveness it must put through with international deflation which entails cost cutting and austerity measures (Elliot, 2018).

French President Emmanuel Macron has given his proposal in order to bring back the faith of the European citizen to the European project after a decade of financial crisis and immigration problems in order to quell the rise of far-right and anti-EU parties in Europe. He proposed that the EU should have its own finance ministry headed by a eurozone finance minister (Chrisafis, 2017). Another alternative in his proposal is to allow the member state to have more freedom to run fiscal policies that will suit their needs (Elliot, 2018)

The European Union needs a fiscal union in order to quell the economic shocks coming from one of its member from spreading throughout the union. Another alternative eyed is that member states should share financial risk in order to mutually insure each other. An example of that is the proposed EMU-wide unemployment insurance system that will stabilize private incomes alongside with a central fiscal capacity that will collect annual contribution from the EU member states linked to local shocks and it also offers benefits without the harmonization of the unemployment insurance system. This facility can smooth business cycles and ensures fiscal discipline and prevent moral hazards (Berger et.al., 2018).

The Eurosclerosis is a term coined by German economist Herbert Giersch which he used to describe the period of economic stagnation in Europe during the 1970’s and 1980’s. In these decades the European Community suffered a snail-paced job growth and further European integration is at a standstill. Giersch identified that the rigid structures in the European Community caused such event, but it is not the only cause. He also blames industries who became reliant on tariffs and government aid which should have been used to improve competitiveness, the rigidness of the labour market prevented it to clear and make incentivized firms in using labour-saving technology, welfare payments to the people made them disincentivize to work, and excessive regulations created barriers to entry for new workers and firms. The era of Eurosclerosis ended when there is a more solid push towards European integration during the 1990’s and 2000’s and when the European Union improved its flexibility in regulations (Investopedia, 2018).

However, Lithuania was not yet a part of the European Community when it experienced Eurosclerosis during the 1970’s and 1980’s. The Baltic state is still a part of the Soviet Union which is facing the similar problem of economic stagnation.

The Soviet Union achieved rapid growth in the 1950’s due to its command economy which in the Soviet authorities coordinated economic activity through directives, social and economic targets and regulations. They also control the Union’s social and economic activity, however, since the Soviet Union does not have an open market that provides price signals and incentives to direct economic activity which led to economic inefficiencies and waste. Due to the Soviet Union’s fixation on industrialization and urbanization; a former backwards economy modernized itself by adopting various Western technologies at the expense of personal consumption. The Soviet authorities knew about the inefficacies of the command economy as they ran out of Western economic models to imitate (Johnston, 2016).

In the 1950’s Nikita Khrushchev attempted to decentralized economic control to allow a second economy to deal with the union’s complex affairs, however, he was to go back to centralized economy since it tore the foundations of the command economy apart. Reforms were resumed in the 1970’s to allow the Soviet economy to have a liberal market system but with the foundations of the centralized economy but the Soviet economy stagnated further. Mikhail Gorbachev’s radical economic reform Perestroika created an atmosphere of openness and encourage individual private incentive. This sense of openness emboldened the Soviet citizens and the took advantage of these freedom to gain information on their ailing economy. The Soviet authorities further relaxed its control to help their ailing economy which further led to its dissolution when the union experienced economic contraction during the late 19080’s to 1990’s (Johnston, 2016).

The Stability and Growth Pact are rules aimed to prevent fiscal policies of EU member states to head towards problematic direction and to correct excessive budget deficits or excessive public debts (ECB, 2018).

The SGP is a binding agreement between the EU member states to coordinate their economic policies and activities cohesively to ensure the stability of the Economic and Monetary Union. The Pact sets two limits to EU member states: a member states government deficit cannot exceed to the reference point of 3% and the national debt cannot exceed 60% of the country’s GDP; penalties are issued for non-compliance. The pact is often criticized for not laying down penalties on the EU’s larger economies such as Germany and France even though they did not comply with the limits while smaller countries such as Greece and Portugal are saddled with heavy penalties (Investopedia, 2018).

Lithuania has also faithfully reducing its government deficit in 2008-2014 in order to attain the Maastricht Criterion of a 3% government deficit.

Lithuania has presented its Stability Programme in 2017 which is in line with the European Union’s Stability and Growth Pact and it aims to achieve an annual general budget surplus of 0. 3% of the Baltic states’ GDP and it hopes for a balanced economic growth with average 2.5% between 2018 and 2020 through domestic and external demand. In order to achieve this, Lithuania is planning to improve its tax administration, promote activities of state-owned enterprises in a way to increase the states capital return and increase the focus on result-oriented public finance (Anskaitien?, 2017).

In an OECD report, Lithuania’s economy is fairly resistant to external changes since it attained a fast recovery during the 2008 global financial crisis due to high flexibility of Lithuania’s economy. Even though Lithuania strengthened its financial and fiscal framework in order to accommodate the fiscal compact and supervision of the European Union; inequality indicators remain high and share on Lithuania’s informal activities are significant. Lithuania is also affected by the Russian countersanction and it caused Lithuanian export to shrink by 40% but it will not hinder the growth of the Baltic state. The reason behind Lithuania’s volatility was due to it being a small economy that is reliant on exports which accounts for 81% of its GDP (OECD, 2016).

Lithuania’s GDP growth during 1991-2015. Lithuania’s attained a GDP of -1.13% during the Russian Ruble Crisis while in 2009 it attained a -11.8% GDP due to the global financial crisis.

The informal economy in Lithuania creates an uneven playing field for firms and furthers economic inequality. Even if it is slightly affected by the global financial crisis, Lithuania attained a couple of scrapes from it that still needs healing. The Baltic state also had a housing boom, but it quickly deflated which caused a large number of job loss in the construction sector and those jobs are unlikely to be revived, aside from that this increases the skill mismatch and Lithuania’s structural unemployment by 10-12% (OECD, 2016).

Lithuania’s population is rapidly declining due to low fertility rate, high mortality and significant emigration. This situation puts a risk on Lithuania’s potential output growth and fiscal sustainability. Lithuanian citizens mostly emigrate because of economic reasons with the highest proportion of Lithuanian emigrants moving to the United Kingdom where they can earn five times higher than in Lithuania because inequality and poverty remain high. These emigrants are mostly young, well-educated and female Lithuanians, however, during the global financial crisis the return migration went up and it contributed to the lowest annual net migration in 2014 (OECD,2016).

Emigration in Lithuania remains high as high poverty and inequality persists in the Baltic state. However, Lithuania has seen a surge of return migration in 2008 as a result of the global financial crisis.

Lithuania has managed to attain its strong fiscal position by cutting its expenditures as they decrease public wages, temporary cuts in pensions and reduction in selected social benefits. These tight measures are done in order for the Baltic state to ensure financial market confidence and to ensure that it would enter the Eurozone. However, due to its ageing populations Lithuania will have to take care of its ageing population and had to consider the associated fiscal costs it would bring (OECD, 2016).

Conclusion:

Lithuania has been part of the European Union for a decade but due to its strong compliance with the EU requirements in order to be a part of the Eurozone. The country has seen tremendous economic growth and external conditions rarely hinders it brought upon by its strengthened fiscal policy. Lithuania even put its Stability Programme in line with the Stability and Growth Pact in order to be in line more with the EU’s obsession to limit gain deficits and earn surplus.

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However, despite of the wonderful picture of growth. Poverty and inequality is still at large in Lithuania which caused some of its citizens to emigrate to countries (e.g. United Kingdom) where they can earn more. A high mortality rate and low fertility also puts Lithuania’s future projected growth at risk.

In this lecture, Holmstrom criticallyIn this lecture, Holmstrom critically evaluates the Pay for performance incentive system and concludes that pay for performance isn’t easy to execute. Also, it is more suitable for industries and jobs where success can be easily quantified like salesperson, production industry.

Pay for performance is also related to bring market inside the firm. Which means that employees with in the firm are competitors and will fight among each other to get maximum out of the company’s limited resources. Holmstrom argues this model and writes in the paper based on his experience working on incentive problems for 25 years, that within frms, high-powered financial incentives can be very dysfunctional and attempts to bring the market inside the frm are generally misguided. Typically, it is best to avoid high-powered incentives and sometimes not use pay for performance at all.

The principal agent problem

Principal-agent problem is one of the reason why pay for performance is complicated. Generally, you define principal as employer and agent as employee. For example, if you take service from lawyer then you would be principal and lawyer would be agent. Most of the time, principal and agent have different motives. Contracts can be difficult because their preferences aren’t aligned and agent performance is imperfectly measured. If principal cannot measure performance of agent perfectly then pay for performance will induce risk on the agent and since the agent wants to avoid risk as much as possible, there is a trade-off between risk and incentive.

Generally, this problem is addressed by introducing linear bonus for performance in addition to fixed wage. But, problem with using a linear function is that then answer won’t tell us why different incentives are used in different contexts. Also, it doesn’t tell us about trade-offs which are the causes of incentive problem.

While designing a contract between principal and agent there are two constraints. One is that agent should get at least his reservation utility if chose the contract and second is that it should also motivate him to act as the principal wants.

Holmstrom introduced this principle, which states that an ideal contract should factor any available measures of performance by the agent in calculating the compensation. Which means it should also factor relative performance to other similar agents to remove the luck factor.

To understand this, one can use the example of manager whose actions influence his company’s share price but not share prices of other firms. Should a manager’s pay depend only on her firm’s share price? No: Because share prices reflect other factors in the economy outside the manager’s control, only linking compensation to the firm’s share price will reward the manager for good luck but punish him for bad luck. It’s preferable to link the

Essay – Pay for Performance and beyond, M.A. in HRM& LR,TISS -Mumbai

Shrutam Shailesh Jani (M2018HRM052)

manager’s pay to his firm’s share price relative to those of similar firms and not just on the share price she can work to control.

Similarly, CEOs should not be allowed to enjoy windfall gains from favourable macroeconomic conditions. Appealing to the informativeness principle, Holmstrom advocate the use of relative performance evaluation as a way to filter out luck.

So, the industries where it is harder to measure effort of agent, the less pay should be paid based on performance.

Multitasking

Sometimes, agent’s job consist of many tasks and it is important for principal to get agent allocate his effort across tasks in a manner that aligns with the pricipal’s objectives. This could be challenging when easy-to-measure and hard-to-measure activities compete for the agent’s attention.

For example, performance of teacher could be evaluated based on the marks of student as well as on the curricular best practices where later one is hard to measure. So, if teachers’ salaries decided mainly on quantifiable results, like test scores, teachers might spend too little time teaching more qualitative skills, like creativity. Hence, a fixed salary, independent of performance measures, would lead to a more balanced effort.

Some tasks are easy to measure where others are hard so one should be careful while designing contract. Holmstrom gives example of Wells Fargo, were employees manufactured fake bank accounts to get bonuses because contract was based on the quantifiable outcome which was no. of accounts created.

We can learn following lessons from multitasking:

• Don’t incentivize competing tasks. To properly provide incentives, pay more for an important task or pay less for competing tasks. When a task is hard to measure, low or no incentives might be best.
• Firms should find substitutes for pay-for-performance incentives. Examples could be the ability to control work through job assignments, job designs and a variety of implicit and explicit rules that the firm sets.
• We can bifurcate task into two tasks and allot those to two different agent. Where one would take task which is easily measurable and that task will be provided with high performance incentives and second agent would take task which is innovative and is hard to measure and that task would have low performance incentive.

Conclusion

The firms should have been careful while designing employee incentive models and pay for performance might not be always suitable because it is more suited to stable industries and jobs where success can be easily quantified.

Also, informativeness principle suggests that an contract should link payment to all outcomes that can potentially provide information about actions that have been taken. Means, it should not only depend on variables agent can control but should be a form of relative performance evaluation. In Short, There’s a lot beyond pay for performance. evaluates the Pay for performance incentive system and concludes that pay for performance isn’t easy to execute. Also, it is more suitable for industries and jobs where success can be easily quantified like salesperson, production industry.

Pay for performance is also related to bring market inside the firm. Which means that employees with in the firm are competitors and will fight among each other to get maximum out of the company’s limited resources. Holmstrom argues this model and writes in the paper based on his experience working on incentive problems for 25 years, that within frms, high-powered financial incentives can be very dysfunctional and attempts to bring the market inside the frm are generally misguided. Typically, it is best to avoid high-powered incentives and sometimes not use pay for performance at all.

Principal-agent problem is one of the reason why pay for performance is complicated. Generally, you define principal as employer and agent as employee. For example, if you take service from lawyer then you would be principal and lawyer would be agent. Most of the time, principal and agent have different motives. Contracts can be difficult because their preferences aren’t aligned and agent performance is imperfectly measured. If principal cannot measure performance of agent perfectly then pay for performance will induce risk on the agent and since the agent wants to avoid risk as much as possible, there is a trade-off between risk and incentive.

Generally, this problem is addressed by introducing linear bonus for performance in addition to fixed wage. But, problem with using a linear function is that then answer won’t tell us why different incentives are used in different contexts. Also, it doesn’t tell us about trade-offs which are the causes of incentive problem.

While designing a contract between principal and agent there are two constraints. One is that agent should get at least his reservation utility if chose the contract and second is that it should also motivate him to act as the principal wants.

The informativeness principle

Holmstrom introduced this principle, which states that an ideal contract should factor any available measures of performance by the agent in calculating the compensation. Which means it should also factor relative performance to other similar agents to remove the luck factor.

To understand this, one can use the example of manager whose actions influence his company’s share price but not share prices of other firms. Should a manager’s pay depend only on her firm’s share price? No: Because share prices reflect other factors in the economy outside the manager’s control, only linking compensation to the firm’s share price will reward the manager for good luck but punish him for bad luck. It’s preferable to link the

Essay – Pay for Performance and beyond, M.A. in HRM& LR,TISS -Mumbai

Shrutam Shailesh Jani (M2018HRM052)

manager’s pay to his firm’s share price relative to those of similar firms and not just on the share price she can work to control.

Similarly, CEOs should not be allowed to enjoy windfall gains from favourable macroeconomic conditions. Appealing to the informativeness principle, Holmstrom advocate the use of relative performance evaluation as a way to filter out luck.

So, the industries where it is harder to measure effort of agent, the less pay should be paid based on performance.

Multitasking

Sometimes, agent’s job consist of many tasks and it is important for principal to get agent allocate his effort across tasks in a manner that aligns with the pricipal’s objectives. This could be challenging when easy-to-measure and hard-to-measure activities compete for the agent’s attention.

For example, performance of teacher could be evaluated based on the marks of student as well as on the curricular best practices where later one is hard to measure. So, if teachers’ salaries decided mainly on quantifiable results, like test scores, teachers might spend too little time teaching more qualitative skills, like creativity. Hence, a fixed salary, independent of performance measures, would lead to a more balanced effort.

Some tasks are easy to measure where others are hard so one should be careful while designing contract. Holmstrom gives example of Wells Fargo, were employees manufactured fake bank accounts to get bonuses because contract was based on the quantifiable outcome which was no. of accounts created.

We can learn following lessons from multitasking:

• Don’t incentivize competing tasks. To properly provide incentives, pay more for an important task or pay less for competing tasks. When a task is hard to measure, low or no incentives might be best.
• Firms should find substitutes for pay-for-performance incentives. Examples could be the ability to control work through job assignments, job designs and a variety of implicit and explicit rules that the firm sets.
• We can bifurcate task into two tasks and allot those to two different agent. Where one would take task which is easily measurable and that task will be provided with high performance incentives and second agent would take task which is innovative and is hard to measure and that task would have low performance incentive.

The firms should have been careful while designing employee incentive models and pay for performance might not be always suitable because it is more suited to stable industries and jobs where success can be easily quantified.

Keep in mind:
This is only a sample.

Get a custom paper now from our expert writers.

Also, informativeness principle suggests that an contract should link payment to all outcomes that can potentially provide information about actions that have been taken. Means, it should not only depend on variables agent can control but should be a form of relative performance evaluation. In Short, There’s a lot beyond pay for performance.

Creating a social sensation when it was introduced in 1899, The Awakening was labeled one of the first feminist novels as it fell into tone with the rapidly rising group of young women who demanded political and social equality. The reader witnesses Edna Pontellier's transformation from a caged beautiful parrot to a disabled bird that flies freely. The avian symbolism in the novel is apparent as the readers mark her tribulations from one bird to the next as she forges an unheard-of path in her upper-class world but eventually finds that she is unable to survive in this new environment of feminist individualism.

The novel is introduced with the image of a colorful parrot squawking words of rage. Two translations of its dialogue are "Go away! Go away! For goodness sake!" and "Get out! Get out! Goddammit!" Either phrase conveys an unpleasant environment, as a parrot traditionally repeats overhear words spoken by humans. To set a tone for the story, the parrot, though beautiful and well taken care of, isn't free and is unhappy. Its position resembles that of all women in the male-dominated world at the turn of the twentieth century. More specifically, however, the bird represents Edna and the lack of true attention that she receives from her husband Leonce (Bookwolf 1). She is discontented in her marriage, though no outward activity can presuppose this, as her husband provides her with ample money and sends her many gifts. Although he is very devoted, he provides no passion in the marriage as he expects her to assume the typical role as a wife of a wealthy New Orleans businessman. Edna's spirit is too wild and free to succumb to a life of subservience, and she will soon learn that she would rather forsake the many social benefits that she enjoys for a life of liberty.

Accompanying the parrot in a separate cage is a homely mockingbird whose song is much more beautiful but whose appearance is dull and plain in comparison with the parrot. This mockingbird represents Edna's friend and advisor, Mademoiselle Reisz, a dowdy old spinster whose awkward social skills and gruff mannerisms leave her virtually friendless. Her extraordinary music, like the mockingbird, impresses all, however, and Edna is mysteriously drawn to her piano-playing as they form an understood kinship. Though Edna is flocked by friends, Mlle. Reisz is the only one to recognize Edna's desire to break free ­ the parrot "could speak a little Spanish, and also a language which nobody understood, unless it was the mocking-bird that hung on the other side of the door, whistling his fluty notes out upon the breeze with maddening persistence" (Chopin 468). The parrot, like Edna, is well-accomplished, though its own language could only be interpreted by the mockingbird that is recognized solely for its musical skill.

Leonce's reaction to the birds' songs drives him inside, as he is obviously upset and disgusted by their commotion. The contemporary man of this time would likely be appalled by a woman who considered herself equal to him, voicing her own opinions and neglecting the immediate desires of a man. Radical views such as these were not only thought to be unchristian, but were so socially unacceptable as to endanger the family's business. His leaving the porch also represents a man's ability to discard women whenever they ceased to be entertaining, implying that women served the sole purpose of being seen and not heard (Fleischman 1).

A few weeks later, Edna and Mlle. Reisz have come together at a social gathering on the beach. The atmosphere is full of typical happiness: children playing, people enjoying delectable treats, and adults dancing. Although Edna seems to be enjoying herself, she is in the presence of all that she inwardly despises: the conventional society from which she longs to break free. The parrot is again present and squawks the same disapproval that was expressed in the first lines of the novel. During a recital by the Farival twins, two girls who represent perfect children as they are dressed in blue and white to represent holiness, the parrot "was the only being present who possessed sufficient candor to admit that he was not listening to these gracious performances for the first time that summer." (Chopin 485) Its "venom of nature" was released as it interrupted the supposedly lovely act of the twins. Although she has yet to admit it, Edna despises their duet as well, as it stands for everything in her life that rejects her character. These sentiments are later echoed by Mlle. Reisz who, when asked about her summer replies that it was "rather pleasant, if it hadn't been for the mosquitoes and the Farival twins" (Chopin 506).

Later that evening, Mlle. Reisz plays for the audience, and during her performance, Edna finds herself in a daze as she is transported to another place on the wings of Mlle. Reisz's notes. One certain piece, entitled ?Solitude,' conjured another image of a bird in which we can assume Edna's position represents. "It was a short, plaintive, minor strain. When she heard it there came before her imagination the figure of a man standing beside a desolate rock on the seashore. He was naked. His attitude was one of hopeless resignation as he looked toward a distant bird winging its flight away from him" (Chopin 487). She is one of very few women of her time that believes in her own rights, hence the title of the piece and the solo flight of the bird. However, she has finally realized that she can't survive her present lifestyle as devoted wife and mother. Like the bird, she must fly away from the strains of society and her family, represented by the man standing on the shore who is looking desperately towards her flight. The bird is strong and not looking back: Edna has taken her first step to freedom. It is on this night that she first admits to herself her passions for her friend Robert ­ and the first time that she denies the demands of her husband.

Upon her return to New Orleans, Edna is once again entrenched by the strains of society and motherhood, and she gradually denies them all. Firstly, she is unavailable to receive callers because she is out, evoking much rebuke from her husband. The last straw is pulled when she moves from her elaborate mansion to a more modest dwelling. She has not forgotten her understanding companion, Mlle. Reisz, who supports her lover for Robert, and she frequently makes trips to see the elderly lady. It is during one of these visits that Mlle. Reisz feels Edna's shoulder blades to ?see if her wings were strong', saying "The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth" (Chopin 533) Mlle. Reisz seems to be the only one who truly knows Edna, realizing that she will attempt flight by leaving the conforms of society. Although Mlle. Reisz warns her of failure, she continues to provide advice, encouragement, and an ideal model as one who can survive without being a successful wife and devoted mother. (Smollett 2)

As she moves to her smaller, more comfortable house around the corner, Edna appropriately names it the ?pigeon house.' Here, she is free to act in a manner improper to a woman of her social standing as she has denied the wishes of her husband and keeps company with a younger suitor. Her new abode reflects her desire to reject convention and settle in to a lifestyle all her own. During her time spent dedicated to her new house, a romance is kindling with an acquaintance, Alcee Arobin. Based solely on lust rather than love, their time spent together is yet another rejection of the social ideal. Upon close inspection of his name, Arobin is pronounced slowly as a- robin, a bird known for its free flight and ability to live in close proximity to humans. "Arobin matches this description, for he, as his name implies, flies freely through society and as his reputation suggests becomes close with many women? Clearly he disregards the restrictions and "rules" that society has set up. Edna admires his ability to live carelessly, as Arobin obviously enjoys himself and succeeds socially. Their relationship is one of mutual pleasure, thrown in the face of the upper class. He sees her company as the conquest of a married woman while she longs pursuits him in her quest for adventure, a kindred spirit, and free wings.

When her true love, Robert, presents himself and confesses his mutual affections for her, she realizes that she is unable to survive without him. In the real world, however, she could never live freely with Robert, and she resorts to tragedy to end her sorrows. She takes to the sea, where her desperation first became alive that summer, and commits suicide by drowning. As she wades in, she catches sight of a bird with a broken wing, unable to fly and falling down to the ocean. Its descent represents Edna's inability to survive the social mores with her desire to live an independent life. The scene mirrors that which was invoked when Mlle. Reisz played the piano. This time, however, the bird has failed, and its flight, though begun so magnificently, is doomed. Edna, standing naked on the shore just as the man was, can now admit to this and realizes her defeat. Her miserable end can also be seen as freedom, as an awakening. She has finally broken from her family and her upper-class New Orleans lifestyle, and can now fly freely (Dyer 131).

Another bird that makes an appearance twice throughout the novel is an owl that marks two stages of Edna's progress in her awakening. In the third chapter, the reader sees the first mental breaking of Edna as she mourns her situation, crying to herself after her husband has reprimanded her for being a neglectful mother. "There was no sound abroad except the hooting of an old owl in the top of a water-oak? It broke like a mournful lullaby upon the night." (Chopin 471) Representing wisdom, the owl seems to lament her sorrowful situation as Edna has yet to understand the actions necessary for happiness. When she has eventually given into her desires, admitting feelings for Robert and swimming for the first time, the reader notices the changes in Edna's mannerisms. She is carefree as she drops all pretension and finally submits to her own desires. Edna has come into her own, and she no longer needs sympathy as signified in Chapter 39 when "The old owl no longer hooted" (Chopin 492).

Her life seemed to be perfectly in order, but a closer look only revealed the worst. Edna Pontellier could never be satisfied with convention, with following the rules, and with doing what was socially right. But in the end, her wings could not support her flight of freedom. Whether her will was not strong enough or a bird of her spirit could never survive on Earth is up to the reader's interpretation. But her happiness depended on her awakening. In order to have flown, she had to be free.

Works Cited

Chopin, Kate. "The Awakening." Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Bayn et al. 5th Ed. Vol. 2 New York: 457-558.

Dyer, Joyce. "Symbolism and Imagery in the Awakening." Approaches to Teaching Chopin's The Awakening. Ed. Bernard Koloski. 1988. 126-131.

Fleischman, Tom. "Essay on the Awakening." Nov. 2000. Grand Valley State University. <http://www.gvsu.edu/honor/fleischman.html>

Smollett, Sara. "Birds as a Symbol in Chopin's The Awakening." Online Posting. 25 April, 1997. <http://www.simons-rock.edu/~sara/index.php3?topic=classes/awakening>

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Wyatt, Neal. "Symbols in the Awakening" Kate Chopin Study Text. 1995. Virginia Commonwealth University. <http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/eng384/symbols.htm>

Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening, has borne a burden of criticism and speculation since its initial publication. While many past critics have chastised Chopin and condemned the novel for the portrayal of an adulterous heroine, modern responses are often inexorably concerned with drawing conclusions about the novel's inconclusive ending. Most modern critics have set aside moral considerations about Edna's adulterous behavior in favor of multitudinous considerations of the final scene of the novel: Edna's death. Readers want to know whether Edna's death was intentional. It is hard to escape dwelling on this point because the answer determines whether Edna has succeeded or surrendered. The reader seeks conclusion for satisfaction, yet this sought after conclusion is not given by Chopin. However, Chopin's failure to provide all the answers and her failure to give Edna lines of thoughtful explanation for her actions is not a fault, nor should it be a criticism of the novel. Whether Edna means to kill herself, whether she is reclaiming her authority over her life by taking it or whether she is simply giving up, is an important consideration, the author's simple answer to which would depress the novel's power to produce readers' thought and speculation while possibly leading to negative social assumptions. To understand and find satisfaction in the end of the novel, one must appreciate both the freedom of discourse permitted by such a non-ending and the implications of the portrayal of female adultery and suicide in the nineteenth century. Although the escalation of the plot implies that Edna's demise is necessary, as she cannot be free to live the life she chooses, a suicide would present a problem in that it provides a conclusion for readers that attaches to Edna the social conceptions by which female suicide was defined. Suicide would not just have been seen as another moral transgression for a selfish character, it could be deduced, applying popular thought on female suicide, that Edna's problem was not systemic and not a problem with society but rather a problem with her own mental state. Chopin may not define Edna's death as suicide because to do so would be to provide a conclusion that would invite social interpretation of her act rather than deliberation as to her intentions and alternatives. Rather than speculate on her intentions, requiring close reading of the events that drove her to her death, closure through definitive suicide invites interpretation through the lenses of nineteenth century thought on female suicide, a lens that would be sure to condemn and isolate her and her plight.

As Chopin's novel draws to a close, hope begins to wane that Edna will find happiness and freedom in her social world. The novel must end in Edna's death because society cannot offer a solution to her problem or acknowledge her needs. With the imminence of her husband's return, Edna has no choice but to either play the part of dutiful wife and move back into his house or attempt an escape likely to warrant condemnation and dismissal from her society. The reader would be sorely disappointed if Edna returned to her house to live her life in misery because such an action would be anticlimactic and outside of Edna's character. Edna's daring increases throughout the novel and Chopin admits that her "original conception of the novel was changed by Edna's making such a mess of things" (Treu 2). By the end of the novel, Edna has abandoned her Tuesdays at home, coming and going as she pleases. She has also moved to her own house where she has engaged in extra-marital affairs. Having broken nearly all social codes and knowing her husband's return must put an end to it, Edna has no choice but escape or return. However, escape with Robert proves unachievable. His desire to make her his wife and possess her is not possible and also not what she wants. Edna says "I give myself where I choose, if he were to say, 'Here Robert, take her and be happy; she is yours,' I should laugh at you both" (Chopin, 102). A continuation of her affair with Robert could not bring happiness because he has the same intention of possessing her. Robert's note "good-bye- because I love you" ( Chopin, 106) puts an end to their affair. From this point on Edna's intentions can only be speculated. Edna can neither be happy or have what she wants. She is incapable of self-ownership and autonomy. The novel has diagnosed something for which there is no answer. While a return to her society position would be anticlimactic her escape from it seems impossible. Edna's death is necessary to the plot, but yet it is left ambiguous.

Such ambiguity, however, is consistent with the rest of the novel and serves Chopin's purpose. Edna is consistently a very passive character. The major decisions she makes in the novel hardly seem like decisions at all. When she is asked why she has abandoned her Tuesdays at home she replies "I simply felt like going out, and I went out" (Chopin, 49). When Edna tells of her plans of renting a house, Mademoiselle Reisz replies "Your reason is not yet clear to me" and the narrator goes on to say "neither was it quite clear to Edna herself" (76). Edna's first encounter with a drowning death again takes the reader to the limits of Edna's inconsideration. As she swims, Edna seems purposeless, "she seemed to be reaching out for the unlimited in which to lose herself" implying that she is not conscious of it. "A quick vision of death smote her soul and enfeebled her senses." Once again this implies her passivity and lack of influence over her environment. Her death fittingly reveals the same structure. Edna does not determine that she will commit suicide; her decision to go down to the beach is only a notion, Edna says "I have a notion to go down to the beach and take a good wash and even a little swim, before dinner" (Chopin, 107). Edna continues by saying that she "might go down and try" (Chopin, 108). Asking twice about dinner and requesting some towels, the reader is unprepared to accept a premeditated suicide. As she swims into the ocean her thoughts are of her children, husband and childhood. She has no resolve but to swim and as the ocean and distance overcome her, her strength disappears. Her body propels her forward, the ocean challenges her strength and yet her mind is without resolution. Does Edna make the conscious decision to die? Is her death a reclamation of her body or is she simply giving up?

Chopin's ending is both fitting and shocking as it demands thought from the reader. It refuses to supply a simple answer. Whether Edna has surrendered or succeeded, died accidentally or through her own decision, is left for the reader to decide. Neither idea can be proven, yet interpretation is encouraged if not necessary. The reader's mind hungers for conclusion; however, one is not supplied. One can imagine responses to alternate conclusions less effective at producing thought. In the event that Edna thinks "That's it! I cannot go on, I will never have the freedom I choice to possess, I must end my life" the reader thinks, "how sad! I feel sorry for a person who is so dissatisfied they must end their life." In the event that the novel ends with Edna thinking "I am desperate and the only way to claim my life is to take it" the reader thinks "hmm, it's sad that Edna could not find happiness in life but she has made a decision that is a victory to her." The last scenario one could imagine is that Edna, aimlessly swimming, realizes "I'm too far from the shore, I feel tired, and the sea is too powerful. Help!" In which case the reader thinks "Somebody help her! Why did you swim so far? Didn't you learn your lesson from the last time?" However, Chopin fails to adopt any of these conclusions. The reader's response to these endings would seem contained and brief. Chopin's real ending, however, produces other feelings. "Why?" asks the reader. "Was it intentional?" A search for answers must occur. Chapters are reread and Edna's thoughts and statements are reviewed. Finally the reader comes to a conclusion that can not be proven. This conclusion cannot be a definitive conclusion but rather a subjective conclusion in that the thoughts of the reader influence the novel by giving more or less weight to evidences pointing towards Edna's intentions. A subjective interpretation is necessary. This interpretation is important in that the reader is challenged to take into consideration the evidences the novel provides and interpret them to draw a conclusion. This personal interpretation allows the reader to justify the ending in relation to both the rest of the novel and their own feelings toward Edna and the situation. If the reader feels that Edna has committed suicide, they must feel that she had no way out. It is more difficult to criticize a character and their actions when you have deduced their actions instead of the author giving them. For closure in this novel, the reader must ask what Edna would be likely to do and to a lesser extent and perhaps subconsciously, what they would do. The inconclusive ending has a way of drawing the reader in while stimulating identification and thought on larger issues. When a reader is asked to draw his or her own conclusions it is less likely for the character to face criticism and condemnation in the eyes of the reader and more likely that reader is able to identify with the character.

Identification with a character is important, especially for a character readily condemned by the standards of her society. Chopin acknowledges the "mother women" who represented what Edna, as a wife and mother, was supposed to be. Chopin says of these mother women , "They were women who idolized their children, worshipped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels" (Chopin, 9). Indeed, society expected books to be about such women; the portrayal of an adulterous woman who refuses to let her husband and children "possess her, body and soul" was a moral abomination. Chopin does her best to let us see who Edna really is, and who she can be as she comes to realize the "blind contentment" that is the existence of the mother women. Chopin also allows society's perspective into the novel through the thoughts and actions of males in the novel, especially Lonce and Doctor Mandelet. As Lonce finds Edna's independent behavior disturbing, he makes an important trip to the family doctor. Not surprisingly for the time period, Lonce and the doctor see Edna's actions as a result of a individual psychological problem rather than a social issue. Lonce tells the doctor "I don't know what ails her" I tell you she's peculiar. I don't like it; I feel a little worried over it" (Chopin, 63). Although doctor Mandelet insists that "women are not all alike" , Lonce goes on to tell him what he believes are egregious symptoms that set her apart from all other women (Chopin, 63). In Lonce's eyes Edna seems on the verge of being mentally ill. To his nineteenth century male mind Edna's actions can mean nothing other than illness. Through Lonce Chopin seems to acknowledge her reader's response and popular nineteenth century female stereotypes, and ideas on mental illness and suicide in the female sex. Edna's perspective through the novel seems to discredit these ideas as does Chopin's conclusion technique.

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Chopin's lack of definitive closure fails to provide the best reaffirming outlet for dominant theories about female mental illness and suicide. Modern nineteenth century thought on such issues assumed that "traditional familial values were the best protection against self-destruction" (Treu). In this century suicide was a growing phenomenon. Attributed to the competitive economic environment and the growth of the capitalist economy suicide was found to be three times as likely in men, whose sphere, the world of commerce and economics, was in. Reinforced by stories of men who were driven to self-destruction after financial ruin and business crises, male suicide became a societal problem. Society put men at risk for this phenomenon. Women, however, were different. Their position outside of the social sphere and position rather in the home environment was felt to have inoculated them against this danger. Women were "more sedentary and followed more regular practices," they were also "more religious and more resigned to life" (True 1). However, suicide in women, although not as common, did occur. It was just not thought a problem with society. "Suicide among women was portrayed as an individual emotional act and, thus inconsequential, while male suicide was seen as a barometer of national economic and social well-being" (2). Female suicide was thought only to occur when women deviated from their traditional role and "left the security of their families." (True 2) This decision was often attributed to mental illness and ended in suicide. If Edna were to follow this nineteenth century logic she would end her life with a definitive suicide. However, Chopin's conclusion for the novel is limited. Edna cannot succeed by getting what she wants in her society. Her problem is diagnosed and yet there can be no solution and no conclusion. If Edna were to definitively kill herself she would seemingly fit the female suicide model akin to nineteenth century society. Her death, not left open for interpretation, would invite a preponderance of societal attributions. Edna's death would serve to reinforce these perceptions as did novels like Madame Bovary, Anna Karenina, and The House of Mirth. An attempt to show the hopelessness of Edna's situation is easily turned into fodder for these ideals. Chopin's ending lets us see Edna's death as something between accident and suicide, defeat and victory. One cannot decide that it is a defeating suicide without acknowledging the possibilities of accident and victory. Chopin's ending requires a deeper thought.

Life long discussion and debate throughout the time of the military, do we focus on training or educating our leaders. We have always adapted to the enemy and situation at hand when it comes to this topic. The technological advances we have made over the last 30 years use to be a dream, the type of wars we fought over the last 30 years have evolved so its only right that our methods advance from training focus to educating. Everything from the type and environment of education soldiers experience to the leadership skills there taught have to continue advancing, we have stepped away from fighting on the ground and boots on the ground so much to technological warfare. Through empowering and educating soldiers, we can build brighter more resourceful advanced leaders.

The transition in the military is a plan to affect the outcome of wars 10, 15 even 30 years down the road so we are not playing catch up. There were only two ways we educated soldiers 32 years ago, brick and mortar schoolhouses and distance learning through lessons and test sent and received through mail. Now we have so many different ways of educating soldiers and soldiers to educate themselves on free time so we can expect soldiers and leaders that are more intelligent. We have made the transition from analog to digital education so we can only expect it to continue evolving over the next 20 or 30 years. We need to as a nation continue to advance our education and leadership abilities as we are not favored in the current demographic to stay on top over countries such as China and Russia. The country is being significantly challenged by these major powers in all aspects of war, land, air, sea, and cyber dominance that we have relied on since World War II.

Military must continue to strengthen Professional Military Education (PME) in order to keep testing our soldier and evolve them as leaders.

Education is a powerful tool in breaking the cycle of poverty. The Rivers children, a fictional family living in a low-income neighborhood, serve as an example of how access to education and opportunities can positively impact their lives. The children's parents, who have limited education and job skills, struggle to provide for their family. However, through hard work and determination, the Rivers children are able to excel in school and access opportunities that their parents never had. In this essay, we will examine in more detail the impact of education on the level of poverty using the example of the novel There Are No Children Here.

As the eldest child, John Rivers works part-time after school to help support his family. Despite the added responsibility, he maintains a high GPA and is accepted into a prestigious university. His success in school not only opens doors for him, but also serves as an inspiration for his younger siblings to strive for similar opportunities.

The second child, Jane Rivers, takes advantage of a school program that allows her to explore different career fields. She discovers her passion for engineering and is able to secure a scholarship to attend a top college for her field of study. Her success in the program not only improves her family's financial situation but also sets her on a successful career path.

The youngest child, Jack Rivers, faces challenges in school due to learning disabilities. However, with the help of specialized programs and dedicated teachers, he is able to overcome these obstacles and graduate with honors. He is then able to attend a vocational school and secure a job in a field that he loves.

Through education and access to opportunities, the Rivers children are able to break the cycle of poverty and improve their family's financial situation. Education not only provides them with the skills and knowledge to secure good jobs, but it also opens doors for them to pursue their passions and achieve their full potential.

The importance of education and access to opportunities in breaking the cycle of poverty cannot be overstated. It is crucial for individuals and families to have access to quality education, programs and opportunities to break the cycle of poverty and improve their lives.

Education in America is a powerful tool in breaking the cycle of poverty for several reasons. Firstly, education is a key factor in determining an individual's earning potential. Studies have shown that individuals with higher levels of education tend to have higher paying jobs, which can greatly impact their financial situation. Additionally, education can provide individuals with the skills and knowledge necessary to secure good jobs, which can lead to a more stable financial situation.

Secondly, education can also provide individuals with access to opportunities that they may not have otherwise. For example, a good education can open doors to prestigious universities and colleges, which can lead to even higher paying jobs and greater financial stability. Furthermore, education can also provide individuals with access to programs and services that can help them succeed, such as tutoring and mentoring programs.

Thirdly, education can also help to break the cycle of poverty by providing individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary to make informed decisions about their lives. This can include understanding how to manage their finances, how to access resources and services, and how to advocate for themselves and their families.

Lastly, education also helps in building a strong workforce, which is essential for economic growth and development. A well-educated workforce is more productive, innovative, and better equipped to meet the demands of a rapidly changing economy. This can help to create jobs, increase economic activity, and improve the overall well-being of society.

In summary, Education in America is a powerful tool in breaking the cycle of poverty as it provides the individual with the necessary skills and knowledge to secure good jobs, access opportunities, make informed decisions and also building a strong workforce. The Rivers children serve as an example of how access to education and opportunities can positively impact the lives of individuals and families living in poverty. It is crucial for individuals and families.

Furthermore, breaking the cycle of poverty through education also has a ripple effect on future generations. The Rivers children are not only able to improve their own financial situations, but they are also able to provide better opportunities for their own children. This includes being able to afford higher quality education, healthcare, and overall better living conditions.

Additionally, education can also empower individuals from low-income communities to become leaders and advocates for their communities. The Rivers children, with their newfound success and knowledge, can use their positions to help others in their community access the same opportunities and resources that helped them break the cycle of poverty.

However, it's important to note that despite the importance of education in breaking the cycle of poverty, there are still barriers that many low-income individuals face when trying to access it. These barriers can include lack of funding for schools in low-income areas, lack of support for non-traditional students, and discrimination in the education system.

To truly break the cycle of poverty through education, it is crucial that these barriers are addressed and removed. This includes providing equal funding for schools in low-income areas, increasing support for non-traditional students, and implementing policies to combat discrimination in the education system.

In conclusion, education is a powerful tool in breaking the cycle of poverty. The Rivers children serve as an example of how access to education and opportunities can positively impact an individual's life and that of their family's. However, it is essential that barriers to education are addressed and removed in order to truly make education accessible to all, regardless of their socioeconomic background.