An Icon of American Expansionism Essay - 1092 Words

As a nation born out of the desire to reject despotic rule and reinvent a new, non-Eurocentric model of the nation state, Americans during the nation’s nascent decades subscribed to a notion of anti-imperialism and relied upon a closed door approach to national foreign policy. Yet simultaneously, the United States engaged in acts of global expansion throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, and by the arrival of the 20th century, the nation had reached an ideological crossroad. Following a series of foreign conflicts which left America as an active participant in global expansion and a growing world power, by the conclusion of the 19th century, the nation was forced to determine whether or not it would permanently adopt a national doctrine†¦show more content†¦When examined closely, the illustration achieves this objective by clearly presenting distinctly domestic American elements and subsequently gives them critical agency through â€Å"their insertion into underlyi ng cultural and political patterns† . Without the artist’s careful attention to detail, the subject, a white, well-dressed seemingly upper class female, would have no inherent cultural and visual link to an American identity; yet when the image is injected with distinctly American elements, the cartoon is able to gain basic comprehension on a universal level. Indeed, the domestic presentation of this blatantly American subject, with its American flag dress, American eagle pendant, and American battleship bonnet, must be wholly highlighted and ingrained into the viewer’s perception in order to establish the thematic parameters around which the artist will seek to convey the image’s deeper social commentary. Consider then that while the physical subject of the piece has been identified as American, that is only the preliminary step in uncovering the image’s intended meaning; the actual ideological subject of the image lies not in any physical object but rather in the discussion that is created by the framing of those objects within â€Å"the entire system of significance that encompasses them.† The female subject merelyShow MoreRelatedEssay On Wilderness And The Frontier1421 Words   |  6 Pagesthe frontier and wilderness an uninhabited land of opportunity; second, new historians challenged Turner and claimed wilderness and the frontier were merely constructs of society; lastly, concepts of the frontier and wilderness expanded past the American West—into space and the future. Each of these perspectives shaped the general narrative of the West. First, Turner’s frontier thesis influenced perceptions of wilderness and the frontier. 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Health Care System and Illegal Immigrants Free Essays

Saul Diaz was a penniless, unemployed and uninsured undocumented alien living in Georgia. He got into a severe car accident. While he was in hospital, he racked up $1 million in medical expenses. We will write a custom essay sample on Health Care System and Illegal Immigrants or any similar topic only for you Order Now Before being sent back to Mexico, he died. The uncompensated bill was left over for the hospital. An illegal immigrant pregnant lady delivered her baby in U. S. She received Medicaid on her baby and prenatal care. Under the Medicaid, she got paid for her child delivery cost, her Spanish interpreter and diapers for her baby (Guzzardi, 2). What is the common thread in these two stories? They are both about illegal immigrants who received medical care without paying for it. Here comes another argument: Should we provide health care service to illegal aliens who have not contributed to our country? Would that be unfair to our citizens because we had shared a piece of our properties with the illegal aliens? No matter whether the answer is â€Å"yes† or â€Å"no†, the illegal immigrants are greatly disturbing out health care system. Since World War II, poor workers from largely Agrarian, Catholic and authoritarian Spain flocked northward into industrialized and more democratic Germany and France to find jobs (Hanson, 1). Until now, people are still moving place to place for better living standard or better job opportunities. For some countries such as Mexico, people tries to get away from the impoverishment and the politic from entering U. S. borders illegally. According to â€Å"How Will the Illegal Immigrant Ends? †, Mexico’s per capita gross domestic products is only a quarter of the United States (Hanson, 2). Wages in Mexico are far lower than in America. Many Mexican came to U. S. to achieve better living standard even by illegal method. There are approximately 14 to 22 millions of illegal immigrants in U. S. urrently, according to the data given by the Department of Homeland Security (Health Care Solution in the Real World). They are uninsured, most likely under the impoverished line. They are eligible for Medicaid by the law. As we can see from the cases in the beginning, the hospital will provide emergency care for patients, regardless of whether they are undocumented or not. Th ey failed to pay the bill and put a huge burden on the hospital. According to the article, â€Å"Why the Health Care Is So Costly? †, U. S. hospitals in border states spend at least $1 billion a year in providing health care to illegal aliens. In 2005, eighty hospitals in Florida ended in closure due to unbearable costs and expenses (Schlafly, 3). This would be a big problem for the Florida citizens because the close out of hospitals makes them less accessible to health care service. Moreover, since the undocumented aliens are uninsured, they cannot afford to pay the expensive medical bills. Base on their identity, they cannot access regular health care service because they cannot provide a proof of their citizenship. As a result they can only use the emergency room service whenever they need medical care. This leads to the abuse of emergency room service. According to the article, â€Å"Why the Health Care Is So Costly? † hospitals in border states provide at least $200 million a year in uncompensated emergency cares to illegal aliens in 2005 (Schlafly, 2). Nevertheless, what we really concern is a person had died because he or she could not access to medical care immediately because of the abuse of ER service by those do not really need it. Furthermore, the illegal aliens affect our health cares system by carrying in diseases into our country. According to the medical literature reports that many illegal immigrants carry fatal diseases or infections. They might carry diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, polio, leprosy, plague, dengue fever and chagas diseases (Glueck and Cihak, 1). The reason behind is they may not get high quality medical cares in their own country, so they came here to achieve a more quality health care service. Another reason is they are from some poor countries that lack of health care with poor sanitary situation. They are more likely carrying sicknesses. If they don’t get treat properly, the disease will spread out and threaten other people’s health. While the illegal immigrants are affecting our health care system, how come we do not stop them from receiving cares? This is not an easy question to answer. We have to think about it in both moral and political ways. According to James Dwyer in his article, â€Å"Illegal Immigrants, Health Care, and Social Responsibility†, â€Å"Nationalists† argue that illegal immigrants have no claim to health benefits because people who have no right to be in the country should not have the right to share benefits in that country. Humanists† say access to health care is a basic human right and should be provided to everyone, no matter if they are illegal or legal here. Neither of the above ideas is correct enough. He suggests that there is no direct relation between violating the law and the right to share the health care. For instance, a lot of citizens violate the law in many ways. They did not get caught and still receive the medical benefits. The illegal immigrants violate the law only because they entered the U. S. in an unlawful way. They should also receive health care just the same as other citizens do. Even when people argue that illegal immigrant did not contribute to paying taxes; they do pay sales tax, gas tax, and value-added tax (Dwyer, 1). In the worse case, if we insist to deny cares to illegal aliens, they will fail to seek care because of deportation, yet leads to more severe diseases and might harm the public in long term. But, if we say that we should give out benefits to everyone based on human needs and rights, we would have to owe people too many things that we don’t have enough resources to produce. Since the issue is so complex, it has been argued for many years. The government proposed so many policies and laws to reduce the number of illegal immigrants. However, there are still approximately 300,000 to 500. 000 undocumented immigrants that enter the U. S. each year (Glueck and Cihak, 5). I would suggest some solutions here. For long term solution, we should modify the immigration process and law. First, we should restrict our border. In â€Å"Policy Analysis†, the author says that the Border Patrol has made significant gains in stopping illegal entries over the last 2 years, especially in El Paso, and San Diego (Miller and Moore, 2). Many illegal immigrants are first here legally by visa and become illegal when they stay after the visa expires. If the visa policy is more restricted, for example, more documents needed or fewer visa issues, fewer people can enter easily. Also, if we put more fences or build a wall at the border, less people can enter by climbing over. Second, we should shorten the immigration process and time. The most effective method of reducing illegal aliens is to make them become legal. A lot of undocumented aliens here are willing to go through a lawful way, but they do not have the time or money to do so. Yet, they are more risk-taking and willing to work hard, which would be a labor capital to U. S. Therefore, making them legal here will benefit the country because they can contribute more to the country. The third way is sending some support to where the most illegal immigrants are from. Based on my surveys on some illegal aliens here, they would rather stay in their own country if there were a better economy and more job opportunities. For short term solution, I suggest we should provide affordable medical care. We should provide cheaper drugs and prescription to the illegal immigrants. According to the article, â€Å"Here’s a Health Care Solution Everybody Can Love† by Jack Lohman, we can also introduce a program which requires the graduates of U. S. medical school who are citizens of foreign countries to spend community service on helping the illegal aliens from their country (Lohman, 4). This program can join with the cheaper prescriptions policy, which can lower the price of medical care and meanwhile, lower the medical expenses from the government as well. We all understand that we are trying to help the illegal immigrants, not putting them in any harsh situation or deporting them. Yet, we need to keep the country runs in order and people are under control. Since the illegal immigrants are disturbing our country in many ways, not only in health system, but also in job opportunities, crime rates and other social problems, we need to solve the issue as soon as possible. And, I am sure this is the only way to keep America a nice and fair place to live. How to cite Health Care System and Illegal Immigrants, Essay examples

Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities †Free Samples to Samples

Question: Discuss about the Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities. Answer: Introduction The financial crisis that occurred in the period of 2007-2008 was attributed mainly to occur due to mark-to-market accounting that caused the melt down of the U.S. financial system. The accounting professionals has emphasized on the weakness existing in the current accounting standards that results in the occurrence of global financial crisis during the year 2008 (ACCA, 2011). In this context, the present essay emphasizes on the controversy and complexity surrounding the accounting for financial instruments at the time of 2008 financial crisis. The global financial crisis has caused the debate among the accounting professionals regarding the reasons responsible for its occurrence. It has been argued by the financial analysts that current deficiencies in the accounting standards and their application have contributed to the collapse of the financial system. The main weaknesses as pointed out by the financial analysts in the accounting standards are use of fair value mark-to-market accounting approach in illiquid markets, the delayed loss recognition arising from financial instruments such as loans and the complexities in the structuring of the balance sheet (Zadeh, Barth and Landsman, 2013). The major point of criticism in the current financial reporting standards was use of fair value accounting that as per the views of many financial experts contributed to financial breakdown. The use of fair value accounting has caused the pro-cyclical of financial instruments by recognizing excessive losses that resulted in large sale of assets and debt repayments (Pozen, 2009). The pro-cyclicality of the accounting leverage refers to the decrease in the debt amount during economic downturn and increase during upturn. Thus, it has been argued that fair value accounting model has lead to the reporting of excessive profit and losses leading to the development of a vicious cycle. The decline in asset price has caused their write-downs leading to their forced sales for meeting the capital requirements and thus increasing the price of assets. On the other hand, some financial experts have a different view in relation to the use of fair value accounting. The fair value accounting approach provides early signs of inflated asset values and thus it can help in overcoming the occurrence of a corporate scandal. Thus, there are differing views in relation to the contribution of fair value accounting practices to the global financial crisis (Zadeh, Barth and Landsman, 2013). The accounting standards are not responsible for the wring accounting of financial instruments during the crisis as pointed out by various financial experts. It can be realized from the fact that banks adopt the use of historic cost approach for asset valuation. However, the value of these assets was also overstated despite of the fact that these assets are not marked to market and are not subjected to liquidity in market. Also, the provision for recognition for losses was too complex during the crisis that has caused the delay in identifying the losses on loan portfolios. Also, the complexity involved in implementing the off-balance sheet standards has also caused the understatement of losses in the financial system during the crisis. Thus, it can be said that accounting standards are not responsible for introducing pro-cyclicality in the financial system (Jarolim and Oppinger, 2012). On the basis of above discussion, it can be said that only improving the current accounting standards cannot restrict the occurrence of financial crisis as there are other economic and governance issues that are responsible for financial collapse. The development of accounting standards for improving the transparency and reliability of financial information is essential for minimizing the chances of financial crisis occurrence in future context. In this context, it is also essential that adequate risk management and corporate governance systems need to be developed for safeguarding against the financial crisis. The major factors responsible for the economic downturn during the global financial crisis were asymmetry in accounting for stating gains and losses, use of fair value accounting and pro-cyclicality. However, there has still no relation determined between the fair value accounting and pro-cyclical accounting leverage. Thus, there is no single factor but a combination of variou s factors that led to the collapse of global financial system in the year 2008 (ACCA, 2011). The accounting of financial instruments is a topic of debate among the accounting professionals ever since the global financial crisis. There is also debate around the rules-based or principles-based accounting standards to be implemented for the development of financial reports. The IASB (International Accounting Standards Board) and Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) are largely emphasizing on reviewing and resolving the accounting issues that have developed from the crisis. This involves developing new and revised accounting standards in order to replace the complex accounting standards that exist for stating the gains and losses. This is essential for safeguarding the interest of the users of financial statements so that they can develop a better understanding of accounting for financial instruments for their decision-making. The main objective of the IASB and FASB in the development of new accounting standards is to improve the relevance and decision-usefulness of the f inancial information and reduce the complexity that exists for reporting the financial instruments. In this context, the IASB is currently placing focus on replacing IAS 39 with the IFRS 9 that highlights the measurement of financial assets through the adoption of two measurement categories. The major financial instruments recorded during the financial reporting are assets, debt instruments, derivatives and equity. All the financial instruments will be initially recognized at fair value and then at amortized cost after the initial recognition. This will help in improving the accounting practices adopted by businesses for managing the financial assets. The accounting for financial instruments is an area of conflict for both IASB and FASB board and both want to achieve same policies reading their recognition and measurement. The reconciliation of the accounting standards is possible through modifying and replacing the IFRS 9 standards (Huian, 2012). The development of new accounting standard aims at reducing the complexity that involves in measurement of financial instruments. It also aims at aligning the management strategies developing for monitoring and controlling the financial assets. The IFRS 9 standard also aims at issues arising from financial crisis such as credit gains and fair value accounting. The simplifies accounting rules as per the IFRS 9 standard also helps in preventing the manipulation of financial data that can cause the occurrence of corporate scandals at later stage. Also, it is highlighted from the global financial crisis of 2008 that business entities need to implement and adopt proper risk management system for overcoming the instability in the market. The financial institutions faced challenging competitive market conditions at the time of financial crisis due to market fluctuations and regulatory environment (Kirkpatrick, 2009). Also, the corporate governance system of business entities needs to be rig id so that management follows standard policies and procures for valuing its assets and liabilities. Therefore, the development of new approaches regarding the valuation of assets and liabilities need to be developed for preventing the financial crisis occurrence (ACCA, 2011). Conclusion It can be summarized from the overall discussion held in the essay that accounting of financial instruments is a major topic of debate in the accounting field. The overstatement of assets and liabilities during the financial crisis of 2008 has lead to the collapse of large financial institutions. However, the accounting professions need to develop new approaches for valuing the financial instruments and should not only emphasize on improving the accounting standards. References ACCA. 2011. The future of financial reporting 2011: global crisis and accounting at a crossroad. Retrieved 28 August, 2017 from https://www.accaglobal.com/content/dam/acca/global/PDF-technical/financial-reporting/tech-tp-farsig11.pdf Huian, M.C. 2012. Accounting For Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities According To IFRS 9. Economic Sciences 59 (1), pp.27-47. Jarolim, N. and Oppinger, C. 2012. Fair value accounting in times of financial Crisis. ACRN Journal of Finance and Risk Perspectives 1(1), pp. 67-90. Kirkpatrick, G. 2009. The Corporate Governance Lessons from the Financial Crisis. Financial Market Trends 1, pp. 1-30. Pozen, R. 2009. It Fair to Blame Fair Value Accounting for the Financial Crisis? Retrieved 28 August, 2017 from https://hbr.org/2009/11/is-it-fair-to-blame-fair-value-accounting-for-the-financial-crisis Zadeh, A., Barth, M. and Landsman, W. 2013. Does Fair Value Accounting Contribute to Procyclical Leverage? Retrieved 28 August, 2017 from https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2013/11/13/does-fair-value-accounting-contribute-to-procyclical-leverage/