Case study - analysis company's economic issue and expansion of Essay

Case study - analysis company's economic issue and expansion of solution - Essay Example They are the proprietors who take the advantage of their position in ranking to exploit the employees and strain the gains of a firm for their personal gains. One key aspect of these vulture capitalists is that they invest in a firm, shows quick returns but the firm is bound to collapse and as such, the capitalist seizes part or the whole of the assets of the firm. Such is the case as described by John Nichols about the Hostess Brands Inc. These investors then cover up by laying blames on the employees and the workers unions. Hostess Brands Inc, the collapsing maker of Twinkies, Wonder Bread, vast range of snack cakes and other breads is one such a company to have severely been hit by the wave of the unscrupulous vulture capitalists. She has closed her 33 plants around the United States and has now embarked into liquidating the assets in a bid to offset the huge amount of debts outstanding. The company’s employees went on a strike joining the rest of the union’s members over the alleged exploitation by the proprietors and the top management distributions. Neoclassical economists have studied the optimal production of a firm by focusing on distribution of income among other aspects of major importance. This is well illustrated by the analysis of supply and demand and maximization of utility by individuals who are constrained on income matters and the study of firms that are constrained in terms of costs. According to the proponents of the neoclassical thoughts, people are always rational in thinking, and have rational preferences when it comes to value based outcomes. It is worth noting that firms maximize profits while persons maximize utility. As regards relevance in information, people act independently. However, according to analysts, individual persons lack competence in negotiations and bargains. This necessitates unions of persons with like interests or grievances. This can explain the formation of the BCTGM, a workers union that serves the hostess workers, however, the workers of the firm did not ask for better pensions as individuals or also through their union and this would better explain that the union was in no way responsible for the crisis. In fact, as a matter of fact, the company employees have a record of good working relations with the proprietors and have had working benefit and wage concessions. Adjustments to new demands in the industry and technological advancements have dominated the firm in the past. Farber defines labor unions associations of workers who bargain collectively and has the employers regarding the terms laid down for employment. The BCTGM was formed to serve the following purposes as is the role of all other labor unions: as a maximizing agent, as a bargaining body for the wages, as an arbitrator in times of conflicts and strikes and basic amongst all the roles, as a determiner of membership (Farber, 2001, 1). Nevertheless, Hostess collapsed as a result of the vulture capitalist’s nature of the management team. The team laid off 20% of the workforce and while the workers bore all the burden of the collapsing corporation, the management engaged more in looting the company’s assets and funds. According to the classical economics, human beings are assumed to be rational and that they make decisions on the best way for personal gains. This explains the nature of the vulture ca

Comparing and contrasting functionalist,marxist and feminist Essay

Comparing and contrasting functionalist,marxist and feminist perspective on religion - Essay Example Religion refers to those socially shared ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that have to do with the supernatural or "beyond" (Zanden 371). For Shepard, Religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things (388). The theorists like Marx Weber, Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim have different views on Religion. Emile Durkheim presented his functionalist perspective of religion in his work The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (Thio 385). He emphasized that religion functions to preserve social order. Every religion possessed both rituals and moral norms (Ibid). By way of rituals, people sanctify and renew their bonds to one another. Their beliefs in the sacred and acceptance of common norms are strengthened. Thus, religion binds the society and maintains it (Ibid). As a whole, functionalist theorists direct their focus on the contributions the religion has made to the survival of the society. Functionalists argue that the role of religion is to preserve the s tatus quo rather than to promote social change. They agree that religion is a beneficial conservative force because it maintains consensus, binds people together and promotes social order. They however see it as having a positive influence, whereas the Marxist view is somewhat more negative in its outlook. ("The Different"). The essential function of religion was to provide through sacred symbols a mirror for members of society to see their common unity. Through its system of beliefs, religion offers an explanation of the nature of social life (Shepard 391). The conflict theorists on the other hand, as represented by Karl Marx viewed religion as producing an otherworldly focus that diverts the oppressed from seeking thisworldy social change (Zanden 382). Marx viewed it is an expression of human alienation and an illusion. It is a form of false consciousness and as a tool of the powerful in the struggles between competing social class ( Robertson 405). It is the "sigh of the oppresse d creature, the heart of the heartless world, the soul of the soulless circumstances. It is the opium of the people" ( Thio 385). Marx considered it as a profound form of human alienation because people tend to lose control over the social world they have created resulting to a situation where they find themselves alien in the hostile social environment (Robertson 405). This is because people shape social institutions expecting that the same will serve their needs yet find themselves to be the servant of the institutions they created (Zanden 382). Conflict theorists have taken a new perspective on the relationship between religion and social change. They view it not as a passive response to social relations of production but as an active force shaping the contours of social life (Ibid 383). Marxist argue that religion is a mechanism for social control- (as does functionalism), religion maintains the existing system of exploitation, and reinforces class relationships and inequalities . Further, Marx argued that religion dulls the pain of oppression by: 1) Promising a paradise of eternal bliss in the after life, 2) By often making poverty tolerable by offering heaven as a reward for they're suffering c) By giving the hope of supernatural intervention to solve the worlds problems and d) Justifies social order/hierarchies- by saying that poverty is divinely ordained as a punishment for sin ( "The Different"). .Feminists on one hand agree with Marxists to the extent of religion acting as an instrument of domination and oppression but not for the ruling class but for men. They believe people live in a patriarchal society. Radical feminists during the 1970's and 1980's view religion primarily as patriarchal ideology regardless of the different forms in which it appeared (Newman, "Feminist"). They found that there exists a relationship between religion and politics. The male controlled institution, such as religion defines women as subordinate to men and are used to