What are the political reasons public pensions are underfunded? If the pension problem is political, what steps would have to occur to remedy the problem? Do you think such a remedy will ever take place?

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Need help responding to these 2 discussion post

Public Pensions and Employer/Labor Relations

After reading the Dorfman article, “Public Pensions are Still Marching to Their Death”, respond to the following questions:

  • What are the political reasons public pensions are underfunded?
  • If the pension problem is political, what steps would have to occur to remedy the problem? Do you think such a remedy will ever take place?
  • If you do not see a remedy for the situation, what do you predict will happen to public pensions in the future?

Julie Jessee

Budget, budget, and budget — it all comes down to money and greed.   Public pensions are mostly underfunded because politicians make campaign promises that can’t be upheld.   Look at our national deficit, if the big guys can’t seem to figure out how to control spending then how are the smaller guys in cities and states supposed to figure it out? Take the VA for example, veterans aren’t getting the care they should in some areas because budgets are tight. Employees worry that their pension plan will be effected if things don’t improve, positions get cut to save money, but wait, it’s the end of the year and the VA is shelling out millions of dollars in annual bonuses; bonuses for what, doing your job?

In my opinion, the only way to fix the problem is to stop the greed. The only way to stop the greed is to bring people back down to a fair playing field. First and foremost, people must be held accountable. If they are hired to do a job then they should do it and management should uphold the standards for all employees. If someone is not capable of doing the job then they should be let go. If public programs stopped providing free handouts and asked people to work then maybe enough money could be saved to provide a livable pension to anyone that really worked for it.

Sadly, I don’t think any of my ideas or thoughts will ever happen. Through the years we have slowly created a society that enables others to do nothing for themselves, the begin to feel entitled to everything that many of us work hard for every day.

Tiffany Burt

What are the political reasons public pensions are underfunded?

The reason the public pensions are underfunded is because politicians use the money for something they can pay off fast. The same politicians are granting pensions benefits to state employees because it’s a vote-buying scheme with no budgetary cost( Dorfman, J., 2014). When the cost can be hidden and then deferred for future payment, politicians can easily get away with making unreasonable promises without fixing the cracks in the system( Atanasov, I., 2014). I think these politicians think there will always have money coming into the fund, so they aren’t worried about the people it affects, as long as they are taken care of.

If the pension problem is political, what steps would have to occur to remedy the problem? Do you think such a remedy will ever take place?

To remedy the problem, it would require a new political calculus by the two parties most responsible : state politicians and government employee unions. But who’s to say this will fix the problem. They have been using this money for years, so how can this all change now. If this is how it’s going to continue, I don’t see a remedy because they will continue to use it and there won’t have anymore money left to give to the next generations. After doing some research, the thing I found that could help state pension, would be reform from the federal government. In order for them to protect taxpayers from the investment risk inherent in pensions, states need to abandon the defined benefit model. Instead, states need to go toward the defined-contribution model. If states go this way, it will provide employees with some fixed amount toward retirement while they are working, allowing them to invest the money on their own (Barro, J., 2012).

If you do not see a remedy for the situation, what do you predict will happen to public pensions in the future?

If there’s no remedy for the situation, I believe public pensions will not be available for future workers. If they continue to go in this direction, maybe they need to look into other solutions to keep it alive .

Discuss the contribution of this study to the current literature regarding physical activity and wellness.

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Physical Activity, Health, and WellnessFor this assignment, you will examine the relationship between physical activity and wellness by reviewing available literature.  Your paper must include the following:

  1. To begin, review the “Physical Inactivity” section (pp. 57-59) of Chapter 2 in Wellness: Concepts and Applications (8th ed.). Consider highlighting the main concepts, taking notes, and/or outlining this section to help solidify the concepts in your memory. After reading and reviewing the section, answer the “Physical Inactivity Questions (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.” and include the answers to these questions as the first part of the paper you submit.
  2. Next, select one published scholarly research study from the Ashford University Library that evaluates the relationship between physical activity and wellness. Remember to save a full-text PDF version of this article for submission along with your assignment. In your paper, you must describe the basic parts of your selected research study by answering the following questions:
  • What was the research question that the authors set out to answer through their study?
  • What was their hypothesis?
  • What methodology did they follow to carry out the research?
    • Who were the subjects, and how many were used?
    • What did the researchers have the subjects do?
    • What data did the researchers collect?
  • How did they collect it?
  • What were the results of the study?
  • What did the researchers conclude from their results? Do you agree with their conclusions?
  • Discuss the contribution of this study to the current literature regarding physical activity and wellness.
  • Describe whether your selected study provides evidence to support current views or claims regarding physical activity and wellness or whether it provides brand new ideas and information.
  • State whether you would change your current physical activity and wellness behaviors based off the results of this study. Explain your answer.
  • Examine the relationship between physical activity and wellness utilizing the research study analysis and describe what you learned from the text and explain how the study you selected supports this information.

Your assignment must be at least five pages in length, excluding the title and reference pages. It must include a minimum of two scholarly sources (one may be your course text, and the other will be your research study). Your paper and all sources must be formatted in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.Carefully review the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.

Discuss the concept of leadership and the importance of leadership, and explain why you selected the style you chose for your leader.

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*ITL Essay INSTRUCTIONS:

Choose a leader from history whom you admire. Similarly, to the Barnes, Humphreys, Oyler, Pane Haden, and Novicevic (2013) article that profiles Jerry Garcia, which is posted in the Unit I Study Guide, discuss which leadership style discussed in this unit was employed by your admired leader. Begin with a summary of the approaches and theories discussed in this unit.

Be sure to include the following in your essay:

 Summarize Bass’ leadership approaches.  Summarize the follower-focused leadership theories: servant leadership, authentic leadership, and leader- member exchange (LMX).  Discuss the concept of leadership and the importance of leadership, and explain why you selected the style you chose for your leader.  Discuss the appropriateness or inappropriateness of the style exhibited by the leader you selected.

Be sure to follow the guidelines below:

 Writing should include proper grammar, sentence structure, and writing mechanics.   Organization should be logical. 

Your paper should be at least two pages in length.   You are required to use three outside sources to support your essay.  All sources used must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations in APA format.

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POM Essay – INSTRUCTIONS

This first course assignment has you demonstrate the applications of the important components dealing with business management. In this assignment, explain the importance of planning, organization, staffing, directing, and controlling for effective business management. Share your own experiences tied to management skills, principles, and strategies you have implemented that have or have not worked in your past or current careers. If you do not have any experience tied to management skills, address what you like to see in managers who you have worked for in the past.

Your essay submission must be at least two pages in length. You are required to use at least one outside source to support your explanation. Your essay response should be formatted in accordance with APA style.

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POM Article Review:

Locate a SCHOLARLY article that addresses one of the following best practices tied to management: planning, organization, staffing, or directing.

After reading the article and briefly summarizing the purpose for the article, answer the following questions:

 What is the main point?  Who is the intended audience?  Do the arguments within the article support the main point?  What evidence supports the main point?  What is your opinion of the article? Do you agree with the findings?

Your article review submission must be at least one page in length. The article review should be formatted in accordance with APA style. 

What U.S. Constitution amendment gave all males the right to vote (and when), and and which amendment gave females the right to vote (and when)?

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MCO 418 -Ch 10, 11 and 12 Study Questions

Ch 10 Study Questions(Reform is My Religion)

1. The U.S. ethnic immigrantpress peaked in what year and with a total of how manydifferent foreign language papers?

2. What U.S. Constitution amendment gave all males the right to vote (and when), and and which amendment gave females the right to vote (and when)?

3. Besides the mainstream Chicago papers, what were some of the numerous German language newspapers, specialized magazines,and labor newspapers that circulated in early 1900s Chicago?

4. Between 1820 and 1900, Chicago socialists and anarchists issued how manynewspapers and in what eight different languages?

5. Who launched the Boston Guardianand the Crisismagazine (and when), and what did they advocate in comparison to the views of Booker T. Washington?

6. How was the Black press of the first half of the 20thcentury characterized?

7. When was the first wave of feminism and how did its mission and activism compare to the role of thesecond wave of feminism?

8. What was the name of the radical feminist newspaper Victoria Woodhull and her sister Tennessee Caflin from 1870 to 1876 published, and what was it designed to do?9. Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton,Lucy Stone and Margaret Sanger were affiliated with what newspapers and what did these suffragettes advocate?

10. What suffragist newspaper’s motto was “Men, Their Rights and Nothing More; Women, their RightsandNothing Less.”

Ch 11 Study Questions(Progressivism and World War I)

1. What years are considered the muckraking journalism era and how was it characterized?

2. What’s the origins of the term “muckracking” and what were some of the most notable muckraker magazines?

3. Concerned about the U.S. distribution of wealth, muckraking reform noted that while there were only 3 millionaires in 1860 (just before the Civil War), there werehow many by 1900?

4. From 1902 to WWI, what are examples of reform issues muckraking journalism introduced into mainstream American society.

5. What magazines did Ray Stannard Baker, Ida Tarbell and Lincoln Steffens write for andwhat was the focus their most notable exposes?

6.  Who was Samuel McClure, what was his legacy and in In January 1903 what article did each muckraker of “the trio” contribute to his McClure’s magazine?

7. Although radio technology was available before WWI, why did radio broadcasting to theAmerican public not materialize until after the war?

8. When did muckraking decline, and why?

9. By the end of WWI, how had U.S. newspaper advertising and circulation changed?

10. The number of U.S. newspapers increased until 1909 when they peaked at how many?

11. Discuss the establishment and role of the U.S. Committee on Public Information.

12. What kinds of censorship and constraints did the U.S. press experience during WWI?

Ch 12 Study Questions(Media and Consumer Culture)

1. The first U.S. radio station went on air where and with coverage of what presidential race?

2. By the end of the 1920s there were how many U.S. radio stations and in what percent of the nation’s households?

3. Who was Lee DeForest, who did he work for, and what was his radio legacy?

4. When the U.S. government created the Radio Act of 1927 to regulate radio, it stated that the airwaves belonged to whom and why?

5. Discuss the debut, ownership and characteristics of U.S. newsreels, andhow they impacted American journalism.When did the “March of Time” newsreel launch andwhy is it notable?

6. Discuss the rise of radio and advantages of radio news broadcasts over newspaper coverage?

7. By the mid 1920s, there were how many theatres in the nation, making how muchmoney, and producing what percent of world’s movies?

8. In what ways did “vertical integration” allow studio control from the top down in the1920s movie industry?

9. When was the Audit Bureau of Circulations established, what was its role and why is it important?

10. Who are considered the founders of the public relations profession and what were their major contributions?