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Letter to the Editor, Wall Street Journal
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Letter to the Editor, Wall Street Journal
The debate on competition instigated by Peter Thiel’s article ‘Competition is for Losers, Review September 13’ begs some comments. It is an accepted economic truth that competition drives down profits. However, the company that wishes to make profits develops a cost strategy that maximizes the sales of its products to attract as many consumers as possible. A company must address the issue of cost structures among other things, if it is to be competitive. Thus, it is altruism to generalize the issue of competition based on low price only. Those companies which position themselves at a high price level do not fair better on profitability than those that embrace the low price approach. Capitalism reigns over the most efficient economy and offers the widest choices for consumers. After all, it is the consumers who drive the profits. The enterprises that continuously innovate in order to lower costs and remain competitive will always win in the long term.
Thiel’s claim that competition and capitalism are opposites, is fallacious. Competition is the foundation of capitalism. Lack of competition, in any economy, leads to mediocre products since there are no incentives to innovate. It is one of the reasons why socialist and communist economies failed. Thiel also confuses market power with monopoly. Monopoly is a theoretical construct used by economists to describe a market where there is only a single player. Market power, on the other hand, is the measure of the ability of the enterprise to increase its prices without affecting sales and, hence, increase profits. Google is more profitable not because of the monopoly, but because it can attract more consumers, and, consequently, gain bigger market share.
In conclusion, the views presented in Thiel’s article are incorrect. Stating that competition is for losers is misguided and unsubstantiated. Competition is healthy and is embraced by large and small economies and businesses alike.
Spread of communicable diseases
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Introduction
Communicable diseases have been cited to cause several deaths as well as suffering to a huge populace in the underdeveloped world. These diseases may be spread through contact, ingestion of contaminated food or water, inhalation of contaminated air as well as through vectors. Vectors spread the communicable diseases through biological as well as mechanical means. In the latter case the vector picks up the infectious agent from a contaminated source and carries it outside its body to another media such as food or water where the agent is deposited. Consumption of such food therefore results in an infection. Flies are good example of mechanical vectors as they passively transmit infectious agent causing cholera to humans through the aforementioned media. On the other hand, vectors may also spread the diseases trough biological means where pathogens are harbored in the body of the vectors and transmitted in an active manner to the potential host. This may be exemplified by the spread of rabies from rabid animals to man through bites. Some communicable diseases may be spread through a variety of means such as cholera which can be transmitted through flies, feces, water as well as food. Such diseases require a multiple approach of control encompassing a continuum of food, water, air, personal hygiene, insects as well as sewage disposal (Munson, 2009).
It is always important to define the means of transmission of an infectious agent in an attempt to fully understand the biology of a disease so as to control the disease. Communicable diseases are spread through a variety of media including water, food, air, insects as well as contaminated objects. To begin with humans have contributed highly to such spread by providing a suitable environment for the growth and spread of the infectious agent. For instance, the generation and poor disposal of human wastes such as feces in the public have provided food source to vectors such as flies which thereafter transport the infectious agents from the wastes to the media such as food and water in human residence prior to consumption. The subsequent consumption of such infected food or water may cause diseases such as cholera, dysentery as well as typhoid. Ingestion of fecally contaminated water may enhance the spread of Giardiasis. On the other hand, food provides a suitable growth media for the vectors when poorly kept. High degree of hygiene is necessary in preventing the spread of diseases such as salmonellosis whose causative agent thrives well in a poorly preserved food and may be ingested upon consumption (Munson, 2009).
Vector-borne diseases may also be spread through formites. These are contaminated objects that provide a suitable resting place for vectors. For instance, objects such as paper or money may harbor infectious agents that can easily be transferred by vectors from one person to the other when such objects are shared among individuals. The spread of diseases such as TB is necessitated by formites especially when individuals put such contaminated objects in their mouths. Communicable diseases may also be spread by vectors through biological means. The transmission of diseases such as rabies and the bacillus of bovine TB from animals to humans follow the aforementioned transmission mode. For instance, rabies is transmitted to humans when bitten by a rabid animal. This is an active transmission and may therefore be lethal especially when such bites are executed in delicate such places as head, face or even neck (Acha et al, 2003). Typhus fever is also transmitted by body louse which has fed on the blood of a patient suffering from the fever and transferred rickettsia from their excreta to the new host. This can be avoided by enhancing body hygiene and general sanitation to keep away the louse.
Conclusion
Communicable diseases cause high rate of mortality and morbidity especially in the third world countries where comprehensive control measures are not well established. The diseases may at times be spread through a variety of media including water, food, air, formites as well as insects. It is therefore important to establish environmental control strategies that entail multiple facets encompassing continuum of food, water, air, personal hygiene, insects as well as sewage disposal. Personal hygiene as well as general sanitation is fundamental to the control of communicable diseases. According to Acha et al (2003) control of vector-borne diseases should be directed to the vector itself followed by the rodents.
Reference list:
Acha, P.et al (2003). Zoonoses and Communicable Diseases Common to Man and Animals:
Chlamydioses, rickettsioses, and viroses. 3rd Ed. New York: American Health Org
Munson, F. (2009). Hygiene of Communicable Diseases; A Handbook for Sanitarians, Medical
Officers of the Army and Navy and General Practitioners. New York: General Books LLC.
OConnors a good man is hard to find.
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O’Connor’s ‘a good man is hard to find’.
The Gospel of Mark shows how much attachment man has for material things and the obstacles this attachment presents in his quest for moral uprightness and eternal life. The case in mind is that of a morally upright man who approaches Jesus and requests him to explain what else he can do to since he obeys all Ten Commandments. Jesus knowing the implication of material possession even to the morally upright and righteous, instructs him to rid himself of all his material possessions since these are bound to erode his morals.
O’Connor’s story has a similar thematic approach only it goes on to prove that indeed a good man is hard to find. The Misfit was wrongly accused of murdering his father and faces serious legal action, which he chooses to escape from since he feels to be innocent. The only problem Bailey’s mother had not factored in her bid to avoid a confrontation with this evil man is reflected in the Gospel of Mark. Here, Jesus tried to show how even the most upright and righteous of men was susceptible to the machinations of material things in the world, hence his requesting the man who had approached him to sell everything and follow him.
In advancing the themes of good and evil, O’Connor uses two very different characters. . The grandmother represents society’s righteous and The Misfit shows the exact opposite. Here, we find how O’Connor tries to exemplify the righteous by demonstrating a caring loving attitude towards family and kin, exemplified by the grandmother’s futile attempt at trying to direct the family away from danger, as. Again, her caring and loving attitude is demonstrated in how she cannot bear to leave the cat, Pitty Sing’ in the house alone while there is a convict on the loose. This theme is shown all the way to her tragic end when in act of compassion she touched The Misfit, whose reaction was to kill the begging old woman. Although critics argue on this act of compassion being the cause of her death (Gentry, p. 36, 2006), it seems to be the case. In his actions, The Misfit himself advances the theme of evil by killing a whole family with his accomplices. He won’t even listen to an old woman who braves impending death by touching him in an act of compassion, instead shooting her severally while uttering sarcastic remarks.
This story shows the multifaceted modern man who presents himself as immensely righteous while in truth being not. Today many people act and pretend to be morally upright while in real sense they are far from that. Acts of violence and corruption best exemplify this pretence that seems to know no boundaries, even afflicting those expected by society to uphold righteousness. The failure of man in moral uprightness is best exemplified in Priests accused of molesting young children, fathers accused of murdering whole countries and countries going up in arms against less able countries all show how ‘ a good man is hard to find’ indeed. Spirituality is especially rife with examples of how modern man has sunk beneath the expectations of his beliefs as illustrated by all the adultery, murder, lying and backbiting as well as theft and sexual perversion. Many will openly claim to follow the scriptures of their faith and act in a contradictory manner.
Works cited.
Gentry, M. (2006). Flannery O’connor’s Religion of the Grotesque. Mississipi: Univ. Press of Mississippi.
Eder, K. (2011). Flannery O’Connor, “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” – an Analysis. Munich: GRIN Verlag.