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Consumer

Consumer

:This article is about consumers in economics. For the article about consumers in biology, see Heterotroph. Consumers are individuals or households that consume goods and services generated within the economy. Since this includes just about everyone, the term is a political term as much as an economic term when it is used in everyday speech. Typically when businesspeople and economists talk of consumers they are talking about person as consumer, an aggregated commodity item with little individuality other than that expressed in the buy not buy decision. However there is a trend in marketing to individualize the concept. Instead of generating broad demographic profile and psychographic profiles of market segments, marketers are engaging in personalized marketing, permission marketing, and mass customization. A consumer is assumed to have a budget which can be spent on a range of goods and services available on the market. Under the assumption of rationality, the budget allocation is chosen according to the preference of the consumer, i.e. to maximize his or her utility function. In 'time series' models of consumer behaviour, the consumer may also invest a proportion of their budget in order to gain a greater budget in future periods. This investment choice may include either fixed rate interest or risk-bearing securities. In the context of mental health, consumer is also a term applied to describe a person living with mental illness. Concern over the best interests of consumers has spawned much activism, as well as incorporation of consumer education into the school curriculum. There are many non-profit publications available to assist in consumer education such as Consumer Reports or Choice Magazine. Within many selling companies consumer has come to be a derogatory term which means a purchaser of products who is not very intelligent. This is in contrast to the meaning of customer, which is defined as an intelligent purchaser who has power in the purchasing relationship between buyer and seller. Consumer could also be seen as an offensive term, implying that a person's only function is to buy a product (consume). Category: Economics Category: Marketing ja:消費者

Heterotroph

A heterotroph (Greek heteron = (an)other and trophe = nutrition) is an organism that requires organic substrates to get its carbon for growth and development. Contrast with autotrophs which use carbon dioxide as sole carbon source. All animals are heterotrophic, as well as fungi and many bacteria. Some parasitic plants have also turned fully or partially heterotrophic, whereas carnivorous plants use their flesh diet to augment their nitrogen supply, but are still autotrophic. Heterotrophs are unable to synthesize organic, carbon based compounds independently from the inorganic environment's sources (e.g. Animalia, unlike Plantae, cannot photosynthesize) and therefore must obtain their nutrition from another heterotroph or an autotroph. For a species to be termed a heterotroph, it must obtain its carbon from organic compounds. If it obtains nitrogen from organic compounds, but not carbon, it will be deemed an autotroph. If a species obtains carbon from organic compounds and a) obtains energy from light or b) obtains energy from the oxidation of inorganic compounds, it is called a photoheterotroph and a chemoheterotroph respectively. In simpler terms, an heterotroph is an organism that is incapable of making its own food from light or inorganic compounds, and feeds on organisms or the remains of other organisms to get its necessary energy to survive. See also : Primary nutritional groups Category:Ecology Category:Biology

Household

The household is the basic unit of analysis in many microeconomic and government models. The term refers to all individuals who live in the same dwelling. Most economic models do not address whether the members of a household are a family in the traditional sense. Government and policy discussions often treat the terms household and family as synonymous, especially in western societies where the nuclear family has become the most common family structure. In reality, there is not always a one-to-one relationship between households and families. For UK statistical purposes, a household is defined as "one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation, that is, a living room or sitting room" (see [http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_social/FRS_Tech01-02.pdf National Statistics]article). The US census definition similarly turns on "separate living quarters", i.e. "those in which the occupants live and eat separately from any other persons in the building" [http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_71061.htm (US Census Bureau)]. Most economic theories assume there is only one income stream to a household; this a useful simplification for modeling, but does not necessarily reflect realtiy. Some households now include multiple income-earning members. In feudal or aristocratic societies, a household may include servants or retainers. (whether or not they are explicitly so named). Their roles may blur the line between a family member and an employee. In such cases, they ultimately derive their income from the household's principal income.

External links

- [http://www.lalecheleague.org/NB/NBSepOct98p154.html] Category:Microeconomics

Economy

The word economy can refer to any of several things:
- The "economy" of the world — see world economy
- The "economy" of a country — see economics and economic system
- Economy is financial soundness or affordability.
- Hydrogen economy
- Judicial economy
- New Economy
- Political economy
- Plutonium economy
- Economy (Eastern Orthodoxy) (a bishop's discretionary power to relax rules)
- Economy, Indiana
- Economy, Pennsylvania
- Economy is a chapter from Walden, by Henry David Thoreau. See Economy (Thoreau).
- Economy, Nova Scotia is an unincorporated community of about 200 in Maritime Canada ms:ekonomi

Commodity

The word commodity is a term with distinct meanings in business and in Marxian political economy. For the former, it is a largely homogenous product, whereas for the latter, it refers generically to wares offered for exchange. Linguistically, the word commodity came into use in English in the 15th century, being derived from the French word "commodité" meaning "benefit, profit", similar in meaning to biens (goods). The Latin root meaning is commoditas, referring variously to the appropriate measure of something; a fitting state, time or condition; a good quality; efficaciousness or propriety; and advantage, or benefit. The German equivalent is die Ware, i.e. wares or goods offered for sale.

Business usage

Definition

In the world of business, a commodity is an undifferentiated product whose market value arises from the owner's right to sell rather than the right to use. Example commodities from the financial world include oil (sold by the barrel), electricity, wheat, bulk chemicals such as sulfuric acid, base and other metals, and even pork-bellies and orange juice. More modern commodities include bandwidth, RAM chips and (experimentally) computer processor cycles, and negative commodity units like emissions credits. In the original and simplified sense, commodities were things of value, of uniform quality, that were produced in large quantities by many different producers; the items from each different producer are considered equivalent. It is the contract and this underlying standard that define the commodity, not any quality inherent in the product. One can reasonably say that food commodities, for example, are defined by the fact that they substitute for each other in recipes, and that one can use the food without having to look at it too closely. Commodities exchanges include:
- Chicago Board of Trade
- Euronext.liffe
- London Metal Exchange
- New York Mercantile Exchange

Examples

Wheat is an example. Wheat from many different farms is pooled. Generally, it is all traded at the same price; wheat from Isom's farm is not differentiated from wheat from Jane's farm. Some uniform standard of quality must necessarily be assumed. There may be various standards leading to different pools: one say for genetically modified wheat, and one for not. Failures to match the consumer's assessment of risk and usefulness for some purpose, can lead to lower prices or the necessity of dividing the market into different pools - a very major issue in agricultural policy. Markets for trading commodities can be very efficient, particularly if the division into pools matches demand segments. These markets will quickly respond to changes in supply and demand to find an equilibrium price and quantity.

Branding

Producers often attempt to 'de-commodify' their products by branding them. Branding attempts to make similar products from different producers more distinguishable. This stategy can lead to higher prices for the branded items relative to the price in a commodity market. The term product market is sometimes used to contrast with commodity market and signifies the exchange of differentiated goods.

Marxian usage

General

In classical political economy and especially Karl Marx's critique of political economy, a commodity is simply any good or service offered as a product for sale on the market. Some items are also seen as being treated as if they were commodities, e.g. human labour or labor-power, works of art and natural resources, even though they may not be produced specifically for the market, or be non-reproducible goods. Marx's analysis of the commodity is intended to help solve the problem of what establishes the economic value of goods, using the labor theory of value. This problem was extensively debated by Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Karl Rodbertus-Jagetzow among others. Value and price are not equivalent terms in economics, and theorising the specific relationship of value to market price has been a challenge for both liberal and Marxist economists.

Characteristics of commodity

In Marx's theory, a commodity has value, which represents a quantity of human labor. The fact that it has value implies straightaway that people try to economise its use. A commodity also has a use value, an exchange value and a price.
- It has a use value because, by its intrinsic characteristics, it can satisfy some human need or want, physical or ideal. By nature this is a social use value, i.e. the object is useful not just to the producer but has a use for others generally.
- It has an exchange value, meaning that a commodity can be traded for other commodities, and thus give its owner the benefit of others' labor (the labor done to produce the purchased commodity).
- Price is then the monetary expression of exchange-value (but exchange value could also be expressed as a direct trading ratio between two commodities without using money). According to the labor theory of value, product-values in an open market are regulated by the average socially necessary labour time required to produce them, and price relativities are ultimately governed by the law of value.

Illustration

To understand the concept of a commodity, consider a chair. It is a commodity if the chair is a tradeable product of human work possessing a social use-value. By contrast, a fallen log of deadwood sat upon in the forest is not a commodity, as it was not produced by human work for the purpose of trade. A chair created by a hobbyist as a gift to someone is not a commodity. Nor is a chair a commodity (as a chair) if its only use would be as scrap firewood (unless one purchases a chair specifically to chop it up for fire wood). A chair that nobody could sit on has no use-value, and cannot be a commodity (unless it has an ornamental value, e.g. in a doll's house).

Historical origins of commodity trade

Commodity-trade historically begins at the boundaries of separate economic communities based otherwise on a non-commercial form of production. Thus, producers trade in those goods of which they have episodic or permanent surpluses to their own requirements, and they aim to obtain different goods with an equal value in return. Marx refers to this as "simple exchange" which implies what Frederick Engels calls "simple commodity production". At first, goods may not even be intentionally produced for the explicit purpose of exchanging them, but as a regular market for goods develops and a cash economy grows, this becomes more and more the case, and more and more production becomes integrated in commodity trade. Even so, in simple commodity production, not all inputs and outputs of the production process are necessarily commodities or priced goods, and it is compatible with a variety of different relations of production ranging from self-employment and family labour to serfdom and slavery. Typically, however, it is the producer himself who trades his surpluses. However, as the division of labour becomes more complex, a class of merchants emerges which specialises in trading commodities, buying here and selling there, without producing products themselves, and parallel to this, property owners emerge who extend credit and charge rents. This process goes together with the increased use of money, and the aim of merchants, bankers and rentiers becomes to gain income from the trade, by acting as intermediaries between producers and consumers. Modern Capitalism however is a mode of production based on generalised commodity production (Marx's German term is verallgemeinerte Warenproduktion), a universal market (see also capitalist mode of production). This means that both the inputs and the outputs of most production in society have become priced, tradeable goods (including the means of production and human labour power), and that what and how much is produced is largely determined by the response of producers to the "state of the market". Production is now explicitly engaged in for the purpose of market sales only, which implies both that its whole organisation is reshaped for this aim, and that people can meet their own needs by purchases in the market (rather than producing goods for their own consumption).

Forms of commodity trade

The 7 basic forms of commodity trade can be summarised as follows:
- M-C (an act of purchase: a sum of money purchases a commodity)
- C-M (an act of sale: a commodity is sold for money)
- M-M' (a sum of money is lent out at interest to obtain more money, or, one currency is traded for another)
- C-C' (countertrade, in which a commodity trades directly for a different commodity, with money possibly being used as an accounting referent, for example, food for oil, or weapons for diamonds)
- C-M-C' (a commodity is sold for money, which buys another, different commodity with an equal or higher value)
- M-C-M' (money is used to buy a commodity which is resold to obtain a larger sum of money)
- M-C...P...-C'-M' (money buys means of production and labour power used in production to create a new commodity, which is sold for more money than the original outlay). The hyphens ("-") here refer to a transaction applying to an exchange involving goods or money; the dots in the last-mentioned circuit ("...") indicate that a value-forming process ("P") occurs in between purchase of commodities and the sales of different commodities. Thus, while at first merchants are intermediaries between producers and consumers, later capitalist production becomes the intermediary between buyers and sellers of commodities. In that case, the valuation of labour is determined by the value of its products. The reifying effects of universalised trade in commodities, involving a process Marx calls "commodity fetishism," mean that social relations become expressed as relations between things; for example, price relations. Markets mediate a complex network of interdependencies and supply chains emerging among people who may not even know who produced the goods they buy, or where they were produced. Since no one agency can control or regulate the myriad of transactions that occur (apart from blocking some trade here, and permitting it there), the whole of production falls under the sway of the law of value, and economics becomes a science aiming to understand market behaviour, i.e. the aggregate effects of a multitude of people interacting in markets. How quantities of use-values are allocated in a market economy depends mainly on their exchange value, and this allocation is mediated by the "cash nexus". In Marx's analysis of the capitalist mode of production, commodity sales increase the amount of exchange-value in the possession of the owners of capital, i.e., they yield profit and thus augment their capital (capital accumulation). Capitalists as businesspeople are interested in use-values primarily from the point of view of their money-making potential, i.e. their exchange-value; any useful object may in principle become an object of exchange and profit-making, although that may in practice take quite some doing. In simple terms, the primary concern of businesspeople here is commercial: the money they can obtain from owning or selling the commodity. But if an increase in capital-value is to be realised, it is essential that sales of commodities occur. Consequently, the accumulation of capital must go together with the expansion of market sales of commodities.

Cost structure of commodities

In considering the unit cost of a capitalistically produced commodity (in contrast to simple commodity production), Marx claims that the value of any such commodity is reducible to three components equal to:
- variable capital used up to produce it, plus
- fixed and circulating constant capital used up per unit, and
- surplus value per unit. These components reflect respectively labour costs, the cost of materials and operating expenses including depreciation, and generic profit. In capitalism, Marx argues, commodity values are commercially expressed as the prices of production of commodities (cost-price + average profit). Prices of production are established jointly by average input costs and by the ruling profit margins applying to outputs sold. They reflect the fact that production has become totally integrated into the circuits of commodity trade, in which capital accumulation becomes the dominant motive. But what prices of production simultaneously hide is the social nature of the valorisation process, i.e. how an increase in capital-value occurs through production. Likewise, in considering the gross output of capitalist production in an economy as a whole, Marx divides its value into these three components. He argues that the total new value added in production, which he calls the value product, consists of the equivalent of variable capital, plus surplus value. Thus, the workers produce by their labor both a new value equal to their own wages, plus an additional new value which is claimed by capitalists by virtue of their ownership and supply of productive capital. By producing new capital in the form of new commodities, Marx argues the working class continuously reproduces the capitalist relations of production; by their work, workers create a new value distributed as both labour-income and property-income. If, as free workers, they choose to stop working, the system begins to break down; hence, capitalist civilisation strongly emphasizes the work ethic, regardless of religious belief. People must work, because work is the source of new value.

References

The concept of the commodity is explored at length by Karl Marx in his:
- Contribution to a Critique of Political Economy [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1859/critique-pol-economy/index.htm]
- Das Kapital Volume 1 Part 1 Chapter 1 [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/index.htm] A useful commentary on the Marxian concept is provided in: Costas Lapavitsas, "Commodities and Gifts: Why Commodities Represent More than Market Relations". Science & Society, Vol 68, # 1, Spring 2004

External links

- [http://economics.about.com/cs/macroeconomics/a/commodity.htm Exchange Rates and Commodity Prices] Category:Business Category:Marxism

Individuality

Individualism is a moral, political, and social philosophy, which emphasizes individual liberty, belief in the primary importance of the individual, and in the "virtues of self-reliance" and "personal independence". "Individualism" embraces opposition to authority, and to all manner of controls over the individual, especially when exercised by the political state or "society". It is thus, directly-opposed to collectivism. It is often confused with "egoism".

Individualism in political philosophy

In political philosophy, the individualist theory of government holds that the state should take a merely defensive role by protecting the liberty of each individual to act as he wishes as long he does not infringe on the same liberty of another. This contrasts with collectivist political theories where, rather than leaving the individual to pursue his own ends, the state ensures that the individual serves the interests of society when taken as a whole. It also contrasts with fascism, where the individual is required to serve the interests of the state. The term has also been used to describe "individual initiative" and "freedom of the individual" in general, perhaps best described by the French term "laissez faire", a verb meaning "to let [the people] do" [for themselves what they know how to do]. In practice, individualism is chiefly concerned with protecting individual autonomy by opposing encroachment by the state. For example, individualists oppose democratic systems unless constitutional protections exist that preserve individual liberty of those in the minority from being diminished by the interests of the majority. These concerns encompass both civil and economic liberties. One typical concern is the concentration of commercial and industrial enterprise in the hands of the state, and the municipality. The principles upon which this opposition is based are mainly two: that popularly-elected representatives are not likely to have the qualifications, or the sense of responsibility, required for dealing with the multitudinous enterprises, and the large sums of public money involved in civic administration; and that the "health of the state" depends upon the exertions of individuals for their personal benefit (who, "like cells", are the containers of the life of the body). Individualism is, however, to be distinguished from egoism. "Egoists" promote their own advantage and hold that the justification of any benevolence to other people must be found in self-interest. An individualist may be a conscientious "altruist": he is by no means hostile to, or aloof from society (any more than the collectivist is necessarily hostile to the individual), but he is opposed to interference with individual liberty, wherever it comes from; and as far as it can be avoided. Many individuals seek to free every single person from collective control. However, there are also many individualists that have no such intentions. These individualists are more likely (though by no means is this universal) to believe in cultural relativism. The individualist sees society as "a large number of individuals working together" to improve their individual and collective welfare. The single person is not just a member of a greater unity. In fact, the single individual is seen as "the ultimate unity", and society is nothing more than a composition of these "individuals". The "state" is an organized form of society, which "ensures the individual's freedom" by law (under the protections of a republic). Thus, individualist policy tends to approve laws that protect, or otherwise enhance the liberties of the individual citizen, but rejects laws that subordinate the individual to the collective.

Individualism and society

Societies and groups can differ, in the extent to which they are based upon predominantly "self-regarding" (individualistic, and arguably self-interested) rather than "other-regarding" (group-oriented, and group, or society-minded) behaviour. There is also a distinction, relevant in this context, between "guilt" societies (e.g. medieval Europe), ("internal reference standard"), and "shame" societies (e.g. Japan, "bringing shame upon one's ancestors") with an "external reference standard", where people look to their peers for feedback, as to whether an action is "acceptable" or not (also known as "group-think"). The extent to which society, or groups are "individualistic" can vary from time to time, and from country to country. For example, Japanese society is more group-oriented (e.g. decisions tend to be taken by consensus among groups, rather than by individuals), and it has been argued that "personalities are less developed" (than is usual in the West). The USA is usually thought of as being at the individualistic (its detractors would say "atomistic") "end of the spectrum", whereas European societies are more inclined to believe in "public-spiritedness", state "socialistic" spending, and in "public" initiatives. John Kenneth Galbraith made a classic distinction between "private affluence and public squalor" in the USA, and private squalor and public affluence in, for example, Europe, and there is a correlation between individualism and degrees of public sector intervention and taxation. Individualism is often contrasted with either totalitarianism or collectivism, but in fact there is a spectrum of behaviours ranging at the societal level from highly individualistic societies (e.g. the USA) through mixed societies (a term the UK has used in the post-World War II period) to collectivist. Also, many collectivists (particularly supporters of anarchism or libertarian socialism) point to the enormous differences between liberty-minded collectivism and totalitarian practices. Individualism, sometimes closely associated with certain variants of individualist anarchism, libertarianism or classical liberalism, typically takes it for granted that individuals know best and that public authority or society has the right to interfere in the person's decision-making process only when a very compelling need to do so arises (and maybe not even in those circumstances). This type of argument is often observed in relation to policy debates regarding regulation of industries.

Individualism and US history

At the time of the formation of the United States, many of its citizens had fled from state or religious oppression in Europe and were influenced by the egalitarian and fraternal ideals that later found expression in the French revolution. Such ideas influenced the framers of the U.S. Constitution (the Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans) who believed that the government should seek to protect individual rights in the constitution itself; this idea later led to the Bill of Rights.

Opposing views

Individualism has negative connotations in certain societies and environments where it is associated with selfishness. For example, individualism is highly frowned upon in Japan where self-interested behavior is traditionally regarded as a kind of betrayal of those to whom one has obligations (e.g. family and firm). The absence of universal health care in the United States, which traces back to a belief in individual (rather than societal) responsibility, is widely criticised in Europe and other countries where universal health care (usually funded through general taxation) is seen as protecting individuals from the vagaries of health problems; health care is seen in Europe as a classic case where insurance at a societal level is right and sensible. Proponents of such public initiatives and social responsibility argue that their policies are beneficial for the individual, and that excessive individualism may actually hurt the individuals themselves. Opponents hold that such public initiatives may have unintended consequences beyond the issues they are intended to address.

Economic individualism

The doctrine of economic individualism holds that each individual should be allowed autonomy in making his own economic decisions as opposed to those decisions being made by the state, or the community, for him. Morever, it supports the liberty of individuals to own property as opposed to state or collective arrangements. Such an economic system is often called laissez-faire or capitalism. Karl Marx argued that the structure of production (the structure of the economy) determined the structure of society, and there is little doubt that many evolving trends in the economy (often linked to the evolution of industry and trade) influence society and the way people interact. For example, the emergence of automobile and air transportation, together with the speed of economic change, has coincided with many important changes in interpersonal and family relationship patterns. Marx called this theory historical materialism. Critics of modern capitalism sometimes argue that capitalism is not based on individuals but largely on firms and institutions, and that individuals' roles are largely determined by these institutions. However, compared to various forms of political collectivism, capitalism is usually still considered as individualistic since participation in these institutions is voluntary and an individual choice. Yet, capitalism can also thrive in certain collectivism societies with individual choice. The only difference is what the choice is based on: individual need versus collective need.
References

- Adam Smith The Wealth of Nations
- Karl Popper The Open Society and Its Enemies
- Alan Waterman The Psychology of Individualism
- Lawrence Kohlberg Six Stages of Moral Development
See also

- individualist anarchism
- right libertarianism
- self purpose
- tragedy of the commons
- tragedy of the anticommons
External links

- [http://www.individual-i.com Individual-I]
- [http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://kropot.free.fr/Palante-individu.htm&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522Georges%2BPalante%2522%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26c2coff%3D1%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DG Individualistic sensitivity] by Georges Palente roughly translated into English
- [http://raforum.apinc.org/article.php3?id_article=169 Manifesto] by Josiah Warren Classic individualist treatise by the first American anarchist Category:Ethics ja:個人主義

Decision

A decision can be
- an object of decision making
- in law,
- a decision is the outcome of a legal case
- a per curiam decision by a court with multiple judges
- a landmark decision is the outcome of a case which sets a legal precedent
- a type of European Union legislation
- in boxing, a result arrived at by the judges
- in professional wrestling, a decision is a means by which a wrestler scores a point against his opponent

Trend

The word trend has a number of possible meanings:
- In statistics, a trend is a long-term movement in time series data after other components have been accounted for.
- In statistics, a trend may be described in hypothesis testing, where a test has failed to achieve the benchmark for statistical significance, i.e a P-value of less than 0.05) but no more than 0.01. This usage is relatively common in research studies of psychology, and often indicates the need for replications and future studies using a larger sample size.
- In technical analysis of financial markets, trend is the existing general direction of energy expressed as the relationship between prices. It is the discovery and monitoring of human nature that leads to the actions of speculators and investors.
- In behavioral finance, a trend is interpreted as a three-step market price upward or downward move due to the reactions of investors as a social group to known information: 1/ underreaction, 2/ adjustment, 3/ overreaction.
- In common language, a trend is another word for fashion, and is also related to social behavior.
- Trends are a series of scientific journals of biology.

Demographic profile

A demographic or demographic profile is a term used in marketing and broadcasting, to describe a demographic grouping or a market segment. This typically involves age bands (as teenagers do not wish to purchase denture fixant), social class bands (as the rich may want different products than middle and poorer classes and may be willing to pay more) and gender (partially because different physical attributes require different hygiene and clothing products, and partially because of the man/woman mindsets). A demographic can be used to determine when and where advertising should be placed so as to achieve maximum results. In all such cases, it is important that the advertiser get the most results for their money, and so careful research is done to match the demographic profile of the target market to the demographic profile of the advertising medium. A good way to figure out the intended demographic of a television show or magazine is to study the ads that accompany it. For example, in the United States the television program The Price is Right most frequently airs from 11 AM to Noon. The commercials on it (besides the use of product placement in the show itself) are often for things like arthritis pain relievers and diapers. This indicates that the target demographics are senior citizens and mothers with young children, both of which would be home at that time of day and see that show.

Market segment

Market segmentation is the process in marketing of grouping a market (i.e. customers) into smaller subgroups. This is not something that is arbitrarily imposed on society: it is derived from the recognition that the total market is often made up of submarkets (called 'segments'). These segments are homogeneous within (i.e. people in the segment are similar to each other in their attitudes about certain variables). Because of this intra-group similarity, they are likely to respond somewhat similarly to a given marketing strategy. That is, they are likely to have similar feelings about a marketing mix comprised of a given product or service, sold at a given price, distributed in a certain way, and promoted in a certain way.

The requirements for successful segmentation are:

- homogeneity within the segment
- heterogeneity between segments
- stability of segments
- segments are measurable and identifiable
- segments are accessible and actionable
- segment is large enough to be profitable

The variables used for segmentation include:

- Geographic Variables
- region of the world or country
- country size
- climate
- Demographic Variables
- age
- gender
- sexual orientation
- family size
- family life cycle
- income
- occupation
- education
- socioeconomic status
- religion
- nationality/race
- Psychographic Variables
- personality
- life-style
- values
- attitudes
- Behavioural Variables
- benefit sought
- product usage rate
- brand loyalty
- product end use
- readiness-to-buy stage
- decision making unit When numerous variables are combined to give an in-depth understanding of a segment, this is referred to as depth segmentation. When enough information is combined to create a clear picture of a typical member of a segment, this is referred to as a buyer profile. When the profile is limited to demographic variables it is called a demographic profile (typically shortened to "a demographic"). A statistical technique commonly used in determining a profile is cluster analysis.

Top-down and bottom-up

George Day (1980) describes model of segmentation as the top-down approach: You start with the total population and divide it into segments. He also identified an alternative model which he called the bottom-up approach. In this approach, you start with a single customer and build on that profile. This typically requires the use of customer relationship management software or a database of some kind. Profiles of existing customers are created and analysed. Various demographic, behavioural, and psychographic patterns are built up using techniques such as cluster analysis. This process is sometimes called database marketing or micro-marketing. Its use is most appropriate in highly fragmented markets. McKenna (1988) claims that this approach treats every customer as a "micromajority". Pine (1993) used the bottom-up approach in what he called "segment of one marketing". Through this process mass customization is possible.

Price discrimination

Where a monopoly exists, the price of a product is likely to be higher than in a competitive market and the quantity sold less, generating monopoly profits for the seller. These profits can be increased further if the market can be segmented with different prices charged to different segments (referred to as price discrimination), charging higher prices to those segments willing and able to pay more and charging less to those whose demand is price elastic. The price discriminator might need to create rate fences that will prevent members of a higher price segment from purchasing at the prices available to members of a lower price segment. This behaviour is rational on the part of the monopolist, but is often seen by competition authorities as an abuse of a monopoly position, whether or not the monopoly itself is sanctioned.

References

- Day, G. (1980) "Strategic Market Analysis: Top-down and bottom-up approaches", working paper #80-105, Marketing Science Institute, Cambridge, Mass. 1980.
- McKenna, R. (1988) "Marketing in the age of diversity", Harvard Business Review, vol 66, September-October, 1988.
- Pine, J. (1993) "Mass customizing products and services", Planning Review, vol 22, July-August, 1993. category:Marketing category:Strategic management

Personalized marketing

Personalized marketing (also called personalization, and sometimes called one-to-one marketing) is an extreme form of product differentiation. Whereas product differentiation tries to differentiate a product from competing ones, personalization tries to make a unique product offering for each customer. Personalized marketing is most practical in interactive media such as the internet. A web site can track a customer's interests and make suggestions for the future. Many sites help customers make choices by organizing information and prioritizing it based on the individual's preferences. In some cases, the product itself can be customized. Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, in their ground breaking book on the subject (Peppers, D. and Rogers, M. 1993) speak of managing customers rather than products, differentiating customers not just products, measuring share of customer not share of market, and developing economies of scope rather than economies of scale. They also describe personalized marketing as a four phase process: identifying potential customers; determining their needs and their lifetime value to the company; interact with customers so as to learn about them; and customize products, services, and communications to individual customers. Some commentators (including Peppers and Rogers) use the term "one-to-one marketing" but this is a misnomer. Seldom is there just one individual on either side of the transaction. Buyer decision processes often involve several people, as do the marketer's efforts.

References

- Peppers, D. and Rogers, M. (1993) The one to one future : Building relationships one customer at a time, Doubleday (Currency Books), New York, 1993 ISBN 0-385-52528-7 category:Electronic commerce category:Marketing category:Information technology management

Permission marketing

Permission marketing is a term used in e-marketing. Marketers will ask permission before they send advertisements to prospective customers. It is used by some Internet marketers, email marketers, and telephone marketers. It requires that people first "opt-in", rather than allowing people to "opt-out" only after the advertisments have been sent. Marketers feel that this is a more efficient use of their resources because advertisments are not sent to people that are not interested in the product. This is one technique used by marketers that have a personal marketing orientation. They feel that marketing should be done on a one-to-one basis rather than using broad aggregated concepts like market segment or target market. The term was coined by Seth Godin in 1999 in his book of the same name.

External links

- [http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol6/issue2/krishnamurthy.html A Comprehensive Analysis of Permission Marketing] Category:Electronic commerce Category:Marketing category:Information technology management Category:Internet advertising and promotion

Budget

Budget generally refers to a list of all planned expenses and revenues. A budget is an important concept in microeconomics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs between two or more goods.

Personal or Family Budget

A personal budget is among the most important concepts of personal finance. In a personal or family budget all sources of income (inflows) are identified and expenses (outflows) are planned with the intent of matching outflows to inflows. There are a wide variety of personal budgeting methods and tools that can be employed to help individuals and families with the budgeting process.

Government Budget

The budget of a government is a summary or plan of the intended revenues and expenditures of that government. In some countries, such as the United States, the budget is mainly prepared by the legislature, in others it is prepared by the government. In the UK the budget is prepared by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the second most important member of the government, and must be passed by Parliament.

Corporate Budget

The budget of a company is compiled annually. A finished budget usually requires considerable effort and can be seen as a financial plan for the new financial year. While traditionally the Finance department compiles the company's budget, modern software allows hundreds or even thousands of people in the various departments (operations, human resources, IT etc) to contribute their expected revenues and expenses to the final budget. If the actual numbers delivered through the financial year turn out to be close to the budget, this will demonstrate that the company understands their business and has been successful driving it in the direction they had planned. On the other hand, if the actuals diverge wildly from the budget, this sends out an 'out of control' signal and the share price could suffer as a result.

The future

As the technology of money and banking continues to make spending easier, individuals, families, companies, and governments need to adopt more effective budgeting methods, strategies, and tools to balance their outflows to their inflows and avoid deficit (or debt-based) spending. Presently nearly all large businesses reforecast their original budgets on a quarterly basis. As months pass and the actual income achieved and expenses incurred can be compared to the budget and forecasts. The variances between these financial plans and actual delivery can then be analysed to provide valuable information used to drive future performance. The future sees traditional annual budgets being replaced or complemented by monthly forecasts or rolling forecasts. Monthly forecasts provide fresher and more up-to-date financial plans.

Adjective

Budget is used in marketing as a euphemism for inexpensive or cheap.

Slang

"Budget" can be used as an American slang adjective to describe something that looks or feels cheap or underresourced. In some cases, "budget" could replace the term "sucks" when describing something if it meets the "cheap or underresourced" criteria. For example, if you were describing a repair to someone's car that was poorly done or obviously done on the cheap, one might say "That car looks budget".

Range

Range may be:
- Range (mathematics), the set of all output values of a function.
- Range (statistics), the difference between the highest and lowest value.
- Range (biology), the geographical area where a species can be found.
- Mountain range, a group of mountains bordered by lowlands.
- Range (music), the set of notes a musical instrument can play, or used in a piece of music. See also vocal range.
- Shooting range, a controlled environment where weapons are fired at targets. Range may also be:
- Stove, an appliance used for cooking food.

Market

are still common in France. Resellers and farmers sell fruits and vegetables, but also meat and fish, and other products.]] In general parlance, a market is a location where those willing to pay a price for something meet those willing to sell it. In marketing, a market is the sum total of potential buyers of a product. In economics, a market is a mechanism which allows people to trade, normally governed by the theory of supply and demand, and thereby allocates resources through a price mechanism. It typically involves a bid and ask process. Both general markets (where many commodities are traded) and specialised markets (where only one commodity is traded) exist. Markets work by placing many interested sellers in one "place", thus making them easier to find for prospective buyers. An economy which relies primarily on interactions between buyers and sellers to allocate resources is known as a market economy in contrast either to a command economy or to a non-market economy that is based, e.g., on gifts.

Marketplaces and street markets

200px 200px 200px A marketplace is a location where goods and services are exchanged. The traditional market square is a city square where traders set up stalls and buyers browse the merchandise. This kind of market is very old, and countless such markets are still in operation around the whole world.
- In the USA such markets fell out of favor, but renewed interest in local food has cause the reinvention of this type of market, called farmers' markets, in many towns and cities.
- In continental Europe, especially in France, street markets, as well as "marketplaces" (covered places where merchants have stalls, but not entire stores) are commonplace. Both resellers and producers sell their wares to the public.
- Markets are often temporary, with stalls only present for one or two days a week ("market days"), however some (such as Camden Market in London, UK) are open every day of the week. Such markets are normally specialist—the various stalls of Camden Market, along with the shops associated with it, sell a variety of alternative lifestyle products ranging from clothes and jewellery to CDs, instruments and furniture. An example of a large market is Chatuchak weekend market in Bangkok. The Roman term for market, still in use in a related sense, is forum. The modern shopping mall can be seen as an extension of this concept.

Wholesale markets

A wholesale market is a market which primarily sells to traders such as caterers and small shopkeepers, rather than to members of the public, although members of the public are not necessarily excluded. London, England has several centuries old wholesale markets such as Smithfield Market and Billingsgate Fish Market.

Economic markets and marketspaces

In modern times, mainly after the invention of the electronic computer, markets are not always located in a physical space. Such virtual markets consist of communication paths where information exchange is easy and deals may be struck. These are often called marketspaces. A notable example of this is the international currency market. The e-Bay web site can also be considered a marketspace.

Preference

:For the traditional European card game, see Preferans. Preference (or "taste") is a concept, used in the social sciences, particularly economics. It assumes a real or imagined choice between alternatives and the possibility of rank ordering of these alternatives. More generally, it can be seen as a source of motivation. For example, happiness is generally preferred to suffering, sadness, or grief. Also, more consumption of a normal good is generally (but not always) assumed to be preferred to less consumption.

Microeconomics

In microeconomics, preferences of consumers and other entities are modelled with preference relations. Let S be the set of all "packages" of goods and services (or more generally "possible worlds"). Then ≤ is a preference relation on S if it is a binary relation on S such that a ≤ b if and only if b is at least as preferable as a. It is conventional to say "b is weakly preferred to a", or just "b is preferred to a". If a ≤ b but not b ≤ a, then the consumer strictly prefers b to a, which is written a < b. If a ≤ b and b ≤ a then the consumer is indifferent between a and b. These assumptions are commonly made:
- The relation is reflexive: a ≤ a
- The relation is transitive: a ≤ b and b ≤ c then a ≤ c. Together with reflexivity this means it is a preorder
- The relation is complete: for all a and b in S we have a ≤ b or b ≤ a or both (notice that completeness implies reflexivity). This means the consumer is able to form an opinion about the relative merit of any pair of bundles.
- If S is a topological space, then the relation is continuous if for every pair of convergent sequences

x_n \rightarrow x

and

y_n \rightarrow y

with

x_n \leq y_n

for all n has x ≤ y. This is automatically satisfied if S is finite. If ≤ is both transitive and complete, then it is a rational preference relation. In some literature, a transitive and complete relation is called a weak order (or total preorder). If a consumer has a preference relation that violates transitivity, then an unscrupulous person can milk them as follows. Suppose the consumer has an apple, and prefers apples to oranges, oranges to bananas, and bananas to apples. Then, the consumer would be prepared to pay, say, one cent to trade their apple for a banana, because they prefer bananas to apples. After that, they would pay once cent to trade their banana for an orange, and again the orange for an apple, and so on. Completeness is more philosophically questionable. In most applications, S is an infinite set and the consumer is not conscious of all preferences. For example, one does not have to make up one's mind about whether one prefers to go on holiday by plane or by train if one does not have enough money to go on holiday anyway (although it can be nice to dream about what one would do if one would win the lottery). However, preference can be interpreted as a hypothetical choice that could be made rather than a conscious state of mind. In this case, completeness amounts to an assumption that the consumer can always make up their mind whether they are indifferent or prefer one option when presented with any pair of options. Behavioral economics investigates the circumstances when human behavior is consistent and inconsistent with these assumptions. The indifference relation ~ is an equivalence relation. Thus we have a quotient set S/~ of equivalence classes of S, which forms a partition of S. Each equivalence class is a set of packages that is equally preferred. If there are only two commodities, the equivalence classes can be graphically represented as indifference curves. Based on the preference relation on S we have a preference relation on S/~. As opposed to the former, the latter is antisymmetric and a total order. It is usually more convenient to describe a preference relation on S with a utility function

u : S \rightarrow \textbf R

, such that u(a) ≤ u(b) if and only if a ≤ b. A continuous utility function always exists if ≤ is a continuous rational preference relation on

R^n

. For any such preference relation, there are many continuous utility functions that represent it. Conversely, every utility function can be used to construct a unique preference relation. All the above is independent of the prices of the goods and services and independent of the budget of the consumer. These determine the feasible packages (those he or she can afford). In principle the consumer chooses a package within his or her budget such that no other feasible package is preferred over it; the utility is maximized.

References

Kreps, David (1990). A Course in Microeconomic Theory. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691042640 Mas-Colell, Andreu; Whinston, Michael; & Green, Jerry (1995). Microeconomic Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195073401

Utility

In economics, utility is a measure of the happiness or satisfaction gained from a good or service. The concept is applied by economists in such topics as the indifference curve, which measures the combination of a basket of commodities that an individual or a community requests at a given level(s) of satisfaction. The concept is also used in utility functions, social welfare functions, Pareto maximization, Edgeworth boxes and contract curves. It is a central concept of welfare economics. The doctrine of utilitarianism saw the maximisation of utility as a moral criterion for the organisation of society. According to utilitarians, such as Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1876), society should aim to maximise the total utility of individuals, aiming for "the greatest happiness for the greatest number." Utility theory assumes that humankind is rational. That is, people maximize their utility wherever possible. For instance, one would request more of a good if it is available and if one has the ability to acquire that amount, if this is the rational thing to do in the circumstances.

Cardinal and ordinal utility

There are mainly two kinds of measurement of utility implemented by economists: cardinal utility and ordinal utility. Utility was originally viewed as a measurable quantity, so that it would be possible to measure the utility of each individual in the society with respect to each good available in the society, and to add these together to yield the total utility of all people with respect to all goods in the society. Society could then aim to maximise the total utility of all people in society, or equivalently the average utility per person. This conception of utility as a measurable quantity that could be aggregated across individuals is called cardinal utility. Cardinal utility quantitatively measures the preference of an individual towards a certain commodity. Numbers assigned to different goods or services can be compared. A utility of 100 units towards a cup of vodka is twice as desirable as a cup of coffee with a utility level of 50 units. The concept of cardinal utility suffers from the absence of an objective measure of utility when comparing the utility gained from consumption of a particular good by one individual as opposed to another individual. For this reason, neoclassical economics abandoned utility as a foundation for the analysis of economic behaviour, in favour of an analysis based upon preferences. This led to the development of tools such as indifference curves to explain economic behaviour. In this analysis, an individual is observed to prefer one choice to another. Preferences can be ordered from most satisfying to least satisfying. Only the ordering is important: the magnitude of the numerical values are not important except in as much as they establish the order. A utility of 100 towards an ice-cream cone is not twice as desirable as a utility of 50 towards a candy. All that can be said is that ice-cream cone is preferred over the candy. There is no attempt to explain why one choice is preferred to another; hence no need for a quantitative concept of utility. It is nonetheless possible, given a set of preferences which satisfy certain criteria of reasonableness, to find a utility function that will explain these preferences. Such a utility function takes on higher values for choices that the individual prefers. Utility functions are a useful and widely used tool in modern economics. A utility function to describe an individual's set of preferences clearly is not unique. If the value of the utility function were to be, e.g., doubled, squared, or subjected to any other strictly monotonically increasing function, it would still describe the same preferences. With this approach to utility, known as ordinal utility it is not possible to compare utility between individuals, or find the total utility for society as the Utilitarians hoped to do. The concept of ordinal utility suffers from the absence of an objective definition of choice. For example, say, someone purcahsed a Coca Cola. Question is what did this choise was made against? Was it a choise between Coca Cola or Pepsi Cola? Or was it agaist all other fizzy drinks or was it agaist all other drinks including milk or against all other sweet including candy and ice cream. Or was it choice between purchasing and not purchasing. Or purchasing now or purchasing one hour from now or for that matter any point in time. While act of purchasing Coca Cola is an empirically fact, question of what that choise was made against is an philosopical one.

Forms of utility

The forms of utility are ways of factoring and interpreting the value of utility from the perspective of the customer. Utility can be derived from the products form/function, time, place, price, and possession/ownership. These utility forms are defined as follows. #Form/function utility is a characterization of the physical attributes of the product or service itself. These may be derived from the function it performs, the asthetics involved, the durability of the product, etc. For example, when a meal is prepared for you, the chef has added form utility since eating the meal raw would be less appealing. As another example, when Ford assembles a car it has added form utility since a customer is more pleased with an assembled car. #Place utility is attributed to the location in which the product is purchased or delivered. For example, when a purchased bed is delivered to your residence, the seller is adding place utility. #Time utility involves the availibility of the product or service with respect to the time it is demanded. For example; the fast food industry strives to serve food fast, this adds time utility to the value of their food. #Price utility comes from the satisfaction a customer recieves by purchasing a product or service at an agreeable price. For example, by placing a discount on items sold to seniors, the seller has created price utility. #Ownership/Possession utility stems from the ease and value of the taking of possession of the product or service, by assuring the customer that adding the item to their ownership will be simple. For example, when a grocery store accepts debit cards in addition to credit cards and cash, the store has added possession utility to their products by simplifying their purchasing.

Utility functions

While preferences are the conventional foundation of microeconomics, it is convenient to represent preferences with a utility function and reason indirectly about preferences with utility functions. Let X be the consumption set, the set of all packages the consumer could conceivably consume. The consumer's utility function

u : X \rightarrow \textbf R

assigns a happiness score to each package in the consumption set. If u(x) > u(y), then the consumer strictly prefers x to y. For example, suppose a consumer's consumption set is X = , and its utility function is u(nothing) = 0, u(1 apple) = 1, u(1 orange) = 2, u(1 apple and 1 orange) = 4, u(2 apples) = 2 and u(2 oranges) = 3. Then this consumer prefers 1 orange to 1 apple, but prefers one of each to 2 oranges. In microeconomics models, there are usually a finite set of L commodities, and a consumer may consume an arbitrary amount of each commodity. This gives a consumption set of

\textbf R^L_+

, and each package

x \in \textbf R^L_+

is a vector containing the amounts of each commodity. In the previous example, we might say there are two commodities: apples and oranges. If we say apples is the first commodity, and oranges the second, then the consumption set X =

\textbf R^2_+

and u(0, 0) = 0, u(1, 0) = 1, u(0, 1) = 2, u(1, 1) = 4, u(2, 0) = 2, u(0, 2) = 3 as before. Note that for u to be a utility function on X, it must be defined for every package in X. A utility function

u : X \rightarrow \textbf

rationalizes a preference relation <= on X if for every

x, y \in X

, u(x) <= u(y) if and only if x <= y. If u rationalizes <=, then this implies <= is complete and transitive, and hence rational. In order to simplify calculations, various assumptions have been made of utility functions.
- CES (constant elasticity of substitution) utility is one with constant relative risk aversion
- quasilinear utility
- homothetic utility

Expected utility

A von Neumann-Morgenstern utility function

u : X \rightarrow \textbf

assigns a real number to every element of the outcome space in a way that captures the agent's preferences over both simple and compound lotteries (put in category-theoretic language,

u

induces a morphism between the category of preferences under uncertainty and the category of reals). The agent will prefer a lottery

L_1

to a lottery

L_2

if and only if the expected utility (iterated over compound lotteries if necessary) of

L_1

is greater than the expected utility of

L_2

. Restricting to the discrete choice context, let

L : X \rightarrow [0,1]

be a simple lottery such that

L(x_i) = p_i

, where

p_i

is the probability that

x_i

is won. We may also consider compound lotteries, where the prizes are themselves simple lotteries. The expected utility theorem says that a von Neumann-Morgenstern utility function exists if and only if the agent's preference relation on the space of simple lotteries satisfies four axioms: completeness, transitivity, convexity/continuity (also called the Archimedean property), and independence. Completeness and transitivity are discussed supra. The Archimedean property says that for simple lotteries

L_1 \geq L_2 \geq L_3

, then there exists a

0 \leq p \leq 1

such that the agent is indifferent between

L_2

and the compound lottery mixing between

L_1

and

L_3

with probability

p

and

1-p

, respectively. Independence means that if the agent is indifferent between simple lotteries

L_1

and

L_2

, the agent is also indifferent between

L_1

mixed with an arbitrary simple lottery

L_3

with probability

p

and

L_2

mixed with

L_3

with the same probability

p

. Independence is probably the most controversial of the axioms. Daniel Bernoulli has shown how the personal utility varies with the personal degree of risk aversion, itself linked to the initial wealth situation of the person.

Discussion and criticism

Different value systems have different perspectives on the use of utility in making moral judgments. For example, Marxists, Kantians, and certain libertarians (such as Nozick) all believe utility to be irrelevant as a moral standard or at least not as important as others such as natural rights.

References and additional reading

- Neumann, John von and Morgenstern, Oskar Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. Princeton, NJ. Princeton University Press. 1944 sec.ed. 1947
- Nash Jr., John F. The Bargaining Problem. Econometrica 18:155 1950 Category:Utility ko:효용 ja:効用

Proportion

The word proportionality may have one of a number of meanings:
- In mathematics and in physics, proportionality is a mathematical relation between two quantities. In physics, proportionality is also a unified theory of matter and energy.
- In problems of fair division, proportional means that each of

n

players thinks that he or she received at least

1/n

of the cake.
- In law and politics, proportionality is a maxim in some theories of governance and a principle underpinning the constitution of the European Union. The principle of 'proportionality' is one of the fundamental principles of the jurisprudence developed by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Written nowhere in the EC Treaty itself, the principle has been deduced by ECJ through purposive interpretation. In simple terms, the principle means that if you want to crack a nut, do not use a sledgehammer. The principle requires the institutions of the European Union and all Member States to not to take any measure in relation to any EU related matter that is excessive than what is absolutely required. For instance, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) would employ this principle in the context of freedom of movement of goods between the members states to find out whether a given restrictive measure adopted by a member state is indeed 'proportional' to the objects it is aimed at. If the measure is not proportional, and is rather drastic, the ECJ may ask the member state to do away with the imputed measure.
- In politics, proportional representation is a democratic electoral system.
- In art, body proportions are the study of relation of human body parts to each other and the whole, essential for depiction of human figure. In architecture, proportion describes the relationships between elements of a design, often controlled by complex proportional systems.
- In typography, a proportional font is a font whose glyphs are displayed using varying widths.
- In the just war theory, proportionality is one of the conditions.

Future

: For the meaning in finance, see futures contract. For the meaning in computer science, see future (programming). future (programming) In a linear conception of time, the future is the portion of the timeline that has yet to occur, i.e. the place in space-time where lie all events that still have not occurred. In this sense the future is opposed to the past (the set of moments and events that have already occurred) and the present (the set of events that are occurring now).

The meaning of the future to mankind

The future has always had a very special place in philosophy and, in general, in the human mind. This is true largely because human beings need a forecast of events that will occur. It is perhaps possible to argue that the evolution of the human brain is in great part an evolution in cognitive abilities necessary to forecast the future, i.e. abstract imagination, logic and induction. Imagination permits us to “see” a plausible model of a given situation without observing it (therefore mitigating risks). Logical reasoning allows one to predict inevitable consequences of actions and situations and therefore gives useful information about future events. Induction permits the association of a cause with consequences, a fundamental notion for every forecast of future time. Despite these cognitive instruments for the comprehension of future, the stochastic nature of many natural and social processes has made forecasting the future a long-sought aim of many people and cultures throughout the ages. Figures claiming to see into the future, such as prophets and diviners, have enjoyed great consideration and even social importance in many past and present communities. Whole pseudo-sciences, like astrology, cheiromancy and economics originated with the aim of forecasting futures. Much of physical science too can be read as an attempt to make quantitative and objective predictions about events. The Future also forms a prominent subject for religion. Often religions offer prophecies about life after death and also about the end of the world. The conflict in Christian religion between the knowledge of the future by God and the freedom of human will leads, for example, to the doctrine of predestination.

In grammar

In grammar, the future is a tense or a mood used to refer to events that have yet to happen.

Future tense in English

Strictly speaking, English does not have a future tense as such, that is, a verb form specifically used to talk about the future. When the English future tense is mentioned, usually it refers to present-tense (or rather, "non-past"-tense) constructions using the modal verb will or shall used to discuss the future: In the future, everybody will be famous for fifteen minutes. As with other moods, this mood is also available in the past, using "would," the past tense of "will": He thought he had his whole life ahead of him; little did he know that the next day, he would die in a car crash. Several other modal forms are also used to refer to the future, including: # With "going to": I'm going to do something. For intention and prediction, and also for infinitive and continuous situations where "will" is unavailable (to have seen, to see, to be going to see). # Present Continuous: I'm learning English next year. For prior plan. # Present Simple: Tomorrow I go into the hospital. Used for schedule.

Future tenses and periphrastic constructions in Romance languages

Languages that have a true future tense include the Romance languages; most also have a periphrastic construction, like English. For example, French has a true future tense j'aimerai, tu aimeras, il aimera (from aimer, to love), but the future is most commonly expressed with the verb aller as an auxiliary: je vais aimer, tu vas aimer, il va aimer. As in English, this periphrastic construction is also available in the past, by conjugating aller to the imperfect: j'allais voir "I was going to see". Depending on grammatical context, this can sometimes be done with the conditional: Le lendemain, il reconnaîtrait son erreur (The day after, he would recognize his mistake). Confusingly, Catalan uses the verb anar for periphrastic constructions both in the future (with the preposition a) and the past (without the preposition). In other words, jo vaig a veure is "I will see"; jo vaig veure is "I saw." Many Romance languages use the future tense not to express a real future but to refer to a supposition or a statement about habit, for example in Spanish: serán las once ("It will be 11 o'clock," meaning "I suppose it's around 11, it must be 11 by now").

External links

-
- [http://www.utopian.de Project Utopian.de - the future network]
- [http://www.future-institute.com Future-Institute] ko:미래 ja:未来

Investment

Investment or investing is a term with several closely-related meanings in finance and economics. It refers to the accumulation of some kind of asset in hopes of getting a future return from it. Technically, the word means the "action of putting something in to somewhere else" (perhaps originally related to a person's garment or 'vestment').

Types of investment

- In theoretical economics, investment means the purchase (and thus the production) of capital goods - goods which are not consumed but instead used in future production. Examples include building a railroad, or a factory, clearing land, or putting oneself through college. In a stricter sense, investment is also a component of GDP given in the formula GDP = C + I + G + NX. The investment function in that aspect is divided into non-residential investment (such as factories, machinery etc) and residental investment (new houses). Investment is a function of income and interest rates, given by the relation I = (Y, i). An increase in income will encourage higher investment, whereas a higher interest rate will discourage investment as it becomes costlier to borrow money. Even if a firm chooses to use its own funds in an investment, the interest rate represents an opportunity cost of investing those funds rather than loaning them out for interest.
- In finance, investment means buying securities or other monetary or paper assets. Valuation is the method for assessing whether a potential investment is worth its price. Types of investments include equity investment or real estate investment, foreign currencies or bonds or postage stamps. These investments may then provide future cash flows and may increase or decrease in value. In the stock markets it is performed by the stock investors.
- Collective investment schemes encourage investors to purchase securities by marketing the merits of investment.
- Investment clubs are groups of individuals who meet on a regular basis for the purpose of investing money, most often in stocks and other publicly-traded securities. Various online communities devoted to this type of investing have recently emerged and have contributed to the personal investing boom in the United States.

Notes

UK and U.S. English, respectively.

External links

- Investing textbook - in Wikibooks
- [http://www.ft.com Financial Times]
- [http://online.wsj.com/public/us Wall Street Journal]
- [http://finance.yahoo.com/ Yahoo! Finance]
- [http://www.investopedia.com/ Investopedia] Category:Macroeconomics ja:投資

Choice

Choice consists of that mental process of thinking involved with the process of judging the merits of multiple options and selecting one for action. Simple examples can involve deciding whether to get up in the morning or go back to sleep, or selecting a given route to make a journey across a country. Most people generally regard having choices as a good thing. But a severely limited or artificially restricted choice can lead to discomfort with choosing or even to unsatisfactory outcomes. On the contrary, unlimited choice may lead to confusion, regret of the alternatives not taken, and indifference in an unstructured existence; and the illusion that choosing an object or a course leads necessarily to control of that object or course can cause psychological problems.

In economics and politics

See also: rational choice theory, public choice theory, social choice theory Consumerist advocates of consumption in general and advertising in particular join boosters of representative democracy in singing the praises and assuming the virtues of choice. In the political sphere, the constraints of a two-party system often frustrate both voters and politicians. Choice-advocates often pair the virtues of choice with the responsibilities of responsibility. Note that the consequences of a personal choice may impact on other people, and any associated responsibilities may extend into a wider society. A political movement in the United States and United Kingdom which favors the legal availability of abortion calls itself Pro-Choice.

In philosophy

Philosophically, having choice implies the existence of free will and the antithesis of fate, chance and predestination. For a dramatic highlighting of the arbitrariness and cruelty of severely imposed and prescribed choice, see the central image of Sophie's Choice. Some people draw a distinction between choice (implying almost-random selection) and a decision - a selection which purportedly precludes going back or altering the selection. An example of the power of choice occurs in the Mansion of Many Apartments by the poet John Keats.

In law

The age at which children or young adults can make meaningful and considered choices poses issues for ethics and for jurisprudence.

In psychology

Main article: choice theory

References

- Barry Schwartz (2004), The Paradox of Choice: why more is less, HarperCollins

Security

:This page covers security in the sense of protection from hostile action. For the financial instrument called "security", see security (finance). ---- Security is being free from danger. The term can be used with reference to crime, accidents of all kinds, etc. Security is a vast topic including security of countries against terrorist attack, security of computers against hackers, home security against burglars and other intruders, financial security against economic collapse and many other related situations.

Defining the word security

The word "security" in general usage is synonymous with "safety," but as a technical term "security" means that something not only is secure but that it has been secured. For example, In telecommunication, the term security has the following meanings:
- A condition that results from the establishment and maintenance of protective measures that ensure a state of inviolability from hostile acts or influences.
- With respect to classified matter, the condition that prevents unauthorized persons from having access

Consumer

Heterotroph

Household

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External links

Economy

Commodity

Business usage

Definition

Examples

Branding

Marxian usage

General

Characteristics of commodity

Illustration

Historical origins of commodity trade

Forms of commodity trade

Cost structure of commodities

References

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Individuality

Individualism in political philosophy

Individualism and society

Individualism and US history

Opposing views

Economic individualism

References

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External links

Decision

Trend

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Demographic profile

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Market segment

The requirements for successful segmentation are:

The variables used for segmentation include:

Top-down and bottom-up

Price discrimination

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References

Personalized marketing

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References

Permission marketing

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External links

Budget

Personal or Family Budget

Government Budget

Corporate Budget

The future

Adjective

Slang

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Range

Market

Marketplaces and street markets

Wholesale markets

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Economic markets and marketspaces

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Preference

Microeconomics

References

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Utility

Cardinal and ordinal utility

Forms of utility

Utility functions

Expected utility

Discussion and criticism

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References and additional reading

Proportion

Future

The meaning of the future to mankind

In grammar

Future tense in English