Category: Papers for Free

What is the Role of Religion in Modern Society?

A man needed a support that would give him hope, faith, strength, and also an explanation of some incomprehensible things to him. He found this strength and support in religion. Religion is the main thing that helps to shape the worldview of a little man. The main ideas of religion are formed on the moral qualities of man. But is religion still necessary in our time – a time of innovation, progress and technology?

I believe that much can be explained by science. It is possible to resolve international conflicts and global problems without religion. Religion is a deterrent. She reproaches a person and gives covenants that cannot be broken (“Do not kill!”, “Do not steal!”). On the one hand, the worldview of some people develops without religion; they understand that moral standards cannot be violated. But, accordingly, some people need religion in order not to make certain mistakes. Perhaps this is one of the protective functions of religion.

There are more than a hundred different religious trends in the world, they have the oldest forms and modern trends, but the main most numerous world religions are Christianity, almost 1.5 billion people, Islam, about 1.3 billion people, Buddhism, 300 million people.

There are also national and traditional religions with their own directions. They arose or gained special distribution in certain countries.

On this basis, the following types of religions are distinguished: Hinduism (India); Confucianism (China); Taoism (China); Judaism (Israel); Sikhism (Punjab state in India); Shintoism (Japan); paganism (Indian tribes, peoples of the North and Oceania).

I suggest that you look at the moral standards of 3 world religions.

Christianity

The main idea of ​​Christianity is salvation. However, Christianity is divided, the types of Christianity are: Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Protestantism.

• Catholicism. The main idea is the seven commandments.
• Orthodoxy. The creed of Orthodoxy lies in faith in one God, and also in faith in the bodily ascension of Jesus Christ.
• Protestantism. The main idea of ​​Protestantism is that the Bible is the only source of Christianity.

Islam

The essence of the teachings of Islam or Islam, which originated in the 7th century among Arab tribes, is faith in one God, but Islam is called Allah.

Buddhism

The basic idea of ​​Buddhism is rebirth. The followers of Buddhism believe in karma, which consists of the covenants of Buddhism, as well as primarily from the actions of man. According to the teachings of Buddha, all life is suffering, which can be eliminated only if you abandon passion, desire for existence, and then achieve enlightenment.

From all this, accordingly, we can say that, regardless of religion or creed, some general moral standards are recognized, which are punishable in every religion.

The word religion itself comes from the Latin religio (piety, shrine). This attitude, behavior, actions based on belief in something superior to human understanding and supernatural, possibly sacred. Thanks to religion, being a source of strength, people can hope, believe, and also feel like a piece of a large whole that can unite completely different people.

Probably, we can say that all religions reflect different aspects of life, our reality, we think and are looking for the truth of life, existence, what it consists in. All religions reflect different aspects of reality, because everything that is true is true.

I believe that religion is undoubtedly important to people, like thousands of years ago. One way or another, no one has found an appropriate alternative to religion and God, and no one has denied its existence either.

People believe and language becomes not only a means of communication, it is an intermediary language between the past, present, future, the keeper of the heritage of spiritual culture, as the rituals and customs of the culture of one or another people.

I study foreign languages: English, German, Russian, my native language is Kalmyk. Learning languages ​​allows you to study and explore the religions of countries such as Russia, England, Germany, Kalmykia. Despite the difference in religions, the preached spiritual and moral values ​​have much in common. This makes possible not only a dialogue of cultures, but also a dialogue of religions.

How to Become a Great Leader

First of all, this is a personal desire to occupy a high post, which not everyone has, and, accordingly, a willingness to take on the responsibilities, responsibilities and risks associated with this. It is believed that a successful leader has an almost magical ability to be at the right time in the right place. Such a property does not fall from heaven, although in a certain sense it, like talent, is a gift of God. But talent without labor is nothing, so the leader must constantly and stubbornly strive forward, in spite of any obstacles, persistently moving towards his own goal.

Finally, a high-level aspirant for leadership should by the age of 35 accumulate considerable experience in performing various functions and “mature” as a major leader. The duration of such ripening is determined by Western experts at 5-7 years, i.e. rapid career take-off should begin at 27 – 28 years.

Life is not easy for leaders. On their way, they encounter many difficulties, the main of which, by all accounts, is the management of subordinates. In second place is planning the activities of the company and in third is the dismissal of employees. Among others who did not fall on the “podium”, one can note the problem of managing one’s time, delegation of authority, financial “wilds”, decision making and settlement of conflicts.

There are two psychological types of leaders: “players” and “open”. The former look spectacular, reliable, flexible. They know how to “splurge”, and therefore quickly change their position, following only their interests. In fact, they do not know how to work with full dedication and cope poorly with problems.

“Open” leaders are not so noticeable, but they are consistent; they take on any of the most difficult things, strive in good faith to understand everything, thereby gaining lasting trust and respect for a long time. They are also flexible and act in accordance with the circumstances, but do not live in the present day, but are directed towards the future. They are the true leaders who have undeniable authority among their subordinates.

The subordinate is impressed by the leader, taking responsibility, boldly making decisions, honestly admitting mistakes. The growth of authority is also facilitated by tolerance for people’s weaknesses that do not interfere with work.

The authority is gained for a long time, and is lost quickly. And the main reasons for this are inaction and reinsurance. Errors practically do not affect authority – no one is safe from them, but corrected. they are not difficult if desired.

Usually an authoritative leader is a leader by nature. But what to do if it is not? It’s possible, even for a while, to put at the head of the matter just a smart, well-trained specialist. And in order to accurately select this (leaders appear on their own!), You need to know the qualities that must be inherent in him. There are three groups of such qualities: personal, professional, organizational, and business.

Personal qualities primarily include honesty and decency, which always imply observance of the norms of universal morality, modesty and justice in relation to others. The leader should try to understand his subordinates, see in them personalities worthy of respect, be able to understand their behavior, be humane and take care of people, strive for cooperation, taking into account the interests of all.

The manager must be principled in all matters, be able to withstand pressure both “from above” and “from below”, consistently and firmly stand his ground, not hide his views, defend to the end those values ​​that they profess and help acquire these values ​​through others personal example, and not moralizing, firmly keep this word.

The manager’s work is extremely difficult, and therefore one of his most important personal qualities should be good health, which helps to be energetic and resilient, courageously endure the blows of fate, successfully cope with stresses; To maintain good physical health we need constant training, balanced workloads that require changing activities – because rest is not idleness, but in switching to another job.

Therefore, it is necessary to rationally distribute strength and energy between all your affairs in order to succeed in everyone, but you cannot accustom yourself to constant stable loads and from time to time destroy the usual patterns of action, because when you need a breakthrough, the disrupted leader will no longer be able to do it.

However, physical health alone is not enough for a manager. He must also be an emotionally healthy person, otherwise he simply cannot withstand all the overloads falling on his head.

Therefore, you need to form positive emotions in yourselves: empathy, which makes a person humane; excitement, stimulating activity, interest and curiosity, helping to move forward, the development of new areas of activity; confidence adding solidity.

Making managerial decisions requires managers not only qualifications, but also emotional maturity, which is expressed in the ability and willingness to meet acute situations, successfully cope with them, and not make an inevitable tragedy of defeats that are inevitable in the life path of any manager.

A modern manager must actively struggle with his own shortcomings, form a positive attitude towards life and work, create a “healthy” environment by promoting and training people, revealing their abilities and talents; you don’t need to be afraid of losing credibility – in most cases, employees pay for such an attitude towards them, on the contrary, by recognition and gratitude.

Another group of qualities required by any manager is professional. This is competence, i.e. system of special knowledge and practical skills. It is special and managerial. This culture is general, technical, economic, legal, informational, psychological and pedagogical. A number of other points are also important.

First of all, a modern leader is distinguished by a good knowledge of reality, both internal and external, an understanding of the goals of the company and its unit, the ability to see problems, highlight the most significant aspects in them, and be receptive to novelty and changes. It is impossible without possessing mental abilities above the average level, the ability to analyze the situation, create and critically evaluate various plans and programs, make decisions, take responsibility for their implementation, work hard and hard for this, be energetic and decisive.

However, the leader should be not only well trained and highly educated, but also a creative person. He is required not only to believe in his creative abilities, but also to value such abilities in others, to be able to mobilize and use them, overcoming all the obstacles encountered on the way. To do this, you must be persistent, feel the need for change, be able to break with traditions, perceive new ideas and innovative solutions, and use them systematically. The creative leader usually works with groups using the brain attack method, encourages the free expression of emotions and ideas, and constantly learns, including from his own mistakes.

Creativity is inconceivable without the ability to find information and share it with subordinates, listen to others no matter who they are, to keep themselves open with colleagues, seek feedback, not to fence themselves off from what threatens established worldviews, while putting everything in doubt , to understand the position of others, everywhere to find people of at least some interest to the company.

But the most important thing for a manager is to grasp everything on the fly, to link newly acquired knowledge with old ones, to have the ability and ability to learn both at work and outside it, increasing competence, but avoiding one-sided specialization. Education usually starts from the moment you take office and never stops.

Another group of managerial qualities that define him as a manager, in fact, are organizational as well as business.

They reflect the level of managerial culture of the manager, his knowledge of the technology of managerial work: the selection, placement and use of personnel, the development of norms, standards and regulations, personal plans and activity plans of departments, services, operational plans and time schedules for events, bringing tasks to the performers, briefing, management, control.

Organizational qualities must be attributed primarily to determination. The nature of modern life requires the manager to have clear and well-founded goals. Without them, he may lack firmness and determination, miss good opportunities, waste time on trifles. Since everything is changing in the world to stay afloat, the manager must adjust these goals. But purposefulness lies not only in setting goals, but stubbornly striving for them. This distinguishes the manager from other employees.

Another organizational quality that should be inherent in a manager is efficiency. It consists in the ability to clearly and timely set tasks, make informed decisions, monitor their implementation, and be efficient and managerial in actions and deeds.
An important organizational quality of a manager is energy, that is, the ability to infect people with confidence, the desire to act by logical suggestion, personal example, personal optimism.

The manager must have inherent discipline and control over himself. Without this, he can neither call others to order, nor control their activities. Therefore, the manager must control their emotions and moods, study the emotions of others in order to find an approach to their behavior, and also control the discipline of subordinates.

A distinguishing feature of a manager should be increased working capacity, the ability to work hard, without sacrificing oneself and not becoming a “workman” (in leading companies it is considered bad form for senior executives to stay in the office after the end of the working day or take work home).

You need to save strength for the main thing, not waste it in an empty way, be able to relax, including during business trips. The manager must be sociable, contact, i.e. sociable, aimed at the outside world, showing interest in others. He must be able to win over people, listen and understand them, and convince himself that he is right.

In terms of contact, several types of leaders can be distinguished.

1. Firstly, those who spend most of their time, about 2/3, spend on their subordinates and only 1/3 on external relations.
2. Secondly, those who devote both to approximately equal time.
3. Thirdly, those who carry out only vertical contacts with superiors and subordinates, but do not want to know with colleagues of their level.
4. Fourth, those who shun all contacts at all. The first and second types of managers are good for operational management, the fourth for strategic, the third type of manager does not generally meet the requirements for modern managers. / 3, 58 /

An important feature of the manager is realism. He must be able to correctly assess his abilities and the abilities of his subordinates, their actions, not to be in the clouds, then it will not be so painful to fall upon failure.

A good manager is characterized by healthy optimism and confidence.

Managing people without self-confidence is impossible. Confident people know what they want. They never resort to workarounds. Their views on problems are always clear and precise, and they strive to ensure that everyone knows about these views, and therefore express their views freely, trying to be heard and understood, but at the same time respect other people and their opinions.

A good leader should be able to ensure the involvement of employees in the work. To do this, it is necessary to properly encourage people, turn any, even the most boring work, into an exciting game, looking for unconventional approaches and unknown facets in solving the problem, and to flush their actions with a certain share of adventure for greater attractiveness. He must reckon with the desire of subordinates to achieve a certain position in this world, to know their ideals and contribute to their implementation.

But most importantly, the manager must have the ability to manage, organize and support the work of the team, be prepared for action, risk.

He must be able to determine the scope of his official powers, the ability to act independently of leadership, encourage people to obey, get rid of the ballast, and help those who remain to become themselves, and not crush them. For this, the manager must be tolerant of the weaknesses of people who do not interfere with work, and intolerance of everything that hinders the successful solution of the tasks facing him and the team.

It must be borne in mind that there does not exist and will not exist a manager with universal abilities and acting equally effectively in any situation.

My Attitude to Advertising

Advertising is the engine of progress. This motto is known to almost everyone. This opinion is shared by all manufacturers, so they seek to advertise their product. Every day we come across advertising.

She broadcasts to us from the TV, constantly interrupts the radio, comes from the speakers in various supermarkets and on the street.
I think that the advertisement appeared with the first seller in the world. Everyone who wanted to sell their product, praised it, called it the best among the best. This is the most primitive form of advertising.

Gradually, humanity grew and developed. Along with it, advertising also developed. Made competently and subtly, she helped sell the product.

Rough and illiterate advertising, on the contrary, could push buyers away.

I think that in the civilized world there is not a single person who does not have this or that opinion about advertising. My attitude to this “engine of progress” is rather ambiguous. I believe that there are different types of advertising. Most commercials annoy their ignorance, stupidity, rudeness, tactlessness, low quality.

It seems to me that a large number of products should be advertised only in certain places. For example, advertising hygiene products and various medical products should be in pharmacies, and not “spinning” through the central channels.

I’m very unpleasant that opinion about the level of intelligence of adolescents, which is imposed by advertising. For example, an advertisement for a delicious enough Nuts chocolate bar. In fact, not always and not all teenagers have such a poor vocabulary, as many people try to show.

After watching this or that advertisement, I periodically have the opinion that our generation is simply dying out.
Annoying to most advertising slogans. It seems that their authors all their life spoke in some other, not at all Russian language. It’s a shame that people forget about how important for each person competent, correct speech.

From time to time, not the worst ads begin to madly annoy viewers or listeners. This is because it appears on the screen with incredible frequency or is heard from the speakers, interrupting the most interesting films and programs.

Do not forget that advertising affects us not only from TV screens, but also from the pages of various print media. It’s worth revealing any newspaper or magazine, as a stream of advertising hits us from there. And not all of it is of high quality.

Unfortunately, many advertisers pay attention only to the brightness, colorfulness, carnival of advertising articles, completely ignoring their level and quality. In the photographs you can see a lot of naked bodies, not justified by the advertised product.

Print advertising slaughter half the volume of the publication. It becomes very disappointing when you buy a chubby magazine in the hope of an abundance of interesting articles, but instead you see an incredible abundance of advertising.

But, of course, not everything in advertising is so bad. At times, it can be called a kind of work of art. In Cannes, an advertising festival is held every year where the best videos from around the world are shown.

Very interesting is an advertisement filled with good humor. I love the commercials in which the animals participate. For example, I like some Pedigree videos.

I also love advertising, very beautifully shot. At one time, I was very pleased with the video in which the block’s poem “Night, street, street lamp, pharmacy …” sounded. It happens that the commercial is so enthralling that you no longer remember what it advertised.

I really like the idea of ​​social advertising. She does not call for the purchase of a product, but reminds people of the problems that exist in society. For example, a Greenpeace ad reminds humanity that it must take care of the environment. Every animal in this world has the same right to life as a human being.

I think that videos about the problem of drug addiction are very useful. Some of them really make you think about this serious danger.
In print media, periodically comes across quality advertising with beautiful and interesting photography. Some advertising can even be called a masterpiece of photography.

I recently read an article that spoke about the illegal ways in which advertising affects the subconscious. I think this is just outrageous. It turns out that some creators of commercials use not only the twenty-fifth frame, which is easy enough to calculate, but also hidden sounds that affect the human psyche.

Of course, such an advertisement is against the law. Moreover, it is dangerous, especially for children.
I can’t say that my attitude to advertising is absolutely unambiguous. It seems to me that everything should be a measure. Modern advertising at times would not be prevented by a certain framework of decency.

Also, I think it’s very important to remember “pure” Russian. The speech of each person is already clogged with a large number of parasitic words. Therefore, the propaganda of slang from the screens, I believe, is perfect superfluous.

I would very much like the advertisement to reach such a level when it can rightfully be called an independent sphere of art.

The Only Goal of Civilization is Human Development

I absolutely agree with the statement of E. Flyano. The author addresses the problem, which in the modern world is becoming one of the most important, the relationship of man with the outside world. Nature, as the natural habitat of people and the basis of their life, and society, as part of the material world, are in close unity.

So, at the dawn of the development of human civilization (a step in the development of society, material and spiritual culture), when people were content mainly with the appropriation of finished products, a person was in absolute dependence on external conditions. Subsequently, as the productive forces grew, this dependence steadily decreased. Man, as a special link in the chain of development of living organisms, more and more came out of the power of its elemental forces.

This is how social progress took place – a progressive movement from lower and simpler forms of social organization to higher and more complex ones, the leading tendency of modern civilization. The idea of ​​social progress includes, firstly, an awareness of the very fact of a change in the development of human society; secondly, the recognition of the value of earthly life; thirdly, the recognition of natural development. The driving force of this process is the need of people for social justice, which can be achieved only with full awareness of the ways and means of solving it, and which includes the desire to fully satisfy all your needs (labor, creativity, knowledge, etc.).

As a result of human activity, its rapid development gave rise to many problems, which in the second half of the twentieth century began to bear a global character. Man thoughtless actions sharply destroyed the balance of equilibrium. Suffice it to recall that the technogenic Chernobyl disaster almost led to the fact that half of Europe would be unsuitable for life. We also recall the case that occurred in Australia: a man brought rabbits and livestock into the country.

The first ones multiplied so much that they began to intensively destroy crops, and livestock manure by nature was not processed at all and spoiled the soil. And how adversely affected the great majesty of emissions into the atmosphere of exhaust gases, various impurities, garbage in the climate of nature. Because of this, the number of natural disasters, such as Hurricane Catherine, various floods that claimed thousands of lives of innocent people has increased.

It is a race to satisfy needs that leads to such deplorable consequences both for the world around us and for us. History is nothing but a successive change of individual generations, each of which uses material capitals, productive forces transferred to it by all previous generations. But humanity needs to slow down such social progress, since it adversely affects the people themselves. Otherwise, there will be no development of civilization at all, humanity will all perish.

Personality and Society in Balzac’s Novels

The most perfect examples of Balzac are the novels “Lost Illusions” and “Peasants”. In these works, society itself really becomes a historian. For the first time, in the Lost Illusions, the writer and then literature appeared to have a “self-movement” of society: they began to live independently in the novel, showing their needs, their essence, and diverse social strata.

The provincial bourgeoisie in the person of the Cuente brothers and father Seshar was able to ruin and dishonor the honest talented inventor David Seshar. The provincial aristocrats and the provincial bourgeois penetrate the Paris salons, borrow their ways of making a career by destroying rivals. The Parisians themselves … bloodless, but in a fierce struggle, the state of swagger, political, and salon intrigues gain a privileged position, thereby causing the envy and hatred of the vanquished.

Balzac shows how success and success are sold and bought in personal life, art, politics, and commerce. We see that in this world only the strength and unscrupulousness that create external brilliance are valued. Humanity, honesty, talent are not needed by this society. The most remarkable story for the laws of society is the story of David Séchard, a talented inventor who had to give up work on his discovery, and – especially the poet Lucien Chardon.

This is their path – the path of losing illusions, a characteristic phenomenon in France. Lucien is like a young Rastignac, but without the willpower and cynical willingness to sell himself, and Raphael de Valantin – who is addicted, but lacks the strength to conquer this world himself.

Lucien is immediately distinguished from David Séchard by a craving for respect and selfishness. His naivety, reverie, ability to fall under the influence of others leads to disaster: he actually renounces his talent, becomes a corrupt journalist, carries out dishonorable acts and ends with suicide in prison, horrified by the chain of actions he has committed. Balzac shows how the illusions of a young man who knows the inhuman laws of the modern world are scattered.

These laws are the same for the province and the capital – in Paris they are more cynical and at the same time more hidden under the guise of hypocrisy.

Balzac’s novels indicate that society dooms a person to abandon illusions. For honest people, this means deepening in personal life, as happened with David Seshar and his wife Eve. Some heroes learn to profitably trade their beliefs and talents.

But only those who, like Rastignac, have a strong will and are not exposed to the temptation of sensuality can win. An exception are members of the Commonwealth, to which Lucien Chardon joins for a certain time. This is an association of disinterested and talented ministers of science, art, public figures who live in cold attics, who live from hand to mouth, but do not renounce their beliefs.

These people help each other, do not seek fame, but are inspired by the idea to benefit society and develop their field of knowledge or art.

At the heart of their life is work. The Commonwealth is led by Daniel D’Artez, a writer and philosopher whose aesthetic program is similar to that of Balzac himself. The Commonwealth includes Republican Michel Chretien, who dreams of a European Federation. But the author himself realizes that the Commonwealth is a dream, because of this, its members are mostly only schematically depicted, the scenes of their meetings are somewhat sentimental, which is unusual for the talent of the author of “Human Comedy”.

Balzac himself called the novel “Peasants” “research”, he examined the opposition of the new nobility that appeared during the time of Napoleon, the bourgeoisie and the peasantry, and this is for him a class that “will someday swallow the bourgeoisie, like the bourgeoisie devoured the nobility in its time”.

Balzac does not idealize the peasants – nevertheless, they are not only extortionists and deceivers from him: they remember 1789 well, they know that the revolution did not liberate them, that all their prosperity, as once, is a hoe, and that lord the same, although it is now called Work. An unclean, lying and dark peasant Furson appears before the readers as a kind of philosopher, a revolutionary in his soul, who remembers the years of the revolution: “The curse of poverty, Your Excellency,” he says to the general, “grows and grows much higher than your highest oaks and gallows are made of oaks … ”

The spirit of the revolution lived in the memory of the people. It is precisely because of this that the oppressed peasant turns out to be the accuser of the gentlemen who do not respect him. This is the result of a “study” conducted by Balzac in this novel.

The melodramatic finale of the work does not belong to its author, but was completed at the request of the widow of the writer Evelina Ganskaya.

Market Infrastructure

The effective functioning of the modern market is directly dependent on a constantly replicating market environment. Its important element is market infrastructure. It is a system of enterprises and organizations that provide the movement of goods, services, money, securities, labor. Such institutions include exchanges, banks, dealers and brokerages, employment services, information and commercial, wholesale and supply and distribution organizations, rental and leasing points.

Commodity Exchange

The word “exchange” comes from the Latin “bursa” which means “wallet”. Exchanges appeared in the XV-XVI centuries. in Italy, the Netherlands, France. In Russia, the first exchange appeared in 1703. in St. Petersburg. In 1705. a separate room was built for her. The stock exchange appeared in Kiev in 1865.

In the contemporary economic literature, commodity exchange is considered, first, as an economic category, reflecting an integral part of the market, which is a specific wholesale form of trade in goods with certain characteristics: mass, standard, interchangeability. Secondly, it is an economic association (society) of sellers, buyers, and resellers in order to create conditions for trade, facilitation, acceleration and cheapening of trade transactions and transactions.

Exchange members benefit not from its operation, but from their participation in the auction. The members of the commodity exchange, in accordance with the established exchange rules, conclude the purchase and sale of goods at prices, which are drawn directly during the trade, depending on the ratio of supply and demand for them. This indicates that the exchange is a special pricing mechanism. This is also the purpose of the exchange.

Describing the different aspects of the commodity exchange, we can give the following generic definition: Commodity Exchange – an association of legal and natural persons, which conducts wholesale trading by standards, samples in a special place where prices for goods are formed in a free competition.

The Exchange, as a segment of the common market, performs the following functions: balancing supply and demand through open sales, streamlining and unifying the market for commodities and raw materials; stimulation of market development; economic indicator.
In advanced market economies, commodity exchanges generally function as nonprofit associations exempt from corporate income tax.

Stock Exchange

The organizational form of the market in which securities, bonds, bonds, state treasury bonds, certificates, documents related to the movement of credit resources and currency values ​​are traded is called the stock exchange.

Unlike commodity exchanges that regulate the movement of goods, the stock exchange provides for the movement of capital, because securities are nothing but different forms of its equivalent. The acceleration of the movement of capital contributes to the efficiency of the stock market economy.

The Stock Exchange facilitates the acquisition of free money under certain conditions and for a certain period of time, raising funds through the issue and sale of shares, bonds and directing them to the technical renewal of the enterprise, its reorientation towards the production of the highest demand. The exchange can facilitate the transfer of capital from one industry to another, and through state regulation of these processes it can be directed to those socially important areas that need it most.

As a secondary securities market, the stock exchange facilitates the transfer of stock values ​​from one entity to another. In the primary market, values ​​are issued, that is, released and distributed to investors. In some cases, securities may be traded on exchanges.
Issuers of securities may be legal entities, the state, state bodies, foreign legal entities.

Citizens or legal entities that buy securities on their own behalf and at their own expense are investors. Another participant in the securities market is an investment institute, which is granted the right of a legal entity, which enables it to perform the functions of an intermediary (financial broker), investment consultant, investment company, investment fund.

Investment companies may arrange for the issue of securities and issue guarantees for placement in favor of third parties, invest in securities on their own behalf and at their own expense, including through the quotation of securities for which the investment company undertakes to sell them and buy.

Exchanges can be classified according to different criteria. Based on the organizational structure, there are two main types of exchange: public-law institutions and organized in the form of private companies and associations with a variety of specific legal forms (joint stock companies, associations, joint ventures).

The stock exchange is a non-profit organization, does not pursue profit-seeking goals, is self-supporting, does not pay income to its members. The financial activities of the stock exchange may be carried out by the sale of shares of the stock exchange that entitle it to be its members, regular membership fees, stock exchange fees for each transaction made on the stock exchange.

The operation of the exchange is inextricably linked to the mediation system and to such entities as intermediaries.

Banks

Banks are enterprises that act as intermediaries in the execution of payments and credit transactions between economic entities. As legal entities, they are economically independent of public authorities in decisions related to their operational activities, and operate within the limits of current legislation.

The bank’s capital consists of two parts: the bankers’ own capital and the attracted in the form of deposits.

Banks are involved in attracting free funds and lending to business entities through banking operations. Banking income is generated mainly by the difference between the amount of interest on loans and those that banks pay to depositors. Banking income also includes the income that banks receive from stock exchange transactions, equity loans, and the like.

The banking system includes different types of banks.

• Commercial banks accumulate cash in the form of deposits, as well as by issuing their own securities. They lend to business entities.
• Issuing banks issue (issue) banknotes, mobilize cash reserves of commercial banks, store gold and currency reserves of the state. They provide loans to commercial banks and the state.
• Mortgage banks provide loans for mortgages of real estate (land, buildings) to landowners, peasants, homeowners.

Banks are different in clientele, use of funds and some operations, but they are all centers that focus on borrowing capital.

Non-Bank Financial Institutions

Non-bank lending and financial institutions are widely represented in the world practice. These include investment, financial funds, pawnshops and credit cooperatives. Deposits by credit institutions, as well as other banks’ clients, can be current (on demand) and term deposits.

A trading house is a multi-purpose entity that exports and imports virtually any commodity, exchanges it, and transports and other foreign economic transactions.

An important element of the market structure is the labor market.

Labor Exchange is an organization specializing in the mediation of workers and entrepreneurs for the purpose of buying and selling labor. Without eliminating unemployment altogether, labor exchanges streamline hiring by businesses and reduce citizens’ job search time. In the case of an unemployment insurance system, the labor exchange also performs the functions of controlling the establishment, entitlement to unemployment benefits and loss of benefits.

Labor exchanges can take many forms: bureaus, offices, partnerships, etc. Depending on the forms of ownership, the following main villas are distinguished: private, operating on a commercial basis; philanthropic; public and state. Labor exchanges, in addition to employment for the unemployed, usually provide services to other people wishing to change jobs, study labor supply and demand, and collect information on employment levels by occupation and territory.

The competence of the labor exchange also includes the professional orientation of young people, the sending of young people to courses for the acquisition of the profession. Organizations of retraining and employment of persons with disabilities are of great importance.

Different Types of Market Systems

Depending on the ratio between the number of manufacturers and the number of consumers distinguish the following types of competitive structures:

1. A large number of independent producers of some homogeneous product and the mass of isolated consumers of the product. This market structure is called polypoly and creates so-called perfect competition.
2. A large number of disconnected consumers and a small number of producers, each of which can meet a significant proportion of total demand. This structure is called oligopoly, and it creates the so-called imperfect competition
3. Single consumer of goods and many independent manufacturers This structure creates a special type of imperfect competition, called monopsony (demand monopoly).
4. The relationship structure, where the sole consumer is opposed by a single producer (two-way monopoly), is not competitive at all, but also not market-oriented.

Let’s take a closer look at the main models listed above.

Perfect Competition

A large number of sellers and buyers of the same product. Changes in the price of some seller cause a response only among buyers, but not among other sellers.

The market is open to everyone. Advertising companies are not so important and obligatory as only homogeneous products are offered for sale, the market is transparent and there are no advantages. In a market with a similar structure, price is a given size. Based on the above, we can derive the following behaviors of market participants:

Price acceptor. A single seller does not have any direct effect on price. If a seller asks for a higher price, all buyers immediately go to his competitors, because in conditions of perfect competition, each seller and buyer have complete and correct information about the price, product quantity, costs and market demand.

If the seller asks for a lower price, then he will not be able to meet all the demand that will be focused on him, because of his small share of the market, with no direct impact on the price from this particular seller.

Quantity regulator. If the seller is forced to accept the prevailing market prices, then the seller can adapt to the market by regulating his sales volume. In this case, it determines the number of goods it intends to sell at a given price. The buyer also has only to choose how much he wants to receive at this price.

The conditions of perfect competition are determined by the following prerequisites:

• a large number of sellers and buyers, none of which has a significant impact on the market price and quantity of goods;
• each seller makes a homogeneous product that is in no way different from the product of other sellers;
• barriers to entry in the long term are either minimal or none;
• no artificial constraints on demand, supply or price exist and resources – variable factors of production – mobile;
• every seller and buyer has complete and correct information on price, quantity of product, costs and demand in the market.

The scheme of perfect competition is basically theoretical. However, it is the key to understanding more real market structures.
For market participants in conditions of perfect competition, the price is the set size. Therefore, the seller can only decide what amount of goods he wants to offer at this price. This means that it is both a price acceptor and a quantity regulator.

Monopoly

One seller confronts many buyers, and this seller is the only manufacturer of a product that does not have, in addition, close substitutes. Such a model has such features as:

1. the seller is the only manufacturer of this product (product)
2. the product sold is unique because there are no substitutes;
3. the monopolist has market power, controls prices, supplies to the market (the monopolist is the price legislator, ie the monopolist sets the price and the buyer can decide at the given monopoly price what quantity of goods he can buy);

Therefore, a monopoly is the exclusive right of production, trade, fishing, etc. belonging to one person, to a certain group of persons or to the state; a market where one seller of a certain product or type of service operates. There is a closed, natural and open monopoly.
Such a classification of a monopoly into three categories is conditional.

Some firms may belong to several types of monopoly. These include, for example, telephone service firms, as well as electricity and gas companies, which can be attributed to both natural monopoly (because there is an economies of scale) and closed monopoly (therefore that there are barriers to competition).

Classification based on time intervals may also be conducted. For example, a patent certificate gives a firm a closed monopoly for the short term. The latter is due not only to the limited duration of the patent, but also to the fact that competitors can invent new products.

Monopoly is the complete antithesis of perfect competition. There is only one seller here, and he produces goods that have no close substitutes.

A natural monopoly arises in an industry in which long-term average costs reach a minimum only when one firm serves the market as a whole. In such an industry, the minimum effective scale of production is close to sufficient to cover production costs. In this situation, the division of production between two or more firms will cause the production scale of each to be ineffectively small. Natural monopolies, on the basis of which economies of scale are based, are closely linked to monopolies based on the possession of unique natural resources.

Natural monopolists include public utilities and enterprises operating unique natural resources (eg, electricity and gas, water utilities, communication lines, and transportation firms). As a rule, such “natural monopolies” are owned or controlled by the state.

Open Monopoly is a monopoly in which one firm becomes, at least for a time, the sole supplier of the product but has no special protection against competition. In an open monopoly situation, firms that first enter the market with new products are often found. However, their competitors may hit the market a little later.

A closed monopoly is protected from competition by legal restrictions. An example is the US Postal Service’s monopoly on first class mail delivery. Other options for the emergence of a closed monopoly are patent protection, the copyright institute. Artificial barriers to prevent competitors from entering the monopolistic market are subject to legal restrictions in the form of licenses, copyrights, trademarks or patent protection.

Monopoly pure (absolute) – a situation where only one seller acts in a specific commodity market.

Monopoly in its purest form is extremely rare. Like perfect competition, it is rather an economic abstraction. Quite often, an example of a pure monopoly is the telephone system. But other types of communication (such as express mail or satellite communication) create hidden competition by offering quality phone substitutes. In addition, it should be noted that a monopoly cannot completely eliminate potential competition from other domestic or foreign producers of goods.

The monopoly that arises from demand, when there is only one buyer in the market with many sellers, is called monopsony. Such a market structure is similar to a monopoly, the features of which are transferred to the buyer.

Monopolistic competition

Monopolistic competition is when a large number of manufacturers offer similar but not identical products.

Unlike perfect competition, the monopoly assumes that each firm sells a special type of product, which is distinguished by quality, design, prestige, so that consumers have “non-price advantages” (political, aesthetic, physiological). In a monopolistic competition, the company produces not different but differentiated products and thus becomes a kind of “monopolist” of its brand of goods (for example, Snickers chocolate has different taste properties than regular milk chocolate, and Colgate toothpaste differs from “Fluorodent” and odor, composition and reputation).

In the market of monopolistic competition, products can also be differentiated by the conditions of after-sales services (for durable goods), by proximity to buyers, by the intensity of advertising. Thus, firms in this market enter into a kind of rivalry not so much through prices, but through any differentiation of products.

The market model for monopolistic competition describes many real-world markets. Most characteristics of the service sector correspond to its characteristics (for example, we can name a chain of restaurants, service stations, banking services, in the manufacturing industries – the production of clothing, soft drinks, laundry detergent, computers, computers).

The monopoly in such a model is that each firm, in terms of product differentiation, has to some extent monopoly power over its goods; it can raise and lower its price regardless of the actions of competitors, although this power is limited by the availability of manufacturers of similar products. In addition, there are large enough monopoly markets alongside small and medium-sized firms.

With this model of the market, firms are trying to expand their area of ​​preferences by individualizing their products. This is done primarily through trademarks, names and advertising campaigns that uniquely distinguish product differences.

Oligopoly

Oligopoly is the dominant form of the modern market structure. The term “oligopoly” is used in the economy to describe a market in which there are several firms, some of which control a large part of the market and entry into this market of new firms is difficult. Examples of classic oligopolies: “Big Three” in the US – “General Motors”, “Ford”, “Chrysler”.

Products manufactured by firms can be both homogeneous and differentiated. Homogeneity prevails in the markets of raw materials and semi-finished products: ore, oil, steel, cement; differentiation – in the markets of consumer goods (cars).
Few firms favor their monopolistic agreements: price fixing, market sharing or other means of restricting competition between them. It has been proved that competition in the oligopolistic market is more intense, the lower the level of concentration of production (more firms), and vice versa.

The existence of oligopoly is associated with restrictions on entry into the market. One of them is the need for large investments to create an enterprise in connection with large-scale production of oligopoly firms.

The small number of firms in the oligopolistic market forces these firms to use not only price but also non-price competition, since the latter is more efficient in such conditions. Manufacturers know that if they lower prices, their competitors will do the same, which will lead to a drop in profits.

The price war is a recurring and long-term decline in the prices of oligopoly firms, with the help of which firms expect to increase sales and profits. But it rarely benefits them.

Therefore, instead of price competition, which will be effective in conditions of perfect competition, “oligopolists” use non-price methods of struggle: technical advantage, quality and reliability of the product, methods of sale, nature of services and guarantees provided, differentiation of payment conditions, advertising, economic espionage.

Problems in Oscar Wilde’s Novel “Portrait of Dorian Gray”

The English writer, poet, playwright Oscar Wilde lived a short and tragic life. His work most fully and talentfully discourages the artistic and philosophical movement – aesthetics, which arose in England in the 70-90s of the XIX century. Advocates of aesthetics defended the principles of “art for art” and believed that literature should not fulfill a moral mission, teach goodness, justice, that it is indifferent to the problems of good and evil. Art must serve beauty.

The theoretical principles of aesthetics were reflected in the novel “Portrait of Dorian Gray.” The author focuses on three characters: the artist Bazil Hallward, who values ​​art above all else, his friend Lord Henry, the vicious and cynical aristocrat and the young, very handsome young man Dorian Gray. The novel begins with the fact that Lord Henry comes to the workshop of Basil Hallward, where the artist works on a portrait of a young handsome man.

Soon, the model Dorian Gray himself appears. He listens with enthusiasm to the cynical conversations of Lord Henry. Self-love is a single romance that lasts a lifetime. This is how the “king of paradoxes” defines his life credo. The work on the portrait is completed, he amazes everyone with his perfection. Dorian Gray looks at him with enthusiasm and says: “If the portrait were changed, but I could remain as I am.” The moved artist gives the portrait to the sitter. Lord Henry is struck by the beauty of the young man himself, and he invites Dorian to take part in the entertainment with him.

The artist tries to warn the young man, but in vain, Dorian turns to social life. He is in love with the young actress Sybil Wayne, who inspiresly plays roles in outstanding plays, but in a poor theater. Dorian and Sybil decide to get married. The young man invites his friends to a performance with the bride. The girl is captivated by her feelings, and it seems to her that playing love on stage is in vain. The role of Juliet in the play that Hallward and Lord Henry came to watch, she fails.

The artist sympathizes with the young man, the lord cynically jokes. Dorian shouts to his bride: “You killed my love!” It seemed to him that art and reality have an inextricable link. All night he wanders the streets of London, and in the morning decides to make peace, but finds out that his words led to the suicide of Sybil. Dorian looks at his portrait and notes with horror that the first sharp wrinkle appeared on his outlined face.

Wilde then in one chapter talks about 20 years of the hero’s life. This is a story of falling in love with its beauty and soul decline. Dorian had hidden the portrait for a long time, as over time the beautiful face turned into the ugly face of the voluptuous old man. Dorian accuses the artist of what happened to his soul and kills Basil Hallward in a fit of rage, and blackmail her companion with a terrible secret, forcing him to dissolve the artist’s body in nitric acid.

This portrait is also a terrible crime. Dorian Gray is jealous of everyone, even his companion, who has found the strength to commit suicide, even Lord Henry, a cynic drowning in vices, but who believes that any crime is vulgarity. Dorian rushes to the portrait, trying to destroy him. Servants find the body of an ugly old man dressed in Dorian’s clothes, next to a portrait of a handsome young man.

Wilde defends the supreme power of art. Real life can be disgusting, but art recreates beauty, preserves it, it is not subject to either time or moral laws.

Ibsen’s Drama Innovation

The end of the 19th – the beginning of the 20th century is characterized by interesting creative searches in world literature. These searches led to the emergence of new genres and forms of works. Drama was no exception.

The Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen not only occupied one of the first places in the literature of our century. And the point is not only that he posed questions that worried his contemporaries. The talent and innovation of the Ibsen playwright consisted in the fact that the viewer was forced to seek an answer to these questions. Ibsen revealed the complexity and inconsistency of life, made his viewers abandon the traditional division of heroes into positive and negative, perceive them whole, with all their contradictions.

Ibsen’s most striking innovation was in the structure of his plays. Ibsen used the composition, which is called analytical. In such a composition, mystery plays an important role, events that took place long before those presented on the stage, but it was these events that led to the situations in which the characters found themselves. This composition was known in ancient Greece and was used to create a plot tension.

Ibsen’s analytics has a completely different goal, the content of such a composition is not disclosure of secrets, but understanding of all events. Therefore, such a composition required the internal development of heroes. Under the influence of events that occur on the scene, understanding of these events, the discovery of secrets that affect these events, changes the characters. And these changes become decisive in the development of the plot.

In the play “Doll House”, Nora’s final disappointment in her marriage, the realization of the need to start a new life in order to become a full-fledged personality, prepared by the whole development of the action.

Ibsen’s innovation in this play was that it was not an accidental combination of circumstances, but just a reflection of everything that happened that resolved the conflict. The denouement of the drama is the conversation between Nora and Helmer – the first in their entire married life in which Nora makes a real analysis of their relationship. And Nora, and Helmer, and their whole life appear in this conversation in a completely new way – and it is this new look that provides such dramatic effect to the final scene of the “Doll House”, which contemporaries accused of being too cold and calculating.

The heroes of Ibsen are not the embodiment of only certain ideas of the author. They are characterized by all human passions, inherent in everything that makes a person human. In this Ibsen was different from many writers of the late 19th century who did not believe in the possibility of the human mind, in its ability to control human behavior. In Ibsen’s plays, it is the mind and the ability to comprehend reality that give the hero the opportunity to change his fate. And when a person does not find the strength in himself to turn a thought, he brutally pays for it. The “Doll House”, in which Helmer and Nora live, collapsed because the hero could not rise above his own egoism, could not overcome the superstition of society.

Ibsen’s innovation lies in the fact that the playwright revealed new possibilities of analytical composition, filled them with new content. The author’s language played an important role in this. Each phrase that is presented in the text is presented only because it is really necessary – for the implementation of one or even several artistic tasks. Sometimes characters appear in separate episodes as if they are too verbose, talkative. For example, the heroine of The Doll’s House, Nora, in the second act of the play speaks much more than always. But this stream of words, sometimes really superfluous, hides the heroine’s inner concern, her tension.

Ibsen’s intellectual plays required special attention from the viewer to what and how the characters say. He uses the meaningful features of the word. In the play “The Doll House”, in separate sections of the text there are hidden indications of what has already happened, or what should happen, although this is still not clear even to the heroes themselves. Sometimes it seems that the heroes are just saying, but something makes you listen very carefully to every word, and with each phrase the tension grows.

These creative achievements of G. Ibsen found their development in the works of other masters of the word, laid the foundations for a new drama of the new theater of the twentieth century.

“If they give you lined paper, write across”

Love for a man, hatred for everything hostile to him – to what prevents a person from being worthy of this proud title – this is the driving force behind the work of R. Bradbury. This inseparable “love-hate” helped him create, perhaps the most powerful of the endless set of warning novels written in our century – “451 ° Fahrenheit,” a book that brought the author worldwide fame.

The profession of the protagonist of the novel by Guy Montag is a fireman, but a fireman, armed not with a water hose, but with a flamethrower with kerosene. He does not extinguish, but kindles fires. Indeed, this has happened more than once: that which is intended to save people, help them, make their lives happier, suddenly turns against them, begins to crush, oppress, threaten, and finally kill.

Something similar is happening now with Western culture, which is moving – sometimes elusively – into the counterculture, into the mass culture, into kitsch, into something that has nothing to do with genuine culture, although it often continues to dress up in its old clothes. But after all, firefighters from the novel are sure that the meaning of their profession is always to rush and burn seditious volumes along with houses, or even owners, upon a fire alarm.

The society depicted by Bradbury not only kills books and people, so to speak, physically. First of all, it kills souls … How many of them, such as Mildred, are creatures with a humanoid shell, from which, however, all human things are shaken out. When the remnants of the soul, glimmers of conscience wake up, Mildred, not even clearly knowing what she is doing, tries to commit suicide, and her friends, the same unfortunate victims of the mass culture, cry when they hear a few poetic lines. But this is an impulse for a moment – their process of spiritual decay has gone too far. They are essentially dead.

But is there anything human left in the gang of richer teenagers in cars, who, having seen a lonely passerby, immediately decide: “We will knock him down!” They are having fun. So, as they were taught by “educators” burning books …

But Bradbury would not be a progressive writer if he confined himself to warnings and frightening scenes. In all his writings there are always heroes who oppose. Remarkable anti-conformist words of Juan Ramos Jimenez: “If you get lined paper, write across”, which became the epigraph to the novel, you can put the epigraph to the whole work of the American science fiction writer.

Not only in the heart of the protagonist of the novel “451 ° Fahrenheit”, but also in the reader, the episode with a woman who herself set fire to herself with the library will respond with acute pain. No wonder the novel cites the words of a sixteenth-century heretic alive burnt by the Inquisition: “We will light a candle in England today that, I believe, will never be extinguished.”

Across and writes young Clarissa, who scuffed Montag’s soul, a girl who is interested not in how something is done, but for what and why. For now, the hereditary fire fighter Montag hides half-burnt volumes as a bosom, like a believer – perishing shrines. And when Montag escapes from the city, he is met by tramps around bonfires – intellectuals, writers, teachers. Each of them memorized some great creation of the past.

They believe that the time will come when all the treasures of human thought, which evil forces so carefully tried to incinerate, will again be reborn, preserved by this living library. A book burning society cannot, does not have a moral right to exist, and the author condemns him to capital punishment. Atomic bombers roar with a roar, and an all-consuming flame, even more brutal than the one that destroyed books, licks the gloomy city from the face of the Earth. Fiery death executes Montague of fireman Beatty, the cynical ideologist of the society of burned books. To justify his view of the future, the writer talks about potential threats that await us.

In the novel “451º Fahrenheit,” I found a lot of gloomy, soul-stunning pictures, but it was surprising: I closed it without heavy sediment, on the contrary, it has something bright, even sunny, resembling the smile of a red, curly, freckled boy. This happened because the author’s optimism breaks through the lines, his faith in the ultimate triumph of reason, that all miracles and wonders created by man will be passed on from generation to generation, and so on without end. In his novel, Bradbury convinces us that humanity will be able to cope with any difficulties, that it will not only survive, but can become happy. And so I want to believe in it!