Friday, May 22, 2020

Fries Rebellion of 1799

In 1798, the United States federal government imposed a new tax on houses, land, and slaves. As with most taxes, nobody was very happy to pay for it. Most notably among the unhappy citizens were Pennsylvania Dutch farmers who owned lots of land and houses, but no slaves. Under the leadership of Mr. John Fries, they dropped their plows and picked up their muskets to launch Fries’ Rebellion of 1799, the third tax rebellion in the then-short history of the United States. The Direct House Tax of 1798 In 1798, the United States’ first major foreign policy challenge, the Quasi-War with France, seemed to be heating up. In response, Congress enlarged the Navy and raised a large army. To pay for it, Congress enacted the Direct House Tax in July 1798, imposing $2 million in taxes on real estate and slaves to be apportioned among the states. The Direct House Tax was the first  Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã‚  and only  Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã‚  such direct federal tax on privately-owned real estate ever imposed. In addition, Congress had recently enacted the Alien and Sedition Acts, which restricted speech determined to be critical of the government and increased the power of the federal executive branch to imprison or deport aliens considered â€Å"dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States.† John Fries Rallies the Pennsylvania Dutch Having enacted the nation’s first state law abolishing slavery in 1780, Pennsylvania had very few slaves in 1798. As a result, the federal Direct House Tax was to be assessed throughout the state based on houses and land, with the taxable value of houses to be determined by the size and number of windows. As federal tax assessors rode through the countryside measuring and counting windows, strong opposition to the tax began to grow. Many people refused to pay, arguing that the tax was not being levied equally in proportion to the state’s population as required by the U.S. Constitution. In February 1799, Pennsylvania auctioneer John Fries organized meetings in Dutch communities in the southeastern part of the state to discuss how to best oppose the tax. Many of the citizens favored simply refusing to pay. When residents of the Milford Township physically threatened federal tax assessors and prevented them from doing their job, the government held a public meeting to explain and justify the tax. Far from being reassured, several protestors (some of them armed and wearing Continental Army uniforms) showed up waving flags and shouting slogans. In the face of the threatening crowd, the government agents canceled the meeting. Fries warned the federal tax assessors to stop doing their assessments and leave Milford. When the assessors refused, Fries led an armed band of residents that eventually forced the assessors to flee the town. Fries’ Rebellion Begins and Ends Encouraged by his success in Milford, Fries organized a militia. Accompanied by a growing band of armed irregular soldiers, they drilled as an army to the accompaniment of drum and fife. In late March of 1799, about 100 of Fries’ troops rode toward Quakertown intent on arresting the federal tax assessors. After reaching Quakertown, the tax rebels succeeded in capturing a number of the assessors. They released the assessors after warning them not to come back to Pennsylvania and demanding that they tell U.S. President John Adams what had happened. As opposition to the House Tax spread through Pennsylvania, federal tax assessors resigned under threats of violence. Assessors in the towns of Northampton and Hamilton asked to resign but were not allowed to do so. The federal government responded by issuing warrants and sending a U.S. Marshal to arrest people in Northampton on charges of tax resistance. The arrests were made largely without incident and continued in other nearby towns until an angry crowd in Millerstown confronted the marshal, demanding that he not arrest a particular citizen. After arresting a handful of other people, the marshal took his prisoners to be held in the town of Bethlehem. Vowing to free the prisoners, two separate groups of armed rebels organized by Fries marched on Bethlehem. However, the federal militia guarding the prisoners turned away the rebels, arresting Fries and other leaders of his failed rebellion. The Rebels Face  Trial For their participation in Fries’ Rebellion, 30 men were placed on trial in federal court. Fries and two of his followers were convicted of treason and sentenced to be hanged. Swayed by his strict interpretation of the Constitution’s often-debated definition of treason, President Adams pardoned Fries and the others convicted of treason. On May 21, 1800, Adams granted general amnesty to all participants in Fries’ rebellion. He stated that the rebels, most of whom spoke German, were â€Å"as ignorant of our language as they were of our laws.† He said that they had been duped by the â€Å"great men† of the Anti-Federalist Party who opposed granting the federal government the power to tax the personal property of the American people. Fries’ Rebellion was the last of three tax revolts staged in the United States during the 18th century. It was preceded by Shays Rebellion from 1786 to 1787 in central and western Massachusetts and the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 in western Pennsylvania. Today, Fries’ Rebellion is commemorated by a state historical marker located in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, where the revolt began. Sources Drexler, Ken (Reference Specialist). Alien and Sedition Acts: Primary Documents in American History. Statutes at Large, 5th Congress, 2nd Session, A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 -1875. Library of Congress, September 13, 2019. Kladky, Ph.D., William P. Continental Army. Washington Library, Center for Digital History, Digital Encyclopedia, Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, Mount Vernon, Virginia. Kotowski, Peter. Whiskey Rebellion. Washington Library, Center for Digital History, Digital Encyclopedia, Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, Mount Vernon, Virginia.

Saturday, May 9, 2020

Trust in Business Is a Means for Greater Business Efficiency

All businesses strive to be effective and efficient. Whilst the hallmark of a capitalist economy is self-interest and competition, cooperation is also necessary in order to further efficiency and productivity. For a business to be successful, the people within need to develop relationships amongst each other as well as outside the organization in order to be able to work with one another. These relationships are a function of trust. Trust is the reliance on the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing. Therefore building trust is a vital step towards maintaining and promoting business efficiency. However, in terms of business ethics, the sole purpose of the use of trust is to promote business efficiency. Customers and the†¦show more content†¦While loyalty is not easily quantifiable, and thus does not show up in a corporate ledger, it will affect the company’s overall performance.† Because trust is a vital part of loyalty, it follows that creating trust amongst employees by treating them respectfully is likely to result in improved company performance and efficiency. This once again provides a quantifiable measure for trust in a capitalist economy. Trust is also dependent upon not lying. Companies that lie about their product are in essence diminishing the trust established among their customers and the community. This can be anything from providing misleading information about their products in advertisements or stating obvious falsehoods . For example, an obvious falsehood would be a deodorant company that claims that the user of the product is likely to attract women as a result of the product itself. Lying is always wrong because it undermines the trust that makes telling the truth useful. If no one could be ‘trusted’, and everyone lied about what they did, the business world would fall apart quickly as a business could not be assured of any one else’s services. A business would not be able to do something as simple as take a loan out of a bank to afford its various activities. This is because banks would not trusting a business to repay the loan as in a capitalist economy paying back a loan would not be in a business’ self interest. Thus in such an environment, all of business comes to aShow MoreRelatedEssay Trust In Business Is A Means For Greater Business Efficiency1860 Words   |  8 Pagesorder to further efficiency and productivity. For a business to be successful, the people within need to develop relationships amongst each other as well as outside the organization in order to be able to work with one another. These relationships are a function of trust. Trust is the reliance on the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing. Therefore building trust is a vital step towards maintaining and promoting business efficiency. However, in terms of business ethics, the sole purposeRead MoreRelationship Between Layoffs And Voluntary Turnover1417 Words   |  6 Pagessociety is now capable of reaching greater heights in efficiency more than ever. The benefit of efficiency is not wasting any limited resources and time; however, it is not much so when business owners attempt to become more efficient by laying off their employees. In the business field, this strategy is called downsizing and it reduces the number of employees to operate the business more efficiently or especially during a crisis when the economy is unstable and the business cannot afford to maintain theRead MoreThe Effects Of E Commerce On Global Trade1524 Words   |  7 PagesE-commerce is a term describing a new and innovative more efficient way of doing business completely by use of the internet, to conduct trade dealings both on a national and global scale. E-commerce offers a different mode of performing trade throughout the world without the need for tangible contact between the buyer and seller. The new transaction mode of purchasing and supplying goods has become explosive in terms of efficiency, competitiveness, and productivity, therefore improving companies and homelandsRead MoreBusiness Accounting1359 Words   |  6 PagesUnit 5 Business Accounting P5 Introduction In this assignment I will be using the profit and loss accounts and balance sheet for SIGNature s business to work out the Profitability, Liquidity and Efficiency Ratios. Profitability Gross profit Percentage sales Gross Profit Sales Turnover Ãâ€"100 244200 444000 Ãâ€"100=53% Net Profit Percentage Net ProfitSales turnoverÃâ€"100 73960444000Ãâ€"100=16.66% Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) Net Profit before interest and taxCapital EmployedÃâ€"100 73960149160Ãâ€"100=49Read MoreThe Success Of A Business Or Organization Is Dependent On The Quality Of Leadership Within The Organization1581 Words   |  7 PagesThe success of a business or organization is dependent on the quality of leadership within the organization. Leadership, defined as the action or leading/guiding a group of people or organization. The foundation of leadership is communication, an effective leader shows guidance, assigns tasks, through effective and clear communication. There are many differing leadership styles that involve different communication styles, resulting in differing levels of management/employee communication integrationRead MoreReorganizing the Woody Company -MGT 330-1355 Words   |  6 Pagesrelevant from the prospective that being a small business by definition allows for certain assistance from the Small Business Administration and tax code specifications. More importantly, the small business is a mindset of operation that will capitalize on the potential strength of flexibility and responsiveness that can only be exercised with a company that can move fast, can provide quality goods and services to targeted market niches, and can inspire greater involvement from their people (Bateman Read MoreRobber Baron Vs. Captain of Industry.1524 Words   |  7 Pagesfirst big trusts in the United States, thus much controversy and opposition arose regarding business strategies and its organization. John D. Rockefeller was also one of the United States first major philanthropists, establishing numerous important foundations and donating close to $600 million to various charities. An ongoing debate remains as to whether John D. Rockefeller was a robber baron or a captain of industry. Rockefeller was highly criticized for his success and the means by which heRead MoreThe Key Argument Of The Driving And Restraining Forces893 Words   |  4 Pagesinternal and external forces. The internal forces come from the inner company, business or organisation whilst the external forces are at macro level where business don’t have much control or influence. Internal force: The collected studies from Hayes J (2014) highlighted that â€Å"the sense of improvement† are important driving forces for business such qualities include the emotional commitment and intention to evolve business condition in a tough environment and in a competitive market in which it operatesRead MoreCompetitive Advantages of Fmcg Companies1634 Words   |  7 Pagesmarketing. A company is said to have a competitive advantage if the company has greater profitability comparing to the average profitability of his rivals and have better profit growth than other companies in the same industry (Smallbusiness , 2013). Competitive advantage is gained by having the strengths and competencies which are hard to catch up by other companies. Through these strengths and competencies, the business is able to differentiate its products and services, or significantly reduce itsRead MoreHorizontal Mergers907 Words   |  4 PagesMergers occur when one business firm buys or acquires another business firm (the acquired firm) and the combined firm maintains the identity of the acquiring firm. Business firms merge for a variety of reasons, both financial and non-financial. There are a number of types of mergers. Horizontal and non-horizontal are just two of many types. WHAT IS HORIZONTAL MERGER? A merger occurring between companies in the same industry. Horizontal merger is a business consolidation that occurs between firms

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Advergames Free Essays

Synopsis Advergames – Advertising into your subconsciousness Disposition This paper investigates how advergames and anti- advergames have made a ground in our culture. I will explore how the anti- advergame movement utilizes the procedural rhetoric in order to create awareness. Furthermore I will come to a conclusion about why or if we need the anti – advergame movement. We will write a custom essay sample on Advergames or any similar topic only for you Order Now What exactly is advergames? Advergames is a great way to reach out to the consumers in a subconscious manner. Advergames are video games which contains advertisement for a product, service, or company. – Advergames are created to fill out a purpose – often to promote the company or one of the products. These games are often distributed freely as the game is a marketing tool. – Advergames can also be less obvious in their advertisement with product placement in the game. The video games is an alternative form of advertising with some advantages: they are cheap, fast, and have an extraordinary peer-to-peer marketing ability. Advertising within a video game allows for more exposures to the product than traditional ads because, according to Ellen Ratchye– Foster, a trend analyst for Fallon, â€Å"anyone who buys these games devotes weeks and weeks to getting through their levels. † This means that the consumer will see the advertisements over and over while they play, thus it may resonate with them. †1 Product placement – â€Å"Product placement in-game-advertising is most commonly found in sports titles and simulation games. For advertisers an add may be displayed multiple times and a game may provide an opportunity to ally a product’s brand image with the image of the game. – Such examples include the use Sobe drink in Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent – While product placement in film and television is fairly common, this type of in-game advertising has only recently become common in games. â€Å"2 1 http://advergamingtoday. blogspot. com/2006/02/just-product-placement. html 2 http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Advergaming What is anti – advergames? Anti- advergames are games that challenge players to rethink their relationship with consumption and encourage corporate critique. â€Å"Advertisers, governments and organizations mount huge campaigns to show us what they want us to see, and we want to expose what they’re hiding,† 3 In order to create awareness for the consumer (or more precisely the player) molleindustria. org and others create anti – advergames. The video games satirize big companies and question corporate polices ranging from how cattle are raised (The McDonald’s Videogame) to low pay for workers (Disaffected! . â€Å"I’ve always had a complicated relationship with advertising,† Bogost said. â€Å"It’s everywhere, and it’s becoming more and more parasitic. Yet, because it’s everywhere it has the power to influence people positively as well as negatively. † 4 When attempting to sell games as a persuasive medium, those in the business early on fou nd it useful to refer to this class of games as serious games. Ian Bogost wrote the book †Persuasive games† where he analysed the rhetoric these games used in their attempt to share information. Persuasive games – Ian Bogost †A book about how videogames make arguments: rhetoric, computing, politics, advertising, learning. In Persuasive Games, Ian Bogost explains how companies with the video game as a medium can make arguments and influence players. The games represent how the real and artificial/imagined systems work, and the players are invited to an interaction with the system to form an opinion about them. Bogost analyses the unique functions of rhetoric in software and especially in videogames. He argues that videogames because of their representation of procedurality open a whole new domain for persuasion, a new form for rhetoric. 5 3 http://www. molleindustria. org/node/149 4 http://www. molleindustria. org/node/149 5 http://www. bogost. com/books/persuasive_games. shtml This new form is called â€Å"procedural rhetoric† and is a form of rhetoric that is tied to the core affordances of computers which is running processes an executing a rule-based symbolic manipulation. 6 Procedural rhetoric is the practice of authoring arguments through processes. Computer games are interesting in this regard because they are some of the most complex processes that exist. †Covering both commercial and non-commercial games from the earliest arcade games through contemporaty titles, I look at three areas in which videogame persuasion has already taken form and shows considerable potential: politics, advertising, and education. The book reflects both theoretical and game-design goals. †7 The McDonald’s Videogame example McDonald’s video game is a good example of procedural rhetoric. The game was designed to persuade you that McDonald’s business model is corrupt. The McDonald’s Videogame mounts a procedural rhetoric about the necessity of corruption in the global fast food business, and the overwhelming temptation of greed, which leads to more corruption. In order to succeed in the longterm, the player must use growth hormones, he must coerce banana republics, and he must mount PR and lobbying campaigns. â⠂¬ 8 The game makes a procedural argument about the inherent problems in the fast food industry, particularly the necessity of overstepping environmental and health-related boundaries. Critical Play – Mary Flanagan While Ian Bogost’s procedural rhetoric explore the expressive processes in video games, Mary Flanagan examines the theories of critical play which considers how designing a play space in a 6 7 8 9 http://www. bogost. com/books/persuasive_games. shtml http://www. bogost. com/books/persuasive_games. shtml The Rhetoric of video games, Ian Bogost p. 127 The Rhetoric of video games, Ian Bogost p. 127 video game can be a kind of social activism. Definition of critical Play To Flanagan, critical play â€Å"means to create or occupy play environments and activities that represent one or more questions about aspects of human life,†10 and â€Å"is characterized by a careful examination of social, cultural, political, or even personal themes that function as alternates to popular play spaces. [†¦] Thus the goal in theorizing a critical game-design paradigm is as much about the creative person’s interest in critiquing the status quo as it is about using play for such a phase change†11. The connection that this process has with social activism is that the games that people play and how they play those games change in response to culture. The doll example A simple example of critical play in a natural setting is playing with dolls. They are often used to enforce gender roles and stereotypes, many young girls today and in the early days of the doll industry would use dolls to break down social roles. Violent fantasies, macabre funerals, and other forms of changing the way play worked with dolls provides a striking example of critical play in its natural form. 2 10 Critical Play: Radical game design, Mary Flanagan, p 6 11 Critical Play: Radical game design, Mary Flanagan, p 6 12 http://www. popmatters. com/pm/post/128966-mary-flanagans-critical-play Anti – advergames Ian Bogost is one of the founding fathers of anti- advergames and in his book Persuasive Games he describes how procedural rhetoric can be used to understand the problems in our culture. â€Å"Disa ffected! Does not purport to proceduralize a solution to Kinko’s customer service or labour issues. But its procedural rhetoric of incompetence does underscore the problem of disaffection in contemporary culture, on both sides of the counter. We’re dissatisfied or unwilling to support structures of authority, but we do scarcely little about it. We go to work at lousy jobs with poor benefits and ill treatment. We shrug off poor customer service and bad products, assuming that nothing can be done and ignoring the reasons why workers might feel disenfranchised in the first place. We take for granted that we can’t reach people in authority. These problems extend far beyond copy stores. Disaffected has, like the McDonald’s video game, no solution to how we change the problem. The game attempts instead to inform and educate the users by using the procedural rhetoric, showing how the organisation/world through processes affect everyone. The question is, does anti – advergames really have the effekt that Bogost and other gamedesigners think it does? Its a question with more than one side. On one hand people do get a better understanding of the structure and the core of the message but how is that different form any other campaign? On the other hand we already know that Billion dollar companies may be a little rough around the edges and that morally the best thing (in a perfect world) would be to avoid the products and companies altogether. So why do we need anti – advergames to inform us about the dangers? The point is to create awareness. There arent any (easy) solution to the problems so the next best thing is to make people aware of how the system works so that we dont stand idly by. This does not mean that the anti- advergames are created in a belief that the user, by playing the video game, is fully enlightened on completion of the game. Often the player already has insight in how the system works as the people who aren’t interested in the critique wont be interested in the game either. None the less designers like Ian Bogost and Paolo Pedercini (molleindustria. org) feel their work will have some effect. At the very least, they contend, players might start thinking about corporations in new ways. The games, Pedercini said, â€Å"can make people ask some questions, and for instance read a book or consider that there are a lot of motivations to change their lifestyles. â€Å"13 Brad Scott, director of digital branding at Landor Associates has an other opinion: â€Å"I don’t know that they would have that negative effect on the brand,† Scott said. â€Å"You can almost use it as, ‘Boy, we’ve become such an icon as a brand that we’re being mimicked by video games. † 14 I cant say which statement I think is correct but I think that advergames are a great way of advertising. There is an enormous amount of people who play video games, â€Å"according to the Interactive Digital Software Association, as many as 60% of Americans over age 6 play them. Putting that statistic together with the number of people using the internet, you have a phenomenal am ount of people you can market to. â€Å"15 This great area of potential would of course be a great place for marketing, both commercial and non-commercial. It would be a waste not to utilize it especially if the people aren’t as offended or as immune as to other of the more traditional methods of advertising. 13 http://www. molleindustria. org/node/149 14 http://www. molleindustria. org/node/149 15 http://advergamingtoday. blogspot. com/2006/02/just-product-placement. html 7 Digital Kultur Conclusion Advergames are becoming more and more popular as the availability to the internet increases. The video game is like any other media being used to the benefit of the marketing industry and why not? The anti – advergame movement with Ian Bogost criticise the marketing industry for being omnipresent and overpowering in its behaviour but is itself a game that has an agenda. Despite all, the anti – advergames are needed. The goal is not to come up with a solution, but to create awareness, and that is exactly what they do. We have an anti advertising forum in any other media, why not in the video games? 8 http://advergamingtoday. blogspot. com/2006/02/just-product-placement. html http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Advergaming http://www. molleindustria. rg/node/149 http://www. bogost. com/books/persuasive_games. shtml http://www. popmatters. com/pm/post/128966-mary-flanagans-critical-play http://www. molleindustria. org/node/149 Texts Ian Bogost, ‘The Rhetoric of video games, in The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning, Cambridge, MIT Press, 2008 Ian Bogost, ‘Procedural Rhetoric’ [extract], in Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames, Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, 2007 Mary Flanagan, ‘Introduction to Critical Play’, in Critical Play: Radical Game Design, Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press 2009 9 How to cite Advergames, Papers