Lever vs. Leverage

Lever vs. Leverage Lever vs. Leverage Lever vs. Leverage By Maeve Maddox A lever is a simple tool, a bar of iron or a sturdy length of wood that may be used to move or dislodge something heavy. Leverage is the mechanical advantage gained by a person using a lever. According to Archimedes, the power of a lever is formidable: â€Å"Give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the whole world.† –Archimedes A simple verb that means â€Å"to use a lever† is lever: Dig out a hollow which is larger than the base of the keystone and roll this rock into place. Use the crowbar to lever it into its final position. Each wedge in the row is pounded until a thin crack forms between the wedges and the rock can be levered apart. The noun from lever is leverage: the mechanical advantage gained by the use of a lever. A figurative meaning of leverage is â€Å"an advantage for accomplishing a purpose.† Price-conscious renters have no leverage [with landlords]. The West has far more economic leverage over Russia at this moment than it does military possibilities. The only negotiating leverage that most players had was to hold out at contract time, refusing to play unless their conditions were met. The OED’s first documentation of leverage as a verb is dated 1937: â€Å"Acey leveraged the arm upward.† By 1957, the form leveraged was in use to refer to buyouts and holding companies. In terms of finance, leverage means â€Å"to speculate financially on borrowed capital expecting profits to be greater than the interest that must be paid on the borrowed money.† A â€Å"leveraged buyout† is the buyout of a company by its management with the help of outside capital.† The word leverage appears in so many contexts now, both as noun and verb, that sometimes a reader must think carefully in order to know if it’s a noun meaning advantage or borrowing, or a verb meaning to lever, to supplement, to provide, or something else. Here are some examples: Hillshire Brands expects to focus on continuing to invest in its business, reducing leverage over time and pursuing opportunistic acquisitions. Alex Okosi [is] a key figure in the creation and production of world class African TV content for Africa. With this, he has built a successful platform for brands to leverage on. 5 Real Ways To Leverage Social Media Likes Are Not  Profit How Corine LaFont Leveraged Her Small Business Book Award Sometimes the prepositions that follow the verb leverage are redundant or just don’t make sense: One should leverage off of the previous work in completing this project.† President Margee Ensignwill lead faculty membersto deliberate on how to leverage on Nigeria’s huge human and natural endowments to win the national war against poverty and illiteracy. Bond Investors Looking For Bigger Returns Are Increasingly Relying To Leverage Writers might want to consider relinquishing leverage to the corporate wheeler-dealers for their exclusive use to refer to borrowing and buyouts. Plain old lever still has its uses as a verb. As for leverage as a noun, advantage can replace it in most figurative contexts. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:7 Classes and Types of PhrasesOne Fell SwoopWhen to Spell Out Numbers

Capitalism and Socialism Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Capitalism and Socialism - Term Paper Example Petras (2004) says that the debate between socialism and capitalism is still pressing and he even claims that the battle of ideas has begun to intensify. Petras (2004) continues that the social indicator show that the real capitalism is considerable worse than the full employment and steady employment rates that existed during the socialist period. Another author Bala (2009) argues that critics of capitalism describe it as unfair and distribution of wealth and power. Capitalist economic system has the tendency to create market monopoly or oligopoly. Bala (2009) observes that capitalism can also lead to imperialism, various forms of economic and cultural exploitation. An example of this kind of exploitation is the outsourcing business. U.S companies have discovered that Indian engineers for example can handle the production as professionally as any U.S specialist, however price twice as lower. Thus, many corporations outsourced their business to India and Chine in an attempt to cut co sts. Critics of capitalism argue that the imperialism which is associated with this system can also establish social alienation and inequality. Bala (2009) quotes such statements expressed by many socialists as irrational, because the economy has no direction and is unplanned, consequently it can create internal contradictions and inconsistencies. Over the last 20 years the countries from the former Soviet Block in Eastern Europe are trying to transit from socialism to capitalism. All basic industries from energy, mining, communication, trade to infrastructure have been taken over by private corporations. However, this transition and privatization do not seem to reflect the capitalist ideas and many countries from Eastern Europe are not swept by massive unemployment, gang groups, uncontrollable migration waves, relative economic instability, money laundring and illegal transfers. Bala (2009) poses that socialism is mainly criticized, because it is incompatible with civil liberties and it political model is not efficient with the general social, human performances. Friedrich Hayek (cited by Bala 2009) argues that a socialist economy can not adequately communicate the information about the productive quotas due in most cases to shortage in price mechanism. Furthermore Hayek (cited by Bala 2009) debates that the social control over the distribution allotment of wealth and private property preached by socialists can not be accomplished without a considerable reduction in prosperity and loss of economic and political freedom. This statement is proved by the Soviet Union socialist satellite countries which after the fall of the regime seem to have been lost in their attempts to revive their economies. Another negative aspect of the socialism is that it creates authoritarian regimes. All sectors of the economy are operated by the one personality usually the head of the state. The supporters from each of the commented economic systems argues that life is more satisfactory under their preferred system. Vivier (2003) says that capitalists refuse to agree that imposing capitalists values and economic doctrines on the "Third World" countries, only made their economic status worse. It increased their misery and poverty and the labor force was directly pushed into the hands of Western industrial capitalists. The capitalists values

Gender and Sexual Studies Questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Gender and Sexual Studies Questions - Assignment Example African American women are tempted by cars, houses and money if they take care about white and rich children, but in reality they have to look 24/7 after the children and have no days off. People, hiring domestic workers for dirty work in America very often beat their housemaids and nannies. How does it happen in the modern America? The scheme of exploitation is rather simple: employers confiscate passport and other documents of the coming women and sign a contract, where low paid working hours and hard work are described (Zarembka, p. 4). There are no even appropriate words to describe cruelty, sexual and physical assault practiced by employers against their hired housekeepers or nannies. Therefore, women from ethnic minorities or immigrants are often treated as â€Å"simple creatures† or even â€Å"slaves†. Domestic workers are hired by individual boss and it is hard for legal institutions to protect the rights of those â€Å"creatures†, hidden in private house s. These people from developing countries are looking for a better chance for life and they go to America â€Å"to make their dream come true†. In reality, as we can see in the film â€Å"Maid in America†, these women live their children in their developing countries and come to America for cleaning and bringing up children of other women. There are more than 10 million undocumented workers in America, which came to the country in the searching for a better life. More than 100,000 of them are deported to Mexico and Central America. Proponents claim that these are better lives for women in comparison with what they left at home. Very often these women are looking for better lives for their families, but on the other hand, in reality they penetrate in the cruel world of slavery. Non-English speaking help is easily controlled by the employers in America and they know that women have no place to go and they can work for low payments, in spite of the absence of social guara ntees or legal protection of their rights. Therefore, on the one hand, immigrants consider America as the most perfect dream, but on the other hand, they cannot make their dream come true. There is no doubt that financial concerns and a better future are two important triggers for â€Å"dirty work† performance. Still, there is a need to support developing countries and provide its dwellers with an opportunity to earn money and make future of their children better than they have at home. Thus, there is a need for prohibition of illegal human trafficking and shelters for illegal workers in America. Bridget Anderson in her article â€Å"Just Another Job? The Commodification of Domestic labor† claims that household duties cannot be done by working couple, which have children and money. They are busy at work and they need someone to help about the house. Middle-class women once having access to hiring domestic workers, get rid of their boring daily routine and have much tim e for their family, career, rest and themselves. On the one hand, if they are ready to pay for help, why not, but on the other hand, this domestic work is really degrading self-esteem of their employees and they are not satisfied with salary they get for doing daily routine jobs (Anderson, p. 2). It is better to bring up children with correct moral principles and enable them to take care about themselves. There is a lack of social viability of domestic

Globalization Impacts On The Poor And Inequality Essay

Globalization Impacts On The Poor And Inequality - Essay Example Financial integration should be accompanied with the pursuit of macroeconomic stabilization policies. Both traditional and modern trade theories suggest that gains from the free trade will not be distributed equally within economies. The World Bank studies several ways in which globalization affects inequality within and across countries. A very important factor in the distribution of income is the initial income of the country. The empirical literature reveals that free trade contributes only to 20% of the world inequality, being less important than such factors as technological innovations or demographic changes. The economists use the term globalization to refer to international integration in the capital, commodity, and labor markets. The crucial economic features of the two most recent periods of globalization (1950-73 and 1974-2007) involve increased integration in trade, international capital flows and movement of labor. However, as we can see in table 1 (WTO,2008), there are differences in the importance of these factors in each period. During the entire 1950-2007 period, the trade expanded by 6.2 percent. In the first decades after World War II (WWII), due to the reconstruction of the country economies, the most dynamic traders were the Western European countries and Japan.From 1974 to 2000, newly industrialized Asian economies (NIEs) were the main beneficiaries of globalization, with their merchandise exports comprising raising from 2.4 percent to 9.7 percent within only two decades.  

Outsourcing of US Jobs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Outsourcing of US Jobs - Essay Example omotes efficiency and cost reduction so companies can maintain their competitiveness, sending American jobs overseas hurts America because our economy depends on jobs at all levels in order to continue functioning. The economy is suffering from this practice and it will continue to do so because Americans are forced to compete for jobs at pay levels well below the standard of living. The secondary problem with outsourcing is that companies can visit abuse on their employees and the workers have no way of protecting themselves. Even some companies have found that outsourcing isn’t as profitable as they had once thought it would be. When American businesses outsource, it seems that everyone loses. As Americans began to raise concerns about job losses, major companies gave their reassurances that this was only happening to the â€Å"low-end† jobs. This would weed out the lower end, highly repetitive and unskilled labor, leaving better jobs for Americans to fill. These early rounds of "globalization" cost millions of U.S. jobs, but various experts assured Americans that this should not be a major concern because these were blue collar "rust belt" jobs. Old technology, they claimed. Manufacturing is passà ©. The U.S. would enter the new global economy with the new technology. Information, services, cutting-edge research and development—these would be the clean, high-paying jobs that would keep America on top. (Jasper, 2006) This promise has been revealed to be an empty one as Americans watch more jobs leave the United States as outsourcers move up the ladder to target higher skilled jobs such as engineering, medicine and legal research. Between 2003 and 2008 finan cial service companies have moved approximately 500,000 American jobs overseas. Seen in the chart below are the companies with the highest numbers of outsourced workers overseas. These 10 companies alone are responsible for outsourcing nearly 200,000 jobs. These certainly aren’t the only companies

Faculty of Business Environment and Society Essay - 8

Faculty of Business Environment and Society - Essay Example They need to meet and satisfy certain conditions, capabilities and qualities sufficiently in order to effectively manage culturally diverse human resources and agreeably, the international managers must be adaptable, open-minded, flexible and able to speak foreign languages. However, there are other critical strategies to consider and with acknowledgement that culture considerably impacts on organisations and employees, this paper will critically discuss the validity of the statement regarding international managers’ adaptability, flexibility, open-mindedness and proficiency in foreign languages. International assignments serve several purposes and the most significant ones include overseas business expansion, knowledge transfer and career development (Paauwe and Boselie 2010). International managers or expatriates are utilised by multinational corporations because of their expertise in critical areas of interest in global markets and corporate organisation as well as to oversee the entry process into new markets. While on international assignment, the international managers will be in charge of strategically significant tasks and act as the link between the subsidiary and headquarters. They will be involved in recruitment and selection; development and training; performance evaluation, remuneration and benefits; labour relations; developing competitive advantages; and, equally important, self-development (Montana and Bruce 2008). Although the roles of international managers can be generalised, different types of international managers can also be identified. One type will t ypically serve control and coordination roles and give less significance to issues related to personnel development. Another type will complement the coordination and control role by concentrating on the goals of personnel development, which usually include developing leadership competency, acquiring intercultural skills and building social

Investigating and Developing Ready-to-Eat Desserts Dissertation

Investigating and Developing Ready-to-Eat Desserts - Dissertation Example This dissertation reveals that the market for chilled desserts is estimated to be worth 302 million in 2004, which showed an increase of 29% since 1999. The market is split into two key sectors, loosely described as 'sharing desserts' and 'fresh cakes', which includes fresh in-store bakery items as well as pre-packed sliced cakes and desserts. The dessert sector is larger with 51% value share delivering a 13% growth across the period since 2000. However, it is the fresh cake sector, which has driven the largest growth, 40% up from its 2000 value to account for 49% of the category. A report by the 'Mintel' group has some interesting findings and is worth discussing. Mintel International group, which is a market research and consumer intelligence group, provides expert analysis on all aspects of consumers' economic activity. Mintel's latest report is based on an up-to-date market and original consumer research and offers ideas and motivation one needs for designing clever, creative and profitable marketing plan in the chilled desserts market. In conclusion, Mintel's report has been designed to help identify the important factors that determine the scale and nature of the UK chilled dessert market. Mintel's consumer intelligence is supposed to provide valuable insight to unlock some of the secrets of the dessert market for the more effective-and more profitable-business plan. The findings show that 48% of the consumers have eaten ready-to-eat desserts in the last 12 months while 32% believe that frozen foods are as good as fresh ones. Women are 50% more likely to buy cheesecake (34% versus 25%) and 33% more likely to buy a cream cake than men (32% versus 20%). Research design Shop Research For the shop research, visit was made to Tesco food joint in Trent Vale. I surveyed the range of desserts, both frozen and chilled and made notes of the products, the main ingredients, the price, packaging, and portion size. The survey result is shown in the following table: Type of dessert Ingredients Price (per head) Packaging Portion size Texture Remark Tiramisu Italian dessert Cream and chocolate topped chocolate cookie crust 39.95 Cardboard and plastic Serve 8 Not too soft to the touch Outstanding1 Chocolate tart with cranberries Chocolate, cranberries 19.95 plastic Serve 12-16 Soft Terrific3 Profiterole Butter, sugar, cream, vanilla, yolks, milk 2.25 plastic Individual soft Outstanding1 Lemon pudding Lemon, cream, sugar, 1.29 plastic Individual soft Excellent4 Tunisian lemon pudding Almond and lemon topped with cream and fresh berries 22.95 Cardboard and plastic Serve 12 Soft to touch but not too soft Excellent2 Ranking order *1,2,3,4 The survey revealed that most desserts are packed for 8 to 12 people, so price for individual portion had to be worked out by taking out the averages. Most of the desserts were served in porcelain plate or bow. Packaging is done either in plastic or cardboard or both. The individual price range of all the desserts was within 2 except Tiramisu Italian dessert individual portion