Analysis of Comments on a New York Times Article Essay Example for Free

Analysis of Comments on a New York Times Article Essay The article, â€Å"Forced From Executive Pay to Hourly Wage,† which was written by Michael Luo and was published in the New York Times last February 28, 2009, basically told the story of people who used to earn five or six-figure amounts per year, are now being paid hourly minimum wages. One example in the article was the case of Mark Cooper, who used to earn $70,000 as a security manager for Fortune 500 Company in the United States and who oversees a budget of $1. 2 million. Nine months ago, he lost his job and now he is earning $12 an hour in his job at his friend’s janitorial services company. Although the article itself is appealing enough, it is also interesting to note the readers’ comments about it. As of now, there are 300 comments about the article and upon reviewing most of them, it can be surmised that each reader who commented had significantly different viewpoints and opinions about the story told in the New York Times article. Evidently, these readers adhere to different moral codes which are seen through their responses. In general, the readers who commented on the article can be divided into two groups: one group lauded the brave act of Mark Cooper while the other criticized the style of writing and the subtle message that New York Times writer used in the article. One of the reader’s who praised the article story admired the courage of Mr. Cooper as he was able to lower his pride and found ways to provide for his family even if it means that he has to scrub toilets and have his salary dramatically reduced from five figures to an hourly wage without any benefits. In a sense, this group highly regarded the value of hard work and starting all over again in a dignified way. Most of their comments basically indicated that Mr. Cooper is not alone and that there are hundreds of Americans who have similar â€Å"riches to rags† stories. These readers, based on their comments, also believed that there is no shame being poor as long as one has a dignified and lawful job. On other hand, the other group of readers who commented on the article criticized the New York Times for insinuating that those who work blue-collar jobs are lower forms of human beings than those who work white-collar ones. They see the article as discriminating to Americans who have been living their lives below the poverty line for a long time even before the current economic crisis. For example, one reader lamented that article more or less showed that a $12-an-hour job is an indecent way of living, which is not true. In addition, one reader did not feel sorry for Mr. Cooper and commented that he had a lot to be thankful for because he lives in an above average house and was able to live a rich life. To this reader, the economic crisis makes everyone in America equal because they are struggling to make ends meet. However, what’s common in all the readers’ responses is that they could all relate to the difficulties experienced by the people depicted in the article. In fact some of the readers, who are evidently from different walks of life, shared their own stories in their comments. In other words, the single factor that binds all the readers who commented is the hardship brought about by the financial crisis in America. In a way, the article’s comments show two things: one is that there are a lot of Americans who are so used to a good life that they are seemingly caught off-guard when a devastating financial crisis like this hits them and the other is that due to the crisis, most Americans would be willing to take on any job just to survive. But the comments also indicated that Americans are more unified in achieving a common goal which is to recover from the devastating effects of the crisis and rebuild their lives. Works Cited Luo, Mark. â€Å"Forced From Executive Pay to Hourly Wage. † 28 February 2009. New York Times. 4 March 2009 http://www. nytimes. com/2009/03/01/us/01survival. html? pagewanted=1_r=2sq=executive%20janitorst=csescp=1.

To Build A Fire Essay -- essays research papers

'To Build a Fire';   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In Jack London's, 'To Build a Fire';, it is obvious to see that as the story progresses, the man becomes more bestial. However at the same time the dog seems to gain the human quality of good sense. This quality of good sense, which the dog acquires, allows it to away from the same fate of the man. There are many examples of how this is portrayed as the story makes headway.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first example of how the man becomes more bestial occurs after his first fire fails. After his fire fails, his hands are too cold to allow him to pick up matches. He was trying everything in order to warm up his hands, but nothing was working. Then he came up with a crazy and savage idea to warm them up. The story reads, 'He would kill the dog, and bury his hands in the warm body until the numbness went out of them. Then he could build another fire...'; That idea is a perfect example of his turn to bestiality. When the man tries to carry out this insane idea, the dog demonstrates his lean towards human characteristics.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another example how the man is beginning to move and act like an animal. It reads, 'After some manipulation he managed to get the bunch between the heels of his mittened hands. In this fashion he carried it to his mouth...'; At this point, the man's hands are so cold that he can no longer grasp objects, such as matches. In order to get the matches he has to use the heels of his ...

Factors Affecting Women Shoppers Essay

Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development 3. 3 2013 Budget Presentation Speech by Malaysia Prime Minister. 3. 4 The Household Use of Internet Survey,2005 by Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commisions. | | | | | CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. 1Background of the Study The usage of Internet has grown rapidly over the past years and it has become a common means for delivering and trading information, services and goods. Nowadays, internet is not only a networking media, but it is also used as a means of transaction for consumers at global market. Women contribute the large number of Malaysia’s population. Major contribution of women to the nation always been recognized. With the increasing number of career women in Malaysia contribute further enhance of the purchasing power among women buyers. The existence of telecommunications equipment such as smart phones and tablets are not limiting time and place for them to be online. The roles of a shopper’s personal attitudes have been widely acknowledged in consumer decision-making and behavioral intentions (Wu, 2003). In particular, attitude serves as the bridge between consumers’ characteristics and the consumption that satisfies their needs (Armstrong & Kotler, 2003). Moreover, consumers’ characteristics, such as personality, as well as demographic and perception on online shopping benefits, have also been found to influence their online shopping behavior (Cheung & Lee, 2003). Thus, identifying the relative importance of each determinant of choice towards a given action could be a useful step in understanding such behavior occurs. The main aim of this study is to investigate purchasing intention of women shopper at Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP), with a particular emphasis on understanding and evaluating the factors which directly or indirectly influence their purchasing intentions by measuring the attitude towards online shopping. 1. 2Problem Statement Online shopping in Malaysia is a new technology breakthrough since it has just begun to assault the Malaysia retailing sector with the online shopping services (Haque et al. 2006). In order to increase online shopping in Malaysia, understanding consumer online shopping behavior and factors affecting this behavior when shopping online should be given priority. With the expansion of career women in Malaysia, women shoppers become one of the important market segments or two reasons; first, this group has money and shopping interest. According to Statistics on Women, Family and Community 2011, shows that number of female employed increased from 2000 until 2010. It shows that women in Malaysia have purchasing power (See Appendix 3. ). Second, this segment of the population has the potential of earning a greater income than other segments of the population. It will be great significance to find out the factors which influence women shoppers’ intention to shop online if we want to expand group of online buyers and the volume of e-commerce. According to to Statistics on Women, Family and Community 2011, Number of female enrollment in University is higher than ma le and the number keep increasing. In 2001, number of male enrollment student in University is 103,747 and female 142,242. In 2010, Number of male enrollment in University is 184,457 and female 278,323 (See Appendix 3. 2). The differences of student become bigger each year. The higher of education background can contribute to higher income in the future. Third, growth of online business keeps increasing. Recently, during the 2013 budget presentation by our Prime Minister has stated that; the Malaysia Government aware women not only important in a family, but also contribute to the development to the national economy. The government allocated 50 million to support women’s role. One of them is, Get Malaysia Business Online Program (GMBO) introduced to help 50 thousand small entrepreneurs, especially women to increase their online sales. Grants of thousand Ringgit Malaysia through the provision of 50 million Ringgit Malaysia by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) (See Appendix 3. 3). A mid-2005 survey by the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Corporation (MCMC), only 9. 3% of Internet users had purchased products or services through the Internet during the preceding three months. Among those who did so, airline tickets were the most popular items (43. %) followed by books (15. 6%) and music (6. 8%). Amounts spent on these items were small, however, with 57. 7% of transactions worth less than M$500. Moreover, it is expected Malaysian online sales will increase every year at a high growth (See Appendix 3. 4). Opportunities of online shopping can be restricted by internal and external constraints on behavior. It is important in expl aining human behavior since an individual who has the intention of accomplishing a certain action may be unable to do so because her environment prevents the act from being performed. Moreover, there are some barriers which have contributed to the unwillingness of Malaysians to shop online because they afraid their personal information will be stole or misused by others. Despite the high potential of online shopping in Malaysia, there is still lack of understanding concerning the online shopping and its impact on marketing. Consequently a framework is needed to structure the complex system of effects of these different factors, and develop an in-depth understanding of consumers’ attitudes toward internet shopping and their intentions to shop online. 1. Objectives of the Research The objectives of this study are; 1. To determine women shoppers’ shopping attitudes towards website design. 2. To determine women shoppers’ shopping attitudes towards reliability of online retailer. 3. To determine women shoppers’ shopping attitudes towards online shopping customer service. 4. To determine women shoppers’ shopping attitudes towards trust on online retailer. 1. 4Scope of Study Literature Review Factors influencing online shopping intention toward online shopping have been researched and documented in the context of traditional consumer literature. A review of empirical studies in this area shows that the theories of Reasoned Action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1975) and Acceptance Model (Davis, 1989) are among the most popular theories used to explain online shopping behavior. Therefore the theoretical framework f this study is based in these theories. Online Shopping Perceived Benefit Perceived benefits are advantageous results derived from attributes. The benefit can be physiological, psychological, sociological, or material in nature. Within the online shopping context, the consumers’ perceived benefits are the sum of online shopping advantages or satisfactions that meet their needs or wants. There are many differences between a physical store and its electronic counterpart. Most of the previous online shopping research has focused on identifying the attributes of online stores that promote success (Davis, 1989; Liu & Arnett, 2000). Previous studies of online shopping have established two categories of benefits; intrinsic and extrinsic. Both are important in customers’ selections to patronize the online stores. Extrinsic benefits include features such as wide selection of products, competitive pricing, easy access to information and low search costs. Intrinsic benefits include features such as design and color. Research Framework The key components of the research framework for consumer attitude towards online shopping can be seen in Figure 1. Website Design| | Online Shopping| Reliability| | | Customer Service| | | Trust| | | Hypotheses: A series of testable hypotheses were developed from the proposed research model, as shown below: Hypothesis 1: There is a significant relationship between web site design and online shopping. Hypothesis 2: There is a significant relationship between reliability of online retailer and online shopping. Hypothesis 3: There is a significant relationship between customer service and online shopping. Hypothesis 4: There is a significant relationship between trust on online retailer and online shopping. In general, base on the hypotheses, the research framework will be focusing on four factors as independent variables and propensity to shop online will be the dependent variable. . e. for the hypothesis 1, 2, 3 and 4 which are focusing on Web Site Design, Reliability, Customer Service, and Trust, it is hypothesize that there should be a positive relationship that would likely to influence the online shopping. Research Methodology To undertake this project, two types of data will be gathered. i. Secondary data This type of data will be used extensively in literature review to provide the framework of this study. Textbook, journals and internet shopping reports will be the sources of this desk research. ii. Primary data This type of data will be the main instrument used in evaluating the factors affecting women shoppers’ online shopping attitude and purchase intention. The process of gaining this input is discussed next. In doing so, the rest of this section organized into four main areas; the research design, the target population and the sample size, methods for data collection, and data analysis and interpretation. The research design In getting the shoppers data, I choose to employ descriptive research over exploratory or causal research. This type of research is suitable when a study intends to produce accurate description of variables relent to the decision being faced, without demonstrating that some relationship exists between variables. This description fits well with the objectives of this study. In addition, a cross sectional studies is elected over longitudinal studies. The former allow the researchers to assess to a larger number of customers, thus enabling them to produce a more representative data. Through this method, data is typically cross tabulated against each other to answer specific issues. This kind of data is meaningful to companies that appeal to many segments of the markets such as internet shopping. The target population and the sample size In line with the scope of the project, the population refers to the female employee of Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP). To further define the population, this study will only examine the behavior of women shoppers in the age bracket 20 to 55 years old. The sample elements will be chosen using systematic sampling. Within this pool of shoppers, a sample of 200 shoppers will be selected. This sample size is considered appropriate. Roscoe (1975) for instance stated ‘samples sizes larger than 30 and less than 500 samples are the appropriate for most research. Likewise, Sekaran (1994) agrees that 500 samples are the appropriate upper limit for the sample size. Methods for data collection Since cross sectional study has been chosen for this study, data will be collected through questioning. Using this method, the respondents will be identified systematically and to aid questioning the shoppers, a set of questionnaire will be designed. The questionnaires will be distributed through online and respondents will be invites through UMP Portal.

Genetically Modified Organisms The World s Growing...

Genetically modified organisms are both widely loved and hated, but what really is it? You may hear of GMOs but did you realize that it s around you more than you would think. According to Elizabeth Weise on USAToday (2016), â€Å"40-75% of food in a typical supermarket has been genetically modified†. In today s day and age, genetically modified organisms are taking over the market. It is important to understand what they are and how they affect the food we consume in our everyday lives. Because of the world’s growing population and need to meet demand, GMOs are becoming more common-use, changing our food in ways we are unaware of. Like giving a crop immunity to a virus, it is important to be informed and educated of the changes. A genetically modified organism is one that has had another organism s genes inserted into it to give it attributes it did not originally have. Manipulating an organism s genes has been done by humans in the BC time period however it was done differently than how it is done today. In the old past, humans would cross breed their livestock through artificial selection, hence producing offspring with the desired genes/traits. This older method was deemed â€Å"genetic modification† by the USDA and FDA (2016). The modern method of extracting one organism s genes and inserting them into another s through laboratory work is defined as â€Å"genetic engineering†. In the book â€Å"Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation† (2016) it is said thatShow MoreRelatedGenetically Modified Organisms And Its Effects On The World s Growing Population1689 Words   |  7 Pages As an added benefit to the environment, genetically modified organisms also address the widespread problem of soil erosion. 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