Concert report Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Concert report - Assignment Example When I walked into the church there were a bunch of chairs directly in front of the stage for the audience, but there were also two rows of chairs on the stage. This was so when the group of performers finished their parts then they could take a rest over there and watch the solo parts of the concert. The audience extremely enjoyed the concert because the Avanti Chamber Singers put on a great show for everyone. This concert was very special for me because it was the first time that I was privileged enough to hear a choir live. Throughout the first half of the program, I would have to say that three songs stood out to me, and all of them were composed by the Brock professor Matthew Therrien. The piece, titled "Requiem," created a warm and sweet image in my mind. The sounds of the violin and piano provided wonderful background music and made me really comfortable. When the female voice came in, I felt like many angels were singing the song at that moment. After the intermission, I would have to say that my most favorite piece was "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." The reason is that it was one of the very few that I had already heard before that night. This song invoked a range of emotions for me, but I guess I enjoyed the deepness of the voices. It gave me a feeling like I was in church or something because it felt like there was power in the air. Although the song was repetitive in a way, I liked that the choir changed key for each new chorus so that it provided a new sound. The song is very old yet it is still powerful today, and I think that this shows the songs popularity too. This song would have to be my favorite of the night because I could just not resist getting up and clapping in time with the beat. If I had to choose one song for a movie sound track, then it would have to be "Aint Got Time to Die" by Hall Johnson. This song made a real impact on me because it gives hope where there does not seem to be any. I would use in a

Fowlers Stages of faith Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 13750 words

Fowlers Stages of faith - Essay Example FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 43 CHAPTER V 54 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 54 5.1. SUMMARY 55 5.2. CONCLUSION 56 5.3. RECOMMENDATIONS 57 5.4. FUTURE POSSIBILITY OF THE RESEARCH AND SOME DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED 58 Bibliography 59 ABSTRACT 63 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.0. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Since the ancient period, humanity has constantly tried to understand people’s relation and position with the world, with the universe, with transcendental reality. The works of Plato and Aristotle offer how human beings may be able to apprehend their position in the cosmos (see Phaedrus, The Republic, The Metaphysics ). However, during the Middle Ages, when people’s nature is defined more in terms of their relation with God, faith seeking understanding has become an attestation of a person’s innate ability to ‘understand’ the person in relation with God. Nonetheless, the questions and the longing for answers do not end there. In this sense, the desire to understand the meaning of life, its purpose and its relation with God and Others have long been part of the questions underpinning human existence. This yearning has become more concrete in the midst of the angst rising from current human experiences, of the present human condition. In this regard, the necessity of understanding faith dimension in the lives of people in the contemporary period becomes more urgent as people try to find meaning and purpose for their lives. However, what is faith? Generally, faith is belief in the reality of a transcendental being. However, over the past few decades, a ‘different’ approach to faith has been given. James Fowler’s theory of faith development is considered as one of the most significant models of faith/spirituality development that has emerged (Stantrock, 1999; Parker, 2006). It seeks to chart the stages of faith within the chronological life span of a person (Fowler, 1981). As such, the model tries to explain the process by whic h individuals' perspectives on ultimate meanings and values change during the course of their life (Fowler, 1981). In this regard, Fowler’s stages of faith, the only recognized measure of faith development stages (Moseley, Jarvis, Fowler & Di Nicola, 1993), has attracted further studies, debates and added evaluation (Streib 2005; Parker, 2006). In lieu with this, the study will look into James Fowler’s stages of faith vis-a-vis Christian faith. 1.1. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK As the study seeks to understand the relation between Fowler’s Stages of Faith and the Christian faith, the clarification of the connection between the two will allow for the development of more depth and deeper understanding of faith. This becomes essential as Fowler’s discourse on faith is considered as one of the most important developments in understanding the phenomenon of faith. Furthermore, it attempts to present the position that as Fowler’s faith and Stages of faith is used in addressing concerns in education, in counseling and other fields, it can be used to further explain the notion of faith within the Christian context. In this regard, if clarification of the connection between two conceptions of faith, then a wider and deeper appreciation of faith is possibly attained. It will enable people to discuss faith in seeming abstraction but in the view of concrete and measurable developments that is charted across a person’s life span. 1.2. Statement of the Study: The purpose of this research investigation was to use Fowler’

Issues in Global Business Burberry 2012 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Issues in Global Business Burberry 2012 - Essay Example Small portion of the study discusses the impact of Profit before Tax on strategic buyback decision of Burberry. The company needs to expand their global franchise operation in order to decrease value chain cost. The study will focus on globalization strategy of Burberry Group plc in terms of retail distribution network. Report shows that direct control strategy of the company will help them to push total market capitalization in near future. Hybrid matrix structure of Procter and Gamble has been recommended for future growth Burberry Group. Hybrid matrix diagram will help the company to set up strategic business units in Asia and Latin America. Table of Contents Table of Contents 3 Case Statement 4 Strategy Analysis 5 Financial Perspective 5 Leverage Control 6 International Growth Strategy 8 SWOT Analysis 8 Porter’s Five Forces Analysis 9 Strategic Theme 11 Conclusion 11 Recommendation 12 Reference 14 Burberry Burberry Group plc is a renowned global luxury brand. The company i s headquartered at London, England. Burberry Group plc was established by Thomas Burberry in the year 1856. The brand specializes in offering apparel and leather goods. Burberry Group plc offers products through diversified distribution network complemented by retail channel, wholesale, licensing channel and digital platform. The company has achieved a total revenue growth of 7% in the year 2011. Burberry has created a digital platform named as â€Å"Burberry World Live† in order to enhance their web visibility. Intraday market capitalization of the London based company is $5.3 billion while they maintain a profit margin of 12.1 % on category sales (Yahoo Finance, 2012). Case Statement Burberry Group plc has recently announced that they will directly operate in beauty and fragrance category. The company has no plan to continue license relationship with their partner Interparfums SA. Fragrance and beauty has been categorized as fifth product division for Burberry Group. The ot her four categories are accessories, women apparel, men apparel and children apparel. Angela Ahrendts (Chief Executive Officer of Burberry Group plc) has stated that they took the decision of direct control in order to achieve greater control over product portfolio of fragrance and beauty category. The CEO believes that the company has significant opportunities to drive growth from fragrance and beauty products and the move will also leverage infrastructure & upward integration of value chain. Direct operation of the company for fragrance and beauty categories will start from 1 April 2013. Burberry Group took the decision for following strategic objectives. Achieving greater brand control Increase penetration in opening price point categories The company will pay all total Euro 181 million for ending license relationship and ?71m of total amount will be used for recognising exceptional items The London based company will earn a adjusted profit before tax or PBT in financial year 201 3/14 and from FY 2014/15 the PBT will accelerate Retail and wholesale contribute 90% of total business for the company hence they will design diversified retail channels for their fifth product category (Burberry Group plc, 2012) Strategy Analysis Burberry has purchased the perfumes selling license from Interparfums SA by paying ?142m. Stock analysts believe that the company is pushing harder in the perfume and cosmetic segment in order to

Fowlers Stages of faith Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 13750 words

Fowlers Stages of faith - Essay Example FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 43 CHAPTER V 54 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 54 5.1. SUMMARY 55 5.2. CONCLUSION 56 5.3. RECOMMENDATIONS 57 5.4. FUTURE POSSIBILITY OF THE RESEARCH AND SOME DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED 58 Bibliography 59 ABSTRACT 63 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.0. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Since the ancient period, humanity has constantly tried to understand people’s relation and position with the world, with the universe, with transcendental reality. The works of Plato and Aristotle offer how human beings may be able to apprehend their position in the cosmos (see Phaedrus, The Republic, The Metaphysics ). However, during the Middle Ages, when people’s nature is defined more in terms of their relation with God, faith seeking understanding has become an attestation of a person’s innate ability to ‘understand’ the person in relation with God. Nonetheless, the questions and the longing for answers do not end there. In this sense, the desire to understand the meaning of life, its purpose and its relation with God and Others have long been part of the questions underpinning human existence. This yearning has become more concrete in the midst of the angst rising from current human experiences, of the present human condition. In this regard, the necessity of understanding faith dimension in the lives of people in the contemporary period becomes more urgent as people try to find meaning and purpose for their lives. However, what is faith? Generally, faith is belief in the reality of a transcendental being. However, over the past few decades, a ‘different’ approach to faith has been given. James Fowler’s theory of faith development is considered as one of the most significant models of faith/spirituality development that has emerged (Stantrock, 1999; Parker, 2006). It seeks to chart the stages of faith within the chronological life span of a person (Fowler, 1981). As such, the model tries to explain the process by whic h individuals' perspectives on ultimate meanings and values change during the course of their life (Fowler, 1981). In this regard, Fowler’s stages of faith, the only recognized measure of faith development stages (Moseley, Jarvis, Fowler & Di Nicola, 1993), has attracted further studies, debates and added evaluation (Streib 2005; Parker, 2006). In lieu with this, the study will look into James Fowler’s stages of faith vis-a-vis Christian faith. 1.1. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK As the study seeks to understand the relation between Fowler’s Stages of Faith and the Christian faith, the clarification of the connection between the two will allow for the development of more depth and deeper understanding of faith. This becomes essential as Fowler’s discourse on faith is considered as one of the most important developments in understanding the phenomenon of faith. Furthermore, it attempts to present the position that as Fowler’s faith and Stages of faith is used in addressing concerns in education, in counseling and other fields, it can be used to further explain the notion of faith within the Christian context. In this regard, if clarification of the connection between two conceptions of faith, then a wider and deeper appreciation of faith is possibly attained. It will enable people to discuss faith in seeming abstraction but in the view of concrete and measurable developments that is charted across a person’s life span. 1.2. Statement of the Study: The purpose of this research investigation was to use Fowler’

The Gospel Of John's View Of The Role Of The Holy Spirit Research Paper

The Gospel Of John's View Of The Role Of The Holy Spirit - Research Paper Example This research aims at studying John's Gospel view of the Holy Spirit using the existing literature. In his article "John 14:17 and the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John", Sloan gives a breakdown of earthly ministry of Jesus giving the leads to the permanent ‘indwelling of the Holy Spirit’ among his disciples on departure to heaven. Further, Carsons (1991) gives the descriptions of ‘the responsibilities of the Holy Spirit’ during the final discourse of Jesus. It emerges that the Holy Spirit hovers through those baptized in it (known as indwelling). Furthermore, the Holy Spirit is independent of the father and the son due to the nature of the work allocated. The Holy Spirit is responsible of the Christendom and the spread of the church within boundaries and beyond. The institution of the church survives on the mercy of Holy Spirit who is responsible for this valuable task (Stott 2006). The Holy Spirit fills the followers of Christ with the yearning to know God more as the ethics dictate. The responsibilities further stretch towards the power to redeem and reconcile humans and their God whenever they wrong him (Barth 1993). The regeneration of human beings is entirely dependent on the functions of the righteous Spirit as evident from Owen's "Discourse concerning the Holy Spirit.† He has more than one function as Linzey puts it in her book "The Baptism with the Holy Spirit.† The illumination of the human believer's mind depends on the efforts of the divine Spirit as indicated in John 3:5. This is because the Holy Spirit knows better about God's will than any other supernatural power in existence thus engages the believers in their day-to-day activities that related to Godliness (Rogers 2009). 1 Introduction The Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John is first introduced in Chapter 1 verse 33. The functions of the Holy Spirit in a believers’ life are discussed in three chapters (14-16). â€Å"But the helper, the Holy spirit whom the father will send in my name, He will teach you all things.† These verses show the Holy Spirit as a helper and teacher. Other roles that will be discussed in this paper are the Holy Spirit as a comforter, giver of life, living water and as a reminder of Christ among other roles. This paper will also look at who is the Holy Spirit, how does one receive Him and how it is viewed in the Old Testament. This paper has considered the Holly Spirit in the perspective of the gospel of John. We have taken the entire gospel through references to the Lord’s Ministry as provided in the first thirteen chapters. Then, it extends to God’

C20th Century Drama English Coursework Essay Example for Free

C20th Century Drama English Coursework Essay This particular play is A view from a Bridge written by Arthur Miller. Arthur Miller was born on October 17th, 1915, in New York City. His parents were both Illegal Immigrants in the United States, which links to the background of the play. A view from the Bridge was first produced as a one-act play in verse 1955; Arthur divorces his wife to marry his co-star actress Marilyn Monroe Miller has now become Americas worlds popular playwrights. Most of his plays are about the society and the responsibilities of its relation. But also in all the plays they hide a deep considerate of how people act and behave with the situation of life around them. These obstacles they face which they have to successfully defeat over. A view from a Bridge has its roots in the late 1940s when Miller was interested in the work and lives of New York. Miller purposely wanted the play to be a modern version of a Greek Tragedy, which a main character is faced with trying, daring situations, which cannot be escaped from. In this play a tragic hero commits an offence unexpectedly. He then learns from his misdeed and therefore must die for his actions. Then as it is a Greek Mythology the Gods restores the Universe. In this play the Hero is inked onto a man named Eddie Carbone. He is uniquely and ordinary everyday man. Courteous, hard working and a man that people liked. This play is themed on the background of Italian origins, which relates to the dispute of Italians and Americans. This is introduced with Alifieris Speech; This is Red Hook not Sicily now we are civilised, quite American. Now we settle for half. In no longer keep a pistol in my filling cabinet This reflects with the context of the play and links with the storyline. It also reflects on the reason of the main cause concluding to the violence. The story is also based on the American Dream that any person can accomplish what and no matter what upbringing culture or race. He has added this, as in that period of time the American Dream was quite popular which was appropriate for it to relate the aspects of their life. Arthur Miller has produced the main character being the lead role of the play. Eddie Carbone is an Italian Longshoreman working on the New York docks. Eddie is a simple hard workingman who worked on the piers. When his wifes cousins were sent, Marco and Rodolfo, he agrees to refuge them as illegal immigrants from Sicily. First signs of disturbance are when Catherine starts to show attraction to Rodolfo, at this Eddie disapproves. This is because of Eddies over protectiveness towards Catherine. His possessive behaviour towards Catherine brings him to envy towards Rodolfo. Out of anger and rage at the end Eddie reported them to the Immigration Beaureu. In response of ferocity Marco decides to kill Eddie, but Eddie kills himself with the knife. In one section of evidence, which relates to his own downfall is the possessiveness of Catherine. Catherine is Eddies orphaned Niece. In the first scene the audience is immediately given the information that Eddie has a peculiar concern towards his niece. He mentions and details out of her dress sense and suggest it is too short. The evidence showing that he is overprotective is when he indicates that she is walking wavy. I dont like the looks theyre givin you in the candy store the heads are turnin like windmills. In this it is brought immediately to the audience attention of the over protectiveness for his own nice. His concern and obssesiveness of his actions may have a hidden feelings that Eddie has for Catherine. An uncertainty of more than relative love is present with the way he feels for Catherine. Toe Eddie Catherine represents to him as just a baby and therefore she does not understand these things but this is a cover up for his possessive behaviour. In Act 1 page6-10 I suggest his behaviour is both possessive and protective but more possessive. As the conversation of Beatrice, Eddie and Catherine it shows that Eddie treats Catherine like a child, and not the rightful age that she should be treated. The relationship between Eddie and Catherine changes with the arrival of Marco and Rodolfo. As they talk and get to known each other Catherine shows an interest to Rodolfo as she keeps gesturing to Beatrice Hes a real blond He then sings to her Paper Doll, but in a kindest way Eddie tells him to stop. Also that is when the changes of Eddies behaviour begin. He embarrasses Catherine by telling her to go ahead meaning get out. Eddie again tries to humiliate Catherine so that Rodolfo will lose interest by telling him that she wants to be an actress meaning shes a drama queen. But Rodolfo flirts back by saying

Concepts and Theories of Supply, Demand and Price

Concepts and Theories of Supply, Demand and Price Economics Coursework Paper Introduction This essay looks at the fundamental elements of economics. Economics covers the area of human activity that deals with how people provide for their material wellbeing. It looks at the complex sets of transactions that take place around the world every day. These transactions decide on the global allocation of raw materials and capital. It also looks at the decisions individuals make when they decide how to prioritise their needs and wants and how to spend their money. It can vary in scale from how one person or family will organise its activities to how nations and societies should or can be organised. Economics therefore deals with an enormous subject matter; it offers a way of understanding practically all human activity at any level of detail. The way in which it can do all this, and still remain united as a single science, is to adopt various principles which will apply to a school child buying his lunch, multinational companies merging on the stock market, or nations competing f or trade. In this paper I will look at some of these principles and how they relate to various examples.[1] Supply, Demand and Price You would be correct to assume that economics is interested in the price of things. While this is the main issue for most economic actors such as individual consumers, companies or countries, for economists, this is neither where the story begins nor ends. It is in fact just one of many details that will fit in to an overall economic picture. It is a well known fact that house prices usually rise. It is just as well known that computer prices keep falling. Economics explains these price movements by looking at and understanding their respective markets. The methods used to analyse a market are; understanding the motivations of the various participants in the market; the factors that control how much the consumers in the market wish to buy; the factors that control how much sellers wish to sell; how the price is set; and the institutional structures that also influence the price. When looking at markets in this way, the various actors in the market, or agents, are assumed to be rational, that is that they want to maximise their gains or get the best deal possible. This is known as ‘maximizing utility’ in economics. When speaking of demand, we are not concerned with how much of a product is actually bought, but of how much the consumers in the market would like to buy. The amount demanded is expressed as a flow, which means we look at how much of a product is demanded over a particular period, and at a particular price. For example, if milk costs  £1 per litre, there is a demand for 1 litre of milk per day, or 365 litres of milk per year. In basic demand theory, there are a number of factors that can go into increasing or decreasing the amount demanded. For example, if you advertise the health benefits of milk, the consumer may decide to drink more. Also if there was a shortage of orange juice, consumers might drink more milk to make up for the difficulty of getting orange juice. Making milk cheaper will also increase the demand for it. Therefore, demand is something that can altered and, to an extent, controlled by the seller. One of the key functions of economics is to narrow down and explain the various factors that will effect demand, supply and price. Economists wish to be able to measure exactly how these three variables will interact. If they can do this effectively, they will be able to manipulate the three so as to arrive at a level of supply, and a price, that will maximise the profit, or utility, for the producer. And the reason they can do this is because of the one certainty of economics, which is that the consumer will also be seeking to maximise his utility under the options available to him. Demand and Price While it may be impossible to know exactly when and how much a given consumer will feel like drinking with his breakfast each morning, there are things we can no. One of them is that, in general, the lower the price of a product, the more of that product will be demanded, assuming all other things remain equal. This principle is so dependable it is known as the law of demand. This is because all wants can be satisfied by a number of products. For example, if you are hungry at school, you will have a want, namely lunch. This want can be satisfied by a sandwich, an apple, a bag of crisps, a chocolate bar, etc. Even if you look at the sandwich, you can have ham, cheese, salad etc. The chocolate bar can be a Snickers, Mars, Twix etc. If you suddenly double the price of cheese sandwiches while everything else remains the same, the demand for cheese sandwiches will go down. Some people will still buy the same amount of cheese sandwiches, others will buy less cheese sandwiches and opt for o ther types of sandwiches or maybe and apple or chocolate bar, and some will completely stop buying cheese sandwiches. No one will buy more cheese sandwiches than they did before. Therefore, as price increases, demand will continue to decrease.[2] Economists can demonstrate this using a demand schedule. This shows the demand for a product at various prices. Example of a demand schedule The demand schedule will then be used to plot a graph, or demand curve. The price will appear on the Y-axis and the quantity demanded on the X-axis. This curve will show the complete relationship between demand and price. Example of a demand curve This above schedule and demand curve show how demand for milk will vary according to price. As the price increases from  £0.50 per litre to  £3.00 per litre, the consumer decreases the amount they drink each day from 1.4 litres to just 0.2 litres. This example shows a relatively simple relationship between price and demand. In real life, there are many more factors at work that will dictate the demand for a product. While price is certainly one very important variable, the demand will also depend on the price of other alternative products. So if the price of orange juice for example were suddenly to increase, you would probably notice an increase in demand for milk, even though the price of milk did not change. That is because orange juice is an alternative product to milk. Also, if consumers were to get richer, they would be willing to buy more milk, or pay more for the amount they wanted, and again this would have a significant effect on the demand curve. Similarly, if consumer’s tastes were to change this would effect the demand curve. So if the milk producer was to start advertising the health benefits of milk this might increase demand even though there was no change in price. In practice there are actually an infi nite number of variables that will effect the demand for a product, but this does not mean that the basic law will not always hold. No matter how attitudes to a product, for example milk, change over time, it will always be the case, according to the law of demand, that an increase in price will lead to a decrease in demand and vice versa. Supply Simply finding the demand curve for a product is however not enough. You might expect that it would make good business, as well as common sense, to decide your supply based on current market demand. If consumers want 1 litre of milk per day, and they are willing to pay  £1 per litre, and say there are 1,000 consumers in the market, then why not simply produce 1,000 litres of milk per day. Well first of all, we can see that this tells us nothing about the profits of the producer. If you found out milk costs  £1.50 a litre to produce, would you still recommend that the producer try to sell 1,000 litres at  £1 per litre? Obviously not, therefore our picture is incomplete as it takes no account yet of the suppliers side of the bargain. The economic hypothesis that explains supplier behaviour is that if all other things remain equal, the quantity that they are willing to produce is positively related to the product’s own price, or the higher the price, the more they are willing to produce. This is basically because increasing production costs money, and the more you increase production, the more it costs, so firms will only increase production for as long as the price they can get for the product justifies the increased cost of production. Just like when measuring demand, a supply schedule is used to compare different price levels with different levels of production. Example supply schedule The supply curve shows the different amounts the producer would be willing to supply at different prices. As can be seen, the supply increases as price increases. Example of a supply curve Using these two graphs, economists can find the most efficient price for milk in this market. For example, if milk was priced at  £0.50 per litre, consumers would be willing to drink 1.4 litres per day, but the producer would only be willing to supply 0.41 litres per day. Clearly there is waste at this price. Likewise, if the price was set at  £3.00 per litre, the producer would be happy to supply 4.66 litres to each consumer, however they would only be willing to buy 0.2 litres per day. So a balance must be found somewhere in between. To find this point, economists will plot both the supply and demand curves on the same graph and find the point at which they intersect. This is the most profitable and efficient level at which to set production and price. The graph below shows that in this market, the supply and demand curves intersect at the price of  £1 per litre of milk. This is therefore the level at which the price would settle under normal market conditions. Price Elasticity The value of being able to analyse markets in this way, and understand how the price will settle is not solely theoretical. Businesses want to use this information to maximise profits. Therefore, theories on how to manipulate the above graphs are extremely important. One aspect if this is known as price elasticity. This is the theory that will explain how changes in price affect the quantity demanded. In the above example, the consumers would be willing to drink 1.4 litres of milk per day if it cost  £0.50. Imagine if you could get the same consumers to continue demanding this quantity of milk at a cost of  £3.00 per litre. This would mean a huge difference in profits for the producer. While it may not be possible to affect this change, having a greater understanding of the demand curve will allow detection of greater profit potential. Likewise, if you identify the causes for supply variation with changes in price, you may be able to improve the efficiency of your own business an d move the point of intersection of supply and demand curves to a more profitable position. The change in demand with price is known as price elasticity of demand. The change in supply with price is known as price elasticity of supply. Elasticity cannot simply be judged by looking at the curves on graphs. This is because the shape of the curve depends as much on the scale of the graph as on the responsiveness of the demand or supply to changes in price. Therefore, elasticity is measured by a mathematical ratio. This is the percentage change in quantity demanded divided by the percentage change in price that caused it. If you get a value for price elasticity of demand of zero this means that the quantity demanded does not change at all as the price changes. Such products are known as perfectly inelastic. There are very few products that would give this result. Even products such as bail to get out of jail pending trial will depend on the consumers ability to pay, and taxes, which supposedly offer no choice to the consumer, are also somewhat elastic as tax evasion has been shown to increase as tax rates rise. If the value is a fraction, between zero and 1, the quantity demanded will change but at a lower rate than the price changes. This is known as inelasticity. So if you were to increase the cost of the good by 50%, demand would decrease, but by less than 50%. This is generally observed in products that are deemed vital or necessary to people, but which are supplied without much competition. It is most typical in monopolies. So for example, if there is only one electricity or phone company, an inc rease in prices will lead to less usage, but people cannot wholly stop using such goods and so the usage will only decrease by a small amount. Likewise, goods such as housing, basic foods, or fuel, even though there may be a variety of providers, will generally be of low elasticity because people are forced to buy a certain amount of these products no matter what the price may be. In these situations, it is common to find government regulation to guarantee fairness of the market. If the elasticity is 1, then the demand and supply change at the same rate as price. This is known as unit elasticity. An elastic good will be one where the value will be greater than one. This means that the quantity demanded will change by more than the price changes. So for example, if there were two identical farms selling identical apples, both located next to each other, and both sell apples for 10p each, you might expect that 50% of customers will go to each farm. However, if one of the farmers was t o increase his price to say 12p per apple, the vast majority of customers will now go to the other farmer. He will lose more than 20% of his customers for a 20% rise in price. This is most likely in markets of high competition. If the value for elasticity is infinity, then the product is perfectly elastic. There is only one acceptable price. Purchasers will buy everything you have at one price, but if you increase it by even the tiniest fraction, they will buy none at all. This exists in theory, and in some highly automated and computerised financial markets. Computers will dictate prices according to precise calculations and then will not deviate from this. Market structures The above explanation for elasticity shows the nature, and ultimate difference in the characters of different markets. One way you can classify various markets is by the price elasticity they will give. It may seem surprising that the huge differences between the New York stock exchange and school children spending their pocket money in a sweet shop, or between modern capitalism, Soviet style communism, and primitive barter based trading systems comes down to the issue of price elasticity, but this is one way of classifying markets and judging the degree to which they are similar or dissimilar. A person shopping for bread in the old Soviet Union, and a person waiting to be granted bail by a judge may appear to be in very different circumstances, but according to this market view, their position economically is very similar, they will accept what they are told, with little regard to price. However, future’s traders in global financial centres, spending billions or ever trillion s of dollars every day, are revealed to have a lot in common with children in a sweet shop, weighing the various combinations of price and utility that different choices will provide them. They will ruthlessly abandon a product that doesn’t pull its weight on their cost/ utility calculation. Conclusion Using these few principles that lie at the foundation of economics, and a few simple examples, we can see how economic principles can explain a huge variety of social situations and human interactions. This is why economics claims to be able to offer an understanding of all human activity and why some criticise its growing influence as painting a false or inappropriate picture of humanity. While economic principles can be applied to children making friends, people acting with kindness or religions offering comfort and guidance, the question is not whether economics can provide answers, but whether the answers it provides are appropriate. Bibliography Lipsey Chrystal, Economics, 10th ed. 2004, Oxford University Press Grant, Stanlake’s Introductory Economics, 7th ed. 2003, Longman Footnotes [1] Lipsey Crystal, p. 40 [2] Grant, p. 77