Klair Carroll
Reading Responses
3/15/2013
Bus 1050:
W.E.B. DuBois: From the Souls of Black Folk
This passage is about DuBois talking about the importance of educating the south. This passage was written while slavery and bigotry towards many races were still in full effect and especially in the south.He says that there is no substitute for education and that no matter the revenue from cotton, apples, etc. education needs to be taught. DuBois talks about how important education is to teach people about each other and learn to respect each other and coexist. He states that education will broaden culture, and make men more tolerant. He also teaches that the south needs to teach those willing to work to work, those willing to think to think, etc. He ends by saying that men must work not simply for pay but for the glory of his handiwork, and the thinker must think for truth not for fame.
I find it interesting that even though DuBois is speaking about bigotry he is also making a very distinct difference between black people and whites. He says that blacks need to be taught to work more than others, which at the time was a common belief. Otherwise I wholeheartedly agree with what DuBois is trying to say. I feel very strongly that education is important for people to become more diverse and understanding of others. In my experience the most narrow-minded and discriminatory people I have known didn’t have much of a formal education. I also agree with what he says at the end that workers need to work for more than the pay and thinkers need to think for more than the fame. I feel like in our society has changed little since this was written and so few people do what they do for the good of humanity, but solely to gain fame or fortune. This was an excellent piece by DuBois and I agree with him entirely.
Plato: For the Republic
This piece begins with Plato explaining that with power comes corruption. He explains that good men will become evil if they are given the power to do so and no man has the personal constraint to keep himself from doing evil if he is given power. He then tries to make a perfect, peaceful society where all of the needs are met for everyone. He begins by making a very small amount of people that all are self-sustaining but then realizes that it would be better for people to specialize in just one thing so that the products being produced are better quality and in higher quantity. As he continues to build this peaceful state he realizes he needs merchants to sell the goods that are in surplus to other countries. He also discovers that he will need extra people to make a surplus of what other countries are in need of. As the state continues to grow he realizes that people will want to live in luxury and so there will need to be poets, performers, artists, artisans, jewelers, etc. to make everyone’s lives in the state more enjoyable. In the end when he realizes that all of these things are needed he comes to the conclusion that the people will become greedy and want more so they will take from other countries which will ultimately lead to war.
When I read this I was impressed with how much thought Plato put in to make this utopia. I don’t agree that when people are given power they will automatically become corrupt. I do agree though that doing wrong things has the more immediate advantages than doing what is right but ultimately people who do what is right are more fulfilled and content than those who do not. I also believe that there are people who do have the personal courage and strong personal control to not abuse their power when it is given to them, which Plato says isn’t possible. I found it interesting that Plato said people will only have an amount of children that they can afford. In today’s world it seems that the people with less have much more children than those abounding in wealth. In fact it is rare to see rich individuals with more than two children. The end is what surprised and interested me the most though. It’s funny to think that it is in human nature to just want and want and want. As the people become greedy in Plato’s perfect and peaceful society they go to war with others just to obtain more, which I believe to be not only feasible for humans to do but predictable as well. I really liked this story about trying to make a perfect society I feel as Plato did that it is impossible to make one though. I also agree with most of what Plato said while trying to create this perfect society.
Seika Fujiwara: The Shuchu Kiyaku
In this essay the author starts out by saying that trade is to be beneficial for both parties. He states that we should not make more money by making our trade partner worse off because we’ll lose them as a trade partner and profits will decline. He then says that a merchant trying to make a quick profit will get less in the long run than a merchant who tries to get profit in the long run. He continues to say that we need to treat our trade partners with respect, honor, and honesty; also we need to focus on our similarities instead of our difference when dealing with foreign trading partners. Another great thing he says is we need to treat our trading partners how we would want them to treat us. Lastly he states that the three evils are wine, women, and greed and that men should fear to tread on the path of lust and greed.
This is an awesome essay. I find it difficult to believe that all merchants follow this code, but it is a great code to live by. I feel like everyone doing business should try to watch out for their trading partners as much as themselves and make sure that everyone is prospering. This does sound somewhat socialist but as businesses make sure their trading partners are prosperous they will continue to have business thus being more prosperous themselves. I did find it interesting that women were part of the three evils. Now lusting after women can be classified as one but women in general are an integral part of our society; without women man would be nothing so women are a very important part not an evil.
Francis Bacon: Of Riches and of Usury From the Essays
I only read the riches part of this essay. In this piece Francis Bacon is talking about how riches can be more of a bad thing than a good thing. In the beginning he says that it is a burden to virtue and keeps people from getting the victory at times. This means that people are much less likely to retain their virtue when they obtain riches. Bacon says that people that obtain riches tend to oppress and use others to further their riches. He also says that people with riches will be sought after because of their fortune and many will try to obtain it from them. Bacon continues to say that if riches are obtained honestly then they aren’t all that bad and if we trade with others honestly our riches will even further increase. Many people obtain them unjustly and obtaining riches by using others is one of the worst ways to obtain riches.
I find it very interesting that people thought this way even in the 1500’s. I find it even more interesting that there are few people that have learned the lesson that Bacon is trying to teach 500 years later. There are still people who commit fraud, dishonest acts, schemes, etc. to try to get rich quickly at the expense of others. This part on riches ties in really well with what the Shuchu Kiyaku said about trade and obtaining riches. I really agreed with everything that Bacon said in this piece. The bible says it is easier to fit a camel through the eye of a needle than it is to get a rich man into heaven and I feel like Bacon explains very nicely why that is the case. I really enjoyed this as well (though it was somewhat difficult to understand) because it gave me a perspective of difficulties that rich people have to face that I never realized previously.
Cicero: From De Officiis
This essay begins by explaining the story Plato relates in “For the Republic” about Gyges who obtains a ring that makes him invisible and he takes advantage of it while doing moral wrong. He then questions if an apparent advantage can be secured without sacrificing moral rectitude. To answer this he explains that we shouldn’t surrender our interests for others but we should consider our own interests as far as we can without the injury of our neighbor’s. Also it isn’t unfair to get what is needful for your own advantage but we have no right to wrestle it from our neighbor. He then gives a story of a grain dealer who travels to a famished country and arrives before every other dealer that is also going there. He asks the question should this grain dealer who arrived first tell the starving people that there are other people coming with grain, or should he withhold that information and sell the grain at any price he desires. He then gives another story of a man, who is selling a home that is unsanitary, filled with vermin, or structurally unsound that withholds this information from the buyer and sells the home for much more than he expected to get from it had he disclosed that information. Cicero then raises the questions if these acts are just or unjust and gives his own answer. He says it is unjust for the grain dealer to withhold that information from the starving people and it is also unjust for the man to withhold that information about his tattered home from the buyer.
I really liked this essay because it’s really hard to distinguish if the business decisions you are doing are morally righteous. I really like how Cicero gives his own answers to the questions he asks and not just leave it to the interpretation of his readers. I totally agree with him as well I feel like the seller has the moral obligation to disclose all information to the buyer that would affect the price of the product being sold good or bad. With that being said I also agree with what he said that men should become as advantageous as possible as long as it doesn’t affect others in a negative way.
Aristotle: From the Politics
In this essay Aristotle explains the art of making money, which ways are just, and which are unjust. He explains that the gain of money to maintain a household is honorable. One must make money to provide for his family. He then explains trade as an art of making money which he says is unnatural because it’s a mode where men gain from one another. The last he explains is the most hated and unnatural way to make money which usury, which is the art of making money from money. He says that this is because money is to be used in exchange not for the gain of interest. He later explains that clergymen He then tells a story about a monopoly with philosopher that purchased olive presses when the harvest was very far away and he got them at a very low price because no one bid against him and when the harvest came he became very wealthy. This proved that philosophers could become rich if the desired but their hearts rest in other matters. Lastly he explains about another monopoly where a man purchases all of the iron from iron mines and when it came time to sell he made a 200% increase in profit.
I wanted to reflect on this essay because I found it so interesting. I really like how there is still so much real world application to this essay though it was written between 384 – 322 BC. I was really impressed about what he said about how gaining money from money is the most dishonorable and unnatural way of making money. It made me think of all of the financial stain our country has faced because of people making poor financial “investments” and lost everything. The bailout that the government had to make for all of the auto companies and ING really stick out in my mind. We also spoke about a bank in Cretethat invested in bonds in Greece and those feel apart leaving the bank and many of the citizens of the country in shambles.
J.L. Nichols: How To Do Business
This is a very short paragraph from “The Business Guide” by J.L. Nichols. In this paragraph he gives the story of a business owner who doesn’t entirely understand his business. He begins by saying no one can do successfully things they do not perfectly understand. He says we can hire employees to do what we cannot but they may do it incorrectly or require a large fee to do the work you require of them which would put you at a loss. The other option he gives is you decide to do it yourself anyway which would incur an even greater loss because you would undoubtedly make fatal errors. He then gives a quote that a wealthy farmer said when asked how he became wealthy and the man said “Sir I understand my business and attend to it”. He then says in this reply lies all true success.
I really liked this small essay because it is so true. I really like watching a show called Restaurant Impossible which is about failing restaurants that get revived by an expert because they are incapable of doing it themselves. What’s so interesting is many of these owners get into the restaurant business because they like food or they think it’s a good idea though they have never run a business before and totally lack management experience. What makes it worse is many hire their family who has as little experience as they. I find it interesting that so many Americans are so anxious to “make it big” that they purchase a business they know little about and it becomes more of a financial burden than any source of income. If only people who decide to become entrepreneurs would heed Nichol’s simple phrase “first understand every detail of your business and then go ahead” before they decided to make their business they would avoid a lot of financial loss and become much more profitable.
Henry Ford: From My Life and Work
These are words from Henry Ford and he explains how he began to manufacture vehicles and the steps he took to make his business thrive. He begins by saying a device that increases results 10 % leaves a 10% tax if it is absent. If the time of a person is worth 50 cents an hour than a 10% savings is worth 5 cents an hour. He later explains that not everyone needs to be skilled machinists to be in his assembly line. He actually says the skilled machinists and mechanics make it easier for the less skilled people to do their jobs. He then explains the first car his factory built and that the men he hired to build the car were doing more time walking to the tools and parts they needed then back to the car than actually putting the vehicle together. This gave Henry Ford the idea of making an assembly line. In this line he would give each man all the tools and parts he needed right in front of him without the worker needing to move a step or bend over. These changes vastly improved the rate of production and the effectiveness of the employees.
This was an essay we weren’t able to cover in class because we ran out of time at the end of the semester. I decided to do it because I love how Henry Ford treated his employees fairly which was entirely the opposite of what was common place when he started Ford Motor CO. So many of the ideas that Henry Ford presents in this essay are so innovative for the time they were implemented. Most manufacturers of the time hired skilled people to do menial tasks like assembly whereas Henry Ford hired people who weren’t as skilled to do those menial tasks in an assembly line because skilled people weren’t needed. I also find it so interesting that he was able to make the production of a car over 5 times faster by making the tools and parts readily available on a conveyor belt that was waist high so the employee didn’t have to bend over. I think of my job and how much I have to walk around to get material and tools and I realize I can follow some of these things that Henry Ford did to make my own profession more efficient.
Sun Tzu: The Art of War III Attack by Stratagem
This section talks about how to attack the enemy. Sun Tzu says that we can’t destroy the enemy’s country we need to conquer it and make it our own. He says the best way to conquer the enemy’s country is to break the enemy’s resistance without fighting. Later he says that the skillful leader subdues the enemy’s troops without any fighting. He proceeds by explaining the best ways for an army to conquer the enemy with the least amount of losses. Later he explains 3 ways which a ruler can bring misfortune to his army which are: Commanding the army to attack or retreat, being ignorant of the fact that it cannot obey. Attempting to govern an army in the same way he administers a kingdom because it causes restlessness in the soldiers’ minds. By employing the officers of his army without discrimination or using the wrong man in the wrong place.