Cost of Opportunity Essay Example for Free

Cost of Opportunity Essay Assuming the best choice is made, it is the cost incurred by not enjoying the benefit that would be had by taking the second best choice available. [1] The New Oxford American Dictionary defines it as the loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one alternative is chosen. Opportunity cost is a key concept in economics, and has been described as expressing the basic relationship between scarcity and choice. [2] The notion of opportunity cost plays a crucial part in ensuring that scarce resources are used efficiently. [3] Thus, opportunity costs are not restricted to monetary or financial costs: the real cost of output forgone, lost time, pleasure or any other benefit that provides utility should also be considered opportunity costs. Contents [hide] 1 History 2 Opportunity costs in consumption 3 Opportunity costs in production 3. 1 Explicit costs Implicit costs 4 Non-monetary opportunity costs 5 Evaluation 6 See also 7 References 8 External links History [edit] The term was coined in 1914 by Austrian economist Friedrich von Wieser in his book Theorie der gesellschaftlichen Wirtschaft. [4] It was first described in 1848 by French classical economist Frederic Bastiat in his essay What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen. Opportunity costs in consumption [edit] Opportunity cost may be expressed in terms of anything which is of value. For example, an individual might decide to use a period of vacation time for  travel rather than to do household repairs. The opportunity cost of the trip could be said to be the forgone home renovation. [citation needed] Opportunity costs in production [edit] Opportunity costs may be assessed in the decision-making process of production. If the workers on a farm can produce either one million pounds of wheat or two million pounds of barley, then the opportunity cost of producing one pound of wheat is th e two pounds of barley forgone (assuming the production possibilities frontier is linear). Firms would make rational decisions by weighing the sacrifices involved. Explicit costs [edit] Explicit costs are opportunity costs that involve direct monetary payment by producers. The opportunity cost of the factors of production not already owned by a producer is the price that the producer has to pay for them. For instance, a firm spends $100 on electrical power consumed, their opportunity cost is $100. The firm has sacrificed $100, which could have been spent on other factors of production. Implicit costs [edit] Implicit costs are the opportunity costs in factors of production that a producer already owns. They are equivalent to what the factors could earn for the firm in alternative uses, either operated within the firm or rent out to other firms. For example, a firm pays $300 a month all year for rent on a warehouse that only holds product for six months each year. The firm could rent the warehouse out for the unused six months, at any price (assuming a year-long lease requirement), and that would be the cost that could be spent on other factors of production. Non-monetary opportunity costs [edit] Opportunity costs are not always monetary units or being able to produce one good over another. The opportunity cost can also be unknown, or spawn a series of infinite sub opportunity costs. For instance, an individual could choose not to ask a girl out on a date, in an attempt to make her more interested (playing hard to get), but the opportunity cost could be that they get ignored which could result in other opportunities being lost. Evaluation [edit] Note that opportunity cost is not the sum of the available alternatives when those alternatives are, in turn, mutually exclusive to each other – it is the value of the next best use. The opportunity cost of a citys decision to build the hospital on its vacant land is the loss of the land for a sporting center, or the inability to use the land for a parking lot, or the money which could have been made from selling the land. Use for any one of those purposes would preclude the possibility to implement any of the other. See also [edit] Economics portal Budget constraint Economic value added Opportunity cost of capital Parable of the broken window Production-possibility frontier There Aint No Such Thing As A Free Lunch Time management Trade-off

Thou Shalt not Trample on the Constitution :: essays research papers fc

Thou Shalt not Trample on the Constitution. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. This is the first amendment to the Constitution. In essence this states that the government will not become involved or sponsor any religion. There is a reason our founding fathers added this amendment to the Constitution. Any time a government becomes involved with religion or visa versa, Disaster happens. If you want evidence of this look at the history of Europe for the past 700 years and see what chaos has arisen when religion and the state intertwine. Yet we do not seem to be learning from the past. Congress on June 17, 1999, passed a law that slaps the First Amendment in the face. That law allowed for the states to choose to post the Ten Commandments in public schools and other government buildings. The law that was proposed by Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), Rep. Robert Alderholt (R-Al), and Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL). The bill was created in response to the Columbine shootings that took place April 20, 1999. The bill was swept through the house at a time when the country was in shock over the shootings. There were several reasons why the house felt the need to pass such a bill. Rep. Alderhold believed that it is an important step to promote morality, and an end of children killing children. (Leavitt) Rep. Hyde believes that the amendment should â€Å"slow the flood of toxic waste into the minds of our children.† (Webster) Rep. Barr went as far to say that if â€Å"Columbine had the Ten Commandments posted that the massacre of April 20th would not have occurred.†(Webster) Thes e are the arguments for the Ten Commandments to be posted in public schools. These are the best reasons our elected representatives could come up with to slap the First Amendment in the face. Is it really as Rep. Alderholt said â€Å"We have the freedom of religion, not freedom from religion†? (Leavitt) According to the Supreme Court The honorable Alderholt is wrong. In 1980 the Supreme Court ruled that a similar Kentucky law, which required all classrooms to post a copy of the Decalogue, was unconstitutional. The oppositions' arguments against this law are enormous.

Cyber Crime Essay

Chapter I Introduction When did this new and insidious variety of crime actually come into being? One may say that the concept of the computer came with the invention of the first abacus, hence it can be said that â€Å"cybercrime†. It has been around ever since people used calculating machines for wrong purposes. However, cybercrime has shown itself as a serious threat to society for less than a decade. Before we plunge into the world of cybercrime, it is necessary to have some basic understanding of how the cyber world evolved. In 1981 Ian Murphy, aka â€Å"Captain Zap†, became first felon convicted of a computer crime. Murphy broke into AT&T’s computers and changed the billing clock so that people receive discounted rates during normal business hours, Ian Murphy was greeted with 1,000 hours of community service and 21/2 years probation. Cybercrime refers to any crime that involves a  computer  and a  network, where the computers may or may not have played an instrumental part in the commission of a  crime. Net crime  refers, more precisely, to criminal exploitation of the  Internet. Issues surrounding this type of crime have become high-profile, particularly those surrounding  hacking,  copyright infringement, child pornography, and  child grooming. There are also problems of  privacy  when  confidential  information is lost or intercepted, lawfully or otherwise. On the global level, both governments and non-state actors continue to grow in importance, with the ability to engage in such activities as  espionage,  financial theft, and other cross-border crimes sometimes referred to as  cyber warfare. The international legal system is attempting to hold actors accountable for their actions, with the  International Criminal Court  among the few addressing this threat. Cyber crime is a growing threat to our societies today. EU member states suffer daily thousands of attacks against their information systems. Viruses facilitating stealing information from personal computers, spam, identity theft, and child pornography are increasingly widespread. According to recent reports, images of sexually abused children available on-line quadrupled in the last five years and half of all internet crime involves the production, distribution and sale of child pornography. The European Commission has cooperated closely with the French Presidency and the Member States in the elaboration of a series of practical measures to fight cyber crime. The new strategy recommends reinforcing partnership between the police and the private sector by better knowledge-sharing on investigation methods and trends in cyber crime. It also encourages both parties to respond quickly to information requests, resort to remote searches, cyber patrols for online tracking of criminals and joint investigations across borders. The strategy also calls for the setting up of an alert platform in the short term, where reports on crime committed on the Internet, such as posting of illegal content, in EU member states would be pooled for cross-checking by Europol. The Commission earmarked 300,000 euro for Europol to implement the platform. Vice-President Jacques Barrot highlighted the importance of this strategy by saying â€Å"The strategy encourages the much needed operational cooperation and Information exchange between the Member States. It gives a shared responsibility to the Commission, the Member States and other stakeholders to introduce the different measures. If the strategy is to make the fight against cyber crime more efficient, all stakeholders have to be fully committed to its implementation. We are ready to support them, also financially, in their efforts. † Cybercrimes committed against persons include various crimes like transmission of child-pornography, harassment of any one with the use of a computer such as e-mail. The trafficking, distribution, posting, and dissemination of obscene material including pornography and indecent exposure, constitutes one of the most important Cybercrimes known today. The potential harm of such a crime to humanity can hardly be amplified. This is one Cybercrime which threatens to undermine the growth of he younger generation as also leave irreparable scars and injury on the younger generation, if not controlled. A minor girl in Ahmadabad was lured to a private place through cyber chat by a man, who, along with his friends, attempted to gang rape her. As some passersby heard her cry, she was rescued. Another example wherein the damage was not done to a person but to the masses is the case of the Melissa virus. The Melissa virus fi rst appeared on the internet in March of 1999. It spread rapidly throughout computer systems in the United States and Europe. It is estimated that the virus caused 80 million dollars in damages to computers worldwide. In the United States alone, the virus made its way through 1. 2 million computers in one-fifth of the country’s largest businesses. David Smith pleaded guilty on Dec. 9, 1999 to state and federal charges associated with his creation of the Melissa virus. There are numerous examples of such computer viruses few of them being â€Å"Melissa† and â€Å"love bug†. Cyber harassment is a distinct Cybercrime. Various kinds of harassment can and do occur in cyberspace, or through the use of cyberspace. Harassment can be sexual, racial, religious, or other. Persons perpetuating such harassment are also guilty of cybercrimes. Cyber harassment as a crime also brings us to another related area of violation of privacy of citizens. Violation of privacy of online citizens is a Cybercrime of a grave nature. No one likes any other person invading the invaluable and extremely touchy area of his or her own privacy which the medium of internet grants to the citizen. The second category of Cyber-crimes is that of Cybercrimes against all forms of property. These crimes include computer vandalism (destruction of others’ property), transmission of harmful programmers. A Mumbai-based upstart engineering company lost a say and much money in the business when the rival company, an industry major, stole the technical database from their computers with the help of a corporate cyber spy. ——————————————– [ 2 ]. History of Cyber Crime [ 3 ]. Definition of Cyber Crime http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Computer_crime [ 4 ]. Fight against Cyber Crime Vice-President Jacques Barrot [ 5 ]. Cyber crime against our society today

Should environmentally displaced be categorised as refugees - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1514 Downloads: 10 Date added: 2019/07/01 Category Society Essay Level High school Tags: Refugees Essay Did you like this example? Climate change is no longer a hypothetical situation but the reality of world politics in the twenty-first century. Although extremely controversial, research suggests this predicament will deeply affect the lives of millions who will be forcibly displaced from their homes and required to seek refuge elsewhere. Since 2008, the UNHCR has stated that there has been an annual average of 21.5 million displaced people by climate-related disasters – more than those fleeing war or persecution. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Should environmentally displaced be categorised as refugees" essay for you Create order The current legal practices protecting refugees fleeing war or persecution have failed to incorporate environmentally displaced people leaving them helpless with little to no protection. In this essay, I will argue whether the environmentally displaced people (EDPs) should be categorised as refugees providing an argument for and against the question. It is time now to recognise the mass population shift that will continue to rise as a result of these environmental disasters and offer our help. Therefore, I will conclude that the environmentally displaced should now be categorised as refugees. EDPs should be categorised as refugees because those forcibly displaced by an extreme weather event are not covered by the 1951 Refugee Convention and therefore find themselves in a legal void. According to the 1951 Refugee Convention a refugee is recognised as someone who is â€Å"owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.† (Westra, 2009). This convention originally emerged in order to help those displaced during the Second World War focusing on specific individuals rather than large groups – the reality of what we are dealing with today. Environmental change is possibly one of the most significant generators of population displacement and therefore it is clear that the definition is outdated and incomplete maki ng it ill-equipped to deal with today’s refugee crisis. ‘Environmental refugees’ as described by Essam El-Hinnawi are â€Å"those people who have been forced to leave their traditional habitats, temporarily or permanently, because of a marked environmental disruption (natural or triggered by people) that jeopardises their existences†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (El-Hinnawi, 1985, pg. 4). According to the Convention, to be qualified as a refugee you are required to cross an international border, however, most displaced by climate change move within their own countries or move for short periods with the intentions of returning home as soon as possible. Therefore, the environmentally displaced are not accepted as refugees but rather internally displaced peoples and consequently not qualified to accept refugee status. This produces a large protection gap between conventional refugees and this new class of refugees. The environmentally displaced find themselves disadvantaged for re asons they cannot help and have no protection beyond the basic human rights. This lack of protection creates a sense of hopelessness, and results in the question of what can we do for these people and what are their options? The Environmental Justice Foundation urges governments to â€Å"recognise climate refugees and support a new legal agreement to guarantee their rights and their fair claim to our shared world† (EJFoundation, 2017). War is becoming less common and therefore we need to start acknowledging this new global issue and agree to categorise the environmentally displaced as refugees. Moreover, the environmentally displaced should be categorised as refugees as the extreme weather events they are experiencing are largely due to the increase in global climate change. No country is safe from the impacts of climate change; however, it is the poorest and most vulnerable communities that feel it more acutely, nonetheless contribute to only 1% of global emissions. These underdeveloped countries have seen 99% of the deaths from climate and weather-related disasters (EJFoundation, 2017). It is clear that they are at the mercy of polluting countries. Low-lying states, such as Tuvalu and others situated in the Pacific and the Indian Ocean are suffering immensely from rising sea levels which is caused by the increased use of greenhouse gases. These islands have called on the governments of Australia and The United States to put in place policies that will recognise those displaced by climate-related events as legitimate refugees. Currently, they are two of the largest contrib utors of greenhouse emission yet have shown a lack of leadership in mending their wrongdoings. Already â€Å"one-fifth of Tuvalu’s population has been forced to relocate† (Duckworth, 2017). This is just one of the many nations who is losing land every year. Although many EDPs are able to move within their territory and return following a disaster, it is becoming problematic for low-lying nations whose entire lands are disappearing. This makes relocation to other parts of the country impossible. It is suggested that in the next 20-50 years thousands will be forced from their homeland and may even cause a fight for survival by some who are unable to find refuge. Hence, it is essential to categorise the environmentally displaced as refugees to avoid such devastation. Additionally, if we delay supporting EDPs it will become economically untenable in the future. Relocation of refugees already poses immense problems, however what will happen when millions more require asylum ? These less developed countries (LDCs) lack resources to adequately address this crisis themselves and rely on richer neighbouring countries who have the wealth to properly protect them. The effects of climate change are increasing, simultaneously so are the environmentally displaced. It is, therefore, crucial to categorise them as refugees. In contrast, however, the environmentally displaced should not be categorised as refugees because doing so could prove to be more damaging than beneficial. Enabling the environmentally displaced to be categorised as refugees would require expanding the existing definition that defines what a refugee is and this may cause unfavourable consequences. Firstly, amending the 1951 Refugee Convention by widening its interpretation would require the international community to accept a revised definition. Creating ‘climate refugees’ could risk undermining existing refugees who are currently entitled to protection under international law. This may lead to reduced opportunities for all refugees to obtain recognition and protection which would be damaging as there are 25.4 million recognised refugees today, excluding those internally displaced (UNHCR, 2018). This new class of refugees may be judged as illegitimate by politicians and the public who may view them as taking advantage of refugee protection laws, thus increasing the existing negative stigma surrounding them. Secondly, some countries already regard the Convention as being too generous. Proposing to expand the definition of a refugee could result in countries wanting an increasingly narrower definition. This is because by expanding the Refugee Convention to include EDPs would increase the number of those eligible for protection under international law by the millions. An increased number of refugees implies supporting countries would need to contribute more money to the cause. Already â€Å"Industrialised nations spend astronomical amounts of money on processing and supporting asylum seekers. In total, this is estimated to be more than ten times the funds the UNHCR has to protect those†¦under its auspices.† (Birrell and Millbank, 2011). If the UNHCR decided to expand the definition of what qualifies as a refugee, it is unclear if the political appetite exists to provide the necessary fundi ng. Burden sharing is already an issue among richer countries as they believe the issue isn’t there’s. While it is true that a state has a moral responsibility not to return refugees, to their home of origin, after entering their country, it does not state that they have a responsibility to allow them to settle. Finally, the risk in categorising EDPs as refugees could potentially result in more countries completely abandoning the Convention rather than accepting such a ‘burden’. Already, only 145 countries have signed the Convention as it imposes no obligations to assist. If supporting refugees no longer reflects a countries national interest, they are entitled to opt out made possible by Article 44(2) of the Refugee Convention which states that â€Å"any contracting state can denounce or withdraw, with one year’s notice† (UNHCR, 2015). This would have negative effects as the number of refugees left with no protection would be far greater. As a result, the environmentally displaced should not be categorised as refugees as it will reduce the practicality and utility of the term and potentially create a larger issue. In conclusion, the number of displaced people by environmental change is already alarming and could potentially cause the largest refugee crisis in human history. The environmentally displaced should be categorised as refugees to eliminate the protection gap. It is also the poorest countries that are suffering at the feet of those responsible for causing climate-related issues, yet they fail to offer any protection. With climate change expected to intensify, it is necessary to bring about change otherwise, we face extraordinary repercussions in the near future. The Refugee Convention is impractical as the number of climate refugees is far greater than conventional refugees. To ensure the protection of EDPs an entirely new legal classification that is tailored specifically for the needs of the environmentally displaced is essential. This separates the environmentally displaced from conventional refugees and allows them to be recognised as refugees under new international law.