Category: Wealth

There has been a raging debate whether oil has been a blessing or curse to the Gulf States. This stems from the comparison between the mineral wealth endowed in this region and the level of poverty experienced in the same region. It has been sad noting that although these regions are endowed with a lot of wealth and have higher GDP than most of the countries, their population is still poor. The price of oil has continued to rise in the world market which could have translated to improved lifestyle of the Gulf people. But the deteriorating levels of poverty in these regions leaves many wondering the value of oil compared to the life of the people in the gulf region.

But to argue logically, oil is not a curse or a blessing, it is merely a natural resource.­­­­­ A resources that is supposed to be exploited and used wisely to improve the life of its citizens. Oil is a precious natural resource that is highly priced by many people. With plenty of oil in the gulf it puts them in a position to earn more and improve the life of their citizens. But why is it that the lives of people in the gulf region continue to be poor amid plenty of oil and other natural resources?

According to Neuwirth (2004), countries in the gulf region depends on oil to drive their economy. In a way they control the world economy since a large portion of the world’s economy depends on crude oil products as a source of energy to drive the economy. This clearly shows that the gulf region is a major determinant on the growth of the world economy. Although there are other parts of the world producing oil, the gulf region remains the largest producer of crude oil.

It is recorded that a country like Iraq depends on oil for 95% of its foreign exchange earning. With a reserve of about 12.5 billion barrels and with a potential of more that 2000 billion barrels, Iraq should be one of the strongest countries determining policies made in the world. This is just one example of countries in the gulf region which portrays their mighty oil wealth. But is the oil richness a blessing or a curse to the people of the Gulf region?

Whether oil remains a blessing or a curse to the gulf region depends on how an individual view the whole issue and the unfolding events in the gulf. Definitely we can say that these oil reserves are a blessing in that they are supposed to drive the population out of poverty. Like other countries have been blessed with rich agricultural land and other mineral reserves, the Gulf is blessed with an arid land but with a lot of oil reserves. This oil has contributed immense to the economic development of this region. It has made a large contribution to the countries GDP and development in general. That is why the Gulf region should be proud for being the world largest producer of oil.

Being the drivers of the world economy, oil reserves have helped the gulf region play an important part in the world economy. It has helped the region to developed trade ties with other parts of the world. This helps them to acquire foods for the population. Hence in a way oil is a blessing to the region since it facilitates trade with the outside world. If the region had no oil reserves, it would be facing a hard time getting food supplies for the population since the region is arid.

Oil also comes with benefits in that it provides employment opportunities for the Iraq people. It is their main economic activity which helps people to feed and clothe their families. It is their main livelihood like any other economic activity in other parts of the world. To the people in the Gulf they cannot survive without oil.

But on the other hand, oil has brought a lot of suffering to the people in the gulf in equal terms as it has brought economic prosperity. They have painfully learnt that oil production and increased revenues is not a sea of good lives. In 1975, Juan Pablro Parez Alfonso, who was a founder of OPEC once said that petroleum is a devils excrement which only brings trouble. He cited the widespread corruption, waste, consumption and falling publics due to the mere fact that a country is endowed with oil reserves. In deed oil exporting countries including the Gulf have been faced with serious problems which has been explained in all literature terms like “The Dutch Disease”, “The paradox of plenty”, “ Flawed prosperity”, and many more. (Christine, 2003)

According to Bremer (2003), most of the oil-rich countries still underperforms not only economically but also socially and politically. From Venezuela, through Nigeria to the Gulf region, all these countries have experienced serious political and social problems which are all attributed to the oil. They are with problem of being scrambled for by industrialized nations who wants to dictate the price of oil they are getting from these countries.

The paradox of plenty explains that increased oil revenues during periods of rising petroleum prices eventually results to slow growth of the economy. It creates a dependency on oil to drive the economy such that the country forgets the need to concentrate on non oil economic sector. Oil prices in the world keep on fluctuating now and then and this hurts individual country economy. This phenomenon has brought a lot of economic woes to the gulf region especially in times when their trusted buyers run to other countries for the resources. It is recorded that non-oil producing countries in the region have recorded an economic growth rate double that of the oil producing countries. Most of them have recorded stagnated economic growth for a long time.

Oil rich economies are also faced with an administrative problem. Almost all countries which produce oil are under authoritarian rule or are semi-democratic. The easy revenues coming from sale of oils puts pressure of the need to establish democracy. Once the citizens are contented by getting the necessary needs from the government, they turn away their eyes on what is happening in the authority. This is a problem which has rocked the gulf region.

A country like Iraq was ruled with an iron fist by Saddam Hussein and it took the efforts of countries from the west to topple Saddam and establish democracy in the country. Iran is under an authoritarian rule and it is constantly rubbing the western countries on the wrong side on claims of nuclear weapon.

On political note, oil wealth is definitely a curse to the common citizen of the Gulf region. They live under oppression from the governments. In Iraq, the citizens are the one who are suffering as a result of war between the Americans and the insurgent militias. It has been claimed that the western countries attach that importance to the Gulf region due to its oil resources. Asking an Iraq citizen whether the oil is a blessing or a curse, they would definitely tell you that it is a curse as it has brought more and more suffering to them.

Oil resources in the Gulf have created a few powerful individual who have concentrated power around themselves and controls the life of the majority. In deed it has not brought the equality that such a resource is supposed to throw to the population.

We have said that oil provides an easy and highly priced source of income. It is a scarce resource that everybody in the world is fighting for. In that fight for the resources, few individual makes it to own it while the majorities are left scrambling for the few that remains. This has been evident in the Gulf region since majority of the population does not have a say in the way the country is run and the way resources are distributed in the population. The government amasses a lot of resources which enables it to crush the opposition or to buy them. That is why in the Gulf region, there are no countries which have stiff opposition to the government.

But perhaps the greatest woe that oil has brought to the people of the Gulf region is unending war. This region has been characterized by wars and crises for the better part of the last century and it is still rocked in conflict even in this century. It has led to death of a large number of the population. There have been constant conflicts since the creation of the nation of Israel in 1940s. Perhaps the greatest suffering that oil brought to the people of the Gulf region was in the 1970s when the Arab countries oil embargo was imposed. People suffered for the mere fact that their leaders could not agree with the rest of the world. It is evident all those conflicts in the Gulf region has been centred on oil resources.

Then there was the invasion of Iran by Iraq and the subsequent entry of American into the war. It is argued that the entry of America in the war was led by oil interests it had on Iran and which it had to protect. It did not stop there as the people of Iraq plugged into war immediately after felling their long time dictator Saddam Hussein. According to Thurstone (2002), the people of Iraq have suffered most because of having the most precious energy resource in their soil.

Hence oil can be said to both a curse and a blessing to the people of the Gulf region because it has enabled them to earn their living but at the same time brought suffering to them due the conflict of interest surrounding the black gold.

References

Bremer, P. (2003). Operation Iraqi Prosperity; Wall Street Journal.

Christine, E. Z. (2003). Dutch Disease: Too much wealth Managed Unwisely. Finance & Development.

Neuwirth, R. (2004). Oil- from Blessings to Curse. Web.

Thurstone, K. (2002). From Boom, Through Decline, to failure: A Post-September 11^th Examination of the Middle Eastern Rentier State. The Bologna Centre Journal of International Affairs.

Introduction

Have you ever heard of an economy powered and consumed by the affluent? In “San Diego reader: how the rich steal from schools’’, availed on Wednesday, August 11 2010, Don Bauder gives readers a foretaste of the plutocracy in the San Diego administration (Bauder).

Plutocracy

Bauder’s exit from the union-tribune on 27-03- 2008 was well received by the city council affiliates. He had lashed out at the San Diego administration, branding it a plutocracy administration since the affluent minority control significant proportions of resources. He says an economist at New York’s Citigroup initiated the statement plutocracy in 2005 (Bauder).

Abuse of redevelopment funds

He says the poor and persons at the middle-level were to benefit from the redevelopment resources. It was to create reasonably priced housing and eliminate affliction. San Diego administration instead diverted the strategies and built corporate interests scheme. This benefited the affluent who were involved in the venture; they include the prosperous, developers, and builders (Bauder).

Charger stadium

Bauder sees no essence of the San Diego government, paying a consulting firm to analyze the prospect of a charger stadium. Political apparatus eventually helps the rich in stealing from the young ones. Tax augmentation gap is to be increased; the spur is to permit the distorted city to support a charger stadium (Bauder) financially.

Conclusion

Bauder believes San Diego is an archetype with a plutocracy administration. The economist concluded that major producing countries such as the UK, Canada, Austrailia, and the US, were to enjoy sturdy economic augmentation than other emergent countries (Purpel 25). The citigroup economist prediction of the rich increasing their stature in the society was realized between 2001 and 2007.

Reaction

The information provided by Bauder illuminates the need to comprehend how affluent persons in society distort the manner in which operations are conducted. Their influence transcends different sectors, such as the economy, erudition, and societal factors. It is imperative to come up with measures that would ultimately initiate regulatory measures. This prevents affluent people from unduly interfering with societal processes, especially education (Bauder).

His exit from the administration further illuminates the rot in the society that ultimately contributed to the dire state of education affairs. It is familiar information that persons, who significantly experience the dire state of affairs propagated by the administration in San Diego, conform to economic standards that are lowly. It is noteworthy that the rich in the region utilize their political connections as a means of propagating ill acts against the society.

This concept is illustrated by the construction process as it pertains to the charger stadium (Bauder). Taxes play an influential role in determining the economic state and affairs of a country, it is imperative that control measures are initiated to avoid issues such as tax augmentation that propagates unfair tendencies and practices.

Diversion of funds from functions and processes they were intended to do, only indicate that the corruption levels are steadily increasing in the country. This further indicates that societal management processes are steadily deteriorating thus accommodating unintended acts.

Works cited

Bauder, don. How the rich steal from schools. San Diego reader, 2010. Web.

Purpel, David E. Critical social issues in American education: democracy and meaning In a globalizing world. New Jersey: Routledge, 2005.

Introduction

The values and beliefs in America differ from the other countries despite their common social and political structure. Some scientists consider these differences to be putative as far as these differences have been invented with the Americans themselves but there are a lot of facts supporting the idea of the real existence of these values gaps. The Americans’ desire to be an exceptional nation is as old as the first European settlements in the New World. Are these values gaps invented with the Americans or do they really exist?

It is a well-known fact that the mentality of different nations differs from each other. Nevertheless, American values are strictly opposed to those of other rich democracies. This fact is quite complicated to be explained. The system of values of every nation is created during all their history and it depends on its geographical position, political, economic, and social structures.

Political relationship differences between the leader and the subordinates

There are certain political differences in the relationships between the leader and the subordinate in America and other countries. The roots of this difference are in the American populist tradition where the position of the leaders is much higher than those people who elect them. The Americans accept the wealth distribution and the division into the poor and the rich ones without any resistance. America is a multicultural country and the system of its values combines the values of different cultures. The understanding of cultural pluralism differs in America and other European countries as for example, France. Although America judged France harshly as far as they do not have adequate respect for diversity, France demonstrates more tolerance than America as far as France sets the boundaries between the religion and the state. America has tried to demonstrate its tolerance for several decades factually leaves the problem of discrimination unsolved.

The main differences between the United States and other rich democracies are not purely political. These differences include religion, moral absolutism, civic-mindedness, individualism, and patriotism (Brooks, p. 92). These differences become one of the main reasons for misunderstanding between the United States and other developed countries.

Interconnection between religion and politics

Religion and politics are interconnected in the USA as far as religion is used to keep order in the country. Religion plays a significant role in the life of Americans. They visit the church regularly and take part in religious activities. There is a gap between the demonstrative religiosity in politics of the USA and other rich democracies. As for the gaps in moral absolutes, it is a well-known fact that Americans tend to judge other countries and present the world in black-and-white terms. Americans are like “big children” according to Simone de Beauvoir (Brooks, p. 98). There is the belief in an absolute standard of good and evil, right, and wrong where America represents the good part of these oppositions. All political decisions and activities are connected with this representation of the world. Americans believe in the moral rightness of their country and its high mission in world history.

Civic mindedness is represented in the American representation of their nation not as the state but as the individuals. Americas believe only in their forces and the problem of poverty they usually explain with individual laziness or the lack of will power while the representatives of other rich democracies tend to blame the society, the government, or just a bit of bad luck in all their failures (Brady, p. 14). They believe that they control their life in all aspects and have a free choice. Individualism plays a very important role in the economic development of the USA. For example, American owners have endowed the right to decide how to run their business without any control of the government or state.

Conclusions

It is a normal phenomenon that the representatives of different countries have different values. It should be noted that the rich democracies of the Western World have more common with each other than with the USA. Maybe, it is explained by the historical development or other social conditions. Nevertheless, these gaps are impossible to avoid as far as they have existed from the beginning of human civilization. We are all different and it is necessary to get on the right side of other countries. Collin Powell points out that the Americans have to do a much better job understanding the values and beliefs of other rich democracies instead of criticizing them. Those other societies also have to make efforts to treat the American values and beliefs more accurately (Brooks, p. 111). The fact that America is different is unquestionable and the existence of these values gaps is unmistakable.

The Americans accept the fact that they are different, and they seek to testify it to other rich democracies. Although it leads to misunderstanding and different conflicts on the political level it is inevitable as far as these values gaps really exist. They play a key role in international relationships and they should be taken into account by other countries. Every country should accept these values gaps instead of their judgment. There is no sense to try to change the values of other countries imposing on them your own ones.

Reference

Brady, D. (2009). Rich Democracies, Poor People: How Politics Explain Poverty. USA: Oxford University Press.

Brooks, S. (2009). Understanding American Politics. USA: The University of Toronto Press.

The Pandemic and an Overall Exposure to Inequality

One of the biggest concerns that are currently affecting worldwide economics is the ever-growing inequality among different layers of society. Even though the labor market usually survives the pandemic, the effects of COVID19 are genuinely unprecedented because they are causing the whole market to be redefined into new cohorts that are going to stay from now on because of the huge influence of measures aimed at COVID19 consequence mitigation. The whole worker pool was divided into three key categories that can be defined as follows:

1. knowledge workforce,
2. frontline employees,
3. other workers (Bartik et al., 2020).

These three broad categories are crucial to follow because they build the basis for successful communal existence and complement each other in terms of the work that they do, especially when the number of the so-called unessential workers went through the roof during the toughest periods of the COVID19 pandemic. Therefore, the government intuitively tried to find the best solution to the problem without having to resign the majority of workers.

Regardless of the proposed division into categories, this by no means creates room for a hypothesis that it could be utilized to battle inequality because knowledge workers gained an upside compared to any other members of the workforce. With the majority of past investments going behind the backs of knowledge workers, they now receive increased praise for the same responsibilities while keeping their organizations intact with the help of the so-called essential employees (Hamouche, 2020). The frontline workers also gained serious advantages that allowed them to engage in negotiations related to work pay and working hours. The community, on the other hand, was not ready for such changes much more than the government, meaning that every shade of lockdown affected the population in a different way and forced many organizations to come down to initiatives that ultimately damaged their sustainability and became the perfect runway for economic and employment inequalities that started shining brighter than ever under the influence of the pandemic.

The alleged stark inequalities became an essential issue for many organizations across the globe because the governments turned out to be unable to make swift decisions regarding who could be considered an essential worker, who might be working from home, and who would be placed at the bottom of the company’s roster. When it comes to income and unemployment, the pandemic imposes its specific limitations on the workforce and the remaining citizens because they have to find ways to qualify for a job and then keep it during the lockdown. The current COVID19 pandemic became a challenge for part-time workers and their counterparts who were working flexible shifts because many businesses have lost the capability to support their tractability under the strict conditions imposed by the pandemic threat. This idea is rather important to understand because multiple businesses shutting down across the globe increased the gap between those who protected their jobs and those who lost theirs to the pandemic.

Ultimately, inequalities could also be witnessed when looking at the economy worldwide, as the implications of trade and industry generated by the pandemic actually turned out to be detrimental to more than just one production hub. With so many sectors being affected at once, the government could not come out with any policies because the customers themselves decided not to visit any retail stores or supermarkets in order to protect themselves. In turn, the pandemic exposed businesses to a situation where both employees and consumers were compromised. Significant performance losses turned out to be real for many organizations that never predicted such a dropdown in their quarterly productivity reports. The issue of the COVID19 pandemic created a situation where the barriers affecting individual people went beyond mere economic concerns and contributed to the development of the whole financial burden affecting households across the globe. The differences in terms of how much an employee earns became even steeper within the last four-five months.

Effects of the Growing Inequality on the Government

The government was no stranger to the effects of the pandemic either, as officials had to work hard to respond to the short- and long-term effects of COVID19 global breakout. None of the predictions made by market experts before the growth of the pandemic turned out to be true. It contributes to the link between GDP diminution and the increasing rates of unemployment, which is a direct reflection of Okun’s law. It is important to gain more insight into how governments might respond to the effects of a pandemic because existing jobs cannot be simply closed or inflated to an improbable extent. The idea for the governments across the globe was that there could be policies that would consider unemployment projections and allow organizations to take necessary action to retain employees and protect the workforce from inequalities. Nevertheless, the effects of COVID19 show that there are no effective measures that could protect the population from inequalities so far.

The derivatives from Okun’s law could serve as a hint at the fact that most governments do not treat the current pandemic as an issue that could generate excessive unemployment. The prevalence of the knowledge workforce and essential employees and their superiority to any other worker are what the government leaves out of discussions when it has to touch upon job retention and the local economy (Mollenkopf et al., 2020). The ever-increasing inequalities in pay rates started growing even more during the COVID19 pandemic because of the huge job retention schemes that were not designed to withstand this kind of a threat. Even though the given retention schemes were effective on a short-term scale, their influence on worker reallocation during an unexpected incident quickly became trivial because of the lack of balance between industries. The difference in growth prospects turned out to be another outcome of inequalities among the varied layers of the population. With no opportunity to recover from the impact of COVID19, the government has to support short-term decisions made on the fly.

The persistence of the pandemic placed numerous restrictions on the unessential activities that cannot and will not be supported by the government during the recovery process. Nonetheless, the current evidence shows that even essential populations and employees were not always supported by the government due to the strong impact of the pandemic on the economy. As the consumer demand currently stays at a relatively low level, it may be concluded that the majority of industries are continuing to suffer from the need to address their customers and employees equally during the time when resources are scarce and reaction time is of the essence. A momentous rearrangement of assets is not typical of governments around the globe, so no one should expect the officials to come out with policies that would resolve the existing income and wealth inequalities within a relatively short time frame. Despite many citizens having a chance to preserve their jobs, it does not contribute to restoring the status quo in any way.

The government, though, realizes the growing gap between different layers of the population and tries to remain viable while combining employees from different cohorts. This means that workers are picked based on their performance and the size of their contribution to organizational output. The unemployment insurance system also turned out to be relatively ineffective, so it may be concluded that after the pandemic, some of the inequalities are going to be leveled. The lack of training in decision-making, though, makes it harder for employees to seize their job opportunities and become those essential workers who are wanted by companies both during and after the pandemic. The lack of balance between reallocation of resources and preserving existing jobs continuously generates additional inequalities and leads to many people being dismissed and then called back to work. Economic conditions are not yet expected to improve, so the current initiatives should be aimed at the creation of long-term solutions instead of forcing governments to resolve inequalities and poverty here and now.

Government Initiatives Aimed at Unemployment and Income Inequality

Despite the fact that some governments claimed job retention schemes to be inefficient, there is a possibility for them to improve the current state of affairs by making several specific changes to their initiatives. The first task for them would be to review the hiring principles and pay more attention to work experience and knowledge level while building a continuous relationship with the workers who might be sent home for an uncertain period of time (Alonso et al., 2020). This means that the government should always have a backup plan to provide every organization with enough room to backpedal in the case of an unexpected event and either share or reallocate resources in a way that would make the conditions of existence satisfactory for everyone. Irrespective of whether the person is working part-time or full shifts during the pandemic, they could claim a series of reimbursements intended to cover their needs. This would become the key to further leveling of the existing wage and income gaps that become evident during the pandemic or any other unexpected event.

The short-term solutions described earlier in the paper could also be improved to better reflect the needs of local populations, as businesses might help their workers take advantage of the zero-hours scheme. It would make the variance between different levels of employees less significant, allowing the government to gain more insight into how the work-sharing initiative actually gets deployed. Approaches to poverty and wage inequality that were established on the basis of the concept of wage subsidy may be expected to provide a temporary effect and protect only the most vulnerable populations (Kramer & Kramer, 2020). Working time reductions are also necessary, but they are linked to completely different assets that cannot be reallocated as quickly as their reimbursement-induced alternatives. Job retention schemes are extremely popular across the globe because they almost never force companies to resort to dismissing employees. Suspensions can be met in some of the countries around the world (Germany, for example), but the overall trend averts companies from firing their employees in the case of an unexpected event such as the current COVID19 pandemic.

The government should ensure that the dismissals – if any – are totally supported by evidence regarding employee performance and their overall input in the corporate processes. This would help businesses protect themselves from any challenges related to the inability to cover suspension costs and predict the income curve before even getting to compensate subsidies to employees (Blundell et al., 2020). The risk of failure is rather high in the case of such an initiative, but the possible outcomes are much more important, as the chance to get access to liquidity support measures is a much more valuable opportunity. Combinations of short-time suspensions and flexible work shifts seem to be a unique approach that appeals to the majority of businesses regardless of the industry that they represent. The key drawback of an improved job retention scheme is that the government would be facing an increased chance of losing track of non-standard workers who do not work under the same regulations as their part-time or full-time colleagues.

Finally, the government could reinforce its attempts by focusing on custom adjustments that could be utilized to respond to the varied needs of many different populations that have to co-exist under the principle of inequality even during the non-pandemic time. This means that unemployment insurance should be left behind as an unreliable method of responding to unexpected events due to the many social hardships that vulnerable populations have to go through on a daily basis (Fortier, 2020). When employees have to lay off some of their workers, the idea is to keep up performance and reduce the costs, which is a possibility to manipulate low-income workers into working extra hours for a slight wage increase. To a certain extent, the government might risk its reputation to excessive dismissals, but on the other hand, it could create a comfortable cushion for the economy where companies might replace their workers by implementing rotation schemes instead of their retention alternatives.

References

Alonso, A. D., Kok, S. K., Bressan, A., O’Shea, M., Sakellarios, N., Koresis, A.,… & Santoni, L. J. (2020). COVID-19, aftermath, impacts, and hospitality firms: An international perspective. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 91, 1-11.

Bartik, A. W., Bertrand, M., Cullen, Z., Glaeser, E. L., Luca, M., & Stanton, C. (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on small business outcomes and expectations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(30), 17656-17666.

Blundell, R., Costa Dias, M., Joyce, R., & Xu, X. (2020). COVID‐19 and inequalities. Fiscal Studies, 41(2), 291-319.

Fortier, N. (2020). COVID-19, gender inequality, and the responsibility of the state. International Journal of Wellbeing, 10(3), 77-93.

Hamouche, S. (2020). COVID-19 and employees’ mental health: Stressors, moderators and agenda for organizational actions. Emerald Open Research, 2(15), 15.

Kramer, A., & Kramer, K. Z. (2020). The potential impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on occupational status, work from home, and occupational mobility. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1-4.

Mollenkopf, D. A., Ozanne, L. K., & Stolze, H. J. (2020). A transformative supply chain response to COVID-19. Journal of Service Management, 1-12.

Introduction

Adam Smith’s 1776 Wealth of Nations is a timeless classic that back in the day, alongside The Declaration of Independence, had a lasting effect on the world. Inquiry Into the Nature of the Wealth of Nations, now commonly known as The Wealth of Nations, aimed at debunking the dominant mercantilist system. Back in the day, Smith was a visionary and an innovative thinker that predicted the world’s economic development and outlined key factors ensuring the nations’ prosperity. Smith, a Scottish philosopher by trade, saw little sense in mercantilist values, for instance, the necessity to hoard gold and tariff goods from abroad due to the finite nature of wealth. In practice, it meant that nations were stifling international trade by choosing to sell products but not buy any. This paper will discuss the critical points of Adam Smith’s work, highlights of Chapter VIII, and reasons why his thought was way ahead of his time.

The Invisible Hand

Adam Smith argues that people’s natural egotism and self-interest were the key to new financial and market opportunities constituted the free-market force, otherwise known as the invisible hand. While an average individual craves wealth and success, he or she has to consider how they could create value and market their products and services to as many people as possible. Attracting many customers takes meticulous planning and constant improvements, which, in turn, leads to the emergence of high-quality products that meet the market’s demand. On a larger scale, allowing people to sell and buy as they please and opening markets to partake in international competition results in the prosperity of the entire nation.

Elements of Prosperity

The invisible hand is not a distinct entity but a sum of events and tendencies taking place in a free market. Moreover, letting the free-market force unfold according to naturally balanced demand and supply is a significant but not the only element of wealth. Adam Smith reasoned that a nation also needed citizens’ enlightened self-interest, limited government, stable currency, and a free-market economy. According to Smith, enlightened self-interest entailed long-term planning, which allowed a producer to care about his or her customers’ needs and predict changes. At the same time, a limited government would put more effort into solidifying the currency than meddling with businesses and international trade. As of now, critics claim that to be complete, the list of elements of prosperity would have to include a decent pricing theory and a mention of entrepreneurship.

On Wages and Labor

In Chapter VIII, Smith is positive about the possibility of both grow profits and raise wages. He denies the notion that an economy is a zero-sum game in which one participant’s gains inevitably subtract from what someone else is making resulting in losses. Thus, according to Smith, masters, or how we would call them today, employers, do not profit mainly from lowering wages and owning both labor and means of production but from growing their business. The described scenario is rather ideal than common: Smith admits that in real life, workers are often neglected and mistreated by their masters. The overall tendency is that wages undergo downward pressure as masters act out of their interests. Moreover, masters are fewer in number and more able to unite forces and impose new rules on workers if they deem it necessary. Interestingly, in the present chapter, some of Smith’s ideas overlap with those of Marx. Namely, Smith reasons that workers would like to receive as much as possible for their labor whereas masters want to give as little as possible, which is reminiscent of Marx’s contending classes.

Smith’s ideas about wages and labor gave rise to so-called subsistence theories which highlight the supply aspects of the market while not paying enough attention to the demand aspects. The supply of workers is ever-increasing and is the basic force responsible for the decline in real wages. As a result, they are driven to the minimum required for subsistence, and namely, for covering such basic needs as food and accommodation. Smith argued that workers’ wages needed to be sufficient to not only live but also to bring food to the table for the entire family. As opposed to other classical economists, Smith’s views were far from pessimistic. If Smith saw wages as a means to survival, such thinkers as Ricardo and Malthus saw them as an incentive to perpetuate the competition. Even if wages were not enough to cover all expenses, the population could always adjust to the means.

Objection

It is impossible to dismiss Smith’s legacy and its impact on the modern world. Yet, a question arises as to how viable his ideas today and if they apply to the new reality of the business environment. For instance, the invisible hand and the prosperity it might bring seem utopian. Hard data shows that at any point in time, political, social, and economic power are distributed unevenly, thus, giving specific individuals more leverage and opportunities. The disadvantaged cannot be fully autonomous agents in the market and benefit from what the free market system has to offer.

Others, however, claim that the idea of the invisible hand is valid but constantly misinterpreted by those who fail to have a deeper understanding of Smith’s groundwork. The concept itself receives very little attention in the body of the book and has accompanying notes on considerations other than money that individuals have when making investments and other business decisions. Thus, Smith does not rule the human factor out of the equation and even makes a claim that stability often trumps economic profits in terms of motivation.

As for the wages and labor section of The Wealth of Nations, it appears that Smith regards workers as a homogenous human capital with transferable and, hence, subject to substitution. In reality, the job market is intrinsically diverse with specialists who are “one of a kind.” Due to such heterogeneity, masters might compete against each other as well and make adjustments to attract workers, especially with good education, outstanding skills, and work experience to match.

Private Property and Utopia

Harp, in his article on private property, relies on the fundamental works of Thomas Aquinas, “Summa Theologica” and “Utopia” by Thomas More. I think Aquinas’ position is more appealing, and several thesis confirmations exist. Thomas Aquinas believes that private property helps to establish adequate social relations and motivates people to work. Therefore, he gives obvious advantages to this economy (Harp, 2008). All these advantages of the market economy can be seen in modern society. At the same time, the author does not reject the idea of public property and considers it a natural right, a contract of consent between people.

Modern economics, for me, is a statement that non-radical and suitable forms of joint ownership, such as mutual stock companies, allow companies and their owners to be very effective. A large company, such as Apple, goes public, where everyone can buy shares, which is proof of a healthy and working economy (Harp, 2008). At the same time, I believe that Moore’s position on the benefits of absolute common ownership is inappropriate. The main proof of this is historical facts, for example, the existence of the USSR, where a complete ban on private property led to the collapse of a great state. In the modern world, democratic institutions are also actively implementing programs that fight inequality, which was unrealistic in Moore’s time.

The Original Sin

The conditions of natural depravity in both Herbert’s book and Moore’s primary source are related to the themes of wealth and private property. I need to highlight the following conditions of natural depravity: greed, lying, murder, and cruelty (Sargent, 2005). These old biblical sins manifest when a person must pursue private property to live in a certain society (Hebert, 2019). This constant pursuit makes people take risks and do bad things. When money is the measure of all, humanity’s preferences become much lower, including the value of life. The lives and happiness of others cease to mean anything to members of such a society – only themselves and their money are important to them. In such a cruel capitalist system, the privileged minority exploits the oppressed majority. In my opinion, the doctrine of “natural sin” and social decay in some places, especially in the poorer parts of the world, may remain relevant, so I agree with these examples.

References

Sargent, L., T. (2005). What is a utopia? Oxford Press.

Harp, J. (2008). Private property and utopia. Keynon Review.

Hebert, J. (2019). Thomas More on the virtues and vices of property. Journal of the Witherspoon Institute.

The main characters of Tobias Wolff’s story “The Rich Brother” are Pete and Donald. Although they are siblings, they differ significantly in appearance and personality. In the short period of their meeting, described in the story, readers learn much about them- their family, special character traits, attitudes to life, and much more. They are opposites, and, for this reason, it is easier for readers to choose a character they sympathize with. Even though the brothers see life differently, have contrasting financial statuses, and do not share personal beliefs, they cannot appreciate what they have in common.

The first difference is the outlook and point of view that determined the life paths of the brothers. Pete followed in the footsteps of their parents – he is serious, distrustful, and responsible because he needs to take care of his disorganized brother. He tries to fill his being with thrills and expensive purchases. In turn, Donald is naive and incredibly trusting, and although he tries to be kind and help people, his actions do not always have good consequences. His days are full of religion, prayers, and attempts to save his soul and also his brother’s one: “Donald couldn’t content himself without worrying about his own soul” (Wolff 88). These contrasting approaches to life determine their subsequent differences.

Another difference lies in their financial well-being – Pete’s status is very different from Donald’s. The elder brother has a stable job in a profitable sphere; the younger goes from one part-time job to another. Pete struggles to act wisely, gains knowledge and has no illusions about easy profit. These traits are clearly shown in a conversation with Webster, who tried to manipulate the brothers, playing on their sympathy and inventing stories about gold excavations (Wolff 95). In turn, Donald, previously expressing his desire to do business, but having learned nothing, gave the only money that he had to a stranger. He accessed it as a potential stake in the mine: “I invested it. I wanted a share, Pete” (Wolff 97). Pete’s reaction is not surprising – money for his working hours was lost due to his brother’s naivety. Without patience, they cannot understand and accept each other’s point of view and, for this, begin a conflict.

One more significant difference is the religious view – Donald strives for spiritual richness, he is open to praying and searches for peace in God, and Pete, on the contrary, is an atheist. Donald’s search for soul salvation and helping others is undoubtedly important, but yet he cannot take care of himself. In contrast to Donald, Pete seems to be a soulless materialist following their parents’ example: “…neither of them [parents] had found it necessary to believe in anything. They managed to be decent people without making fools of themselves, and Pete had the same ambition” (Wolff 88). Nevertheless, Donald, focusing only on helping others, forgets about wisdom, and does not appreciate what he has, but remembers only the negative moments of his life. Family understanding and love are what they have lacked throughout all this time.

Nothing brings the brothers satisfaction, as they are blind to things they have. Moreover, after a careful look, their differences may not be that striking. Pete is not devoid of spirituality – at any moment, he is ready to support his brother: “If you don’t like what’s going on up there, then get out” (Wolff 89). Donald recognizes his responsibility for wasting farm money and wants to learn to manage it smarter (Wolff 89). However, the conflict in their relationship is based on the fact that neither of them is ready to accept the differences of the other.

In conclusion, Pete has everything by social standards, and Donald is ready to sacrifice all he has in search of enlightenment, but neither of them is rich. Due to differences in viewpoint, religion, and finance, brothers cannot see that they have each other – siblings that can help and support. A different way of life does not necessarily imply conflict – one needs to learn patience and acceptance. Having received fraternal support, they will realize that both can be rich thanks to it.

Work Cited

Wolff, Tobias. “The Rich Brother.”Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, edited by X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia, Longman Publishers, 2007, pp. 87-99.

Abstract

Roy’s translation of “Plum in the Golden Vase” shows that, in the 16^th century China, wealth, social exploits, and social relations gained a man social power. Social power was not the making of a man, but a social resource attained through monetary wealth, large household and higher lifestyle.

This Ximen Qing exemplifies this through his increase of wealth through his businesses, social relations he acquires as he climbs the social ladder, large household with numerous wives, concubines, servants, relatives, and sexual exploits from the local whom-house to the imperial court.

Ximen Qing’s Sex, Wealth, and Power

In Jin Ping Mei, the reader is introduced to money, power, and sex in the 16^th century China’s society. “The Plum in the Golden Vase” is a Chinese narrative masterpiece, which depicts an immoral Chinese society that is very different from the Confucian Chinese society.

The story runs for 100 chapters in David T. Roy’s translation. The story is a rich construct of poems, songs, and drama, which portray Chinese history and culture. The author uses the fate of one man, Ximen Qing and his household to describe the society in the 16^th century (Horner, 1994).

The reader is introduced to the rich Chinese “material medica” merchant, with social and capital connections, and with an establishment of several wives and concubines, numerous servants and relatives (Horner, 1994).

Ximen Qing’s voracious sexual appetites described in a realm of sexual activities, exemplify sex in this society. This essay extracts examples from the novel to support the premise that Jin Ping Mei sells sex to the reader.

Power and social progress in the 16^th century China are exemplified by Ximen Qing’s acquisition of monetary wealth, large household, and higher lifestyle. Lifestyle in this case is depicted by the rich Chinese festivals Ximen Qing attends, architecture of his house, clothing, furnishing, and sex aids (Chan and Owen, 2010).

The growth of his social power through the Chinese society is seen not only in wealth acquisition, but also in his ability to enjoy the sexual thrills of the 16^th century China.

Ximen Qing’s power increases as he progresses from enjoying sex aids from the local whom-house to enjoying sexual exploits of the imperial court (Horner, 1994). Ximen Qing gains social power, which in the 16^th century China is depicted in his ability to gain acquaintances, family, and build a social circle from top to bottom.

Ximen Qing’s powerful social circle entails high officials, wealthy merchants, menservants, shopkeepers, doctors, educators, entertainers, women from all social stations and stages of life. Ximen Qing gains power by climbing the social class using wealth and his title as a prosperous businessperson (Cahn and Owen, 2010).

Power is gained through the different social exchanges, interactions, and hierarchical relationships he makes with representatives of the local and federal official-dom.

The ability of a man like Ximen Qing to acquire social resources like political influence, knowledge, women, and knowledge, gives him power to maneuver the 16^th century Chinese society. Therefore, Jin Ping Mei indicates that sex and wealth are the attributes of the social power in the 16^th century.

Ximen Qing, by climbing the social ladder, first became a militia, a lowly post, after paying 10 teals of silver to Hejiou. He shows his social power when he prevents the extermination of a branch of his family, by disconnecting kinship ties from Yang, the Marshall, who is later persecuted by Cai, the Grand Tutor.

This is facilitated by Comptroller Zhai, the secretary of Cai, the Grand Tutor, who is paid by Ximen Qing 500 dan of rice for the favor (Book I: 248). The relationship with the Comptroller Zhai continues and provides Ximen Qing a channel to express himself to the Grand Tutor.

This expression is seen during the Gran Tutor’s birthday celebration, when Ximen Qing sends him a gift as an act of seeking attention. In turn, Ximen Qing’s gift favors him, as he is later made the Junior Magistrate of Shandong Province.

Jin Ping Mei shows that in the 16^th century China, social power was gained through favors and relationships that entailed exchanges. This Ximen Qing is aware of and takes full advantage of it.

This is because after his appointment as Junior Magistrate, he assists Comptroller Zhai to get a wife, and adds to this act a wedding gift of more than 10 teals of silver. This act is central to Ximen Qing’s success, for the Comptroller during the Ming dynasty was the financial controller officer and minster of revenue.

In addition, Grand Tutor during the Ming Dynasty was the highest local administrator in the kingdom (Chan and Owen, 2010). It is evident that Ximen Qing was a man able to gain social power through wealth and social relations.

Jin Ping Mei depicts Ximen Qing’s Wealth in Chapter 79, “the silk shop is worth 5,000 taels … the threat shop of which Pan Si is in charge is worth 6500 taels, and the silk shop which Uncle Wu Er looks after, 5000 taels. The pawnshop is worth about 20000 taels and the medicine shop 5000. Clerk Han and Lai Bao … have about 4000 taels worth of merchandise” (4:1129-30).

Jin Ping Mei illustrates the character’s wealth in terms of a detailed description of prices and money owed. In this passage, the reader is introduced to Ximen Qing’s wealth in detail after he has fallen fatally ill at 33 years of age (Ning, 2009).

At his deathbed, Ximen Qing is giving instructions to his son-in-law, Chen Jingji heir to his wealth, on the amount of inheritance and the distribution of money. Ximen Qing shows a man with a remarkable memory of his financial transactions and wealth.

This detailed memory, especially of the transactions and debts people owe him, is Pin Jing Mei’s way of introducing the reader to an experienced merchant.

This also shows the advances of the 16^th century China’s monetary economy from the traditional agrarian society often depicted in historical literature.

In the same passage, the reader is introduced to Ximen Qing’s business transactions, “if Li San gets the contract we spoken about, it will be better not to go further in the matter. Ask Uncle Ying to get somebody else to take it up. Li San and Huang Si still owe me 500 taels with interest amounting to another 150. Ask them for payment and use the money for my funeral… Liu, the Director of Education, owes me 300 taels. Magistrate Hua owes me 50. Xu Si, who has a shop outside the city, owes me, including interest due, about 340. We have all necessary documents, and you can ask them for payment at once” (4:1129-30).

The passage shows that the 16^th century China was an advancing monetary economy, where wealth was not only measured in agricultural produce but also through monetary exchange (Ning, 2009). An important lesson the reader learns from Jin Ping Mei’s description of the merchant is his professional business practices.

Ximen Qing like the 20^th century businessperson has records of documents detailing all his transactions, contracts, and credits. This passage also introduces the reader to a powerful and wealthy businessperson who lends money to government officials like the magistrate and director of education.

This analysis identifies this passage from chapter 79 important in analyzing Ximen Qing’s wealth and growth in society as a businessperson. This is because it summarizes the wealth and assets he has by the time of his death.

It is evident that at the beginning of the novel, the reader is introduced to Ximen Qing, who only owns a fair-sized medicine shop, which he inherited from his father.

Ximen Qing’s value at the beginning of the narrative is estimated at 300 taels, the equivalent value of his competitor Jiang Zhushan’s medicine shop (Ning, 2009).

This means that Ximen Qing’s wealth increased by two hundred-fold by the time of his death. Ximen Qing’s vast wealth is also depicted in his many wives, servants, and relatives depending on him by the time of his death.

Jin Ping Mei sells sex and the evils of sexual perversion through the life and premature death of the protagonist. Ximen Qing’s life is described as one filled with “innocuous carousing and whoring,” which leads to perversions and incest (Horner, 1994).

Ximen Qing sexual exploits leads him to search for new sexual thrills, and eventually drives him to succumb to ugly compulsions of incest, and the eventual disintegration of his household. Ximen Qing enjoyed perverted sex.

For example, Jin Ping Mei illustrates that in the 16^th century China, at the height of the golden lotus cult, bare feet was a taboo. However, in “The Plum in the Golden Vase,” Ximen Qing’s search for sexual thrills drives him to unbind a woman’s feet in a risqué sex scene (Ko, 2007).

This is in a scene in chapter 27, where Ximen Qing “took off [Jinlian’s] red embroidered shoes, unwound her foot bindings, and amused himself by using them to suspend her feet from grape arbor overhead” (I: 124). Ximen Qing in this chapter breaks away from the Chinese traditional culture and taboo.

However, the scene is also an indication of sexual licensing and excesses in the 16^th century China’s powerful households and the emperor’s court. This analysis finds that the unprecedented degree of detail used to describe Ximen Qing’s wealth is also used to describe sex and sexual exploits.

From the reading, it is evident that Jin Ping Mei sells sex to the reader as issueless sex, which is divorced from its natural purpose and which depicts the moral decline in the 16^th century China. This is because each character in the novel is guilty of sexual misdoing (Chan and Owen, 2010).

For example, Lady Lin is a wealthy widow of a high official, who becomes an acquaintance of Ximen Qing to offer moral guidance to her son. Ximen Qing begins a relationship with Lady Lin, which becomes a loveless sexual affair and takes her son as his godson.

The son has sexual encounters with the courtesan Cassia, who was deflowered by Ximen Qing earlier in the narrative.

Cassia, in turn, is the goddaughter of Wu Yueniang, Ximen Qing’s senior wife (Chan and Owen, 2010). The author summarizes this immoral decay in the death of Ximen Qing, and the destruction of his household.

At the end of the novel, the reader is introduced the effects of irresponsible sexual exploitations in form of Ximen Qing’s suffering and death. Ximen Qing is described as suffering from “the calamity of spitting blood, and discharging pus and the affliction of desiccated bones and emaciated frame” (Roy, 4:652).

Therefore, though Ximen Qing had amassed wealth and social power, his decadent sexual exploits led to his premature demise.

Jin Ping Mei describes Ximen Qing in volume 4, as “he no longer resembled his former self, his frame was cadaverous and emaciated, and his disease body was utterly enervated” (Roy 4:652).

Therefore, the author of “Plum in the Golden Vase” is preaching against excessive sexual behavior despite the image of their delight in describing sex.

Roy’s translation of “Plum in the Golden Vase,” shows that in the 16^th century China, wealth, social exploits, and social relations gave a man social power. Social power was not the making of a man, but a social resource attained through monetary wealth, large household, and higher lifestyle.

This Ximen Qing exemplifies this through his increase of wealth through his businesses, social relations he acquires as he climbs the social ladder, large household with numerous wives, concubines, servants, relatives, and sexual exploits from the local whom-house to the imperial court.

References

Chan, K-I., & Owen, S. (2010). The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Volume II: From 1375. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Horner, C. (1994). The bad earth. Chinatown News, 42(7), 13.

Ko, D. (2007). Cinderella’s Sisters: A Revisionist History of Foot binding. CA: University of California Press.

Ning, M. (2009). When Robinson Crusoe Meets Ximen Qing: Material Egoism in the First Chinese and English Novels. Comparative Literature Studies, 46(3), 443-466.

Roy, D. T. (2011). The Plum in the Golden Vase or, Chin P’ing Mei: Volume Four: The Climax. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

Essay on Rich Dad Poor Dad: Summary

The book talks about a person whose biological father was poor where as his friend’s father was the rich dad. Mike whom his father was rich happened to have been the author’s best friend. These two personalities gave the author two different approaches of becoming rich later in life.

It was now the author’s discretion to discern which approach would best work for him. The author keeps comparing these two fathers on their financial practices and their depth in terms of dynamism. The author’s poor but educated dad could not much the real dad in terms of building of assets and business mind.

According to the author, his dad is one of those people who are determined to be rich in life but are held back by lack of sufficient knowledge relating to finances. He doesn’t blame his actual dad for this but hips blame on education system that has no curriculum on financial literacy. However, his rich dad who represents the affluent takes advantage of his financial advisors coupled with his tax and accounting expertise to enrich himself.

The author tries two portray characters of personalities who harbor the can-do attitude and the other who is a fearless entrepreneur. The author tries to bring to the attention of the users how basic knowledge of finances is very vital in any business undertaking and how corporations can contribute to the rich becoming even richer. He underscores how ones upbringing can contribute to his or her to acquire financial freedom. He highlights six main topics which he gives prominence to throughout the book.

These include: importance of financial literacy; reality that the rich never work for money; the issue of tax and how they relate to public corporations. The author also emphasizes that people should work to learn and not to work for money as widely perceived by many. The reality of the rich inventing money is also brought to the attention of the reader.

Rich Dad Poor Dad Essay: Analysis

When Mike and the author teams up to form a first-reach scheme, Mike’s father insists that they both have to attain financial literacy to be successful in any business enterprise. The boys dedicate their free-time to learning about finances and economics. When the author is employed in Mike’s father grocery shop he decries his being paid meagerly.

The author routes for salary increase but is instead paid even less. The author uses this to show the ineffectiveness of rat race in pursuit to acquiring riches and that the rich do not work for money. The author depicts the disadvantages of working the whole of your lifetime putting little money into your very own pockets while the bulk of it goes to other people. It is imperative that people should work to put money into your own pocket.

The author is bent on divorcing the idea that life teaches from their mindset and instead embrace a reality that life indeed pushes people around. Because of failure to be taught about risk taking early in life many people tend to engage in playing safe.

The author is emphatic about the idea that the poor and the middle income earners will always work for money and that poverty is majorly caused by fear and greed. The author underscores the importance of using ones emotions as opposed to thinking with emotions if one is to become a business magnet of repute. Life is full of opportunities that come and go (Kiyosaki and Lechter 2000). The rich make substantive use of these once in a lifetime opportunities whereas others who are so preoccupied with pursuit of money and security fail to make use of these opportunities.

The author stresses that any entrepreneur needs financial literacy to stay safe and healthy. Were it not for lack of financial literacy, the 1920 entrepreneurs who met in Chicago would not have ended up dead, in jail, or poor. Financial illiteracy has contributed to many professional athletes languishing in poverty. The author intends to teach the readers to use a lot of wisdom when it comes to spending money they have toiled for.

One has to be very smart when it comes to issue pertaining to his finances. He cautions people who may want to build skyscrapers without building a stable foundation for it. Such project is bound to c rumble to its very foundation. One should be in a position to discern an asset from a liability and be in a position to control assets. The author champions for financial independence. He reiterates that intelligence can help solve problems and raise money. Kiyosaki asserts that wealth that is not founded on financial intelligence is wealth soon gone.

The author believes that for one to be financially literate he or she must have working knowledge of accounting. With this he will be able to separate between assets and liabilities. He states that the poor remain poor because they cannot keep liabilities to the bare minimum and their inability to purchase assets to strengthen the asset column. He says that that people should lay much emphasis on how much they keep as opposed to how much they make.

The author is categorical that the rich are capable of manipulating corporations hence enhance their assets while the poor are manipulated by these corporations. He states that by the very virtue of the fact that the poor work for state corporations they enrich the government where as the rich are rarely taxed. One must therefore develop financial IQ to be able to get out of these economic doldrums hence the knowledge of the law, accounting, and the financial markets.

The author is very certain that education is very valuable in entrepreneurship and in cases where it is lacking it is paramount that one hires others to be able to attain his investment objectives. He says that money should be created just like luck is created.

Essay on Rich Dad Poor Dad: Reflection

The authors idea that money should be created just as luck is created is very interesting because no body should expect to be rich by just sitting and waiting for luck to come their way. The author is very right in advocating for hiring of experts by entrepreneurs to give them advice on how certain issues they do not know about should he handled. This would save them committing mistakes that would cost them their business initiatives.

On taxation and corporation, it is interesting that the author informs the reader of the reality that those who work for corporations have too live with that is-taxation. People who survive strictly from government coffers have rarely managed to make a leap into financial freedom because of over taxation. However, I find it not true for him to say that the rich are rarely taxed. Tax evasion is illegal and concerned government department will not fail to reign in anybody who does this malpractice.

It is a requisite that any serious entrepreneurs acquire knowledge on financial literacy for him to stay financially healthy. Entrepreneurship is founded on financial literacy. This will ensure that nobody makes suicidal investment decisions. It is worth noting that more meaning could not be drawn on how the corporations make the rich richer.

Rich Dad Poor Dad: Essay Conclusion

The book has scored a seven (7) because it talks about financial issues in a way that any person whether educated or uneducated can understand and try to apply in life. It is paramount that one acquires financial literacy in order to transact any business activity. People should never work for money but instead work to learn.

The author also brings to the attention of the readers how the poor continue to languish in poverty by working for corporations while the corporations continue to enrich the rich. The reader’s attention is also drawn to the fact that it is the rich who invent money.

Work Cited

Kiyosaki, Robert and Lechter, Sharon. Rich Dad Poor Dad. New York: Amazon, 2000.

Introduction

The book entitled “Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich” that was authored by Stephen Leacock and published in 1914 is classified as one of the fictitious works that integrate funny articulations compiled by the author regarding the aspects of finance and wealth in the society. The short story that is found in the second chapter of the book describes a significant flowering of the seeds of individualism and corrupt materialism that occur in Plutoria Avenue in a large city in the US. The inhabitation of plutocrats in Plutoria Avenue with the focal objective of attaining wealth and power through unrestricted capitalistic approaches resulted in the deterioration of the city’s social, educational, religious, and political structures. In the short story, Leacock exposes the greed of the capitalists in a manner that reveals their greed, pride, and hypocrisy through humor and satire. In this light, this paper aims at analyzing Leacock’s assumptions regarding the book’s production period before assessing the nature of money as depicted by the chronicle. Further, this paper would evaluate the political and moral insinuations of the arguments put forward by the author.

The production period

Leacock’s work was published in 1914, a period that heightened his success in writing fictitious works. The author assumes that during the period, the low-class subdivision of the society was illiterate on financial matters, by considering financial issues as “unfathomable”. In this light, the newspaper reviews about the Wizard of Finance, Mr. Tomlinson, covered the different financial aspects that make the greedy to continue accumulating wealth at the expense of the poor. Therefore, Leacock’s context of the period assumed that a revolution was inevitable for the low class to liberate itself from social, political, and economic inequalities.

Further, the author applies humor and a satirical approach to the issue of capitalistic inequalities that adversely affected the city’s religious and political institutions. The satire used by the author purposes to expose the moral decay triggering the negative alteration concerning the functionality of the government and religion as induced by individualism and exploitative materialism. Thus, Leacock employs humor to depict how the upper class accumulated wealth through unethical procedures in the early 1990s by reflecting on the outcomes concerning political and religious values.

Leacock perceives the society of that period as a utopian one by incorporating humorous labels that unmask the “Plutonian” attributes. For instance, the greed and individualism of the upper class, considered as the modern people, is manifested by their preference of the “Ourselves Monthly” magazine. Hence, the period through which the story was based on assumes that the emergence of the capitalistic social class accounted for the increased financial frauds and other unethical processes that subjected the poor to adversity.

The nature of money

Throughout the story, Leacock paints money as the definition of success among the people of Plutoria Avenue. Super-rich individuals like Tomlinson sought to accumulate wealth in the easiest way possible, even if it was through corrupt deals to emphasize his definition of personal success. In this light, social mobility in the City was characterized by the accumulation of money through corrupt and exploitative capitalism.

Furthermore, likening money to gold underscores its preciousness in the capitalistic world. The author uses satire to insinuate that Tomlinson’s acquisition of a gold mine would result in the generation of a lump sum amount of money. In this instance, the author refutes investments in the stock markets by buying shares for companies like Erie Auriferous Consolidated would render one a rich mogul. Financial investments denote and characterize money generation in modern society according to Leacock. In this respect, individual materialism is an essential ingredient to financial success as argued by Leacock.

Additionally, the nature of money is associated with power. The press published that Tomlinson rose from a mere farmer to a controller of the trading activities in 17 states. In this case, the authority that the super-rich individuals have in the Plutonian Avenue emanates from financial investments that grant the rich power over the poor. The nature of money implies that those who have it are warranted control over the financially weak.

Land, as a crucial factor of production, constitutes the nature of wealth as described by Leacock. Various parties pointed out that the forest and mines at Lake District and the Lake Superior region respectively accounted for Tomlinson’s fortune. Particularly, owning a farm near Lake Erie implied that one would heighten their chances of getting rich just like Tomlinson. The nature of money as depicted in the fictitious story is tied to materialism, power, land, and the manifestation of an individual’s success.

Political and moral implications of Leacock’s arguments

Leacock’s satire traces its roots to the traditional moralistic beliefs that affect all the sectors of society and most importantly, the political aspect. Since the political feature purposes to formulate policies that regulate the economy, every party is expected to adhere to the stipulations that uphold equality. Conversely, in Plutoria Avenue, the rich accumulated wealth through the manipulation of stock and financial speculation. Consequently, the unfair marketplace breeds unequitable chances of generating wealth leading to significant economic disparities among the citizens. Therefore, the corrupt, exploitative, and individualistic approaches to wealth creation in society reveal the absence of morality.

Politically, the people of Plutoria Avenue converted and joined the Clean Government League to protect their investments in the financial markets. Through rhetoric delusion, the individuals found themselves in a situation whereby they could not identify their hypocrisy concerning their corrupt endeavors. The depiction of graft in the political system penetrated in diverse agencies of the political structures as witnessed among the city councilors belonging to the middle class. Furthermore, the members of the Clean Government League organized celebrations through their social clubs without considering the welfare of the lower-class citizens thereby inhibiting equitable development across the society.

Those are the end lines of Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich. Suggesting the correspondence of geographical and financial area that was an unmistakable component of Montreal’s social scene, Leacock communicates through a tone that shows seriousness instead of humor towards the end of the text. The public vividly revealed that it was corrupted and the rich subjected the poor to difficult work to and the individuals, who made due by it, yet valorized the amassing of riches and accepted the prevalence of the affluent. The public delivered unfathomable social imbalances and Leacock denounces the subsequent good debasement with all his aptitude both as a humorist and as a social commentator. Rather than the compassionate, even liberal, diversion of Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, what is evident in the text is sincere, outdated satire.