About the Supplemental Security Income Program - SSI

About the Supplemental Security Income Program - SSI Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a federal government benefit program providing cash to meet basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter to persons who are blind or otherwise disabled and have little or no other income. Monthly SSI benefits are paid to persons with limited income and resources who are disabled, blind, or age 65 or older. Blind or disabled children, as well as adults, can qualify to get SSI benefits. How SSI is Different From Retirement Benefits While the SSI program is administered by the Social Security Administration, the way in which SSI benefits are administered is very different from how Social Security retirement benefits are paid. SSI benefits do not require and are not based on the recipients prior work or a family members prior work. In other words, no current or prior employment is required to qualify for SSI benefits. Unlike Social Security benefits, SSI benefits are funded by general funds from the U.S. Treasury generated by income taxes paid be individuals and corporations. Social Security taxes withheld from workers paychecks under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) do not help fund the SSI program. Total SSI funding, along with maximum monthly amounts to be paid to SSI recipients, are set annually by Congress as part of the federal budget process. SSI recipients in most states can also have their benefits supplemented by Medicaid to help pay for doctor bills, prescriptions and other health care costs. SSI beneficiaries may also be eligible for food stamps in every state except California. In some states, an application for SSI benefits also serves as an application for food stamps. Who is Eligible for SSI Benefits Anyone who is: aged (age 65 or older);blind or disabled. And, who: has limited income; andhas limited resources; andis a U.S. citizen or national, or in one of certain categories of aliens; andis not absent from the country for a full calendar month or for 30 consecutive days or more; andis not confined to an institution (such as a hospital or prison) at the governments expense; andapplies for any other cash benefits or payments for which he or she may be eligible, (for example, pensions, Social Security benefits); andgives SSA permission to contact any financial institution and request any financial records about you; andfiles an application; andmeets certain other requirements. What Does  Ã¢â‚¬ËœLimited Income’ Include? For purposes of determining SSI eligibility, Social Security counts the following as income: money you earn from work;money you receive from other sources, such as Social Security benefits, workers compensation, unemployment benefits, the Department of Veterans Affairs, friends or relatives; andfree food or shelter. What  Are ‘Limited Resources’? For purposes of determining SSI eligibility, Social Security counts the following as limited resources: cash;bank accounts, stocks, U.S. savings bonds;land and real estate;vehicles;personal property;life insurance; andanything else you own that could be converted to cash and used for food or shelter. NOTE: For complete details on the SSI program, including qualifications and how to apply for benefits, see the  Understanding Supplemental Security Income home page on the SSA website.   SSI Payment Details Amounts of SSI benefit payments are set annually by Congress and are typically adjusted every January to reflect the current cost of living.  Maximum (SSI) payment amounts increase with the cost-of-living increases (COLA) that apply to Social Security retirement benefits. Some states provide supplemental SSI benefits. SSI benefit payments are not taxable. Possible Benefit Reductions Exact benefit amounts paid to individual SSI recipients may be less than the maximum depending on non-SSI income, like wages and other Social Security benefits. Persons living in their own home, in the home of another person, or in a Medicaid-approved nursing home may also have their SSI payments reduced accordingly. The monthly amount is reduced by subtracting monthly countable income. In the case of an eligible individual with an eligible spouse, the amount payable is further divided equally between the two spouses.   Updated current maximum and average SSI payment amounts can be found on the SSI Statistics web site. SSI Work Incentive Programs Helping people with disabilities achieve independence by taking advantage of employment opportunities is one of the Social Security Administration’s highest priorities. SSI’s work incentive programs help disabled and blind SSI recipients to continue to work while minimizing the risk of losing their SSI or Medicaid benefits. Certain work incentive programs allow SSI recipients to exempt some of their work income from their list of resources. Others allow SSI recipients to continue to receive Medicaid coverage even though they are not receiving monthly SSI cash benefits. SSI recipients may be eligible to take advantage of more than one work incentive program. As with Social Security retirement benefits, working can reduce the amount of the recipient’s SSI benefit payments. Complete information on SSI work incentive opportunities can be found in the SSA’s â€Å"The Red Book - A Guide to Work Incentives.†

Soft Determinism Explained

Soft Determinism Explained Soft determinism is the view that determinism and free will are compatible. It is thus a form of compatibilism. The term was coined by the American philosopher William James (1842-1910) in his essay â€Å"The Dilemma of Determinism.† Soft determinism consists of two main claims: 1.  Determinism is true.  Every event, including every human action, is causally determined. If you selected vanilla rather than chocolate ice cream last night, you could not have chosen otherwise given your exact circumstances and condition. Someone with enough knowledge of your circumstances and condition would have been able, in principle, to predict what you would choose. 2.  We act freely when we are not constrained or coerced. If my legs are tied, I am not free to run. If I hand over my wallet to a robber who is pointing a gun at my head, I am not acting freely. Another way of putting this is to say that we act freely when we act on our desires. Soft determinism contrasts with both hard determinism and with what is sometimes called metaphysical libertarianism. Hard determinism asserts that determinism is true and denies that we have free will.  Metaphysical libertarianism (not to be confused with the political doctrine of libertarianism) says that determinism is false since when we act freely some part of the process leading up to the action (e.g. our desire, our decision, or our act of will) is not predetermined. The problem soft determinists face is that of explaining how our actions can be both predetermined but free. Most of them do this by insisting that the notion of freedom, or free will, be understood in a particular way.  They reject the idea that free will must involve some strange metaphysical capacity that each of us has–namely, the ability to initiate an event (e.g. our act of will, or our action) which is not itself causally determined. This libertarian concept of freedom is unintelligible, they argue, and at odds with the prevailing scientific picture. What matters to us, they argue, is that we enjoy some degree of control over and responsibility for our actions. And this requirement is met if our actions flow from (are determined by) our decisions, deliberations, desires, and character.   The Main Objection to Soft Determinism The most common objection to soft determinism is that the notion of freedom it holds onto falls short of what most people mean by free will. Suppose I hypnotize you, and while you are under hypnosis I plant certain desires in your mind: e.g. a desire to get yourself a drink when the clock strikes ten. On the stroke of ten, you get up and pour yourself some water. Have you acted freely? If acting freely simply means doing what you want, acting on your desires, then the answer is yes, you acted freely. But most people would see your action as unfree since, in effect, you are being controlled by someone else.   One could make the example still more dramatic by imagining a mad scientist implanting electrodes in your brain and then triggering in you all sorts of desires and decisions which lead you to perform certain actions. In this case, you would be little more than a puppet in someone else’s hands; yet according to the soft determinist notion of freedom, you would be acting freely. A soft determinist might reply that in such a case we would say you are unfree because you are controlled by someone else. But if the desires, decisions, and volitions (acts of will) that govern your actions are really yours, then it is reasonable to say that you are in control, and hence acting freely.  The critic will point out, though, that according to the soft determinist, your desires, decisions, and volitions–in fact, your entire character–are ultimately determined by other factors that are equally outside your control: e.g. your genetic make up, your upbringing, and your environment.  The upshot is still that you do not, ultimately, have any control over or responsibility for your actions. This line of criticism of soft determinism is sometimes referred to as the â€Å"consequence argument.† Soft Determinism in Contemporary Times Many major philosophers including Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, and Voltaire have defended some form of soft determinism. Some version of it is still probably the most popular view of the free will problem among professional philosophers. Leading contemporary soft determinists include P. F. Strawson, Daniel Dennett, and Harry Frankfurt. Although their positions typically fall within the broad lines described above, they offer sophisticated new versions and defenses. Dennett, for instance, in his book Elbow Room, argues that what we call free will is a highly developed ability, that we have refined in the course of evolution, to envisage future possibilities and to avoid those we don’t like. This concept of freedom (being able to avoid undesirable futures) is compatible with determinism, and it’s all we need. Traditional metaphysical notions of free will that are incompatible with determinism, he argues, are not worth saving.

Miss Lonelyheart and the Depression Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Miss Lonelyheart and the Depression - Essay Example West illustrated such aspects of life evolved during the depression era in his novel Miss Lonelyhearts. The novel is of relevance today as the global economy showing a sign of depression, which may in turn lead to the great depression II.Even though the events and circumstances described in the novel are from a period of a century ago, the theme of the novel has relevance in this modern age. â€Å"Miss Lonelyhearts† the son of an England priest, is involved in giving advice for reader’s distressing letters.These hurting stories which he receives are depressing and eventually he also becomes depressed by reading the painful letters. He started heavy drinking and occasional bar fights.William Shrike, editor of the New York newspaper where Miss Lonelyhearts works, uses the column to boost up the circulation. The characters of this novel do not possess moral qualities, or they do not have any strong spirituality, which may be the result of depression era. They are not reall y concerned about social values (Martin, 1970). For example, Miss Lonelyhearts was not sincere as a columnist. At the beginning Miss Lonelyhearts started as a columnist in a style existing at that time with a superficial way of analysing and solving problems of individuals in society. In the society of that time where people suffered from financial and economic problems, actual religious and spiritual values did not affect them. When Miss Lonelyhearts received hundreds of letters from people of all walks of life describing their individual problems of many types he became astounded on going through the actual life problems. The letters contained plights of diverse people. For example, the novel describes a letter by a 16 year old girl who was born without a nose. Her life was pathetic because her parents felt guilty and shamed of their daughter, and this girl wanted Miss Lonelyhearts to tell her if she should commit suicide. When Miss Lonelyhearts understands the problem, he gets a sense of shock, which is a clear contrast to the attitude that the editor William Shilke shows. This contrast is very true of the media in the modern world. Over the years, media has become insensitive and focuses more on getting the sensational news out just to get more publicity and increase their profit. Just like Shilke, many media houses put immense pressure on the journalists to compromise on their ethics and values, just to get more attention from the public. This results in a breakdown at some point, just that Miss Lonelyhearts faced in the novel. Therefore, the approach of the editor to exploit the current situation is very similar to the way in which media sensationalizes the news in today’s era. In addition, in today’s society, depression is often taken out by certain methods that are not moralistic, such as getting involved in extra marital affairs or taking refuge in drugs. For Miss Lonelyhearts, he chose to overcome this depression by indulging in an extr a marital affair with one of his readers and with the wife of the editor. Only a very drastic situation, such as an encounter with the crippled husband of Mrs Doyle can bring out repentance in Miss Lonelyhearts. In real life too, only a very tragic instance gets the people to come out and remorse as most people do not understand their mistake unless the situation is very grave. Even though this work is a piece of fiction, it is very reflective of the current situa

Doing Business in Europe, Asia and the Americas Research Paper

Doing Business in Europe, Asia and the Americas - Research Paper Example Typically, these consisted independent operations in the handle of an expatriate. In its proliferation, the facilitation of information flow prompted the creation of offshore headquarters which functioned isolate of the local core group (Barber, J. P. 2002, pp.1-5). However, these international structures had about one third of the offshore venture in the form of shared ownership (Casseres 2006, p. 4). What firms manifest these days is cognizant of the global outlook. Less differentiation is placed on the local operations vis-a-vis the international division. Strategic structures shift authority and responsibility to the central domain, without the former 'single line authority' in force, rather a multiple lines responsibility (Barber, J. P. 2002, pp.1-5). Sheer size is given importance in the new corporate international strategy (Egelhoff 1988, p. 1-14). These firms have similar and complimenting features, when combined can operate more competently. They are alike because each is an industry icon that spells out of a history of corporate prestige. In the same way these firms compliment, having pursued a different market position in product lines such as novelty brands Oreo cookies over dairy milk chocolate. Cadbury and Kraft supplement one another in geographical footprint, thus distribution lines are less redundant, if not broadened (Beaudin, 2010). In the context and analysis of industry, a pair of firms can operate more competently when combined. In fact, dissimilar capabilities are often synchronized in the manufacture of opposite goods (Casseres 2006, p. 8-12). Acquisitions improve efficiency by seizure of synergies between firms (Crosoni, Gomes, McGinn, & Noth 2004, p.481-512). When put together, Cadbury-Kraft becomes an industry powerhouse. Both sum up an unrivalled portfolio of tremendous potential (The Independent 2010, sc. 2-4). The long term forecast revenues are estimated at a strait annual 5% upward trend in revenues and company growth at 9-11%. On its own, Kraft revenues rises at about 4% with company growth of 7- 9%. A prolonged growth in revenues determines annual cost savings of $625 million (Value Expectations 2010, sc. 1-3). It is argued that such transformation creates larger economies of scale higher and larger geographical markets (Lambrecht 2000, p.1-4). The takeover is meant to reshape market competition, imposing influence on emerging markets. The industry for chocolate and sweets is quite gaping and loosely split between international conglomerates: Mars, Wrigley, Kraft, Hershey, Ferrero and Nestl (Beaudin 2010, sc. 1-4). By the acquisition of Cadbury, Kraft assumes to suppress rivalry by the bundle of capabilities (Casseres 2006, p. 8-12). In other words, the industry turns out to be less competitive and too concentrated (Crosoni, Gomes, McGinn, & Noth 2004, p.481-512). And why global shares are expected to rise by 5% points from the estimated 20% holding for both firms (Value Expectations 2010, sc. 1-3). Takeovers can reduce production costs at minimal or result in

Human resource Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Human resource - Essay Example In order to deal with these influences, it is essential for managers to develop their internal structures and employees’ behaviors to enable them handle the external forces. The environment in which an organization operates in is responsible for organizational activities and their eventual outcomes. This paper evaluates the effects of external factors on Human Resource Planning (Rothwell and Kazanas, 2003, P.176). Economic uncertainty Economic factors have a direct effect on recruitment, staffing and rewards that employers can give to their workers. The reason is that demand and supply law holds that when supply of labor is high, employers can obtain labour at lower prices, and when demand exceeds supply, and then employers have to pay higher wages and benefits. In instances where a country’s economy is growing at a positive rate, companies register high demand for their goods and services. In order to cope with such demand, organizations recruit more labor force, event ually lowering the rate of unemployment. When there is low level unemployment, the need for professional workers increases. This necessitates for organizations to enhance their employee retention and training strategies. When the economy is growing at a negative rate, demand for products and services reduces, and firms have to grapple with that in two ways. One option is laying off some workers, or lowering the amount of wages and benefits for in a bid to retain existing employees. Unemployment rates increase and employers are overwhelmed with applicants for advertised vacancies (Mathis and Jackson, 2008, P.454). Socio-cultural context Population trends are a key driver of the social sphere. This is demonstrated in the counter-cyclical shifts, in population trends. UK and other parts of the globe are registering increasing population growth. However, eastern and western Europe is registering low birth rates. United Kingdom in particular and Europe in general experience numbers of mi grants, resulting in an increase in the size of the prospective labor force. Moreover, migrants also form a considerable portion of consumers for the country’s goods and services. Kandula (2007, p 59) notes that the high number of the aging citizens marks a loss in the pool of knowledge, skills and capabilities. The reason is that elderly people have so much knowledge from the organization, and their retirement and departure from the workforce creates a significant gap in organizations. Kandula further notes that elderly people have a vast number of needs and special services. For illustration, elderly people require welfare benefits and caregivers, which is extra consumption for the country. United Kingdom is also registering high an increasing gap between the affluent and the poor. This results in the rise of socio-economic disparity that creates an increase in asset prices. Cascio and Boudreau (2012, P.51) note that socio-economic developments influence organizations human resources in one way or the other, particularly through the supply and demand for labor and consumption goods. Other social trends are such as rising divorce rates and rising numbers of single parents, drug use and changing roots of social individuality. The effect of these trends results in solo-living among people of all ages. Reduced interest in social conformity, vanity and individual

Understanding The Issues Of Information Overload

Understanding The Issues Of Information Overload In this paper we discussed about Understanding information overload and the common causes of information overload, the disadvantages of information overload for an organization, managing information flow in order to minimize the effect of information overload for the organization, the role of information professional to overcome the information overload extract the useful information. Hope the readers will benefited. Information Overload is an increasing problem both in the workplace and in life in general. It is a state in which the amount of available information is so overwhelming a person is unable to effectively process and utilize it. Information overload is intuitively noticeable in our daily lives. Walking any street, we can hardly measure the amount of information we are exposed to. Information hits us from all directions, newspapers, television, voice mail, cellular phones, email, electronic memos, and the World Wide Web, to name a few. This increase in information, combined with the factor of change in many aspects of our lives, can lead to an unhealthy effect. Information Overload is when you are trying to deal with more information than you are able to process to make sensible decisions. The result is either that you either delay making decisions, or that you make the wrong decisions. . Understanding Information overload The first recorded use of the phrase information overload was used by the futurologist Alvin Toffler in 1970, when he predicted that the rapidly increasing amounts of information being produced would eventually cause people problems. Heylighen (1999) noted, People exposed to the rapid changes of modern life may develop a state of helplessness and inadequacy. Nelson (2001) defines information overload as the incapability to obtain a form of knowledge from a massive amount of information for one reason or another. Information overload can take place for one of these reasons: 1. Not understanding the existing information 2. Feeling inundated by the need to absorb huge amounts of information 3. Not knowing if the needed information exists or not 4. Not knowing where to obtain the information 5. Knowing where the information is but have no access privilege Causes of Information overload Information overload was experienced long before the appearance of information technology and electronic gadgets. Complaints about too many books echo across the centuries, from when books were papyrus rolls, parchment manuscripts, or hand printed. After Printing innovation books were produced and accumulated in unprecedented numbers, and, given their drop in cost, many more readers than before had access to more books than they could read. In the Internet era where millions of smart phones and gadgets are sold every day, zillions of tons of data are being produced. Thus making people spoilt for choices. With a touch, one can easily get almost any data from any corner of the world. The rate of production of different kinds of data such as news, text, multimedia and graphs is breathtaking. For example: YouTube where 24 hours of video is being uploaded in every minute and the rate is increasing everyday. There are millions of sites are there and even the IP address is going to be exhausted. One could imagine the amount of electronic data that is available to digest. Organizations accumulate a huge amount of information about its internal operations and resources. Fifteen years ago only phone, fax and post mails were used for communication. There is a general increase in business communication by voice mail, e-mail, internet and online conferencing in addition to the above mentioned traditional methods which results information overload. Disadvantages of information overload for an organization Too little or too much information is not good for an individual and an organization. Too much reduces their ability to concentrate effectively on the most important messages. People facing information overload sometimes try to cope by ignoring some of the messages, by delaying responses to messages they deem unimportant, by answering only parts of some messages, by responding inaccurately to certain messages, by taking less time with each message, or by reacting only superficially to all messages. Persons exposed to excessive amounts of information are less productive, prone to make poor decisions, and risk suffering serious stress-related diseases. He becomes highly selective and ignore a large amount of information or give up and dont go beyond the first results in many cases, need more time to reach a decision, make mistakes, have difficulties in identifying the relationship between the details and the overall perspective and waste time. Information overload affects-and afflicts-both individual knowledge workers, struggling to perform their jobs while drowning in data, and entire office organizations, whose productivity and customer care suffer as a consequence. The abundance of information we enjoy today comes at a price. Less apparent is the tremendous hidden cost it imposes on the organization as a whole. In one study, for example, people took an average of nearly 25 minutes to return to a work task after an email interruption. Another study found that time lost to handling unnecessary e-mail and recovering from information interruptions cost Intel nearly $1 billion a year. An article in the October issue of HBR, found that forcing knowledge workers to take weekly breaks from email and other work distractions improved performance. Information Overload on an organization is to understand all the lost opportunities it causes and inefficiencies produced. The amount of information has increased for a number of reasons: there is a general increase in business communication, in-company and with customers and suppliers; trends such as globalisation and deregulation increase competition; companies are downsizing and fewer secretaries are employed to protect people from information; more outsourcing means a wider range of other companies with which it is necessary to communicate. There are also more ways to communicate: by fax, voice mail, e-mail, internet and online conferencing, in addition to the more traditional methods, telephone, meetings, post and telex. The cost to business Time is wasted. People spend too much time looking for information. 38% of managers surveyed waste substantial amounts of time just looking for information. Factors such as the holding of files in different software formats and the speed of the internet at critical times of day contribute to this. Decisions are often delayed: 43% of respondents though that decisions were delayed and otherwise adversely affected by analysis paralysis or the existence of too much information. 47% of respondents said that information collection distracts them from their main responsibilities. They find it difficult to develop strategies for dealing with the information they retrieve. It is interesting to imagine the potential increase in productivity if all distractions were removed. The human costs The study identified for the first time that information overload contributes to stress. Two out of three respondents associated information overload with tension with colleagues and loss of job satisfaction. 42% attributed ill-health to this stress. 61% said that they have to cancel social activities as a result of information overload and 60% that they are frequently too tired for leisure activities. National differences In general these were not considered to be of great significance. Managers in the USA and the United Kingdom get the most unsolicited information. Asian managers appear to need less information to make decisions: only 9% claimed to need enormous amounts of information compared with 31% in the United States. Their major decisions may be made through intuition to a greater extent. More United States managers (39%) agree that they suffer stress than those in the UK and Hong Kong. People can no longer develop effective personal strategies for managing information. Faced with an onslaught of information and information channels, they have become unable to develop simple routines for managing information. Technologies for managing information are often the problem, not the solution. They can create the M25 effect: more lanes just means more traffic. People create and distribute because they can, not because its useful. Intranets can become like the internet full of home-made home pages and dead links. Intelligent agents frequently do not live up to their name. Current research suggests that the surging volume of available information-and its interruption of peoples work-can adversely affect not only personal well-being but also decision making, innovation, and productivity. In one study, for example, people took an average of nearly 25 minutes to return to a work task after an e-mail interruption. Thats bad news for both individuals and their organizations. Theres hope, though. Innovative tools and techniques promise relief for those of us struggling with information inundation. Some are technological solutions-software that automatically sorts and prioritizes incoming e-mail, for instance-designed to regulate or divert the deluge. Others prevent people from drowning by getting them to change the way they behave and think. Who knows: Maybe someday even I will enjoy swimming in the powerful currents of information that now threaten to pull me under. Before we can take action / set the procedure to minimize the negative effect of information overload, we should do the analysis of information flows both individual and organisation. Not only for electronic information source such email, but also for spoken words, reading books and talking to friends and family. The analysis is started with identification what information we need based on our key information areas, when we need the information, to whom we should exchange the information with (information sharing), and why we need the information and how we turn the information into results. After understand the information flow, we will be able to set/construct the procedure of information handling which consists of filtering, information pruning, time management, to-do list and optimization the use of current technology as information organizing and distributing tool. There are two types of filtering information i.e. technical filter and daily communication filter. The technical filter is easier to manage as once we set our preference it will work accordingly. An example of technical filter is filter function that is available in e-mails. Filtering daily communication is more difficult because it depends much on the situation and current conversation at that time. Every reaction to another person is an indication of what you want to hear or not hear during the rest of the conversation. We often think that the information is important/useful for the recipient which actually not from recipient point of view. Filter prime our thinking and test whether the new information is important. However, the filter should not be too rigid, as it may exclude coincidences. We will no longer accidentally stumble across information, as is often part of searches on the internet. As regards of second information flow, we can decide more quickly to simply stop receiving it if the information is just nice to know instead of need to know. We will not miss anything as we dont use this information for making decision. Besides that, this less important information will leave us less time for really important information. There is a tool for technical pruning such as setting up the expiry date and which action should we take e.g. file, cancel, delete, etc. Time management is important as time is always in exceedingly short supply. We never enough with the time that we have. Therefore, attention and concentration are important aspect in time management. With full attention and concentration the time spent for managing information is more efficient. Because we need to remember increasingly more, we need an aid i.e. to do list of actions so that we can keep tracking what things we still need to do/settle. This practice alone will give us a lot of added value. Besides the to-do list, it is also good if we also make not-to-list so that when the time come, we are ready. Nowadays with high technology we can optimize the IT to help us to organize and distribute the information.

affirmative action :: essays research papers

Affirmative Action   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Kenneth Huttner   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  ECO 325   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Professor Krall   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  April 24, 2002   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Discrimination is a problem that has plagued our country for many years. In the past few decades the government has been attempting to correct the problem through anti discrimination legislation. Some of the biggest programs have been through affirmative action. There is a general consensus that there are problems in our society with discrimination in many areas. But the questions we must ask are: Is affirmative action a just way to solve the problem of discrimination? Is affirmative action constitutional or is it reverse discrimination? And how do we go about solving the problem of discrimination if not through affirmative action? President Kennedy first introduced affirmative action in 1961 although he did not really possess the power to do much about it without the support of Congress. Affirmative action was expanded into the arena of government contracts. Kennedy made a declaration that said that upon accepting a government contract the contractor must pledge not to discriminate against any applicants or employees on the basis of race, creed, color, or national origin(Elliot and Ewoh, p212). Although the contractors made this pledge there was not much enforcement of it. In 1964 congress took steps battle discrimination in the workplace. Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act said that no person could be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, or national origin when it came to publicly funded programs. This was expanded in 1965 when president Johnson declared that the government would provide equal opportunity employment. Then in 1967 this was again expanded to make it illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender as well as race(Elliot and Ewoh, p213). In 1970 the Department of Labor ordered that all contractors with government contracts, fifty or more employees, and received $50,000 or more in assistance had to develop an extensive affirmative action plan to include minorities in areas where they lacked representation(Elliot and Ewoh, p213). These plans had to include in depth research with goals and timetables, which would be met by the contractors. If the goals were not met then the government would no longer enter into contracts with the contractors. This was called order No. 4, and was revised in 1971 to include women(Elliot and Ewoh, p213). At this time affirmative action was not quota based. Later Jimmy Carter would give the responsibility of overseeing these mandates to the Equal Employment Opportunity Committee.