United States and Taiwan Unemployment Rates Essay Example for Free

United States and Taiwan Unemployment Rates Essay This paper aims to compare the unemployment trends of the United States (US) and Taiwan from 1980 to 2007, and briefly discuss the factors affecting the trends of each country. The 28-year time-series data presented are from the World Economic Outlook Database of the International Monetary Fund. Unemployment Trends of the US and Taiwan The figure below shows divergence in the US and Taiwan unemployment rates over the past 28 years. The US has a downward unemployment trend, while Taiwan unemployment rates moved in the opposite direction from low to high level unemployment Fig. 1. US and Taiwan Unemployment Rates, 1980 – 2007, World Economic Outlook Database October 2007. rate. In 1980, the US unemployment rate is about six times the unemployment rate of Taiwan, while in 2007, the gap narrowed to about 0. 8-percentage point. All through out the said period, the unemployment rates of Taiwan are lower than that of the US, except in 2001 where the rates almost equaled. Looking at the US trends during the 28-year period, the peak unemployment rates in 1982, 1992, and 2003 were associated with recessions. The US recession in the early 1980’s was the most severe during the said period. As the US economy started to recover after the first oil shock in 1973, the second oil crisis in 1979 resulted in another recession in early 1980s that moved further up the unemployment rate to 9. 7% in 1982, the highest rate during the 1980-2007 period. As the economy began to grow in 1983, the unemployment rate started to reverse its trend and reached a lower rate of 5. 3% in 1989. The downward unemployment trend could be seen as a product of the free labor markets and the smaller size of welfare packages (Vedder and Gallaway 1), the entry of the oldest members of the baby boom cohorts in mid-1960’s in the labor force at age 16 coupled with their increased labor force participation (Sincavage 36), and substantial contribution of self-employment (Manser and Picot 12-13). The recession in 1991 pinned the unemployment rate at 7. 5% in 1992. But the 1990’s expansion brought about a long-run downward unemployment trend. The unemployment rate dipped at 4% in 2000, the lowest rate over the 28-year period. Katz and Krueger attribute this downward trend to four labor market explanations. The first is the entry of the oldest baby boom cohorts in the labor force at age 16 in the 1990s. The second is the rising proportion of the population in prison during the 1990s. The third is the better matching between workers and jobs resulting from labor market improvements, such as the Worker Profile and Reemployment Services program required in each state and the temporary help service industry. And the fourth is the worker insecurity in demanding wage gains due to the steady decline in union membership. After the 2001 recession, the unemployment rate continued to increase since the economy slowly recovered. The unemployment rate peaked at 6% in 2003, the lowest peak during the 28-year period. Thereafter, the unemployment rates have slowly decreased to 4. 7% in 2007. Taiwan, on the other hand, had different unemployment pattern. It has two distinct peak unemployment rates in 1985, and 2002. Before 1980, Taiwan experienced a very low unemployment rate, owing to its strong labor-intensive manufacturing industries, such as clothing and textile (Wang 26). The two rounds of oil crises in 1970’s had not spared the country’s economic growth. In response, the government broadcasted its twelve major construction projects, which laid the basic infrastructure for the heavy chemical industries and partly averted the negative impact of the oil crises (â€Å"From Poverty†). However, the loss of the international competitiveness of the country’s labor-intensive industries due to rising labor costs in the 1980’s resulted in the exodus of most of these traditional industries to mainland China and Southeast Asia (Wang 27). This pushed up unemployment rate, reaching its first peak at 2. 9% in 1985. Compared with that of US, the impact on the unemployment rate is relatively lesser. After the 1980s and in the first half of the 1990s, Taiwan gradually developed its ICT industries and successfully transformed itself into a major manufacturer of international ICT products (27). This minimized the unemployment problem of the 1980s. However, after 1995, unemployment dramatically increased until it hit its peak at 5. 2% in 2002, the highest during the 28-year period. Wang ascribes this sharp upward trend to three reasons. First, the capital-intensive and high-technology industries pushed most labor-intensive industries to move production to mainland China and Southeast Asia where labor is cheaper. Second, the Southeast Asian overseas workers had continually contributed to the worsening unemployment problem. Third, the slump in worldwide demand for ICT products in early 2000s plunged Taiwan into its first recession in decades. It registered the first ever negative economic growth in 2001, driving unemployment rate at its highest level at 5. 2% in 2002. After 2003, the economy slowly returned to normal. The unemployment rate gradually declined until 3. 9% in 2007, although much higher than in the 1980s and 1990s. This can be partly attributed to the implementation of the government’s Infrastructure Expansion Programme and Programme to Expand Employment of Public Service in 2003 and 2004 (PricewaterhouseCoopers 215). Meanwhile, the East Asian financial crisis in 1997 had a relatively slight impact on Taiwan’s economy since its unemployment rate remained unchanged. The reasons for these included, among others, the excellent economic fundamentals with no foreign debt, and appropriate government countermeasures (â€Å"From Poverty†). Conclusion The US and Taiwan show contrasting unemployment trends. Although their unemployment rates are moving in opposite directions, Taiwan unemployment rates are still much lower than that of the US However, in the medium- to long-term, with the declining rate of the US unemployment, US might attain a lower unemployment rate similar to that of Taiwan, or even much lower. This could be a good subject for further research. The unemployment trends depend on the countries economic stability and ability to adopt appropriate measures in response to structural and exogenous changes. The downward trend of the US employment implies favorable response of the labor market to the measures being adopted. The efficient and effective measure with longer effects is the implementation of a better worker-job matching scheme at the state level. Taiwan, on the other hand, may need to design a scheme to minimize, if not to avoid, labor erosion as it continues to be one of the major global ICT leaders, thereby addressing the social and economic inequality problems. Works Cited â€Å"From Poverty to Prosperity. † Taiwan Government information Office. 1 March 2008 http://www.gio. gov. tw/info/taiwan-story/economy/edown/3-2. htm Katz, Lawrence F. , and Alan B. Krueger. â€Å"New Trend in Unemployment? The High-Pressure US Labor Market of the 1990s. † Brookings Review Fall (1999): 4-8. Manser, Marilyn E. , and Garnett Picot. â€Å"The Role of Self-Employment in US and Canadian Job Growth. † Monthly Labor Review April (1999): 10-25. PricewaterhouseCoopers. â€Å"Taiwan. † From Beijing to Budapest. 4th ed. 2005/2006. Sincavage, Jessica R. â€Å"The Labor Force and Unemployment: Three Generations of Change. † Monthly Labor Review June (2004): 34-41. Vedder, Richard K. , and Lowell E. Gallaway. â€Å"Unemployment and Jobs in International Perspective. † Joint Economic Committee Study April (1999). 1 March 2008 http://www. house. gov/jec/employ/intern. pdf Wang, Wei Ching. â€Å"Information Society and Inequality: Wage Polarization, Unemployment, and Occupation Transition in Taiwan since 1980†. UTIP Working Paper. Texas: Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas, 2007. World Economic Outlook Database. October 2007. International Monetary Fund. 28 February 2008 http://www. imf. org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2007/02/weodata/index. aspx

J.B. and Job :: essays papers

J.B. and Job There are many similarities but also many differences between the story of Job in The Bible and Archibald MacLeish’s J.B. These similarities and differences falls along the categories of style, story line, and characterization. First, the style of both pieces of literature. J.B. is a play by Archibald MacLeish whereas the story of Job is a drama. In both of these pieces a prologue is present. However, the prologue differs greatly. In Job, the prologue merely states a vague background of the life of Job and his family. On the other hand, the prologue of J.B. gives detailed descriptions of J.B. and each and every one of his family members. In both cases, an antagonist is present. The antagonist is not necessarily evil or bad, but simply just one who disagrees. Second, the story line. Although Archibald MacLeish wrote the play based on the story of Job in The Bible, there are many differences in the story line. In The Bible, Job’s misfortune was spawned by Satan trying to show God that Job was not as holy as God had thought. God gave Satan the power to destroy everything Job had, including his health. Job’s children all died together when the roof of the house collapsed on them while they were all dining at the house of the oldest brother. His wife died also, and all of his possessions was taken from him. Furthermore, he contracted painful sores all over his body. As for J.B., his children died separately, one after the other. The oldest had died in the army. Two were involved in a car accident. One daughter was killed by an explosion that also took out J.B.’s millions. And the youngest was raped. However, J.B.’s wife, Sarah, was not killed, but instead she left him. In The Bible, Job is confronted by his thr ee friends. His friends encourages him to turn against God and to curse him, but he refused to do so. On the other hand, J.B. was confronted with four friends, the first three encouraging him to turn against God but the fourth telling him to pray to God and to praise Him. In the end, God gives back Job his original wife Sarah and his ten kids. He is rid of the painful sores and his possessions were doubled.

Life Support

The article â€Å"Do the Poor Deserve Life Support? † by Steven E. Landsbury raises the issue of whether or not we should keep people on life support when they cannot afford it. Although it is a horrible situation I feel that Baylor Regional Medical Center did the correct thing by removing Tirhas Habtegiris from her ventilator. If hospitals provided her and others with this service for free it would mean budget cuts. These cuts would affect the care which is provided for the rest of the general public. Also, it would mean that someone else's insurance or taxes would have to cover the cost of keeping her alive. I did some research and saw that to keep someone alive on a ventilator would cost between 2000-3000 per day. Financially, it would be a bad idea to try to save every single person, rich or poor. Seeing as how the poor obviously can't pay for themselves, it would cause a strain on society to pay and use their own money that they would need themselves for vaccines, surgery, medicine ect. The general public would suffer because they wouldn't receive the quality service which they have been paying for. Economically speaking, no â€Å"free† life support should be given to anyone that cannot contribute back to the industry that is paying for the procedure. Considering that the life support we are dealing with here is mostly ones that will prolong the death of an individual, there is little to no benefit to keeping an individual alive. In that regard, they should be denied their life support request and left to die from their condition. Simple law of economics. If the cost is greater than the benefit, do not do it. At the same time it would be ideal to provide everyone with life support. This shows in my opinion that our Medicare system needs to change. How we will go about it I do not know. The end of Ms. Habtegiris' life was tragic. Most of us won't have to make such a choice as whether to pull the plug or not, that is the good news. It was wrong for Baylor to pull the plug but it is clear that in the real world of limited medical resources that hospitals will be making similar decisions in the future. Life Support The article â€Å"Do the Poor Deserve Life Support? † by Steven E. Landsbury raises the issue of whether or not we should keep people on life support when they cannot afford it. Although it is a horrible situation I feel that Baylor Regional Medical Center did the correct thing by removing Tirhas Habtegiris from her ventilator. If hospitals provided her and others with this service for free it would mean budget cuts. These cuts would affect the care which is provided for the rest of the general public. Also, it would mean that someone else's insurance or taxes would have to cover the cost of keeping her alive. I did some research and saw that to keep someone alive on a ventilator would cost between 2000-3000 per day. Financially, it would be a bad idea to try to save every single person, rich or poor. Seeing as how the poor obviously can't pay for themselves, it would cause a strain on society to pay and use their own money that they would need themselves for vaccines, surgery, medicine ect. The general public would suffer because they wouldn't receive the quality service which they have been paying for. Economically speaking, no â€Å"free† life support should be given to anyone that cannot contribute back to the industry that is paying for the procedure. Considering that the life support we are dealing with here is mostly ones that will prolong the death of an individual, there is little to no benefit to keeping an individual alive. In that regard, they should be denied their life support request and left to die from their condition. Simple law of economics. If the cost is greater than the benefit, do not do it. At the same time it would be ideal to provide everyone with life support. This shows in my opinion that our Medicare system needs to change. How we will go about it I do not know. The end of Ms. Habtegiris' life was tragic. Most of us won't have to make such a choice as whether to pull the plug or not, that is the good news. It was wrong for Baylor to pull the plug but it is clear that in the real world of limited medical resources that hospitals will be making similar decisions in the future.

Gay Adoption Should be Legalized Essay - 2422 Words

Gay adoption by legal couples has become a rising controversy in the past decade, affecting the lives of many children and families. Most states allow gays and lesbians to individually adopt but do not allow them adoption as a legally recognized couple. In 1976, the American Psychological Association declared that â€Å"the sex, gender identity, or sexual†¦ orientation of natural, or prospective adoptive or foster parents should not be the sole or primary variable considered in custody or placement cases.† Historically, the benefits of gay adoption have been recognized, but have not yet been legalized. However, adoption by homosexual couples should be legalized to provide children with a new option for a family environment, provide the†¦show more content†¦Utah has also successfully approached the idea of banning by allowing only married couples to adopt (Hopkins). As a result, countless children are left among foster and adoption agencies. With thousands of children anticipating adoption, allowing same-sex couples to adopt would decrease these waiting numbers by providing stable homes and families. Excluding gays and lesbians from the â€Å"prospective resource parent pool† will in turn eliminate thousands of children from being provided a permanent home (Sioco). The Children Bureaus Trends in Foster Care and Adoption report completed in 2008 showed that there were 130,000 children waiting to be adopted. These results were â€Å"defined as those children with a goal of adoption and those whose parental rights were terminated† (Sioco). In addition to children feeling the repercussions of banned gay adoption, the couples who desire children are also negatively affected. There are countless homosexual couples that would like to complete their family by adopting one or more children of their own (see Fig. 2 below). Unfortunately, this is being completed through loopholes rather than the legal process in order to develop their family, such as one parent adopting the child rather than the couple. Federal law does not yet recognize gay marriage, leaving rights to be determined at the state level, often resulting in them varying greatly. The Williams Institute and the Urban Institute concluded in 2007 thatShow MoreRelatedShould Gay Adoption Be Legalized?935 Words   |  4 Pagesattempting to adopt children. Adoption isn’t just about finding children for families, but it’s about finding families for children. The traditional definition of raising a family is one man and one woman raising their children together, which is why gay adoption has been a struggle for many gay couples. It is prejudice to deny homosexuals the right to adopt and have a family. As society evolves and cultural perspectives expand, gay adoption deserves to be legalized nationwide. The lawsRead MoreShould Gay Marriage Be Legal?778 Words   |  3 PagesShould Gay Marriage Be Legal? â€Å"†¦I now pronounce you husband and wife†¦Ã¢â‚¬  One would normally hear this when attending a wedding. In tradition marriage has been between one male and one female who love each other. But how would one feel if they heard â€Å"I now pronounce you groom and groom† or how about â€Å"†¦bride and bride...†? In the last 50 years the number of same-sex couples has increased. The on-going argument between the government and the people is â€Å"Should gay marriage be legal?† Although some sayRead MoreSame Sex Marriage Should Be Legal Essay1072 Words   |  5 PagesSame sex marriage Same sex marriage also known as gay marriage is the union between two of the same gender having all legal rights allotted to this agreement in a given jurisdiction. 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ProCon.org supplies information that â€Å"Twenty-six states were forced to legalize gay marriage because it was the court s decision, eight by state legislators, three by popular vote, twelve by state law, and one by constitutional amendment (Par 1). Some positive outcomes now that it is legal to marry the same sex is that the adoption process willRead MoreLegalization Of Same Sex Marriage1594 Words   |  7 PagesLegalization Of Same Sex Marriage Will Greatly Benefit The Economy Same-sex marriage has been a long debated issue in the United States. Since the nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage in countries such as Holland, Belgium, and Canada American gay couples have been pushing harder for equal marriage rights under the law. Opponents claim that allowing same-sex unions would not only lead to less stable marriages and higher divorce rates for heterosexual couples, but also precipitate an economicRead MoreGay Marriage Should Be Legal1205 Words   |  5 PagesRahime-Malik Howard Sociology 1301-93431 Gay Marriage Getting married is something that most people do when they find love, which it is an important event in their life. The GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) community now get the legal right of same-sex marriage, which they have fought for throughout the years; on the other hand, some opponents of same-sex marriage have called for a constitutional change towards it. Although there were some countries that allowed gay marriage befor e the United StatesRead MoreGay Marriage Should Be Legalized1379 Words   |  6 PagesName: Tutor: Course: Date: Gay Marriages Marriage is considered as hypothetically speaking, a rite of passage whilst from the religious point of view, it is considered as holy matrimony before a supreme being. Attraction between individuals of the same sex has been a topic of debate since time immemorial. However, over the past few years gay individuals have opted to air grievances of oppression despite receiving tremendous critics from the public. Initially, gay marriages were unfathomable eventsRead MoreGay Marriage Should Be Legal1434 Words   |  6 PagesGay marriage has slowly become a significant factor amongst individuals of today’s society. On June 26, 2015, it was ruled out by the U.S. Supreme Court that gay marriage was now legal. The first thing that I thought was that â€Å"Wasn’t it already legal in the United States?† Well, apparently no it has not been legalized in the United States! (Dumb me.) The U.S. is known to be a nation of equality and gives everyone the freedom of the speech, bu t it is actually a nation full of racism, sexism, and homophobias