General Motors Economic And Cultural Icon Of American...

General Motors (GM) was one of the premier automakers of the world. Firmly planted as the leader of the big three automakers, GM, Ford, and Chrysler, years of success grounded GM as an economic and cultural icon of American business. As the Japanese auto market grew and became more efficient, turning out improved vehicles that the public wanted, GM was becoming a lumbering behemoth of inefficiency and corporate gluttony. Many circumstances contribute to GM’s road to bankruptcy including high legacy costs in union owned contracts, largely poor design, inferior quality, and low productivity. Before the Great Recession of 2009, GM owned a bevy of brands including Chevrolet, GMC, Oldsmobile, Buick, Pontiac, Cadillac, Hummer, and Saturn, including other international brands in Alpheon, Daewoo, Saab, Vauxhall, Opel, Wuling, and Holden. After the recession, bankruptcy, and federal restructuring, the GM United States offerings were left with Chevrolet, GMC, Buick, and Cadillac. GM still has the international automobile companies of Alpheon, Vauxhall, Opel, and Holden, with Daewoo now being a parts subsidiary. But the writing was on the wall as the automotive giant was losing touch with what the American public wanted. Instead of building vehicles the public wanted, GM built vehicles that they wanted to build and thought the public would buy their brand regardless (Boe, Ketler, O Keefe, Rubenstein, Siverio, 2009). But as time marched on, GM became more in debt and grew to beShow MoreRelatedSports Tourism2380 Words   |  10 PagesTourism is viewed as international trips th at are made to watch sporting events. There is no universally accepted definition of sports tourism, but the terms ‘sport tourism’ and ‘sport tourist’ are often found in literature review. Stuart Hall, a cultural theorist and sociologist from Kingston, Jamaica is one of the many theorists that have formulated an opinion of the definition of sports tourism. 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Should Marijuana Be Legalized - 1788 Words

The use of marijuana has been around since B.C. times and was banned by the US government in Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. However, the debate over the legalization of cannabis sativa, known as marijuana, has been one of the most prominent and controversial issue in society today besides same sex marriage. Over the centuries, a shift in opinion in the favor of legalization has been seen. There are five jurisdictions in the United State that have rejected the failed prohibition of marijuana and changed their laws to legalize small amount of marijuana: Washington, Colorado, Alaska, Washington, D.C., and Oregon. Recently, Representative David Simpson (R-Longview) filled a bill to legalize marijuana in Texas. Cannabis is the largest cash crop in†¦show more content†¦According to Texas sheriff Gary Middleton â€Å"If you make it legal and available it s naturally, certainly going to increase use and anything that increases use of marijuana or any type of drug is going to make our j ob harder†¦. People that are using marijuana get in more disturbances, more fights, and more trouble across the board it’s not a good thing† (Middleton qtd. Tyler Morning Telegraph).The use of marijuana doesn’t not cause disturbances and there is no evidence that it does. Pauline Reilly states â€Å"the fact that in the 1940s two reports were published in America which showed that marijuana did not cause violent behavior, provoke insanity, lead to addiction, or promote opiate usage†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Reilly 37). Parents are also concerned that making marijuana legal will make it more accessible to the youth. Currently with the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington the government regulates every aspect. It is regulated like alcohol and restricted to consumers 21 and older, Colorado has dozens of shops which residents can consume one ounce of recreational marijuana, and visitors  ¼ of an ounce. Therefore there is no way youth meaning people under 21 can consume marijuana legally. Although, there are many reasons to oppose legalizing marijuana it will help more than hurt. Laura Sanders the author of â€Å"High Times† does not entirely agree with my position but she clearly states marijuana is not harmful compared to other drugs. According to Sanders â€Å"though the research

Plot Free Essays

In this article, Goldstein attempts to describe the aspect of AIDS in Newfoundland. In order to sufficiently do so, she illustrates three main elements which relate to the expansion of the legend in the province; Cultural variability, localization and contemporary legend. The idea of doing this is to give the reader a general understanding of what stories were told In order to enhance the generation of these legends. We will write a custom essay sample on Plot or any similar topic only for you Order Now Throughout the article, Goldstein provides examples of deferent versions of the AIDS legend. There are significant motifs used In these versions that distinguish he versions generated. There Is the coffin version In which the man usually lures the woman Into getting involved with him, and when she leaves to return home he hands her a box which has a coffin Inside with the message â€Å"welcome to the world of AIDS†. The lipstick version generally suggests the opposite; the woman lures the man Into getting Involved with her and In the morning the man will go to the bathroom with a message wrote on the mirror In lipstick â€Å"welcome to the world of AIDS†. The version chosen will reflect cultural assumptions and values, which Is what Is described as ultra variability. Goldstein provides facts that the coffin version is more prominent in Newfoundland than the lipstick version; 74% of random sample knew about the coffin legend versus the 26% that were aware of the lipstick legend. The original version may not have made sense to Nefariousness’s, so it was altered to be understandable and meaningful. They often use mainlanders, which are the outsiders, as scapegoats. The Newfoundland version suggests an innocent, hardworking woman goes away on a trip, meets a man, falls in love and engages in sexual intercourse. If they engaged in sexual activity in Newfoundland and retrieved AIDS, the mainlanders would be blamed for the disperse because they are strangers. Newfoundland are good, mainlanders are bad. Newfoundland is safe, mainland is a threat. In part II of the article is where Cider’s main points start. This is where he beings to outline his main points on murmuring. He begins with a definition on what murmuring is, in case the reader is unaware. If the reader is completely unaware of the aspect of murmuring, they would read Cider’s first description and probably be totally confused. Loud banging at the Victims’ kitchen door. † When seeing the word â€Å"victim† they may think there is some kind of illegal activity going to happen when they enter the house. â€Å"Loud banging† may constitute for an aggressive person or group. They both relate. In trying to avoid this conclusion, Sided quickly exemplifies the fact mummers are always lifelong neighbors and are never strangers even though they would appear to be. What happens when mummers enter the house? Sided continues to illustrate huge points that unfamiliar readers need to be aware of. Mummers do not enter households and â€Å"trash† the place. They enter and dance around, have sociable drinks, eat food and Walt for the household to guess their Identity. There Is no Illegal occurrence that takes place during this activity and Slider makes this point very clear. The second point Sided makes Is the aspect of Scoffing. Upon reading this article, I was unfamiliar with what scoffing was. Sided makes a mall point regarding scoffing when he describes the term â€Å"scoff’. A scoff Is formerly known as a meal, usually one that consists of a large amount of food. Another efferent families, for which all the food is stolen or â€Å"bucked† which in Newfoundland means something a little different than stealing. Sided makes another huge point when he says that food is only taken from another family living in the same community and who is the same â€Å"social class† as the person taking the food. An individual who comes from a poor fisher family would not take from a wealthy family, and a wealthy individual would most certainly not take from a poor family. Sided also acknowledges the connection between murmuring and scoffing which is another age point made in this article. He notes that they lie at the intersection of different forms of alliances within and between families. These alliances can include sentiment and emotion, but also kinship or work and production. These activities basically hindered or helped social relations. In order to further illustrate the alliances, Sided goes in to talk about the organization of the village inshore fishery during the period when the family was the unit of work for the fishery, which is Part Ill of the article. In Part IV of the article, Sided describes the truck system and the tall al system. Due to reading the first article â€Å"In Between History and Tomorrow: Making and Breaking Everyday Life in Newfoundland. â€Å", I am very familiar with both of these systems, but he describes it because not all of the readers would have read that previous article. He thoroughly describes each system which is important so that the reader will know what these systems are and what they were used for. In Part V of the article, Sided illustrates the diminishing of the two customs (murmuring and scoffing). This is a major point because readers may understand why they haven’t en familiar with either of them and it would be due to the fact that hardly anyone participates in them anymore. For example, I knew what murmuring was because it still occurs in my area but not very often. I was completely unaware of scoffing upon reading this article because it was not something that I was introduced to. It did not happen in my area and if it did, it would not go over well. These customs are diminishing and if we ask people in generations from now, they probably will not know what either one of these customs are. The last main point that Sided presents n this article is answering â€Å"Why do outpost Nefariousness’s mum and scoff? † He answers by illustrating that customs do things. They are connected to people who participate in them. It becomes their social root for some people. The second answer that he illustrates is the connected between customs and culture. It is important for Sided to illustrate this because reader’s may often times wonder while interpreting this article why people do the things that are being described. They may not realize it, but it is a true statement when people say it is part of you inheritance. Aside from the main points outlined in this article, which are relevant in understanding the article, I have generated a few questions based on a couple aspects that were discussed. 1. ) Why doesn’t Sided talk more about the women during that era? He did mention in Part I that the mothers, wives, sisters and young children salted and dried the fish, preparing them for fall delivery to the merchant. He also mentioned them again during the explanation of kinship organization. The women were part of the shore crowd, there were usually three or four needed, and they were not paid erectly (it depended on their father or brother’s catch) Sided continues to describe how men interact during the off season, but what about the women? What do they do knows back then the women did all the cooking and cleaning). In my opinion, there is too much focus on the men, although it is proven they worked extremely hard and it is important to put emphasis on that, but it almost feels like women were minor in this article. 2. )Len the context of scoffing, how would people actually steal the goods? Sided gives a thorough description of scoffing, but fails to mention anything about owe the goods would be stolen, or bucked. Why didn’t Sided expand on this context and provide an in-depth example? Would people wait until early hours in the morning? Would they do it in broad daylight? Would they go back numerous times in one scoff? Would they get someone else to do it for them Just in case they get caught? What do they bring with them? Does anyone get really hurt or angry buy having their food stolen? Sided mentions that the individual(s) buck enough for it to hurt, but how hurt do they get? Do they seek revenge other than stealing back from them? A lot of answered questions came to me when reading about scoffing and it may be because I am so unfamiliar with the custom. I will definitely do more research into it because it seems very interesting. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this article. I can relate to the murmuring where I am from. Although it is not a common thing, my family still sometimes go downstairs, dress up and come up dancing like mummers would. I really appreciated the point in the article when Sided referenced the â€Å"abundant Sunday dinner†. The traditional Sunday dinner is still a huge thing in my family. My grandmother faithfully cooks every Sunday, either for a small or big crowd. Cider’s descriptions are very thorough and interesting to read, which is why this article appealed to me more than the others. He covers most aspects that are needed in order for the reader to understand the points he is attempting to make. This is extremely important when trying to keep the reader interested and informed, and Sided productively does that. As a new reader of Cider’s work I am impressed with his systematic descriptions and approach in his work and I look forward to reading more of his writing! How to cite Plot, Papers