Importance of Federal Post Office Jobs

The federal post office offers competitive salaries and very good added benefits. Working at the post office can explain a enchanting and rewarding career. The USPS offers national jobs and permits education and advancements among various departments. You can begin as a short-term or temporary employee and work your way into a elephantine time job or gratifying career.

Kind of USPS Jobs

The postal service has a variety of jobs. Mail processing consists of these maintenance jobs: custodial and general maintenance, electronic technicians and maintenance mechanics. Mail-processing jobs also include clerical jobs, motor vehicle and tractor-trailer operators, automotive mechanics and technicians. These types of post office jobs require testing. Each job has a different exam that you must pass to be considered. The most well-liked known mail processing job is the mail carrier. A mail carrier is responsible for the gathering, distribution and service of a large group of addresses. There are city and rural mail carriers. Clerks are the people who work inside the post office servicing customers and distributing mail to P. O. Boxes. Clerks also process the mail and perform other duties.

Managerial Jobs at the United States Post Office

Federal post office jobs in sales and marketing offer training and advancement. These types of jobs include managers, major accounts managers and sales managers. Other jobs in this department of the postal service consist of story managers, associate account managers and national commercial sales account managers. These jobs include regular pay increases, team support and promotions. These post office jobs are located throughout the postal service locations. Advancements from local to national manager positions normally requires additional testing and transfers are permitted

Requirements to Get a Federal Post Office Job

There are certain employment requirements to get a job at the federal post office. You must be 18 years old or 16 years old with a diploma. You must be a natural or naturalized citizen of the United States of America. You must have basic proficiency of the English language. If you are male, you must be registered with Selective Services. Other job requirements include 10-year job history, criminal history, drug screening, medical assessment and a safe driving record.

Benefits of Working for the USPS

Federal post office jobs consist of great compensation and numerous benefits. This includes competitive start salaries with primitive increases, overtime rates, late shift rates and increased Sunday pay. Other benefits of post office jobs are FEHB (Federal Employee Health Benefits), federal retirement, Thrifty Savings Understanding (TSP), life insurance, ten annual paid holidays, a leave program and others.

Helpful Link:

USPS: United States Postal Service Jobs

There were 1,192,809 motor vehicles stolen last year. This was 42,417 vehicles fewer than the amount stolen in 2005 though, and marked the third annual decrease in a row. The FBI estimates the average value of a stolen vehicle at $6,649, which when multiplied by the number of stolen vehicles comes to a grand total of $7.9 billion dollars of lost vehicles in 2006. Despite the high value of the loss, the trend is good news for car owners.

“The decrease in vehicle thefts is certainly welcome news to law enforcement, the insurance industry and vehicle owners nationwide,” said Robert M. Bryant, who is the National Insurance Crime Bureau’s President and CEO. “At NICB, we have been providing the latest technology in auto theft detection and recovery equipment to law enforcement agencies from California to Florida.”, continued Bryant.

Out of the ten most stolen vehicles, only one of them is from the twenty first century. That car is the 2005 Dodge Ram Pickup truck, and is the fifth most stolen automotive vehicle. The most popular vehicle that thieves seek is the 1995 Honda Civic, with the second most popular being the 1991 Honda. Another import comes in at the number three spot in the form of the 1989 Toyota Camry. All those top three most stolen vehicles are imports. The first American car is the 1997 Ford F-150 Series Pickup which ranks just above the 2005 Dodge Ram Pickup on the list.

Not all the news is fine news for vehicle owners about trends. Despite the third straight year in reductions in the number of vehicles stolen, they were recovered less often last year. Only 59% of stolen vehicles were recovered last year, which is the lowest in over a decade according to the press release.

Regardless of the compose or model of your car, there are things you can do to reduce the risk of it being stolen. These include making sure you lock your car and take your keys with you. Devices that can befriend protect your car include car alarms and immobilizing devices. If your car is stolen a GPS tracking system can become very helpful. Car thefts are dropping, but the best defense is a incandescent and prepared owner.

SOURCES:

Prnewswire.com. “Hot Wheels: Vehicle Theft in Third Year of Decline”.
URL:http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl? ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/10-08-2007/0004677387&EDATE=

1. Review your current medical and life insurance policies. You’ll need to know what is currently covered whether you travel interstate or abroad. Many medical insurance policies has reduced benefits for seeking medical care in cities or countries that are considered out of network, or out of your primary home spot.

2. Auto clubs like AAA (Automobile Association of America) as well as several auto insurance companies offer recede insurance for both domestic and international travel. If you are an AAA member, or you have a fresh auto insurance policy, check with a customer service representative or your agent to find out what options you may have (and their associated costs).

3. There are a variety of companies that specialize in different types of travel insurance. Policies are available for families, groups traveling together, Seniors (over 50), adventure travel coverage and even annual policies for globetrotters that capture multiple trips within the year. Use the Internet to research the options available as well as the reputation of the insurance companies providing coverage.

Once you’ve researched all your options, you may discover that travel insurance is a cost-effective layer of security that you just can’t leave home without.

Fetch up the needed information before beginning to make calls.

The information that is needed for a car insurance quote usually is not too difficult to acquire. You need to know the make and year of your car or cars. The agent will ask for the ages of each driver that will be a regular driver. Assume about your driving habits and write down the approximate number of miles that each car is driven during a year. Write down any accident or ticket that you or the other drivers have had during the last three years.

Determine which insurance companies and brokers that you will contact.

You need the name of the company or broker along with the phone number. It is a good idea to list these on a sheet of paper with a grid to record the various quotes as they are given. Most of the time, the agent will not quote the price on the spot but will call you back. Keep this sheet near the phone so you can fill in the information when it is received.

Pay attention to the differences between the insurance quotes.

The cost of insurance does not just include the premium price. You will need to know the amount of various deductibles. Make certain that you have the liability limits. Record whether you are buying comprehensive, towing, car rental, and other types of coverage. Some policies may be far less than the rest, but offer much less in terms of benefits. This may be what you want to attach money, but in many cases, agents may just choose not to quote the options to shoot you a low premium amount.

Never allow you current insurance to lapse before purchasing a replacement policy.

Most car insurance companies will penalize you for not having a current policy in force. Many times this extends to the grace period offered by your current insurer. The new company will want to survey that your current insurance is paid up to date. If you like to play the game of seeing how late you can pay car insurance without losing your coverage, it can cost you now. Shop for fresh insurance in the middle of a monthly premium period if you pay monthly.

Always shop for new car insurance when you can minimize the overlap in policies.

If you have a six month or annual premium, you will want to shop for new insurance during the last six weeks or so of the premium period. Make sure that you give cancellation notification in time for your broken-down insurer to end your policy without having additional premiums due.

Traffic citations, and especially speeding tickets, will cause your premiums to rise the most. Insurance companies assume that if you, the driver, choose to assume risks while slow the wheel, then you are likely to cause an accident, and subsequently, file a claim. In some instances, a ticket for failure to produce a valid driver’s license carries as much weight as speeding tickets. At least, in the eyes of insurance agents, that is.

Getting pulled over one time does not automatically mean that you only got one ticket. In fact, there are a number of traffic violations that can occur all at the same time, and each offense can be issued a separate ticket. Not wearing your seat belt, obstructing your license plate, failing to design an insurance verification card, operating a vehicle with immoral equipment, and carrying passengers without requiring everyone to wear their seat belt are all causes for ticketing. And while each offense does not carry the same weight between insurers, it is best to avoid getting any of them in the first place.

As far as insurance companies are concerned, a ticket is a ticket, and each one indicates the same type of behavior: irresponsibility. This, in turn, tells the insurance provider that you, the driver, are unable to control yourself appropriately, and may therefore present a sincere and tangible risk. After all, the majority of auto accidents are caused due to irresponsible driving, and these accidents must be paid for by somebody. Naturally, this “somebody” would choose to avoid such high levels of liability: you. To counter this supposed risk, insurance companies raise the premium, as if they are opening a virtual bank story in case you live up to their expectations.

Should you be issued a traffic citation, there are a few ways to out of them. That is to say, if there is any hope at all for doing so. Of course, you can always try to sweet-talk the officer before he writes the ticket, but you should not count on this as an escape route. The two primary ways to get a ticket off of your driving record, and thereby avoid higher insurance premiums, is to take the matter to court or go to a driver’s education course.

If you choose to assume the court route, look for information about your court date and time, which should be listed either on the serve of the citation or on the bottom of the front side. Be sure that you arrive to this court hearing on time, properly dressed, and prepared to state your case. If the issuing officer fails to attend the court hearing, your ticket will automatically be dismissed in many jurisdictions. Should the officer be show, take the time to explain to the judge your circumstances. If you have a good driving record, chances are that your explanation will demonstrate the judge that your behaviors were abnormal and will likely never happen again.

In addition, be obvious to plead “No Contest”, especially if there is any evidence to substantiate your guilt, including the presence of the issuing officer. By pleading no contest, you are not admitting guilt, nor are you denying it. In some cases, this plea can award you with a dismissed ticket, or more commonly, a probationary ticket. In the probationary ticket, the charges are held in limbo until a sure period of time has passed. If you do not violate the law again during this time frame, the tag is forgiven and esponged from your record.

If a ticket is voided in court, then your driving characterize will remain clean. In addition, some states allow drivers to take a driver’s safety course, which in turn keeps the ticket from being seen by the insurance industry. Most traffic citations will remain on record for at least three years, and in some locations, as many as five.

Interestingly enough, parking tickets are not reported to the insurance companies. If you are issued one of these citations, don’t panic!

Sources:

Phone conversation with my current insurance agent

Other sources:

www.carinsurance.com/Articles/content157.aspx
quotewizard.com/auto-insurance/parking-tickets-insurance
www.insurancerate.com/insurance-rate-after-a-speeding-ticket.php

I can’t remember the last time I actually visited the office of an insurance agent to catch a quote, or even called an 800 number in pursuit of coverage. The Internet has made things like this much easier for people who want to take care of their insurance needs as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Ease & Convenience

Most of us employ our computers and Internet connections on a daily basis – sometimes all day long. Since you’re already sitting in front of your monitor, why not get an auto insurance quote online? You don’t have to leave your desk or deal with wait times on the phone.

Getting an auto insurance quote online also gives you the opportunity to solicit rate estimates from numerous companies at the same time. You can open several quote forms in your browser and type in the information simultaneously. It’s noteworthy easier to copy and paste your VIN number than to enter it several times in succession.

Comparison

You don’t have to take copious notes when you’re getting an auto insurance quote online. In most cases, the details of your rate quote are sent to your e-mail address, where you can print out the estimates for future comparison. This eliminates the need to beget a spiral drag notebook with your research.

Some insurance companies even let you compare different auto insurance quotes from one web site. They will list their competitors’ information as well as their own so you can build an informed decision. However, if you’re going to go this route, produce sure to solicit a quote from any serious candidate’s maintain web site to verify the information.

Flexibility

If you are getting your auto insurance quote online, you can obtain multiple rate quotes from the same source by simple manipulation. For example, you might want to know what your premium will be at different levels of deductible, which only requires the manipulation of a few buttons.

Or you might want to know what your premium would be without collision coverage, or with personal injury protection. Rather than asking someone on the phone or in person to calculate different rates over and over again, you can generate them yourself with a few clicks of a button.

Getting an auto insurance quote online is much easier than it has ever been before, and it is quickly becoming the standard for buying auto insurance. Impartial remember that the rate quote you receive might be slightly (or even significantly) different than your actual premium, depending on the quantity and accuracy of the information you provide.

There are many factors that support the separation of male and female insurance prices for the younger age group. Male drivers based off of studies have proven to be more dangerous drivers and actually hold 77% more fatal car accidents. “As for men being more likely to die than women, McCartt and Fischbeck said men take more risks, speed more, drink and drive more.” (Borenstein 1) Statistically males cost insurance companies more so they will charge more money for their services. Also, if women were put on the same impress chart as men, their prices would increase to match the 6.8% rather than male prices dropping. In reality this just causes more problems without ever fixing the original one. Also in favor of keeping the price difference is Mark Dodd who claims that, “In the United States of America, principles which are not prohibited by laws are considered to be permitted. This makes charging bigger rates of auto insurance to men below 25 neither legally discriminatory nor illegal.” (1) In other words it should not be illegal to discriminate between gender for auto insurance due to that it is approved by law and only effects a narrow age and gender group.

On the other side of the debate many people are claiming that males are being discriminated against because they are forced by the government to buy auto insurance at a higher rate than females, simply for being male. Saying that all men drive recklessly is stereotypical and does not apply to every single 16 to 25 year old male. Statistically males from the years 1975 to 2003 were reported in declining by 11% in overall car accidents while women increased 14%. Krummer a director of personal lines-auto for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America noted that, “We’re also seeing women driving more aggressively, picking up that bad habit from their male counterparts.” (Are Men Better Drivers than Women? 4)Women typically drive safer in comparison to the reckless driving habits of men; however, women make up for this with their increased cell phone exhaust and lack of confidence in some driving situations. Since the gap between male and female car accident numbers are beginning to accumulate smaller; many are encouraging a change on the modern system.

Despite the facts that men are typically more dangerous on the road, I glean that the difference in price for males and females between the ages of 16 to 25 completely discriminatory. Personally, I have been driving for over two and a half years and have never received a ticket or been in an accident. In no scheme is it justified that I pay more than a woman even with my perfectly clean record. In comparison, racial discrimination in terms of auto insurance is illegal because people can not control what race they are. However, for some reason it is completely fine to charge more money for gender despite that it is also uncontrollable. In my idea auto insurance needs to be enforced on an individualistic basis rather than based off of stereotypes. It is an outrage that car insurance companies are allowed to continue with these discriminatory attitudes toward young males.

“Are Men Better Drivers than Women? “. AOL Money & Finance. 22 Feb 2007 .

Dodd, Mark. “Is A Higher Auto Insurance Rate For Men Twenty Five And Below Discrimination? .” SmartCarQuote.com. 22 Feb 2007 .Borenstein, Seth. “Study: Women better drivers than men.” DenverPost.com. 22 Feb 2007 .

What is self insurance? Self insurance allows you to assume the financial risk yourself if you are involved in an automobile collision. Instead of filing a claim with your insurance company, you are responsible for paying for the damages.

How does self insurance change your requirements? You still have to meet your states minimum liability insurance requirements regardless of self insurance. You will just be guaranteeing that liability amount yourself instead of using an insurance agency.

How do I self insure? States that allow for self insurance will have an application procedure in place and they will base their decision to approve or disapprove your application based on financial information or assets you have. You must meet your states requirements for providing the financial means to cover the liability amount set in place.

How practical is it? Most people are not in a financial position to self insure. They don’t have the assets or funds to station aside for unforeseen accidents or collisions. If you are barely scraping by paying a monthly insurance premium, then self insurance is probably not something you will be able to consider seriously.

Is it enough? Even if you self insure, it may not be sufficient to cover the expenses associated with a traffic collision. There may be cases where the amount you self insured for isn’t enough to cover the costs. It won’t cover uninsured motorists or underinsured motorists. This then becomes your responsibility instead of a claim on your insurance. You are still at risk of having suit brought against you if you cause injury to another through the operation of your vehicle and are unable to cover their expenses.

How powerful money can it attach you? Theoretically, if you are never involved in any type of collision or accident that requires repairs to your car or another persons car or personal injury coverage, then you are “saving” the cost of monthly insurance, whatever that amount is for your car and amount of insurance you want to carry. You are having to set up sufficient funds or assets to screen the costs, so in the long run, you have to have much more money up front to self insure.

Another intention you can partially self insure is to raise your deductible. You are then assuming a greater financial responsibility without having to put up a sizable deal of assets. You are voluntarily agreeing to pay a larger amount per every accident claim you file with your insurance carrier.

Resources
About.com, How to Gash Insurance Costs By Self-Insuring, Bobbie Sage

About.com, What Does It Mean To Self-Insure? , Miriam Caldwell

Wikipedia.com, Insurance

Autos.com, Which States ARe Effected By The Financial Responsibility Law

A second measure that could be taken to increase the average profit rates of a corporation are to cut back on the minimum wage. While this would be highly controversial in the United States in its current situation, it could be celebrated if corporations were not making enough to stay in business and all employees were making more than enough to live on. By cutting aid on the minimum wage, all wages would most likely be affected to stay in proper proportion to each other. It would take away from the amount of capital needed to invest in a business. Thus, profits would increase as the capital required to run the business was lessened. According to pbcompliance.com, the current minimum wage in the United States is five dollars and fifteen cents per hour (soon to be raised seventy cents at a time over two years to seven dollars and twenty-five cents, the first increase will be effective March 11, 2009). For simplicity’s sake, let’s say there’s a large firm that employs ten thousand employees all at minimum wage that work eight hours a day for two hundred days a year. The firm makes ninety million dollars a year in revenue. After paying its employees though, the corporation would only have a puny less than eight million dollars a year. This is far too limited to cover all the costs that such a large firm would have to pay meaning that there would be no profit. If the government could decrease the minimum wage to four dollars and fifteen cents an hour, the firm would have a tiny less than twenty and a half million dollars to pay all their costs. They would surely have profits from this decrease in wages.

A third measure that could be taken to increase profits for a corporation are placing tariffs on all the imported goods that would serve as alternatives to buying American cars. According to the MSN financial narrate on General Motors, the company had an income of negative two billion dollars over the last year. If a tariff was imposed on all the imported cars coming into America, Americans would be forced to purchase American-made cars. This means that the amount of sales that General Motors would do would increase. It would create more surplus value for the company. Even if all the other components to profit remains, average profit would still increase. According to the same report, the company made a little over two hundred and seven billion dollars in sales over the last year. If a tariff was imposed on all foreign cars, sales would increase considerably and this number would be higher. More revenue means that subtracting costs would yield greater profits than before.

The actions of the government to support out one industry might honest lead to negative externalities in another industry. One way in which the actions of government might harm an industry is one of the methods above. If the government was to impose tariffs on imported cars, the car industries in other countries will suffer from the loss of sales in the United States. This would also harm international relations. Many companies that sell cars in different companies are dependent on exporting a large amount of their supply to the United States. If this was taken away from them, trade would be harmed in other areas as relations would get worse. The country may refuse to export any of its goods to the United States.

Another negative enact of effect of government intervention could be a conflict between industries competing for the same non-renewable resources. Non-renewable resources are resources that producers exhaust before they can replenish. In other words, they are used up and there is a limited supply. Petroleum is one such resource. If the government would provide massive subsidies to companies that produce jets, more petroleum would be extinct for jet fuel. This would hurt other industries that need petroleum to produce their goods. Petroleum is also used in the production of wax for instance. The tag of petroleum would rise as worthy more would be bought to make jet fuel. Wax producers would have to pay the inflated prices or exit the business.

This is obviously true of renewable resources too. Trees are considered renewable because they are able to plant new trees at a rate that is comparable to consumption. There is essentially an unlimited source of trees. However, even then the price of production of products made of wood could be effected by the government’s actions. Take the paper industry and the furniture industry for example. If, again, the government was to provide considerable subsidies for companies that produced furniture, the furniture industry would grow. Thus, the companies would start chopping down more and more trees. The price of the equipment to cut down the trees would increase as would the cost of buying plots of land with trees on it. The paper industries would suffer as they would see their prices of production increase and profits decrease.

Another contrivance that government actions could potentially harm an industry is by effecting industries that compete for another resource: labor. If the government was to help out one industry by cutting the taxes imposed on them, this attend could be passed on to the industry’s employees. They might secure paid more from the company’s profits. Wages would increase in that industry drawing more workers to it. This would result in a negative effect to other industries competing for the same labor force as they would have to either raise their own wages or lose their most skilled workers to the growing industry. For instance, two industries that may compete for the same labor force could be law and medicine. Both occupations take a considerable amount of upper level education to enter. If the government funded the growth of the law industry through tax cuts, subsidies, lowering the tuition for law school, etc. more young people would choose to become lawyers than doctors, nurses, or any other occupation in the medical field because there would be more openings and better pay.

There is a wide gap in the incomes of the lowest quintile of the labor force in the United States and the top quintile. The highest quintile owns a lot more than the lowest one. This inequality has yielded many effects in this country that holds equality and fairness as their rights. The government works to remedy these inequalities though. They pass legislation that evens out the distribution of the wealth of our country. However, inequality still exists today and it’s getting worse. The gap between the rich and poor is widening despite the government’s efforts.

One social consequence that may not be so apparent is that a lot of people are losing their jobs to people in different countries. With so many families below the poverty level in the United States, the government has taken the action of raising the minimum wage for American citizens. According to the US Census Bureau, the poverty level in 1996 was 13.7%. In 1997, the minimum wage was increased from four dollars and seventy-five cents to five dollars and fifteen cents. The poverty level then dropped to 13.3% in 1997 and continued to tumble without another raise in the minimum wage. This is an attempt by the government to even out the distribution of wealth in our country. It is an attempt to take the capital of the top quintile of America (the employers) and give more of the profits to the lowest quintile of the population (the employees). Right now, the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor is being dealt with in exactly the same way. The minimum wage is being raised by two dollars over the next two years to combat this growing inequality.

Though this situation sounds helpful, it has some negative effects too. Producers who have been used to paying their employees a certain rate find their profits being lost to the increase in wages. In order to avoid this loss, companies have started giving jobs to people in different countries that will work for less. This is particularly troubling in the field of information technology and jobs on the lower end of the income spectrum. These jobs are clearly not available to Americans anymore and the result is a growth in unemployment. According to an article in Manufacturing and Technology News, the unemployment rate of electrical and electronics engineers was 6.7% and five hundred thousand jobs had been outsourced in the field of information technology.

Another social consequence of the inequality of wealth is the inequality of school systems. Families in the lowest quintile of income in the United State can not afford to pay as distinguished toward taxes as a family in the top quintile. As a result, the schools in their district accumulate less funding. They can not afford to pay their teachers as much, can not afford to buy quality materials for building, and can not afford to pay for the upkeep necessary for such an essential building. The result is that the kids in that neighborhood hypothetically get a lower quality education with teachers that do not have the same credentials as those of the teachers for the kids of the top quintile. They regain less nutritious food for their lunches. They lack the noble equipment to learn such as laboratory equipment, desks, computer labs, and even in the most extreme conditions simple necessities like chalk or copiers.

The kids that go through this type of education and live in this environment are likely to end up taking jobs that are on the lower end of the pay scale. Then, they will need cheap housing also and will move into a neighborhood that again has the problems caused by poverty such as an ill-equipped school. This inequality of the school systems is reflective of the inequality of wealth in the United States. Going to a good school is an emblem of wealth. It is also illustrative of the inequalities of income as the people living in such areas do not have enough income as those that live in areas where families have higher paying jobs and thus the schools do not have the finances to pull money from. This inequality perpetuates itself.

Adam Smith and Thomas Hobbes have one very important idea in common. They both imagine that human beings are driven by a sort of self-interest. While Adam Smith would call this “selfishness” and “greed”, Hobbes would call it the “desiring self-defense.” Either way it’s put, it means in economic terms that a human being has the innate desire to maximize their utility. In short, people do what they desire to do. The only disagreement is that Adam Smith describes this desire in material terms, using terminology that leads the reader to believe this desire is for material goods, while Hobbes describes it in terms of survival where humans co-operate and trade for alarm of being worse off or even dying without it. Hobbes’s theory is that it’s a dog-eat-dog world and that if we were all allowed to do whatever we wanted, we would come into conflict with each other again and again in competition for the thing we desired.

This is really where the two theories differ. Adam Smith believes that if the system were just left alone to do its work, everything would move toward equilibrium and we would have a gorgeous and free market. It would be guided by the “invisible hand” that is the mechanisms of human self-interest. He believed that if everyone acted out of their own self-interest, society would benefit as a whole. Hobbes, on the other hand, advocated the need for authority because of his beliefs that competition would lead to conflict. He believed that some authoritative figure needed to be reveal to step in when conflict arose and to settle the issue. Adam Smith was adamantly opposed to such interventions as he predicted they would be detrimental to the natural growth of the economy and the general movement towards equilibrium in markets. His theory was that as long as the market was left untouched, producers would enter markets where profit was too high and thus drive down the profits for that industry and that producers would exit a market if the profit was too low and thus raise the profits up to the equilibrium. Eventually each corporation in the industry would be making the same profit that would pay the producers enough to live on comfortably.

Yet it is absorbing to point out that their solutions are still not completely different. Hobbes mentions that even though there would be an authoritative figure involved in the system, that leader or organization of leaders would still be guided by “natural law” which is something similar to moral integrity. Leaders will generally act out of the interest of the group as a whole as their well-being is closely associated with the leader’s own well-being. Adam Smith, however, was not willing to put up with the manipulations of a government with a personal agenda while Hobbes accepted them as the effect of peace and self-defense.

“GNP per capita is one of the three primary measures stale to distinguish countries that are ‘developed,’ and countries that are ‘under-developed,’ or ‘developing.’ GNP (and GNP per capita) also happen to be the best measures of well-being, growth, and general standards of living in a country.”

The GNP of a country is representative of the economic activity within that country. It offers us the value in dollars of all the final consumable goods of a country and all of the investments in a year. It is made up of four components: consumption expenditure, gross private domestic investment, government purchases, and gather exports.

Thus, a high GNP is indicative of a country that has a lot of spending power as they spend more on goods, investments, public works, and exports. A low GNP is indicative of a country that can not afford to exhaust its income on these important economic activities and, thus, have a stagnant economy. It is easy to see, then, how a high GNP could be interpreted as representing a “developed” country as the residents are probably spending more money on luxury goods through their high consumption expenditures (after all other countries are surviving on less expenditures, meaning that the country with high consumption expenditure is not just spending all of its income on necessities) and are also plot for more economic growth through the high investments. A country with obscene GNP is probably spending a larger portion of its income on necessities rather than luxuries and has no room for economic growth with little investment. This would be an “underdeveloped” country.

A country’s “well-being, growth, and general standard of living” can also be associated with a high or low GNP. Government purchases, including public works and the like contribute to well-being and standard of living and are associated with a high GNP. High net exports means money is being spent efficiently, getting the cheapest goods possible while not sacrificing quality. This also contributes to the well-being, growth and standard of living. The GNP generally outlines a country’s set in the economic world.

However, I disagree with this statement because, even though the GNP is a valuable number that provides a lot of information about such categories as are listed, there is a good chance that it is not an suitable representation of that country. The GNP does reflect the amount of activity in the markets of its country, but it does not necessarily measure the welfare of that country. The GNP statistics can not determine things like welfare on their own.

First off, the GNP is given in dollar amounts rather than actual tangible goods. Therefore, it is subject to inflation as everything rises in price with time. This makes the “well-being, growth, and general standards of living” in that country difficult to make out. The country could very well have a monopoly on some product and accumulated a massive stock of that product. Then, the value of that product could depreciate because of some new innovation or product. The GNP of the country would eye devastating, but the people may not be that bad off as they may be in a situation where they could re-use the raw materials in the product or find some way to make them more essential. The GNP in this instance is not reflective of the country’s well-being. The GNP may even be flawed at this point while the relativity of the prices changes and it is hard to calculate their true value.

A second problem with this statistic is that it does not reflect a change in quality of the goods a country produces. This is another reason why the well-being of a country is not in exact conjuncture with the country’s GNP. New innovations may actually decrease the price of a product while the overall utility of the country increases because the product becomes more efficient in its function. If a country invented a light bulb that was brighter and conserved more energy than normal ones and cost less, their GNP would go down but their overall well-being and standard of living would go up.

GNP also does not pay attention to the purpose of production. A country whose GNP rises by thirty-seven million dollars because of a recent anti-smoking campaign will probably have a lot better standard of living and well-being than a country whose GNP rises more than others because of its increased sales of cigarettes. This is also a reason why the growth of a country is not reflected in the GNP. The effects of a large anti-smoking campaign in a country could include a healthier workforce, a larger workforce, and a re-allocation of investments that were once in cigarette companies. All of these things could then contribute to the country’s economic growth.

GNP also tends to leave out certain unpaid goods and services that are valuable to its country. For instance, the work of a end at home mom is not included in the GNP even though the services these women supply are ones that other people receive pay for doing. This is one reason, also, why the GNP is not reflective of the country’s status as “developed”, “under-developed”, or “developing”. A developed country may have made advancements and reached a point where its labor force was paid well over what they need to survive. More people would choose to stay at home and care for their children as a full-time job as long as one family member was earning wages. As mentioned before, this type of unpaid work is not included in the GNP. Thus, a developed country may have a lower GNP than an under-developed country. This would reflect that they had less economic activity and we would assume that they would be under-developed, however this is not the case. The well-being and standard of living is surely better off in this country also even though the GNP would not contemplate that. An increase in wages such as this would mean that people would have more leisure time and more spending power.

One other spot with the GNP is that it does not reveal anything about the distribution of wealth within a country. If a country has a very high GNP but also a very high inequality in its wealth, then the welfare of its people are not accurately represented because the extreme wealth of he country is held by the few.

The GNP is a wonderful economic tool that generally represents the economic activities of a country. It can provide some clues as to the state of the country like whether it is “developed” or “under-developed” and it can provide a rough sketch of the standard of living in a country. However, it is not the most accurate representation of these two characteristics. In many places it fails to fully describe the status that the country’s economy is in.