1 Introduction
In its endeavor to find a balance between service quality (in terms of width of coverage) and economic feasibility, Medicare first offered prescription drugs cover in its 2006 Part D plan. This plan offers 75% coverage for drugs up to an annual total drug spend (TDS) threshold of $2250. In addition to paying the remaining 25%, Part D participants (who must be, of course, eligible for Parts A and B) are also required to pay an annual deductable of $250. However, annual TDS that exceeds $2250 is not covered, unless it exceeds $5100 (where coverage goes up again to 95%). This no coverage gap, also called the “doughnut hole,” stands in the heart of this paper.

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A recent exploratory, hypothesis-generating study by Cronk et al. (2008) sheds light on the way patients may manage their drugs expenditure once they reached the “doughnut hole.” Based on few previous findings, the authors assume and show supporting evidences to the assumption that without coverage (i.e. with a TDS of $2250-5100), patients may be three times more likely to engage in cost-lowering strategies, which may not be coherent with medical regimens. This paper provides a critical analysis of the study, its methods and its results, and discusses the study’s implications for the contemporary US healthcare system.

2 An Analysis of the Study by Cronk et al. (2008)
In order to lower the expenditure on prescription drugs, patients may engage in one or more of the following strategies:

Obtaining medication samples from physicians
Taking fewer medications than prescribed
Stopping the use of medications
Switching to a different medication
Buying medications outside the United States and/or using a mail-order pharmacy
Taking someone else’s medication

The rationale behind this study (and other studies on this construct) is threefold. First, the extent of using cost-lowering strategies among patients at the applicable gap should be considered at the policy making level, because failure to follow medical regiments may bring about additional costs to Medicare, especially when deterioration of health conditions causes increased hospitalization costs. Second, health professionals should pay more careful attention to the behavior of patients at this group, in particular patients within this group, whose characteristics indicate higher probability of engaging in such behavior (see below). Third, if patients are willing to take considerable health risks in order to avoid costs, the system should try to find customized solutions to such patients, by finding cheaper alternatives such as using more generic drugs and referring them to assistance organizations.

The study focused on participants in two Medicare Part D schemes offered by Kaiser Permanente Colorado (KPCO). Participants in the KPCO Direct Pay program comprised the study group of this research, while the control group was based on participants in the Retiree Drug Subsidy program, which lacks any thresholds. Not surprisingly, the authors found that patients in the study group were not only three times more likely to engage in cost-lowering strategies, but also had to forgo necessities and to borrow money in order to pay for the drugs. Interestingly, however, a fit of data to the model statistical analysis suggests that within the study group, there is a greater risk of taking a cost-lowering strategy among patients who are young, have lower household income, are better educated and have poorer health status. Notwithstanding the other parameters, users of second-generation antipsychotic drugs are less likely to give up on their medications, perhaps due to the immediate effect on everyday life when not taking the drug.

3 Conclusion
Although Medicare Part D coverage is an important step towards a more just medical coverage for the elderly and the severely ill, there are more than a few questions marks surrounding the program. Notwithstanding its clear benefits for both the patients and Medicare, Part D is somewhat complicated and may fail to reach its primary goal, namely improving the medical care provided to the beneficiaries while retaining financial stability. One possible cause to this prospective failure is patients’ tendency towards cost-lowering strategies, which may not only lead to further health deteriorations, but also to pose a challenge to healthcare professionals, whose younger, better educated patients’ “creativity” may complicate clinical work.

The study by Cronk et al. (2008) does not lack limitations. The researchers’ use of mail questionnaires and their dependency on voluntary reporting resulted in higher response rates among the study group (most probably since they are more attentive to the construct). Moreover, the possibility of reporting errors and lies cannot be excluded. Further studies are required to reassure the findings and to calculate the exact impact of Part D’s no coverage gap on Medicare total expenditure.

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1 Introduction
Judge’s (1999) film Office Space is a bitter comedy on Generation X’s pathetic attempt to rebel against the social and economic structures of Corporate America. This paper provides a sociolinguistic analysis of one particular encounter in the movie, where Peter, a dissatisfied computer engineer who has been “enlightened” by the notion of individualism confronts Bill Lumbergh, Peter’s boss and a caricatured representative of the untalented and socially overestimated generation of “instant managers,” who is obsessed with TPS reports and can only be intimidated by the HR consultants (“the Bobs”). Note that the two characters are male Caucasians. The age difference between Peter (played by Ron Livingston, then 32 years old) and Bill (played by the 43 years old Gary Cole) is about ten years Bill stands one level above Peter in the organizational hierarchy. The dialogue

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2 Changes in Power Structures and their Linguistic Implications
The overall context of the film can be identified as struggle between classes. Conversely to Marx, who advocated the organized revolution as the primary means of breaking unjust social structures, Judge (1999) suggests individualism as a potential catalyst of change, through mechanisms such as theft, discourtesy and laziness-induced disobedience. Notwithstanding the model of social analysis we choose to adopt (e.g. the Marx’s or Weber’s approaches), it is clear that the use of language is inherent to a certain class within an organization (for that matter) and also used by it to stress hierarchical differences (Kerswill, 2007).

Without going too deeply into the development of the plot, it is important to note that the pseudo “individualistic revolution” (which reaches its catharsis when the ofiice is burned down over a missing stapler) is supported by the stagnation of the managers’ class. The excerpt given above represents one of final stages of this process, where Peter’s language has changed dramatically, whereas Bill speaks exactly the same as before (see a discussion on the two characters’ language in the dialogue below). As the traditional power structure dissolves (i.e. Peter is empowered by the “Bobs” and does not feel commitment to Bill), we can observe changes in two linguistic phenomena, namely changes in accommodation and the use of minimal responses.

2.1 Changes in Accommodation
As mentioned earlier, Bill’s divergent approach (it is not known whether divergence is accommodated to work hours or not) stays stagnant. As most of his colleagues, Peter must also accommodate his speech when talking with his bosses. However, after showing linguistic solidarity with the Bobs, Peter’s accommodation changes its course along with his disobedient behaviour, and turns to offensive and highly causal speech: Besides calling his boss simply “Lumbergh,” the most significant element in this dialogue is when Peter uses the phrase “go ahead and…” (accompanied by a verb), which was frequently used by Bill both during the dialogue and at many other times throughout the movie previously and at the end of this dialogue (“we’ll go ahead and, uh, get this all fixed up”).

Bill frequent use of this phrase (instead of simply saying, for instance, “we will get this all fixed up”) is of particular interest. While the phrase may form a notion of suggestion (Gumperz, 1982), it is actually used by Bill as a quasi-polite way to give an order (“are you going to go ahead and have those TPS reports for us this afternoon”). Hence, through the use of this phrase by Peter, Judge (1999) makes an overt statement about authority, a two-edged sword that is now used against Bill.

2.2 Changes in the Use of Minimal Responses
Judge’s characters make an extensive use of minimal responses, most notably ‘mhm’s and ‘yeah’s. The sociolinguistic literature provides a variety of explanations to minimal responses, and as often occurs in sociolinguistics, it is not uncommon to find contradicting finding. It is generally agreed that minimal responses are used for turn taking and for “holding the floor” during conversations. However, while Wardhaugh stresses the importance of minimal responses as back-channels to “indicate to a speaker that the floor is still his or hers and the topic is of interest (2006, p. 323), Zimmerman & West refer to minimal responses as a primary mechanism of interruptions, which “appear to restrict the rights of the person being interrupted to contribute to the developing topic” (1975, p. 124), either out of boredom, contradicting priorities or other reasons.

The use of minimal responses by the characters can be more associated with back channelling than with disruptive responses. Baring in mind that the classical ‘good organizational citizen’ is collaborative and practices a high degree of conformism, Peter and his co-workers at Initech (the name of the fictional high-tech company in the movie) seem to ‘hold the floor’ to one another, hence refraining from taking a stand in the conversation. In fact, they do it so intensively, that many conversations may initially seem as endless string of mumbles.

Peter, who is rather well spoken outside of the office, also uses minimal responses at work, where most interactions are discomforting. However, as part of his course of change, Peter gets used to speak freely, even with his bosses. Ironically, the HR consultants (‘the Bobs’) are fond of this use of language, which is so different from the others, that they find Peter as having “Straight to Upper Management written all over him” (Judge, 1999).

In sharp contrast, Bill clearly uses minimal responses to exercise power. By constantly ‘holding the floor’ to himself, Bill counterbalances his extremely slow, somewhat sleepy articulation. In addition, minimal responses are also used by Bill to avoid confutations and to disguise embarrassments.

3 Critical Discourse Analysis of the Dialogue
Although it is rather a minor component in the overall development of the plot, the dialogue discussed in this paper represents a climax, or a major turning point, in the relations between Peter and his boss. The fact that Peter was chosen to confront with Bill (and not the geeky Michael or the Arab American Samir) helps to identify the ways in which Judge (1999) discusses his model of social conflict. This employs three elements of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), whose main concern is the ways language forms social change (Fairclough, 2001). Among the variety of CDA components, the following two sections will focus on conversationalization and repair strategies.

3.1 Conversationalization
Most commonly associated with Fairclough (1995), the study of conversationalization follows discourse strategies, in which the linguistic elements from the private sphere penetrate the public domain as part of a social change. As a result, conversationalization methods may bring about significant social change, particularly in regard to power relations. Writer, director and producer Mike Judge, whose major publicity came from animation works such as Beavis and Butt-head and Milton (from which he developed Office Space), uses also explicit visual elements to support his linguistic conversationalization. In this particular scene, the two men hold the dialogue in Peter’s cubicle, whose walls have been dismantled. Peter, who had ignored Bill on several occasions before, is holding the dialogue while putting his legs on the desk and playing Tetris.

Sitting in his ‘home away from home,’ Peter’s laid-back language (compared to his politeness at the beginning of the film, which had been later replaced by disregarding Peter for several scenes) is another component of his rebellion. In fact, since the ‘Bobs’ are fancy of this style, it is possible that Judge is actually depicting the (then-) newly emerged form of the corporate narrative, which was best defined by Google, Inc. as “You can be serious without a suit” (2009), one of the ten principles in the company’s philosophy. Nevertheless, although conversationalization is a major foundation of cultural change, it is particularly threatening to Bill and to the set of social standards he represents.

3.2 Repair Strategies and the Struggle on Narratives
The dialogue analysed here indicates the struggle between Peter and Bill on the narrative of their relations. That is, the winner of this arm wrestling is expected to assume power over the other. Since Bill fails to gain control through his official authority and linguistic turn-taking, he uses several conversational repair strategies, which “allow the negotiation of meaning to continue despite temporary set-backs or detours” (Garner, 2007, p. 42) taken by Peter. The main repair strategies, listed by their sequential order, are:

1. Bill opens the dialogue by using the phatic “So, Peter, what’s happening?” Obviously, Bill does not wait for an answer for his meaningless gesture.
2. Peter does not respond to Bill’s question (“Now are you going to go ahead and have those TPS reports for us this afternoon?”) and keeps playing Tetris. Bill gives him the last opportunity to answer by using the minimal response “Uh, yeah.”
3. Peter still doesn’t answer. Bill is coding a threat: “So I guess we should probably go ahead and have a little talk,” as well as another attempt to ‘hold the floor’: “hmm?”
4. After receiving a direct threat, Peter takes the floor and nonchalantly ignores it, as he is “busy” (playing Tetris), and has “a meeting with the Bobs in a couple of minutes.” The meeting redirects the conversation and overturns the threat.5. Bill has a chance to repair himself (rather then trying to repair Peter’s position in the negotiation) “That sounds good, Peter.”
6. Final retreat from Bill’s initial position: “Uh, and we’ll go ahead and, uh, get this all fixed up for you later.” Bill was obviously defeated and lost his bargaining power.

4 Conclusion
When Office Space came out in 1999, the first constituents of the so-called ‘Generation Y’ had begun their careers and their higher education. It is clear today that as former generations, ‘Gen Y’ brings about new sets of values, perception and language. The movie depicts these changes, whose effect on the contemporary society can already be seen.

From a sociolinguistic point of view, Peter Gibbons is a working class hero, mainly due to his successful change of the narrative. Scholars such as Thurlow & Brown (2003) tend to underestimate the effect of external factors such as technology and social narratives on young people’s language. Contrary to their view, Judge (1999) indicates just how far-reaching and influential this newly-emerged generation of ‘straight shooters’ can be.

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1. Title: Fiber-optic Communication and its Applications

2. Aim of the Project
Due to their ability to transfer light energy effectively, optical fibers underpin more than a few technological applications, including sensors and medical devices. Based on the qualities of optical fibers, fiber-optic communication has revolutionized our world. By facilitating a rapid and stable transfer of information along long distances, fiber-optic communication constitutes the needed infrastructure, which allows the Internet, for instance, to become so popular. This project aims to explore the current and prospective uses of fiber-optic communications from two major points of view, namely the technological prospects of the technology and its former, current and future economic significance.

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3. Research Outcomes and Objectives
In order to produce a valuable and useful research, this project must incorporate both internal and external aspects of the topic. That is, a comprehensive analysis of the role of fiber-optic communications in today’s world must not rush into conclusions without considering both the nature of the technology as well as its relations with other technologies, uses and users. Hence, this research will entail four major objectives:

1. A review of the nature of the technology, its course of development and state-of-the-art improvements in it.
2. An examination of the uses of the technology and its derivatives and a study of the interrelations between the applications of fiber-optic communications and other technologies, interfaces, and needs.
3. An analysis of the economic role of fiber-optic communications, its influence on different markets and the price of the underlying materials.
4. Based on all the above, the study should provide a forecast regarding medium- and long-term trends, which can influence the development of the technology and/or be influenced by it.

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1 Executive Summary
Beijing Jeep Corporation (BJC), the first major Sino-American joint venture in the automobile industry, had seen several years of decline in sales volumes and was strategically challenged by China’s joining to the WTO in 2001. China’s WTO membership implied that the market could be flooded with imports, thus threatening the current players in the market, most of them (including BJC) carried on substantial portions of production processes on Chinese soil. Clearly, BJC’s market propositions did not meet its consumers at the time, and the situation had the potential of further deteriorating the company’s already-low image within the DaimlerChrysler group.

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This paper reviews the challenges and opportunities embedded in the new era of the Chinese market for 4WD vehicles. The main focus is the three strategic components to be addressed, namely the macro environment, BJC’s immediate competitive settings, and the company’s internal relations, including the interrelations with the DaimlerChrysler group. Finally, this analysis argues that the best way to sustain and develop the business is by appealing to government spending and making modifications in the current market offering to maximize the potential of public spending.

2 Problem statement
Influenced from several changes in the external environment, most notably China’s joining to the WTO in late 2001, Beijing Jeep Corporation (BJC) must refine its business strategy to remain competitive. Its internal conditions as a subsidiary of DaimlerChrysler at the time were also challenging, mainly due to incoherency between the German-American parent and the Chinese venture, but those problems were less material than the occurrences in the market. Thus, the main scope of this paper is to define, explore, and recommend the most appropriate responses that BJC should engage in for sustaining and expending its operations.

3 Analysis
In order to fully comprehend the challenges facing BJC’s management, we can define three strategic levels that require careful analysis. First, as a member of the WTO, China’s macro environment less favorable for BJC, mainly since the company lost its precedence in the local market for reasons discussed below. Second, the Chinese private (i.e. non-governmental and now less-controlled) automotive market was less favorable for BJC’s market offerings at the time. Third, turbulences within the company and between BJC and DaimlerChrysler needed to be addressed as a fundamental necessity before any other drastic measurements would be taken.

3.1 The Influence of China’s WTO Membership on BJC
As a celebrated Sino-American venture, whose relations with the Chinese government had been one of its major competitive advantages, BJC was threatened by China’s joining to the WTO. This shift meant that tariff and non-tariff market entry barriers for BJC’s competitors would necessarily cease to exist. Moreover, increased competition in the Chinese 4WD market forced to company to handle its inefficiencies and to adjust its capacities to the real demand. Simply put, the new market resembles other markets in the West, where consumers will carefully examine the real attributes of the product without sentiment and/or governmental advocacy. Finally, BJC’s reliance on the Chinese government as a major customer was unsafe as a leading business strategy.

3.2 Trends in the Chinese 4WD Market
Excluding military consumption and other types of government spending, the Chinese market for 4WD vehicles differed significantly from that of sedans and from Western markets. Three major points deserves most of our attention: First, as their peers in the West, the Chinese consumers demand better vehicles and would appreciate higher safety and reliability, as well as better fuel economy. Second, SUVs cannot be positioned as a leisure vehicle insofar as sedans, the chief and much more economically sound passenger car, are still out of reach for most Chinese households. Third, enhanced infrastructures and low purchasing power of the agricultural sector imply that the two major needs that can be addressed by 4WD vehicles (principally transportation in rural areas) cannot be satisfied with high-end SUVs and jeeps, rather than with simpler 4WD market offerings and even sedans in those areas of developing roads and motorways.

3.3 Trends and Challenges within BJC
Having access to traditional models and DaimlerChrysler’s technological advantages, as well as well-established production capacities, BJC’s internal strengths are enormous, at least theoretically. Unfortunately, the company is competitively disadvantaged within the DaimlerChrysler group, for whom BJC represent an insignificant fraction from its total sales. Unfavorable conditions such as China’s weak protection for intellectual property rights and a small market for state-of-the-art SUVs further weaken the company’s attractiveness to the parent conglomerate. Due to the natural competition among DaimlerChrysler’s subsidiaries for resources, any strategic decision must counterbalance the unattractive features and correspond not only with BJC’s growth prospects, but also with the larger scale of needs and abilities of the group.

4 Discussion of alternatives
The removal of foreign trade barriers, which provided great benefits to BJC in the past, is an opportunity for the company at least as it is a threat. Above all other issues, the steady decline in sales throughout the second half of the 1990s (Young and Tun 19) suggests that the company needs more adjustments than the required response to the new macro environment. Regardless of the strategy chosen, BJC should clearly improve its efficiency by redesigning its operations to a more global value chain, a possibility that is now viable through the free trade environment. In accordance with the discussion above, three main strategic categories can be suggested:

1. Splitting the operations: up until the point in time under question, BJC produced its vehicles and sold them in several markets, principally China. One alternative to this approach is to create two divisions within the firm. One should produce and sell low-end vehicles for mass marketing, while the other will engage in imported vehicles (including, but not limited to, Grand Cherokee and other SUVs) for specified segments. Within the boundaries of economic rationale and protection of technology, some production processes can be made on Chinese soil. The main advantage of this strategy is the internal repositioning parts of BJC as a marketing wing of the whole group; however, the strategy may bring about stagnation in the other parts of the company.

2. Rebranding and cost leadership: China’s clear advantages as a manufacturing country, which exceed all other major South-east Asian industrial countries, despite a shortage in financing facilities (Harwit 662), can be leveraged by BJC and DaimlerChrysler to create a new (or semi-new) line of jeeps and SUVs for domestic and foreign consumption. Based on current production capacities and outdated technologies, BJC’s products can attract cost-concerned customers, for whom DaimlerChrysler’s current market offerings is out of reach. By strengthening the company’s manufacturing operation, increased economies of scale can improve BJC’s current value for money of its market offerings in China. This strategy’s major drawback, however, is a potential corporate cannibalism towards other brands of the group.

3. Focusing on the institutional market: with an annual GDP growth of about 8 per cent during the period in question (chinability.com), it is safe to assume that the Chinese government spending will increase at similar rates.

Therefore, by expanding the ties with the government and offering a wider product line, which will meet more of its needs (in terms of e.g. defense vehicles and public works), BJC will be able to grow without making drastic changes in its operations. This will allow BJC to retain most of its current competitive advantages and to support growth with less sensitivity to fluctuations in consumer markets. However, pursuing such a strategy would imply that the company’s decision-making would continue to be subject to government opinion, which may not be always economically reasonable.

5 Recommendations
“When in Rome, do as the Romans do,” St. Ambrose’s famous quote, is as truthful today as it was in the forth century A.D. China is a huge market with immense potential, but it is nonetheless a tightly controlled economy, where business ventures may collapse almost overnight due to government-imposed obstacles and considerable political risk (Kotaki). As long as the Chinese government is on BJC’s side, the company must continue nurturing these relations, rather than reading the relations with the WTO and the rise in consumer demand as a permission to take unnecessary risks.

BJC has the production capacities needed to leverage its guanxi with Chinese officials into a broader line of products for public consumption. Such products include, among others, several types of light trucks, chasses for armed vehicles, and other modifications of the current product line, to supply cheap and reliable vehicles to meet the needs of national and local authorities. One of the merits of this strategy is the fact that it is based on current production capacities, and even modifications would arguably be less expensive than any other initiative in China. Finally, in the long term, it is possible that BJC will facilitate tighter relations between the group and the Chinese government, whose fiscal policy is not subject to WTO stipulations.

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Is Broadbanding Just a Pay Fad Which Time Has Now Passed?

In this research paper I will provide information of what broadbanding is, history of development of this performance and reward human resource technique, state its advantages and disadvantages as well as make an analysis whether its usage is effective enough in the organizations and explain why.

1. Introduction
Human resource management along with the performance and reward techniques is being constantly developed and frequently traditional salary programs do not correspond to the needs and wants of both employees and company short-term and long-term objectives (Neubauer 1995, 50). Retransformation of the salary programs usually refer to making them simpler, or just aiming to evaluate and rewards competencies of the employees that are important to the company. Many organizations nowadays are willing to pay for the particular person to be involved in the performance and not the actual evaluated performance that the employee is supposed to do. So, broadbanding is also the kind of compensation technique, which generally refers to the substitution of the traditional narrow salary ranges with the less by the amount bands that are wider by range and overlapping (Neubauer 1995, 50). There are two main categories of broadbanding, which are career bands and salary bands. Salary bands are said to be several overlapping bands to which the traditional salary structure is retransformed, and each band subsequently is having the possible minimum and maximum amount of money the person in the company taking the definite position can earn. The traditional spread from minimum to maximum becomes wider and can be greater than 100% and therefore, this allows increasing the salary of the employees’ performance of which are near the maximum of the salary range for their job level. Career bands by notion are nearly the same as salary bands with the single exception that their main goal is to simplify the management development. Career bands are used in the organization when it is aiming to make the career growth more lateral then vertical, in cases when vertical moves become more difficult to perform. When both types of bands are used in the company, it requires the complete change of the scheme of how the compensation is delivered in the form of promotions, merit increases and other options.

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2. History of Broadbanding Emergence and Development
Generally speaking, the idea of the broadbanding even not used often is not new. It was developed in 1950s in England by the psychologist named Elliott Jaques. In his book that appeared in 1956 “Measurement of Responsibility” he described the amount of time the employee controls in regard of his work until the intervention from management is needed. This is what he indicated: “When we talk about discretion… we are talking about those aspects of a job in which the person is allowed to choose, and indeed requires to choose, from among alternative ways of doing something, as opposed to those aspects in which he is prohibited from choosing and must follow the prescribed policy or method” (Jaques 1956, 86). The idea is that the higher the position the person takes, the more time should be taken for the job review. The author proposed the optimal solution of having seven bands in the company, but this idea however does not exclude the possibility of having sublevels within the frame of each band.

The idea of the salary bands was very popular in the 1970s in England. As an example, can be mentioned the case with the medical research firm which recognized to having problems with the job-evaluation program, and differences among research-director position in particular. The difficulty was with the compensation patterns for employees of the similar grade positions, as market research revealed that there were differences in the compensation of the senior veterinary pathologists, senior pharmacologists, senior microbiologists and head of the departments. Such different obviously were informally recognized in the company, but not done appropriately, therefore the organization made the decision to establish the banding system with the overlapping ranges so that each grade had several salary bands with the different minimums and maximums. So, the organization succeeded in taking into consideration the market value of the job done, as well as added internal value(Neubauer 1995, 51).

3. To Broadband or Not to Broadband…
Broadbanding as any other compensation and reward technique has its advantages and drawbacks, and it is obvious that what is effective for one company cannot be equally effective for the other. Before the organization makes the decision to broadband the salary system, it should make the market survey in order to understand the market pay data to build up pay scales. First of all, the organization should identify its position at the job market, and this can be easily done by simple looking at the number of applicants it is attracting. Therefore, the employee retention rates that are high indicate that the organization is very much competitive at the market. But let’s return to the factual compensation. Employees in any organization are willing to have viable, reasonable and market-responsive salaries, as compensation is the direct demonstration that the work done by the employee is valued. Subsequently, compensation appears to be the most powerful communication tool (Heathfield 2003). When the studies on regard of up-to-date market pay, bonuses and benefits are fulfilled, several important things should be done in order to apply gathered data for the development of the pay scale. First of all it should be verified whether the collected data is correct and corresponds to the specific job descriptions to adequately value each position and job done. Next, jobs should be arranged along the market line in accordance with the job value as defined by the market pricing data. The market line should be used for the development of the pay grades by structuring groups with the similar market values. The quantity of the necessary pay grades is defined by the number of the hierarchical organization levels (quantity of supervision levels, job technical sophistication, etc.). The pay range should be developed for each pay grade, where pay range is said to be the distance between the minimum and the maximum compensation point for each position. Lower salary values jobs are supposed to have narrow ranges, executive ones- largest. Society for Human Resource Management proposes the following common ranges to be used: nonexempt manufacturing (narrow range of 20-25%, or flat rate), nonexempt clerical (relatively narrow of 30-40%), exempt professional, administrative, supervisory (50-60%), exempt managerial and executives (the widest ranges of 50% and more). Then the minimum and maximum points should be calculates and the market line should be drawn across the pay grades upon the basis of the company’s compensation philosophy.

Broadband pay structures allow additional opportunity to the usage of the interchange between the marketplace and internal pay structures of the organization. In such structure the amount of salary grades are consolidated and fewer ranges imply wider ranges spread and less overlap with other ranges (Heathfield 2003). Broadbanding allows more opportunities for restructuring, as employees can stay in their positions longer, and provide the opportunity of the career growth without the promotion necessity. Broadband pay structures stimulate the broad employee skills development, non-managerial positions are valued and the development of skills of the employee is rewarded. So, the employees become more responsible for the development of their career (competency-based pay system).

Then, when the employee reaches the maximum of the salary range, there still remains the need to compensate him/her. Broadbanding also reduces management layers and minimizes corporate hierarchy that makes the title of the job less important (Yurkutat 1997, 24). This pay system is also easy to administrate and implies less time to be spent on the evaluation of the job, as it is not as sensitive as rapidly changing market. This is what Keith Fortier and Christopher Fusco indicated on regard of the broadbanding in their “Salary Structures”: “Whereas the design characteristics of traditional structures emphasize internal equity and focus the employee’s attention on the world inside the firm, broadbanding focuses employees on the changing needs of the organization and helps them experience an internal culture that more closely reflects the external business environment and the competitive recruiting market.”

Among broadbanding disadvantages can be mentioned the fact that many corporate cultures do not allow the traditional pay system’s abolition, and it can be considered more expensive because of the salary control points’ shortage. It can be also to shift employees’ perception from the traditional pay system to the broadband and to explain thoroughly. Broadbanding pay system can be also incompatible with the strategic objectives of the organization with the multiple businesses, as there can be predetermined single compensation plan for all business units. When it is combined with the competency-based pay system it can appear that the job evaluation becomes more time-consuming. Competency-based pay is also considered to be more expensive in the long run for the company, as all employees develop their competencies and do not use them to the fullest extent in their jobs, which can lower employees’ morale due to their frustration to this inability.

Practice shows that at present moment broadbanding pay system is being implemented in many organizations. The main decision-making factor for that implementation, unfortunately, in many cases, remains the innovation factor with the idea that every new thing is good without thorough compatibility analysis. In such a manner broadbanding becomes the fad, whose long term effect upon the organization’s performance is difficult to predict. Each organization has an alternative whether to develop the existing traditional pay system and introduce new features to it, or totally restructure it (Neubauer 1995, 52).

4. Broadbanding as the Key to Change
Broadbanding can be effective and may not be considered just a fad in the series of certain circumstances. Separate pay programs and structures can enforce the feeling of the class distinction between nonexempt and exempt employees. There can be the large number of discrete job level and titles, which make employees change their positions within their functional hierarchy very often. When the higher salary is tied to the higher position, it is the great motivation for the employees to move up, which is not always desirable for the organization’s structure. And the next problem arises in the lower levels of management when the sales people are not willing to move to supervisory positions due to narrow alary ranges and the lack of viable pay opportunity, which with the moving upward the hierarchical scale will decrease their salary. People who are working in the organization for the long period of time may have the sense of uncertainty, as thy have already reached the particular level and they remain unsure upon their value to the organization, as well as potential in it. Broadbanding as the new pay program can meet the following requirements and expectations of the organization: it can evaluate job complexity and challenge and not jut the amount of the job done, experience and continuity of being within the organization of the employee, acquisition of skills as well as cross-functional knowledge, flexible and broad job definitions, and careers that consist of the sustained contributions and not the series of hierarchical promotions. Broadbanding can also eliminate administrative burdens and stable elements that are tied to job evaluation and pay programs (Haslett 1995, 42).

In such a case, broadbanding is viewed as the key change element and the solution to address requirements of the organization. “Broadbanding is a compensation management response to changing business conditions. In broadband salary structures, employers reward employees who demonstrate substantial capability improvements with a salary progression that penetrates more deeply into the banded range over time, in lieu of promotions. Whereas the design characteristics of traditional structures emphasize internal equity and focus the employee’s attention on the world inside the firm, broadbanding focuses employees on the changing needs of the organization and helps them experience an internal” (Fortier and Fusco 2002, 3).

Broader salary bands and more flexible salary increase guidelines allow the organization to provide more reward service. The reduced job emphasis is supposed to encourage employees to make cross-functional moves to jobs. And it is supposed to be easier to the HR managers to promote employees as they would not have to “re-level” jobs and recount the payment. Broadbanding pay system is also very easy and simple, as there is only one way to broadband.

After the implementation of the broadbanding pay program, the following results can be fairly expected: minimized organizational disorder and the administrative burden associated with the restructuring, facilitated few small acquisitions, set the stage for broad-based acceptance of new, cross-functional opportunities, regardless of the impact on an individual’s pay, established better definitions of competencies and competency level for certain job families, clarifying how to position individuals within and across broad bands, decreased HR staff time spent on job evaluation and other administrative tasks, which increasing the time spent partnering with line managers on employee pay decisions, brought about greater buy-in of line managers to their increased role in employee career and salary management through the general salary review date, which facilitated consistency and a linkage to annual results, the performance management system’s reliance on multiple sources of feedback, which added credibility to pay decisions and the availability of HR support on tough calls and unexpected situations (Haslett 1995, 45). But the process of evaluation of feedback from broadbanding pay system implementation is sustainable and the following improvements can be also expected after a period of time: better sources of survey data to support the increased emphasis on marketplace competitiveness (survey sources with sufficient detail to match to broader job or competency definitions are scarce, and senior management wants reassurance that pay levels are under control), recognition programs to reward employees who demonstrate new behaviors that support the company’s new values, training to improve managers’ performance management skills, elimination of level-based, status- oriented prerequisites and the strategic resolution of variable pay issues (Haslett 1995, 46).

5. Conclusion
Broadbanding is the HR practice that is aimed to transform the traditional large number of salary levels into the small number of salary grades that have broad pay ranges. Broadband pay programs develop as companies are looking forward flatting their hierarchies and moving decision-making responsibilities to the knowledge and necessity point in the organizations. In many cases, the implementation of the broadbanding pay system can be just the desire to keep up with the innovative payment systems, and not the real necessity of the organization. Before making the decision to restructure the pay system, the company should make the market survey and critically evaluate all other opportunities to improve the traditional existing pay system. It is impossible to claim with the complete conviction that the broadbanding is the pay technique that can be effective just during the particular time period, but it cannot be equally called the universal mean of solving organization challenges with the pay system.

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Even with the rapid development of the modern world the universal key to great success in business stays unknown. Of course, there are some checkpoints that have to be achieved in order to attain success. At the same time, there is no simple list of things that lead to success of the business entity. Thus, it means that every business has to figure out its steps to success itself. However, in my paper I would like to talk about the tool for achieving heights that I find rather universal and on the whole applicable that is – having a strategy. In my paper I would like to describe the concept of strategy in the company as well as verify the thesis that without a strategy a company can never achieve success.

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To begin with it must be said that there are two major types of strategy that should be present in the company. Firstly, it is the corporate strategy. Corporate strategy helps the business decide which line or lines of business to take part in. The second type of strategy is business strategy that it is also sometimes called competitive strategy. This type of strategy sets the outline (the framework) for achieving success in a particular business. It is important to point out that the business strategy is often considered to play a more important role than the corporate one that is, in fact, wrong. As a result, it is very important for a business to remember that both forms of strategy are equally important and on the same level involve such functions as planning, analyzing, setting of the objectives, and monitoring (Business Encyclopedia).

Now, having made the concept of two types of strategy clear, I would like to move to describing how the strategy brings success to the company. To begin with, the formulation of a realistic and functional strategy facilitates a number of actions and wanted results that would be difficult otherwise (Business Encyclopedia). When there is a strategic plan pointing out the goal that is presented to all the employees it is much easier for them to stay motivated and achieve goals outlines in the plan. What is more, figuring out the strategy makes the businesses ready not only to face the happenings of today but also try to foresee the close future. Thus, when the foreseen positive/negative changes come to existence the organization is ready to react to them in a sound and earlier prepared way (Hosskisson, Hitt, Wan, Yiu, 1999).

Another point that is should be stated is that formulating of the company’s strategy allows the business to plan its capital budgeting. This makes the businesses able to analyze their financial situation and allocate the financial resources in the most effective way. Also, it is very important to mention that having a strategy makes the firm competitive in the market. One reason for it is that when having a strategy a business does not accept the status quo but questions and changes it. Thus, it is at all times ready to accept changes and adapt to them. On the other hand, a business that does not have a strategy simply tries to maintain the status quo and finds itself unable to keep abreast of the changes (Johnson, 2002).

According to the Business Encyclopedia there are six strategic steps to achieve wanted results for the business. It is important that each of these six steps is well thought out and no step is omitted. When moving through these steps it is very important that the employees and not only management participate in the process (Encyclopedia of Business).

Lower I would like to present these six steps that lead to success. The first step is to choose the business or businesses to work in (the corporate strategy). Then it is vital to create vision and mission statements. The importance of these documents should not be ignored because it is not simply some pathos words about the business. These documents tell the business where it is going and why in particularly this field. This first strategic step insures that firstly everybody in the organization is familiar with the company identity and that the vision for the future is clear (Encyclopedia of Business).

Having completed the above the business should develop strategic objectives or goals as well as set performance objectives. Thus, every single person working for the organization is familiar with the objectives that are supposed to be achieved and what the reasons are for trying to achieve them. Following to developing goals and objective the organization should analyze internal and external factors. Having done that, it is time to create a business/competitive strategy that will be suitable for fulfilling the corporate goals that have been defined. The next step for the organization is to implement business strategy by taking specific steps. Of course, everything depends on the successfulness of the implementation because even the best strategy on the paper does not always prove itself perfect in life. As a final point, an organization needs to review and evaluate how effective the chosen strategy is as well as how good the performance is. Naturally, in case when the performance is satisfying the strategy of the company should be reconsidered possibly modified by repeating some or all of the above five steps (Encyclopedia of Business).

In conclusion I would like to say that even though earlier it was mentioned that good strategy is a ticket to the world of success, sometimes even the best strategy does not survive in the thorny world of business. Still, each and every organization should make it its main goal to create a strong and realistic strategy that will guide the business all through its life, being modified and adjusted at different stages. It ought to be understood that the strategy should not rely too strongly on objectives. Also, it must be remembered that the strategy should not focus only on the competition, even though this process is very important. When making its strategy an organization needs to build it on more fundamental concepts and see the big picture of the current, past, and future matters. Thus, as it was made clear in the presented paper that without a strategy a company can not function (Johnson, 2002). Every company/business/organization should create strategic and operational plans that achieve results and not some not thorough business plan that is only capable of collecting dust in the cellar.

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The European Union while being one of the most important unions in the world today, holds a history of more then 50 years. Everything starts in the not so distant 1957 when Belgium, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Western Germany and Luxembourg sign the Treaty of Rome, which establishes the European Economic Community (EEC) and European Atomic Energy Community, thus removing trade barriers between them and creating a common market. Since then, the Community starts more and more enlarging, to 1981, when Greece (a country neither politically, nor economically ripe) joins, since the EEC is not only for promoting economic and political values, but also for promoting peace and security (and Greece had a border with countries from the Warsaw Pact). In 1986, when Portugal and Spain, join the Community emphasizes to promote the four freedoms: free movement of goods, services, people and capital. 1992 marks the Treaty of Maastricht, officially creating the European Union, introducing new forms of cooperation between the governments of Member States – like defense, justice, home affairs, etc. Since then steps are taken to create a single currency managed by a European Central Bank, which becomes a reality on January 1, 2002, when 12 of the 15 members adopt the currency. 2001 marks the Treaty of Nice, which introduces reforms to the institutions of the EU, preparing them for the expansions of 2004 (when 10 countries join at once) and of 2007 (when Bulgaria and Romania, the most underdeveloped members) join. Efforts from 2004 are made to adopt a common Constitution, which fails in 2006 when France and the Netherlands resign. A step towards such a constitution, is the recently signed treaty of Lisbon, which introduces “a more democratic and transparent Europe,” where the European Parliament, national parliaments and the citizen plays a bigger role. It strives to improve the efficiency of Europe, its values, rights, freedoms, solidarity and security, but at the same time for the first time introduces a clause which allows Member States to resign their membership. It also aims to make the EU an actor on the global stage.

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A complex institution like the EU is complexly run. Behind it stand three institutions, who work in unison. The European Parliament represents the citizens of the EU – its members are chosen through universal suffrage and are proportional to the size of the country, all adding up to 785, serving for five years. The President (currently Hans-Gert Pöttering of Germany) serves for only 2,5 years. The members can belong to any (but only one) of seven parties, which are non-regional, but arranged from right to left in orientation (the majority is right). The Parliament is then made of 20 committees, who work in different EU topics, and 34 delegations which interact with countries outside of the EU.

The institution with the highest influence is the European Council (Secretary General – Xavier Solana of Spain) which represents the governments of the Member States and is made up of different ministers in different configurations. There is no single president, rather there is a rotating presidency of six months undertaken by a whole government to influence the direction of the EU. Nevertheless, every three presidencies work together; right now the presidency is in Slovenia. The last institution is the European Commission (President: José Manuel Barroso of Portugal), which proposes legislation, implements decisions and upholds the Union’s treaties and the general day-to-day running of the EU. It, so to say, monitors the Council and Parliament and makes sure directives and regulations are executed. It is made of 27 Commissions with a Commissioner from each Member State.

The importance of the European Union grows every day, as the EU gains importance and becomes an even more global player, ensuring the quality of life of its citizens.

Mission of the EU
These are the five big things the EU has set out to do:
1. Promote economic and social progress.
Help people earn enough money and get treated fairly.
2. Speak for the European Union on the international scene.
By working as a group the EU hopes that Europe will be listened to more by other countries.
3. Introduce European citizenship.
Anyone from a member state is a citizen of the EU and gets four special rights.
4. Develop Europe as an area of freedom, security and justice.
Help Europeans to live in safety, without the threat of war.
5. Maintain and build on established EU law.
Make laws that protect people’s rights in the member countries.

The Institutions of the European Union
When speaking about the organization, structure and institutions behind the European Union (EU), one has to understand that those represent, organize and govern over 450 million people, in 27 countries, in an area of over 4.3 million square kilometers of land which holds history of some 3000 years. Just as a comparison, the United States of America, a union which could be used as a role model for its functionality as such, consists of 300 million people, living in 51 states (including Washington D.C., the district capital) on almost 10 million square kilometers of land which holds a known history of a little more than 300 years. Therefore, the EU deals with almost twice as much people on over twice as less amount of land. The history books on Europe hold on their pages the blood of wars and rivalry which has been going on since forever until the time of the EU, which aims to unite those peoples and countries and promote peace and economic stability. Citizens of the EU speak 23 (official, otherwise the number is much higher) languages and, hence, especially when comparing them to the Americans, it is rather difficult to navigate the administration of the Union of 27 European countries. In conclusion, one must say that the institutions of the EU are really successful, bearing in mind the circumstances, but a great amount of criticism can be and will be expected.

Another point important to mention in the introduction is that this section, since it is limited in space, will cover only briefly the institutions, but readers are invited to broaden their perspective at www.europa.eu.

The institutions of the EU create a governing triangle and function in unison. The three main institutions are:
The European Parliament – which represents the people of the EU and its members are elected through universal suffrage
The European Council (a.k.a. Council of Ministers) – which represents the governments of EU states; its members are (according to the case) ministers of the countries
The European Commission – a body independent of EU governments that upholds the collective European interest
The European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is the only of the three supranational institutions, whose members are democratically elected by the people of the EU through universal suffrage; hence it is the institution that represents the people. Each term of the Parliament lasts five years.

The President
The current President of the EP is Hans-Gert Pöttering (Europe’s People Party, originally German) since 16 January 2007. The President is elected for a term of 2.5 years (i.e. half of the term of the Parliament) and apart from representing the EP with the outside world (other EU institutions mainly, but also international affairs) he (or she) oversees the work of the Parliament and its constituent bodies (Bureau and Conference of Presidents) through the assistance of the 14 Vice-Presidents. Debates in the plenary are also coordinated and at the beginning of every European Council meeting he sets out the Parliament’s point of view. The EP President and the Council President both sign all legislative acts. This is a part of the Council/Parliament co-decision.

European Council
The European Council, the strongest political unit in the EU, is made up of the ministers of the member countries. It holds a rotating presidency, meaning that each EU-state holds presidency for six months. There is no single president as well, but rather that role is undertaken by a whole government in order to influence the direction of the EU policy for their term. Nevertheless, every three presidencies work together (for example, Finland (Jun-Dec 2006), Germany (Jan-Jun 2007) and Portugal (Jun-Dec 2007)) and there is a Secretary General – Javier Solana. The Council meets in nine different configurations depending on the subjects upon discussions.

European Commission
The European Commission can be said to be the executive branch of the EU. It proposes legislation, implements decisions and upholds the Union’s treaties and the general day-to-day running of the EU. Since 2004, the Commission’s President is José Manuel Barroso. The President is chosen by the Council following the criteria: the latest parliamentary elections, candidate’s political influence, area where candidate comes from (Southern Europe was for some unclear reason favored in 2004) and others, including that the candidate is fluent in French (the French insist on that).

The European Commission functions as a cabinet government with 27 commissions, each led by a commissioner from each EU country, among whom five Vice-Presidents.

The Function of the European Union
The point of all the institutions working for and in the EU is to realize the ultimate goals of European Union, such as peace and stability, bringing Europe together again, safety and security, identity and diversity in a globalised world, etc. To achieve these goals – which sometimes can seem to be a bit more idealistic than realistic – the European Community should put a great emphasis on the economical, social and cultural development of the member countries, and of the regions within the countries. These are short term goals of the EU, in order to achieve the above mentioned ones. The European Citizen feels the real difference through the actions made in order to achieve these goals.

There are several policies that bring accomplishments that affect the European Citizen directly.

The Lisbon Treaty
Europe has been changed in the last 50 years.
Europe meets new issues: globalization, demographic shifts, climate change, the need for sustainable energy source and new security threats, and Europe has to find solution for these problems.

The EU members cannot meet them alone, but together they can deliver result and respond to the concerns of the public, that’s way Europe needs to modernize.

The previous treaty was made for 15 members and not for 27, so they decided to update the treaty.

The treaty signed in Lisbon on 13 December 2007. The European leaders made an agreement on the new rules. The Treaty defines what the EU can or cannot do, and what means it can use. “It will alter the structure of the EU’s institutions and how they work. As a result, the EU will be more democratic and its core values will be better served. ”

“The treaty will not apply until and unless it is ratified by each of the EU’s 27 members. It is up to each country to choose the procedure for ratification, in line with its own national constitution.” That means they try to avoid what happened in France and in the Netherlands, the rejection of the European constitution. The end decision is now in the hand of the governments and not in the hand of the citizens.

1 January 2009 the Treaty will come into effect, before the elections to the European Parliament.

The treaty of Lisbon was signed by the EU leaders on 13. December 2007. The treaty of Lisbon modifies the current EU and EC treaties, but it doesn’t make place them.

The main topics of the treaty of Lisbon are the followings:
The role of European Parliament will be strengthening.

The participation of national parliaments will increase and they will have greater opportunities to be involved in the work of the EU. As a consequence of the strengthened role of the European Parliament and the national parliaments the functioning of EU will become more democratic and its legitimacy will increase.

The Citizens can enforce their conceptions. Thanks to the Citizens’ Initiative at least one million citizens from a number of Member States can request the Commission to present new policy proposals.

What are the tasks for everyone? With the categorization of competences the relationship between the Member State and the European Union will become clearer.

Withdrawal from the Union: In the Treaty of Lisbon is declared at first time that every Member State has a possibility to withdraw from the Union.

UE and UN
The term European Union is known to every single informed individual. Due to the last activity of this formation it is very hard to underestimate its importance as it plays the leading role in all decision making in Europe. The fact that EU is the European economic and political community consisting of twenty-seven countries is the first key factor explaining the nature of the EU primarily because it reveals the attempt of Europe to establish a political and economic uniform system for better self-positioning in international relations. EU has three foundations – European communities, common security policy within these communities and of course police and judicial collaboration to make Europe a safe place. It has a solid law system applying to each and every single member-country. It may be said that its primary goal was the creation of a single market and the appearance of euro is the best proof. The Schengen Agreement gives EU citizens the possibility to cross the borders of the EU countries without a visa. The existence of such economic and political community gave birth to the European Commission, the Council, the Parliament, the Court of Justice and the Central Bank of the European Union. Basically, together all the small members of the EU have formed a strong political and economic force which protects them from each other and the rest of the world.

The United Nations (UN) is also a union of countries as EU but on international level and with a higher position. General objectives and issues of the EU bear resemblance to the objectives of UN. The United Nations like the European Union was created as a facilitator of political, economic and social relations within a given set of countries. The basic difference is that UN carries out these issues internationally and is primarily in contrast to EU focused on peacemaking and not on trade. Therefore its laws and securities apply to one hundred ninety-two countries of the world and therefore possess an international character. One might say that the United Nations is the Child of War, the post-war reaction of the world to the WWII. The world did not want this to happen again and the United Nations became the platform and a guarantee that peace will be maintained within the members. Both EU and UN have political and economic uniform systems. The UN the same way as the European Union has a court, security, social and economic councils. In spite of these similarities the United Nations has more to do with human rights and international security. It takes care of the wellbeing of the people suffering from aggression and provides financial help to “indigent” countries. Therefore, the idea of unity on base of one common goal is among one of the most coinciding objectives of the EU and the UN. Correspondingly, the objectives and the issues of these two organizations may be compared in this direction only. The European Union solves local political, economic and security problems but is dominantly concentrated on trade patterns. The United Nations solves international political, economic and security problems with a focus on being the “human peace security resource”. The EU’s most known resolution is the Schengen Agreement and the UN’s signed the United Nations Millennium Declaration dealing with eliminations of poverty, child mortality, hunger, provide education, security and other vital issues. It is obvious that the EU and the UN have different “mass”. The United Nations represents the interests of the world while the European Union represents mainly economic interests of twenty-seven countries.

In terms of comparative politics the analysis of these to “cases” reveals the dependent and independent variables. Both of the organizations are important for the foreign international relations. Nevertheless, the United Nations has a more global character as compared to the European Union. The comparison of these two formations completely fits Mill’s method of difference. According to it the fact that the EU and the UN are both organized unions of a set of countries with common goals leads to the conclusions that they have one objective foundation. This objective foundation is the independent variable and the difference of some issues and the general direction of work – are dependent variables. The politics of Europe is totally reflected in the objectives of the European Union and in its turn the European Union is a very important formation. The United Nations in its turn is an example of a global organization with global objectives. Therefore this topic relate to comparative politics in the most evident way.

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1. Introduction
To Collapse or Not to Collapse: that is the question…

When I think about the United States of America, I do not allow the single thought that everything will ruin. It was before I read the astonishing book by Jared Diamond “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed”. The book presented so many historical facts and evidences upon the societies which collapsed due to objective and subjective reasons that I spontaneously began to analyze the current situation in the United Stated and think what it can lead to? According to shocking official statistics of the United States of America, the country is almost facing the new economic recession in 2008. The level of unemployment rises, prices for food and energy increase, and industries along with financial markets are facing hard times. But nevertheless, I believe that the alarm is vain and the country is not to collapse, even though objective reasons state the opposite.

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2. Jared Diamond’s “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed”
Jared Diamond describes his book in the prologue in the following way: “…I compare many past and present societies that differed with the respect of the environmental fragility, relations with neighbors, political institutions, and other “input” variables postulated to the influence of the society’s stability. The “output” variables that I examine are collapse or survival, and form of the collapse if collapse does occur” (Diamonds 18). I consider the book to be very persuading, but it lacked optimistic constituent, which is very important in our lives and may turn the worst situation upside down. But I took the presented information very seriously and consider it to be one of the most important books that I have read in my life. Diamond reminded his readers about what is really important in the world and what governments and societies mustn’t do and what they should take care of. Diamond presented eight basic factors that contributed to the collapse of the societies in the past. They are: problems with soil and water management, overfishing and overhunting, deforestation and natural environment destruction, growth of human population, and increased per-capita impact of people. Diamond also introduced four factors that people should consider at the present moment: climate change that is cause by people’s activities, energy shortages, buildup of toxic chemicals in the environment and finally full human utilization of the Earth’s photosynthetic capacity. To my opinion, stated factors concern each country in the world, and cannot relate to America in particular, as these are environment factors that each government should consider and make subsequent laws and regulation for improvements. But I agree that military actions and economic factors can be the delay-action bomb that leads to collapse.

3. Economic Situation in the United States of America
At present moment the U.S. economy is in the very dangerous state, and government should be very careful, as even small shock is crucial to pushing the economy over the safe edge. According to the Blue Chip consensus, the probability of the recession in the country is about 40%, which is very high index. There are about seven main threats to the economy of the country that concern credit markets, capital spending, oil prices, exports, housing, consumer spending and taxes. Speaking about credit markets, it is necessary to pay attention to Libor rate and interest rate spreads. The spread between the Libor rate and the 3-month Treasury bill is about 75 basis points, when usually this spread is not greater then 10. The only way out of crisis is when the spread returns to its normal state. Another big problem in the sector is short-term credits, on which big businesses rely very much.

Capital spending are facing problems in the sectors of investments in core equipment and profits. If many companies are unable to borrow money from banks for their immediate funding needs, they have to turn to their own internal funds, and as many companies are slowing down in gaining their revenues in 2008, they experience lack of current assets and thus firm are unable to increase their profits. Managers are not willing to start new projects and to invest a lot, when the economy of the USA and global economies are slowing down and they are feared to loose everything.

Oil prices are very much connected to the core inflation rates. The good sign for the economy of the United States is that core inflation is moderate so far. But there is still the threat that inflation can push prices even at higher levels. And even though global economy was able to adjust the price for barrel oil at level of $ 80, it is still the question whether the global economy is able to develop and thrive with slow down of American economy.

Also a good sign for American economy is exports, which are growing due to dollar weakening. U.S. producers are taking larger market share at the global market and U.S. economy is slowing transforming from being nation-oriented and building many homes for its citizens to the country that produces tradable goods. This kind of transformation is expected to diminish the huge current account deficit. But still growth of export depends on two other variables: dollar value and growth rates in America’s trading partners.

United States situation with housing is very harsh, and even though building companies are trying to decrease their inventory of unsold homes, they are not successful enough, as sales are constantly falling along with new construction. Even official inventory statistics do not reflect real situation on the market, as it doesn’t take into consideration canceled sales.

Consumer spending is connected with employment growth, which keeps high wages. But the problem is that the job growth has decreased significantly for the last three years and the same tendency is keeping in 2008. Blue Chip consensus predicts that in 2008 the consumer spending can be the lowest for the last 17 years.

It is important to mention that federal government is very much concerned with the prospect of recession and thus has cut rates of fed funds by a full percentage point, but it might be meaningless, as people already have taken so many debts that they will not take on more.

Speaking about unemployment rate in the United States, it is important to mention that as to the March and April 2008 the level is 5.1, while in January it was 4.9 and in February, 4.8. The productivity level was 1.9 as to the December, 2007. Inflation level as the April, 18 2008 is 4.0, with the 4.1 overall forecast for the whole month. The inflation is expected to decrease up to 3.4 % in September, 2008. GDP growth (April, 18 2008) is at the level of 0.58 %.

American people are facing many taxes on the day-to-day basis. The most apparent taxes are payroll and income taxes. There are also sales and excise taxes, property and many others.

Government is trying to cope with the difficult economic situation in the country. The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 was signed by the President Bush. The tax deduction of $600 per person was made to stimulate the country out of the current economic crisis. And even though President Bush is not willing to accept publicly that the United Stated are facing the recession, he will spend about $150 billion dollars (or 1% of the GDP) to struggle with the stagflation on inflation to prevent the recession. But most economists, politicians and analysts believe that Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 will not be successful enough in stimulating economy of the United States for several reasons. First, they suppose that most people will immediately spend obtained tax deductions. And the problem is that most people (according to statistical data) prefer to buy goods and merchandise that are manufactured in other countries, and thus stimulate foreign economies. The other reason is that annual budget of the United States have already borrowed a lot of money from other countries, especially from China. And therefore the propose stimulus package implies the purchase of more Chinese goods by American people. The best way to cope with the recession is the creation of new working places, and it becomes obvious that tax rebate will not create many in the country, as it is too little to encourage the start of new businesses. It could be more efficient to make the larger tax cut for new businesses or small companies for the creation of new jobs. The economy needs stimulation also because of the mortgage crunch. As tax rebate has no influence upon the monthly wages of the employees, they will continue to make their mortgage payments on the monthly basis. From one side, tax rebate is a good aid to people to pay off their rising debts, but from the other side, it is still not enough and some additional programs or financial aids will be very valuable.

As inflation, or cost of living, is rising quicker then salaries do, economy needs a great stimulation. To be more precise, salaries and jobs are decreasing. The price of gas and oil are the primary concern. And tax rebate has nothing to so with creating new jobs, as I have already mentioned in the previous paragraph, as well as with increasing salaries. It will be most likely just spent on expensive gas, instead of improving the state of U.S. economy.

And finally referring to the most important reason of the difficult economic situation of the country- it is war in Iraq. As tax rebates are planned to be made, it will only increase country’s borrowings and hurt the economy further. It has nothing to do with the problems of war financing at all.

To my opinion to cope with crisis, the government should directly address main reasons for it and try to solve existing problems directly. The tax percentage decrease for the first time will be very efficient, as when taxes are decreasing- economy starts to rise immediately, along with rising salaries and creating new jobs.

4. Diamond’s “Complex” Societies and their Collapse
Tainter defined the complexity of the society in the following way: “Complexity [as applied to the characterization of a society] is generally understood to refer to such things as the size of the society, the number and distinctiveness of its parts, the variety of specialized social roles that it incorporates, the number of distinct social personalities, and the variety of mechanisms for organizing these into a coherent, functioning whole. Augmenting any of these dimensions increases the complexity of the society” (Tainter 23).

Everything that I have mentioned regarding the economic situation in the United States is very serious signs and the government should take necessary steps to improve the situation. But to my opinion, it has nothing to do with the collapse of complex society, described by Jared Diamond. In the book, as I have already mentioned, Diamond presented the ideas of Joseph Tainter, who wrote “The Collapse of Complex Societies”. Tainter claims that centralized decision making, high flow of information, resources pooling, as well as formal command channels characterize the complex society. And such structures have the ability to withstand productivity deficiencies and fluctuations. And continues: “With their administrative structure and their capacity to allocate labor and resources, dealing with adverse environmental conditions may be one of the things that complex societies do best. It is curious that these societies would collapse when faced with precisely those conditions they are equipped to circumvent … as it becomes apparent to the members or administrators of a complex society that a resource base id deteriorating, it seems most reasonable to assume that some rational steps are taken toward resolution. The alternative assumption – of idleness in the face of disaster — requires a leap of faith at which we may rightly hesitate” (Diamond 420 quoting Tainter 50). Tainter thought that there is little probability that complex societies collapse due to environmental reasons, but Diamond argued that it happened many times in history. Diamond presented several possible explanations for the collapse, that I do not agree and I will later explain why. In each described case that central problem is around the process of group decision making. He says that the group or the society may not anticipate the problem and when it emerges it is already late, as the society may have no similar experience in the past or may assume that it already faced it when in reality the situation is absolutely different (Diamond 421). Then the society may fail in proper analysis and in the understanding of the new problem. The society may also not pay enough attention and use enough resources for the observation and examination of the phenomenon that is the reason for the problem. And he also suggests that the new problem may even remain unnoticed due to different reasons (Diamond 424-425). And finally, in case the problem was already notices, analyzed and understood, there can emerge the clash of interests, as some people will benefit from it, and other will envision the situation detrimental to their interests. I do not deny the important of the discussed issues, but I believe that United States of America are not in the described situation and will not collapse.

Diamond sees large agglomerations of people that governed by centralized institutions as the society. This opinion seems false to me. The presented the Soviet Union and the Empire of Alexander as examples of societies. But obviously it was not truly so, as they broke-up simultaneously with the deaths of their outstanding military leaders and collapse of the military powers. Real societies do not need the centralized power for the establishment of unity and cohesion. And I am sure that societies are formed independently from the government organization. The true society is united by the mutual interdependence, cooperative exchange between peoples and labor division.

5. Conclusion
Economic situation of the United States of America is very difficult and the country is almost facing the recession. There are many threats to the economy of the country that concern credit markets, capital spending, oil prices, exports, housing, consumer spending, taxes, poverty, war in Iraq. But event though the situation is that bad and from the first glance hopeless, the country will not collapse. And even though the unemployment level is rising, there are about 23 million people facing poverty, the stock market is almost dead, inflation increases and salaries remain the same, the prices for gas and wheat are at the highest level for the last two decades (or even for the longer period), the society and the government is able to cope with the crisis and will not collapse. But the United States still should be very careful with the use of the natural resources and take care of the environment, as the Earth’s natural resources that are depleting are not that easy overcome, as the economic crisis.

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The Urban Areas of Israel
Ever since the official declaration of the Israel State in 1948, the conflict over the territory has been in force. Even before, the antebellum activities like the British Mandate of Palestine [5, 1922] approved by the League of Nations, and the following division of the Mandate into one Jewish and one Arab state, brought serious tension into the Arab-Jewish relations and lead to the rejection of the plan by the Arab League. Sad but true, the conflict has not been resolved in the course of the following 50 years and is still one of the hottest crises of the world.

The major cities of Israel, especially the capital, where the religious and historical places of the three religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are concentrated.

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Israel asserts that the city should not be divided, and should remain unified within Israel’s political control. Palestinians claim at least the parts of the city which were not part of Israel prior to June 1967 (before the Six-Day War, during which the Israelites enlarged Jerusalem’s boundaries be adding the East Jerusalem, initially controlled by the Jordanians (nowadays over one third of the Jerusalem inhabitants are Muslim and most of them still live in the Eastern part of the city Jerusalem) [1, 2006].

The question of who should rule the city and how should it be divided is quite complicated, the relatively recent summits of 2000-2001 failed to provide the solution that would have suited both parts, especially taking into consideration the Israel law of 1980 claiming “Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel.”[2, 2008] And the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Palestinian Declaration of Independence eight years later, where Jerusalem is claimed to be the capital of the State of Palestine.

The principal source of conflict over the cities is the question of governing. Neither part accepts the possibility of the holy places to remain under control of the opponent. Mutual charges take place in abundance, and they are far from being groundless, especially basing on the half a century long conflict that sometimes turns into a real bloodshed.

The military confrontation has certainly influenced the conditions of living and the state of the urban areas around Israel. Even when the conflict fades a bit, there are no reasons for breathing with relief – there always are chances for a new wave of violence, terrorism or other activities undermining normal existence. The issue of refugees is also in force especially on the occupied territories where hostilities and military conflicts take place.

The conditions for Israelites and Palestinians are not the same mainly because of the existing official status of the land of Israel, while the Palestinian autonomy has not still been recognized officially of the international arena. The situation in Janin, Nablus, Ramallah, Jericho, Bethlehem, Hebron, Haifa, Tel Aviv, Qiryat.

Gat and Gaza vary depending on the geographic situation and distance from the conflict territories. The cities that protect the national borders of Israel, as well as the capital are the most vulnerable places throughout the country. There are several solutions to the problem – one is the common government providing equal rights to both parts, the other is a territory within a state of Israel with different levels of autonomy. The question of governing the cities should either be divided on a religious principle (but that might only aggravate the religious and political confrontation) or there is another opportunity – more complicated but still more rewarding – finding a common basis for governing the city and the state.

In 2005-2007 the internal-violence and direct conflict clashes caused the deaths of over 1200 Palestinians and 86 Israelis. The First Intifada of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (1987-2000) took lives of more than 1500 Palestinians and over 400 Israelis, while along the first part of the Second Intifada (up to 2004) over 3000 Palestinians and almost 1000 Israelis ceased. [3,4, 2008]

There is no correct answer on who should rule the territory, as long as any proposal will cause more deaths and injuries of the common citizens. The confrontation has already destroyed the lives of thousands of families. If there is a way of finding a mutually beneficial solution to this problem, I would stand for it.

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What Social Responsibilities Should Business Leader Take Nowadays?

In the contemporary business environment, business leaders should be socially responsible. In fact, the social responsibility of leaders is one of the key factors contributing to the commercial success of a company. It should be said that the social responsibility of business leaders should start with their own companies. In the contemporary business environment human resources are the most important part of a company. Consequently, business leaders should focus not only the conditions of work or work place of employees, but they should also take care about their social life. It is important to introduce various social programs within the company targeting at the improvement of the well-being of employees.

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For instance, it can be some special programs, which can provide employees or members of their families with health insurance and support participation of employees in some educational and training programs. At the same time, business leaders should take a larger view on the development of their business because often they are customer-centered and view customer just as a consumer of certain products or services. However, business leaders should stimulate socially responsible policy to create a positive image of their companies. For instance, it is possible to participate in some health care programs to support people in need.

Also the charity activities of a company and business may assist considerably to the formation of the positive image of the company. In fact, the support of people in need makes the business socially responsible and people perceive such companies positively because they believe that these companies do not just benefit from their business but they also invest into socially important projects and, therefore, their business is socially significant. In conclusion, it should be said that contemporary business leaders should be socially responsible and introduce socially responsible policy in their companies.

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