Nihilism, Provisional Existence, Forfeiture of meaning Research Paper

Nihilism, Provisional Existence, Forfeiture of meaning - Research Paper Example The tribes of these stories are considered as nihilists, because they lack spiritual maturity and focus on the meaninglessness of life; they desire provisional existence, because they lack meaningful future goals and empathy for others; and they have forfeited spiritual meaning, since they have given up hope in changing their lives and enhancing their spiritual development. Tribalism affects nihilism by enforcing collective obedience to authority, thereby sacrificing their pursuit of spiritual maturity. The lottery is viewed as a joint ritual, where all people, young and old alike, participate in its processes and outcomes. People know how their prosperity is hinged on one human being's suffering every year, but they have looked away from their ritual's hideous process and result. Instead, they rationalize that the lottery is required for their existence, wealth, and continuity. Old Man Warner underscores that the lottery cannot be eliminated, like the other towns did, because  "there's always been a lottery† (Jackson). He desires for the continuity of traditions. He further focuses on the benefits of the lottery: â€Å"Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon† (Jackson). He fails to morally analyze this ritual that he has embraced, since he can participate in it. He stands for the moral stagnation of his tribe. In The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas, people assert that their happiness and development are products of one â€Å"child's abominable misery† (LeGuin). Without this child's suffering, the â€Å"prosperity and beauty and delight† (LeGuin) of Omelas will no longer exist. As a whole, these tribes follow the laws and conventions that enable them to enjoy a â€Å"good† life. The main problem here is that through blind obedience to authority, they are sacrificing their spiritual growth. By denying to embrace suffering as a whole and transferring it to a single person, they fail to accept their suffering and find meaning in it. But these tribes no longer believe that there is value in collective suffering. Instead, they would rather accept a person's suffering to replace their own. Nihilism, moreover, does not reflect on outcomes and Frankl rejects this kind of life: â€Å"We must not despise our lives and treat our lives as if they were of no consequence at all† (Breakthrough Writing â€Å"Man's Search†). These tribes, nevertheless, reject the consequences of their actions as meaningful. They simply accept their rituals as it is, because â€Å"it is.† Tribalism, furthermore, develops nihilism, because these tribes no longer regard the meaning of life. Frankl believes in the value of being â€Å"worthy† of one's â€Å"sufferings,† for it provides â€Å"spiritual freedom† that makes life worth living for (72). The people in The Lottery does not see any meaning in life, as demonstrated in how they exist each day for rudimentary needs. The men focus on materialis tic affairs, while women are relegated to the domestic domain and follow gender-stereotyped roles: â€Å"...men began to gather, surveying their own children, speaking of planting and rain, tractors and taxes...women, wearing faded house dresses and sweaters...exchanged bits of gossip as they went to join their husbands† (Jackson). No one gives a second to reflect on the morality of their actions, because they are focused on their daily survival. Everyone treats this day as any ordinary day with a sense of â€Å"disenchantment of the world†

Dynamics of Apartheid in South Africa

Dynamics of Apartheid in South Africa It is easy to forget that Apartheid only finished twenty six years ago in 1991 when the Abolition of Racially Based Land Measures Act was passed this subsequently led to the repealing of the laws enforcing racial segregation which included the Group Areas Act. Apartheid is the word given to racial segregation in South Africa; this was specifically a former policy of segregation and political and economic discrimination against non-European groups in the Republic of South Africa (Merriam-Webster, 2011). In this essay I will discuss both the political and economic discrimination that took place while also looking at the subtle but important undertones of religion that also affected Apartheid.ÂÂ   The essay will be split into three sections, with the first section discussing how the laws that were passed during the period of Apartheid were inextricably linked to an attempt to control the non-European in the society of the time in South Africa and to solidify the power of the politi cal in power at the time. The second part of this essay will look at how this control worked economically and if there was anything that the non-Europeans in South Africa could do in an attempt to bypass them. It will also consider whether the control it exercised truly did result in the continuation of power being in the hands of the whites or if it actually ended up accelerating the process that led to the era of Apartheid being overturned and Nelson Mandela being inaugurated into being the first voted in Black president of South Africa as part of the African National Congress. Finally the essay will consider the role that religion had in this era of Apartheid. Whether religion ended up helping the formation of segregation or whether it was unhelpful towards the movement. Religion is always portrayed as a beacon of uniting those from different races and ethnicities around the world. This essay will consider whether this was the case or whether Apartheid made religion lose sight of its purpose and morals and promoted the political philosophy of Apartheid. When considering the laws that came into being during the time of the National Party it is important to consider the history of legislation in South Africa. There were long-standing laws from the time of the British and Afrikaner administrations in South Africa. A good example of this would be the Glen Grey Act of 1894, (Smythe N C, 1995) this was the original legislation of land reclamation to the white population from the native population. The Glen Grey act also created a tax on labour that forced Xhosa men, an ethnic group that is mainly situated around the south and south eastern part of South Africa, into work on farms and other industry. It is important to consider the effect that these laws from colonial times had on the laws that came into effect during the time of Apartheid. With regards to Segregation, there were multiple laws that came into effect but none that had such a great impact as The Population Registration Act, 1950. This required that every person who was a citizen of South Africa be classified and registered into a racial class to divide the population up (Dugard, 2016). All inhabitants in South Africa at the time were divided into categories; these were Black, White and Coloured (mixed) later on in the period Indians were added to the category list, this was for those who originated from South Asia and India. This act was the foundation of everything that became Apartheid, it led to the forbidding for a white and a person of another race to marry and then a year later in 1950 it became a crime for any white person to have sexual intercourse with any person of another race (Robertson and Whitten, 1978). These laws were an attempt to divide the population and with which the administration that was leading the country would be able to demote w ho were not white into lesser positions in society and also to move them through land reclamation. This law was not repealed until June 17th 1991 by The South African Parliament. This was the first act of legislation with Apartheid being foreseen by the government and as mentioned earlier became the foundation of everything that apartheid became. This is a good example of a dynamic that occurred during the time of Apartheid in South Africa Another piece of legislation that came in was in 1953, this was The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act 1953, this was again an initiative with which to exercise more racial segregation in South Africa and solidify the idea of apartheid. This act legalised the segregation of public places vehicles and services. This left only roads that were excluded from this law and meant they became the only area where all races were together.ÂÂ   Within this law there were multiple sections that had minor details in which became incredibly important. One of these was Section 3a; this made it permissible to completely exclude someone from public places, vehicles or services based solely on their race. This preceded section 3b; this bylaw meant that the facilities for the two races did not have to be equal, or anywhere near the same quality. This meant that in reality the best facilities were reserved for whites and those that were outdated or inferior where given to the other races. This le d to total segregation between races and the creation of white-only jobs. This finally ended up with the cementing of the National Partys control over the economic and social systems in the country. This ended up leading to the National Partys plan for the Grand Apartheid a plan to emphasise the territorial separation and the continuation and enlargement of the police repression that had been occurring throughout the period of apartheid. This is an incredibly important part of Apartheid and the effects it had on the population in South Africa. Secondly, with regards to legislation in an attempt to exercise control in 1953 the Public Safety Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act were passed, this led to the empowerment of the government to declare a state of emergency at which there would be increased penalties for those who were considered in contempt of the laws. These penalties included fines, imprisonment and even whippings; there are multiple stories of the government declaring a state of emergency in an attempt to crush any potential uprising that there may have been potential for. One good example of this would be in 1960, a large groups of people classified as black, from an area called Sharepeville refused to carry their identification papers which identified which race class they were part of and also where they were from. The government decided that this was grounds for the declaration of a state of emergency; this emergency lasted for one hundred and fifty six days and involved sixty nine people dying and one hu ndred and eighty seven people wounded. These people died because of the demonstrations against what was perceived to be unfair pass laws, it led to the South African Police opening fire against the demonstrators and killing all these people. This is another example of how the imposing of Apartheid by the government of the day let to terrible and unjust treatment of certain races in South Africa at the time; it also went a long way to suggesting that the white regime had no intention of changing the unjust laws of Apartheid. This again discusses a key dynamic of Apartheid in South Africa During Apartheid one of the ways that control was upheld by the government was through an extremely brutal and well ordered police force that was at the disposal at the government to quieten and extinguish and those who had become disenfranchised with the Apartheid regime. This was a non-white majority in the country that was growing increasingly restless with the regime and this ended up leading to the Sharepville massacre as mentioned above. When there was a State of Emergency ordered in the country the police would then be assisted by the military. The government of the time ordered multiple strategies to stifle any anti-apartheid activists and critics of the white minority government. Some of these tactics included counter-insurgency and intimidation. Over the period from 1960 to 1990 sixty seven people died in police custody or detention either from hanging or torture or what was put down to natural causes although there is strong evidence to suggest that this was in fact not th e actual cause of death in many cases. (Goldberg, n.d.) This is another dynamic of Apartheid and the impacts it had on South Africa Another way in which legislation led to forcible control by the minority white led government was through forcible relocation. This was a policy where over 86% of the country was granted to the white South African population. This meant that the other colour populations were forced to relocate from where they lived or even originally came from. Normally this would be relocation outside the city limits or if they were Black Africans they would be relocated to one of the ten Bantustans, these were communities that were set up specifically for to home major African ethnic groups. These were state-created communities usually put in the least desirable places where there was little to no natural resources industry or any kind of workable farmland. They also regularly had little to no public transport and were given little to no chance to build high quality communities. The government also passed laws saying that these were the only areas where Black political rights were recognised and ac cepted. Outside of these specific areas the Black Africans were unable to vote or even own land. This was regardless of whether their families had been there for or whether there were historical ancestors who had inhabited the area as well. This policy resulted in major relocation and devastating results for this demographic. From 1950 to 1986, there were more than 1.5 million Africans of colour that were forcibly removed from their homes and relocated from the urban centres or major mineral areas and also the most fertile land. These areas were given to the minority whites and the Black population was moved either to Bantustans or to newly formed townships that were springing up all over the country as people were looking for better environments for their families and relations. This is another example of a key dynamic of apartheid and how it had a dramatic effect. Finally, when looking at the dynamic of religion with regards to the time of Apartheid in South Africa there is a lot to consider. When looking at religion with a focus on Christianity it is important to consider that the church attempts to create an image of an all-inclusive and non-judgemental institution. However, the best example of the church and Apartheid would be to look at the Dutch Reformed Church. This is also a good example as during Apartheid Christianity was by far the most popular religion with over 85% of the total population. Apartheid became an incredibly difficult period for the church as it had to deal with segregation and whether there was a need to align itself with the rest of South Africa during the time and have split churches for congregations who were coloured and congregations for those who were white. This created huge tensions and then when the Dutch Reformed Church decided to actively promote racial divisions through endorsing Apartheid it was extremely controversial. The Dutch Reformed church became known as the official religion of the National Party during the Apartheid era. This was put down to Chruch leaders over the 1970s and 1980s, the assumption by church leaders that the congregation were in favour of Apartheid led to them being incredibly committed to Apartheid and even more so than much of their congregations. In the long run this commitment to the cause of Apartheid became increasingly damaging and led to the church becoming an impediment to political reform. This, however, is not to say that all clergy and leaders were for Apartheid, there were some very famous members of the church who openly spoke out against Apartheid. One of these was Reverend Beyers Naude who famously left his white only church and went to be part of a parish that was for all blacks, this created a huge stir within the church and was a huge show of support to the anti-Apartheid movement. This, however, was not the case throughout the church there are many examples of church leaders being anti-Apartheid. One good example of this is senior officials within the Roman Catholic Church in South Africa opposing apartheid. This was not without opposition though and it led to the creation of the South African Catholic Defence League that ended up condemning any type of political involvement by the church and it also ended up opposing many other of the demands from the Catholic Church. This shows that religion was again a key factor in the period of Apartheid and that it contributed both in a negative and positive way. The above then suggests that there were a multitude of dynamics that were in fact integral to the period of Apartheid in South Africa. The above shows that with these the white minority within South Africa at the time was able to exercise control through legislature that ended up confining those in society who were of different races to unfair treatment. This period of Apartheid has led to unimaginable suffering for those who were suppressed during the period of Apartheid and even when the period of Apartheid came to an end the damage done by this period was so severe that South Africa remains racially divided. Even though Apartheid ended over 20 years ago now the recovery from this systematic and brutal racial discrimination has been difficult and continues today. Apartheid means apartness in Afrikaans and this separation led to such irreparable damage that it has warranted the South African Government to create the National Development Plan (NDP) that has had to be aimed at elimina ting poverty and reducing inequality by 2030. One of the main aims of this is to reduce inequality between races in the country. This is because the entrenched racism that was created by Apartheid was not easy to eliminate immediately. I think that the above factors discussed, show why this was so difficult to eliminate. For one demographic to sit on the top if the pile while all others were treated so badly would always result in bitterness and a feeling of the need for revenge. So above shows what the key dynamics of Apartheid were and also the terrible results that that has continued to have on South Africa today. References Apartheid Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2011. Web. 16th May 2017.

The Black Death :: essays research papers

The Black Death The Black Death serves as a convenient divider between the central and the late Middle Ages. The changes between the two periods are numerous, they include the introduction of gunpowder, increased importance of cities, economic and demographic crises, political dislocation and realignment, and powerful new currents in culture and religion. Overall, the later Middle Ages are usually characterized as a period of crisis and trouble. The portrait should not be painted unrelievedly bleak, but the tone is accurate enough and echoes voices from the era itself. The Black Death did not cause the crisis, for evidence of the changes can be seen well before 1347. But the plague exacerbated problems and added new ones, and the tone of crisis is graver in the second half than in the first half of the century. Standing at the century's mid-point, the plague serves as a convenient demarcation. The Black Death erupted in the Gobi Desert in the late 1320s. No one really knows why. The plague bacillus was alive and active long before that, indeed Europe itself had suffered an epidemic in the 6th century. But the disease had lain relatively dormant in the succeeding centuries. We know that the climate of Earth began to cool in the 14th century, and perhaps this so-called little Ice Age had something to do with it. Whatever the reason, we know that the outbreak began there and spread outward. While it did go west, it spread in every direction, and the Asian nations suffered as cruelly as anywhere. In China, for example, the population dropped from around 125 million to 90 million over the course of the 14thc. The plague moved along the caravan routes toward the West. By 1345 the plague was on the lower Volga River. By 1346 it was in the Caucasus and the Crimea. By 1347 it was in Constantinople. It hit Alexandria in the autumn of that year, and by spring 1348, a thousand people a day were dying there. In Cairo the count was seven times that. The disease travelled by ship as readily as by land?more readily?and it was no sooner in the eastern Mediterranean than it was in the western end as well. Already in 1347, the plague had hit Sicily. What was this disease? Bubonic plague is the medical term. It is a bacillus, an organism, most usually carried by rodents. Fleas infest the animal (rats, but other rodents as well), and these fleas move freely over to human hosts.

Education is Power

Education is the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life (dictionary. com). Power is the ability to do or act; capability of doing or accomplishing something (dictionary. com). In my own words education is knowledge that you will need in your future for a better life, and power is the influence you have over others, whether helping them to do good or bad.I believe that education is the key to power because without the knowledge needed to learn how to control the power that you have then how would you be able to influence people’s lives? Education for a person does not only benefit the person but also the people around them. Whether it be their parents, spouses, children, or siblings, I believe one person’s education can rub off on the people that they are around. The power that a person has to influence others is truly a great one, especially if that power is used for good, and those you usually have this power, most of the time, aren’t even aware that they possess it.Education is power because it gives people the ability to change their lives and the lives of others. Statistics show that around the world children who are born the educated mothers are less likely to be stinted or malnourished. Each additional year of maternal education also reduces the child mortality rate be two percent (dosomething. org). This goes back to the example of a parent’s education influencing a child’s life. In some countries around the world if a child’s mother is educated then that child has a better chance of survival at life.Another statistic suggests that literacy rates in South America and Europe are among the highest with 90- 100 percent literacy. The African continent however, has areas with less than 50 percent literacy among children under the age of 18. Oprah Winfrey once said â€Å"Edu cation is the key to unlocking the world, a passport to freedom. † I think Oprah is one of the top supporters for education especially the education of women. This shows through the creation of her school in Africa.Young women in Africa need educational opportunities to prolong their lives. The more education that they acquire, the farther they can get in their lives. I think Oprah would agree with the fact that education is power because of the opportunities that she has laid out to help young children get to the places they would like to be in their lives. In the end I believe that education is one of the most powerful instruments that any man or woman can have to help reduce inequality and start a process of economic growth for themselves and for their country.

Extent and Causes of Unemployment and Inactivity in the UK Today Essay

An economy population can be divided into two groups, the economically active and those economically inactive. The Economically Active is referred to the part of a countries’ population that is willing and able to work. This includes those that are unemployed and those that are currently and actively engaged in a particular job. The rate of unemployment is defined as the percentage of the unemployed that are unemployed and actively seeking for one. In this essay, I am going to discuss the extent of unemployment in the UK today. I am going to critically address the extent of unemployment by comparing geographical regions, sex, race, age groups and educational achievement. Then in order to conclude the extent of unemployment, I will argue about the true level of unemployment questioning both the weaknesses LSF and Claimant Count in measuring these challenges. The second section of this essay, I will state the 3 causes of unemployment in the UK and 3 reasons for inactivity. Then I shall evaluate the credible of the Coalition’s The Work Programme. Unemployment occurs when a person who is actively searching for work but unable to find one. In the UK today the current rate of unemployment is 8. 3% according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS). It shows that there is a 17years high unemployment in the UK. The ‘UK unemployment rose by 129,000 in the three months to September to 2. 62 million’ also ‘youth unemployment is now at 1. 02 million’. There are four main types of unemployment. There are two different measure of unemployment in the UK today. They are the Claimant Count and International Labour Organisation (ILO) LFS survey. The Claimant count is UK’s most timely measure. It measures the amount of people who are claiming benefit but are actively seeking employment. It does not take into consideration of those on disability benefit neither does it take account of people who do not claim the allowance. ILO makes use of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) to measures everyone without a job and has looked for work in the past four weeks and willing to start work in the next two weeks. ‘Unemployed persons include those who did not work at all during the survey week, and who were looking for work’. The faults in these two measures bring up the question of the extent and the true level of unemployment in the UK today. The Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) is means-tested and it depends on household income, this means husband or wife who have partner earning above a certain income are not included. It also does include people under the age of 18, therefore excluding 16 and 17 years olds who left education at post-16, this part of the economy should not be ignored by the JSA because these groups of individuals usually have low-levels of human capital there for potentially high unemployment rate amongst these groups. High youth unemployment shows underlying structural problems in the UK today. Therefore the JSA does not represent the true level of unemployment because there are people seeking work and are not included in JSA or/and counted as unemployed. The official measure also has its own faults. The LFS survey is a monthly questionnaire of 60,000 people. They are asked if they have been searching for work and would be able to take up work in the next two weeks. This measure usually gives a higher figure than the claimant count. Although the questions asked sticks to the UK’s definition of unemployment there are also problems with the measure. The survey has potential for error in sampling data in sampling 60,000 people and even most importantly people might not actually say the truth about their situation. Apart from the faults in the measures of unemployment, another issue is that there is a possibility that those classed as unemployed might actual be working. There will be a population of the economic inactive that receives unemployment benefit but still work in the black economy. According to the ONS, an individual is defined as Economical Inactive when they are ‘not in work and do not meet the internationally agreed definition of unemployment’. They are people without jobs who have not actively sought work in the last four weeks and/or are not available to start work in the next two weeks†. Inactivity in the UK accounts for 21. 3% of the working age-adults. The economically inactive include students, the sick and disabled retirees, homemakers and people who have not searched for jobs in the last 4 weeks – the main issue in the UK are these groups who are voluntary unemployment. ONS There are different viewpoints that will be addressed in evaluating the extent of unemployment amongst gender, geographical regions, race, age and educational attainment. ONS statistics show that the extent of unemployment amongst region varies in the UK. Over the period of July to September, this year, the highest unemployment rate was North East with 11. 6% of the population unemployed. It is followed by Yorkshire and Humber with 10. 6% of their economically active population. Over the same time period the south-east had the least rate of 6. 3 per cent. In the case of gender, In April 2011 female unemployment went up by 64,000, while male unemployment went down by 69,000’. Despite this statistics, the unemployment rate for men has risen faster than that of women while the economic upturns of males have dropped faster than that of females. Unemployment amongst Pakistani/Bangladeshi groups is the highest amongst people of different races with unemployment rate. The lowest are the whites British. Unemployment amongst people in further education is that they are more likely to be unemployment than university graduates over non-graduates. There has been a recent media attention to unemployment amongst 16-24 year old which has recently hit a record high with 20. 6% of that population without jobs. Another age group that is highly affect are the over 50’s, according to AgeUK, this age group is currently suffering from a 10 year high which most likely will be those in in long term unemployment. I feel the government must lay down a good foundation for a better job market for older people before forcing them to work longer. One of the Coalition government strategies to tackle this is The Work Programme which I am going to evaluate its effectiveness and credibility later in this essay. There are many causes of unemployment for example, recession, lack of skills, and lack of information, over-regulating, decline in industries, willingness to work and discriminating factors. Cause of Inactivity on the other hand is disability and leniency of the welfare system toward the voluntary capable economically inactive. Recession is a downturn in the economy of a country. It’s a drastic fall in countries GDP. One of the causes of unemployment In the UK today is the recent recession according to the BBC; the recent recession had a deep impact on jobs. According to the CIPD, the recession caused a loss of 1. 3 million jobs. The reason why unemployment rises is because during a recession, output and demand falls, firms cost optimise by cutting down on unnecessary expenditure or they resource optimise by reduce unnecessary workforce. The effect of resource optimisation leads to a rise in unemployment as there are less job positions in the economy. When unemployment increases, this can worsen the recession since there will be lower aggregate demand and lower growth rates in the economy. Although one can argue that the UK economy has survived the recession we are still being affected by loss of jobs that the 2008 recession caused. Generally, I think the economic decline is one of the main causes of unemployment today. Another cause of unemployment is the lack of demand for workers. The demand for worker is derived from the demand for goods and services therefore the bigger issue might be people not spending. This is a big issue because of the lack of jobs that people want. The government is trying to get the inactive active and the unemployed employed but the question is that are there any jobs for these people after they have been trained? One could argue that it is because businesses are not creating jobs there they are very few jobs that people might want to do in the economy. The leniency of the benefit system in the UK is the main cause of inactivity. People know that with jobs they can depend on the welfare state. The government aim to get people out of poverty can also affect the economy because of the unemployment trap. This is a situation whereby unemployment benefit acts as a deterrent or causes lack of motivation for an unemployed or an inactive individual in the labour to take up jobs or advantage his skills or perhaps in the case of an inactive individual gain necessary skills to enter the job market. Another cause of inactivity is disability in the UK. People claiming disability and sick benefit, these groups of people are also class. Another cause of inactivity is people retiring (65% men and 62% women). Apart from this, men are more likely than females to be classed as sick or disabled but women are more likely than men to be looking after the home and family. Statistics show that 26% of UK economically inactive people would like to work. Another main cause is the lack of education and training, especially currently in the UK, the government scrapping schemes like Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), this will act as a disincentive for people wanting to entering education. With issues such as this, young people will be affected because the lack of post-16 education will mean they are more likely to end up in a dead-end job. There are special skills needed for certain type of jobs. To become a doctor, one has to go through years of education to be full qualified. The years of education and training are their specialist skills are gained. Statistics show that the opt-in rates of people entering into higher education will reduce because of the lack of EMA which might affect these people that refuse to participate in education in the future. ‘The Work Programme is a major new payment-for-results welfare-to-work programme†¦ Along with the Universal Credit benefit reforms, it is central to the Coalition Government’s ambitious programme of welfare reform. The simple aim of the programme is to cut down the United Kingdom long-term unemployment. The strategy the coalitional government is to pay private firms to make the process easier. The government believes it will be cheaper in the long run to pay these private firms rather than pay for benefits. According to the programme, an estimated 605, 000 people will go through the programme. In 2011/2012 in the year 2012/13 it aims at 565,000. Providers include companies like Working Links, Triage A4E, Serco and many more. The government has awarded a least two providers in every region. These private firms the government outsources the job is referred to as providers. Providers are paid totally on results. The idea is to create for the workers a sustainable job outcome for those participating. The longer an individual stays in work the more the providers get paid, therefore creating an incentive for these firms to provide continuous support for participant. One could argue that the scheme helps tackle the challenges of unemployment because there are special skills needed for certain type of jobs. The problem with The Work Programme is that it could be used to generate cheap labour for dead-end jobs. Because it will be based on payment by results, the providers will do their best to make sure they are correct and therefore get their fee. Another problem with the scheme is that it doesn’t have much difference from other schemes. I think it will strengthen the competition for ‘job ready’ participant and these are people who are likely to have got the jobs anyways. The difference is that the provider will be able to claim a larger fee compared to previous schemes. There are few other problems with this reform, this reform is largely untested and it is not big enough of a scale to make a serious dent in the problem. The worry is that providers will end up picking individuals who are more likely to get jobs and therefore ignore the unemployment ‘black spots’. Another issue with it is that there is an assumption that unemployed are bunch of people that ready to work. The vast majority of unemployed are involuntary, many have the wrong skills and in the wrong geographical location. Also some of these people are ill health to be at work. According to the study done by the London School of Economics it showed that the providers will miss the set targets by 90%. I think the introduction of ruthless competition could also lead to companies going after the same jobs and therefore not benefitting people that it was for in the first place. It could end up being a revenue or sales maximisation aims rather than actual target people like the long term unemployed who are further down the unemployment scale. For The Work Programme to really succeed, I think these organisations need to make sure they take on people that have been in long term unemployment: people that have grown comfortable with life on benefits. The government also needs to start creating jobs. One can question the fact the scheme will succeed when there isn’t actual jobs for these people in the first place or at least job that they want to do. With the average of six to every vacancy the government has got a lot to do. According to a new research by the Social Market Foundation (SMF), the paper is called, Will the Work Programme work? This paper scrutinises the viability of the Work Programme by predicting the performance of the firms providing the programme during its first three years of it being active. This forecast will be based on the welfare-to-work scheme called the Flexible New Deal. This is the predecessor to the Work Programme. According SMF analysis, it suggests that the providers will not meet their set minimum expectations in the first 2 years of the programme and even in the third year 22 out of the 24 FND providers would fail to meet the requirements for the scheme. The department has threatened to lapse the contract of providers who don’t meet the benchmark set. This further threatened the credibility of the scheme. According to the Chris Grayling, the Employment Minister states that dismiss this research as â€Å"flawed†. He claimed that it is possible to compare DWP to FND. His argument is centred around the fact that FND involves different groups of Jobseekers to DWP and therefore one should not compare both schemes. One can argue that the Flexible New Deal is more effective because its analysis is carefully based on comparable groups of long term unemployment which is the target group helped by the DWP. Although these groups of job seeker are easily comparable, the different between the schemes remain. Even on the optimistic assumption, it concludes these DWP performances are not realistic for most providers. The Work and Pension committee of the House of Commons recently demand clarity over the Work programme have come up with these challenging target and many of the providers have expressed their doubts the unrealistic targets of the scheme. Also in the recent economic climate, claimant count has increased by a significant value since the bid of the Work Programme were invited and I think don’t think the future is precarious or do not agree on its being a credible solution. I also think to find a credible solution to tackling unemployment. DWP has to revise its minimum performance expectations and perhaps introduce a more credible incentive for its providers. It could also establish greater transparency about how to derive its estimates of minimum performance and also make clear how this might vary if economic condition deteriorates this will therefore create greater accountability and certainty. When this is done, I think The Work Programme will then be a credible solution to tackling unemployment.