Life Cycle Analysis of Compact Discs

Life Cycle Analysis of Compact Discs Making products like CDs and DVDs consumesnatural resources, produces waste, anduses energy. CDs and DVDs are created from many different materials, including metals, plastics,and dyes. The discs are packaged in clear or colored plastic cases or cardboard boxes, wrapped inplastic, and sent to distribution centers and retail outlets around the world. If properly stored andhandled, most CDs and DVDs will last for decades, and probably centuries. Depending on theircondition, unwanted discs can be reused or recycled instead of thrown away, saving energy andvaluable resources.(Mastny, 2004) Kevin Ye Environmental impacts as a result from the various stages of compact discs Raw material extraction First step of producing the compact discs is extraction of raw material. These raw materials include aluminum, gold, silver, nickel which required mined and refinement, as well as plastic obviously. In this step, waste produced from mining is disposed of into bodies of water. Extraction of crude oil to produce plastic (for packing and the discs itself) creates waste and toxic chemicals. (Please see Appendix) The energy used to acquire raw materials includes mining and extracting. Materials are extracted from the earth in the form of Bauxite ore, which has 15-20% Aluminum (0.902 J/g). The embodied energy for Aluminum is 211 GJ/ton and it includes all the energy required to make the material. The process includes ore mining, ore crushing, and ore transportation. Mining and crushing entails machinery use, which requires mechanical and electrical energy. (Liao, 2014) In conclusion, the impact to the environment brought by producing CDs is already obvious and prominent, at both energy consumption perspective and wastes producing. Manufacturing Smelting aluminum generates fluoride waste. Hydroelectric power stations release greenhouse gasses and damage the ecosystem processing in different locations contribute to waste from transportation namely greenhouse gasses. Manufacturing and processing raw materials follow mining. First, an injection molding machine creates the core of the disk from Polycarbonate (plastic). It is then coated with aluminum and metal layers through a process called sputtering. After both sides of the disk are completed, theyre combined with a hot melt(specific heat capacity at 1.3 J/g). The metal is shaped and rolled. A CD/DVD undergoes a further manufacturing process which a specialized computer embeds digital information onto the disk through tiny indents made by several tons of pressure. The exterior of the DVD is then coated with a layer of lacquer, a transparent material designed to repel dust and resist fingerprints and scratch marks. Lastly, the disk is decorated with additional layers by ink for labeling or artworks (Liao, 2014). During this step, the damage to the ecosystem kept raising. Distribution The European market for music CDs is expanding rapidly, with almost 2.9 billion compact discs produced in Western Europe in 1998. In 2000, more than 700 compact disc factories were operating worldwide (Mastny, 2004). We can see that the development of manufacturing CD and the demand kept rising worldwide. It helps the music industry and others entertainment industries to distribute all their artworks to spread around the world. However, the energy consumed by the transportation of these products is also visible. The most important thing is that, each month, more than 45 tons of CDs become obsolete-outdated, useless, or unwanted. Each year, more than 55 million boxes of software go to landfills and incinerators, and people throw away millions of music CDs (Mastny, 2004). Especially nowadays, with the development of digital music and videos, the demand directly falls. The wasted energy and produced wastes given by transporting these products are not totally paid by the market, and they are literally damaging the environment. Its totally claimed that this industry is having a situation that supply offered is way higher than the demand from the market. Product use Energy is embodied in maintaining, using and reusing CD/DVDs. DVD players use 15 Watts of energy and are considered a stable product. They can last for decades when treated with care and not exposing them to humidity, extreme temperatures, and light. Energy can be conserved by reusing and maintaining CDs/DVDs (Liao, 2014). Thus, in this stage of using the CDs or DVDs, it doesnt consume that much of energy and produce waste. Disposal In the past decades, most of dumped compact discs go to landfills or incinerators. However, with the CD industries receiving impacts from digital memories industries, the quantity of CD production and disposal have been reduced a lot. And apparently there are better ways of dealing with useless unwanted discs. Reuse is the best option for DVDs because it generates the least amount of waste. Unwanted DVDs can be resold, given away, or donated to schools, libraries and other organizations. Moreover, there are a lot of innovative designs such as using unwanted discs into new decorations on walls. Synopsis about how the research has impacted my purchase decision-making By conducting this life cycle research of CDs, I was deeply impacted. I was a collector of CD music albums. I collected more than 200 CDs in my home. I purchased CDs and DVDs by my preferences. As long as I like the music of the singer or the movie, I would definitely purchase those CDs and DVDs. However, by learning the fact that producing compact discs and disposal of them would create a huge damage to our environment, I have decided to try not to buy new CDs and DVDs anymore. I will support those amazing music or video by purchasing digital albums or watching them on paid platforms, such as Amazon.com, Netflix. Appendix (Liao, 2014, retrieved from http://www.designlife-cycle.com/dvds/) References Liao, I. (2014). CD and DVD Embodied Energy. Retrieved from http://www.designlife-cycle.com/dvds/ Mastny, L. (2004). Good stuff? A Behind-the-Scenes Guide to the Things We Buy. CDs and DVDs. Retrieved from Blackboard provided by Amanda.

At the Ball Game :: essays research papers

With the thousands of poems depicting the game of baseball and its remarkable players, coming across a poem seeking thorough cross sectioning of the crowd is unusual, and rarely encountered. William Carlos Williams has created a poem which portrays the crowd as a quasi-organized mob bent on either cheering for their team, or in turn, booing them. The reason why Williams does this is because he is portraying, in a sense, simplicity versus chaos with simplicity being the game of baseball itself and chaos being the crowd.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The game of baseball is simple and to the point. One throws the ball, fields the ball and uses a bat to hit the ball. The crowd however is complex with many fields acting upon it. Emotions and the vast consumption of alcoholic beverages turn the crowd into a dangerous mob. With references to stanza’s ten and eleven, it tells of how the Jew and the flashy female understand what is happening as emotions increase. Stanza ten refers to sexual assault and stanza eleven refers to the genocidal attempt by Hitler and his Nazi regime.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Williams tells of how the crowd acts and moves as one. He refers to these people which make up the crowd as drones, completely and uninterruptedly tuned into what is happening on the diamond. Williams believes this to be beautiful, for even in its chaos, there is a sense of uniformity. He also tells of how the crowd is drawn to the game for its exciting chase. This simple form of a game can stimulate a crowd into becoming a mob that could be perceived as dangerous.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ultimately, Williams believed that the crowd was but one emotion, one movement and one person all in the same. The game of baseball is nothing without the roar of the crowd and its summer solstice. To these people that make up the crowd, it is every man’s dream, it is the cheering and laughing that keep them going, it is baseball. At the Ball Game :: essays research papers With the thousands of poems depicting the game of baseball and its remarkable players, coming across a poem seeking thorough cross sectioning of the crowd is unusual, and rarely encountered. William Carlos Williams has created a poem which portrays the crowd as a quasi-organized mob bent on either cheering for their team, or in turn, booing them. The reason why Williams does this is because he is portraying, in a sense, simplicity versus chaos with simplicity being the game of baseball itself and chaos being the crowd.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The game of baseball is simple and to the point. One throws the ball, fields the ball and uses a bat to hit the ball. The crowd however is complex with many fields acting upon it. Emotions and the vast consumption of alcoholic beverages turn the crowd into a dangerous mob. With references to stanza’s ten and eleven, it tells of how the Jew and the flashy female understand what is happening as emotions increase. Stanza ten refers to sexual assault and stanza eleven refers to the genocidal attempt by Hitler and his Nazi regime.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Williams tells of how the crowd acts and moves as one. He refers to these people which make up the crowd as drones, completely and uninterruptedly tuned into what is happening on the diamond. Williams believes this to be beautiful, for even in its chaos, there is a sense of uniformity. He also tells of how the crowd is drawn to the game for its exciting chase. This simple form of a game can stimulate a crowd into becoming a mob that could be perceived as dangerous.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ultimately, Williams believed that the crowd was but one emotion, one movement and one person all in the same. The game of baseball is nothing without the roar of the crowd and its summer solstice. To these people that make up the crowd, it is every man’s dream, it is the cheering and laughing that keep them going, it is baseball.

Cultures: Theoretical Models

Cultures: Theoretical Models Walden University Cross-Cultural psychology examines human activities in various cultural settings, by engaging several approaches. Some of these approaches were self evident from the course video dealing with the Thailand women cultural wear of brass neck shackles. Evolutionary Perspective The culture of wearing brass neck shackles by the Thailand women is described by the relative evolutionary factors affecting human behavior. Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection postulates that organism evolve with the pursuit of the biological traits that will promote longevity and survival. Such traits—aggressiveness, initiative, curiosity, obedience, intelligence, etc. , are so selected to reproduce offspring that will permeate and advance same competitive, advantageous genes to unending generations. These desired or preferred genetic—biological inheritance, elicited or interpreted in the form of beauty, reproductive behavior, proportional body size, bodily hormones, etc. form the bases for the cultural persuasion, (Shiraev & Levy, 2010). The sexes utilize these endowments as a measure of selection or discrimination for or against opposite sexes. Applicably, in the case of the Thailand women, the evolutionary perspective will continue to maintain and uphold this culture of elongating the neck by wearing the brass-neck shackles, because the culture promotes the selection of mates with long neck as a desired gene and shows altruism in a woman; the women, on the other hand, display the feature of a long neck as an attraction for the right mate. By right mate, the woman, who, by nature, longs for stability and security, targets material support in a partner. Sociological Approach Sociological Approach is a â€Å"general view of human behavior that focuses on broad social structures that influence society as a whole, and subsequently its individuals;† (Shiraev & Levy, 2010). Society as an entity creates social structures that are purposefully designed to assure its stability and conformity among its citizens. By creating these social norms, the society then imposes acceptance and subordination on the people. By default, the citizens of the society are nurtured and naturalized by the prescribed ethics and values. Consequently, these cultural norms and values are upheld in high esteem as a regulator of its citizen ideals, moral behaviors, ethics and expectations. Resultantly, the citizens pass on these cultural values or traditions from generation to generation, (Shiraev & Levy, 2010). Upon the above premises, the traditional Thailand custom—women wear of neck shackles to elongate the neck, reinforces the societal expectations by subjectively promoting the act as a required and desirable form of beauty; the transference of the norm to posterity. Ecocultural Approach Using the ecocultural approach, explain how the woman’s interaction with the environment supports the actions she takes. The above approach coincides with the principle that entities are the product of their environment. In essence, individuals interact with the domain environmental factors; have the ability to transform it and to be transformed by it. These environmental factors relate to ecological context—the economic activity of the population in reference to austerity of food, quality of nutrition, homeostasis, as well as, the density of the population. All these exert a considerable impact on individual. Another factor is the sociopolitical context—relates to the degree of the people’s involvement in both global and local decisions. Inclusive in this context are the presence or absence of political freedoms, ideological values and organization of government, (Shiraev & Levy, 2010). Thus, economically hostile environment creates cross-cultural differences, hence, the less privileged will be concerned or consumed with fending for daily scour; as a result, retain a culture of their own environment. As well, in politically unstable environments, long term customs are affected adversely. In the case of the action of the woman in the video, fleeing her country of origin to Thailand, to preserve her custom of wearing brass neck shackles intended to stretch the neck, was prompted by political instability and hostile environment, when in 1962, the Military Government decided to modernize the society and get rid of all primitive and tribal customs. All three approaches of examining human activities in human cultural settings—evolutionary, sociological and ecocultural approaches share similarities, among which are: They human organisms in a given setting maintain a defining culture or custom that governs their ways of life. These customs uphold their value system and detect their moral and ethical behaviors. Secondly, all three approaches show that these traditions, customs or culture are die-hard; and they are passed on from generation to generation. Nonetheless, certain differences exist among them. Firstly, while evolutionary approach observes culture or custom development from a natural selective—biological, principle and its outcome or foundation remains solid, the sociological approach deals with the development of culture through the impart of large social groups or institutions. The customs from the preceding setup are prone to undergo changes or reformations that produce societal disorder, economic disenfranchisement and dual-social order. Evidently, every society is regulated by one form of culture or the other. Such culture can be denoted with modernization, traditional or both. The clearer understanding of the custom of wearing brass neck shackles—for neck elongation, as shown on the video, was provided evolutionary approach. This is because of theory of natural selection; in which a desired trait is preserved and showcased. Such that, in the case of the Thailand women, the custom is the means of being selected by and attracted to the well-off men for economic security. Reference: Shiraev, E. , & Levy, D. (2010). Cross-cultural psychology: Critical thinking and contemporary applications (4th ed. ). Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Pearson Education, Inc.

Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 791 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2019/08/08 Category Literature Essay Level High school Tags: A Christmas Carol Essay Did you like this example? In the novella, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, the main character, Ebenezer Scrooge is a tight-fisted, crotchety pessimist who despises everything that is Christmas. He has little patience or understanding of those who value human connection and the spirit of giving, over idolizing money and financial status. With a permanent scowl on his face and a harsh biting tone, Scrooge chases away a young boy caroling outside his workplace and even chastises his demure employee Bob Cratchit, suggesting that he was scamming him out of money because Cratchit wants to spend Christmas with his family. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol" essay for you Create order Despite this miserly disposition, however, Scrooge rediscovers the value of love and human connection after enlightening visits from three ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. Through hardships in his life, including being forgotten by his father at a boarding school during his youth, Scrooge has grown a hard-outer shell that appraises the worthiness of ones life based solely upon their financial security. This personal philosophy comes in direct conflict with the joy and good cheer of Christmas. After his young enthusiastic nephew, Fred, pays his uncle a visit at his counting house to extend an invitation to Christmas dinner, Scrooge is clearly annoyed by this exuberance. Every idiot who goes about with a Merry Christmas on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should. (1.4) The descriptive nature of Scrooges words portray just how disengaged his thought processes are when surrounded by kindness and warmth. He shuts people out by lashing out with scathing words ending any further conversation on the matter. This demeanor is further exemplified when Scrooge is asked to give a donation to hel p the poor enjoy a nice Christmas meal. The destitute personify weakness and ineptitude to Scrooge. The solicitors are new to the area and clearly have no idea with whom they are speaking. First Scrooge suggests that the prison system and workhouses are fine institutions where the poor can find a meal. He followed this proclamation with the remark, If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.(1.6) Through his journey with the ghost of Christmas past, Scrooge relives moments of his childhood. He fondly recalls his little sister Fran and the special bond the two shared. Although he mourns her untimely death, he is reminded that she lives on through her only child, Fred. And it is to Freds home that the ghost then visits with Scrooge. Here they witness a group of friends dancing, laughing, and bonding with each other. Scrooge subtly taps his foot along to the music and even asks the ghosts to stay a bit longer. Yet it is at the home of Bob Cratchit where Scrooge makes a discovery that perpetuates his transformation. Although Cratchit has been employed for years by Marley and Scrooge, Scrooge realizes that he never knew that one of his children, Tim, was crippled. Scrooge seems to be sincerely concerned for the young Cratchits wellbeing. Spirit, said Scrooge, with an interest he had never felt before, tell me if Tiny Tim will live.(3.29) This shows a level of care and empathy that Scrooge had not demonstrated thus far in the novella. Nevertheless, after all three ghosts have paid their visit, Scrooges desire to seek redemption is clear. He does not want to be bound in chains by his past regressions. He went to church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people. Hurrying to and fro, and patted children on the head, and questioned the beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of houses, and up to the windows and found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had never dreamed that any walk- that anything- could give him so much happiness. In the afternoon he turned his steps towards his nephews house. (5.48) Now, Ebenezer Scrooge is actively trying to connect with those around him. He is patting the children on the head, not chasing them off with a ruler. Instead of being disgusted by, he is engaging, the beggars in conversation. Scrooge has morphed into a man who has a new lease on life and plans on doing good with what he has to offer. The transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge evolves after he is visited by three ghosts who help him to remember his past, reflect on his present situation, and make restitution and change so as change his future. This story of redemption is a wonderful message to us all, not only at Christmas time but throughout the entire year. We can be hopeful that it is never too late to change and to value what is truly important in ones life, the people that we love.

4 Types of Chromosome Mutations -Evolution and Genetics

Slavery Is The Key For Achieving Freedom - 1672 Words

In today’s society, we take many things for granted because they come easy to us. Education, in many of our lives, is something that is dreaded, something that we do only because we have to. But 200 years ago, things were much different. Slavery unfortunately existed in our society, and slaves weren’t granted the gift of education. By not having an education, they were not able to completely understand their situation, and therefore unable to get out of it. Slaves had a limited option in achieving freedom, and in order to do so, they had to become educated, enough to be able to understand slavery, and they had to be religious to be able to see through the hypocrisy of the religious slaveholders. For slaves, education is the key to achieving freedom. It develops one’s sense of curiosity, and allows the mind to question things, and to develop it’s own ideas and opinions. For slaves, the gift of education was rare, but if one was lucky enough to have it, they began to see the true nature of slavery, and it made them more likely to try and become free. When Frederick Douglass was a young boy, he befriended a few white children who gave him a glimpse of what having an education is like. When remembering this important time in his life, he says, â€Å"With their kindly aid, at different times and different places, I finally succeeded in learning to read† (66-67). The young boys gave Douglass a book, called the Columbian Orator, the first book he had ever laid hands on. ThisShow MoreRelatedFrederick Douglass Vs. Harriet Jacobs987 Words   |  4 Pagesrock--that rock landed on us (â€Å"Malcolm X†).† Slavery began when Americans brought Africans t o Virginia in 1619 to complete any field work that plantation owners did not want to do themselves (History.com Staff). 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The Union represented the North, anti-slavery, and the Confederates stood for the South, pro-slavery. Conflict of slavery became a huge issue when an increased number of concerns and worries arose from the colonists. Jennifer Weber describes it best â€Å"...the ensuing outbreak of armed hostilities were the culmination of decades of growing sectional friction over slavery.† At the time of the Civil War Abraham Lincoln was serving as our president. One famousRead MoreFrederick Douglass s Writing And Writing992 Words   |  4 PagesWrite†. He illustrates how he successfully overcomes tremendous difficulties to become literate in the essay. He believes that education is the key to freedom for slaves. Similarly, non-English speaking immigrants regard education as the essential to get rid of struggles in English in the United States. First, Douglass explains that education and freedom are inseparable. When he is a young slave, his Mistress Hugh treats him like e another person and teaches him alphabet. However, Master Hugh perceivesRead More The Powerful Ideal of Freedom Essay1484 Words   |  6 PagesThe Powerful Ideal of Freedom Developed in Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Blood-Burning Moon, by Jean Toomer, and W.E.B DuBois’ The Souls of Black Folk Slavery played an overwhelming role throughout the history of the United States. The riches created by the unpaid labor of African Americans helped to guarantee the country’s industrial revolution and succeeding economic strength. Yet, that wealth created incredible political power for slaveholders and their representativesRead MoreSlavery And The Making Of America1412 Words   |  6 PagesThe film â€Å"Slavery and The Making Of America† covered the beginning of American slavery in the British colonies until the end of slavery in the southern states and post-civil war reconstruction. This film shows viewers remarkable stories of individual slaves, providing new perspectives on how unjust the slaves experiences were, and besides all the trouble they were facing still having to survive and shape their own lives. The British colonies in North America had an abundance of land and a scarcityRead MoreFrederick Douglass And Why Was Important African American History974 Word s   |  4 Pagesit could have been possible of his mother’s master of being his father. Fredrick Douglass was born into slavery and didn’t have much of a childhood and was forced to work hard and to be treated cruel. Then he moved into the Auld home a northern family where slaves weren’t treated as badly. It was then he learned the basic reading writing abilities which turned out to be his gateway to freedom. Douglass was then relocated but eventually after all the beatings at the age twenty he used the knowledgeRead MoreAnother Leader, James Birney, Was A Powerful Abolitionists1550 Words   |  7 Pages Another leader, James Birney, was a powerful abolitionists leader and â€Å"he believed that political action and the power of religion were the keys to ending slavery,† and his proposal, â€Å"proposed measures that would allow the legislature to emancipate slaves and prohibit selling slaves brought into the state,† allowed for him to be known as, â€Å"one of the nation’s most prominent abolitionists† (American Experience†). James Birney was also the Liberty Party’s presidential candidate during the 1840 toRead MoreCitizen Tom Paine And Freedom Road Essay1599 Words   |  7 PagesAbstract: This article concerns itself to the protagonists of the novels Citizen Tom Paine (1943) and Freedom Road (1944). Citizen Tom Paine by Howard Fast depicts the conditions during The American Revolutionary War and its after math (1765-83). Freedom Road depicts the conditions of the former African slaves after The Civil War (1861-65) Thomas Paine is a political philosopher and thinker who has strived for the liberation of the Americans and African slaves since the time of American RevolutionaryRead MoreAnalysis Of Frankenstein s Monster, And Fredrick Douglass1206 Words   |  5 PagesKnowledge can be the key to freedom or to one’s demise, depending on how one choses to act, but no matter what, gaining knowledge is rarely an easy task. Even for students who have information readily available to them, like Victor Frankenstein at the University of Ingolstadt, are constantly under the arduous task of learning. When learning has to be done by any means necessary or in secret, like Frankenstein’s monster or Fredrick Douglass, the acquisition of knowledge becomes even more daunting

Venezuelas Economic Performance

Question: Discuss about the Venezuelas Economic Performance. Answer: Introduction The economic performance of Venezuela economy is currently very poor. This performance is measured in terms of many economic indicators such as the Gross Domestic Production (GDP) level, the inflation rate, unemployment rate and the rate of GDP growth. This study will be concerned on the changes on this indicators on the Venezuela economy. The performance of the economy may be influenced by natural factors or by the policies implemented by the government. The paper shall consider the various factors underlying the low economic growth. It will determine whether the government has an influence on such factors and whether it can gain control over the same and achieve the economic recovery. The trend of the current economic situation will be used in prediction of the future and the possible solutions to the problem will be noted. The change in factors that can result in the recovery will also be identified. The analysis of this paper will therefore be very useful in defining the best act ion the policy makers should take. Brief Article Discussion There are many issues that are explained in the article Venezuela inflation hits 800 %. This article is all about the rising inflation rate. The change in inflation rate in Australia is very high and this change is referred to as hyperinflation by many economics. The recorded change in Venezuelas inflation rate in 2016 was 800 % (Financial Tribune, 2017). McCauley (2017) noted that the change in inflation rate for December 2016 was more than 50 %. This has resulted in Venezuelans experiencing a period of economic hard times. High inflation rate has lowered the ability of the economy to service its foreign obligations (debts). The inflation figure reports stopped being published since it was expected to be more alarming; it has not been printed for more than a year now (Gupta and Pons, 2017). Various issue has be related to causing the high inflation rate. One issue discussed in this article is the governments policy of minimum wages. The governments aim when setting the minimum wage is to make the workers better off. This is one of the factors claimed to contribute to the hiking inflation rate. The government has greatly increase the level of its minimum wages. The article noted that the Venezuelas president Nicolas Maduro noted that government raised the minimum wage five times in 2016; this was by 454 %. Gupta and Pons (2017) noted that this increase was meant to offset the inflation rate. This has greatly affected the production costs and thus contributed to the shrinking of the economys production level. Poor policy by the government could in this case be concluded to contribute to causing the inflation rate to hike. The second issue is the low oil prices; the prices of oil hit the lowest level in 2016 and has caused a great loss to the Venezuela economy which mostly rely on the oil revenue to raise almost all it hard currency (Financial Tribune, 2017). Oil producing companies are selling their oil at a price that is lower than the costs of producing it. This has impacted their profit margins increasing the possibility of closure. Lastly is the speculative price-gouging. Suppliers have raised the price of outputs to very high levels taking advantage of the reduction in output as the economy contracts. Price gouging is a strategy that results in exploitation of consumers. This overcharging is mostly present on basic products. For instance, the article has noted that there is a shortage of food in Venezuela; price-gouging on food is therefore experienced. Underlying Theoretical Economic Hyperinflation is an economic condition when the inflation rate rises above 50 % in a month (Barbosa, 2017). This means that Venezuelas currency has greatly lost its value over time (Moosa, 2014). At very high inflation rate, the welfare of the citizens is reduced as the cost of living goes up. The high inflation rate is resulting in the contraction of the economy. Why? At very high inflation rate, the price of inputs are also very high. Thus, the producers are discouraged from producing more since the profit margins are low even if the price of output increase. McCauley (2017) quoted that the Venezuelas inflation rate is projected to clock at 2000 % owing to the alarming shortage of goods, food and medicines. Graph: Changes in Venezuelas inflation rate. Source: Holodny (2017) According to Holodny, the inflation rate skyrocketing was as a result of the economic, social and political crisis facing Venezuela. The graph show that Venezuela inflation rate has been lower in the past but rose abruptly to very high level in 2016. He noted that the average change for the years shown on the graph is 32.47 %. This is very high compared to the US all-time highest level of 23.70 % in 1920. The price of oil has greatly undermined the economic performance of Venezuela (Lopez, 2017). Oil accounts for 96 % of Venezuelas export and nearly half its fiscal revenue (Desjardins, 2016). Thus is was the most impacted by the slump. The price of oil is determined by the demand and supply forces. Currently, the supply of oil has increased to very high level and thus has exceeded its demand. The competition for a market share by the oil oligopoly producers has been the factor behind the low price (Becerra, 2017). Thirteen oil producing economies (the OPEC) control the world oil price. These economies production level is very high such that they have power over the worlds oil price. Their collusion has greatly resulted in a fall in the oil price. Under oligopoly market, the competition by price is one sided; the game theory is such that, if a single economy raises its oil price and all other producing economies fail to raise theirs, the single economys market share will be reduced. On the other hand, if it lowers it price and the other fail to cut theirs, its market share will increase. But if it cuts, and the other cuts, its revenue will be reduced. The prisoners dilemma here is that a single economy is not sure whether the other economies would apply a similar or opposite strategy to maximize their payoff. This has reduced the possibility of the oil price being increased. The recovery is on the hands of the OPEC; if they agree to cut production, the oil price goes up. Production in Venezuela is falling as shown below; Graph: Oil prices driving down Venezuelas production level Source: OGrady (2016) Minimum wage is a wage level fixed by the government prohibiting the employers from employing at a wage that is below that level. Since this wage is a price floor, it is fixed above the current equilibrium wage. This adds to the production costs and discourages the employers from using additional labor. The employers are also at times forced to cut down the number of employees it takes. The impact of this is increasing the rate of unemployment and contributing to the reduction of the economys potentiality for production. Graph: Minimum wages legislation Source: Pettinger (2014) Equilibrium wage is W1 and quantity Q1. Minimum wage NMW increases the supply for labour to Q3 from Q1 since people are attracted by the higher wages. However, demand falls to Q2 from Q1. It is creating a shortage of demand. Speculative price-gouging is a pricing adopted by suppliers when there is a shortage of supply. There is a shortage of food supply and prices has surged. The government should regulate the price of basic needs to ensure they are available as their increased prices would get the low income group into extreme poverty. Related Policy Issues The Venezuelas government policy makers are not effective on the basis that, even when the economy is contracting, they are still raising the minimum wages. On a situation of contraction on an economy, the government is expected to relieve cost of product on the producers so that they would increase their incentives to produce more. The government is also soaring the level of money supply. The government should seek the best policies to implement on different economic situation. The actions of the government are worsening the situation instead of making it better. The economy should have anti-price gouging laws since basic goods are critical for an economy. Critique High minimum wages contribute to high costs of production and thus lowers the production level. Also, the minimum wage is not a policy to implement when the economy is being faced by the problem of rising inflation. Cost increase results in cost-push inflation adding to the existing level of inflation. This policy would also make more money available to the households; with a high income level, the households will raise their demand causing a demand-pull inflation which adds to inflation. Since the economy is contracting and the households demand has increased, there will be an excess demand and definitely price will go up. The solution to high inflation according to this article is to increase their income so that they can be able to afford the goods at a higher price. This is contrary to how economics prefer the inflation rate to be dealt with. Instead they should lower the money is the economy so as to depress demand, thereby pushing down the prices. References Barbosa, F. (2017). Exploring the Mechanics of Chronic Inflation and Hyperinflation. 1st ed. Cham: Springer International Publishing. Becerra, C. (2017). Venezuela 2016 inflation skyrockets 800%, GDP shrinks 19%. [Online] CNBC. 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