Motown Records Influence On Society Essay - 1128 Words

Bailey Frigon Litz American Lit December 7, 2016 Motown Records Influence on society Through the creation of Motown records Berry Gordy changed the barrier between white and black americans and their music. Before Gordy come along to change the standards of american culture whites and blacks had different labels and music. Motown Records is the first record label to successfully market black artists to the white mainstream audience. (Dahl 12-15) Berry Gordy was the first African American to own a music label and have artists of different races on the same label. In the 1960s racial tension was a problem because of segregation and equal rights,â€Å"For the most part, black artists were forced to record on white-owned labels that regarded their work as novelties, one-offs and curiosities.† (Ross). When Gordy opened the record label it started to break down the tension between races. The reason the label opening broken down tention was because Gordy didn t care about the color of their skin or where they come from. Berry Gordy founded Motown records in 1959. Before that Gordy grew up in Detroit Michigan and was the seventh of eight children. He was not the first businessperson in the family; his father as a plastering contractor, his mother as an insurance agent.when Gordy was young he was interested in music, and his song Berry s Boogie won a talent contest. However, he did not get a lot of real training in music, only a little on the piano and about a week on theShow MoreRelatedThe Effect of Rock and Roll on American Society694 Words   |  3 PagesRock and roll was not just a new generation of music; it was music that created a new generation. Rock and roll had a transformative effect on American society because it encouraged younger people to break out of the more conservative American mold, increased the use of technology in daily life, as well as implemented civil rights movements that bolstered minority groups and races. Rock and roll helped break many people out of the pre-war mindset and into a new, fresh one. Although many adults detestedRead MoreThe Legacy Of Soul Music1509 Words   |  7 Pagesassisted African-American societies with societal and political issues through the rise and fall of soul music. In what follows, I will argue how soul music had a significant impact during the 1960s through bringing together both the white and black subcultures. Firstly, through examining the history and effects of slavery in the African-American societies. Secondly, by discussing the impact that two Mahalia Jackson and Issac Hayes, have had on giving African-American society a voice and lastly, discussingRead MoreMusic And Its Impact On The Usa849 Words   |  4 Pages In the USA there are many different styles of music just like all around the world but music can be an outlet for different races in different ways. I believe that the type of music people in the USA listen to is controlled by the big rec ord labels to keep certain races down and to help keep other races in charge. Music, like many artist have stated is freedom and self expression, it can have a large effect on how you feel or can completely change your perspective on life situations after listeningRead MoreThe Beatles And Bob Dylan905 Words   |  4 PagesMusic plays a significant role in societies all over the world. It allows people of all ethnicities and backgrounds to express themselves. Different music genres help to inspire other artists to create new music that they would not have thought of before. In various ways, Britain and America have influenced and inspired one another for many years. Music was, and still is, a huge connecting factor between the two countries. The Beatles and Bob Dylan, two of the most famous artists of all time, demonstrateRead MoreThe Life And Times Of Michael Jackson : A Look Into The Man2286 Words   |  10 PagesLife and Times of Michael Jackson: A look into the Man in the Mirro r Ishmael Johnson College of Southern Nevada The artist who had the biggest impact on me was Michael Jackson. He was my Elvis and Beatles†¦(Michael Buble). In today’s society we flock to the glamour and the glitz. In music if you wanted to be discovered you have to be where the action is; Los Angeles, New York or Nashville Tennessee. With such a direct approach to finding success who would have guessed that the bestRead MoreThe Role of the Vietnam War on the 1960s1807 Words   |  7 Pagesdaytime talk shows to sitcoms that portrayed the average American family. During this time period America improved in a lot of ways due to the music that people listened to and the television shows that were aired. In the 1960’s music had a lot of influences on everyone not only adults but teens too. Starting from RnB music to blues to rock n roll to even folk music it all had an impact on the people that listened to it. Rnb music around this time was thought of as the heart of music it originated fromRead MoreMichael Jackson : King Of Pop1595 Words   |  7 PagesMichael Jackson was a powerful figure who benefitted society and the music industry by inspiring the nation to look beyond the color of skin, setting different standards in music, and motivating more humanitarian efforts through his own. Michael Jackson was known as the â€Å"King of Pop† for his exceptional career in the music industry. He began his career in the Jackson 5 in 1964, when Michael was only six. He was the lead singer in this Motown produced group. His solo career took off in 1978 afterRead MoreWhy Study Pop Music Essay1354 Words   |  6 Pagesthat way, pop culture is much more available and accepted than the formal knowledge. Hannan’s significantly focuses on the rapid rise of Popular Music as a serious educational topic while demonstrating a shift in traditional class values that influence what or how things are taught in education systems. This change in attitude does not however alter one specific fact, â€Å"Most young people contemplating university music study, whether classical or popular, wish to do so because their cultural identityRead MoreThe History of Hip Hop Music and Its Transition to Popular Music905 Words   |  4 Pagespopular music. In particular this essay wi ll focus on what hip hop represents in the black community and how it can be used as a social movement against inequalities faced by them. This will then open up the discussion for the how this has influenced society, and the impact it has had in terms of race issues which hip hop itself often represents through music. Hip hop originated in the ghetto areas of New York during the 1970’s and is a mixture of DJ, MC, B boy and Beat boxing. In his studies of definingRead More madonna Essay1161 Words   |  5 Pagesbegun to experience a women’s musical renaissance. Women’s roles in pop music are steadily growing. There have been many outstanding female musicians and vocalists in the past that have aided in making the music industry less of a male opinionated society, from Aretha Franklin, Mo Tucker, and Ella Fitzgerald to pop icons like Courtney Love, Queen Latifa, and Melissa Ethridge. Along side these, there are two women who have conquered most obstacles they’ve faced and, in addition, forced the music industry

Native Apps vs. Web Apps

Question: Discuss the difference between the native apps and web apps. Answer: Introduction In this essay, the native apps and web apps have been mutually compared in terms of various factors related to them and the operating systems (Android Authority 2015). The objective of this essay is to find the right app platform for mobile operating systems. Native Apps vs. Web Apps Development Tools Native Apps Web Apps Support They generally have low support from the developers end. However, the developers generally provide regular updates for improving the quality or modify the app. Web apps have high support from developers. Although regular updates or patches are not provided, any issues faced are addressed quickly (Charland and Leroux 2011). Total Cost of Ownership Total cost of ownership is high since these apps are designed by the developer for the specific platform. The developer is responsible for any changes or effects of the apps as well (Jobe 2013). Total cost of ownership is low since the app is hosted to a network browser or similar applications for an operating system. Here, the developer only develops the apps; the responsibilities of effects will be of both developer and host. Access to and the Power of APIs provided Native apps have more access to APIs; they must follow to guidelines and protocols provided. For these apps, high-powered APIs are provided. Web apps have low access to APIs. However, they have some different sets of guidelines and protocols that must be followed properly (Serrano, Hernantes and Gallardo 2013). Ease of Use vs. Flexibility of the tools The apps are easy to use only if their user interfaces are good; in other cases, they are difficult to use, mainly for the new users. The tools are not very flexible for the native apps (Sin, Lawson and Kannoorpatti 2012). These apps are easy to use, have good user interface and the tools are flexible. Support for Single or Multiple Target Platforms These apps are generally developed for one particular platform and hence have no support for multiple target platforms. These apps generally have support for multiple target platforms. Quality and Availability of Support and Documentation Quality of support is good; documentations are available in the case of the most genuine developers. Quality of support is poor in many cases; documentations are not available in most of the web apps (Puder, Tillmann and Moskal 2014). Availability of Potential Staff familiar with the Platform Potential staffs familiar with the platform are not easily available. Potential staffs, familiar with the platform, are available. The likely future path the platform might take The likely future path of the platform depends on the development and quality of the apps available. Users prefer the platform that has the most app support and variety in the apps. The future path of the platform do not generally depend on the web apps. Reasoned Argument After the analysis of the previous comparison, it can be said that native apps are most suitable for mobile software platforms. There are several reasons behind the choice. These are: Native apps are more reliable in the mobile platforms. Moreover, mobile phones have some distinct operating system for which these apps can be developed. Again, if the apps can be utilized for increasing the popularity of the OS, the app developer can get support from the OS company. Native apps utilize less data in comparison to web apps. This is another reason for utilizing native apps instead of web apps. In native apps, regular updates and patches are provided to solve issues or modify the existing features. On the other hand, web apps have to be redownloaded completely in order to update to the latest version. Although low support is available in native apps, they are more viable, have wide range of applications and attractive user interface. Native apps are much more reliable than the web apps although there have been many cases of fraud developers. Native apps follow strict protocols and are less vulnerable to unauthorized access or unethical hacking. All these points favor the use of native apps in the mobile operating systems. However, there are many issues as well that are not found in the web apps. Still, the native apps are to be preferred because the use of less data, attractive user interface and faster operations (Jobe 2013). The existing issues can be mitigated through suitable planning and new updates that help in enhancing the quality of the app. Conclusion From the essay, it is evident that native apps are most suitable for mobile platforms because of the different factors discussed in the essay. References Android Authority, 2015. HTML5 vs Native Android App. [online] Available at: https://www.androidauthority.com/html-5-vs-native-android-app-607214/ [Accessed 29 May 2016]. Charland, A. and Leroux, B., 2011. Mobile application development: web vs. native.Communications of the ACM,54(5), pp.49-53. Jobe, W., 2013. Native Apps Vs. Mobile Web Apps.iJIM,7(4), pp.27-32. Puder, A., Tillmann, N. and Moskal, M., 2014, June. Exposing native device APIs to web apps. InProceedings of the 1st International Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems(pp. 18-26). ACM. Serrano, N., Hernantes, J. and Gallardo, G., 2013. Mobile web apps.Software, IEEE,30(5), pp.22-27. Sin, D., Lawson, E. and Kannoorpatti, K., 2012, June. Mobile Web Apps-The Non-programmer's Alternative to Native Applications. InHuman System Interactions (HSI), 2012 5th International Conference on(pp. 8-15). IEEE.

The Usefulness of Different Sociological Approaches to Suicide free essay sample

Item A shows that there have been many studies conducted on suicide and the motives behind it. There are two main perspectives to assess when considering the usefulness of the approaches to suicide, Positivists such as Durkheim believe that suicide can be explained through official statistics and state there are distinct reasons for every suicide. Whereas, Interpretivists such as Atkinson and Douglas state that we can find the reason for suicide through qualitative studies and individual motives. Emile Durkheim elaborated upon another French Positivist, Comte in his belief that behind each individual suicide is the influence of wider social issues rather than personal vulnerabilities. After an in depth cross cultural study of suicide rates using official statistics such as relationship status, he noted particular correlations such as more suicides in single people opposed to those who were married and a higher suicide rate in Protestant countries than Catholic countries. From his study he identified two main social factors that determined suicide, one as integration into society, meaning the extent to which an individual feels a sense of belonging to a group and obligation to its members and the other as regulation, the extent to which an individual’s actions and desires are kept in check by society’s norms and values. We will write a custom essay sample on The Usefulness of Different Sociological Approaches to Suicide or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Elaborating upon this, he argues suicide results from either too much or too little social integration or regulation. Egoistic suicide is caused by too little social integration, he suggests that is the most common type of suicide in modern society, caused by excessive individualism and lack of social ties and obligations to others which explains the lower rate among Catholics than among Protestants. Both religions condemn suicide but Protestants have more individual freedom in what to believe and how to express their faith whereas Catholics are more tightly integrated by shared beliefs and collective rituals. In modern society, a recent example of Fatalistic suicide can be seen in the case of Charlotte Coursier, a Cambridge philosophy student who committed suicide after suffering harassment from a lecturer, with nobody else to turn to following a break-up she took her own life. Altruistic suicide is the opposite of egoistic suicide and is caused by too much social integration, it occurs when the individual has little value and where the group’s interests override those of the individual. Suicide here is obligatory self-sacrifice for the good of the group rather then something freely chosen since the individual feels it their duty to die. Anomic suicide is caused by too little moral regulation, it occurs when society’s values are made obsolete with rapid social change, creating uncertainty in individuals as to what society expects of them, for example the depression of the 1930s produced anomic suicides. Fatalistic suicide is the opposite of anomic suicide and is caused by too much moral regulation, this suicide happens when society regulates the individual completely, it was most common amongst slaves. Maurice Halbwachs supported Durheim’s positivist approach but added to his theory. Halbwachs argued differences between urban and rural residence were the main reasons for variations in suicide rates. He found higher rates among people living alone in urban locations where they were subject to isolation. However, Sainsbury found suicide in London boroughs were highest where the levels of social disorganisation were highest. Durkheim’s study has been criticised for using unreliable statistics in the form of retrospective data as medical knowledge was limited in the 19th century and autopsies were rare. Similarly, most countries lacked the sophisticated modern administrative system needed to collect and complete reliable statistics on a national level. As a result, the study lacked reliability so it’s difficult to surmise that suicide is caused by social facts as Durkheim had suggested. Douglas, an interpretivist sociologist has also criticised Durkheim’s suicide study for ignoring the motives of the act for those who kill themselves and for assuming that suicide has a fixed or constant meaning. He argues that the meanings of suicide can vary between cultures and the motives and meanings must be understood within their own social and cultural context. This means that Durkheim’s attempts to compare rates across cultures are faced with problems. Douglas also criticises Durkheim for aiming to categorise suicide in terms of their social causes. He argues that death should be classified according to its actual meaning and to do this, qualitative methods should be used to analyse the possible causes of death. That way, we can build up a classification of suicide meanings. He rejects using statistics to look at why people commit suicide and prefers to try and understand the causes and triggers behind why they would commit suicide which they believe isn’t coherent through statistics. Douglas states the decision to classify death as a suicide is taken by a coroner, and so the coroner’s verdict is based on interpretation. Nevertheless, the coroner’s decision could be subjective so therefore we cannot exactly argue that the coroner’s decision is fully accurate. He suggested that there are different types of suicide based on the meaning and reason for the death. For example, some Eskimos were expected to kill themselves in times of food shortages. Atkinson takes a different interpretivist approach from, that of ethnomethodology as he rejects the idea of coroners being able to objectively classify suicides because the facts are socially constructed. Although he accepts Douglas’ point that official statistics simply reflect the constructs or labels coroners give to deaths, he rejects the view that we cannot get behind these statistics and uncover the real rates or meaning of suicide. All we can study is how people make sense of their world which means studying how the living comes to classify a death as a suicide. He focuses on how coroners classify death and suggests that qualitative methods such as informal interviews and observations might be used. He states that there are four factors that affect a coroner’s decision to classify death as a suicide which are; the presence of a suicide note, the location and the circumstances, evidence of illnesses such as depression and some types of death such as hanging. Coroners regard information such as this as clues to whether the deceased took their own life or not. Unlike positivists, ethnomethodologists accept that that their accounts are merely interpretations and don’t claim to be in anyway superior to the coroners whom they study. However, Atkinson has still been criticised for only looking at how deaths are categorised as he demonstrates how coroners just use their own interpretation to decide whether a death was a suicide. For example the use of a note is interpreted as a sign of suicide. As a result, it becomes to accept this explanation as all the coroners have is interpretations of the social world not the objective truth. Taylor on the other hand takes a different approach to both positivists and interpretivists. He argues suicide statistics cannot be taken as valid, for example in a study half of people hit by a train were classed as suicide even though there was no conclusive evidence of suicidal intent. Taylor found that coroners saw factors such as a history of mental illness as indications of suicidal intent and this increased the likelihood of a suicide verdict. However like the positivists Taylor still believes we can explain suicide. He believes we can discover real patterns and causes, though unlike positivists he doesn’t base his explanation on suicide statistics. Instead he adopts a realist approach which aims to reveal underlying structures and causes. Many theories on suicide focus on acts where the individual was intent on dying and that resulted in death. For example Durkheim’s study is about causes of death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive or negative act by the victim himself, which he knows will produce this result. However Taylor notes that in many cases those who attempt suicide are not certain their actions will kill them such as the recent tragedy reported in ‘The Times’ as a young boy hangs himself over an â€Å"xbox bill† the article indicates that the extent of the boys intentions weren’t those of detriment or life ending. Taylor suggests that a situation where the person is most likely to attempt suicide is those where there is complete certainty or uncertainty either about themselves or about others. This gives him four possible types of suicide. The first two types are inner or self-directed suicides which Taylor calls ectopic, where the individual is psychologically detached from others. Because of this the suicide attempt is a private, self-contained act. There are two types of ectopic suicide. Submissive suicides; where the person is certain about themselves. For example they may know they have no reason to go on, for example a terminal illness. Their suicide attempt is deadly serious, because they know they want to die. Thanatation suicides; where they are uncertain about themselves. For example they may be uncertain about what others think of them. Their suicide attempt involves risk taking, they may or may not survive it. The other two types are other directed or Symphsyic suicides where the individual has an overwhelming attachment to some other person. These suicides are not self-contained but a way of communicating with others. There are two types; Sacrifice suicides where they are certain about suicides and know they have to kill themselves like submissive suicides their attempt is deadly serious. Usually either they or the person has done something that makes it impossible for the person to go on living, for example betrayal through an affair. The other, Appeal suicides where the person is uncertain about others, they have doubts about their importance to the other and attempt suicide to resolve the uncertainty. Like Thanatation suicides they involve risk taking and uncertainty about the outcome. They are acts of despair and hope, combining the wish to die and things to change things for the better. Taylor’s theory is based on his interpretations of the actors’ meanings and there is no way of knowing if these are correct, especially in the case of those who succeeded. Also individual cases may involve a combination of motives and may be difficult to categorise. Taylor’s small sample as case studies while useful in giving insight into motives is unlikely to be representative of suicides in general. Unlike Durkheim, Taylor has not connected the four types to wider social structures. However there are similarities between the two, Taylor’s ideas of certainty and uncertainty parallel Durkheim’s notions of fatalism and anomie respectively. Nevertheless his theory is original and useful in explaining some of the observed patterns of suicide such as why attempts differ in seriousness and why only some leave notes. It also deals with both failed and successful attempts.

Eastern State Penitentiary Field Visit Essays - Free Essays

Eastern State Penitentiary Field Visit Essays - Free Essays Alexandra Swim LEN 101 Eastern State Penitentiary Field Visit On this day of Saturday, November 16th, we know weve arrived at the right place at this medieval castle seems very out of place. Our tour guide meets us right outside of the front gate and proceeds to tell us that when Eastern State Penitentiary was opened two miles outside downtown Philadelphia in 1829, it was built as a gothic fortress to deter crime. Architect John Haviland said of the building, it should strike fear into the hearts of those who thought of committing a crime. Before entering the prison, we learn the brief history of the beginning of Eastern State. In 1787, a group of powerful Philadelphians gathered with Ben Franklin. The members of The Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons was formed, and spoke to see the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania build a revolutionary new prison designed to create genuine regret and penitence in a prisoners heart on farmland outside Philadelphia. Eastern abandoned corporal punishment and ill treatment, adopting a system of spiritual reflection and change while being punished. Inmates were hooded whenever outside of their cells to prevent any distraction, interaction, or knowledge of the prison. They were to focus only on thought of their behavior and the ugliness of their crimes. This made Eastern State Penitentiary the most famous prison in the world. The first stop we make as we walk into the prison is the front tower. This is where multiple guards were at all times to watch over the whole prison. From here, you can get a birds eye view of the whole 11-acre prison complex. The front tower housed the alarm bell and the only clock visible to prisoners when they were outside in their private exercise yards. Down from this main tower and to the left, we traveled up another set of tight stairs in the West Tower to a door under lock and key: the administration building office, also known as the Wardens office. Between 1872 and 1885, the Warden had his office relocated to the main prison building between cell blocks 1 and 9. However, because of security concerns with the prisoners, the office had to be relocated back to the West Tower in the administration office building in 1923, where it stayed until the Penitentiarys closing in 1970. Still untouched in the office lies the remains of many filing cabinets strewn around that once held t he files of each of Easterns prisoners. We have now finished our introduction to the penitentiary with the main gate, which means we are ready to move to the main prison building. As we leave the gate building, Havilands masterpiece is before us. Eastern was initially built to house 250 of the harshest criminals; the job was to create blocks where prisoners could be kept completely isolated from each other in surroundings not injurious to their health but secure from escape and easily accessible to constant inspection by guards. To carry out this revolutionary task in prison reform, Haviland chose to build Eastern State Penitentiary as a radial layout, with a central hub with seven wings converging on it and connecting to the center building by covered passageways. The center building served as an inspection hall for vantage point guards to view all corridors of the prison. The first three wings built were single story, each containing about forty cells each. Entry to these cells was not through the corridor, but through t he private exercise yard connected to each cell. The remaining four cell blocks were two stories in height. Access to the cells was through double doors opening into the corridors. Each cell contained a toilet, water tap, a bunk on chains, and equipment for the prisoners work activities. The only light came from an 8-inch window in the ceiling. Eastern State Penitentiary had become the tangible symbol for the emerging system of solitary confinement through Havilands design. The first stop we make in the main building of the penitentiary is the rotunda. This is the physical and symbolic center of the prison. Designed for maximum surveillance into all corridors, the idea was copied in hundreds of prisons throughout the 19th century, and provided a very powerful

Alienation in The Revolver, Housewife, and How it Feels to Be Colored Me

When society considers the word alienation, they refer to people who are excluded by society, or those who are psychologically separated from themselves. There are several uses for this term. But both the sociological process and the mental state seem to be particularly dominant. In 'revolver', 'housewife', 'way of coloring', Bazan, Tutai and Hurston combine alienated social and psychological aspects with fear, repression and identity, respectively. Modernism: Heston and How to feel my color Zora Neil Heston's work embodies the reaffirmation of alienated modernist themes and racial and social identity. She has a subjective sentence style, but it is not external, it comes from that person's inner heart and mind. Heston will discuss racial relations, discrimination, race, social identity themes. - ... If your family goes out in a conversation, she needs to pull it hard. This is contrary to the experience I grew in the 1990s. When I was a child, I tried not to talk to strangers and told me to teach the general teaching dangers of strangers. If you are not talking directly to your parents or grandparents, you were asked why you should not accept the kidnapping of children and why someone is riding. When society considers the word alienation, they refer to people who are excluded by society, or those who are psychologically separated from themselves. There are several uses for this term. But both the sociological process and the mental state seem to be particularly dominant. - The experience of African Americans with Langston Hughes of Zora Neale Hurston is an excellent writer of Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes, but the attitude towards personal experiences as African Americans varies. These differences arise from various reasons from gender to life, but even if you have different views on the experience of African-Americans, they share a common goal of achieving racial equality through art It is.

Advance Accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Advance Accounting - Essay Example ncome is generally identified as a construct that causes an entity’s money supply to increase for a specific period of time (Auger, Burke, Devinney, & Louviere, 2003). The means which help the organization in increasing cash reserves is called an asset whereas, the source that causes the money supply of the company to drain is known as expense or liability. The expense occurs when an organization has to pay money in order to keep its daily operations running and this particular head includes salaries of employees, utility bills and other office related short term costs. However, the liability is of two kinds. The first one is called short term liability that has to be paid within one year while the other one which is usually of a long term nature and has to be paid over the tenure of more than one year. The companies always attempt to keep its expenses and liabilities less than the value of income. The notion of income changed a great deal whereas, other business models emerged that included no tangible product but they started to sell services such as hotels, medical professionals and even psychologists. The revenues are generated against rendering services to the customer base in the industry (Badelt & Weiss, 1990). In the past times, services industry was not a common way of making a living but now it is considered the most lucrative one regarding its ability to help people in generating income. The professional lenders are also lending their money in order to obtain substantial level of return on the base amount. The capitalists are making money with the help of lending their financial resources to others and interest income is realized as a consequence. The traditional income’s definition is modified and now one does not have to do anything for anyone in order to make obscene amount of money (Greve & Salaff, 2003). The professional lenders have accumulated financia l power by either inheriting the wealth or they managed to make money by hard working in the

Importance of managing the firms weighted average cost of capital Essay

Importance of managing the firms weighted average cost of capital (WACC) - Essay Example Managing WACC thus means keeping the WACC value lower than the company's after-tax returns, or in other words, reducing the cost of capital.This can be done by financing a major percentage of the purchase with the lowest cost of capital available, secured debts for instance, and the rest with personal equity held as cash, or by means of capital prioritisation, that is, using the cheapest source of capital first. A low WACC means that investors will be interested in the company in case additional capital needs to be raised for expansion or other purposes. Calculating WACC is often tricky because though the cost of debt is easy to track down, cost of equity can be an elusive factor. But it is worth the exercise, because knowing its WACC helps a company to try and restrict the WACC value for projects to levels far below those of its after-tax returns, thus adding to profitability. All firms need to take recourse to loans at some stage of their life cycle. But they need to carefully and critically evaluate their loan agreements, whether in the public or the private sector.