Question:
Offshore outsourcing accelerates the development of poorer states’ infrastructure.

Offshoring spurs the development of poorer states. Offshoring relies on the existence of a basic industrial base and certain essential forms of state infrastructure, including an education system. These facilities are likely to be partially or wholly absent in a developing economy. The readily available capital that is located in the developed world, along with the example provided by other developing states that have successfully engaged in offshoring projects incentivises investment in service infrastructure and high quality education.

Many contemporary development strategies focus on developing a state’s industrial and agricultural sectors before its service economy. Expansion of developing states agricultural sectors is already proving to be a politically contentious issue, thanks to the generous and entrenched subsidies that farmers in the developed world are provided with. Resource extraction from developing states is not possible without ceding control of land and hiring of employees to wealthy supermajor oil firms, which exercise an effective monopoly over skilled geologists, miners, scientists and oil drilling experts. Under these circumstances, a conservative approach to development is likely to take an extremely long time to substantially improve economic prosperity and living standards within a poor state. However, an immediate focus on the service sector may allow a state to “leap frog” these developmental stages [i] .

Offshoring provides businesses within a developing state with access to foreign markets far larger than those in their native economy may contain. This will allow offshoring businesses to take advantage of economies of scale and capital inflow in order to develop with greater speed.

A state’s political culture will also stand to benefit from increased outsourcing. Offshore businesses will demand increasingly accountable, predictable and non-arbitrary forms of national governance. A level of reliability and foreseeability is essential in any system of civil law; so is a restrained, stable government that is prevented from using its power to expropriate private assets or spend tax revenue capriciously.

[i] “Strengthening India’s offshoring industry.” McKinsey Quaterly, August 2009. http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Strengthening_Indias_offshoring_industry_2372

Side proposition’s description of the economic processes underlying off shore outsourcing is overly optimistic, and makes claims about educational and industrial development in the first world that are highly contestable.

By shifting production and support services to the developing world, western businesses are, in effect, circumventing protections built into first world employment laws designed to ensure that the demands of the market do not abrogate individual liberty or basic standards of welfare. Limitations imposed on market freedom, such as the minimum wage, are justified by the risk of incentivising businesses to cut wages to such a level that employees are forced into lives of subsistence, with restrictions on their spending power and mobility effectively tethering them to a particular employer or trade.

Offshoring presents a direct challenge to the creation of liberal democratic ideas, norms and institutions within developing states. Offshoring favours states that provide a consistent supply of cheap, reliable labour – even if the availability of that labour is a result of poverty or government authoritarianism. An authoritarian state may ban unions, or create unbalanced labour laws that give no protection to employees.

Businesses that engage in offshoring have no control over the uses that the taxes paid by their overseas partners are put to. It is frequently the case that undeveloped states will continue to underinvest in infrastructure and public services. Instead, tax revenue will be kept low enough to attract further investment, with takings spent on entrenching the position of undeveloped states’ controlling institutions and social elites. Such practices may ultimately undermine the development process within poorer nations. A diminishing supply of workers will be obliged to taken on the burden of a declining standard of living. Workers will be forced to pay for increasingly costly educational and medical services in order to meet the needs of their families and extended families. Payment of bribes will become common. Without sensible reinvestment of tax revenues, workers are likely to become dependent on foreign in order to meet their domestic needs. Eventually, excessive growth in dependency may push an economy into competitive decline, as the state fails to maintain the size or education standards of its working population.

Taxation remains a vital component of domestic resource mobilisation however focus needs to be placed on improving Tanzania’s top revenue sources before innovative new models. Although the performance of tax collection has improved - with tax revenues rising by a rate of 15.7% between 1996/97 and 2007/08 (AfDB, 2011) taxation does not reach many areas that could be taxed; despite increasing exports of minerals and natural resources,

Competition will diminish the quality of education across the board. Teamwork is essential for the effectiveness of schools. Making differences in performance more visible will hamper teamwork because it will create perverse incentives. For instance, teachers who have devised a successful method for teaching a particular subject area will be less likely to share this because sharing it means eroding their 'strategic advantage' in the 'marketplace for teachers'.

The SIM card tax is actually under-ambitious for potential change to be maximised. Nevertheless, the tax initiates a step in the right direction. Firstly, it will ensure reductions are made in tax avoidance. Secondly, the model shows the potential role the private-sector can play in tax collection. Decentralisation, and shifting responsibility, to independent providers means valuable resources can be collected outside of the criticised TRA structure. For example, the Association of Tanzania Employers may be granted greater involvement in enhancing corporate tax collection. Estimations suggest corporate tax exemptions resulted in annual revenue losses of 4% between 2011-2012 (Gaddis, 2013).

The SIM card tax indicates domestic resources can be mobilised by engaging in public-private partnerships. For progressive tax systems, Tanzania needs to utilise private actors.

There are many ways to implement this on a practical level. Wages can be created through tax exemptions as opposed to the creation of new streams of wages and wealth.

Moreover, the prohibitive expense can be paid for by an increase in taxation. Home-keeping can be seen as a public good as it create good, strong homes and helps create constructive bases of support that help create productive future members of society, it can qualify as a public good that would therefore be a legitimate expense to tax the public for.

The value placed upon the right to free expression reflects its ability to enable the articulation of new, compelling and beneficial ideas, alongside damaging forms of speech. In liberal democratic societies, the potential inherent in free speech has always preserved it against limitation by legislation and- to a great extent- by social norms. A natural (as opposed to legal) person who makes statements that are openly offensive, or are inaccurate or misleading may also be able to articulate profound and useful ideas and observations. This is also true for certain groups formed by association – such as political parties.

However, corporations as they are popularly understood- as business entities- are constrained by law only to act in a certain way. In the United States, the individuals responsible for deciding on the actions of a corporation do so on the explicit understanding that they owe a particular duty to the individuals who make up that corporation. This legal duty takes the form of an obligation to run the business to maximise the value of the shares [1] in the business that each of its constituent investors holds. This duty has done a lot to promote investment in new businesses and to keep the reputation of established firms intact. It ensures that confidence in corporations is not undermined by speculation that they might be pursuing the wrong goals and it allows incompetent directors to be removed from their positions before they can harm investors' interests. However, this law also makes it necessary to limit the other rights that corporate persons might have access to.

The Unitarian commentator Tom Stites puts the situation bluntly. “Corporations express the collective investment goals of shareholders... Fiduciary responsibility confines all but closely held corporations to this singular goal. By shutting off other values to focus solely on pursuit of profit... corporations are by their nature immoral...” [2] In other words, the boards of directors of large corporations, in most circumstances will only be able to pursue a profit motive.

The type of personhood that money-making corporations utilise under American law is a personhood that comes complete with a very specific personality and set of goals. A corporate person that is formed by a collective of shareholders, each of whom have invested in the assets held by this individual, will be bound to engage profit motivated behaviour when it acts [3] . Executives and employees of the corporation, will find their jobs at risk if they choose to forgo profit-led behaviour in favour of directing a corporation to take actions informed by different social and economic principles.

An individual's right to free speech cannot not be abrogated in a broad fashion by a liberal government, in part because he is, to borrow an archaic phrase, “the captain of his own soul” – an individual with free will, able to be influenced by argument and to develop new ideas and perspectives upon the subject of his speech. A profit making corporation, however, is obliged to follow a single set of behavioural imperatives. If it is not attempting to maximise its profits, it will seek to protect the value of its interests and the efficiency of its operations. Where it is able to speak freely, a corporation will always use its right to expression for predictable ends. It is easy to envision scenarios in which corporate bodies will use the right to free speech to spread false or inaccurate information or to distort open debate if there was profit to be gained or protected.

Human behaviour is diverse and the ideas that we express can be altered by reason and the influence of argument. Through legal measures that were intended to protect shareholders investment in profit-making corporations, corporate behaviour has become limited, closed minded and immune to persuasive debate.

[1] Mills v Mills (1938) CLR 150

[2] “How corporations became ‘persons’”. uuworld.org, 01 May 2003. http://www.uuworld.org/ideas/articles/157829.shtml

[3] Bakan, J. “The Corporation”, Free Press, 2004

The spending for HS2 would not contribute to the deficit as it is investment that will pay back the money over time and will also be creating assets that can in extremis be sold. The high cost by comparison to other high speed networks is almost entirely due to high land prices; this means that any big transport project is going to cost a similar premium.

Paying housewives a wage would improve not reduce social mobility. Many women would still choose to go to university and the vast majority who do will still want to work. Paying housewives will not prevent any women who wants to work from working. Rather it will simply provide another option for those who wish to devote themselves full time to their family. This will give these women some financial freedom giving them more opportunities to educate themselves and their children so that they can get a better job than they otherwise would when they no longer wish to just be a housewife.

Renting holds fewer benefits for women than ownership. For empowerment more women need to become home, and landowners. The provision of land titles to women means they have a sense of stability. In the case of Johannesburg, South Africa, a majority of young, female renters engage in different forms of transactional sex due to the expense of renting [1] . Equality in land titling will ensure women are able to save and seek safer livelihood options.

[1] See further readings: Action Aid, 2012.

While we do not see limitations on reselling by customers in general, there are, in fact, a good few occasions where such limitations on reselling and use occur. Books and other media are limited through copyright laws in their ability to be legitimately re-sold, motor insurance is indeed sold at least partly on the basis of what you are going to do with your vehicle.

Armed forces do not require large amounts of funding to be well disciplined forces that are subordinate to civilian governance. This was shown by many communist nations; Vietnam’s army was immense, beat both the French and Americans and was firmly under party control. The importance of armed forces for security is universally recognised so foreign powers will help train armed forces to ensure these qualities. Thus for example as part of efforts to bring peace to Sierra Leone Britain provided training for the Sierra Leone Armed Forces helping bring stability to the country and allowing the Sierra Leonean army to engage in peace keeping missions elsewhere in Africa.(1)

(1) Clapson, Joe, ‘Sierra Leonean army comes of age under British direction’, Ministry of Defence, 6 April 2011, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sierra-leonean-army-comes-of-age-under-british-direction

Instruction: Given a claim, retrieve documents that refute the claim


Question:
Offshore outsourcing is consistent with existing labour distribution patterns.

Offshore outsourcing lowers the cost of goods and services. There is no real need for all of the goods and services that are consumed within a highly developed economy to be produced in that economy. The sale price of a particular form of good or service is determined by a wide range of factors, including the pay demands made by the workers assembling the good or providing the service. Seeking out a labour force willing to accept lower wages and work longer hours enables a business to reduce the price and increase the overall supply of the products it offers [i] .

As more expensive and elaborate goods become available to more people- due to reductions in price- living standards throughout an economy will rise. Concurrently, increased demand for goods produced abroad will lead to increased business for offshore firms that take on outsourced work, leading to more money flowing into developing economies. Standards of living will also increases in these economies – albeit at a lower rate than in the import economy.

Offshore outsourcing does nothing more than reflect labour distribution patterns that already exist in domestic economies [ii] . Different types of activity will be carried out in centralised urban areas- where land and operating costs may be higher- than in the countryside or peripheral, industrialised districts. Certain regions of a state, by dint of geography or earlier investment decisions, may produce a concentration of certain type of worker, service or skillset. Competition within these areas will drive labour costs down – but a downward trend in service and production costs will usually lead to an upward trend in demand. This interrelationship has successfully fostered developed within all of the worlds’ largest economies, without creating unmanageable regional inequalities and without undermining workers’ rights.

Greater social mobility and education attainment within developed economies reduces the availability of the types of skilled and semi-skilled manufacturing-oriented labour that drove first-world economies during the twentieth century. First world nations now compete in knowledge-led economies, seeking to provide research new technologies and provide novel services to consumers in other highly developed nations. The residual power of collective bargaining mechanisms such as unions, coupled with expectations of high pay and highly refined working conditions mean the relative competitiveness of first-world manufacturing industries has dropped. Even if a state were to give preferential treatment to domestic manufacturers and low-level service providers, it would still run the risk of being out-competed by its counterparts in the developing world.

Better standards of education, growing personal wealth and the frequent use of credit to purchase assets have created a collective action problem in first world states that practice off shoring. While, in the long-term, the number of highly skilled workers within domestic economies will grow, in the short term, a significant number of older manual and clerical workers may become unemployable as a result of more intense overseas competition. However, side proposition argues that this constitutes a marginal and bearable cost in term of the wider benefits to quality of life that outsourcing achieves.

Further, the potential costs of assisting excluded domestic workers to re-enter the job market will be covered by increased taxation and excise revenues resulting from more frequent trade with offshore outsourcing firms.

[i] “Idea. Offshoring.” The Economist, 28 October 2009. http://www.economist.com/node/14301171

[ii] “The once great offshoring debate.” Real Clear Politics, 16 May 2007. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/05/the_once_great_offshoring_deba.html

Failures and defects in outsourced labour and products take longer to detect and are more expensive to remedy. Whilst customer feedback or angry employees may indicate flaws in outsourced support or payroll services, a company may only realise that a component manufactured by an offshore partner is faulty when they take delivery of it. The process of returning the component to its place of origin adds further expense to the costs caused by the delayed completion of a client firm’s product.

Offshore outsourcing reduces the amount of control that a client firm can exercise over component manufacturing even further. The expense of sending supervisors to contractor’s factories will increase. In addition, an offshore contractor may engage in outsourcing itself, entering into relationships with dozens of sub-contractors. This practise further limits the client firm’s ability to control the practices used to produce the materials it has ordered. A client may not be provided with complete information on the actions of sub-contractors; inadequate auditing of a lead contract may conceal the existence of sub-contractors.

In 2004, the aircraft company Boeing announced that it would use subcontractors (many of them offshore) to build the majority of the components that would make up its new 787 passenger jet. Many of Boeing’s offshore partners produced substandard components that failed to fit together or function properly [i] . Boeing inadvertently became entangled with a number of sub-sub-contractors who had been hired in order to meet deadlines imposed on sub-contractors without Boeing’s authority. When a number of firms engaged in the manufacture of key 787 components came close to financial failure, Boeing was forced to take them over and settle their debts. Boeing had concluded that the cost of bailing out its offshore partners would be lower than the expenses incurred by delaying the launch of its aircraft.

Takeovers of failing outsourcing partners by larger firms are becoming an increasingly common occurrence [ii] . While, in the short term, this practice may enable the client firm to maintain production schedules, in the long term the cost of integrating a new subsidiary into a larger business may prove crippling. Moreover, bailing out an outsourcing partner does not provide a guarantee that they will complete the tasks assigned to them in a timely and efficient fashion.

Especially in manufacturing dependent industries, but also in other sectors of developed economies, offshore outsourcing is indicative of flawed, short term strategizing that attempts to engineer higher profits by reducing investment in staff and taking unacceptable risks.

[i] “The trouble with outsourcing.” The Economist, 30 July 2011. http://www.economist.com/node/21524822

[ii] “Boeing’s woes. Nightmareliner.” The Economist, 03 September 2011. http://www.economist.com/node/21528275

Taxation remains a vital component of domestic resource mobilisation however focus needs to be placed on improving Tanzania’s top revenue sources before innovative new models. Although the performance of tax collection has improved - with tax revenues rising by a rate of 15.7% between 1996/97 and 2007/08 (AfDB, 2011) taxation does not reach many areas that could be taxed; despite increasing exports of minerals and natural resources,

Competition will diminish the quality of education across the board. Teamwork is essential for the effectiveness of schools. Making differences in performance more visible will hamper teamwork because it will create perverse incentives. For instance, teachers who have devised a successful method for teaching a particular subject area will be less likely to share this because sharing it means eroding their 'strategic advantage' in the 'marketplace for teachers'.

The SIM card tax is actually under-ambitious for potential change to be maximised. Nevertheless, the tax initiates a step in the right direction. Firstly, it will ensure reductions are made in tax avoidance. Secondly, the model shows the potential role the private-sector can play in tax collection. Decentralisation, and shifting responsibility, to independent providers means valuable resources can be collected outside of the criticised TRA structure. For example, the Association of Tanzania Employers may be granted greater involvement in enhancing corporate tax collection. Estimations suggest corporate tax exemptions resulted in annual revenue losses of 4% between 2011-2012 (Gaddis, 2013).

The SIM card tax indicates domestic resources can be mobilised by engaging in public-private partnerships. For progressive tax systems, Tanzania needs to utilise private actors.

There are many ways to implement this on a practical level. Wages can be created through tax exemptions as opposed to the creation of new streams of wages and wealth.

Moreover, the prohibitive expense can be paid for by an increase in taxation. Home-keeping can be seen as a public good as it create good, strong homes and helps create constructive bases of support that help create productive future members of society, it can qualify as a public good that would therefore be a legitimate expense to tax the public for.

The value placed upon the right to free expression reflects its ability to enable the articulation of new, compelling and beneficial ideas, alongside damaging forms of speech. In liberal democratic societies, the potential inherent in free speech has always preserved it against limitation by legislation and- to a great extent- by social norms. A natural (as opposed to legal) person who makes statements that are openly offensive, or are inaccurate or misleading may also be able to articulate profound and useful ideas and observations. This is also true for certain groups formed by association – such as political parties.

However, corporations as they are popularly understood- as business entities- are constrained by law only to act in a certain way. In the United States, the individuals responsible for deciding on the actions of a corporation do so on the explicit understanding that they owe a particular duty to the individuals who make up that corporation. This legal duty takes the form of an obligation to run the business to maximise the value of the shares [1] in the business that each of its constituent investors holds. This duty has done a lot to promote investment in new businesses and to keep the reputation of established firms intact. It ensures that confidence in corporations is not undermined by speculation that they might be pursuing the wrong goals and it allows incompetent directors to be removed from their positions before they can harm investors' interests. However, this law also makes it necessary to limit the other rights that corporate persons might have access to.

The Unitarian commentator Tom Stites puts the situation bluntly. “Corporations express the collective investment goals of shareholders... Fiduciary responsibility confines all but closely held corporations to this singular goal. By shutting off other values to focus solely on pursuit of profit... corporations are by their nature immoral...” [2] In other words, the boards of directors of large corporations, in most circumstances will only be able to pursue a profit motive.

The type of personhood that money-making corporations utilise under American law is a personhood that comes complete with a very specific personality and set of goals. A corporate person that is formed by a collective of shareholders, each of whom have invested in the assets held by this individual, will be bound to engage profit motivated behaviour when it acts [3] . Executives and employees of the corporation, will find their jobs at risk if they choose to forgo profit-led behaviour in favour of directing a corporation to take actions informed by different social and economic principles.

An individual's right to free speech cannot not be abrogated in a broad fashion by a liberal government, in part because he is, to borrow an archaic phrase, “the captain of his own soul” – an individual with free will, able to be influenced by argument and to develop new ideas and perspectives upon the subject of his speech. A profit making corporation, however, is obliged to follow a single set of behavioural imperatives. If it is not attempting to maximise its profits, it will seek to protect the value of its interests and the efficiency of its operations. Where it is able to speak freely, a corporation will always use its right to expression for predictable ends. It is easy to envision scenarios in which corporate bodies will use the right to free speech to spread false or inaccurate information or to distort open debate if there was profit to be gained or protected.

Human behaviour is diverse and the ideas that we express can be altered by reason and the influence of argument. Through legal measures that were intended to protect shareholders investment in profit-making corporations, corporate behaviour has become limited, closed minded and immune to persuasive debate.

[1] Mills v Mills (1938) CLR 150

[2] “How corporations became ‘persons’”. uuworld.org, 01 May 2003. http://www.uuworld.org/ideas/articles/157829.shtml

[3] Bakan, J. “The Corporation”, Free Press, 2004

The spending for HS2 would not contribute to the deficit as it is investment that will pay back the money over time and will also be creating assets that can in extremis be sold. The high cost by comparison to other high speed networks is almost entirely due to high land prices; this means that any big transport project is going to cost a similar premium.

Paying housewives a wage would improve not reduce social mobility. Many women would still choose to go to university and the vast majority who do will still want to work. Paying housewives will not prevent any women who wants to work from working. Rather it will simply provide another option for those who wish to devote themselves full time to their family. This will give these women some financial freedom giving them more opportunities to educate themselves and their children so that they can get a better job than they otherwise would when they no longer wish to just be a housewife.

Renting holds fewer benefits for women than ownership. For empowerment more women need to become home, and landowners. The provision of land titles to women means they have a sense of stability. In the case of Johannesburg, South Africa, a majority of young, female renters engage in different forms of transactional sex due to the expense of renting [1] . Equality in land titling will ensure women are able to save and seek safer livelihood options.

[1] See further readings: Action Aid, 2012.

While we do not see limitations on reselling by customers in general, there are, in fact, a good few occasions where such limitations on reselling and use occur. Books and other media are limited through copyright laws in their ability to be legitimately re-sold, motor insurance is indeed sold at least partly on the basis of what you are going to do with your vehicle.

Armed forces do not require large amounts of funding to be well disciplined forces that are subordinate to civilian governance. This was shown by many communist nations; Vietnam’s army was immense, beat both the French and Americans and was firmly under party control. The importance of armed forces for security is universally recognised so foreign powers will help train armed forces to ensure these qualities. Thus for example as part of efforts to bring peace to Sierra Leone Britain provided training for the Sierra Leone Armed Forces helping bring stability to the country and allowing the Sierra Leonean army to engage in peace keeping missions elsewhere in Africa.(1)

(1) Clapson, Joe, ‘Sierra Leonean army comes of age under British direction’, Ministry of Defence, 6 April 2011, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sierra-leonean-army-comes-of-age-under-british-direction

Instruction: Given a claim, retrieve documents that refute the claim


Question:
Outsourcing reduces businesses’ control over their supply chains. Offshoring firms are difficult to manage and cannot easily be held to account for failings and errors.

Companies that rely on directly hiring new employees to cover their back-office, estates and maintenance needs will not run the risk that the cost efficiency of those services might suffer as a result of union action or state regulation of pay.

Companies that rely on outsourced offshored labour to fill back-office and administrative roles expose themselves to the risk that those relationships will be undermined, damaged or abused by legal disputes or negotiation failures.

When a dispute develops between a business and a worker that it employs directly, the consequences of that dispute- in terms of lost productivity and lost profits- will usually be limited by the nature of the role that the employee occupies. It will be relatively cheap for a multinational firm to settle a dispute with a sacked cleaner. In addition, the loss of a single cleaner from a large facilities department will not compromise a company’s ability to do business.

The situation is quite different when the services and productivity of an entire company department are dependent on a relationship with an outsourcing firm. The collapse of the relationship between the media firm BskyB and its outsourcing partner EDS resulted in combined legal costs of $70,000,000 and a court case that lasted for almost five months [i] . A dispute over the terms of a contract or a crisis within the state in which an offshore outsourcing service is based can cut a company off from the workers and systems that it has hired. If a company has transferred all responsibility for its payroll or customer support operations to an offshore location, it will be completely paralysed by disagreements or emergencies of this type.

Ordinarily, the equity value and insurance liabilities of businesses could only be directly threatened by large scale union action, a failed product launch or the departure of a senior manager. However, the web of high dependency relationships that a business must enter into to remain competitive has now grown. By decentralising their authority and giving up their right to regulate relationships with its labour force on a one-to-one basis, businesses have exposed themselves to a greater amount of risk.

[i] “The trouble with outsourcing.” The Economist, 30 July 2011. http://www.economist.com/node/21524822

Greater risk will simply oblige companies to be more diligent in screening and selecting the outsourcing firms that they choose to do business with.

While examples such as the construction of the Boeing Dreamliner serve to demonstrate how outsourcing can go wrong, they do not undermine the value of the idea itself. Indeed, an increased emphasis on closely supervised and responsible outsourcing will only serve to bolster the business of firms offering legal and auditing services (some of which are off-shore operations themselves)– and a slight increase in transaction costs is not likely to deter the majority of companies who have already observed the benefits of outsourcing reflected in their annual accounts.

It should also be pointed out that all sensibly run businesses should attempt to guard against the risks inherent in adopting new practices or forming new relationships by taking out insurance. Many insurers and underwriters are gearing up to assess and cover the costs of a collapse in the relationship between a businesses and an outsourcing partner.

If the worst happens and a company is forced to pull out of an offshoring agreement, it will be able to use the money that it receives from its insurer to bring troubled back-office operations or subcontracted tasks back in-house.

Increased competition within the outsourcing market, from both offshore and domestic businesses, will have the effect of forcing outsourcing firms to increase the quality and reliability of their services above the standard offered by their rivals [i] . Competition is likely to result in a net improvement of the standard or service available throughout the outsourcing industry.

[i] Drezner, W D. 26 July 2007. http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/003414.html

Taxation remains a vital component of domestic resource mobilisation however focus needs to be placed on improving Tanzania’s top revenue sources before innovative new models. Although the performance of tax collection has improved - with tax revenues rising by a rate of 15.7% between 1996/97 and 2007/08 (AfDB, 2011) taxation does not reach many areas that could be taxed; despite increasing exports of minerals and natural resources,

Competition will diminish the quality of education across the board. Teamwork is essential for the effectiveness of schools. Making differences in performance more visible will hamper teamwork because it will create perverse incentives. For instance, teachers who have devised a successful method for teaching a particular subject area will be less likely to share this because sharing it means eroding their 'strategic advantage' in the 'marketplace for teachers'.

The SIM card tax is actually under-ambitious for potential change to be maximised. Nevertheless, the tax initiates a step in the right direction. Firstly, it will ensure reductions are made in tax avoidance. Secondly, the model shows the potential role the private-sector can play in tax collection. Decentralisation, and shifting responsibility, to independent providers means valuable resources can be collected outside of the criticised TRA structure. For example, the Association of Tanzania Employers may be granted greater involvement in enhancing corporate tax collection. Estimations suggest corporate tax exemptions resulted in annual revenue losses of 4% between 2011-2012 (Gaddis, 2013).

The SIM card tax indicates domestic resources can be mobilised by engaging in public-private partnerships. For progressive tax systems, Tanzania needs to utilise private actors.

There are many ways to implement this on a practical level. Wages can be created through tax exemptions as opposed to the creation of new streams of wages and wealth.

Moreover, the prohibitive expense can be paid for by an increase in taxation. Home-keeping can be seen as a public good as it create good, strong homes and helps create constructive bases of support that help create productive future members of society, it can qualify as a public good that would therefore be a legitimate expense to tax the public for.

The value placed upon the right to free expression reflects its ability to enable the articulation of new, compelling and beneficial ideas, alongside damaging forms of speech. In liberal democratic societies, the potential inherent in free speech has always preserved it against limitation by legislation and- to a great extent- by social norms. A natural (as opposed to legal) person who makes statements that are openly offensive, or are inaccurate or misleading may also be able to articulate profound and useful ideas and observations. This is also true for certain groups formed by association – such as political parties.

However, corporations as they are popularly understood- as business entities- are constrained by law only to act in a certain way. In the United States, the individuals responsible for deciding on the actions of a corporation do so on the explicit understanding that they owe a particular duty to the individuals who make up that corporation. This legal duty takes the form of an obligation to run the business to maximise the value of the shares [1] in the business that each of its constituent investors holds. This duty has done a lot to promote investment in new businesses and to keep the reputation of established firms intact. It ensures that confidence in corporations is not undermined by speculation that they might be pursuing the wrong goals and it allows incompetent directors to be removed from their positions before they can harm investors' interests. However, this law also makes it necessary to limit the other rights that corporate persons might have access to.

The Unitarian commentator Tom Stites puts the situation bluntly. “Corporations express the collective investment goals of shareholders... Fiduciary responsibility confines all but closely held corporations to this singular goal. By shutting off other values to focus solely on pursuit of profit... corporations are by their nature immoral...” [2] In other words, the boards of directors of large corporations, in most circumstances will only be able to pursue a profit motive.

The type of personhood that money-making corporations utilise under American law is a personhood that comes complete with a very specific personality and set of goals. A corporate person that is formed by a collective of shareholders, each of whom have invested in the assets held by this individual, will be bound to engage profit motivated behaviour when it acts [3] . Executives and employees of the corporation, will find their jobs at risk if they choose to forgo profit-led behaviour in favour of directing a corporation to take actions informed by different social and economic principles.

An individual's right to free speech cannot not be abrogated in a broad fashion by a liberal government, in part because he is, to borrow an archaic phrase, “the captain of his own soul” – an individual with free will, able to be influenced by argument and to develop new ideas and perspectives upon the subject of his speech. A profit making corporation, however, is obliged to follow a single set of behavioural imperatives. If it is not attempting to maximise its profits, it will seek to protect the value of its interests and the efficiency of its operations. Where it is able to speak freely, a corporation will always use its right to expression for predictable ends. It is easy to envision scenarios in which corporate bodies will use the right to free speech to spread false or inaccurate information or to distort open debate if there was profit to be gained or protected.

Human behaviour is diverse and the ideas that we express can be altered by reason and the influence of argument. Through legal measures that were intended to protect shareholders investment in profit-making corporations, corporate behaviour has become limited, closed minded and immune to persuasive debate.

[1] Mills v Mills (1938) CLR 150

[2] “How corporations became ‘persons’”. uuworld.org, 01 May 2003. http://www.uuworld.org/ideas/articles/157829.shtml

[3] Bakan, J. “The Corporation”, Free Press, 2004

The spending for HS2 would not contribute to the deficit as it is investment that will pay back the money over time and will also be creating assets that can in extremis be sold. The high cost by comparison to other high speed networks is almost entirely due to high land prices; this means that any big transport project is going to cost a similar premium.

Paying housewives a wage would improve not reduce social mobility. Many women would still choose to go to university and the vast majority who do will still want to work. Paying housewives will not prevent any women who wants to work from working. Rather it will simply provide another option for those who wish to devote themselves full time to their family. This will give these women some financial freedom giving them more opportunities to educate themselves and their children so that they can get a better job than they otherwise would when they no longer wish to just be a housewife.

Renting holds fewer benefits for women than ownership. For empowerment more women need to become home, and landowners. The provision of land titles to women means they have a sense of stability. In the case of Johannesburg, South Africa, a majority of young, female renters engage in different forms of transactional sex due to the expense of renting [1] . Equality in land titling will ensure women are able to save and seek safer livelihood options.

[1] See further readings: Action Aid, 2012.

While we do not see limitations on reselling by customers in general, there are, in fact, a good few occasions where such limitations on reselling and use occur. Books and other media are limited through copyright laws in their ability to be legitimately re-sold, motor insurance is indeed sold at least partly on the basis of what you are going to do with your vehicle.

Armed forces do not require large amounts of funding to be well disciplined forces that are subordinate to civilian governance. This was shown by many communist nations; Vietnam’s army was immense, beat both the French and Americans and was firmly under party control. The importance of armed forces for security is universally recognised so foreign powers will help train armed forces to ensure these qualities. Thus for example as part of efforts to bring peace to Sierra Leone Britain provided training for the Sierra Leone Armed Forces helping bring stability to the country and allowing the Sierra Leonean army to engage in peace keeping missions elsewhere in Africa.(1)

(1) Clapson, Joe, ‘Sierra Leonean army comes of age under British direction’, Ministry of Defence, 6 April 2011, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sierra-leonean-army-comes-of-age-under-british-direction

Instruction: Given a claim, retrieve documents that refute the claim


Question:
Offshore outsourcing reduces living standards and limits social mobility.

Reliance on offshoring and offshore outsourcing is likely to lead to increases in inequality and reductions in social mobility within developed western liberal democracies.

Trade with developing economies typically results in a price premium becoming attached to specialised, skilled labourers and service providers in western economies. Poorer countries- even rapidly growing states such as India- produce smaller quantities of highly educated, highly skilled workers, such as vehicle designers, microchip fabricators and architects. In view of this, developing states concentrate on creating semi-skilled jobs that can be assigned to workers lacking- for example- university degrees. A larger proportion of Indian citizens are educated to a lower standard, so the creation of jobs accessible to them will generally be seen as politically astute. Opportunities for employment as a call centre operative or a pay roll clerk will rise in a developing state in response to an increased interest in offshoring by first world businesses.

Concurrently, as some of the money businesses save by offshoring is reinvested in advanced training, consultation exercises and research and development, demand for the services of specialists and highly skilled professionals will rise. Less skilled workers in a developed economy will see a decline in both employment opportunities [i] and pay. Professionals and those who can afford postgraduate education are likely to see their salaries increase. The gap between the rich and poor strata of society within developed economies will grow.

In short, while professionals, executives and decision makers will benefit from offshoring, seeing demand for their services rise, foreign competition is likely to undermine the domestic market for less skilled labour [ii] .

A reduction in demand for white-collar clerical workers, bookkeepers and assembly line workers will increase the burden placed on state social support schemes such as public housing, jobseekers’ payments and subsidised medical care [iii] . Although businesses may benefit from cheap overseas labour, the state will be left to contend with increasing expenditure in the short term and impaired educational and welfare standards in the long term. Children and communities within developed states that lose jobs to offshore operations will be less able to access further and higher education and are more likely to suffer

The social costs engendered by outsourcing do not balance against the financial benefits that accrue to businesses and professionals. Attempts to tax profits generated as a result of offshoring practices may fill a state’s coffers, but will not provide and effective solution to job losses and an increasing dependence on state assistance within less economically mobile communities within the developing world.

Finally, it should be noted that companies encountering financial difficulty or attempting to adapt to recessions come under intense pressure to cut costs. Increasingly, large businesses achieve these savings by engaging in outsourcing [iv] . For the reasons described above, such a practice may exclude a large number of individuals from the labour market. Outsourcing may therefore entrench and prolong a recession.

[i] Fig 3, “Labour-market trends. Winners and losers.” The Economist, 10 September 2011. http://www.economist.com/node/21528434

[ii] “Free Trade’s great, but offshoring rattles me.” Blinder, A S. The Washington Post, 06 May 2007. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/04/AR2007050402555_pf.html

[iii] “Idea. Offshoring.” The Economist, 28 October 2009. http://www.economist.com/node/14301171

[iv] “Passage to India.” The Economist, 24 June 2010. http://www.economist.com/node/16439006

Side opposition have created an argument for increasing the quality and affordability of education within developing states. Thanks to Trade Union’s intensive involvement in the decisions taken by large western businesses, companies that engage in offshoring are often compelled to invest a portion of the savings that they make from offshoring their operations into retraining schemes for staff at risk of redundancy. In 2005, the large IT services company CSC reached an agreement with the Union Amicus that required it to share a portion of the savings that it made through expanding its use of outsourcing with its staff [i] . Rather than declaring any redundancies, CSC gave its staff the opportunity to retrain by devoting almost £5000 for each of its English employees to education and development schemes.

It is conceded that the offshoring relationships formed between America and India and China during the nineteen nineties formed the basis of the industrial booms that both of those states are currently experiencing. An influx of expertise and increases in education and living standards funded by companies specialising in offshore have enabled both Indian and China to reduce their dependence on US manufacturers in many areas of their economy. However, the transition of manufacturing-led industries into developing economies is only one aspect of the offshoring narrative.

Increases in living standards within the developed nations of Europe and north America will only be sustainable if the individuals benefitting from higher wages and access to global markets for goods and services are able to maintain access to these advantages independently of the state’s intervention and changes in industrial practices. This goal is only possible if levels of education within a state are increased. Although side proposition believe that the increased burden on state support services that offshoring may cause is intractable, investment in education can limit the impact of such negative trends to only a single generation.

The affluence of many developed states is also reflected in intense entrepreneurial activity within their economies. In states such as Germany the proliferation in highly specialised small and medium sized businesses- that are unable to afford the services of offshoring businesses- has sustained demand for skilled and semi-skilled jobs. Many of these firms are sustained by larger businesses seeking outsourcing opportunities that are unwilling to engage in offshore outsourcing.

The size and relatively low individual incomes of German-style mittelstand enterprises prevents them from taking advantage of offshore outsourcing, often seen as (proportionately) too expensive and too risky [ii] by mittelstand executives. Such companies also help to sustain employment within economies that place a high premium on specialised technical and professional knowledge, but neglect equally complex and specialised vocational and craft skills.

[i] “CSC to retain staff with offshoring cash.” 09 August 2005. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2005/aug/09/7?INTCMP=SRCH

[ii] “Big is back.” The Economist, 27 August 2009. http://www.economist.com/node/14303582

Taxation remains a vital component of domestic resource mobilisation however focus needs to be placed on improving Tanzania’s top revenue sources before innovative new models. Although the performance of tax collection has improved - with tax revenues rising by a rate of 15.7% between 1996/97 and 2007/08 (AfDB, 2011) taxation does not reach many areas that could be taxed; despite increasing exports of minerals and natural resources,

Competition will diminish the quality of education across the board. Teamwork is essential for the effectiveness of schools. Making differences in performance more visible will hamper teamwork because it will create perverse incentives. For instance, teachers who have devised a successful method for teaching a particular subject area will be less likely to share this because sharing it means eroding their 'strategic advantage' in the 'marketplace for teachers'.

The SIM card tax is actually under-ambitious for potential change to be maximised. Nevertheless, the tax initiates a step in the right direction. Firstly, it will ensure reductions are made in tax avoidance. Secondly, the model shows the potential role the private-sector can play in tax collection. Decentralisation, and shifting responsibility, to independent providers means valuable resources can be collected outside of the criticised TRA structure. For example, the Association of Tanzania Employers may be granted greater involvement in enhancing corporate tax collection. Estimations suggest corporate tax exemptions resulted in annual revenue losses of 4% between 2011-2012 (Gaddis, 2013).

The SIM card tax indicates domestic resources can be mobilised by engaging in public-private partnerships. For progressive tax systems, Tanzania needs to utilise private actors.

There are many ways to implement this on a practical level. Wages can be created through tax exemptions as opposed to the creation of new streams of wages and wealth.

Moreover, the prohibitive expense can be paid for by an increase in taxation. Home-keeping can be seen as a public good as it create good, strong homes and helps create constructive bases of support that help create productive future members of society, it can qualify as a public good that would therefore be a legitimate expense to tax the public for.

The value placed upon the right to free expression reflects its ability to enable the articulation of new, compelling and beneficial ideas, alongside damaging forms of speech. In liberal democratic societies, the potential inherent in free speech has always preserved it against limitation by legislation and- to a great extent- by social norms. A natural (as opposed to legal) person who makes statements that are openly offensive, or are inaccurate or misleading may also be able to articulate profound and useful ideas and observations. This is also true for certain groups formed by association – such as political parties.

However, corporations as they are popularly understood- as business entities- are constrained by law only to act in a certain way. In the United States, the individuals responsible for deciding on the actions of a corporation do so on the explicit understanding that they owe a particular duty to the individuals who make up that corporation. This legal duty takes the form of an obligation to run the business to maximise the value of the shares [1] in the business that each of its constituent investors holds. This duty has done a lot to promote investment in new businesses and to keep the reputation of established firms intact. It ensures that confidence in corporations is not undermined by speculation that they might be pursuing the wrong goals and it allows incompetent directors to be removed from their positions before they can harm investors' interests. However, this law also makes it necessary to limit the other rights that corporate persons might have access to.

The Unitarian commentator Tom Stites puts the situation bluntly. “Corporations express the collective investment goals of shareholders... Fiduciary responsibility confines all but closely held corporations to this singular goal. By shutting off other values to focus solely on pursuit of profit... corporations are by their nature immoral...” [2] In other words, the boards of directors of large corporations, in most circumstances will only be able to pursue a profit motive.

The type of personhood that money-making corporations utilise under American law is a personhood that comes complete with a very specific personality and set of goals. A corporate person that is formed by a collective of shareholders, each of whom have invested in the assets held by this individual, will be bound to engage profit motivated behaviour when it acts [3] . Executives and employees of the corporation, will find their jobs at risk if they choose to forgo profit-led behaviour in favour of directing a corporation to take actions informed by different social and economic principles.

An individual's right to free speech cannot not be abrogated in a broad fashion by a liberal government, in part because he is, to borrow an archaic phrase, “the captain of his own soul” – an individual with free will, able to be influenced by argument and to develop new ideas and perspectives upon the subject of his speech. A profit making corporation, however, is obliged to follow a single set of behavioural imperatives. If it is not attempting to maximise its profits, it will seek to protect the value of its interests and the efficiency of its operations. Where it is able to speak freely, a corporation will always use its right to expression for predictable ends. It is easy to envision scenarios in which corporate bodies will use the right to free speech to spread false or inaccurate information or to distort open debate if there was profit to be gained or protected.

Human behaviour is diverse and the ideas that we express can be altered by reason and the influence of argument. Through legal measures that were intended to protect shareholders investment in profit-making corporations, corporate behaviour has become limited, closed minded and immune to persuasive debate.

[1] Mills v Mills (1938) CLR 150

[2] “How corporations became ‘persons’”. uuworld.org, 01 May 2003. http://www.uuworld.org/ideas/articles/157829.shtml

[3] Bakan, J. “The Corporation”, Free Press, 2004

The spending for HS2 would not contribute to the deficit as it is investment that will pay back the money over time and will also be creating assets that can in extremis be sold. The high cost by comparison to other high speed networks is almost entirely due to high land prices; this means that any big transport project is going to cost a similar premium.

Paying housewives a wage would improve not reduce social mobility. Many women would still choose to go to university and the vast majority who do will still want to work. Paying housewives will not prevent any women who wants to work from working. Rather it will simply provide another option for those who wish to devote themselves full time to their family. This will give these women some financial freedom giving them more opportunities to educate themselves and their children so that they can get a better job than they otherwise would when they no longer wish to just be a housewife.

Renting holds fewer benefits for women than ownership. For empowerment more women need to become home, and landowners. The provision of land titles to women means they have a sense of stability. In the case of Johannesburg, South Africa, a majority of young, female renters engage in different forms of transactional sex due to the expense of renting [1] . Equality in land titling will ensure women are able to save and seek safer livelihood options.

[1] See further readings: Action Aid, 2012.

While we do not see limitations on reselling by customers in general, there are, in fact, a good few occasions where such limitations on reselling and use occur. Books and other media are limited through copyright laws in their ability to be legitimately re-sold, motor insurance is indeed sold at least partly on the basis of what you are going to do with your vehicle.

Armed forces do not require large amounts of funding to be well disciplined forces that are subordinate to civilian governance. This was shown by many communist nations; Vietnam’s army was immense, beat both the French and Americans and was firmly under party control. The importance of armed forces for security is universally recognised so foreign powers will help train armed forces to ensure these qualities. Thus for example as part of efforts to bring peace to Sierra Leone Britain provided training for the Sierra Leone Armed Forces helping bring stability to the country and allowing the Sierra Leonean army to engage in peace keeping missions elsewhere in Africa.(1)

(1) Clapson, Joe, ‘Sierra Leonean army comes of age under British direction’, Ministry of Defence, 6 April 2011, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sierra-leonean-army-comes-of-age-under-british-direction

Instruction: Given a claim, retrieve documents that refute the claim


Question:
Offshoring exploits both individual workers and under developed states.

Investment in offshore outsourcing can easily develop into a form of economic and cultural imperialism. Offshoring encourages first-world governments and businesses to perceive underdeveloped countries as little more than cheap sources of labour and support for developed economies. The discourse that outsourcing creates does not focus on development strategies or the strengthening of weak economies, but on exploitation of the flaws and gaps inherent in the labour markets of developing nations [i] .

Moreover, wide-scale exporting of roles dependent on specific forms of linguistic and cultural knowledge forces workers to adopt alien and over-simplified cultural practises – directly echoing the relationships between colonial-era employers and native service providers.

[i] “The new masters of management.” The Economist, 15 April 2010. http://www.economist.com/node/15894358

It must be remembered that the offshore manufacturing and service sectors are relatively young. Workers have not yet had the opportunity to develop coherent collective bargaining strategies. It takes time for those involved in an industry to learn how to act as advocates for their own and their colleagues’ interests. Once these skills have become commonplace throughout the offshoring industry, workers will be better equipped to form unions and to hold their own governments to account over the lacunae and lax policy making identified by side opposition.

Side opposition have adopted a somewhat orientalist line of argument by suggesting that developing economies are inherently weak and easy to subvert. In jurisdictions such as India quite the opposition is true; governments eager to control the effect of globalisation on domestic markets have adopted policies that inhibit the involvement of foreign firms in their economies. Businesses and politicians- both local and foreign- expend a great deal of political capital in order to make developing states accessible to the offshoring industry – often on terms that require workers’ welfare to be strictly monitored.

Taxation remains a vital component of domestic resource mobilisation however focus needs to be placed on improving Tanzania’s top revenue sources before innovative new models. Although the performance of tax collection has improved - with tax revenues rising by a rate of 15.7% between 1996/97 and 2007/08 (AfDB, 2011) taxation does not reach many areas that could be taxed; despite increasing exports of minerals and natural resources,

Competition will diminish the quality of education across the board. Teamwork is essential for the effectiveness of schools. Making differences in performance more visible will hamper teamwork because it will create perverse incentives. For instance, teachers who have devised a successful method for teaching a particular subject area will be less likely to share this because sharing it means eroding their 'strategic advantage' in the 'marketplace for teachers'.

The SIM card tax is actually under-ambitious for potential change to be maximised. Nevertheless, the tax initiates a step in the right direction. Firstly, it will ensure reductions are made in tax avoidance. Secondly, the model shows the potential role the private-sector can play in tax collection. Decentralisation, and shifting responsibility, to independent providers means valuable resources can be collected outside of the criticised TRA structure. For example, the Association of Tanzania Employers may be granted greater involvement in enhancing corporate tax collection. Estimations suggest corporate tax exemptions resulted in annual revenue losses of 4% between 2011-2012 (Gaddis, 2013).

The SIM card tax indicates domestic resources can be mobilised by engaging in public-private partnerships. For progressive tax systems, Tanzania needs to utilise private actors.

There are many ways to implement this on a practical level. Wages can be created through tax exemptions as opposed to the creation of new streams of wages and wealth.

Moreover, the prohibitive expense can be paid for by an increase in taxation. Home-keeping can be seen as a public good as it create good, strong homes and helps create constructive bases of support that help create productive future members of society, it can qualify as a public good that would therefore be a legitimate expense to tax the public for.

The value placed upon the right to free expression reflects its ability to enable the articulation of new, compelling and beneficial ideas, alongside damaging forms of speech. In liberal democratic societies, the potential inherent in free speech has always preserved it against limitation by legislation and- to a great extent- by social norms. A natural (as opposed to legal) person who makes statements that are openly offensive, or are inaccurate or misleading may also be able to articulate profound and useful ideas and observations. This is also true for certain groups formed by association – such as political parties.

However, corporations as they are popularly understood- as business entities- are constrained by law only to act in a certain way. In the United States, the individuals responsible for deciding on the actions of a corporation do so on the explicit understanding that they owe a particular duty to the individuals who make up that corporation. This legal duty takes the form of an obligation to run the business to maximise the value of the shares [1] in the business that each of its constituent investors holds. This duty has done a lot to promote investment in new businesses and to keep the reputation of established firms intact. It ensures that confidence in corporations is not undermined by speculation that they might be pursuing the wrong goals and it allows incompetent directors to be removed from their positions before they can harm investors' interests. However, this law also makes it necessary to limit the other rights that corporate persons might have access to.

The Unitarian commentator Tom Stites puts the situation bluntly. “Corporations express the collective investment goals of shareholders... Fiduciary responsibility confines all but closely held corporations to this singular goal. By shutting off other values to focus solely on pursuit of profit... corporations are by their nature immoral...” [2] In other words, the boards of directors of large corporations, in most circumstances will only be able to pursue a profit motive.

The type of personhood that money-making corporations utilise under American law is a personhood that comes complete with a very specific personality and set of goals. A corporate person that is formed by a collective of shareholders, each of whom have invested in the assets held by this individual, will be bound to engage profit motivated behaviour when it acts [3] . Executives and employees of the corporation, will find their jobs at risk if they choose to forgo profit-led behaviour in favour of directing a corporation to take actions informed by different social and economic principles.

An individual's right to free speech cannot not be abrogated in a broad fashion by a liberal government, in part because he is, to borrow an archaic phrase, “the captain of his own soul” – an individual with free will, able to be influenced by argument and to develop new ideas and perspectives upon the subject of his speech. A profit making corporation, however, is obliged to follow a single set of behavioural imperatives. If it is not attempting to maximise its profits, it will seek to protect the value of its interests and the efficiency of its operations. Where it is able to speak freely, a corporation will always use its right to expression for predictable ends. It is easy to envision scenarios in which corporate bodies will use the right to free speech to spread false or inaccurate information or to distort open debate if there was profit to be gained or protected.

Human behaviour is diverse and the ideas that we express can be altered by reason and the influence of argument. Through legal measures that were intended to protect shareholders investment in profit-making corporations, corporate behaviour has become limited, closed minded and immune to persuasive debate.

[1] Mills v Mills (1938) CLR 150

[2] “How corporations became ‘persons’”. uuworld.org, 01 May 2003. http://www.uuworld.org/ideas/articles/157829.shtml

[3] Bakan, J. “The Corporation”, Free Press, 2004

The spending for HS2 would not contribute to the deficit as it is investment that will pay back the money over time and will also be creating assets that can in extremis be sold. The high cost by comparison to other high speed networks is almost entirely due to high land prices; this means that any big transport project is going to cost a similar premium.

Paying housewives a wage would improve not reduce social mobility. Many women would still choose to go to university and the vast majority who do will still want to work. Paying housewives will not prevent any women who wants to work from working. Rather it will simply provide another option for those who wish to devote themselves full time to their family. This will give these women some financial freedom giving them more opportunities to educate themselves and their children so that they can get a better job than they otherwise would when they no longer wish to just be a housewife.

Renting holds fewer benefits for women than ownership. For empowerment more women need to become home, and landowners. The provision of land titles to women means they have a sense of stability. In the case of Johannesburg, South Africa, a majority of young, female renters engage in different forms of transactional sex due to the expense of renting [1] . Equality in land titling will ensure women are able to save and seek safer livelihood options.

[1] See further readings: Action Aid, 2012.

While we do not see limitations on reselling by customers in general, there are, in fact, a good few occasions where such limitations on reselling and use occur. Books and other media are limited through copyright laws in their ability to be legitimately re-sold, motor insurance is indeed sold at least partly on the basis of what you are going to do with your vehicle.

Armed forces do not require large amounts of funding to be well disciplined forces that are subordinate to civilian governance. This was shown by many communist nations; Vietnam’s army was immense, beat both the French and Americans and was firmly under party control. The importance of armed forces for security is universally recognised so foreign powers will help train armed forces to ensure these qualities. Thus for example as part of efforts to bring peace to Sierra Leone Britain provided training for the Sierra Leone Armed Forces helping bring stability to the country and allowing the Sierra Leonean army to engage in peace keeping missions elsewhere in Africa.(1)

(1) Clapson, Joe, ‘Sierra Leonean army comes of age under British direction’, Ministry of Defence, 6 April 2011, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sierra-leonean-army-comes-of-age-under-british-direction

Instruction: Given a claim, retrieve documents that refute the claim


Question:
Paying housewives promotes more positive images of women and family life

Gender stereotypes dictate that the woman’s place is in the home and that that is an inferior position in the social hierarchy than that of the male’s corporate bread-winner status. The stereotype is particularly damaging to women’s expectations for themselves and the way society treats women.

By paying housewives for their work, a greater emphasis is placed on the role of the home-keeper and on the women that tend to this job. It elevates the position of women in the household by economically empowering them and giving them the very thing that usually implies the greater importance of the bread-winners in the family (economic power and status). Moreover, it elevates societal views of housewives and home-keepers by valuing their contributions to the household and society in a tangible, monetary way that society cares about.

Paying housewives for their work grants greater social status and power to women and family lives, which improves views of women and the roles they take in the family.

Paying housewives would not make much difference to images of women and family life, and could even make things worse rather than better. By paying housewives, monetizing the position of housewife and home-keeper, the state re-affirms the idea that the only true value a person can hold is an economic one and that the only way to assess and quantify the value of an individual or their impact is through financial means. Re-enforcing such a financial-centric version of worth and value is dangerous to housewives, who, by any reasonable expectation, will never make as much as private-sector professionals such as CEOs. It simply re-enforces the inferiority of house-keeping and the role of the family unit in society.

This pay gap simply re-affirms prejudice and bias of the inferiority of home-keeping as a profession and gives tangible evidence to support this by placing a monetary value on what housewives do and inevitably not including the non-monetary benefits, such as the children having their mother to take them home from school.

Keeping a division between the money-led economic world and the love-driven family world is beneficial to the family dynamic and the perceptions of all those involved.

Taxation remains a vital component of domestic resource mobilisation however focus needs to be placed on improving Tanzania’s top revenue sources before innovative new models. Although the performance of tax collection has improved - with tax revenues rising by a rate of 15.7% between 1996/97 and 2007/08 (AfDB, 2011) taxation does not reach many areas that could be taxed; despite increasing exports of minerals and natural resources,

Competition will diminish the quality of education across the board. Teamwork is essential for the effectiveness of schools. Making differences in performance more visible will hamper teamwork because it will create perverse incentives. For instance, teachers who have devised a successful method for teaching a particular subject area will be less likely to share this because sharing it means eroding their 'strategic advantage' in the 'marketplace for teachers'.

The SIM card tax is actually under-ambitious for potential change to be maximised. Nevertheless, the tax initiates a step in the right direction. Firstly, it will ensure reductions are made in tax avoidance. Secondly, the model shows the potential role the private-sector can play in tax collection. Decentralisation, and shifting responsibility, to independent providers means valuable resources can be collected outside of the criticised TRA structure. For example, the Association of Tanzania Employers may be granted greater involvement in enhancing corporate tax collection. Estimations suggest corporate tax exemptions resulted in annual revenue losses of 4% between 2011-2012 (Gaddis, 2013).

The SIM card tax indicates domestic resources can be mobilised by engaging in public-private partnerships. For progressive tax systems, Tanzania needs to utilise private actors.

The value placed upon the right to free expression reflects its ability to enable the articulation of new, compelling and beneficial ideas, alongside damaging forms of speech. In liberal democratic societies, the potential inherent in free speech has always preserved it against limitation by legislation and- to a great extent- by social norms. A natural (as opposed to legal) person who makes statements that are openly offensive, or are inaccurate or misleading may also be able to articulate profound and useful ideas and observations. This is also true for certain groups formed by association – such as political parties.

However, corporations as they are popularly understood- as business entities- are constrained by law only to act in a certain way. In the United States, the individuals responsible for deciding on the actions of a corporation do so on the explicit understanding that they owe a particular duty to the individuals who make up that corporation. This legal duty takes the form of an obligation to run the business to maximise the value of the shares [1] in the business that each of its constituent investors holds. This duty has done a lot to promote investment in new businesses and to keep the reputation of established firms intact. It ensures that confidence in corporations is not undermined by speculation that they might be pursuing the wrong goals and it allows incompetent directors to be removed from their positions before they can harm investors' interests. However, this law also makes it necessary to limit the other rights that corporate persons might have access to.

The Unitarian commentator Tom Stites puts the situation bluntly. “Corporations express the collective investment goals of shareholders... Fiduciary responsibility confines all but closely held corporations to this singular goal. By shutting off other values to focus solely on pursuit of profit... corporations are by their nature immoral...” [2] In other words, the boards of directors of large corporations, in most circumstances will only be able to pursue a profit motive.

The type of personhood that money-making corporations utilise under American law is a personhood that comes complete with a very specific personality and set of goals. A corporate person that is formed by a collective of shareholders, each of whom have invested in the assets held by this individual, will be bound to engage profit motivated behaviour when it acts [3] . Executives and employees of the corporation, will find their jobs at risk if they choose to forgo profit-led behaviour in favour of directing a corporation to take actions informed by different social and economic principles.

An individual's right to free speech cannot not be abrogated in a broad fashion by a liberal government, in part because he is, to borrow an archaic phrase, “the captain of his own soul” – an individual with free will, able to be influenced by argument and to develop new ideas and perspectives upon the subject of his speech. A profit making corporation, however, is obliged to follow a single set of behavioural imperatives. If it is not attempting to maximise its profits, it will seek to protect the value of its interests and the efficiency of its operations. Where it is able to speak freely, a corporation will always use its right to expression for predictable ends. It is easy to envision scenarios in which corporate bodies will use the right to free speech to spread false or inaccurate information or to distort open debate if there was profit to be gained or protected.

Human behaviour is diverse and the ideas that we express can be altered by reason and the influence of argument. Through legal measures that were intended to protect shareholders investment in profit-making corporations, corporate behaviour has become limited, closed minded and immune to persuasive debate.

[1] Mills v Mills (1938) CLR 150

[2] “How corporations became ‘persons’”. uuworld.org, 01 May 2003. http://www.uuworld.org/ideas/articles/157829.shtml

[3] Bakan, J. “The Corporation”, Free Press, 2004

The spending for HS2 would not contribute to the deficit as it is investment that will pay back the money over time and will also be creating assets that can in extremis be sold. The high cost by comparison to other high speed networks is almost entirely due to high land prices; this means that any big transport project is going to cost a similar premium.

Renting holds fewer benefits for women than ownership. For empowerment more women need to become home, and landowners. The provision of land titles to women means they have a sense of stability. In the case of Johannesburg, South Africa, a majority of young, female renters engage in different forms of transactional sex due to the expense of renting [1] . Equality in land titling will ensure women are able to save and seek safer livelihood options.

[1] See further readings: Action Aid, 2012.

While we do not see limitations on reselling by customers in general, there are, in fact, a good few occasions where such limitations on reselling and use occur. Books and other media are limited through copyright laws in their ability to be legitimately re-sold, motor insurance is indeed sold at least partly on the basis of what you are going to do with your vehicle.

Armed forces do not require large amounts of funding to be well disciplined forces that are subordinate to civilian governance. This was shown by many communist nations; Vietnam’s army was immense, beat both the French and Americans and was firmly under party control. The importance of armed forces for security is universally recognised so foreign powers will help train armed forces to ensure these qualities. Thus for example as part of efforts to bring peace to Sierra Leone Britain provided training for the Sierra Leone Armed Forces helping bring stability to the country and allowing the Sierra Leonean army to engage in peace keeping missions elsewhere in Africa.(1)

(1) Clapson, Joe, ‘Sierra Leonean army comes of age under British direction’, Ministry of Defence, 6 April 2011, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sierra-leonean-army-comes-of-age-under-british-direction

The need for increased capacity on travelled lines can be addressed in a number of ways. Firstly, highways still can be expanded. Highways are much more versatile than rail services as they enable people to get from a single destination to another without any transfers. Given then that highways can be improved, it makes very little sense to not do so and improve the rail system later when this extra capacity created begins to fill up. [1]

Given that cities have different requirements of transport, it makes more sense to allow transport planning to remain decentralised. For example, California is creating a high speed transport system on its state budget because it has need, assuming that other cities do when their governing structures have not determined that is the case is irresponsible and unneeded. [2]

[1] Mobley, Jack. “A Case Against High-Speed Rail.” Merced Sun Star. 11/12/2010 http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2010/12/11/1688825/jack-mobley-a-case-again...

[2] “On the wrong track: Why high-speed trains are not such a green alternative.” The Guardian. 29/04/2010 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/29/high-speed-rail-travel...

A carbon tax essentially considers all carbon emissions harmful to the environment, and warranting of equal punishment so is therefore fairer. A cap-and-trade system only punishes carbon emissions above a certain level, treating only certain kinds of emissions as "bad". A carbon tax, therefore, sends a strong message to polluters that all their emissions are harmful, that they should be phased out, and that they should invest in environmentally-friendly sources of energy. This dramatic message may be particularly important if we view global warming to be a serious crisis.

Companies are even willing to pay a premium for the stability provided by this system [I1] ; the premium being the tax itself, and the lack of the potential for profit through the trading of carbon credits. Further as a system that is easy to understand it is easier for directors to allow their firms to ease in to the system. [1]

[1] Ugur Akinci, “Carbon Tax Versus Cap And Trade Approaches to Global Warming – Part 1.” Doubletaxes.com 2007 http://doubletaxes.com/category/free-tax-forms/carbon-tax-rebate-forms-through-small-business-ministry.html

[I1] Examples and case studies required.

Instruction: Given a claim, retrieve documents that refute the claim


Question:
Paying housewives for their work is an important form of economic empowerment.

One of the most important factors of oppression of women’s rights, particularly in the developing world, is dependence [1] . Women are often confined to the home by force, lack of opportunity or social stigma, on behalf of their husbands. When she is not paid, a housewife must rely on her husband for money, especially if she has children she is expected to take care of. Economic empowerment allows further freedom for women in countries where women are confined to the home [2] . By making women economic actors, you empower them to engage in different social structures and hold a stake and position in the centres of economic power. This is the most empowering tool one can offer women in most countries around the world [3] .

By paying housewives for their work, you offer one of the most powerful forms of social empowerment for women around the world.

[1] United Nations. Women's Work and Economic Empowerment. Accessed July 1, 2011. http://www.unfpa.org/gender/empowerment1.htm .

[2] United Nations. Women's Work and Economic Empowerment. Accessed July 1, 2011. http://www.unfpa.org/gender/empowerment1.htm .

[3] United Nations. Women's Work and Economic Empowerment. Accessed July 1, 2011. http://www.unfpa.org/gender/empowerment1.htm .

It is highly unlikely that this can be implemented in any country where female empowerment is as restricted as is discussed. If women are as dependent and oppressed as the proposition suggests, the political will to pass such legislation will not exist. Even if a law were passed, the pay would be very low, and so the wife would still rely on the husband’s income.

Taxation remains a vital component of domestic resource mobilisation however focus needs to be placed on improving Tanzania’s top revenue sources before innovative new models. Although the performance of tax collection has improved - with tax revenues rising by a rate of 15.7% between 1996/97 and 2007/08 (AfDB, 2011) taxation does not reach many areas that could be taxed; despite increasing exports of minerals and natural resources,

Competition will diminish the quality of education across the board. Teamwork is essential for the effectiveness of schools. Making differences in performance more visible will hamper teamwork because it will create perverse incentives. For instance, teachers who have devised a successful method for teaching a particular subject area will be less likely to share this because sharing it means eroding their 'strategic advantage' in the 'marketplace for teachers'.

The SIM card tax is actually under-ambitious for potential change to be maximised. Nevertheless, the tax initiates a step in the right direction. Firstly, it will ensure reductions are made in tax avoidance. Secondly, the model shows the potential role the private-sector can play in tax collection. Decentralisation, and shifting responsibility, to independent providers means valuable resources can be collected outside of the criticised TRA structure. For example, the Association of Tanzania Employers may be granted greater involvement in enhancing corporate tax collection. Estimations suggest corporate tax exemptions resulted in annual revenue losses of 4% between 2011-2012 (Gaddis, 2013).

The SIM card tax indicates domestic resources can be mobilised by engaging in public-private partnerships. For progressive tax systems, Tanzania needs to utilise private actors.

The value placed upon the right to free expression reflects its ability to enable the articulation of new, compelling and beneficial ideas, alongside damaging forms of speech. In liberal democratic societies, the potential inherent in free speech has always preserved it against limitation by legislation and- to a great extent- by social norms. A natural (as opposed to legal) person who makes statements that are openly offensive, or are inaccurate or misleading may also be able to articulate profound and useful ideas and observations. This is also true for certain groups formed by association – such as political parties.

However, corporations as they are popularly understood- as business entities- are constrained by law only to act in a certain way. In the United States, the individuals responsible for deciding on the actions of a corporation do so on the explicit understanding that they owe a particular duty to the individuals who make up that corporation. This legal duty takes the form of an obligation to run the business to maximise the value of the shares [1] in the business that each of its constituent investors holds. This duty has done a lot to promote investment in new businesses and to keep the reputation of established firms intact. It ensures that confidence in corporations is not undermined by speculation that they might be pursuing the wrong goals and it allows incompetent directors to be removed from their positions before they can harm investors' interests. However, this law also makes it necessary to limit the other rights that corporate persons might have access to.

The Unitarian commentator Tom Stites puts the situation bluntly. “Corporations express the collective investment goals of shareholders... Fiduciary responsibility confines all but closely held corporations to this singular goal. By shutting off other values to focus solely on pursuit of profit... corporations are by their nature immoral...” [2] In other words, the boards of directors of large corporations, in most circumstances will only be able to pursue a profit motive.

The type of personhood that money-making corporations utilise under American law is a personhood that comes complete with a very specific personality and set of goals. A corporate person that is formed by a collective of shareholders, each of whom have invested in the assets held by this individual, will be bound to engage profit motivated behaviour when it acts [3] . Executives and employees of the corporation, will find their jobs at risk if they choose to forgo profit-led behaviour in favour of directing a corporation to take actions informed by different social and economic principles.

An individual's right to free speech cannot not be abrogated in a broad fashion by a liberal government, in part because he is, to borrow an archaic phrase, “the captain of his own soul” – an individual with free will, able to be influenced by argument and to develop new ideas and perspectives upon the subject of his speech. A profit making corporation, however, is obliged to follow a single set of behavioural imperatives. If it is not attempting to maximise its profits, it will seek to protect the value of its interests and the efficiency of its operations. Where it is able to speak freely, a corporation will always use its right to expression for predictable ends. It is easy to envision scenarios in which corporate bodies will use the right to free speech to spread false or inaccurate information or to distort open debate if there was profit to be gained or protected.

Human behaviour is diverse and the ideas that we express can be altered by reason and the influence of argument. Through legal measures that were intended to protect shareholders investment in profit-making corporations, corporate behaviour has become limited, closed minded and immune to persuasive debate.

[1] Mills v Mills (1938) CLR 150

[2] “How corporations became ‘persons’”. uuworld.org, 01 May 2003. http://www.uuworld.org/ideas/articles/157829.shtml

[3] Bakan, J. “The Corporation”, Free Press, 2004

The spending for HS2 would not contribute to the deficit as it is investment that will pay back the money over time and will also be creating assets that can in extremis be sold. The high cost by comparison to other high speed networks is almost entirely due to high land prices; this means that any big transport project is going to cost a similar premium.

Renting holds fewer benefits for women than ownership. For empowerment more women need to become home, and landowners. The provision of land titles to women means they have a sense of stability. In the case of Johannesburg, South Africa, a majority of young, female renters engage in different forms of transactional sex due to the expense of renting [1] . Equality in land titling will ensure women are able to save and seek safer livelihood options.

[1] See further readings: Action Aid, 2012.

While we do not see limitations on reselling by customers in general, there are, in fact, a good few occasions where such limitations on reselling and use occur. Books and other media are limited through copyright laws in their ability to be legitimately re-sold, motor insurance is indeed sold at least partly on the basis of what you are going to do with your vehicle.

Armed forces do not require large amounts of funding to be well disciplined forces that are subordinate to civilian governance. This was shown by many communist nations; Vietnam’s army was immense, beat both the French and Americans and was firmly under party control. The importance of armed forces for security is universally recognised so foreign powers will help train armed forces to ensure these qualities. Thus for example as part of efforts to bring peace to Sierra Leone Britain provided training for the Sierra Leone Armed Forces helping bring stability to the country and allowing the Sierra Leonean army to engage in peace keeping missions elsewhere in Africa.(1)

(1) Clapson, Joe, ‘Sierra Leonean army comes of age under British direction’, Ministry of Defence, 6 April 2011, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sierra-leonean-army-comes-of-age-under-british-direction

The need for increased capacity on travelled lines can be addressed in a number of ways. Firstly, highways still can be expanded. Highways are much more versatile than rail services as they enable people to get from a single destination to another without any transfers. Given then that highways can be improved, it makes very little sense to not do so and improve the rail system later when this extra capacity created begins to fill up. [1]

Given that cities have different requirements of transport, it makes more sense to allow transport planning to remain decentralised. For example, California is creating a high speed transport system on its state budget because it has need, assuming that other cities do when their governing structures have not determined that is the case is irresponsible and unneeded. [2]

[1] Mobley, Jack. “A Case Against High-Speed Rail.” Merced Sun Star. 11/12/2010 http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2010/12/11/1688825/jack-mobley-a-case-again...

[2] “On the wrong track: Why high-speed trains are not such a green alternative.” The Guardian. 29/04/2010 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/29/high-speed-rail-travel...

A carbon tax essentially considers all carbon emissions harmful to the environment, and warranting of equal punishment so is therefore fairer. A cap-and-trade system only punishes carbon emissions above a certain level, treating only certain kinds of emissions as "bad". A carbon tax, therefore, sends a strong message to polluters that all their emissions are harmful, that they should be phased out, and that they should invest in environmentally-friendly sources of energy. This dramatic message may be particularly important if we view global warming to be a serious crisis.

Companies are even willing to pay a premium for the stability provided by this system [I1] ; the premium being the tax itself, and the lack of the potential for profit through the trading of carbon credits. Further as a system that is easy to understand it is easier for directors to allow their firms to ease in to the system. [1]

[1] Ugur Akinci, “Carbon Tax Versus Cap And Trade Approaches to Global Warming – Part 1.” Doubletaxes.com 2007 http://doubletaxes.com/category/free-tax-forms/carbon-tax-rebate-forms-through-small-business-ministry.html

[I1] Examples and case studies required.

Instruction: Given a claim, retrieve documents that refute the claim