Choosing a College Course Essay

Introduction Many students find it difficult in choosing what course to take in college. For seniors or graduating high school students, the pressure goes higher as the end of their term is coming because the time is running and decreasing for deciding what course they will take. Choosing a course is really a hard decision to make. Your future depends on it and the decision you will make would determine what life you will have in the future. This is the first step in your life as an independent person and this is the first step for your success. You should be careful in choosing a course because when you have started on it there is no way getting back. You can shift to another course but a lot of thing will be wasted: your effort, money and time. So from the start you should pick the right one and you should make up your mind that this is the course for you and this will lead you to success. Many would say that they haven’t chosen yet or they were not sure about the course they want to pursue. Some might have chosen before and decided what to take but in the end they want to change it because they weren’t sure or still confused. And the wide range of choices of college courses made it more difficult to choose. But you are not really â€Å"clueless† in choosing what course to take, there are some factors you would consider and this might help you pick the suitable and best course for you. Your Personal Interests The most basic consideration in the choice of a college major or college course is, of course, what you want. Is there something that you’ve always wanted to get into, something that resonates within the very fiber of your being? If so, that may be where you’re meant to go. The more interested you are in a subject, the more likely you are to study it and achieve a strong result. This is particularly important at college when you are responsible for your own study. List the fields of study that interest you, and come up with a list of courses you would consider studying based on these interests. Add the topics that you were most interested in during school as well as jobs that you envied others for. At some point, many students try to fit in a course or two based purely on personal interest. While their majors may reflect their primary interest, most people are interested in more than one intellectual pursuit, so a biology major who has a passion for movies might take a film course. This is not necessarily what are you good at, but what do you love doing? You might be great at math, but you spend your weekends fixing up bits of old computers. So don’t study math, focus on IT or computer engineering instead. Specialize in your passion. Cost Of Study Affordability is another aspect you need to consider while deciding on your course, as well as the additional costs that occur, such as text books, field trips etc. However, do not let cost hamper your career choice, as there are a number of financial assistance options available to complete the course. College tuitions soar each year, advancing far in excess of the inflation rate. The overall inflation rate since 1986 increased 115.06%, which is why we pay more than double for everything we buy. On the other hand, during the same time, tuition increased a whopping 498.31%. See chart below Many schools have increased tuition fees due to higher overhead costs. Fuel and labor costs continue to rise. Many older college buildings are in need of renovation or replacement. The demand for expanded libraries and new research and computer labs is at an all-time high. Some schools also need additional security measures. But Don’t Let College Costs Scare You! These costs may seem overwhelming, but there are ways to keep expenses down. Remember that college educations come at all levels of cost, and that financial aid can reduce that cost. If a school is a great fit for you but seems too expensive, it makes sense to apply and then see whether your financial aid offer will bring the cost down. Don’t give up on a college because of its sticker price. Financial Aids Grants and scholarships are the most desirable types of funding you can receive to pay for your college education, since they don’t need to be repaid. While any amount of free money will be competitive, especially in a tough economic climate, the sooner and more often you apply the more luck you’ll have. The list of reasons why a scholarship may be given to a particular student is quite long, although some of the more popular awards are given to students who achieve academically, are athletically gifted, choose to enroll in a particular program of study, are part of a certain kind of organization, or choose to enroll in the military and still further their education. A scholarship might cover the entire cost of your tuition, or it might be a one-time award of some cash. Either way, it’s worth applying for, because it’ll help reduce the cost of your education. Career opportunities Look at the career prospects of the course before selecting one. Consider various factors such as income, job security, stress, responsibility and other benefits while researching a profession. Not all courses are created equal. Yes, they all offer a diploma upon completion, but they don’t guarantee a job. When you are choosing a major, it would be wise to check out the job placement statistics of others who have pursued this degree. There is no reason why you should be the guinea pig; if a specific career is your reason for choosing this major, investigate the success of others. If you want to avoid a data entry position, check out all of the opportunities available and your chance at landing one of those positions after graduation. Commitment, Time and Practical Considerations Choosing a college course requires you to look inwards and assess your commitment to your chosen path. Assuming that you have the issue of money and other practical considerations settled, do you actually possess the skills and the patience to go the distance? Moreover, do you actually want to do so? There’s also a chance that your parents may be expecting you to tread a certain academic path; will you have the strength and the will to stick it out against all odds? You should also be aware of what you’re getting into when choosing a college major. What will your college course require you to do? Are you willing to do it? As a case in point, if you’re squeamish about the sight of blood, why should you decide to go for a Nursing Degree? To be certain that you will be committed to your studies, find out the duration of your course. Taking double-degrees, full time or part-time depends on your personal choice. Ensure that you will be able to balance your other priorities along with education. Study flexibility varies amongst universities. Demand If your goal is to be employed immediately after graduation, base your choice not on popular courses, but on employable courses, or courses that are the most in-demand in the job market. Job seeking is becoming an increasingly competitive sport these days. With thousands of students graduating each year and limited number of job opportunities available to them, plenty of job seekers end up resorting to options they wouldn’t had to choose if they had other alternatives. These days, there is no time to get into a career and then decide if it is the right one for you. You should know right from the beginning what is right for you and what career you can excel in. Thanks to the very competitive nature of the employment sector, getting the right job or choosing the right career is not as easy as it once used to be. Everyone is looking for help in deciding what career should be chosen. Obviously, in today’s competitive world, everyone wants a job or career that has high pay, job stability, and great future prospects. However, owing to the bad effects of the recently experienced economic recession, a majority of people are looking forward to changing careers. The careers that are being sought after are top jobs in demand for the future, which are mostly from the medical field. The main reason why medical jobs are and will be in demand is because they do not have any impact of the financial crisis arising in the economy. So if you want to secure a job in the future, pick a course that is in demand after you graduate. Conclusion Even you have known some things that you might consider in choosing a course, the choice is still yours and the one who will decide is no other but you. Choose on what you think is the best for you and what you think that will give you success. But remember that even you have chosen a course that is qualified for all the factors listed and will give great results, it not ends in there. The most important thing is in everything you do always give your best shot. Work hard for everything you want to achieve and accomplish. Don’t quit and never give up. And most of all ask God for help and guidance in everything you do. Pray for it. God has the best plan for you. When you do all these things, I’m sure that whatever course you will take, you will be successful and you will have a wonderful future.

Income inequality Essay

It is the report which is talking about income inequality. It is global income inequality is increasing. Besides that that’s is more information about measurement for the income inequality The relationship between the income inequality and economic growth Technological change and globalisation partly on income inequality, Way to reduce the income inequality, Causes of income inequality, and High income inequality gap-Latin America. Mostly it is all about the income inequality in this assignment is telling about the income inequality. Income inequality Income inequality is about the measurement of people’s household or individual based on their income across the various participants in an economy. It is also known as the gap between the rich and poor, wealth and poverty, the different of income between populations or individual (Ram, R. (1988)). Measurement To measure the income inequality have to use the Gini coefficient which developed by Italian statistician in 1912. The Gini coefficient is measuring the income inequality based on the value of a frequency distribution (for example levels of income). The value of the Gini coefficient is between the range 0 to 1. Therefore, 0 that means â€Å"perfect equality ’’ which every person is getting the same income and 1 that means â€Å"perfect inequality’’ which is all income change to the share of the population with the highest income. The Gini coefficient is also to be used for to measure wealth inequality. This use of Gini coefficient requires that no one has a negative net wealth. Besides that, the Gini index often used which is the Gini coefficient expressed as a percentage, but it is equal to the Gini coefficient multiplied by 100. (Most of the time people are using the Gini index for calculating the income inequality. ) Graph1(source:http://people. stfx. ca) The graph above shows that the Gini coefficient is equal to the area which is shaded to the yellow colour. The relationship between the income inequality and economic growth Graph 2(source : author’s calculation) The graph above is showing the relationship between the income inequality and economic growth. Besides that, the graph above is showing the improvement in the Gini of 0. 01 costs 1. 6 per cent per year in per capita economic growth which mean economic growth improves may affect the income inequality. The relationships between the income inequality and economic growth have a very strong gap sometimes. That means change of economic growth would affect the income inequality. Therefore, the economic growth will reduce the income inequality when the salary of the lowest paid rise faster than the average wage. Besides that, the economic growth can increase the job opportunity for people to reduce the level of unemployment in the social. Economic growth often creates the job opportunity for those people who are high skilled and educated. After job opportunity increased can make the level of poverty decreased and reduce the income inequality. Enhancing the growth of economic may raise the income inequality such as increasing the flexibility of wage determination. The growth of economic is showing the extension for flexibility of wage determination. To increase the wage of employee may reduce the income inequality but it also made the labour cost increased for the employer. Increasing the wage agreement to firms may make some employers have to pay the highly salary of employee. This action may increase the unemployment and affected productivity of the company decreasing because labour cost too high makes the employer hard to endure (Murtin et al. , 2012). graph 3 The graph above is showing the global income inequality is increasing from the year 1820 to the year 2008. The Gini coefficient is increasing that mean income inequality is increasing at the same time. But, sometime the economic growth may not reduce the income inequality. It is because the Economic Growth will not necessarily solve unemployment. For example, growth cannot solve structural and frictional unemployment it is because unemployment (structural and frictional) which caused by lack of skills and geographical immobility. Technological change and globalisation partly on income inequality The current technology with globalisation might rise in the market equipment and create the boosting top incomes. (Rosen, 1981; Gordon and Dew-Becker, 2008). These days, the the change of technology is affecting too fast, however it can also influence the income inequality. It is due to inclined the job opportunity for people who high skilled, but also increasing the unemployment. For instance, those who have not high-skilled workers might drop their work due to the same repetitive happens that may be running on the technologies, technological for achieving the target. Thus the desires for those workers can decline due to the change of technological. Likewise, to estimate for both highly-skilled and low-skilled workers need to focus respective work even the technology change, both of them might difficult to replace by machines or lose their job. If the demand shift is not offset by the equal shift related to the labour supply, change in technology can lead to reduction in salary. (e. g. Autor et al. , 2006, Goos et al. , 2009). At the same time, the globalisation may also increase the income inequality. 1) The offshoring (change the national). It is talking about people from richer countries move to poorer countries or poorer country move to richer country. The offshoring happen because skill intensive in their country. For example, some people from the perspective of the skill-poor country may move to rich country for searching the job opportunity. For the conclusion, offshoring makes labour demand more skill intensive in both poorer and richer countries, thus it is increasing the income inequality in both groups of countries (Feenstra and Hanson, 1996). 2) Sometime, the firms are making a different in their profitability which can make the low-income workers work in satisfaction and create low-productivity firms. That would make the firm lose their competitor compare to the other company. At the same time, it may increase labour income inequality by lowering or reducing the employment (e. g. Egger and Kreickemeier,2009; Helpman et al. , 2010). Improvement of the Globalisation and technological change may further raise the income inequality. Besides that, technology may go to the globalisation but it is also increasing the competition between companies to the company in the world, that mean globalisation for technology may force firms to Innovate. Therefore, the Innovation is increasing the labour income inequality both temporarily – since R&D is skill intensive (Dinopoulos and Segerstrom, 1999; Neary, 2003) and it provided the R&D results in skill-biased on technological change as discussed above (Acemoglu, 2002). Caused of income inequality -Different religion, region, language and gender In Indian have many different of culture, race, religion and language. This situation is making the Indian citizen get a different education or maybe some of don’t even have the opportunity to study. It is because different of culture, race, religion language and sex in Indian might made some of them didn’t get the chance to study or educated. At the same, this kind of diversity is making a trouble to access to education and chance of employment might decrease also at the same time. This is calling the kind of discrimination. The different is making the people in suffer from significant of inequality in employment, education and income. This kind of situation is increasing because different family background might made the living standard become harder and difficult, caused the income increasing in India (Desai & Kulkarni, 2008). -Technology The technology is improving all the time, but it also is decreasing the opportunity of job for people who are unskilled and limited educated. The company have to increase productivity to satisfy the demand from market. A lot of companies are investing to the technology to increase their productivity and growth in their business. Therefore, the number of automatic machine increasing is decreasing the job for those people who are working in manual, handy, limited educated and unskilled. In the same time, the service job could increasing because the technology improvement and factory job such as manual and handy is reducing. The service increased but it is just a low pay job. Technology is increasing the income inequality and it is replaced many worker in factory in U. S (WSJ, Technology, Not Globalization,Feeds Income Inequality, July 24, 2008). -Education The raising of education level is the most efficient way to reduce the income inequality. It is because the education has the great relation to the income distribution. The investment in education can made the income inequality decreased and lowers the level of poverty. People who is educated can get a higher opportunity to get a job compared to those are limited educated. It is important to send the child to the school and educated for increasing their intelligence and knowledge for achieving their ambition. In Brazil have a high inequality of income because average of citizen of Brazil attends fewer year to school compared to other. Number of Brazilian is increasing compared to the other country compared to the Latin America (Carlos Aguiar de Medeiros of International Development Economics Associates, 2001) -Price Stability The price stability is also known as inflation problem. In Brazil, inflation happens is making the poor getting poorer but the rich getting richer. It is because when facing the inflation problem or price instability, the company (rich) is following the same contract of wage or income to pay the salary to their employee (poor). Therefore, the poor have to reduce their living standard with their unchanged pay or real lower wages. At the same time, the investor (rich) can move their financial to other country for more opportunity to protect their money during the inflation. But, the poorer citizens have to work in a harder situation so it is difficult for them to escape poverty. (Carlos Aguiar de Medeiros of International Development Economics Associates, 2001) -Impact of Social Benefits In China, government have to provide a lot of benefit to their citizen. For example of social benefit, it is more like social insurance income or pension benefit. Caused of population increased and economic reforms need a greater financial to stimulate the economic growth. Therefore, have to reduce the social benefit such as pension benefit. It is big impact those are affected and increasing the income inequality. At the same time, not only the pension benefits government of China have to reduce the other social benefits such house benefit, health benefits, food assistance and other when have to improve the economic growth but increase income inequality (Gao 2006). http://www. networkideas. org/ideasact/jun07/beijing_conference_07/carl_riskin. pdf Way to reduce income inequality -Immigration Immigration policy would make United States reduce the income inequality. To let in more immigrants who is highly educated and skill will making more job to the America workers. More immigrants don’t mean reduce the opportunity of job to the America workers because it is creating more jobs to those people who are limited educated and limited skill at the same time. While immigrants are highly educated came to America such as: doctor, engineers, lawyer, entrepreneurs and other may increasing the job opportunity to the citizen of America who is limited educated. The job for United State people could increase caused by the immigrants system. Therefore, reducing the number of workers (immigrants) who is limited education might reducing the income inequality to the America because created more opportunity for those people who is limited education and unskilled. (Enrico Moretti is the Michael Peevey and Donald Vial Chair in Labor Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of â€Å"The New Geography of Jobs† (2012). ) -Education In the France that strategy been used make sure every citizen in the country might get the chance to study or educated. It is the one of way to reduce the income inequality which has to be start on education. The education is very important because it can the people in the country to improve their living standards; reduce the income inequality at the same time. New analysis is showing that an increasing for the job opportunity for people with education is associated which is making a decline in labour Earnings inequality in France (Fournier and Koske, 2012). An education is giving to every citizen for get a higher chance to get the job opportunity might reduce the income inequality. -Protecting Our Poor, Elderly and Women to Reduce Income Inequality In Singapore is making the new job for those women, elder worker, and poor people to find and obtain a new job. It is helping them to avoid poverty but have to reduce their salary in their new job. This kind of policy is enabling those workers such as migrants, women, and elder worker to get an income and escape poverty. In the labour market, giving the new job for those people might increase the productivity in Singapore and reduces the income inequality at the same time. But a new job in low pay is providing for that unemployment or can’t find the job; women have been terminated in their job because of pregnancy, and unconscionably obtuse of the elder employee. Have to pay in low wage because their productivity in work also reducing but it still can helped them to continue their live or living (SINGAPORE POPULATION WHITE PAPER, 2013) -Heavy-industry-oriented development strategy In China is starting the strategy of heavy-industry-oriented development to increase the speed of pace of industrialization. To focus of heavy-industry-oriented development strategy, China is increasing the amount of resource from the agriculture. At the same time, it is increasing the opportunity of job. It is because it is some kind of investment to increase the productivity of China by heavy-industry-oriented development which is providing by China government. To run the strategy, the government of China is moving the industry to the less developed rural regions for increasing the job opportunity for those people over there and reducing the income inequality. To reduce the region income inequality, the strategy of heavy-industry-oriented development might carry on rural region to increase their job opportunity. To increasing the growth of economic in China, have to increase the job opportunity for those are employment and increasing the productivity in China. This may decrease the income inequality gap in China (Yang 2002). Conclusion The information above is showing the income inequality is increasing in the world. The income inequality is making people become poorer for those are poor and make the people become richer for those are rich. Therefore it is the economic issue including the outcome, earning and economic growth. It is why income inequality is the one of target or problem for macroeconomic to solve. Reference -Ram, R. (1988) http://www. collinsdictionary. com/dictionary/english/income-inequality -Graph1 http://people. stfx. ca -Graph 2 (source : author’s calculation) -Murtin et al. , 2012 http://www. oecd. org/eco/labour/49421421. pdf

Case Analysis Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Case Analysis Report - Essay Example The introduction looks into the history, base and growth of Virgin Group, as well as gives a brief of the subsidiaries of the group that operates in the world. The founder, Richard Branson plays an overseer role in the running of the company having started by simply founding a student’s newspaper. The inspiration that was generated here and hence forth is unimaginable as it has created a multi-billion empire of companies. A SWOT analysis is done based on the company’s operations and the environment with which it runs its business. The competitive nature of the environment drives the company to not only deliver innovations to the consumers but as well offer reduced prices for its services such as air transport hence gaining a competitive advantage over other big market players. The brand name not only gives the company the reputation associated with quality but also places the company at a position to give high standards of service delivery. This report also discusses th e competitive model as put forward by Michael Porter in tackling competition in the business world. The strategies used to implement strategic change in the assumption of effective management. Managers need to strategize market moves that are essential in the management of market dynamics as well as evaluate the direction taken by a company such as Virgin Group as this is an important tool in the forecast of the future position of the company. Finally, the report highlights the key areas that need improvement and the recommendations to ensure the necessary loop holes are sealed for successful penetration of major markets that enhance revenue collection. Introduction Virgin group is a London; Britain based multinational private company that deals in business sectors such as trains, finance, trading, media, music, telecommunication, traveling, entertainment, cars, retailing, publishing, clothing and cosmetics with a lot of subsidiaries in UK, USA, Australia, South Africa, Europe, and Asia. Its CEO, Sir Richard Branson started the business in 1970 and now his empire has more than 250 companies and is organized into layers of holding companies, employing over 25,000 people with its main marketing activities dealing with producing, marketing, providing services and retailing around the world in over 200 companies. The CEO was born in England and as young as 17 his career had already started off as he founded a student magazine ‘Voice of Youth’ and his career culminated when he founded Virgin in 1970 as a mail order record company. What followed later was a success story of the wealthy Sir. Richard Branson as 1984 / 85 Virgin Atlantic, Games, Vision, Cargo and Holidays were launched, 1987 / 88 Virgin Records, Balloon and Broadcasting were launched, 1989 Virgin Vision sold to MCEG, 1992 Virgin Music Group was sold to EMI 1995, Virgin Direct and Cola were launched, 1996 Virgin Express, Trains and Virgin Net were founded, 1997 Virgin Rail Group Limited was established, 1999 Virgin Active and Virgin Mobile were launched, 2000 Virgin Blue was launched and 2002 Virgin Mobile was launched. This endless list shows the trail of success that the Virgin group has been able to achieve over the years and the net worth is built in diverse businesses all under the Virgin brand as the CEO does not to immerse himself in a new venture until he understands the ins and outs of the business. Virgin employs the type of structure

Education and its Methods Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Education and its Methods - Assignment Example This paper shall look at the differences in the learning techniques from last week. A humanist approach that takes into account only the potential of the person as a whole may at times be misleading and detrimental to the process of development of a child. In theory, every facet of the child undergoes a change while a humanist model of education is followed by the teachers or the educators (Smith, 2003). However, this is not true. That is, it may not follow while the theory is being translated into practice. This may lead to problems whereby an aspect of a child that needs specialized attention is left out of the process of education or is not given adequate attention. Humanist education is also not easy to implement at a logistical level. In third world countries and even on certain first world countries, it is not possible to accommodate many children within a framework that provides a completely humanist form of education. As a result, it is necessary to temper any form of educati on that is taken with the positives of the others. In this context, it may be a good idea to describe a few details of the cognitivist school of learning theory. According to theorists who believe in the power of this form of learning, it is important to develop in learners the abilities to structure their own mind in such a manner that it would be easier for them to understand the new events and facts that are provided to them. In a certain course of time, they shall attain the necessary abilities for the purpose of understanding new facts on their own. This mode of learning depends on installing in a person the apparatus for further learning (Mergel, 1998). An integration of these systems may lead to complications whereby the best in both may not be utilised and the negatives of both may be inculcated in it. There may, however, on the brighter side, also develop a system that has the positives of both. This system may be able to provide specialized attention to the problem of chil dren and also develop their particular skills while also developing them as a whole. While providing children with nothing but theoretical models that do not interact, one runs the risk of losing out on motivating the child. Setting the child within a system where there is no change in the conditions of learning may lead to the child not feeling a sense of ambition which is essential for the development of a mindset that is conducive for the reception of facts. Motivating a child to create such a mindset is extremely necessary for his or her further development. This development needs to have a solid basis and this can proceed from an understanding of one’s strengths and weaknesses, both of which may then be assessed according to the cognitivist and the humanist schools of learning theory. This can then also be tied to the aspect of self-regulation that needs to be a part of the education of a child. This regulation can proceed from an understanding of one’s talents an d needs when faced with the world. This needs an understanding of the world and one’s position in it and also knowledge of one’s talents that may be put at the service of the world. This can then be used for a regulation of the manner in which education is conducted. The biological bases of learning and memory also need to be taken into account while looking at methods of imparting education to children. The age of the

Case study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 7

Case study - Essay Example The following study will analyze and deduce the feasibility of the company and its requirement of $1 million. Joe’s Enterprises for Fast Food is a premium brand in the market of fast foods. It has gained immense popularity in the downtown Chicago, even though it does not have many selling points or carts at present. The USP of Joe’s is to provide healthy, natural and fresh food at competitive prices. It has grown impressively from a single cart company to a more than a million dollar enterprise. The company is primarily targeting the office workers with competitively priced fast food, which are high in nutritional value and are fresh and hygienic. The company wants to As mentioned the company is looking at a micro but profitable market. But again, it is a risky proposition to depend on a single market, even though it is competitively priced and has gained popularity. The present market may be the â€Å"star† for the company, but it still requires â€Å"cash cows† to boost its revenue and operating profit. Joe’s Enterprises should look beyond its present market and should implement plans to venture into new markets with innovative distribution system. The company can foray into restaurants and take away outlets to have a large bas of customers. And with its popularity will definitely reap returns in the long run. The current ratio is a very popular ratio and measures the ability of the firm to manage current liabilities. The higher the current ration the higher the short-term solvency. The current ratio of the firm is not high and hence it is looking for the loan for expansion. This ratio measures how efficiently assets are employed. This ratio is also akin to the output-capital ratio used in financial analysis. At the current rate we can assume that there is a proper utilization of assets and this may also help

Debt sustainability and Fiscal Councils Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Debt sustainability and Fiscal Councils - Essay Example The most obvious reasons of rising government debt are the failure to collect enough taxes or revenues in order to meet the expenditure of the government. Economists argue that if the level of government deficit is very high then it implies that the government will be unable to spend a similar amount in the future (Euro Economics, 2015). The following equation captures the debt to GDP ratio in a comprehensive manner.Growth rate of debt to GDP ratio= primary deficit/ B + i –growth rate of nominal GDPB= nominal quantity of government bondsi= nominal rate of interestPrimary deficit= This measures the total budget deficit of the government minus the amount that has to be paid as interest on the debt.The equation above shows that there are three main factors which can cause very high level of government deficit (Abel and Bernanke, 2005). The first one is a very high deficit spending on the part of the government. The second one is an increase in the rate of nominal interest on the debt that has been collected on the part of the government and third is a sluggish economic growth. Falling rates of interest has contributed to a high level of debt as it became easier to finance the operations of the government through debt instruments. A rise in the propensity of savings in the emerging markets has been found to be a major factor which has contributed to the fall in the interest rates. Finally, preferential treatment of payment of interest on debt has been found to be a contributing factor.

Analytical paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Analytical paper - Essay Example ocratic reshaping is proving to be a contradictory, uncertain, and conflict-ridden process, one that has provoked sharp debates both within Bolivia and among observers of Bolivia abroad† (Wolff 3). The problems inside and outside of Bolivia with respect to democratic reforms are certainly not easily definable. Most would also agree a move towards socialism by the current Evo Morales regime is troubling for democratic proponents. Though most would agree that democratic change in Bolivia could be sincerely philanthropic venture by democratic proponents, economic vitalization of Bolivia is usually the anticipated motivation and priority assisting any efforts for ‘changing’ governments, â€Å"†¦creating order is a central task for establishing the foundations of long term economic growth† (North, 1999). It is reasonable then to consider the perceived ‘value’ of Bolivia post-change in light of simple economic potential. The future does not look bright for Bolivian democracy with change as a constant drumbeat from Bolivia’s past. The geography of Bolivia suggests that independence, whether democratic or socialist, is always going to be a matter of dependence upon others. Bolivia is one of two ‘land-locked’ countries in the Western Hemisphere (Paraguay the other) and relies on neighboring countries for exporting its mineral resources (Bolivia’s primary export) throughout the world. This dependence upon neighbors, specifically Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Paraguay, is more significant than some may think. Bolivia once had access to the sea but lost this territory to Chile in the War of the Pacific in the late 1800’s. Bolivia has suffered poverty and government instability ever since the War of the Pacific. Bolivia’s main obstacle to ‘independence’ is Bolivia’s land-locked juxtaposition. The easiest and cheapest route for one of Bolivia’s chief exports, Bolivian crude oil, is directly through Brazil via a pipeline. Brazil also