Creating Opportunity For Each Other

           

Failed State

                                                  

Social 

• Mounting demographic pressures.
• Massive displacement of refugees, creating severe humanitarian emergencies.
• Widespread vengeance-seeking group grievance.
• Chronic and sustained human flight.

Economic 

• Uneven economic development along group lines.
• Severe economic decline.

Political 

• Criminalization and/or delegitimization of the state.
• Deterioration of public services.
• Suspension or arbitrary application of law; widespread human rights abuses.
• Security apparatus operating as a "state within a state".
• Rise of factionalized elites.
• Intervention of external political agents.

What, then, is a failed state? In its terminal form, a state fails when it implodes, leaving only a shell. Max Weber defined the state as the entity that possesses "a monopoly on the legitimate use of force". This is a vital part of any definition of the state, but modern usage stretches the definition to incorporate the idea of sovereignty over a territory.

Others insist that the idea of the state embodies a commitment as the "institutional representation of the people’s will". The more limited notion of the state would exclude, as failed states, countries such as North Korea or Zimbabwe, where the state is intact, possesses a monopoly of force, but lacks the essential ingredient of legitimacy. Somalia is one of several cases where the central government has imploded and controls only a small part of the country.

South Africa is far from such extreme situations. There is no threat to its territorial integrity, no threat of a violent overthrow of the government or even of a conflict that threatens to get out of hand. It enjoys democratic institutions (however poorly they perform), the rule of law and protected civil liberties.

Overall, our picture is not a pretty one, and Sunter’s scenario-planning prognostication appears chillingly accurate. The legitimacy of the state depends on the wholehearted embrace of its value system as reflected in the constitutional dispensation in place. Our constitution is sound, but it is constantly being undermined or hollowed out by the tenets of the "national democratic revolution", which is being pursued by those in the ANC who do not genuinely subscribe to the National Development Plan embraced by the ANC in Mangaung. Without genuine fealty to constitutionalism, our slide down the ratings is likely to continue.

Using a budget to Plan

      Jahmani Budget Plan 

•  Make a List Of Values
• Set your Goals
• Determine your Income
• Determine your Expenses
• Create your budget pay for yourself first
• BE CAREFUL WITH CREDIT CARD
• Check Back 

               

When it comes to our money, there is no shortage of ways we could spend it: food, rent, gifts, medicine, clothing, education, technology, gym membership, gas … you get the picture. We’re often asked, “How to budget my money?”It's easy to understand how careful budgeting can improve a financial situation. And we all know that fewer financial problems mean less stress. But here's one of the best benefits: Working together on a budget can help your marriage. With money arguments being one of the largest causes of divorce, managing your budget can relieve financial stress on your marriage and make your life better all around.

                                                               TOP 4 CHOICES

Stick To Saving                                                                        Cut All Bad Habits

• Know how much money you have                         Spend on things you want not need
• Determine the amount you can spend                 Dont spend money on tobacco or alcohol
• Put money aside every month for savings          Dont spend your last
• Notice the Difference                                            Make sure you always have cash

Pay down debt                                                                  Be Persistent 

• Stick to one card                                                        Do not give up
• Dont spend where you know you cant pay off         Do not take time
• Dont go in debt for something else                          Dont wait
• Do not wait to pay it off                                               THINK POSITIVE

Ads in School

       Ads in School       

Advertising to students in school is on the rise as schools look for ways to raise more money, but the opportunity to market products to a captive young audience is not without controversy. Researchers, educators and even some federal legislators have aired concerns about the practice, with many arguing that it is invasive, distracting or even damaging to young children trying to learn.A major concern about in-school advertising is that it encroaches on students' privacy rights. For example, some marketing companies have offered schools computers, and in exchange are given the right to advertise in the school and gather information about the students for marketing purposes. Some federal legislators have tried to pass laws requiring parents to consent to in-school advertising as a way to address this.
Read more: Cons of Advertising in Schools | eHow http://www.ehow.com/list_6884321_cons-advertising-schools.html#ixzz2TMym6xv3

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2012-06-03/advertising-in-schools/55366346/1

My Opinion

            Some schools are putting ads on school buses because they want to raise money for their school system. The companies pay the school bus drivers to place their ads on the side of the school bus its called advertising. I believe that this will help the school money problems because school buses drive almost everywhere they are seen ever day . If people are seeing the same bus with the same bus it will become familiar to them and they would probably want to try the ads.Also The bus is advertising to everyone not only children parent who go on the bus. It should raise money problems because they are advertising to everyone for a free price. Schools can have bake sales , events, sell things. Talent shows to raise money .Office supply store Staples this fall will sponsor school supply lists in several California and Texas school districts and provide a coupon for parents, all printed on Staples-branded paper.Consumer advocates say marketers want to get in front of kids to build customers for life. Kids are especially vulnerable to persuasive advertising while they are still learning how to think critically, says Elizabeth Ben-Ishai, a spokeswoman for the Washington, D.C.-based consumer-advocacy organization Public Citizen's Commercial Alert.

War Tax Resistance - My opinion

                                          

                                                      My Educated Opinion        

Any nation needs three things in order to wage war: young men and women who are willing to join the military and risk their lives fighting a war.he consequences are primarily financial, including penalties and fines. The good news is that they are not going to arrest you or throw you in jail for war tax resistance. The IRS just wants their money, just like any other creditor, and you can’t pay them if you’re in jail.You file your taxes every year and include a letter to the IRS stating you are refusing to pay taxes because you refuse to pay for war. Not filing means not informing the IRS that you owe any taxes, and not filing any tax forms.Many people have noted the apparent futility of doing war tax resistance since the IRS often gets their money in the end.I can’t bring myself to do it. I won’t give it to them willingly. If more people refused to pay taxes, my minuscule act of resistance might have more impact. As activists we take many actions which may seem futile and we never can be sure of the efficacy, if any, of our work. Tax resistance is one more way of registering our opposition to war and militarism, and educating people about where their tax dollars really go.

                           How do they manage to get away with not paying taxes?

People are not paying State Federal taxes because they feel like their money is contributing to killing people and violence and also taking money away from the poor. One man who hasn't paid his state federal taxes in 40 years spoke on how he pays social security taxes, and medicare taxes but will not pay state federal taxes to contribute to our wars because he feels it is wrong. This man also spoke on how the government wanted to draft him off to the fight in the Vietnam war and he refused, the following year is when he made up his mind to no longer pay his state federal taxes. Although his actions were risky he did deal with issues with the IRS; the IRS took him to court in 1999 to sue him for not paying his taxes. The case was dismissed the man confessed to not paying his taxes but he argued that he pays taxes to other organizations and he doesn't feel the need to pay state federal taxes that will contribute to weapons, violence, and killing civilians. The man also explained that he doesn't have any bank accounts, he doesn't have a salary anymore because he is self employed and he doesn't own any major properties that the IRS can take from him.

                                                     
                     What do you think the counter argument against war tax resisters are?

I think that society has made paying state federal taxes a priority for people; without educating people on what their money is paying for . For the small portions of people who haven't been paying taxes aren't oblivious to what is going on; they are aware of what their money is being spent on, that is why they refuse to pay their state federal taxes. I think people may argue that these resisters are being selfish and that they don't support the war effort. This topic can be very touchy one at times because many may not agree with tax evasion but others who don't pay their taxes may not want to support something they don't believe in.

                                          

Supply and Demand

                              

Demand Schedule

Demand	Price
600	$  100.00
500	$  125.00
400	$  150.00
300	$  175.00
200	$  200.00

A demand schedule, depicted graphically as the demand curve, represents the amount of some good that buyers are willing and able to purchase at various prices, assuming all determinants of demand other than the price of the good in question, such as income, tastes and preferences, the price of substitute goods, and the price of complementary goods, remain the same. Following the law of demand, the demand curve is almost always represented as downward-sloping, meaning that as price decreases, consumers will buy more of the good.^[2]

Just like the supply curves reflect marginal cost curves, demand curves are determined by marginal utility curves.^[3] Consumers will be willing to buy a given quantity of a good, at a given price, if the marginal utility of additional consumption is equal to the opportunity cost determined by the price, that is, the marginal utility of alternative consumption choices. The demand schedule is defined as the willingness and ability of a consumer to purchase a given product in a given frame of time.

It is aforementioned, that the demand curve is generally downward-sloping, there may be rare examples of goods that have upward-sloping demand curves. Two different hypothetical types of goods with upward-sloping demand curves are Giffen goods (an inferior butstaple good) and Veblen goods (goods made more fashionable by a higher price).

Supply Schedule

Supply	Price
200	$  100.00
300	$  125.00
400	$  150.00
500	$  175.00
600	$  200.00

A supply schedule is a table that shows the relationship between the price of a good and the quantity supplied. A supply curve is a graph that illustrates that relationship between the price of a good and the quantity supplied .

Under the assumption of perfect competition, supply is determined by marginal cost. Firms will produce additional output while the cost of producing an extra unit of output is less than the price they would receive.

By its very nature, conceptualizing a supply curve requires the firm to be a perfect competitor, namely requires the firm to have no influence over the market price. This is true because each point on the supply curve is the answer to the question "If this firm is faced with this potential price, how much output will it be able to and willing to sell?" If a firm has market power, its decision of how much output to provide to the market influences the market price, then the firm is not "faced with" any price, and the question is meaningless.

Economists distinguish between the supply curve of an individual firm and between the market supply curve. The market supply curve is obtained by summing the quantities supplied by all suppliers at each potential price. Thus, in the graph of the supply curve, individual firms' supply curves are added horizontally to obtain the market supply curve.

Economists also distinguish the short-run market supply curve from the long-run market supply curve. In this context, two things are assumed constant by definition of the short run: the availability of one or more fixed inputs (typically physical capital), and the number of firms in the industry. In the long run, firms have a chance to adjust their holdings of physical capital, enabling them to better adjust their quantity supplied at any given price. Furthermore, in the long run potential competitors can enter or exit the industry in response to market conditions. For both of these reasons, long-run market supply curves are flatter than their short-run counterparts.

                                                             EQUILIBRIUM 

An equilibrium market price is the price at which there is no tendency for it to change.

When price is lower than the equilibrium price, quantity demanded will be greater than quantity supplied. There will be a tendency for the price to increase.

When price is higher than the equilibrium price, quantity supplied will be greater than quantity demanded. There will be a tendency for the price to decrease.

Equilibrium market price is attained when the quantity demanded equals quantity supplied. It is sometimes called market clearing price.

                                  

                                            

                     3-D TV Tuning Out?

3-D TV Tuning Out?    3-D TV Tuning Out?

Consumers have clamored for smartphones and DVRs, but 3-D television? Not so much.

Although more 3-D-capable television sets have become available in the last few years, sales have been sluggish. Lack of demand has caused an issue that complicates the market for 3-D television even further: Not many TV shows are currently available in 3-D. . Despite the issues with the technology, optimistic network executives are reluctant to give up on 3-D TV. 

What happened to the equilibrium price of the phone between Demand 1 and Demand 2?

Which of the following could explain this shift in price?

a) Apple creates a new commercial for i Phones that is effective.

b) The price of producing iPhones has dropped as a result of increased methods of worker exploitation in China

c) Samsung introduces a new Galaxy smartphone at a comparable price.

Pretend a few months after the release of the Galaxy phone it's discovered there's a serious glitch and the news gets all over the Internet.

Create a demand and price graph that would depict a likely scenario.

Enrichment of Women Military Veterans

                                              Women Military Veterans
         

           http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/01/24/women-in-combat-briefing/1861887/



      Women in the military is a big topic in everyday news. Frequent question asked such as do the do the same thing men do ? Are there more women soldiers? How does it affect them after the war? And what makes women want to become soldiers? More women now serve on active duty in the U.S. military than at any other time in our nation's history. They make up 14 percent of all branches of the U.S. military, or about 400,000 troops, and represent an even higher proportion of the reserve and National Guard. In the Air Force, women are 24 percent of the population. More than 26,000 females are currently deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan, and close to 195,000 have served there since the wars began. Women should receive a lot of the credit for all the work that they do and not only because they are women but because they are doing a mans job.

                  
                         http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/washington/news.aspx?id=94001

                                 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/us/01trauma.html?_r=0

     Many people are concerned about women who are active during the war but what happens to them physically and emotionally after war? Many women are affected with a post traumatic stress disorder. This doesn't only affect them it affects everyone who is around them.Their mental anguish, from mortar attacks, the deaths of friends, or traumas that are harder to categorize, is a result of a historic shift. Some psychiatrists say that women do better in therapy because they are more comfortable talking through their emotions, but it typically takes years for them to seek help. People dont realize how much women are affected after the war. The real question is who will be more affected after the war.