Who is happier: Semyon or Vasily?

          In Anton Chekhov's "In Exile," there is a prominent message that the primary character, Semyon, is pushing toward the others: "...if you want to be happy, the very first thing is to not want anything.(pg. 77).  This is a philosophy that he lives by, and also what gives him his nickname, Preacher.   His lifestyle is the perfect way to live out life in exile.  While he may be rude and mocking in his behavior, Semyon is definitely happier, or at least more stable, than Vasily.

          Vasily spends his time in exile swaying up and down (emotionally).  Yes, he has the companionship of his wife and daughter to begin with, giving him true happiness in exile, but his wife soon leaves him, presumably sending him into sadness.  Later, he gains joy from his daughter, but she becomes diseased, potentially fatally, and this, presumably, sends him into sadness.  After his daughter's sickness is diagnosed, he spends his days going from place to place, travelling long distances finding doctors so that his daughter can be healed.  But after a long (undefined in the story) time, he is still searching to no avail, his daughter's condition worsening.  He is chasing after a happiness that has not come to him, seeking something that could be impossible.  He has the companionship of his daughter, but he has spent exorbitant amounts of money to try to cure her, sending for and going to doctor after doctor, while she deteriorates.  

          During the story, Vasily changes behaviorally.  Toward the beginning (when his wife first arrives), he is described as "...panting with joy." (pg. 77).  At the end (while he is going to fetch yet another doctor), he "...stood motionless all the way back, his thick lips tightly compressed, his eyes fixed on one spot." (pg. 83).  It is safe to assume that, at this point, he is feeling no joy, he is only searching for it.

          Semyon, on the other hand, is completely consistent in his mocking tone throughout the entirety of the work.  He has nothing, wants nothing, and condemns those who do want things.  He may be doing this because of his own criminal past, it may be because he has seen the emotional flip-flopping in the life of Vasily and perhaps others before him (he is an old man and it is never said how long he has been in exile).  Either way, Semyon seems completely content in his lifestyle (if not for a touch bitter), and his emotional state is most certainly stable, even if that stability does not lie in joy.

in exile, is Seymon or Vasiley happier?

Seymon, an old man of sixty, lean, toothless and a drunk, is a man of many words, which are not very sympathetic. His days are spent ferrying people from one bank of the River to the other.  As new exiles arrive on the island, Seymon enjoys telling them there is no hope and nothing will get better and there is nothing good on the island. Seymon is content to live in misery and give up on finding any happiness. Then there’s Vasily, Vasily was sent to the island for forging a will. His life on the island was spent chasing money. He needed money to support his wife and daughter. Vasily took chances unlike Seymon who lived for nothing and no-one. Vasily, lived a life with chances.

            Vasily, lived a life with chances. He was happier with life than Seymon. Vasily had a young beautiful wife and a daughter, and also bought a house and land there too. Vasliy experienced life the way it was supposed to be, lively and free but also with sorrow. He also had hope that his life would be good in Siberia with his wife and daughter. Overall and in the end, Vasliy seemed happier with his life because he had all those things. Even though at the end his wife did leave him for someone else, and his daughter was ill he at least had things that cared for him.

To Outsource is to Survive

     Outsourcing is an action which has been used for longer than many would care to think about, but has recently taken on a negative connotation.  The word "outsource" is commonly used these days as an attack on a business or company while, in reality, it actually is not too bad.  Outsourcing, whether overseas or to that guy down the street, is a critical part of maintaining a healthy business.  This applies to all businesses, big or small, whatever their field.  To outsource, as the wonderful Merriam-Webster will attest to, is "to procure (as some goods or services needed by a business organization) under contract with an outside supplier."  This is exactly the idea that Adam Smith was trying to explain in "Concerning the Division of Labor."  Smith explained: "In a tribe of hunters or shepherds a particular person makes bows and arrows, for example, with more readiness and dexterity than any other.  He frequently exchanges them for cattle or for venison with his companions, and he finds at last that he can in this manner get more cattle and venison than if he himself went to the field to catch them."  This bow maker is outsourcing the hunting and breeding of beasts to those who are talented and playing to his strengths so that he can thrive.  To stay in business, a company must play to its strengths, and it must outsource its weaknesses.  If the head of a small accounting business has a background in accounting (which he should, obviously), it makes sense for him to keep track of his business' own money and expenses.  However, it is unlikely that this accountant has any experience with web design or advertising, both of which are rather necessary for a small business to succeed in modern times.  So, to save time and money, and to increase his chances of success, this accountant will keep his books, manage his clients, and he will hire a coding team form India and a local advertising company.  He simply cannot do these things on his own, so he must outsource for his business to be a success.


NOTE: I understand that this may not answer the prompt effectively, but I found it to be a very interesting argument, so I went with it.  I can do more if you would like. Please let me know what you think.

Outsourcing in the Fashion Industry

Outsourcing in the Fashion Industry

by

Abigail Roberts

At the moment outsourcing is a very controversial issue in almost every industries. Some say keep the jobs in America, others beg to differ that Americans would rather have cheaper products than spend more money on the same quality of products. Currently the majority of the fashion industries are outsourcing because it is more economically smart, but controversial to what they think, according to studies done by Stanford graduates clothing stores could increase their profit margins by 10% to 40% by bringing their business back to our country. Living in America we are all very concerned with the present, we want things now! This is especially true in the fashion industry, no one wants to be wearing last seasons Jimmy Choo’s Trina Pointy when Panama Wedge Sneakers are all the rage. Styles and trends can change in as little as four months, giving retail stores a short time window to order, produce, and ship their goods to stores to be sold.

Outsourcing to Asia not only takes jobs from Americans, but it also takes more time and as a result stores are getting clothes months after the trend has started. Because the more you order the cheaper it is companies tend to order in mass quantities. The issue with this is that when fashion companies choose to outsource the clothing stores who distribute them get clothes later and they end up getting more of them then they need. As a result the clothes become last season and end up on the clearance rack. Selling clothes at reduced prices to just get them out of the store is a huge waste of money. Also when clothes are being made in Asia the companies' managers cannot oversee the production of goods as closely and easily, leading to the production of worse quality clothes. If the fashion industry were to move back to America than they would be able to keep a closer eye on production and order the correct number of clothes with how popular the trend is without having to worry about it taking so long.  
Sources: 
Rigoglioso, Marguerite. "Stanford Graduate School of Business." Outsourcing May Hurt Fashion Manufacturers' Bottom Line. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2014
Belcher,, Lynda Moultry, and Demand Media. "The Negative Effects of Outsourcing in the Clothing Industry." Small Business. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Mar. 2014.

Outsourcing in the Entertainment Industry

Like many industries, the entertainment industry is being affected by outsourcing, also known as ‘runaway production’. Because of government subsidies and lower production costs, film and T.V. production is moving outside of Hollywood and outside of the USA (James, 2012). This is making it so skilled craftsmen can’t make a living where they live, and need to move elsewhere and work for less money, or completely lose their jobs.  According to the 2001 report "Impact of the Migration of U.S. Film and Television Production". Department of Commerce Secretary Norman Mineta states, "Runaway film production' has affected thousands of US workers in industries ranging from computer graphic to construction workers and caterers. These losses threaten to disrupt important parts of a vital American industry." However, because the production is creating new jobs in these other countries, their economies are flourishing while ours is suffering.
Because movies are under pressure to wow their audiences with special effects that are better than other movies, the bar keeps going up, making costs much larger.  For example, the movie Aliens, produced in 1986, cost a total of $18 million, while a more recent movie with similar subject matter and special effects, Avatar, made in 2009, cost $237 million (IMDB.com). Sometimes movies don’t have a big enough budget to have workers located in their own country, requiring outsourcing. The governments of other countries make it less expensive to produce there than other places by offering subsidies. For example, Canada gives subsidies to movie studios that outsource their work there ("The Decline of Foreign Location Production in Canada"._. Another incentive to outsource to other countries is that labor is cheaper in these areas, due to the living expenses being much lower.  This allows companies to pay less to hire workers, keeping overall production costs lower and profits higher.
While runaway production is creating new jobs for other countries and strengthening their economy as well as helping studios to keep production costs lower, the true cost of outsourcing in the entertainment industry is that our economy suffers because of the loss of jobs and the weakening of this industry in our country.
Sources:
"Impact of the Migration of U.S. Film and Television Production". United States Department of Commerce. 2001. Retrieved 2014-3-4.
James, Kevin. Outsourcing Hollywood, Billions Leave Local Economy, Families
Separated.  Huffington Post.com. 2012.  Retrieved 2014-3-4.

"The Decline of Foreign Location Production in Canada". Government of Canada. 2005-05-24.

                                         The True Cost of Outsourcing

Currently on the Apple website there is a video entitled “Designed by Apple in California”. Why is this not entitled something like “Built by Apple in California” or “Created by Apple in California, or even something as straight forward as “Manufactured by Apple in California”? This is because any one of these examples would not be truthful. According to Entrepreneur.com, Apple outsources its product manufacturing not to save money but to save time. Let’s take a moment and think about what that means. Apple has decided to take jobs from Americans and move them to Asian countries such as: Mongolia, Taiwan, and China. “The period to hire 8,700 engineers to manage 200,000 factory workers is: 09 Months in the US and 15 days in China” (Entrpreneur.com) In 2011 the “Apple pie” was cut into three slices, there were 700,000 foreign-held jobs, 43,000 US held jobs and 20,000 US-held jobs abroad.

Based on the information provided, Apple moved out of the United States not for fear of losing their company; or to stay in business but to cut down production time, to please stock holders and to maintain the CEO’s inflated salary, case in point Apple CEO Tim Cook, makes "$1,400,000 annually" (Forbes.com), that’s $3835.61 per day. “Worldwide, its stores sold $16 billion in merchandise. But most of Apple’s employees enjoyed little of that wealth… About 30,000 of the 43,000 Apple employees in this country work in Apple Stores, as members of the service economy, and many of them earn about $25,000 a year.” (Forbes.com) If the true cost of outsourcing is American jobs in order to save time for a multi-billion dollar corporation; is it worth it?

Outsourcing for Manufacturing

     Before I even start on this subject, is outsourcing really a bad thing? It does damage the economy in a short term effect, but as the other countries we are outsourcing to grow their economies, the more jobs are flowing in from outside sources. This is especially helpful in the manufacturing industry. A good example was when GM, Ford, and Chrysler outsourced to areas such as Mexico, Canada, and regions in Central and South America in order to compete with the other foreign car industries such as Toyota, Kia, or Nissan. The companies were able to stay afloat, but the immediate issue was the lack of jobs in the manufacturing industry from American companies. The problem fixed itself because the foreign companies insourced more jobs to compete with the now more efficient companies they need to go against.
     Yes, we sent jobs to other countries, but they flowed back from different ones so that their companies would still be able make a profit in America. More jobs were created than were lost, and the outsourcing of those companies allows for the business itself to grow. This creates even more jobs, making up for the ones sent overseas to other nations. Jobs from outside nations are even better because they bring in new money to the economy. This stimulates the economy and allows for growth. The smaller the economy of a nation, the more likely jobs will be insourced. The more companies outsource jobs, the more jobs that flow in, and that increases the circulation of money. The cost of outsourcing jobs in manufacturing is immediate difficulty for Americans, but future economic growth.

Outsourcing for Breast Cancer

          What does “outsourcing” really mean? According to the google dictionary, to outsource is to “obtain (goods or a service) from an outside or foreign supplier, esp. in place of an internal source”. Normally when we think of outsourcing, we think of big companies like Apple, Chase or Google outsourcing jobs like customer service or manufacturing, although whether the effect is positive or negative is up for discussion. Americans also think about “internal outsourcing”, as in farmers hiring illegal (foreign) immigrants to pick strawberries. However, “outsourcing” in a charity is not as common a thought. When you outsource jobs in a charity, you are not hiring people in India to run customer service; instead you are obtaining a good (money) from outside sources as an alternative of initially raising it yourself.

As a general rule, “outsourcing” has a negative connation. For non-profits, it’s a necessity. In his TED talk, The way we think about charity is dead wrong, Dan Pallotta offered an excellent example of the benefits of outsourcing for charities. Say you run a breast cancer charity, like Pallotta did, and you want to start fundraising so you can donate money to the American Cancer Society. You want to keep overhead low, so you’ve got to start small and decide to have a bake sale. To put on the bake sale you only spend 5% of the money you eventually raise for American Cancer Society, which is $71. What Pallotta did was attract sponsors, and come up with 350k as seed money. Within five years he had multiplied the 350k to $194 million, keeping his overhead at 40%. What do you think American Cancer Society would rather receive, $71 from a bake sale or $194 million from a breast cancer awareness walk? Because Pallotta “outsourced”, drawing money from various sponsors, he was able to generate a much amount to donate to whichever breast cancer foundation he chose. So the “true” cost of outsourcing for non-profit organizations is a larger impact on providing assistance for the needy.