Responses to readings Essay Example

1. The race to the bottom is the trend of host countries to relax their regulatory policies in order to attract MNCs within their business environment. Countries compete in relaxing their regulatory standards so as not to suffer less investment.

2. Ways of minimizing exploitations and maximizing contribution outlined by Oatley is negotiating of international rules which will harmonize regulations across the world. Secondly, activities and direct investments of MNCs have to be regulated.

3. The state benefits from manufacturing Coca Cola in India through creation of job opportunities where locals are employed and the company pays taxes to the government. The company water projects and education facilities slums and villages. The consequences include water shortages, pollution, distribution of toxic waste and pesticides from product chains.

4. In my personal view the positives outweigh the negatives and more importantly the negatives can be mitigated through treatment of toxic wastes, proper refusal disposal and water recycling.

1. Opportunity cost is the trade off of between spending money on arms against other essential services like healthcare and economic development. Some government like South Africa spent money on arms’ trade while a whole population needed healthcare services.

2. Revolving door is the state of the same people who were in the government or military being involved later in the arms industry and vice versa. This makes sure that weapons programmes that are not important in making the country secure are assigned a large chunk of billions of dollars in each budgetary cycle.

3. The arms industry is often protected by the secrecy of the national security as well as it is accountable to no one. The trade is highly controlled and regulated and bodies that should be accountable are weakened. The arms industry manages to avoid more scrutiny as well as transparency calls by the media is unconcerned about the dubious practice of the defense industry.

4. Permanent war economy is the aim of arms manufacturing countries to benefit economically from the sale of arms through ensuring there are conflicts, strives and wars. I believe we are living in one where there are arms being sold to South Sudan despite the arms’ embargo, war in Syria and some Armenia.

1. Goldman Sachs and other banks defend their actions by the assurance of adequate financial muscle and adhering to financial regulations.

2. The banks were most responsible for the 2008 financial crisis for taking on risky investments and lending to customers who could not payback. The unregulated financial market and ambitious real estate industry contributed to challenges.

3. The Trump administration seeks to roll back the Dodd-Frank Act because it is claimed that it is burdensome to financial institutions and hinders markets by preventing borrowing through placing too many requirements.

4. In my personal view the finance industry has to be subjected to more regulation in order to avoid instances where innocent customers lose their hard-earned earnings when the banks go under.

1. Structural account gives a holistic analysis of immigration by exploring broader forces that impact migration. On the other hand, reductionist account focuses of individuals as well as their decisions concerning migration. Structural account is advocated for by the authors since it makes it easy to understand the complexity of immigration. It broadens the analysis of migration.

2. Remittance income is the money that immigrants send to their home countries. Remittance income is important to LDCs because it uplifts the living standards of folks in their native countries and it is the primary source of external finance.

3. It is difficult for migrant workers to speak out because they reckon they are getting good opportunity and pay as compared to the home country. They are forced to put up with some abuses.

4. Women are vulnerable in case of labour migration owing to lack of opportunity in the home country and advertisement of contract migration by governments. The higher wages provided abroad attracts them and they enjoy life away from scrutiny. Their wages are not controlled by their spouses, fathers or boyfriends.

1. The media has a role in a democracy of protecting and shielding the citizens from the state’s excesses as well as to facilitate their liberty and rights. The media has to work for the people as a faithful servant.

2. The profit-seeking motives exhibited by private media companies it is at loggerheads with their role as the fourth estate since they reduce stories of public welfare and concentrate on popular human interest content. This way they abandon their primary role of being the servant of the citizenry.

3.
The ‘politics of mutual patronage’ is extending favours to cronies while expecting favours from them. This term means the fourth estate overlooked the excesses committed by the state leading to abuses in policy-making.

4. Murdoch’s capacity to influence legislation enforcement is when the law required reference unless the two papers were making losses. Sunday Times was profitable but this was not captured. He appointed two editors without consulting Frank Giles. Thatcher permitted Murdoch to sabotage the satellite policies the government had adopted. He was allowed to buy HWT despite renouncing his Australian citizenship.

1. Prison-industrial complex is the cost-benefit of maintaining prisons while targeting to educate them.

2. Privatization has seen some private facilities thriving at ensuring the prison beds are occupied hence more people spending time in prison. Private facilities make profits from prisoners.

3. Complexities of federalism and politics make it challenging to entirely privatize healthcare. The state has a role to play in providing universal healthcare.

4. Healthcare in Australia should not be wholly privatized because some marginalized groups like the indigenous people can be left out from expensive schemes. The state has a supervisory role to play in provision of healthcare to citizens. I think it would not be privatized entirely in future in order to cater for marginalized groups.

1. Market approach is allowing the market to adjust to economic growth and realize even distribution of resources.

State approach is controlling means of production by the state and ensuring equal distribution of income to benefit everyone.

Civil society approach is how people engage while interacting with others and how the behave towards each other like forming charitable organizations to help the poor.

2. The approach that has the potential of achieving poverty alleviation is the civil society approach. It does not interfere with wealth creation or individual liberties but allows people to engage in activities that make the society better by helping the poor; starting economic activities to empower people economically.

3. Hard power is the application military force, coercion or threats for achieving national goals. Soft power is achieving national goals through building consensus, foreign aid, cooperation and peacekeeping.

4. The example of South Korea demonstrates the impact of soft power like foreign aid in empowering other countries to independent economically.