Capital Punishment - Stop the Killing :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Capital Punishment - Stop the Killing      Ã‚  Ã‚   Looking out for the state of the public's satisfaction in the scheme of capital sentencing does not constitute serving justice.   Today's system of capital punishment is fraught with inequalities and injustices.   The commonly offered arguments for the death penalty are filled with holes.   "It was a deterrent.   It removed killers.   It was the ultimate punishment.   It is biblical. It satisfied the public's need for retribution.   It relieved the anguish of the victim's family."(Grisham   120)   Realistically, imposing the death penalty is expensive and time consuming.   Retroactively, it has yet to be proven as a deterrent.   Morally, it is a continuation of the cycle of violence and "...degrades all who are involved in its enforcement, as well as its victim."(Stewart   1)   Capital Punishment has been part of the criminal justice system since the earliest of times. The Babylonian Hammurabi Code(ca. 1700 B.C.) decreed death for crimes as minor as the fraudulent sale of beer(Flanders 3). Egyptians could be put to death for disclosing the location of sacred burial sites(Flanders 3). However, in recent times opponents have shown the death penalty to be racist, barbaric, and in violation with the United States Constitution as "...cruel and unusual punishment." In this country, although laws governing the application of the death penalty have   undergone many changes since biblical times, the punishment endures, and controversy has never been greater.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Perhaps the most frequent argument for capital punishment is that of deterrence.   The prevailing thought is that imposition of the death penalty will act to dissuade other criminals from committing violent acts.   Numerous studies have been created attempting to prove this belief; however, "All the evidence taken together makes it hard to be confident that capital punishment deters more than long prison terms do."(Cavanagh   4)   Going ever farther, Bryan Stevenson, the executive director of the Montgomery based Equal Justice Initiative, has stated that "people are increasingly realizing that the more we resort to killing as a legitimate response to our frustration and anger with violence, the more violent our society becomes.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   "Revenge is an unworthy motive for our society to pursue."(Whittier   1) In our society, there is a great expectation   placed on the family of a victim to pursue vengeance to the highest degree -- perhaps 1 the death penalty.   Pat Bane, executive director of the Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation (MVFR), stated, "One parent told me that people made her feel like she was betraying her son because she did not want to kill the person who murdered him."(Frame 50)   This creates a dilemma of morality. If anything, by forcing families to seek the death penalty, their own consciences will be burdened by

Salary of Professional Athletes

Professional athletes are among the highest-paid individuals in the world nowadays. Their salaries have catapulted to meteoric levels; and there are no signs of going down. Ridiculous amount of money is always in tow, whenever an athlete is signed by a team owner in order to bolster the team's popularity. This will generate revenues, and entice advertisers and athletic companies to sponsor the team as well. Team owners always mean business. There are no business ethics involved in transactions in order to augment the team's performance and popularity. Team managers are always at the helm of retaining their prized franchise players. Managers are more than willing to hand out heft contracts to their franchise and star players in order to match any other team offer. The minimum annual salary of athletes is beyond $100,000. This amount increases whenever an athlete is showing tremendous performance to help the team increase their popularity by winning games. Athletic salaries, exuberant and irrational as they may seem, are not crucial to economic requisites of a country, With this in mind, some people with blue-collar jobs have perceived that professional athletes are ridiculously making large amounts of money. In a society that people value hardwork, athletes are sometimes seen as complacent overpaid professionals who don't live up to the various expectations of the society. Ironically, this meteoric salary issue is the result of an awesome manic fan feedback to sports teams. People are the ones who shell out absurd amounts of money to buy team merchandise. Season tickets increase due to the fact that this is the way how team owners make money to pay their star employees. This only shows that sports are highly considered an important part of the society itself. People find professional athletes ridiculously overpaid, yet they tolerate such by buying merchandise and tickets, which fuels a team's funds. One must ponder how a country's government can use such exuberant amount of money to solve problems and to pay debts in world banks. Some athletes don't really value the worth of hard-earned money. However, some athletes are helping the society by engaging in charitable acts. This suggests that huge athletic salaries can either be a good thing or a bad thing. How are Sports Leagues Moderating Player Salaries? Obviously, basketball players have the highest average salary among all professional athletes. NBA teams are known for allocating large amounts of money to its players, which are very popular in an international scale. NBA players average more than $4 million on an annual basis. Former Miami Heat center Shaquille O'Neal has amassed an estimated $20 million in the 2005 season alone. Surprisingly, the minimum salary at that season for rookies was $398,762, which was more than the $1. 1 million that 10-year NBA veterans get (Woolford, 2007). This only shows that the average minimum salary has experienced its peak. With this in mind, non-sports afficionados have generate opinionated statements towards the exuberant salary that is tolerated by team owners. However, the most expensive sports contract handed out for a professional athlete was not in the NBA. Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees signed a 10-year $252 million contract in 2000. Derek Jeter succeeds him as the second highest-paid player in the MLB. Let us compare the salaries of baseball players to teachers. Baseball players make an average of $2. 9 million, while teachers were getting an average pay of $46,597 in 2003. This of course generates the notion that how matter you contribute to the society; it only shows that you are not worth the monetary value you deserve while contributing to your society. A teacher from South Carolina has this to say: â€Å"I don’t mind that athletes get paid so much,† said Franklin Davis, a history teacher at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, S. C. â€Å"I enjoy what I do and don’t do it for the money, even though it wouldn’t hurt to make more. †(Woolford, 2007). Among the sports league, only the National Football League (NFL) implements an iron fist on its players' salaries. Teams from the NBA, MLB, and NHL all guarantee a contract, which grants its players a salary security due to the fact that an athlete will only play for a team that offers his desired salary. The only consolation an NFL player gets is a signing bonuses stipulation that aids teams if a certain player is inactive (Woolford, 2007). In order for the NBA to moderate team owners in spending exuberant amounts of money on player contracts, the league has proposed the system of salary cap that will limit these owners from handing out huge contracts. A salary cap helps maintains the balance in a much competitive league like the NBA. Teams can very well overwhelm and outspend some teams by handing out huge contracts to free agents who would augment their rosters. This concept suggests that a talented free agent can only sign for a team who will not exceed its salary cap. With this in mind, a team with much financial capability is playing in a level with the other teams (Coon, 2008). Statistics have shown that the salary cap system have moderate the league in terms of competitiveness. The correlation between team payroll and regular season wins was at a low 0. 12 (Coon, 2008). This suggests that there in no correlation between a team winning and the salary of its players (Coon, 2008). The salary cap system has been first introduced in 1947. NBA players were earning between $4000 to $5000 at that time. Salary cap limit was $55,000. The latest and modern salary cap proposal was ushered in 1984 at $3. 6 million (Coon, 2008). Eventually, it increased by $1 million each season. In 1994 it was halted at $15. 964 million (Coon, 2008). Salary cap increases are associated with the fluctuations of currency exchange as well. in 1995, salary cap increased again at $23. million acknowledging a huge television contract from NBC. In the 1997 season, it increased at $26. 9. In 2002, the much anticipated ABC/ESPN contract was imminent and generated a $4. 6 billion over six years, but less than what NBC paid in 2001. This salary cap was greatly affected with such. It shows that the salary cap system has its flaws as well, yet it aids in moderating a team's financial capabil ities in spoiling its players from getting large and irrational amounts of money. The Holistic Consequences of Athletic Compensation A myriad of economic issues has plagued the NBA for the 1998 season. A massive player lockout and other issues have seen NBA players union and the Commissioner arguing and debating about revenues and player salary restrictions. The lockout has caused a delay of the season and games suspended until a compromise is reached by both parties. During the negotiations between the two parties, Andrew Zimbalist, a consultant for the union, has asserted that the league has employed strategies in order to preserve the competitive balance of the league per se. Yet this move hampered the salaries of basketball players who want spontaneous salary increases in an instant. The lockout has generated a handful of rational amendments, which included the apt salary regulation of players. Amendments include: restriction of players salaries to a certain limit, evaluating the draft order of players in order to accommodate poorer teams, and revenue sharing among team owners (Kern, 2000). NBA team owners are the primary proponents of the massive salary cap restriction movement. The restriction will make financially weak teams secure in surviving in a widely competitive league. Arguably, this notion is not completely true. If such financially-challenged teams are complaining, then most teams are losing money and arena-hopping would be impossible. Yet those moves are easily initiated by most NBA teams. Ironically, the same teams who proposed such are the same teams who clamored for the omission of the â€Å"Larry Bird exception† that augmented the maintenance of competitive league balance. This generated the not all owners are willing to pay exuberant amounts of money to their players; and their only goal is to raise more profits. With this in mind, compensation for basketball players is hampered. The notion that these athletes are overpaid is easily omitted, and brings about a favorable opinion about salaries of professional athletes (Ocampo, 2008). Arguably, if NBA team owners are really bent on promoting competitive balance; they must adhere to the NFL's method of revenue sharing. Yet such strategy would generate more complicated issues for basketball and baseball leagues alike. The best solution for such is to generate a new set of league rules in order to hamper to the increasing. Eventually, large market teams will be compelled to share their market with teams from competing leagues. Cities will not have to compete against each other by showcasing newly-built teams in order to attract teams (Kern, 2000) Player compensation are also affected by such moves on the part of team owners. Eventually, the issue of redundant salary of professional athletes are place in further scrutiny by spectators. In conclusion, most professional athletes are making excess amount of money in the most irrational way. Team owners are spoiling their players in giving in to their monetary demands. These athletes are supposed to be role models for children. Yet, in one way or another doesn't exemplify the apt behavior towards monetary issues. Arguably, they do not teach the youth to value hard-earned money, and earning in a proper way. Yet this is not the real issue per se. The real issue here is that how are professional athletes spending their salaries. It is good to know that some players use their monetary capabilities to put up charitable institutions; and involve themselves in community service as well. With this in mind, the debate on whether these professional athletes are overpaid or not are not completely answered. Professional athletes are either overpaid or underpaid depending on the economic state of the country they reside in.

Essay on Democracy in America - 1517 Words

Democracy is a unique type of government, and the purpose of this essay is to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses that a democratic government provides. I will detail that many components of this type of society are both strengths and weakness as each component has beneficial aspects as well as unavoidable pitfalls. A democracy is a government by the people, in which the power is vested in the people themselves. The people then elect representatives who conduct their power in a free electoral system. The Declaration of Independence, which says that all men are created equal, was written on the premise of a democracy. According to John Locke, who wrote The Social Contract, before acknowledging that an individual is part of a†¦show more content†¦The laws of society are applied equally to everyone, but equitable to the circumstances. The same holds true for taxes: those with higher incomes pay a larger percentage of their income in taxes than those in lower tax bracket s. Although not equally applied, the tax laws are equitable. Democratic laws are written in such a way as to allow interpretation depending upon circumstances. â€Å"A thousand circumstances, independent of the will of man, facilitate the maintenance of a democratic republic in the United States† Initially, laws are difficult to design because lawmakers can’t think of every possibility, every scenario, and every obstacle that may present itself in the democracy. Despite these difficulties, laws keep society together and provide unity for the citizens. Advantages for creating laws, include, but are not limited to, providing direction for the collection of taxes, declaring clear expectations for compliance and punishment of citizens and elimination of chaos. A weakness of democracy is the â€Å"Tyranny of the Majority†. This is an inevitable pitfall, because in a democracy, the power is vested foremost in the people the constituting the society itself. Alexis de Tocqueville wrote on this concept: â€Å"Democratic laws generally tend to promote the welfare of the greatest possible number; for they emanate from the majority of the citizens, who are subject to error, but who cannot have an interest opposed toShow MoreRelatedEssay on Democracy in America664 Words   |  3 Pages Democracy in America By: Alexis De Tocqueville Democracy in America, by Alexis De Tocqueville is a book about how the American States and the federal government would grow politically and socially under the umbrella of democracy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Alexis De Tocqueville sees the United States as a unique entity because of how and why it started as well as its geographical location. Alexis De Tocqueville explains that the foundations of the democratic process in America are completely different from anywhereRead More Democracy in America Essay2008 Words   |  9 PagesDemocracy in America Throughout the course of history, mankind has been recorded to corrupt itself. Men have grown tired of simply surviving; they have had to take and conquer others. Absolute monarchies control wealth, land, and even lives of men. The conditions of the people were solely dependent on the conditions of the one who was in power in that particular place and time. History has proven that most men rule unwisely in their kingdoms. To avoid tyrannical rule, some make an attempt toRead MoreDemocracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville1300 Words   |  6 PagesThe Consideration of Democracy, Blacks, and Slavery Tocqueville, in Democracy in America, dwells on the strengths and weaknesses of American democracy. When discussing race relations, he recognizes that the presence of the black race in America and the occupation of blacks in slavery could threaten the continuation of the United States as a Union and a republic. As a Union, the United States could be torn apart by the disparities between the North and the South and tensions between blacks and whitesRead MoreEssay about Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy in America1197 Words   |  5 Pages Democracy in America has been a guiding principle since the foundation of the country. Many over the years have commented on the structure and formation of democracy but more importantly the implementation and daily function within the democratic parameters that have been set. Alexis de Tocqueville was a French political thinker and historian born July 29, 1805. He is most famously known for his work Democracy in America. Democracy in America has be en an evolving social and economic reform, andRead MoreCritical Analysis of Alex de Tocquevilles Democracy in America1366 Words   |  6 PagesAnalysis of Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America Alexis de Tocqueville’s visit to the United States in 1831 prompted his work Democracy in America. 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Tocqueville believed that this individualism would soon sap the virtue of p ublic life (395) and create a despotism of selfishnessRead MoreAmerican Traditional Politics: Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville1207 Words   |  5 Pageslike myself, believe and support that equality as well as liberty are vital features to a sustainable democracy. But how strong the two features are together is where the doubt lies. Alexis de Tocqueville was convinced that liberty and equality would always cause tension between the two never letting each reach its full abilities. This was Tocqueville’s main reason behind his problems with democracy, and which through his book I can agree with his concerns of the two in tension. With the developmentRead MoreDemocracy in America647 Words   |  3 PagesDemocracy in America Democracy is the type of government that America uses every day. In America, democracy is in control as of now. People have their own opinion if America is successful as a Democracy or not. Democracy has meaning, and multiple values. Democracy a certain type of system a government uses to abide by. This government’s values are meant to please the American citizens, and their needs. Democracy looks different to the types of citizens that make up the American society. The multipleRead MoreAmerica Is Not A Democracy1592 Words   |  7 Pages How America is not a Democracy â€Å"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America...and to the republic for which it stands...one nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.† (â€Å"Is the United States a Democracy?†) The United States’ pledge is taught to children of all ages, plays an active role in the patriotism of the people, and it symbolizes the citizen’s promise to never violate the Republic of the United States of America. The founding fathers built the foundationRead MoreIs America A Democracy?1954 Words   |  8 Pages The word democracy elicits different perceptions from different people. Some may see democracy as only a government ruled directly by the people, in which the people write and choose laws directly. Others may include representative democracy in which representatives are chosen by the people to write, pass, and enforce laws. It is the latter view that would best describe America. In this sense, America is not a pure dem ocracy, and few would ever say it was founded as one. However, the question remains: