“One of Britain’s largest cigarette companies has labelled Ed Miliband’s plans for a new tax on tobacco as “unjust and just a bad idea”.”

 “Mr. Miliband said the tax would target tobacco firms which make “soaring profits on the back of ill health”

A value added tax is a form of indirect tax, and it is a tax on the sale price. Only the end consumers need to pay for the VAT. One of the purposes the government charge for the VAT is to generate more revenue, and the other is to stop people from smoking. “Labor said the proposed tax would raise £150 million a year for the NHS.” These revenue can be used for road construction, education, welfare and many other ways.

Taxes from cigarettes is a main financial inflow of many countries. If Ed Miliband plans to propose a tax on tobacco companies’ profits based on market share in the UK, it will raise revenues but the prices for cigarettes will also be higher.

Actually cigarettes get larger market shares and the profits have been increasing rapidly during these years. If the government increase taxes on cigarettes, it will drive a lot of consumers into the hands of criminals as many of them cannot afford the higher price cigarettes. People cannot give up smoking in a short time period, and it is difficult for smokers to do so.

As a result, consumers will buy cheaper cigarettes in black market which is an illegal action. More and more children can also buy cigarettes from black markets as sellers have no qualms about selling to children. When the government calculate GDP, black markets are excluded. Therefore, the stronger black markets are, the less precise the value of GDP.

Reference:

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29335440

“Chancellor George Osborne has announced plans to refund the cost of up to 25,000 visas for Chinese tourists in an attempt to attract more visits to the UK.”

“Visa applications for Chinese visitors entering the UK will be simplified, Chancellor George Osborne has announced during his trade trip to China.”

More Chinese tourists travelling to Britain means more investment to the UK. As UK plans to refund the cost of up to 25,000 visas for Chinese tourists, Chinese people are more likely to visit UK. Years ago, Chinese people need to submit the separate UK visa application if they want to travel some European countries. In this case, a lot of people’s trips from including the UK to Europe are deferred and eventually deterred. As long as the visa rules for Chinese coming to the UK to be relaxed, the British economic will be promoted.

“Let me make this clear to you and to the whole of China, there is no limit to the number of Chinese who could study in Britain. There is no limit to the number of Chinese tourists who can visit. No limit on the amount of business we can do together.” Said by Mr Osborne. Even though the UK gets less money from visa, tourists spend more on other products such as restaurants, hotels. Thus, more tourists promote the development of tourism and helps the UK government earn more profits through the tax.

Government agencies must invest more funds in training and development programs, so they need a lot of money. If it is easier for Chinese people to get into the UK, they may invest in British companies. More money also allows companies to purchase more advanced and high-tech equipments. Managers can hire more skilled labors and finalize employees to receive higher level education. Therefore, the quality of products will be much better.

As Chinese medicine, computing and technology programs are developing rapidly during these years, simplifying visa application, to some extent, it means the removal of trade barriers, which helps to speed up both countries research progress and can also boost the development of social economy.

Reference:

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-24512781

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29184299

“In light of Facebook’s IPO, Twitter seemed to do everything right; that is, everything except having a gender balanced leadership team. At the time of filing, Twitter had no women amongst its board, major investors, or its executives (save for Vijaya Gadde who was appointed 5 weeks before filing). The story grabbed headlines and brought the issue of female representation in startup and tech companies to the front page.”

Business ethics is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations. To be simplified, business ethics helps people to measure if the business activities are moral.

In essay “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Profits”, I can understand that business managers’ responsibility is to maximize profits for shareholders, and they need to follow certain social customs. They are not supposed to do things that break the law and go against the business ethics. For example, fraud and deception are not acceptable in business.

About short story, I think Twitter disobeyed the ethical principle because “Twitter had no women amongst its board, major investors, or its executives”. Sexual discrimination is not allowed in a business activity. “All men are created equal”, and there is no working ability difference between women and men. On the other hand, sometimes women are much better in some fields such as management personnel. Therefore, women deserve working opportunities.

In my opinion, sexual discrimination can be a serious issue to the society because women will protest for themselves, which causes rebellions, or strike. Maybe sometimes men have no idea how sexual discrimination is harmful to women’s spirit. If the government wants to booster the economic growth, it should set some policies to help women safeguard their legal rights.

References

http://www.scu.edu/r/ethics-center/ethicsblog/business-ethics-news/17664/TWITTER-IPO:-Where-are-the-Women?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_ethics

http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ubc/reader.action?docID=10187339&page=171

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